Identifying the True Revolution in Loyalty Programmes Thinking: B2B Channel Marketing Adoption and Digital Opportunities

This study identifies a paradigm shift in loyalty programme thinking and the additional benefits they may provide due to technological advancements, particularly in B2B marketing. Pull strategies like this are typical in consumer markets, but in supply chains, push tactics are usually deployed to promote brands and manage channel relationships. Data transparency and channel power from digital channel loyalty programmes have made them viable for manufacturers. We aim to identify these opportunities in detail

Study on the effects of wood flour geometry on physical and mechanical properties of wood-plastic composites

The present study is focused on the effects of the shape and size of Fagus orientalis wood flour on physical and mechanical properties of HDPE based wood plastic composites (WPC). Variables included two mesh sizes (20 and 60), as well as five different contents of ground shavings (0, 25, 50,75, and 100%) mixed with sawdust; totally 10 treatments. HDPT content was 40% in all formulations. Panels were compression molded and physical and mechanical tests were carried out in accordance with ASTM D2240 standard specifications. Results showed that mesh size can only significantly affect the hardness in the studied wood-plastic composites. On the other hand, increasing the proportion of the ground shavings possessing higher aspect ratio (l/d) increased both flexural strength and hardness. This increasing effect however was not observed for ground shavings beyond 50%. It was also concluded that while the addition of ground shavings up to 50% could improve the mechanical properties, higher proportions would reduce some of the properties, particularly the impact strength. In was concluded that the panel made of 50% wood flour combined with 50% ground shavings exhibited overall suitableproperties for most applications

Resposta à flexão e análise de tenacidade de argamassas reforçadas com fibra de Curauá

O desenvolvimento e comercialização de materiais compósitos produzidos a partir de fibras naturais são considerados extremamente importante, uma vez que essas fibras reduzirão a dependência dos materiais produzidos com recursos não renováveis. Dentre essas fibras naturais destaca-se a fibra do curauá, sua utilização na produção de compósitos melhora de forma notável as propriedades do conjunto fibra matriz, logo o presente artigo objetiva estudar as propriedades mecânicas de compósitos reforçados com fibra de curauá, em especial sua resistência à flexão e tenacidade. Para isso foram confeccionadas cinco famílias de argamassas, uma de referência sem utilização da fibra e as outras quatro reforçada com fibra variando o comprimento da fibra e sua fração volumétrica. Verificou-se que a fibra do curauá ao ser adicionada em matriz cimentícia melhora suas propriedades mecânicas comparada a um compósito não reforçado com fibra, sua deformação, resistência à flexão e tenacidade são melhoradas

Review of natural fibre-reinforced hybrid composites

Natural fibre-reinforced hybrid composites which contain one or more types of natural reinforcement are gaining increasing research interest. This paper presents a review of natural fibre-reinforced hybrid composites. Both thermoplastic and thermoset composites reinforced by hybrid/synthetic fibres or hybrid/hybrid fibres are reviewed. The properties of natural fibres, the properties and processing of composites are summarised

Applying the reduce, reuse, and recycle principle in the hospitality sector: Its antecedents and performance implications

Although the literature on eco-friendly strategies followed by firms is abundant, the focus on the reduce, reuse, and recycle (3Rs) policies as the cornerstone of environmental sustainability is scarce. This study examines the 3Rs environmental strategy among 143 large organizations in the hospitality industry. We use the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm theory to test the strategy's determinants and its impact on business performance on a suggested conceptualization level. As hypothesized, green corporate governance and environmental management systems, along with slack financial resources, were found to positively influence the adoption of a 3Rs environmental strategy. In turn, the implementation of the latter leads to superior business performance, measured in terms of operating profits and Tobin's Q. The study has several implications on a theoretical, managerial, and public policy level where intriguing directions for future research are provided

The Growth of Cyber Entrepreneurship in the Food Industry: Virtual Community Engagement in the COVID-19 Era

Purpose: The sustainable development goals are the plans to accomplish a recovering and more sustainable future for all. However, with the COVID-19 epidemic, the challenges are more for achieving these goals by entrepreneurship. With the challenges of epidemics, new technological advancements have become the foundation of emerging forms of entrepreneurship, known as online entrepreneurship, technology-based entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship and cyber entrepreneurship. This form of entrepreneurship provides better opportunities for entrepreneurs to have community engagement to grow their platforms. Much has been written in the last decades about the traditional type of entrepreneurship and focused more on traditional business models. Furthermore, the role of cyber entrepreneurship has not been given much emphasis in the food industry. Nowadays, consumers prefer e-commerce platforms as a shopping means due to convenience, usefulness, and safety due to the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, the food industry is a saturated and highly competitive market, and retailers have to add additional online services to survive and compete. Although recently, a small segment of burgeoning literature on this topic has tended to study Internet-based entrepreneurship, the existing literature offers only a partial understanding of those concepts specifically cyber entrepreneurship for community engagement in epidemics when people have less physical interaction, specifically, in the food industry. Design: Consequently, this study employs empirical research with a holistic overview of the existing literature in an attempt to define the different forms of entrepreneurship in the current digital age with a focus on COVID-19 implications for cyber entrepreneurship. Findings: Using a multiple case study approach, this study identifies and explores the fundamental aspects of cyber entrepreneurship. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are explained at the end of the paper

The effect of social media on firm performance

© 2017. This study provides a new perspective on the effect of social media use in SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of social media on firm performance with mediating role of marketing capabilities in the UK, hotel industry. In this research, a structural equation modelling method has been employed for data analysis. The survey data has been collected by mail survey from a sample of 384 hotels in the UK. Results from the data analysis demonstrate the positive and significant relationship between social media use and firm performance. However, the findings highlighted that marketing capabilities, namely branding and innovation, positively and significantly mediate the association between social media use and firm performance

AI Adaption Factors in Online Service

The scale of digital disruption in business is unprecedented due to Covid19. AI service systems increasingly replace human employees. However, consumers’ adoption and service satisfaction are relatively low, partly due to technology-centric approaches that neglect work practices. According to Task Technology Fit theory, users may not adopt an advanced technology if it does not fit their task requirements. Theoretically, some important factors in extant Technology Adoption theories are not appropriate for investigating service chatbots. Notably, consumers are not required to learn how to use AI systems. This ongoing research draws on technology adoption theories and task technology fit theory to investigate consumers' perception of service chatbots adoption. A conceptual model was proposed to test the key factors: perceived performance efficacy, consumer innovativeness, trust, perceived autonomy, and perceived task technology fit. We used survey to examine and validate the model and conducted structural equation modelling to analysis the data. The initial findings of this ongoing research mostly support the significant effects of these key factors on consumer adoption. The overall findings theoretically contribute to the knowledge of Technology Adoption and Task Technology Fit theories in AI service and practically benefit marketing practitioners in deciding effective service technology strategies for improving consumers’ online service experience

Achieving channel leadership through B2B digital loyalty programmes

Digital loyalty programmes are an emerging tool for B2B brand marketers hoping to increase repeat purchase rates of end-users. Pull strategies like this are typical in consumer markets, but in supply chains, push tactics are more usually deployed to promote brands against rivals and manage channel relationships. Advances in data science have made B2B user loyalty programmes viable for manufacturers; their benefits include data transparency and hence greater channel power to leverage downstream, upstream partnerships or both. Nevertheless, their digital transformation potential in industrial relationship marketing is not yet well understood. The purpose of this study was thus a) to identify perceived barriers to adoption and b) to evaluate the potential and scope for channel leadership offered by the tool. Senior channel-marketing professionals working for national and international brands gave semi-structured in-depth interviews. From content analysis, similarities and differences in managerial experience were categorised across industrial, fashion and CPG markets and from different channel partner perspectives. We find that adoption is unlikely to become universal across industry types. In CPG and Fashion, where costly pull investments drive consumer demand, digital loyalty programmes offer a slight advantage while adding incremental costs. However, the schemes would be effective in industrial goods categories where they can increase the channel power of manufacturers in several ways. The implications of these findings for industrial marketing theory and practice are discussed, and a programme of future descriptive research is set out