Ecological Marketing Practice and Issues of Agricultural Economic Sustainability: A Focus on Oil Firms’ Activities in Niger Delta

This study was carried out to examine the extent to which the ecological marketing practice of the oil firms: Shell BP, Agip Oil Company, and Elf Oil Company have improved agricultural economic wellbeing of the oil-bearing communities in Niger Delta. A descriptive survey research design was employed in this study. The population of the study was 37,965,391 drawn from Niger Delta States based on which a sample size of 400 respondents was determined using Taro Yamane’s sample size determination techniques at 0.5 percent level of significance. The purposive sampling procedure was employed to enable the researcher to select the representative sample elements of the population interest from the right respondents who have adequate knowledge of the study under investigation from the different strata that makes up the population of the study. A structured instrument for data collection containing twenty (20) item questions was used for the study. The face and content validation of the instrument was obtained through the judgment of experts. A test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and the reliability index of .83 was obtained. The data collected for the study were analyzed using the mean score test and the percentage test method to answered the research questions; while the inferential statistics of the Z-score test was used to test the null hypothesis at .05 level of significance. Results obtained revealed that “Ecological marketing practice of the oil firms does not significantly improved agricultural economic poverty, agricultural market failure, agricultural economic frustration, and agricultural land limitation in the oil-bearing communities in Niger Delta”. The implication of this finding is that the oil firms’ ecological sustainability marketing activities was considered to lack the needed proactive improvement values which, if ethical based ecological effort is not adopted to create sustainable improvement; oil firms might experience unpredicted operational interruption by the oil-bearing communities. It was therefore, recommended that oil firms should consider employing proactive ecological marketing efforts in a more ethical and responsible manner to sustain the agricultural economic wellbeing of the oil-bearing communities.

Ecocide Activities and Oil Firms’ Ecological Marketing Practice: A Focus on Agricultural-Economic Sustainability in Niger Delta

This study was carried out to examine the extent to which the ecocide activities in Niger Delta have affected the ecological marketing practices of the oil firms: Shell BP, Agip Oil Company, and Elf Oil Company in the improvement of the agricultural economic wellbeing of the oil-bearing communities in Niger Delta. A descriptive survey research design was employed in this study. The population of the study was 37,965,391 drawn from Niger Delta States based on which a sample size of 400 respondents was determined using Taro Yamane’s sample size determination techniques at 0.5 percent level of significance. The purposive sampling procedure was employed to enable the researcher to select the representative sample elements of the population interest from the right respondents who have adequate knowledge of the study under investigation from the different strata that makes up the population of the study. A structured instrument for data collection containing twenty (20) item questions was used for the study. The face and content validation of the instrument was obtained through the judgment of experts. A test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and the reliability index of .83 was obtained. The data collected for the study were analyzed using the mean score test and the percentage test method to answered the research questions; while the inferential statistics of the Z-score test was used to test the null hypothesis at .05 level of significance. Results obtained revealed that “Ecological marketing practice of the oil firms does not significantly improved agricultural economic poverty, agricultural market failure, agricultural economic frustration, and agricultural land limitation in the oil-bearing communities in Niger Delta”. The implication of this finding is that the oil firms’ ecological sustainability marketing activities was considered to lack the needed proactive improvement values which, if ethical based ecological effort is not adopted to create sustainable improvement; oil firms might experience unpredicted operational interruption by the oil-bearing communities. It was therefore, recommended that oil firms should consider employing proactive ecological marketing efforts in a more ethical and responsible manner to sustain the agricultural economic wellbeing of the oil-bearing communities.

Political Relationship Marketing: An Examination of Internal Relationship Management in Ghanaian Political Parties

In recent times political parties appear to be focusing narrowly on winning elections to the detriment of effective management of their intra-party relationships. The neglect of managing relationships is having a negative effect on parties, hence this study. The study looked at the practice of political relationship marketing in the two leading parties in Ghana, focusing on micro-interactions at the constituency level. Twenty-four party executives were drawn from eight constituencies for interview. Thematic analysis was carried out to identify relationship marketing practices in the parties. The findings demonstrate the presence of some political relationship marketing antecedents. A fully-fledged political relationship marketing practice is however absent.

The influence of multiple combinations of celebrity endorsers on consumers' intentions to purchase a sports-related product

PurposeEndorsement research has focused primarily on determining the effectiveness of single endorsers, whereas marketing practice shows that companies usually engage multiple endorsers to promote their brands and products. As academic evidence for multiple endorsers is limited and extant findings are ambiguous, the purpose of this study is to determine the influence of different multiple endorser combinations on consumers' purchase intentions for a sports-related product endorsement and to identify whether endorser-product congruence and consumers' involvement with the endorsed product moderate endorsers' influences.Design/methodology/approachTwo-hundred thirty-three useful responses were collected to an online experiment, and endorsers' direct and indirect influences on consumers' purchase intentions were analyzed in serial mediation analyses. Potential moderating effects of endorser-product congruence and consumers' involvement with the endorsed product were tested in moderated regression analyses.FindingsThe study's findings show that using multiple endorsers has an overall positive influence on consumers' purchase intentions, which is mediated by their attitudes toward the advertisements and the endorsed brand. Endorser-product congruence moderates an endorsement's effectiveness, whereas a moderating effect of consumers' product involvement was not supported.Originality/valueThis study adds to the extant body of endorsement research by confirming the overall effectiveness of using multiple endorsers to influence consumers' intentions to purchase the endorsed product. In addition, by showing that endorser-product congruence determines endorsers' effectiveness in a multiple endorser context, the study extends the current research perspective and provides practical implications for marketing professionals on how to combine multiple endorsers.

“Either We Start from Scratch, or We Close It”. The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Entrepreneurs in Transylvania, Romania

Cross-national studies emphasized that female entrepreneurs have experienced a major decrease in income, and there was a decline in market demand as well. The pandemic crisis increased the workload of women, and mainly those who raise small children did not have much choice: they had to invest time and energy in the family. The success of the strategy that could be used during this period lays on the success of balancing the family–work conflict. The following research is based on an online questionnaire that collected responses and data between 2 April and 20 May 2020. Our questions focused on the situation caused by the pandemic, so that through this online survey we aimed to determine how women entrepreneurs in Transylvania coped with the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to get information regarding the financial reserves of the firms owned by female entrepreneurs, but also regarding the human resource reserves of these firms. We also aimed at learning if the pandemic period had an impact on the promoting and marketing practice of the firms and on their sale activities as well as whether there were any changes occurred due to the pandemic.

Tell me your story: Branding destinations through residents’ (place) stories

Concerns have been raised that destination branding often overlooks the destination's internal stakeholders, and in some cases, has resulted in a brand identity that does not reflect the meanings and emotions that residents attach to places. Consequently, scholars have advocated for a more participatory approach to destination branding in which residents’ sense of place can be acknowledged, represented, and operationalized. This paper synthesizes these arguments and demonstrates that such an approach can be achieved by embracing residents’ place stories. Through storytelling, residents construe different facets of the place identity that is the foundation of destination brand identity. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role, constituents, and effects of storytelling in destination branding, particularly exploring whose stories should be told and how these stories should be conveyed. In doing so, a participatory approach to destination branding is presented that employs residents’ place stories as a genuine form of participation in the destination branding process. Lastly, an agenda for future research is proposed, and practical implications for destination marketing practice are discussed.

Tinjauan Etika Bisnis Islam terhadap Praktik Pemasaran Busana Muslim Studi pada Almeera Moslem Store Bogor

In Islamic economy, the market has important values, because it must have morality or ethics which is one of the responsibilities of every economic agents. Ethics in business must be realized personally which aims for every business person who trades to seek the maximum profit, in Islamic trade it is not just looking for a profit but looking for a blessing. This research explains how the application of Islamic business ethics in marketing Muslim clothing at Almeera Moslem Store Bogor and how the concept of Islamic marketing in Muslim business at Almeera Moslem Store Bogor. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach, which means to describe some information in the field with data collection techniques used in this study in the form of interviews, and documentation. The results of this study indicate that the application of Islamic business ethics in the marketing practice of Muslim clothing at Almeera Muslim Store Bogor has fully implemented the principles of justice, the principle of justice, the principle of free will, the principle of responsibility, and the principle of truth. In the implementation of the marketing concept at the Almeera Moslem Store Bogor in the form of product marketing, prices, and transactions, but there is one thing, namely product satisfaction which is a problem for which there is no solution. The general solution is to negotiate. Almeera Moslem Store Bogor is always friendly and courteous to consumers in service and marketing as has been implemented in Islamic law.