This study was concerned with the capability of food processors to conduct a product recall, when necessary, with the least time and cost expenditures. An evaluation was made of the effectiveness of the procedures, policies, and organization by which food processors have conducted or would conduct a product recall. Based upon this assessment, a model product recall program was designed to enhance the ability of food processors to conduct product recalls more efficiently. The study concludes that product recalls are very costly to conduct, and, therefore, every effort should be undertaken to prevent situations from occurring which require product recalls. The use of stringent quality control procedures and packaging improvements are thus recommended. Food processors are encouraged to adopt product recall programs in order to reduce the cost of conducting a product recall. If food processors do not take the initiative in these areas, consumerists will likely continue to pressure Congress for more stringent federal regulation of the food industry.

The problem of the present study was to describe and analyze marketing in Saudi Arabia and American marketing executives' knowledge about the Saudi market. The purposes of the study were twofold: (1) to describe and analyze marketing in Saudi Arabia and (2) to determine what American marketing executives know about the Saudi Arabian market. This study employed both primary and secondary data. For the analysis of marketing in Saudi arabia, primarily secondary sources were used from the available literature. For the analysis of American marketing executives' knowledge about the Saudi Arabian market, primary sources were used in the form of American marketers' responses to a mailed questionnaire.

Nonprofit organizations are dependent on donations and volunteers to remain operational. Most rely on persuasive communications to inform, educate, and convince recipients of their messaging to respond in order to raise funds and generate volunteers. Though the marketing and psychology literature has examined charitable giving and volunteerism, the effectiveness of persuasive messages to affect philanthropy, gift-giving, and fundraising is a gap in the cause marketing literature (Dann et al. 2007). Because consumers rarely enter a situation without preexisting attitudes or beliefs, it is expected that individuals exposed to an advertisement by a nonprofit organization will look for ways to compare the messages within the ad to their own beliefs and attitudes. Two theories help explain the processing that takes place in relation to attitudes, beliefs, and persuasive communications – elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The research presented here combines these theories to answer questions regarding behavioral intention related to donating and volunteering when individuals are exposed to certain persuasive messages from a nonprofit organization. Results show that one’s involvement with the advertisement combines with one’s attitude toward donating to help determine propensity to donate and the amount of the donation. However, this is dependent …

The purpose of this research is to investigate the differentials and commonalties in the consumer behavior and attitudes of the working woman as opposed to the non-working woman. The findings of the research are analyzed to determine their impact on the performance of marketing institutions and functions. The major hypothesis tested in this research is: Working women comprise a distinct market segment, which differs in kind from the non-working woman. Both primary and secondary data are used for this study. The principal sources of secondary data are the 1960 and 1970 U.S. Government Census Tracts of the Census of Population. The primary data was obtained from a questionnaire, sent to 1,093 women residing in specific Census Tracts within the Dallas, Texas Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Tracts were selected by geographical dispersion and statistically tolerable limits for female labor force participation and median family income. This criteria insured the inclusion of women for whom the value of work was either high or low. The analysis of the data revealed that working women may be segmented into a distinct consumer market. Demographic characteristics related to consumer behavior were found to be (in order of importance) Age, Income, Education, Age of Children …

A firm can deploy a variety of arrangements (entry modes) like wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures, contracts, and export modes to implement its product market strategies in foreign countries. Each of these arrangements entails decisions about the location of production facilities and/or marketing operations, and the type of ownership of these operations. The choice of an entry mode is of strategic importance to a firm because it can involve investment of substantial amount of resources and has a strong bearing on the firm's marketing mix. Due to its strategic importance, the entry mode choice phenomenon has been extensively researched. In the past, seven major theories have been proposed but none is able to explain the choice from the complete set of entry modes. Thus, there exists a gap between the theory and practice of entry mode choice. This study provides breakthrough on two fronts. First, it develops a new theory of entry mode choice grounded in the resource-based perspective of the firm. The theory posits that the decision to locate its production and/or marketing operations in a country is related to the actualizability of the firm's competitive advantage in that country. However, the ownership decision is related to the sustainability …

Previous empirical research and anecdotal accounts suggest that “subclinical narcissism” or “average Joe’s narcissism” is one of the most prevalent social phenomena in many parts of the world. Research also suggests that there will be an unprecedented escalation “in average Joe narcissists” among future generations of consumers. The objective of this study is two-fold. The first objective of this study is to explore the moderating effect of the individual’s level of narcissistic personality on their word-of-mouth (WOM) communications. The second objective of this study is to explore the boundary conditions of the first objective. The data were collected from a large number of consumers through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results support many of the hypotheses accordant with the characteristics of the subclinical narcissistic individual. Specifically, the moderating effect of an individual’s level of narcissistic personality trait on the decision to engage in different types of WOM communications varies across the tested contexts. This study is intended to respond to social scientists' recent call for studies that investigate the fundamental motives behind the individual’s propensity to engage in WOM communication as a function of individual characteristics. The results of this study provide some prescriptive guidance to help companies target appropriate consumers …

A packaging model is presented in this study which attempts to show some important aspects of a consumer's cognitive process in relation to packaging. This packaging model is based on the theories of imagery, emotion, and perception (and sensation). Perception of a packaged good occurs because the motivation system of a consumer selects particular information that the packaged good provides. Unlike the situation which occurs in behaviorism, stimulus is as important as response, and motivation explains why people don't perceive all the information available in the environment. When perception occurs, two subsequent responses are possible in the mind of a consumer: the connotative response and the denotative response. A connotative response is an evaluation of the perceived, i.e. emotion. Denotative response is imagery which is produced by conditioned sensory response. Imagery may elicit emotional response. Thus, imagery may reinforce consumer behavior positively or negatively. Emotion with regard to a packaged good is, then, the combination of emotions elicited by the perceived and the imagery evoked. This packaging model tries to explain purchasing behavior through the concepts of imagery and emotion.

The purposes of this study were to prepare an analysis of the size, growth, structure, and problems of the industry; determine the influence of imports on the general structure of the industry; determine the significance of market penetration to domestic manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and foreign manufacturers and importers; and examine the market penetration reporting mechanism, its accuracy, usefulness, promptness in feedback of data, and the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining secrecy of data.

The supply chain management discipline suggests that information sharing is paramount when attempting to achieve cost reductions and quality improvements. In many cases, the traditional accounting data used to support strategic decisions reflect inaccurate supply chain costs. This research explores the applications of managerial costing techniques, and how they can be used to improve the decision making capabilities of firms in the aerospace and transportation industries. The methodology used to address the research questions consisted of a hybrid of the grounded theory and multiple-case study methods. The objective of this research was to present the antecedents and barriers associated with implementing supply chain costing, and the impact that costing approaches have on strategic decision making. The research identifies a theoretical model that can be used to explain the relationships and themes associated with supply chain costing and strategic decision making. Evidence suggests that there is some movement to implement managerial accounting techniques within these two industries to capture supply chain costing information. However, the reliance on traditional financial accounting suggests that the overarching principles of supply chain management and information sharing amongst of partner firms has yet to be realized.

Marketing scholars question the ability of the 4Ps to explain higher order phenomena in modern marketing. Scholars contend that marketing's historical framework, based in product centric economic theory, constrains the 4Ps ability to form a foundation for a general theory of marketing. The focus on value embedded in product fails to explain knowledge-based intangible sources of competitive advantage. In response to this concern a new dominant logic for marketing called service-dominant logic (S-D Logic) has been proposed. However, not all scholars are supportive of S-D Logic. Still nescient, S-D Logic lacks a theoretic model, operationalized constructs, and relationships between those constructs. This study addresses those deficiencies by: (1) generation of a grounded theory of a performance-oriented network; (2) empirical assessment of the S-D Logic literature; and (3) development of an inductively generated theory of S-D Logic to include constructs, relationships, outcomes, and hypothesis. This investigation provides an important set of research findings. The resultant service-oriented network theory suggests a theoretic structure for S-D Logic. Use of grounded theory provides a strong empirical foundation based in a leading edge multi-national market segment composed corporations and programs worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The analysis drew upon 44 field interviews and follow-up …