Alkis Thrassou

A New Consumer Relationship Model: The Marketing Communications Application

The article investigates empowered consumer behavior and explores its evolutionary nature and contemporary contexts in developed countries. Through a comprehensive literature review multi-perspective analysis, it finally develops a prescriptive marketing communication model in the context of an evolving business-consumer relationship and its corresponding marketing philosophy. The findings identify a rising symbiotic equilibrium between consumers’ power and businesses’ influence on consumers’ perceptions. Consumer “needs” are found to be increasingly manifested into “wants” which are intangible, of obscure value, affective in nature and vulnerable to marketing communications; the latter being increasingly oriented towards “perception management” and with “branding” as a primary vehicle.

Transcending innovativeness towards strategic reflexivity

Purpose – The purpose of the research is to utilize and expand on existing knowledge on organizational value‐based innovativeness, towards the development of the “strategic reflexivity” concept, for businesses competing in the contemporary ever‐modulating business environments.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based partly on primary qualitative research and partly on theoretical research. The former consists of a six month long in‐house observation and data gathering of a large company (OPERACOM Group) innovation process and on 45 semi‐directive interviews of practitioners and experts.Findings – The findings descriptively portray the varying competitive conditions as intolerant of conventional strategic marketing planning; and unable to sustain any lasting competitive advantage. Prescriptively, the research proposes a change of strategic philosophy and practice, through a shift from orthodox planning to the design of value‐based reflexive mechanisms that automatically adapt to change. The paper ...

Italian wine firms: strategic branding and financial performance

Purpose – Over the last few years, the wine industry has been undergoing a process of accelerated change, consequent to the constantly changing wine geography, both from the demand and the supply sides. This research is based on the 2011 work of Rossi et al. and aims to develop a preliminary prescriptive strategic branding framework for the Campania (Italy) wine firms.Design/methodology/approach – The research focuses on branding strategies and financial performance. It is based on extensive secondary data; the research is exploratory in nature, and it is a theoretical research.Findings – The paper achieves four main objectives: to understand the industrys local and international competitive situation; to identify the role and potentialities of branding in competitive terms; to identify the underlying factors of consumer behavior in relation to wine branding; and to develop a preliminary prescriptive strategic branding framework for the Campania wine firms, with generic application and value.Research lim...

A Small Services Firm Marketing Communications Model for SME- Dominated Environments

This research seeks to explore existing research for marketing management and marketing communications systems for small professional service firms. Further, through primary research methods, it examines the case of construction consultants in Cyprus (CCCs), and it identifies the specific differentiating factors of these firms compared to literature review expectations. Consequently, this research, through the combination and comparison of the literature review and primary research findings, develops a marketing communications (MC) model for small professional services firms in SME dominated environments. This model aims to assist the wider marketing practises of small professional firms having to compete in a rarer type of competitive environment; the SME dominated one. Further, the findings of this research assist such firms to improve their understanding of the marketing communications environment so as to be in a position to develop more effectively and efficiently their marketing communications plan and strategy. Finally, this research will assist governmental departments and professional chambers and associations in improving their comprehension, organization, monitoring, and control of such firms at a collective/industrial level.

Change through innovation in family businesses: evidence from an Italian sample

Research on the linkages between family firms, innovation and change is scant and lacking empirical investigation. In parallel the incessantly changing business environment and its consequent unpredictability and strategic disorientation, demand for radical organisational changes, without however signifying their nature. This research investigates the innovative capacity of family businesses and the degree and manner to which innovation can lead to change or even be the change needed in the context of strategic reorientation. The research investigates innovation with reference to the resource perspective, which is measured in terms of the human, social and marketing capitals. The findings highlight the innovative strength of family businesses and suggest that innovation is indeed not simply the means of strategic change, but, in its deeper sense, the strategic change itself. Moreover, innovation and change, as a unified goal, are required to be dynamic and constant, as opposed to static and instant.

A Preliminary Strategic Marketing Framework for New Product Development

This article responds to the identified considerations and gaps in existing research on the way a new idea is transformed into a market-accepted new product. Utilizing the findings of an extensive theoretical analysis and empirical investigation on the subject, this research studies new product development within a wider strategic marketing context. The research interrelates three different perspectives: the process-defining perspective, that identifies and refines the managerial implications and theoretical considerations; the value-defining perspective, which investigates the various types and stakeholders of value; and the context-defining (contemporary consumer behavior and strategic marketing) perspective, which positions the entire innovation process within the comprehensive set of environmental and organizational processes and factors. The article concludes with the development of a preliminary Contemporary Strategic Framework for New Product Development. The framework answers the various theoretical considerations on the subject, incorporating the various processes’ stages and interrelationships within a single descriptive system. In addition, it provides constructive functional managerial value through potential practical implementation and prescriptive interpretation.

The exploration activity's added value into the innovation process

This article responds to the lack of research on the way a new idea is transformed into a market-accepted new product. Through non-participant observation and multiple interviews, an empirical investigation within a large French telecommunications operator (OPERACOM), shows that companies should integrate an exploration activity into the innovation process. In order to facilitate its implementation by managers, the research proposes a synthesis of features, comprising the exploration axes/criteria (technology, client use and business value), the participants (clients/creative users, designers, partners…), the organisational system (exploration centre, core team), the governance as well as the added value of the activity. The paper further combines theoretical findings with empirical data to identify the managerial implications of the findings, as well as additional theoretical considerations.

Strengthening regional identities and culture through wine industry cross border collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentialities of cross border projects to develop and promote wine culture, and consequently tourism and hospitality; paying particular attention to the process and actions supporting the development and refinement of cultural attributes, traditional values and regional identity. Design/methodology/approach – Methodologically, it is a deductive reasoning exploratory research, based on the findings of an extensive undergoing project across ten countries, spanning from Italy to Eastern Europe, and theoretically founded on an extensive literature review. Findings – The findings identify the spectrum and nature of opportunities and constraints of cross border collaborations in developing the wine industry and reaping of its wider economic and cultural benefits. Further to the scholarly value of the findings, the paper identifies and presents the descriptive managerial/industrial implications, along with prescriptively explicit directions toward practical ...

Strategic R&D internationalisation in developing Asian countries - the Italian experience

Increasingly over the last two decades, companies not only produce and sell, but also develop goods and services outside their home countries. Rapidly becoming the rule rather than the exception, these firms undertake significant R%D activities at different locations abroad. The phenomenon is especially visible in the developing Asian countries, whose markets are becoming extremely attractive to foreign firms while their workforces and infrastructural R%D capacities and competencies themselves progressively favour R%D. The aim of this paper is to show R%D internationalisation activities of firms from Italy in Asian developing countries. Using a dataset of 500 Italian firms with international R R%DD units, as well as interviews, we researched whether companies follow a knowledge augmenting or knowledge sourcing strategy. The results show a positive relation between the choice to settle R%D units in Asia and the sale of innovative products in Asia, concluding that firms follow a knowledge exploiting strategy, establishing their whole innovation value chain to developing Asian countries.

Human resource management - practices, performance and strategy in the Italian hotel industry

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and organisational performance in the Italian hospitality sector. In particular, it investigates the extent of adoption of HRM practices, the existence of formal HR strategies, and the degree of development of the HR function, in the Italian hotel industry. The findings aim to verify whether the effectiveness of HRM is contingent upon the approach to adopted business strategies and whether the hotels, which strategically formally apply HRM practices, outperform those with HRM practices outside a formal organisational strategy. The research finally expands on the underlying factors and managerial implications of the findings to conceptually interpret phenomena and prescribe actions.