A Strategic Analysis of the Competing Factors in the Global Wine Trade and the Development of a Model to Facilitate Foreign Country Entry Mode

This chapter investigates the crucial components that facilitate export competitiveness in the global wine industry. These components can be described as “determining factors” considered central in the wine trade as they facilitate growth and sustainability of the wine industry on the global level. The chapter analyzes published literature, applies desk and field research, and proposes a framework that includes a sample SWOT analysis as well as a model to determine potential competitive elements based on LONG PESTLE analysis, a sample competitive grid, and an industry analysis inventory. The chapter contributes to the body of knowledge of strategic management, strategic marketing, globalization of the wine business, wine trade growth strategy, and international business. The results will benefit all stakeholders in the global wine market and especially companies directly involved in the wine trade.

Electronic Word-of-Mouth

This chapter examines the effects of word-of-mouth motivations and culture on electronic word-of-mouth behavior. This chapter also focuses on the effects of cultural values on electronic word-of-mouth behavior. Within the context of the study, online forums in which consumers write comments have been used. The data was obtained from an electronic survey provided to 561 consumers. The reliability of scales has been tested via the Cronbach's Alfa Method and the validity of scales has been tested by Factor Analysis. After determining the reliability and validity of the scales, research hypotheses were tested by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Multiple Regression Analysis. The findings show that motivation and culture have positive effects on electronic word-of-mouth behavior. This chapter also attempts to explain the effects of cultural values on electronic word-of-mouth behavior, and it is found that while uncertainty avodiance and masculinity have positive effects, individualism and power distance have negative effects on electronic word-of-mouth behavior.

Understanding Culture, Motivation, and Ethnic Consumer Behavior

Understanding ethnic consumer behaviors through a case study of good practice and their innovative marketing strategies to ethnic consumers is important. Surprisingly, little has been done to discuss which practices and strategies may work best when marketing to ethnic consumers. This chapter presents a case study of the Immigration Museum (Melbourne, Australia) and how the organization uses strategies to promote their products and programs to ethnic consumers. The case study and in-depth interviews are the methods used. In this chapter, the authors argue that a combination of Alferder's and Schwartz's theoretical frameworks help museum marketers understand behaviors of ethnic groups, thereby using appropriate marketing strategies in encouraging their consumption. This chapter extends current marketing literature on consumers' motivation, drive, and needs, and non-profit marketing, and validates selected motivational theories. It also provides practical implications for marketers of non-profit organizations.

Enhancing the Supply Chain in Organisations

Reverse Logistics (RL) is an innovation able to bring about immense benefits for organisations in a wide range of industries through enhancing the performance of supply chain procedures. Yet, evidence demonstrates that RL has remained unexploited mainly due to the lack of knowledge about its benefits, enablers, and major aspects of its adoption and implementation. In this context, promoting the adoption and diffusion of RL into the supply chain of organisations has been recommended frequently. This chapter provides a response to such need by (1) explaining the phenomenon and dispelling the confusions surrounding the RL concept, (2) clarifying the major drivers and barriers of RL and highlighting the role it can play in enhancing the performance of conventional supply chains; in addition, (3) the chapter intends to demystify the major aspects associated with implementing RL in organisations. The chapter also aims at familiarising potential readers with the major references available in the field.

Creating Global Competitiveness through Culture and Religion

The Halal food industry is of fundamental significance to Muslims around the world as it assures safety and security in their dietary requirements and consumption, which must be Syariah compliant. In Muslim countries especially, the Halal industry is a vital contributor to societal development and national economic growth. Additionally, over the last decade marketers around the globe, too, have been strategically promoting and strengthening the Halal food industry by targeting primarily critical geographic clusters with large Muslim populations. Although the production, certification, and global coordination effort appears to be made largely by Malaysian and Indonesian authorities, the industry is still very fragmented, and scholars attempting to obtain reliable and valid data face serious challenges. Nevertheless, data gathered from non-academic sources indicate that the global Halal market (food and non-food) is estimated to be in excess of US $2.3 trillion, and the volume of the global Halal food sector alone is reaching US $700 billion annually. The portion of the non-food sector is estimated to be even greater, with chemical, healthcare, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries to name just a few. Furthermore, the Syariah compliant services, which include finance and banking, logistic, warehousing, and distribution, are rapidly gaining acceptance in the global Halal market. The Halal industry within the global context is an under researched field of study in scientific literature, in business, and in social science. This chapter investigates the strategies used by marketers to globalize the Halal food industry with the aim to gain and sustain international competitive advantage.

Transcultural Understanding in Business Communication

Communication in the global business environment is inevitably culture-bound. While the importance of transcultural understanding looms large, the gaps between cultures remain wide. This motivates us to refine our perspectives on communication in the multicultural business environment. Based on experiential discussions, this chapter presents some cohesive points on transcultural communication between the Western and the Eastern cultures, which is presupposed by the cultural contrasts between America and Korea. The chapter can serve as a practically meaningful guideline for business communication between cultures.

The Foundation of Cultural Intelligence

Globalization has expanded the domain of human capital requirements. Besides the traditional human capital requirements of technical knowledge and skills, the experience and skills associated with working in culturally diverse settings are becoming increasingly important (Tran, 2008). This additional human capital dimension—cosmopolitan human capital—is the focus of this chapter and the reason to study cultural intelligence, because they are so inextricably interlinked. Cosmopolitan human capital as a conceptualization has been expanded to include cosmopolitan human capital so as to include international experiences and cultural intelligence capabilities. Tomasello (2001) has argued that culture is what, in large part, separates human from animal intelligence. Tomasello (2001) states that humans have evolved as they have in part because of their cultural adaptions, which in turn develop from their ability even in infancy from about nine months onward to understand others as intentional agents. As such, the purpose of the chapter includes the foundation of cultural intelligence as it relates to human capital, and it concludes with recommendations on how to assess and evaluate whether an organization possesses human capital. The chapter will also assist organizations with evaluating whether they are equipped with developing human capital for competitive advantages based on 11 different types of intelligence.

Advancing Theory in Export Performance as a Strategy to Boost Export Growth in Africa

This chapter presents literature on export performance in international business and discusses how exporting firms, especially in Africa, can improve their competitiveness in international markets. The chapter further outlines the dimensions and determinants of export performance as highlighted in the extant literature and the importance of diversification of raw material commodity exports to value added exports in Africa.

Social Media and its Effect on Consumer Loyalty

Due to the increasing number of users and powerful Web-based tools available today on social networks such as Facebook, enterprises are strategically focusing on the marketing opportunities provided by social media. In fact, presence on a social network such as Facebook can provide the firm with a mechanism for gathering consumer information quickly on a wider segment of the population. This chapter investigates the effectiveness of the firm's presence on social networks and their effect on the firm and the consumer. It attempts to identify a possible linkage between a firm's presence on a social network and consumer loyalty by addressing critical elements useful for developing new and efficient strategies based on online channels. The data collected from 1,520 surveying Facebook users was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The results suggest there is a strong relationship between the firm's presence on the social network and consumer loyalty, thus contributing to the sustained marketing strategies of “social commerce.” Hence, a page rich in content has a positive influence on consumer judgement and loyalty toward the firm with benefits for consumer-centric-oriented strategies.

The Effect of Incidental Advertising Exposure on Online Impulse Buying

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the influence of the incidental exposition located in the peripheral zone of vision and perceived “without consciousness” in online impulse buying. The authors demonstrate that the advertised brands appearing in the peripheral zone of vision are perceived “without consciousness,” and the participant does not remember being exposed to this ad recently. They test if this exposure has an effect on the purchase of the advertised brand. This chapter also studies the effect of individual self-control on impulse buying and explores the post-purchase reaction to its occurrence. An incidental exposition of a brand was adopted amongst 247 participants. The results show the incidental exposition to a brand facilitates the impulse buying of this brand.