Review of Paul Bloomberg, \u3cem\u3eThe Predatory Society: Deception in the American Marketplace\u3c/em\u3e

The Predatory Society examines the inadequacies of marketing and the free market system. It is written by a sociologist. I think that, in general, sociologists are biased against marketing people. The bias runs like this: Sociologists believe that consenting adults should be allowed to enter into agreements without state interference. However, if those agreements involve legal transactions with money, the freedom of the consenting adults should be abridged for the protection of those adults. An elite should decide how much freedom is in the interests of these people. Translated into marketers\u27 terms, the argument is that the state should regulate the behavior of adult buyers and sellers because the former are honest but incompetent and the latter are often dishonest. Blumberg lives up to some of my expectations, but he is also aware of the arguments favoring the free market

Review of Noel Capon, John U. Farley and James M. Hulbert, \u3cem\u3eCorporate Strategic Planning\u3c/em\u3e

Corporate Strategic Planning (CSP) reports on an important study of planning practices and the value of those practices. Though it is a long book, nearly 500 pages, one can get almost the full benefit by reading about 200 pages. In fact, CSP contains an excellent summary (Chapter 11) that is only 33 pages; this chapter should be sufficient for most readers. My review assesses what the book has to offer and provides a guide to the potential reader

Review of Peter W. Huber, \u3cem\u3eLiability: The Legal Revolution and Its Consequences\u3c/em\u3e

Legal costs are now a major factor for U.S. firms to consider when marketing products and services. For example, they represent 95% of the price of childhood vaccines. Product liability is so important that many useful products, such as the IUD for birth control, have been removed from the market. Certain services, such as day care centers, are provided at high prices to cover liability exposure. Why have legal costs associated with products risen so rapidly since the early 1960s

Tick-borne viruses and biological processes at the tick-host-virus interface

Ticks are efficient vectors of arboviruses, although less than 10% of tick species are known to be virus vectors. Most tick-borne viruses (TBV) are RNA viruses some of which cause serious diseases in humans and animals world-wide. Several TBV impacting human or domesticated animal health have been found to emerge or re-emerge recently. In order to survive in nature, TBV must infect and replicate in both vertebrate and tick cells, representing very different physiological environments. Information on molecular mechanisms that allow TBV to switch between infecting and replicating in tick and vertebrate cells is scarce. In general, ticks succeed in completing their blood meal thanks to a plethora of biologically active molecules in their saliva that counteract and modulate different arms of the host defense responses (haemostasis, inflammation, innate and acquired immunity, and wound healing). The transmission of TBV occurs primarily during tick feeding and is a complex process, known to be promoted by tick saliva constituents. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of TBV transmission are poorly understood. Immunomodulatory properties of tick saliva helping overcome the first line of defense to injury and early interactions at the tick-host skin interface appear to be essential in successful TBV transmission and infection of susceptible vertebrate hosts. The local host skin site of tick attachment, modulated by tick saliva, is an important focus of virus replication. Immunomodulation of the tick attachment site also promotes co-feeding transmission of viruses from infected to non-infected ticks in the absence of host viraemia (non-viraemic transmission). Future research should be aimed at identification of the key tick salivary molecules promoting virus transmission, and a molecular description of tick-host-virus interactions and of tick-mediated skin immunomodulation. Such insights will enable the rationale design of anti-tick vaccines that protect against disease caused by tick-borne viruses

The role of customer engagement behavior in value co-creation : a service system perspective

Recent developments in marketing highlight the blurring of boundaries between firms and customers. The concept of customer engagement aggregates the multiple ways customer behaviors beyond transactions may influence the firm. However, the term is embryonic and academics and practitioners alike lack understanding on how customer engagement contributes to value co-creation. This paper marks the first attempt to conceptualize the role of customer engagement behavior (CEB) in value co-creation within a multi-stakeholder service system. We combine the theoretical perspectives of customer engagement and value co-creation research to the analysis of a rich case study of a public transport service system involving consumers, communities, businesses, and governmental organizations. Our findings describe drivers for CEB, identify four types of CEB, and explore the value outcomes experienced by various stakeholders. This paper proposes that CEB affects value co-creation by virtue of customers’ diverse resource contributions towards the focal firm and/other stakeholders that modify and/or augment the offering, and/or affect other stakeholders’ perceptions, preferences, expectations or actions towards the firm or its offering. Through inducing broader resource integration, CEB makes value co-creation a system level process. We offer nine research propositions explicating the connections CEB has to value co-creation by focal customers, the focal firm and other stakeholders. Our research suggests that firms focus greater attention on the resources that customers can contribute, explore the potential to engage diverse stakeholders around a common cause and employ organically emerging systems which provide opportunities for more extensive value co-creation

Introduction to e-commerce

Bostonxxvii, 516 p.; 27 cm

Cases in E-Commerce

631 hal.;xix.;26c

Introduction to e-commerce

xxvii, 516 p. : ill. ; 27 c

Intruduction to e-Commerce

Bostonxxvii, 516 p.; 27 cm