Ahmed Shahriar Ferdous

Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explain Marketing Managers’ Perspectives on Sustainable Marketing

ABSTRACT The article develops understanding of the factors that influence the sustainable marketing (SM) behavior of marketing managers in an emerging-country context, using the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Data were collected from 145 senior marketing managers from a range of industrial sectors in Bangladesh. The data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). The findings reveal that TPB is an adequate model for investigating marketing managers’ intentions and actual engagement in sustainable marketing. The structural paths indicate that attitude and subjective norms, other than perceived behavior control, positively affected intention to practice SM. Finally, future research and practical implications are suggested.

African culturally and linguistically diverse communities' blood donation intentions in Australia: integrating knowledge into the theory of planned behavior.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been extensively used to examine donation intentions in the general community. This research seeks to examine whether TPB applies to one culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community in Australia and also incorporates blood donation knowledge as an antecedent in the model, given that the TPB assumes people make informed decisions regarding blood donation.

Developing an integrative model of internal and external marketing

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model which presents an expanded view of the beneficial impact of internal marketing (IM) in organizations. The model innovatively proposes links between the development of internal market orientation, internal marketing programs and external market orientation and external marketing programs. As a significant novel contribution to knowledge, this model advocates a continual process of improvement as marketing knowledge develops. Such an approach to the development of the marketing programs within an organization potentially increases business success and competitive advantage. The model has implications for organizational management, where internal marketing programs are desirous. Future research opportunities are suggested, including assessment of the model.

Consumer sentiment towards marketing in Bangladesh: The relationship between attitudes to marketing, satisfaction and regulation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the overall attitudes of consumers in Bangladesh toward marketing. The paper also empirically tests for associations between consumer attitudes toward marketing, satisfaction with marketing mix and perception of government regulation in least developing countries (LDCs) using the structural equations modelling.Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐stage cluster sample of 600 consumers was surveyed to measure consumer sentiment toward marketing in Bangladesh and to test the theoretical model. Data were analyzed using analysis of variances and structural equations modelling.Findings – The study found Bangladeshi consumers are aggregately more unfavourable towards marketing practices in comparison to transitional countries and less unfavourable in comparison to developed ones. The marketing sentiment scale showed evidence of divergent, convergent and predictive validity. The results from the structural equation paths provided evidence that associations do...

Understanding the Dynamics Between Social Entrepreneurship and Inclusive Growth in Subsistence Marketplaces

This article explores how social entrepreneurs utilize their unique circumstances and resources at a micro level to facilitate the creation of shared value at the meso level, leading to inclusive growth at a macro level in the context of subsistence marketplaces. Drawing from explanatory case studies of two social enterprises—Waste Concern (Bangladesh) and Seven Women (Nepal)—the findings suggest that social entrepreneurs act as bricoleurs to integrate their operant and operand resources in subsistence marketplaces to facilitate inclusive growth. The authors further connect with and extend three discourses of research—social entrepreneurship, social bricolage, and service-dominant logic—to develop a framework providing insights into the “bottom-up” approach, the underlying dynamics of shared value creation, and inclusive growth in subsistence marketplaces by social entrepreneurs. The findings also strengthen Deess (2001) definition of social entrepreneurship, confirming its applicability and relevance in subsistence marketplaces and further extending the theory of social bricolage. The authors discuss the implications of these findings, including tactical interventions aimed at providing better understanding of how social entrepreneurs create value in resource-constrained marketplaces, from a bottom-up perspective.

Addressing the complexities of managing domestic and multinational corporate brands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the differences between managing domestic corporate brands (DCBs) and multinational corporate brands (MCBs), and presents a framework highlighting six types of complexity associated with managing both forms of corporate brands in an international business context. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes a framework addressing six types of complexity involved in managing DCBs and MCBs drawing on the literature related to corporate branding, corporate brands, and domestic and multinational corporations. The six types of complexity examined include: strategic role, organisational structure, culture, knowledge, positioning and extended responsibility. Findings – The research identifies that DCBs have a lower degree of complexity in regard to strategic role, knowledge and positioning, but have a higher level in regard to organisational structure, cultural and extended responsibility complexity. MCBs face more complexity than DCBs across all dimension...

Networking, business process innovativeness, and export performance: the case of South Asian low-tech industry

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business process innovativeness in the networking-export performance relationship in a developing country low-tech industry setting. Most innovation research in international business and entrepreneurship is conducted on high-tech industries in developed countries. Less research has focused on the low-tech industry context. This study bridges this research gap by testing whether international new ventures’ (INVs) networking resources impact their export performance through business process innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The study tests the link between low-tech INVs’ networking, business process innovativeness and export performance using a sample of 647 export start-up apparel firms in Bangladesh, the second largest apparel exporter in the world. Findings The results recognize that an INV entrepreneur’s personal and inter-firm networking are directly and positively related to business process innovativeness and export performance. The findings also indicate that business process innovativeness acts as a mediator only between an INV’s inter-firm networking and its export performance. Research limitations/implications The study was undertaken in a Bangladeshi low-tech industry setting-the apparel sector; thus, future research may include data collection from a range of industries across countries. Data collected for the purpose of this study used a cross-sectional research design, and this may only have confirmed the relationships in the model and not causality between the constructs. Practical implications The findings highlight that low-tech INVs should focus more on leveraging their personal and inter-firm networking resources, as this should result in improved export performance. The results also provide directives for INVs in regard to improving their business process innovativeness to achieve increased performance. Originality/value The study is not only carried out in the context of low-tech early internationalizing firms (i.e. INVs), but also contributes to theory and practice by testing whether INVs’ networking resources (personal and inter-firm) have an impact on business process innovativeness, which in turn leads to improved performance.

Profiling contemporary marketing practices in Bangladesh

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how different types of firms relate to their markets in terms of contemporary marketing practices (CMP) in an emerging country, Bangladesh. Additionally, the paper also examines the various marketing performance measures used by Bangladeshi firms.Design/methodology/approach – The CMP survey was used on 165 marketing managers chosen from a range of industrial sectors as a basis for data collection. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis and other descriptive statistics.Findings – The study found that a pluralistic marketing approach is predominant among the majority of the Bangladeshi firms, while few other firms also practise transactional marketing. Results also reveal that Bangladeshi firms apply a blend of performance indicators rather than relying on specific financial‐ or client‐based measures to evaluate business success.Research limitations/implications – The present study provides a benchmark for future studies on CMP in emerging/developing coun...

Impact of web banner advertising frequency on attitude

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether advertising type (static or dynamic) and appeal (emotional or rational) moderate the relationship between web banner advertising frequency and consumer attitudinal response. Design/methodology/approach A laboratory experiment involving 400 participants was conducted to test for the moderating effect. Factorial ANOVA is used to measure brand attitude. Findings The results identified that the web banner advertisement type acted as a moderator between frequency and brand attitude. However, the moderating effect of banner advertisement appeal was found to be insignificant at a single banner advertisement frequency (i.e., exposure) but significantly different at a higher frequency. The study findings provide better directives for online marketers. Practical implications The major limitation is the fact that the impact of banner advertisement frequency was manipulated from one to five exposures. Future research needs to determine what happens after the fif...

Does Flse Perceive Organizational IMO Impact on their Customer Oriented Behavior

Frontline Service employees (FLSEs) are responsible for the effective delivery of services and thus are critical in determining how customers evaluate organizations. Given their focal role in the exchange process it is essential that marketing strategies and programs targeting FLSEs, ensure they (the FLSEs) deliver on organization’s marketing programs and objectives. To achieve employee engagement with strategic actions, organizations develop internal marketing orientation (IMO) as a broad strategic approach which is designed to systematically understand and respond to employees’ needs by delivering the right ‘job’ product. This is analogous to traditional market orientation (MO), where firms gather external information and then respond to external customers’ needs. From the perspective of Internal Marketing (IM), it has been argued that even though management may craft the most carefully developed organizational internal market orientation (IMO), the successful implementation of these programs are contingent on how FLSE’s respond to IMO as a general concept. It is therefore vital for management to develop IMO at the organizational level (i.e. organizational IMO) that is viewed positively by employees. However, to date FLSEs’ perceptions of organizational IMO have been under-researched, which is somewhat surprising, even though some studies exist, given that it is FLSEs who determine whether IMO implementation succeed or fail. To address this gap, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model investigating if FLSE perception of organizational IMO impact on their job satisfaction (JS) and organizational identification (OI) and whether these in turn impacts on their customer oriented behaviors (COB) which is the ultimate focus of implementing IMO targeting FLSEs.