Assessing the Impact of Strategic Global Entry from Cultural Research Perspective in Marketing: A Case of Oil and Gas Industry in Romania

Breaking into a new market is a classic path to business growth. Ability to understand consumption experience of consumers is a major concern of today’s marketers, most especially in view of the rise of experiential marketing approaches that seek to re-enchant people through consumption (Schmitt, 1999, 2003). Service businesses, in particular, are being urged to have a global view on what types of experiences to organize for consumers and how they should be provided. One of the entry strategy of a successful global organization is to research the market they are about to enter and most marketers are now turning to ethnographers. Ethnography has therefore, devised a compilation of retrospective and introspective consumer narratives called “big stories” in contrast to “small stories” Therefore, ethnography of consumption has evolved towards a double method featuring, on one hand, observations that generate “small stories” and, on the other, introspection that generates “big stories”. Ethnography of consumption has been strengthened by the shift from a researcher-devised retrospective narrative in an interview form to an introspective narrative that is produced, fine-tuned and diffused by the consumer in the shape of a text diary, audio diary or video diary (Caru and Cova, 2008). This non-empirical article is to detail the major roles of ethnographers when a company wants to enter an international market. Romania is the largest oil producer in Central and Eastern Europe with reserves of 956 million barrels. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Romania produced an average of 105.4 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2007, 0.12% of the world total and a change of 0.9 % compared to 2006. The country is a net oil importer, and according to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Romania consumed an average of 229.29 thousand barrels a day of oil in 2007, 0.27% of the world total and a change from 2006 of 10.44 tbpd. This non-empirical article is to look into the entry strategies of oil multinationals wishing to do business in Romani

Social Problems of Tobacco Marketing in Southwestern Nigeria: A Behavioral Study

Tobacco industries has always shown much interest in marketing their line of products and have been very successful in portraying smoking as a socially acceptable behavior to billions of people throughout the world. Studies have shown in developed nations that tobacco marketing leads to the onset of smoking among adolescents; in Nigeria no such study has been done. The purpose of this research is to assess the potential influence of tobacco marketing on tobacco consumption and its effects on the society and among residents in the southwestern region of Nigeria. The survey was designed in which thirty-six items, self-administered questionnaire was administered to six hundred people in southwestern Nigeria using a cross-sectional design. The study involved 436 males (72.7%) and 164 females (27.3%). Of these, 336 came from rural areas and 264 came from urban areas respectively. Some 337 respondents (56.2%), indicated that they were influenced by tobacco marketing to smoke, while 263 (43.8%) indicated that they were not influenced. Chi square statistic was used to test the null hypotheses. The result shows a positive significant relationship that supports the notion that tobacco marketing has a positive influence on tobacco consumption in the study areas. This study also revealed that more males in the urban area are being influenced by tobacco marketing to smoke

Socioeconomic and Demographic Profile of Market Place Informant:the Influence of Market Maven on Thailand Shoppers

The buying decisions of customers are influenced to a greater extent by the suggestions or references given by their friends and near ones than the information obtained by means of advertising or any other medium. The concept of word of mouth is independent of the products and services or the producer. It is a known fact that satisfied customers share their satisfaction with their group, either formally or informally. This satisfaction is shared in the form of information, which is nothing but publicity for the product which comes free of cost. This information sharing which spreads cumulatively is called word of mouth. This paper therefore, looked into the socioeconomic and demographic profile of marketplace informant and their influence on Thai shoppers. A total of 380 shoppers (who are able to read and write Thai language and have indicated to the research assistants that they share market information with friends) were surveyed from three strategic cities across Thailand; to respond to the instrument of survey (questionnaire) that was tested and deemed to be reliable. Reliability testing of the scale originally yielded a Cronbach's alpha of 0.82. A strong association (r = .609, p < .0001, n = 380) is evident between the number of respondents that considered themselves outgoing and will share information about their experiences in the marketplac

Interpretations and Effect of Music on Consumers’ Emotion

In this study, we examined the actual meaning of the song to see exactly how music affects an individual’s emotion in relation to shopper’s behavior in a shopping environment. Past research has proven that the tempo of a song plays an important role in a person’s emotion (Webster & Weir, 2005). A 2x2 factorial ANOVA was used to measure the change in mood based on tempo and meaning of a song of 102 undergraduate students. Results revealed a significant interaction between tempo and emotion of the song selection on an individual’s emotion rating, F(2,406)=4.84, p<0.01; confirm that music does have an effect on individual’s emotions

Assessing the Value of International Workers:a Case of Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria

As a result of globalization, many companies, be it corporate, public or international operates on a global scale. With the rise of companies operating in a global village, many companies are also expanding internationally. Mostly, international organizations operating abroad are faced with employees of foreign cultures with an entirely different perspective. Oftentimes, cross-cultural issues arise in the management of the company's human resources (HR). According to Laroche (1998), the rapid globalization of the world's economy has brought forth several changes. In view of this, it is the intention of this non-empirical article to investigate how to assess the international workers, by adopting the latest management trend

Perceptions as Influencer of Consumer Choice Behavior: The Case of Tourism in Nigeria

Consumers will form opinion(s) on a particular product based on information at their disposal, which will determine whether such product is selected. Destination images influence a tourist's travel decisionmaking, cognition and behavior at a destination as well as satisfaction levels and recollection of the experience (Jenkins, 1999). A survey was conducted in the United States, of potential tourists aimed at understanding the role perceptions of potential American outbound tourists to Nigeria and how consumers choose their destinations; based on information at their disposal. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the distribution of variables. All statistics were two-tailed at 0.05 significance level