Better than sex: further development and validation of the consumption gender scale

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-340
Author(s):  
Attila Pohlmann ◽  
Qimei Chen

Purpose Biological sex is an important segmenting variable in marketing. Yet its ability to meaningfully distinguish beyond the female/male dichotomy is limited. With traditional gender roles continuously shifting and contemporary fluid conceptualizations of gender altering the consumption mainstream, the diverse and multi-faceted behaviours related to gender elude market segment distinctions that are based on biological sex alone. Thus far, researchers have had only limited success applying the concept of gender identity and gender schema theory to inform marketing research and management. The purpose of this study is to further develop a consumer decision-oriented scale that addresses this gap by providing a more sensitive method of segmentation. Design/methodology/approach The scale was validated according to common psychological scale development techniques. Findings Not only does the Consumption Gender Scale predict the behaviours and media preferences of traditional, gender-schematic male and female consumer segments, but it also accounts for the variance in the behaviours of gender-aschematic non-traditional men and women. We demonstrate the scale’s predictive power in two experimental studies and discuss its potential to serve as an intermediary variable that can predict product attitudes and purchase intentions on social media. Research limitations/implications The Consumption Gender Scale was based on surveys and experiments conducted in the USA. Future research could examine the suitability of the scale in other cultural contexts. Practical implications The Consumption Gender Scale provides a finer taxonomy for organizations to use in segmenting their target market on the basis of consumption-relevant gender rather than biological sex. Consequently, it also provides opportunities for managers to fine-tune their media-planning efforts. Originality/value Biological sex as the main segmenting variable has become inadequate because of ongoing shifts in gender roles and changes in associated consumption behaviours. To address the shortcomings of traditional methods, we advocate for and validate a continuous measurement scale.

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1556-1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Yu Leung ◽  
Lan Xue ◽  
Billy Bai

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide a progress review of published Internet marketing research within the top eight hospitality and tourism journals and to provide suggestions on future research directions. Design/methodology/approach – The study collected 331 Internet marketing-related articles published in the top eight hospitality and tourism journals during the period of 1996-2013. Using content analysis, the study analyzed and discussed research topics, research methods and industry sectors of selected articles. The study period was broken into three sub-periods and used correspondence analysis (CA) to examine the significant changes of topical areas over time. A follow-up CA was conducted to compare the topical and methodological preferences of the selected eight journals. Findings – In all, 5-category and 27-subcategory classifications of research topics were identified in the study. The two-dimensional perceptual map indicates that Internet marketing research in the hospitality and tourism fields experienced introduction, growth and maturity stages. The research focus changed from business perspective to customer perspective and then to both business and customer perspectives. The eight top hospitality and tourism journals were grouped into four journal sets that share similar article characteristics and preferences. Research limitations/implications – Due to the sample size, the classifications and trends generated in this study may not be generalized to all Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism disciplines. The process of identifying topic and method categories might be biased, especially in identifying new topics. Future research may apply CA method in literature review studies on other research topics. Practical implications – The study analyzed published research in Internet marketing in the hospitality and tourism fields and provided topical and methodological recommendations to academia for future research. This study may also give hospitality managers new insights into Internet marketing applications in the industry. Originality/value – This study is one of the few attempts to provide a comprehensive review of Internet marketing research in the hospitality and tourism fields. This study uses CA in literature review study, opening up a new way to easily analyze and visually display the literature trends. This study also creatively compared the publication preferences among eight top-tier hospitality and tourism journals using correspondence analysis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Djavlonbek Kadirov

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to propose and develop a distinct perspective in Islamic marketing research through fusing the Islamic paradigm and the macromarketing theory. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual article that is based on intellectualising and reflecting on differences in understanding what marketing is and what role it plays in society. Findings – The article reveals some commonality of purpose between the macromarketing discipline and Islamic macromarketing, while the latter field of inquiry offers a unique outlook to a number of domain-specific issues. Research limitations/implications – The characterisation of Islamic macromarketing will open new avenues for future research and will make researchers more theoretically sensitive to ontological and epistemological assumptions that underlie marketing investigations. The limitation of the present discussion is that Islamic macromarketing may not have yet emerged as a separate discipline. Additionally, research on genuinely macromarketing issues in Islamic contexts is very sparse. Practical implications – Muslim practitioners and managers are to realise that the means and ends of marketing are better understood if viewed from a broader perspective of marketing's impact and consequences on society. By adopting the Islamic macromarketing perspective, public, societal institutions, business stakeholders, and managers will find a better platform to cooperate on maximising the realisation of hasanah (excellence) for all. Originality/value – This article contributes to the discipline by introducing and characterising a potentially new field of marketing inquiry.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 902-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald L. Hess Jr ◽  
Lawrence Ring

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better understand the unique competitive positioning characteristics of off-price retailers and how they compare to other types of retailers. The authors compare off-price and upscale off-price retailers with four major formats of retailers: first, discount department store/warehouse club retailers; second, moderate department store retailers; third, department store retailers; and finally, specialty department store retailers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a representative sample that was randomly drawn from four primary metropolitan cities in the USA. The data were collected using telephone interviews by a prominent, marketing research firm. A series of discriminant analyses were conducted to examine the data. Findings – The findings of the paper indicate that the off-price formats were consistently positioned at extreme points along the price/value continuum, signifying the strongest value-orientation among the other retail formats. The authors also found that while the upscale off-price format followed the specialty department stores in terms of fashion. The results point to an important disadvantage of the off-price format – although strong on price/value, they often fall short on fashion and many other store attributes that may be important to luxury-oriented customers. Research limitations/implications – The paper employed a sample from several cities collected using a telephone interview methodology within the US. Due to these limitations, the findings of this paper may be hampered by this methodology and not generalize to regions outside of the US. Future research should examine how the demise of most of the upscale off-price retailers and growth of flash web sites have changed the competitive structure of retailing. Practical implications – The results demonstrate that the positioning of the off-price retail format is unique from other formats. The retail formats occupy distinct positions. The off-price retail format is strongly associated with the price/value position but only moderately fashionable to customers, especially when compared with the department and specialty department store formats. In contrast, the upscale off-price format, while also strongly positioned along the price/value continuum, is considered much more fashionable than the off-price retail format. In fact, the upscale off-price retail format only trails the specialty department store format in terms of fashion. Originality/value – The unique characteristics of the off-price retail format and growing interest from upscale department stores underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of the motives of the off-price shopper. This paper provides retailers with a more complete understanding of the store attributes that differentiate the off-price retail format from other major retail store formats. The overall objective of this study is to offer a comprehensive view of the positioning of off-price retailers compared with many alternative retail formats.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Stauss

Purpose The article “Culture shocks” in inter-cultural service encounters was published in 1999. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the scientific discussion about this issue has developed and which open research questions are still awaiting solutions. Design/methodology/approach The main contributions of the original article are evaluated in the light of the current state of research. Simultaneously, the scientific development is commented on the basis of the original theoretical and empirical insights. Findings The original article belongs to those that initiated an extraordinary development of the research field. Aspects of inter-cultural encounters have found increasing attention in service marketing research. However, some fundamental problems of inter-cultural studies are still unresolved, and some of the theoretical and management oriented stimuli of the 1999 paper still seem worthy of consideration. Originality/value The retrospective analysis gives insight into the scientific development of the research on inter-cultural service encounters. It identifies relevant development lines, new perspectives and open questions for future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunju Shin ◽  
Alexander E. Ellinger ◽  
David L. Mothersbaugh ◽  
Kristy E. Reynolds

Purpose Services marketing research continues to be largely focused on firms’ reactive interactions for recovering from service failure rather than on proactive customer interactions that may prevent service failure from occurring in the first place. Building on previous studies that assess the efficacy of implementing proactive interaction in service provision contexts, the purpose of this paper is to compare the influences of proactive interaction to prevent service failure and reactive interaction to correct service failure on customer emotion and patronage behavior. Since proactive interaction for service failure prevention is a relatively underexplored and resource-intensive approach, the authors also assess the moderating influences of customer and firm-related characteristics. Design/methodology/approach The study hypotheses are tested with survey data from two scenario-based experiments conducted in a retail setting. Findings The findings reveal that customers prefer service providers that take the initiative to get to them before they have to initiate contact for themselves. The findings also identify the moderating influences of relationship quality, situational involvement, and contact person status and motive. Originality/value The research contributes to the development of service provision theory and practice by expanding on previous studies which report that proactive efforts to prepare customers for the adverse effects of service failure are favorably received. The results also shed light on moderating factors that may further inform the exploitation of resource-intensive proactive interaction for service failure prevention. An agenda is proposed to stimulate future research on proactive customer interaction to prevent service failure in service provision contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uday Salunkhe ◽  
Bharath Rajan ◽  
V. Kumar

PurposeGlobal crises create an environment that is characterized by a fight for survival by countries, companies and citizens. While firms have adopted business initiatives to ensure survival in a global crisis, many measures are geared toward preventing customer churn, declining revenues and eroding market share. Such short-term focus raises an important question regarding long-term survival – how can firms survive a global crisis? The purpose of this study is to investigate how firms can survive a global crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study considers pandemics as the study context and uses a triangulation methodology (past research, managerial insights and popular press articles) to advance the organizing framework. Using the process study approach, the proposed framework recognizes the onset characteristics of a global crisis with a focus on pandemics and the government actions that reflect the pandemic onset. The framework also identifies a logical order of three marketplace reactions to the pandemic – management response, consumer response and critical business transformations that ultimately lead to firm survival – and advances related research propositions of such reactions.FindingsBy deploying critical business transformations, firms can ensure firm survival in a pandemic by fostering engagement with customers, employees and resources. Additionally, the moderators that influence the relationships between (1) management response and critical business transformations, (2) consumer response and critical business transformations, and (3) critical business transformations and firm survival are identified. Finally, this study presents an agenda for future research.Research limitations/implicationsTo the authors' best knowledge, this is the first study to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to study firm survival in a global crisis such as a pandemic. This study answers the call for more research to the growing field of pandemic research in the areas of marketing research and marketing strategy.Practical implicationsThe learnings from this study can help firms on what to anticipate and how to respond in a crisis such as a pandemic.Social implicationsSocietal welfare is accounted for as firms plan to deal with a crisis.Originality/valueThis is the first study to propose a strategic framework to deal with a crisis that is largely unanticipated where the duration and the impact is not predictable.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Keithline Byrne ◽  
Tojo Thatchenkery

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how mindfulness training impacts creativity with individuals in a workgroup and propose a methodology for future research. Design/methodology/approach The methodology developed drew on existing laboratory-based research and applied those designs in a real-world application. The sample participants were from a mid-sized real estate firm that included ten realtors and support staff, six in the treatment group and four in the comparison group. The study took place over 16 weeks where pre-test and post-test mindfulness and creativity assessments were administered. A five-week mindfulness training was conducted with the treatment group and following the post-tests with the comparison group. Findings Results indicated that the mindfulness training positively impacted creativity in the moment and over time. There was evidence that the mindfulness training positively impacted an individual’s level of attention and awareness in daily activities which is likely to influence creative outcomes in organizational settings. Research limitations/implications This study shows that it is possible to design experimental studies in work settings and contribute to the empirical research about mindfulness despite the widely held perception about scarcity of time and lack of access to do such research. The findings also build on existing literature and address some of the gaps in current research. The most notable limitation relates to the small sample size. Practical implications The finding affirms that even a short but consistent practice of mindfulness in organizations can lead to a measurable increase in creativity. Originality/value This empirical study adds value to existing literature by expanding laboratory-based methodology to a practical application. One of the unique aspects of this research relates to the sample population. This research was conducted with an intact workgroup and translates the insights gained from laboratory research to a potential benefit for an organization by applying a version of this methodology to enhance its workgroup creativity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-125
Author(s):  
Linden Dalecki

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide a general review of the existing academic and practitioner literatures, pertaining to entrepreneurial selling with a view to articulate major entrepreneurial selling practices, patterns and principles that lead to entrepreneurial success and to propose two four-quadrant matrices. Design/methodology/approach The paper explores commonalities and distinctions in the entrepreneurial selling concepts articulated by Deutsch and Wortmann and Onyemah and Rivera-Pesquera – and relevant writings by Blank as well as Sarasvathy – are explored and analyzed. Findings It was found that the early stage entrepreneurial selling activities of founders – as a means of gleaning prospective customer feedback for product prototyping – form the core of contemporary entrepreneurial selling conceptualizations. Two provisional four-quadrant entrepreneurial selling matrices are proposed corresponding to the literature reviewed. Research limitations/implications It is hoped that the two four-quadrant matrices might serve as a springboard for future researchers interested in exploring entrepreneurial selling. The notion of preliminary selling as a valuable form of marketing research is also worthy of future research. Practical implications Given the extent to which the perspectives of entrepreneurship practitioners, clinical professors and consultants are cited and explored, manifold aspects of entrepreneurial selling are put forth. The various approaches to preliminary selling that are explored are of especially high value to practitioners. Originality/value This is the first paper to fully explore the commonalities and distinctions across the entrepreneurial selling conceptualizations developed by Deutsch and Wortmann, as well as by Onyemah and Rivera-Pesquera, and the first to propose a conceptual framework focused specifically on entrepreneurial selling.


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 971-989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Grieco ◽  
Gennaro Iasevoli

Purpose Co-marketing strategies play an important role in enabling firms to improve their competitive position. However, despite its increasing implementation, it remains a topic that is largely not researched. The purpose of this paper is to analyze existing contributions to the field of co-marketing research and the different perspectives scholars have adopted in analyzing the topic. Design/methodology/approach A literature review has been developed, as its lack seems to be a major hindrance to the development of related studies. A specific focus has been made on the adopted approaches. Five approaches have been identified, and multidimensional scaling (MDS) has been used to analyze the differences among them. Findings First, the analysis of the typologies of studies on co-marketing alliances is made. Also, the identified approaches are strategic-based, consumer-based, relational-based, specificity-based and evaluation-based. What emerges from the MDS is that there are two perspectives of analysis of the alliance that characterize them: the inside–outside and the wide–narrow points of view. Research limitations/implications Limitations are mostly referred to the methodologies and the level of subjectivity they imply. For example, they are not only the choices made concerning keywords to be used and, consequently, the articles included in the analysis, but also the MDS that offers broad autonomy to the researchers in interpreting the data. Originality/value The originality of this research is that it fills an emerged gap concerning a literature review on co-marketing alliances, supporting future research in this field of study. The identification of the approaches underlines what may be lacking, providing interesting insights on possible avenues for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 730-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaowu Xie ◽  
Jiangchi Zhang ◽  
Yanying Chen ◽  
Alastair M. Morrison ◽  
Zhibin Lin

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of hotel employees’ job risk perceptions and develop a measurement scale for this construct. Design/methodology/approach Four studies using a mixed-method design were conducted to develop and validate the scale of hotel employees’ perceived job risk (HEPJR). Study 1 identified the dimensions and initial items of HEPJR through a literature review and in-depth interviews. In Study 2, an explanatory factor analysis was perform to refine the preliminary items. Study 3 further refined the HEPJR scale through a confirmatory factor analysis. Study 4 confirmed that HEPJR is a 19-item scale through a cross-validation analysis. Findings A reliable and valid scale was developed to measure the following five dimensions of HEPJR: perceived human, equipment, internal environment, external environment and management risks. HEPJR and its dimensions significantly predict negative safety consequences and negative job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications Employees in medium- and high-star-rated hotels in China were surveyed. Future research should test the HEPJR scale in other types of lodging formats (e.g. budget hotels, homestays and cruise ships) and different countries or regions. Practical implications Given the increasingly serious job risks faced by hotel employees, the HEPJR scale can become a benchmark for job risk identification, accident prevention and safety management. Originality/value This scale provides a clear conceptualization and an appropriate measurement tool of HEPJR from a risk-source perspective.


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