Mobile Social Media as a Strategic Capability: Expanding Opportunties Social Media Has to Offer to B2B Firms

Mobile social media (MSM), an interaction, exchange of information and creation of user-generated content, mediated by mobile devices is becoming the locomotive that drives forward evolution of online world. So far, limited number of academic studies touched upon the MSM subject with all the papers being of conceptual nature. No empirical evidence is available to prove whether and how firms utilise MSM for their best advantage. This paper addresses this gap by employing the grounded theory approach (GT) to analyse interviews conducted in twenty-six B2B firms. This study found that eighteen firms use mobile technology primarily as a platform to access social media sites, understand canons of MSM consumption and utilise MSM as a strategic capability to reinforce the strategic position of a firm. Our data illustrates that the MSM strategic capability includes four main activities: (1) market sensing; (2) managing relationships; (3) branding and (4) developing content. These activities can results in the decreased research and development spendings without sacrificing innovativeness because MSM is a valuable source of information about the market and a source of ideas for new products/services. In practical terms firms can examine MSM activities and decide whether there is an opportunity to utilise MSM advantageously

Conceptualising cross-category brand in emerging country context: merging associative network memory model and resource based view.

Brand alliances between the brands from different categories are increasingly becoming popular (Smarandescu, Rose and Wedell, 2013). This is particular relevant to the emerging countries context where multinational brands due to strong impact of cultural and country-specific political and economic governance policies are establishing cross-category brand alliances with local brands to gain brand success and customer loyalty. Existing studies investigated cross-category brand alliances according to the aspects of brand order, consumer ethnocentrism, the country of origin and brand familiarity. However, these studies primarily incorporate end-user impact factors in measuring and understanding the cross-category brand alliances performance. Brands as business perspective is required to understand the impacts of brand resources and attributes on the cross-category brand alliance. This study focuses on the cross-category brand alliances and attempts to develop a framework to measure the performance of cross-category brand alliances. The framework constructs are derived from Associative Network Memory (ANM) Model and Resource Based View (RBV) theories. The framework is developed by evaluating the interviews with the marketing managers of brands in the brand alliance case studies from an emerging country, Turkey

Businesses and mobile social media capability

Purpose: Mobile social media (MSM), an interaction, exchange of information and creation of user-generated content, mediated by mobile devices is becoming the locomotive that drives forward evolution of the online world. a limited number of academic studies touched upon the MSM subject with all the papers being of a conceptual nature to provide recommendations to B2B firms. This paper aims to explore how B2B firms use MSM in reality. Methodology: This paper adopts the grounded theory approach to analyse interviews conducted in twenty-six B2B firms representing the UK advertising and marketing sector. Interviewees represent key decision-makers who understand the aspects of mobile technology use in their firms. Eighteen firms stressed the importance of social media as a trigger to adopt mobile devices. Follow-up data collection in these eighteen firms focuses on strategic orientation, processes, routines and skills required utilising MSM. Findings: We found that marketing and advertising firms use MSM for branding, sensing market, managing relationships and developing content. MSM is treated by businesses as a strategic firm-specific capability that drives firms’ competitiveness, where imitation of such capability by competitors is limited because MSM skills are specific to individuals within organisations and MSM routines are manifested as a result of firm-specific MSM skills’ interactions. Originality: This study is amongst the first to provide insights into B2B firms’ practices of using MSM. Additionally, the research is novel because it discovers that MSM capability is developed as a result of the overlap between individuals’ and organisational knowledge and memory, contradicting existing theory on the subject

Determinants of online trust and their impact on online purchase intention

Abundant literature has examined online trust. However the different approaches were scarcely integrated to address the determinants of online trust and their impacts on online purchase intention. An integrative approach to online trust is adopted in this paper. A survey is carried out on a sample of 401 online consumers in Indonesia. The findings show that purchase intention is significantly influenced by online trust. Besides, there is significant impact of personality based trust (benevolence, integrity, credibility), cognitive based trust (reputation and cost benefit calculation) and institutional based trust (situation normality) on online trust

Supermarket retailers - is your supply chain really as green as it should be?

This short paper considers the issue of environmental supply chain transparency of retailers. It explains why progress on environmental issues in the retail sector depends not only on what retailers do, but on what their suppliers do. It explains the role of supply chain information in helping diagnose environmental supply chain issues, and how creating a database of public domain information from a wide variety of public domain sources can help. It then considers how use of advanced analytical techniques based on artificial intelligence can accelerate and simplify access to this information, allowing retailers to identify problem areas amongst suppliers quickly and efficiently. It examines a case study of a leading British grocery retailer to show what such data and analysis can reveal. Finally, it identifies all the stakeholders who need such analyses, and recommends actions they should take to improve retail compliance with environmental supply chain requirements

Moderating effects of environmental uncertainty on behavioural intentions in business markets – A study across theoretical perspectives

Purpose - the current study examines the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the impact of the focal constructs of relationship quality and relationship value on behavioural intentions across the theoretical perspectives of commitment–trust and relationship value. The study examines to which extent the application of these two theoretical perspectives can absorb part of the environmental uncertainty in a buyer/seller relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The study used empirical data from UK manufacturers from different sectors to test the hypotheses developed. The sample ranged from small enterprises to multi-billion companies. A structured questionnaire was used as a research instrument Findings – The effects of relationship quality and relationship value on behavioural intentions are not found, to a large extent, to be moderated by environmental uncertainty. The findings support that the commitment–trust and relationship value perspectives can absorb part of the uncertainty firms face in business markets. Research limitations/implications - The current study investigates the customer perspective only. Future dyadic research will be able to offer a more holistic view of the focal constructs and their performance outcomes. Practical implications – The findings indicate that firms may find it productive to invest in more relationship marketing efforts in markets with higher levels of uncertainty to improve performance. Originality/value – Although the role of environmental uncertainty as a key exogenous factor in relationship effectiveness should not be overlooked, the theoretical perspectives of commitment–trust and relationship value suggest that relevant approaches in explaining how favourable behavioural intentions can be generated succeed in absorbing part of the uncertainty that organizations can face in business relationships

Supermarket retailers - is your supply chain really as green as it should be?

This short paper considers the issue of environmental supply chain transparency of retailers. It explains why progress on environmental issues in the retail sector depends not only on what retailers do, but on what their suppliers do. It explains the role of supply chain information in helping diagnose environmental supply chain issues, and how creating a database of public domain information from a wide variety of public domain sources can help. It then considers how use of advanced analytical techniques based on artificial intelligence can accelerate and simplify access to this information, allowing retailers to identify problem areas amongst suppliers quickly and efficiently. It examines a case study of a leading British grocery retailer to show what such data and analysis can reveal. Finally, it identifies all the stakeholders who need such analyses, and recommends actions they should take to improve retail compliance with environmental supply chain requirements

Marketing ethics in brand alliances between large enterprises and SMEs, a dyadic approach

The research focuses on the marketing ethics during the value co-creation process in the brand alliances between large enterprises and SMEs. The study uncovers the hidden agreements between partner brands that violate the main principles of marketing ethics such as preserving the conditions of an acceptable exchange, the perfect competition ideal and mutuality. Collaborations, where two or more brands come together to form an alliance, are increasingly popular among brands (Yan & Cao, 2017). Brands form an alliance to achieve more than they do on their own (Lewis, 1999) and to create a synergistic collaboration with the expectation of creating a sum greater than the parts (Rodrigue & Biswas, 2004). Although extensive studies have addressed ethical issues in marketing in the last decades; such studies remained more focused on the empirical questions rather than the normative issues such as problematic ethical issues in marketing (Elegido, 2016). The literature proposes the main principles of marketing ethics as consumer sovereignty, preserving the conditions of an acceptable exchange, paternalism, the perfect competition ideal, and mutuality (Elegido, 2016). According to Abela and Murphy (2007), the foundational premises of S-D logic have implicit ethical content. Such views are contradicted by Willams and Aitken (2011) claiming the need for explicit ethical content. The ethical issues in marketing not only arise between the company and its clients (Elegido, 2016) but also with the other stakeholders such as partner brands, rival brands and suppliers (Williams and Aitken, 2011). Thus, the value co-creation process between the partner brands in a brand alliance should be thoroughly analysed to understand how the principles of marketing ethics are implemented by the partner brands involved in value co-creation

Inhibitors of Non-for Profit Organisations’ activities and survival in a crisis context

Purpose Tunisia has been living a decade of democratic transition since 2011. In this new context, the civil society has been fervently expressing claims for democracy and social justice through creating thousands of NPOs (23456 NPOs in 2020 against 9000 established in 30 years up to 2010). However, this shift seems to be misleading, as only 3000 NPOs are actually active, indicating that NPOs are struggling to sustain their activities and ensure their survival. The purpose of this study is to uncover the factors hindering NPOs activities and survival. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a purposive sample of 32 NPOs members in two main economic and touristic cities -Tunis and Sousse- selected using snow ball method. A considerable amount of qualitative data was produced (400 pages of text). This seems representative of Tunisian citizens’ inclination to protest in the new prevailing political and social context. The data collection benefited from the freedom of speech gained after the 2011 civilian uprising as interviewees were enthusiastic in voicing their opinions. Findings Two main categories of inhibitors were identified. First, endogenous inhibitors including (i) inhibitors under the control of the NPO (i.e. use of illegal and foreign sources of funding, limited financial resources, unavailability of NPOs’ members, short term planning, conflicts between managers, autocratic leadership, organisational support, activities diversification and organisational justice, leadership and communication skills, “NPO culture”, members’ opportunistic behaviour and, generation gap) (ii) inhibitors related to NPOs inter-relationships: stiff competition, unfair and dishonest competition, lack of collaboration, trust and communication between NPOs. Second, exogenous inhibitors, i.e. perceived unethical practices and image transfer, economic crisis, foreign funding sources and the media. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations mainly due to the sample size and characteristics of the selected interviewees. In addition, data was collected in only two regions (Tunis and Sousse). Therefore, the results lack generalisability.   Practical implications The findings highlight the critical impact of the inhibitors under the control of NPOs compared to those out of their control. NPOs in crisis context, could overcome these inhibitors by ensuring congruence between the NPOs’ mission, objectives and activities and designing suitable marketing strategies. Originality/value This study contributes to elucidate this complex circular system of exchange and its inhibitors in challenging and understudied context. It offers support to Bagozzi’s (1974; 1975; 1994; 2011) calls for uncovering the factors constraining or facilitating exchanges that have an impact going beyond the relationship between three or more partners and the conditions that govern these exchanges. Moreover, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical attempt to support Bagozzi’s (1994) conceptualisation. It also brings an update to NPOs' data and marketing strategy in a region near the crossroads of Middle Eastern, North African and Western influences. Keywords: Not For Profit Organisations (NPOs), endogenous and exogenous inhibitors, NPOs’ inter-relationship, circular exchange system