NEW THEMES IN INNOVATION RESEARCH: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSUMER HEALTH BEHAVIOR

Whenever I am called upon to make prescriptive statements to a group which can\u27t easily hold me accountable for the consequences, I am always reminded of the story of the chicken and the pig. For those of you who aren\u27t familiar with the story, a chicken and a pig were walking down the street one day and came upon a restaurant that had a big sign in the window, Special Today: Bacon and Eggs. The chicken got all excited and said, Isn\u27t that great, they are featuring us together. The pig looked kind of dour and said, That\u27s okay for you, for you it\u27s a contribution; for me it\u27s a total commitment. I am very pleased to be here to contribute some ideas which are evolving in the innovation diffusion and planned change areas. These ideas have important implications for anyone concerned with introducing new information or diffusing new behaviors among some particular target group

Memory Change: An Intimate Measure of Persuasion

A major goal for advertising is to have an enduring emotional impact on an audience by facilitating their creation of personally relevant understandings of an advertisement. This is achieved through a process of cocreation in which consumers integrate advertising content with their own attitudes, beliefs, and values to produce the meaning of an advertisement. This article proposes an approach to evaluating advertisements that builds on the reconstructive nature of memory, the dominant view of memory today. The reconstructive view of memory holds that the memory for the same event is different each time it is recalled and that the person doing the recalling is unaware of these changes. We present an experimental paradigm that assesses advertising\u27s influence on consumers\u27 own memory of their beliefs. We demonstrate that advertising can unconsciously alter consumers\u27 beliefs as reflected by a change in how consumers recall their earlier reporting of these beliefs following an advertising exposure. That is, advertising that causes consumers to remember differently earlier (preadvertising exposure) reported beliefs and in which the change is in the direction of the advertisement\u27s message is an advertisement that contains information the consumer has unconsciously adopted as their own and therefore is likely to be personally relevant and to have an enduring impact on their emotions

Siren songs or path to salvation? Interpreting the visions of web technology at a UK regional newspaper in crisis, 2006-11

A 5-year case study of an established regional newspaper in Britain investigates journalists about their perceptions of convergence in digital technologies. This research is the first ethnographic longitudinal case study of a UK regional newspaper. Although conforming to some trends observed in the wider field of scholarship, the analysis adds to skepticism about any linear or directional views of innovation and adoption: the Northern Echo newspaper journalists were observed to have revised their opinions of optimum Web practices, and sometimes radically reversed policies. Technology is seen in the period as a fluid, amorphous entity. Central corporate authority appeared to diminish in the period as part of a wider reduction in formalism. Questioning functionalist notions of the market, the study suggests cause and effect models of change are often subverted by contradictory perceptions of particular actions. Meanwhile, during technological evolution, the ‘professional imagination’ can be understood as strongly reflecting the parent print culture and its routines, despite pioneering a new convergence partnership with an independent television company

Reflexivity and flexibility: Complementary routes to innovation?

Flexibility and reflexivity are essential processes for organisational innovation. The aim of the paper is to investigate their concurrent and interactive contribution in enhancing two innovation outcomes (the organisational openness towards innovation and the actual innovation adoption). Participants were 357 Italian employees. Results of a hierarchical regression model showed the role of both factors in fostering the two innovation outcomes under study. In addition, results showed the complementary interaction of reflexivity and flexibility, outlining two possible routes to innovation. Specifically, reflexivity appears to be a generative learning process capable of encouraging innovation in low-flexibility conditions, whereas flexibility tends to encourage innovation in low-reflexivity conditions. The findings provide empirical support of their roles as complementary resources for innovation, which has been under-examined in the literature

Modern Model of Competences of Personal Agents as Increase Factor of Clients’ Subjective Well-being

The model of competences of personal agents is developed in the article. The model allows raising the level of subjective well-being of clients and promotes the growth of main indicators characterizing productivity of personal selling. The author designates a new group of stakeholders with which the company has to develop relationship for realization of a social orientation. Relationship marketing is defined taking into account the priority of its broad treatments and orientation on developing relationships with various groups of people. The concept ‘personal agent’ is entered into the theory of marketing. This concept reflects the activity of the seller in modern conditions more precisely. The definition of personal selling is given. Novelty of the author's formulation of this definition is that the personal agents have to own skillfully technologies of sales for achieving their purpose. It is proved that the main objective of personal selling in the context of relationship marketing is not sale of goods, but development of relationship between clients and personal agents (company). The author proves the importance of application of psychological theories and offers the method of creation of a psychological portrait of clients on the basis of classification of standard psychological characteristics. The behavioural indicators characterizing demonstration of all main competences of personal agents are revealed and presented

An evaluation of the stimulants and impediments to innovation within PFI/PPP projects

This paper identifies the theoretical stimulants and impediments associated with the implementation of PFI/PPP (Private Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership) projects. A current defect of this procurement approach is the unintentional constraint upon the innovations incorporated into the development of PFI projects. A critical evaluation of the published literature has been utilized to synthesize a theoretical model. The paper proposes a theoretical model for the identification of potential innovation stimulants and impediments within this type of procurement. This theoretical model is then utilised to evaluate four previously completed PFI projects. These project case-studies have been examined in detail. The evaluation demonstrates how ineffective current procedures are. The application of this model before project letting could eliminate unintentional constraints and stimulate improved innovation within the process. The implementation of the model could improve the successful delivery of innovation within the entire PFI/PPP procurement process

Investigating knowledge management factors affecting Chinese ICT firms performance: An integrated KM framework

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in the Journal of Information Systems Management, 28(1), 19 - 29, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10580530.2011.536107.This article sets out to investigate the critical factors of Knowledge Management (KM) which are considered to have an impact on the performance of Chinese information and communication technology (ICT) firms. This study confirms that the cultural environment of an enterprise is central to its success in the context of China. It shows that a collaborated, trusted, and learning environment within ICT firms will have a positive impact on their KM performance

Project Last Mile and the development of the Girl Champ brand in eSwatini: Engaging the private sector to promote uptake of health services among adolescent girls and young women

In eSwatini and across sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) are at significantly higher risk of HIV infection and poorer sexual and reproductive health (SRH) than their male counterparts. AGYW demonstrate low demand for SRH services, further contributing to poor outcomes. Strategic marketing approaches, including those used by multinational corporations, have potential to support demand creation for SRH services among AGYW, but there is limited empirical evidence on the direct application of privatesector strategic marketing approaches in this context. Therefore, we examined how Project Last Mile worked with eSwatini’s Ministry of Heath to translate strategic marketing approaches from the Coca-Cola system to attract AGYW to SRH services. We present qualitative market research using the ZMET® methodology with 12 young Swazi women (ages 15–24), which informed development of a highly branded communication strategy consistent with other successful gain-framing approaches. Qualitative in-depth interviews with 19 stakeholders revealed receptivity to the market research findings, and highlighted local ownership over the strategic marketing process and brand. These results can inform similar efforts to translate strategic marketing to support demand generation in pursuit of public health goals to reduce HIV risk and improve SRH