The Dynamics of Resistance to Brand Switching in the Smartphones Industry

The impact of identity on brand loyalty has taken precedence as an area of focus in recent marketing research. This has taken place in an era defined by technological revolution, which has created market disruptions, and there are implications for customer-brand relationships. Nonetheless, existing research has failed to acknowledge the impact of socio-psychological attributes and functional utility maximization. Knowledge that illuminates how firms can reposition themselves to sustain brand loyalty when disruptions occur in today's complex and globalized business environment is also required. This study will present an empirical investigation into the phenomenon of brand switching behavior among consumers in a specific competitive market, the smartphone industry. It explores how resistance could be built from an identity theory perspective, as emphasis has historically been placed on the functional utility of products at the expense of social meanings. This study provides consideration for market disruptions in the smartphone industry and confirms that the literature does not capture other non-utilitarian factors such as socio-psychological benefits, hence there are underlying factors that motivate consumers to continue buying brands they buy.

Managerial Perspectives on Willingness to Pay for Green Marketing

Green marketing meets the present needs of the consumer and business, while also preserving or enhancing the ability of the future generations to meet their needs. The chapter deals with customers' willingness to pay for green marketing initiatives. The chapter explores the managerial perspective using a qualitative inquiry using interpretative phenomenology approach. The customers are willing to pay for green initiatives provided 1) the green initiative does not cost a lot of inconvenience, 2) hotel has a good image, 3) customer profile environmental consciousness moderated the relationship between the customer profile and willingness to pay. Recommendations on how to implement the green strategy in hotels are discussed. The direction of future research sections important research areas in green marketing for an academic contribution.

Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) Strategies to Manage Innovation and Digital Business Model

In the digital age, consumers have changed their roles from passive receivers of marketing messages to active information suppliers about products through various digital media. The communication between consumers which occurs online is termed electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication. Electronic word of mouth communication is an integral part of e-commerce. With the exponential growth of internet users and their adoption of eWOM for product information, it has become important to study the factors responsible for the effectiveness of eWOM. This chapter investigates the traditional WOM and eWOM literature to explore its status. A summary of eWOM communication has been presented to summarize prior studies of eWOM which is aligned with basic communication processes. The research papers (literature) have been segregated into eight categories: WOM, eWOM, eWOM impact, source credibility, message characteristics, receiver characteristics, eWOM platform, and response after eWOM adoption. Finally, several strategies are discussed for theoretical and empirical exploration.

E-WOM as a New Paradigm in the Consumer Decision-Making Process

Consumer-to-consumer communications in online environments are of a vital importance to the consumer decision-making process. This process consists of five phases, each affected by eWOM communications deeply from the stimulation to the post-purchase behavior. Among all other factors having an impact on this process, the impact of eWOM has a distinguished role. As the technology grows and the consumers use internet and the reviews via internet, they become more and more attached to these reviews to make a purchase decision. In this chapter, the authors make a comprehensive explanation about the consumer decision-making process and explain the relationship of the decision-making phases with eWOM communications.

Firm's Competitive Growth in the Social Media Age

Social media has changed not only people's lives but also business's life. The internet has transformed the way companies do their business. Most companies create an entire business function commonly referred to e-business, which is the use of internet and information technology in a company's operations. Social media is not only a communication tool for entertainment. It is also an important part of marketing strategies in firm's business life. Therefore, firms can use social media as a strategic marketing tool to help firms gain a competitive advantage, so social media and social media marketing are gaining importance all over the world, especially from marketers and researchers in order to understand how social media works and to understand its techniques.

Value-Added Crowdsourcing

This chapter investigates the role of digital tools in the value co-creation process of creative contests. Based on a multidisciplinary literature and a discourse analysis of existing creative and innovation contests, the authors identify four categories of tools that affect the value co-creation process: proactive and reactive, trial-and-error, and social learning tools. A synthesizing framework presents how the integration of these tools is beneficial to the exchange of resources between the different stakeholders of creative crowdsourcing. The authors further identify practical tools (i.e., instructive and promoting, creativity supporting, collaborative, and evaluating tools), which intervene in the three phases of crowdsourcing activities (i.e., before, during, and after).

Marketing and Technologies Platforms in Smart F-Store

Social networks, originally built as channels for personal interaction, are being used in the commercial market as a support for product sales. The use of applications integrated in social networks appears as an opportunity to explore by companies. Facestore emerged in 2013 as the first e-commerce solution integrated in social networks, allowing the creation of online stores within Facebook, without the customer having to leave the social network interface. Operations like looking into the catalog, choosing the product, and paying the transaction is carried out without the customer need to open a new website. The use of Facestore offers direct and indirect benefits on the different areas of an organization. At the direct level, there are changes in processes in terms of customer service and marketing and sales. However, its use also potentiates indirect benefits in other organizational areas, such as operations, finance, administration and information technologies support, human resources, and research and development.

Investigating the Factors for Predictive Marketing Implementation in Algerian Organizations

This chapter examines and identifies the factors that influence the implementation of predictive marketing in Algeria enterprises. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 30 respondents comprised of CEOs of selected enterprises. Some analytical methods were applied to analyze the data and evaluate the point of view of the enterprises with regard to the adoption and implementation of predictive marketing techniques. The major findings of the study indicated that the adoption of predictive marketing requires the relevant tools and software to extract knowledge “data mining.” In addition, the existence of start-up (for analytics) and the level of development of e-commerce and digital marketing in Algeria will undoubtedly encourage the use of these techniques. This chapter also provides some suggestions for further research.

Digital Marketing and Service Industry

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the impact of the implementation of digital sales channels on improving the bank's business performance (i.e., improving the market position of the bank). The authors look at different types of sales channels and their contribution to increasing the number of clients in the bank, and in particular, they focus on the advantages of the Viber Platform in reaching more clients. A survey on digitalization of the banking sector was conducted, that is, on the integration of digital communications and sales channels, that bringins with it new elements and possibilities for expanding the portfolio of bank services, and thus new opportunities for increasing profits. Based on the results of the survey, it was concluded that banks use digital communications to improve and make more effective and effictient communication with clients, while trying to bring them closer to the offer. With this approach, banks will achieve greater satisfaction and consequently a greater loyalty of their clients.