How the market driving approach can create brand value through a digital platform

This paper examines how the value of a brand is enhanced through a learning process that incorporates customer dialogue and results in co-creation and the incorporation of a consumer oriented relationship marketing approach. In doing so, we adopted the market driving concept and related it to how companies can strengthen their competitive standing by increasing the knowledge transfer capability by utilizing data collected through social media technology (SMT). A qualitative research strategy was deployed involving a critical friendship group and a group interview, and a number of constructs were identified and then grouped according to a number of underlying themes. It is acknowledged that only one critical friendship group and one group interview were used to collect data, however, the in-depth insights provided by industry experts were very valuable as they provided insights into how social media technology enhances a company’s market driving strategy. Our findings, a Digital Stakeholder Communication Platform (DSCP) framework, supports and explains how the concept of market driving enhances a pro-active strategic capability. It highlights the importance of learning and managing a value system that reflects on societal values and changes in the market place. It also highlights the need for companies to consider how they contribute to societal well being in the longer term. This is a new dimension to the existing market driving concept and is our contribution to how the existing market driving concept can be extended. By developing trust based relationships and implementing value co-creation with stakeholders, emotional attachment will be established that has both a positive and a negative side to it. The main advantage is that information will be forthcoming that can be used in the new product development process and the main disadvantage is that the same information may be supplied to competitors thus resulting in a convergence of product ideas

Insights into How Vietnamese Retailers Utilize Social Media to Facilitate Knowledge Creation through the Process of Value Co-Creation

Social media usage is a direct result of Internet connectivity and is gaining increased prominence in business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-business (C2B) relationship building, which is allowing marketers to devise and implement digital marketing strategies that are perceived as enhancing a customer’s well-being. Through the process of utilizing social media (SM) to share information with consumers, marketers are affording themselves with the concept of value co-creation and ensuring that the development of knowledge is given priority. To explain how this happens in an emerging economy, in-depth personal interviews were undertaken with the owners of five retail fashion companies in Vietnam. The findings indicate that fashion retail companies in Vietnam are deploying digital marketing strategies that deliver perceived enhanced value to consumers through the process of value co-creation. This highlights the advantage of using SM in relation to increasing retail staff’s ability to convert information into usable resources such as intelligence and knowledge. By achieving knowledge conversion, retail staff fulfill the role of ‘knowledge broker’ and ‘knowledge connector’, and identify how organizational intervention, such as new operating structures, can help to deliver perceived enhanced value to customers

The global cyber security model: counteracting cyber attacks through a resilient partnership arrangement

In this paper, insights are provided into how senior managers can establish a global cyber security model that raises cyber security awareness among staff in a partnership arrangement and ensures that cyber attacks are anticipated and dealt with in real time. We deployed a qualitative research strategy that involved a group interview involving cyber security and intelligence experts. The coding approach was used to identify the themes in the data and, in addition, a number of categories and subcategories were identified. The mind map approach was utilized to identify the thought processes of senior managers in relation to ensuring that the cyber security management process is effective. The global cyber security model can be used by senior managers to establish a framework for dealing with a range of cyber security attacks, as well as to upgrade the cyber security skill and knowledge base of individuals. In order for a cyber security mentality to be established, senior managers need to ensure that staff are focused on organizational vulnerability and resilience, there is an open and transparent communication process in place, and staff are committed to sharing cyber security knowledge. By placing cyber security within the context of a partnership arrangement, senior managers can adopt a collectivist approach to cyber security and benefit from the knowledge of external experts

Cyber security, communication and risk management

It is clear that the level and type of threat that managers in organizations are being confronted with are increasing in degree of severity and complexity, and as such, more needs to be done as regards managing internal security, developing a robust security umbrella with partner organizations, and liaising with government law enforcement representatives. Individual managers may not necessarily be aware of how vulnerable the organization is to various forms of cyber attack and need to work as a team in order to develop an intelligence focus that underpins the cyber security operation. This article puts forward the idea that risk management and security is a shared responsibility among stakeholders and guidance is provided as regards what senior management need to do in order to communicate more effectively with various organizational stakeholders. In order to be effective, it is suggested that security and intelligence activities are synchronized and grounded in a business continuity management planning process

Combining sociocultural intelligence with Artificial Intelligence to increase organizational cyber security provision through enhanced resilience

Although artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can be deployed to improve cyber security management, not all managers understand the different types of AI/ML and how they are to be deployed alongside the benefits associated with sociocultural intelligence. The aim of this paper was to provide a context within which managers can better appreciate the role that sociocultural intelligence plays so that they can better utilize AI/ML to facilitate cyber threat intelligence (CTI). We focused our attention on explaining how different approaches to intelligence (i.e., the intelligence cycle (IC) and the critical thinking process (CTP)) can be combined and linked with cyber threat intelligence (CTI) so that AI/ML is used effectively. A small group interview was undertaken with five senior security managers based in a range of companies, all of whom had extensive security knowledge and industry experience. The findings suggest that organizational learning, transformational leadership, organizational restructuring, crisis management, and corporate intelligence are fundamental components of threat intelligence and provide a basis upon which a cyber threat intelligence cycle process (CTICP) can be developed to aid the resilience building process. The benefit of this is to increase organizational resilience by more firmly integrating the intelligence activities of the business so that a proactive approach to cyber security management is achieved

Managing cybersecurity threats and increasing organizational resilience

Cyber security is high up on the agenda of senior managers in private and public sector organizations and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Because cyber-attacks are increasing in sophistication and are of a persistent nature, it is clear that those undertaking research into counteracting cyber threats should familiarize themselves with the types of vulnerability that are likely to be exploited and develop workable solutions. This means working with likeminded people that are intent on ensuring that those carrying out such attacks do not succeed. It is because of the complexity and width of the problem that it is unlikely that those working in a single discipline will be able to solve the recurring problems that managers face. Indeed, the nature of connectivity and interactivity requires that cyber security researchers adopt an inter-disciplinary and/or multi-disciplinary approach to solving cyber security problems, and also that academic and industry researchers cooperate in order to work on cyber security solutions that can be applied across all industry sectors. This Special Issue draws on the knowledge of various cyber security experts from a range of disciplines who address a number of issues and put forward solutions that utilize cyber security intelligence, with the aim of making organizations more resilient and able to withstand different types of cyber-attack. This means that studying the problem from various perspectives and establishing the breadth and depth of the problem are key priorities. The collection of papers in this Special Issue will help broaden the scope of the subject matter and through interpretation will offer recommendations for dealing with known cyber threats

How organizational learning reinforces interactive communication and sustainable B2B customer centred business relationships”.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how the process of organizational learning reinforces the relationship marketing approach and fosters the development of knowledge and B2B customer centred relationships. A qualitative research strategy was deployed that incorporated an open ended, structured questionnaire. In total, three Korean companies and 15 senior B2B marketing managers participated in the research. The research findings indicate that senior B2B marketing managers in the participating Korean companies embrace knowledge acquisition and implementation in their marketing decision making, hence they are committed to sharing information and are keen to adopt innovatory processes that result in change. By doing so, they utilize the organizational learning concept to enhance the capability of the organization, ensure that individual learning is placed in the context of institutional learning, develop and implement innovative marketing strategies, and reinforce the strategic marketing planning process through interactive communication in order to achieve value creation