Competitive Intelligence and Forecasting Systems: Strategic Marketing Planning Tool for SME\u27s

One of the drivers of both strategic planning and success in the marketplace is the role of competitive intelligence systems (CIS). CIS activity and its value to consumer/competitive intelligence are well established. In a survey of a broad cross section of firms, it was found that two thirds of the companies indicated a dramatic increase in level of activity and nearly three fifths (54%) said the impact of marketing intelligence systems (MI) contribute heavily to tactical and strategic decision making (Lackman, Lanasa, and Saban, 2000). Small and medium enterprises (SME’s) traditionally have neglected CIS partly because of the cost and the complexity. However, a low cost, less complex tool is operative in an SME as illustrated in this paper. An integral part of CIS is forecasting capability which needs to be built into a CIS in order to effectively serve strategic planning. This paper specifies the basic elements of a CIS and the forecasting modules required for the system’s effectiveness, including the external and internal modules of a basic CIS and the forecasting models needed to support each CIS module in an integrated format all feasible for an SM

An Enhanced Model for Managing Change in Organizations

Change has become a “way of life” in organizations. The pace of change has increased substantially in recent years as a result of issues such as the pressures of global competition the impact of the Internet, customer demands and ever changing enhancement of technical capabilities. These changes affect what people do and how they fulfill their responsibilities, and therefore, there are varied reactions Historically, failures in change implementation have not been attributable to a lack of technical feasibility and functionality but instead have been the result of employee resistance. The difficulty of implementing organizational change has presented an ongoing challenge to managers. As we anticipate the future, paramount technological changes and shifts in strategies as a result of innovations such as cloud computing, social networks, and smart phones are on the horizon, all of which provide numerous opportunities for marketers. Customer relationship management (CRM implementation in particular, warrants consideration of a change management strategy. This paper reviews severa successful change management and implementation strategies that have been utilized to address technologica change and proposes an enhanced model to guide managers as they deal with technology-based organizational changes

The Perks and Problems of Being Department Chair

Many faculty members find the opportunity to serve as chair of their department at a point of their career. How does the chair position differ from a faculty position? Of what should a faculty member be aware before agreeing to serve as chair? Is it possible to prosper in the chair’s position? This special session will involve a candid discussion if the chair’s position – its perks and its problems. Four marketing faculty, both present chairs and former chairs, will present a clear picture of the chair’s position, and will address such issues as chair selection and appointment, dealing with faculty, dealing with administration, etc

Tomorrow’s Champions Of Sustainability: How Everyday Leaders Can Harness Grass Roots Momentum to Advance Adoption of Ecologically Sound Practices in Sport and Event Management

For more than a decade, we have appealed to corporations to consider sustainability. Leading companies have enjoyed positive media attention, improved bottom line profits and enhanced competitiveness through environmental management and social initiatives. Sustainability in the broader sense has become everyone’s job, and the momentum crosses age groups and economic strata. This paper focuses on the event organizer as ordinary leader, inspiring an engaged, accessible audience toward sustainability, and offers rationale for promoting socially and environmentally responsible event management. With a captive audience, ordinary leaders have an opportunity to model socially and environmentally responsible practices through effective education, communication, metrics and follow-up

Evidence of Sustainability Communication in Major League Baseball: A Website Analysis

Based on a review of Major League baseball team websites, this study provides insight into team communication of sustainability principles and practices through an analysis of self-presented sustainability content. Websites for thirty-one (31) teams were examined for content. Elkington’s (1997) triple bottom line dimensions and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicator codes and definitions were constructs for the model and aligned to social, environmental, and economic principles for categories of sustainability practices. Researchers found that while teams are including sustainability information to some extent, the majority highlight social issues on their home pages and subsequent pages; communication about environmental factors varies by league and tends to reflect league-wide initiatives, and economic issues are largely not communicated

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: The Role of a Consumer Mentality in Higher Education and Exploring How it Can be Overcome

Serving and satisfying customers is often viewed as the primary function of businesses. Consequently, a customer orientation, or a focus on determining customers’ wants and needs and designing and offering products to satisfy them, is a key concept within marketing. Is the importance of a customer orientation also true in higher education? Several believe that it is. The answer to the question of who is the customer in higher education, however, is less clear. Historically, society was viewed to be the primary customer of higher education – the purpose of higher education was viewed to produce educated individuals who possess the knowledge and skills to serve society by serving as leaders in society and its primary institutions, including government and business. Arguably, this view of the purpose of higher educations has changed. Today, students are most often viewed as the customers of higher education. Indeed, when viewing the activities of colleges and universities, the extent to which a consumer mentality has been accepted and employed quickly becomes obvious. The promise of consumer (student) satisfaction is viewed to be key to attracting students and is an essential component of most university marketing programs. Not all agree with this assessment of the role of a consumer mentality in higher education, however. Several believe that a consumer mentality is antithetical to higher education, which logically raises an important question: Why would a customer mentality be appropriate for most organizations, but not higher education? The focus of this special session is to explore this issue

Extreme Clonality in Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines with Implications for Allele Specific Expression Analyses

Lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) are being actively and extensively used to examine the expression of specific genes and genome-wide expression profiles, including allele specific expression assays. However, it has recently been shown that approximately 10% of human genes exhibit random patterns of monoallelic expression within single clones of LCLs. Consequently allelic imbalance studies could be significantly compromised if bulk populations of donor cells are clonal, or near clonal. Here, using X chromosome inactivation as a readout, we confirm and quantify widespread near monoclonality in two independent sets of cell lines. Consequently, we recommend where possible the use of bulk, non cell line, ex vivo cells for allele specific expression assays