Rise of Experiential Marketing in Emerging Markets

This chapter aims to contribute towards the improvement of using Experiential Marketing as a business model in Emerging Markets. This chapter also clarifies how experiential marketing fits within the Emerging marketing climate, and how to go about planning and evaluating it for best results. It provides examples focused on Emerging Markets ethics, market mix strategies, customer brand consumption experience and consumer word of mouth. The finding suggests how Experiential Marketing strategies can best utilize marketing communication channels to achieve Emerging Markets objectives. This chapter will encourage companies and brands in Emerging Markets to look into using experiential advertising in their marketing strategies. The chapter will focus on highlighting the connection between Emerging Markets and Experiential Marketing in different aspects, which then will be analyzed in order to determine how functional and successful Experiential Marketing can be. It concludes with analysis of demonstrating views from the public and experiential specialists.

An Integrated Model of Perceived Risk and Risk-Reducing Strategies in the Tunisian Stock Market

This chapter examines the antecedents and consequences of the perceived risk of investors towards the Tunisian stock market. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 411 individual investors chosen by 24 brokerage firms. Using the structural equation model, we operationalize the risk following the psychometric paradigm according to subjective variables (i.e. familiarity and controllability). Results prove that controllability is a significant factor in the formation of perceived risk. We also show that several factors related to the investor, the listed companies and to the stock market can influence the perceived risk by the investor towards the Tunisian stock market. Similarly, we find that perceived risk leads to intensive information search, good performance and a strong reinvestment intention. These results attest the importance of the risk perception in the decision-making process.

The Normative Grounding of Social Responsibility in African Emerging Markets

In African emerging markets (AEMs), the prevailing notions of social responsibility (SR) are based chiefly on Western ethics. Even discussions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have, more often than not, been couched in the similar manner. Consequently, the field of CSR in AEMs is largely unaware of Setho ethics that for it are germane as a basis for thinking and talking about SR. In this chapter, the author proposes Setho ethics rooted in Botho, which sees the communal, interdependence and interrelatedness of beings, as an alternative vision of CSR in AEMs. In fact, people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) see themselves in a symbiotic relationship with society, a point well-articulated by Mbiti (1969, p. 24) thus, “I am because you are, and since we are, therefore I am”. This African view through the Setho ethics lenses generates a different notion of an ideal SR of business to society worth illuminating in the CSR discourse today.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Bahraini Construction Companies

The purpose of this study is to give a description of ethical business cultures in Bahraini construction companies. Construction companies in the Middle East are facing charges in terms of exploitation of workers and poor working conditions. The construction sector is one of the most dynamic in Bahrain, and its participation in national GDP is increasing. It is also the most important sector in the creation of jobs. Bahrain, as in the Gulf countries, employs a workforce from India and Asia, one of the lowest in the international labor market. This study analyzes the reality of the CSR in the construction sector and proposes some guidelines for the role of Bahraini stakeholders in the implementation of the social responsibility.

Does Trust Matter for Foreign Direct Investment Decisions?

Factors affecting the investment decisions of multinational companies are heavily researched in the literature. However, the number of studies dealing with the socio-cultural characteristics of host countries among these factors is quite limited. Among the cultural characteristics affecting location decisions, one of the primary cultural characteristics is the general level of trust between individuals. In this scope, this chapter intends to research whether the general level of trust in a society has an effect on the location decisions of foreign investors. In line with this objective, an analysis will be conducted by employing the panel data method for 39 emerging market countries for the period between 1998 and 2011. According to the results of the study, a low general level of trust in the host country represents a significant disadvantage for the attraction of foreign direct investments.

Impact of Islamic and Conventional Corporate Governance Mechanisms on Financial Performance of Islamic Banks

This study aims to analyze the effects of Islamic and conventional corporate governance mechanisms on financial performance. Six hypotheses have been developed and tested on 17 Malaysian Islamic banks observed over 7 years from 2005 to 2011. The measures used for financial performance were ROA; ROE and Operating Ratio (COSR). Using an econometric panel data, the results show that two among three conventional corporate governance mechanisms have significant effects on financial performance: the size of the board of director (SBD) and the degree of independence of the Board (INDEP); Whereas concerning the impact of the three other Islamic corporate governance mechanisms; our results show that only the visibility of supervisors is negatively as well as significantly related to financial performance. Regarding the relevance of control variables, two among three are relevant and positively related to financial performance (the age and the debt of the bank ratio.

Do Board Educational Background, Occupational Background and Ownership Structure Matter for Directors' Remuneration Disclosure?

Following the Asian economic tumult 1997, most of the researchers in Malaysian have been focusing on the issues of disclosure, transparency and boardroom failures. The crisis had led to statements about corporate governance in times of financial crisis and the lessons that can be learnt. A lot of prior literature examined the factors influencing the aspects of disclosure without giving reference to the educational and occupational background of the board of directors and the ownership structure, which influence the decision-making regarding director remuneration disclosure. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate how the educational and occupational background of the board of directors and ownership structure affect director remuneration disclosure in Malaysian public listed companies. Very limited research has been explored in the issue of directors' remuneration disclosure. The director remuneration checklist is used to measure the director remuneration disclosure among Malaysian public listed companies. The findings of this study revealed that ownership structure is significantly associated with the extent of directors' remuneration disclosure, while the board's educational and occupational background are found to not be associated with the extent of directors' remuneration disclosure.

Toward Responsive Corporate Governance

Since the early 1980s, globalisation has deeply affected the way in which corporations typically conduct their affairs. This is true not only for business organisations that are active in the OECD countries but also for those operating in the emerging markets of the less affluent parts of the world. New social and ethical perspectives have become relevant for management strategy and have highlighted the need to acknowledge the existence of stakeholders—old and new—in a way that may benefit the interests of firms as well as those of local communities and society at large. In this chapter we argue that of all possible stakeholders the ones beyond the present periphery of the firm have the most potential for its long-term survival. Responsive corporate governance, therefore, will seek to engage with stakeholders from beyond.

Business Ethics, Decision and Cost Relations

Today, all companies, local, national and international, should have a positive image as the main prerequisite of gaining a strong position at their general social image. Creating such an image depends on adopting the work ethics principles as behavior norms. The companies whose organizational structure is based on work ethics norms have an increase in their reliability, their institutionalization comes true in short time, potential of their products being chosen increases, a large and steady customer base is created and, as a result, these companies achieve a high level competitive power. The aim of this chapter is to define ethics, business ethics and cost related to unethical decision making. At the end a case study will be analyzed based on Ethical Criteria.

Ethical Consumerism: Contextual Issues of Ethical Decision-Making Processes

Ethical consumerism is the outcome of an ethical decision-making process. This research examines situational factors exemplified in context-related issues affecting decision-making as perceived by business students at the University of Bahrain. Reward systems, authority, bureaucracy, work role, organizational culture and national and cultural context are investigated. Qualitative research employing open-ended questions in questionnaire form is used. Two hundred and forty students participated in this research. Five questions were asked in the research. Themes involved are illustrations of reward systems, bureaucracy, organizational culture, national and cultural context and work roles. This research suggests that work roles require to be thoroughly investigated in future research. The research also shows that students are unaware of ethical consumerism. This explains reasons for not translating views of students to behavior as a reflection of ethical consumerism.