Preliminary Evidence Regarding Marketing’s Role in Environmental Management Theory

Prior research specific to government public policy topics finds that firms manage threatening public policy either by competing in new ways to offset (potential) policy limitations or managing the public policy so as to prevent it from limiting business. And while managing policy to prevent business limitations often involves political strategies, such as lobbying or investing in PACs, prior marketing research suggests most management of threats occurring in a firm’s external business environment are likely to revolve around marketing, instead of political, strategies. So as to better understand marketing’s role in environmental management, survey responses of executive level-respondents were matched to marketplace evidence of political versus marketing strategies, i.e. Consumer Reports. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized so that a series of firm strategic responses to policy threats were clustered within respondents to represent a strategic tendency across policies and over time. And respondents were clustered within firms so as to avoid relying on individual reports of firm behavior (n = 48 firms). Known as environmental management theory, firms are understood to take formal strategic stances in managing forces of the external business environment, which includes government public policy pressures of the socio-political force. The product-focused, i.e. focusing on the potential marketplace outcome of a policy pressure, strategic response to environmental pressures exemplified by improving product quality so as to find new ways to compete in a marketplace altered by the policy pressure represents an attempt to merely adapt to the environment, also known as deterministically oriented. Yet, the process-focused, i.e. focusing on the political process underlying the policy pressure(s), strategic response to environmental pressures exemplified by decreasing product price so as to focus remaining strategic resources and energy on political strategies represents an attempt to control, change, or influence the environment, also known as oriented with strategic choice. Thus, firms oriented towards changing the environmental pressure default to the relatively less (resource) intense marketing tool of pricing strategies so more focus can be directed towards the necessary political tools in managing threatening government public policy. Yet, firms oriented towards adapting to the pressure rely relatively more on marketing tools (i.e. product quality improvements, product R&D investments). Consumer Reports data confirm these findings, i.e. marketplace evidence. As such, this research does not find marketing to play a large role in firms’ proactive (i.e. strategic choice orientation) management strategies of the socio-political force. Instead, this preliminary evidence indicates that managing the socio-political force is distinct from managing the other four forces (i.e., consumer demand, supplier power, market domain competition), in that such attempts require such fundamentally different skills and resources. This is important because prior research finds that when firms focus on the outcome of a threatening public policy and work to adapt to that marketplace outcome, such adaptation is likely to result in consumer benefits, such as R&D, quality products, or socially innovative products. Confirmation of such ensuing consumer benefits are evidenced in this research in that this study finds that firms which do NOT proactively (i.e., deterministic orientation designated as adaptation) manage threatening public policy are relatively more likely to be rated by Consumer Reports in a way that indicates product development and improvement in response to the policy threat

The Firm-Perceived Contingencies to Political Strategy

Because assumptions that firm decisions to manage external politics revolve around traditional resources and capabilities (e.g., capital, technology) impede environmental management theories, this research explores additional antecedents, i.e., perceived uncertainty, firm political infrastructure. Study One qualitative data support ideas related to management as a matter of a firm’s perceptually constructed environment among deterministic firms. Study Two quantitative data find a strategic choice firm orientation is developed through management structures (e.g., specialized staff, routines), despite post-hoc analyses confirming both firm types operate in similar environments. Combined, these studies disconfirm traditional resources as a driver of firm political activity. Moreover, Study Two confirms a sequence so that firm political action is driven (hindered) by infrastructure (uncertainty), not vice versa. These results also imply that public policy drafters can segment the market by firm political infrastructure to efficiently account for various levels of firm political response to such policy

When and how frontline service employee authenticity influences purchase intentions

In this manuscript, we investigate the central role of perceived frontline service employee (FSE) authenticity and the process by which it impacts purchase intentions, taking into account the represented brand\u27s authenticity. While brand authenticity has previously been shown to enhance consumer outcomes, we find that FSE authenticity is a separate significant predictor of purchase intentions. Further, we find that FSE authenticity enhances purchase intentions by increasing perceived trust and perceived quality. However, this finding only holds for brands that do not emphasize their authenticity, indicating that brand managers should differentially emphasize FSE authenticity based on their brand\u27s positioning. Furthermore, we investigate the robustness of these effects across both experience and credence services, and find that FSE authenticity is especially important in credence service contexts

Farm to Rural Grocery to Wholesale: Backhauling through Existing Infrastructure to Create Local Food Access

The University of Minnesota Extension’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) is leading an integrated research and extension project that involves stakeholders from across the food supply chain, including producers, rural grocers, wholesalers, regulators, and University of Minnesota research and Extension. The presentation panel provides background on our progress of piloting and developing the feasibility of a new model, Farm to Rural Grocery to Wholesale (F2G2W). This model leverages the existing network of rural grocery stores and their wholesale suppliers to “backhaul” locally grown produce on emptied wholesale trucks for redistribution through wholesale markets. Backhaul, in this context, is the practice of using the return trip of a delivery truck to carry goods back to the wholesale distribution center. The F2G2W model would provide small and medium-sized farms new access to wholesale markets, rural grocery stores an advantage to be a key player in healthy food access (with potential financial incentive as well). Once tested, it has the potential for replication in rural areas throughout the country. This presentation connects directly with the conference theme of “strengthening communities and health” through the use of rural grocery stores in backhauling local, healthy foods -- primarily produce. Furthermore, this presentation meets the key topic areas of food deserts (the project pilot is occurring in a food desert in MN), food access, food distribution systems, grocery stores as civic and cultural spaces, and food hubs

Investigating the Portrayal and Influence of Sustainability Claims in an Environmental Advertising Context

The ability of consumer judges to identify sustainable messages in environmental advertising and the effect of these messages is explored. A content analysis provides insight into these judges’ perceptions of the depth of environmental advertising messages. An experiment investigates the influence of sustainable messages and includes collection of cognitive response data to evaluate the cognitive dimension of sustainability messages. Content analysis results suggest that sustainability messages may influence how environmental advertisements are perceived. These findings are supported by the cognitive response data, which shows cognitive differences across advertisements, and the experimental manipulation that suggests sustainable ads may be more involving to consumers

The Association of Exposure to Point-of-Sale Tobacco Marketing with Quit Attempt and Quit Success: Results from a Prospective Study of Smokers in the United States

The aim was to assess the association of exposure to point-of-sale (POS) tobacco marketing with quit attempt and quit success in a prospective study of smokers in the United States. Data were collected via telephone-interview on exposure to POS tobacco marketing, sociodemographic and smoking-related variables from 999 smokers in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. Exposure to POS tobacco marketing was measured by asking respondents three questions about noticing pack displays, advertisements, and promotions in their respective neighborhoods stores. These three variables were combined into a scale of exposure to POS tobacco marketing. About 68% of the respondents participated in a six-month follow-up phone interview and provided data on quit attempts and smoking cessation. At the six-month follow-up, 39.9% of respondents reported to have made a quit attempt, and 21.8% of those who made a quit attempt succeeded in quitting. Exposure to POS marketing at baseline was not associated with the probability of having made a quit attempt as reported at the six-month follow-up (p = 0.129). However, higher exposure to POS marketing was associated with a lower probability of quit success among smokers who reported to have attempted to quit smoking at six-month follow-up (p = 0.006). Exposure to POS tobacco marketing is associated with lower chances of successfully quitting smoking. Policies that reduce the amount of exposure to POS marketing might result in higher smoking cessation rates

The Prevalence and Influence of the Combination of Humor and Violence in Super Bowl Commercials

The growing concern over violence in the media has led to vast amounts of research examining the effects of violent media on viewers. An important subset of this research looks at how humor affects this relationship. While research has considered this subset in television programming, almost no research has explored this in the context of advertising. This paper builds on the little research that exists by examining the effects of combining humor and violence, as well as the theoretical approaches that underlie these effects. A content analysis is conducted to identify the prevalence of violence, humor, and the combination of these elements in a longitudinal sample of Super Bowl commercials (2005, 2007, and 2009). Further, we investigate the relationship between the joint occurrence of humor and violence in ads and ad popularity. We conclude that violent acts are rampant in these commercials and that many acts are camouflaged by the simultaneous presence of humor, especially in the most popular ads

The association of point-of-sale cigarette marketing with cravings to smoke: results from a cross-sectional population-based study

Objective—To examine the association between recalled exposure to point-of-sale (POS) cigarette marketing (ie, pack displays, advertisements and promotions such as discounts) and reported cravings to smoke while visiting a store. Methods—Data were collected using a telephone survey of a cross-sectional sample of 999 adult smokers in Omaha, Nebraska. Recalled exposure to POS cigarette marketing was measured by asking respondents about noticing (a) pack displays, (b) advertisements and (c) promotions in store in their neighbourhood. A 3-item scale indicating the frequency of experiencing cravings to smoke in locations where cigarettes are sold was created by asking respondents: (1) “feel a craving for a cigarette?” (2) “feel like nothing would be better than smoking a cigarette?” and (3) “feel like all you want is a cigarette?” The association between recalled exposure to POS cigarette marketing and cravings was estimated using ordinary least squares linear regression models, controlling for nicotine dependence, gender, age, race/ethnicity, income, education, frequency of visiting stores in one’s neighbourhood and method of recruitment into the study. Results—Recalled exposure to POS cigarette displays (pConclusions—Recalled exposure to POS cigarette marketing is associated with cravings to smoke as predicted by laboratory studies on the effects of smoking cues on cigarette craving. Policies that reduce or eliminate POS cigarette marketing could reduce cigarette cravings and might attenuate impulse buying of cigarettes

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente