Are carbon offsets potentially the new "greenwash?"

This paper explores the relationship between consumers&rsquo; knowledge and behaviours related to environmental issues and carbon offsets. We found that consumers were generally less knowledgeable about carbon offsets than about general environmental issues and increased knowledge about environmental issues does not result in more responsible environmental behaviours. Therefore, consumers may misunderstand claims made by marketers in relation to carbon offsets and thus public policy intervention is required.<br /

Publishing in 20 leading marketing journals – an examination of global performance

Purpose of this paper was to examine the global contribution of academics to marketing literature between 1999 and 2003. This was done based on an examination of the location of academics institution of employment, as reported in published works within the targeted journals. This was then used to examine the globally dispersion of publishing by institutions.Design/approach. The paper used a content analysis. The authorship of all articles in 20 leading journals was examined between 1999 and 2003. Empirical examination of institutions performance was undertaken across geographic regions. There was also an examination of whether the type of journal impacted on regional performance, using Polonsky and Whitelaw&rsquo;s (2006) A, B and C journal groupings.Findings. The research found that there is a significant &ldquo;bias&rdquo; of authorship within the 20 journals examined, with the majority of works published by academics at institutions in North America. There is some variation in regional performance based on the type of journal examined. However, when one considers the number of universities within each country/region, it is identified that the proportion of institutions within a country/region publishing within the targeted journals is in fact hight outside North America.Limitations. There was no attempt to examine why any differences exist. The study also only focused on a sample of 20 English language journals over 5 years, although these journals have been &lsquo;defined&rsquo; as a leading marketing journal for European marketing academics.Practical Implications. The research suggests that there may in fact be a range of differences in publishing behaviour. It is unclear if these differences relate to variations in the &ldquo;objectives&rdquo; of institutions within each country or other factors. The research posits that a marketing knowledge may be unnecessarily restricted, if there is a bias against non-north American perspectives.Originality. While there have been other works examining research performance of institutions, there have not been any marketing-related works that focused on the nation in which authors work. This work therefore takes a global &ldquo;snapshot&rdquo; of national research performance within marketing.<br /

Reality television programs in Malaysia : a dream come true?

Reality television programs have changed the media landscape drastically since the turn of the millennium. Owing to its interactive nature, reality television has become a highly marketable advertising vehicle. In view of its rising popularity and potential in marketing, the influence of these programs is of public interest. This study examines what motivates the viewers in Malaysia to watch reality television programs. Using factor analysis, five motivation factors were extracted: suspense; personal identity and social interaction; engaging?entertaining; romance or attractiveness of contestants; sensation seeking. Three MANOVA models were used to explore the relationship between group differences due to gender, age, education background and the composite of the five motivational factors. Significant multivariate effects were found for all the three models considered. Univariate effects were also found for three of the factors, revealing some interesting findings of those who are fascinated by reality television programs in Malaysia

Chinese consumers\u27 perceptions of country design, assembly and parts capabilities : does country considered or consumer acculturation matter?

Chinese consumers are facing a diverse range of choices in regards to products produced wholly or in part overseas or by overseas corporations based in China. This study examines how consumers from China, both residing at home and abroad, perceived capability of Germany, Japan, US and China in regard to three dimensions of country capabilities- design, assembly and parts/components. The findings show that consumers have different perceptions concerning country capabilities and that Chinese consumers residing overseas appear to have more positive perceptions of foreign countries&rsquo; capabilities.<br /

The impact of consumer ethnocentrism and country of origin sub-components for high involvement products on young Chinese consumers\u27 product assessments

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of country of origin (COO) sub-components (i.e. design, assembly and parts), as well as the extent to which consumer ethnocentrism tendencies interact with these COO sub-components for young Chinese consumers with regards to product quality assessments and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; A 2?&times;?2?&times;?2 factorial experimental design was used to examine the effects of the three sub-components of COO with two levels of sourcing location &ndash; Home (China) and Foreign (Germany), for two high involvement products (an automobile and a digital camera). Chinese students in China represented the sample of 272 respondents. MANOVA was used to examine the direct effects and interactions of the three COO components, as well as ethnocentrism, measured using the CETSCALE. Findings &ndash; It was found that the three COO sub-components did not influence young Chinese consumers&rsquo; evaluation of product quality or purchase intentions. In addition, consumers&rsquo; level of ethnocentrism also did not have a direct effect on perceived product quality or purchase intentions. There was only one statistically significant interaction effect between ethnocentrism and country of parts for one of the two products. As such, COO dimensions and young Chinese consumers&rsquo; ethnocentrism appears to have limited influence on their assessments of product quality or purchase intentions. This may occur because young Chinese consumers perceive that hybrid products are the norm for high involvement products in China as these products are all these consumers have experienced. Originality/value &ndash; The findings of this research dispute the commonly held belief and evidence that sub-components of COO have an impact on the perceptions of product quality and purchase intentions. Young Chinese consumers may be different to consumers from western countries because they have been extensively exposed to hybrid products. Given the size and growth potential of China, young Chinese are an important, under-researched segment within the Chinese market.<br /

Exploring US consumers understanding of carbon offsets

This study found the relationship between general environment knowledge and carbon offsets knowledge is inversely related and no significant differences in general environment or carbon offset behavior exists between levels of knowledge. The findings lend support that consumers may misunderstand \u27carbon offset\u27 claims thus public policy intervention is required

Managing strategic versus tactical green collaborations : a nonprofit perspective

This exploratory study examines how non-profit organisations view collaborations with other organisations, based on the objective of the collaboration. This perspective has not been previously considered within the literature. Our findings suggest that non-profits believe there are differences in the management of collaborations depending on whether they are designedto achieve strategic or tactical goals. The variables of power and managerial imbalance were found to impact on the perceived effectiveness of strategic collaborations while organisational compatibility was found to impact on the perceived effectiveness of tactical collaborations.<br /

Comparing event attendees and their telecast audiences: A case study of a commemorative event

Attendees who are physically present at events are not the only consumers of events. Indeed, in many cases, the number of people who watch an event via its telecast far exceeds the number of people attending the event. In this context, gaining information about event telecast audiences is as critical as gaining information about event attendees. However, most of the research undertaken on understanding event consumers has focused on attendees who are physically present at events. Very little is known about how consumers of the telecasts of events compare with attendees at events. This research aimed to address this knowledge gap and identify whether consumers of a telecast event were similar to, or different from, those consumers who attend events in person in terms of their demographics, psychographics, and behavioral intentions. The focal event for this study was a large-scale national commemorative event in Australia and New Zealand. Data were collected using an online questionnaire from a purposive sample (n=1,152) comprising both Australian (58%) and New Zealand (42%) residents, of which 580 of the entire sample were attendees at the event and 572 participated in the event via their telecasts. The results show that the two cohorts (1: event attendees and 2: event telecast participants) with an interest in the event show significant differences. Event attendees and event telecast participants are different in terms of gender, experience with the event/telecast (first-time participation, number of prior events, and number in party), motivations, emotions experienced, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions regarding the event/telecast. However, the two cohorts did not differ on age, education, household income, or their levels of patriotism. This study contributes to the event management literature as it extends our knowledge of consumers of events and provides a comparative analysis of event attendees and event telecast participants of a large-scale event. These findings provide valuable insights for event and telecast planners as well as other stakeholders about the two cohorts of event participants. The study is novel because it reports on data collected from both Australians and New Zealanders about this event rather than focusing on just one country, as previous research has tended to do

An Examination of the Globalisation of Authorship in Publishing in 20 Leading Marketing Journals

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to examine the global contribution of academics to marketing literature between 1999 and 2003, based on an examination of the location of academics institution of employment, as reported in published works. The data is used to evaluate the global dispersion of publishing. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The paper uses the method of content analysis where the authorship of all articles in 20 leading marketing journals between 1999 and 2003 is examined. An empirical examination of performance was undertaken across geographic regions. There was also an examination of whether the quality of journal affected regional performance. Findings &ndash; The research found that there is a significant &ldquo;bias&rdquo; of authorship within the 20 journals examined, with the majority of works published by academics at institutions in North America. There is some variation in regional performance based on the type of journal examined. Research limitations/implications &ndash; There was no attempt to empirically examine why differences might exist. The study only focused on a sample of 20 English language journals over five years. These journals have been included in studies that list the leading marketing journal for US and European academics. Practical implications &ndash; The research suggests that there may in fact be regional differences in publishing behaviour. It is unclear if these differences relate to variations in the &ldquo;objectives&rdquo; of institutions within each country or other factors, such as the North American publish-or-perish mentality. The research posits that a marketing knowledge may be unnecessarily restricted, if there is a bias against non-North American perspectives. Originality/value &ndash; While there have been other works examining research performance of institutions, there has been limited examination in marketing on the nation in which authors work and none have used a broad cross-section of journals. This work takes a global &ldquo;snapshot&rdquo; of national research performance within marketing.<br /