Ann Brown

Harnessing the power of database marketing

Increasing competition and accelerating market fragmentation, coupled with lower information systems costs, have spurred many organizations into developing marketing strategies which capitalize on the opportunities presented by powerful databases. Some organizations have been able to harness the power of database marketing systems to achieve competitive advantage in their marketplaces; conversely, others find themselves inhibited by the intricate human, technical and organizational problems created by the adoption of these systems. A review of database marketing literature identifies the competitive advantages and factors inhibiting these systems. The main body of the paper proposes a generic model designed to assist managers’ understanding of the interactions and processes necessary to create effective systems. This model encompasses a data‐rich information environment, a market modelling facility and feedback from performance measures. We consider how managers might use this model to justify and apprais...

Testing Gronroos' Model in the Financial Services Sector

The characteristics of services make each service brand unique and difficult for managers to pragmatically capture. The augmented services offering model may help identify sources of brand differentiation. Empirical application of this services offering model through 15 depth interviews with managers responsible for two financial services brands in the same organisation, reveals that the model helps managers realise the processes involved in delivering and marketing their brands. Certain elements of the model, e.g., buyer-seller interactions have more value to managers than other elements. The model had more relevance to senior managers who recognised its brand differentiation potential.

The place of ethnographic methods in information systems research

Abstract The IS research community was formed around the problems and questions raised by organisations’ attempts to exploit the new Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The subject is concerned with both the ‘hard’ characteristics of the ICT application under study and the social context of the organisation within which it is to be or is being deployed. Mixed methods are designed to deal with both these somewhat disparate situations in a single study and are likely to be of particular value for IS research. Ethnography is a research method that can make a powerful contribution in mixed methods studies. However as yet, both mixed methods and ethnography form only a small number of empirical IS paper. Ethnographers seek to immerse themselves in a social situation and become part of the group being investigated in order to understand the meanings that actors put upon phenomena or situations. It is the data collection methods that distinguish this method from other qualitative research methods. The researcher accumulates data from personal observations of events and human action in addition to all the traditional sources of documents interviews, etc. Choosing this research method represents a big investment for the researcher. This paper outlines some of the key issues unique to IS ethnographers and identifies three organisational situations for which ethnographic methods are likely to yield significant value – ICT-enabled major change; ICT supported complex organisational operations that involve many expert participants and ICT supported ill understood management problems. Two cases, illustrating the use made of ethnographic methods in two of these situations, are described and assessed (Miscione, 2007; Mattarelli, Bertolotti, & Macri, 2013). This paper concludes that there is an important place for both Mixed Methods and Ethnographic Research Methods in the IS research Discipline.

Student engagement and learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a new undergraduate one-term double module called management practice and skills – which sought to change the learning environment for the new intake of undergraduate students based on constructivist ideas aimed at creating a high level of student engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Action research focusing on the evaluation stage of the first cycle of an intervention. The intervention is described in a case study explaining the features of the new module combined with the statistical analysis of the hard data collected on the first cohort of students taking the module using mainly correlation techniques. Findings – The module design did achieve to a great extent the objective of catering to all learning styles and personalities within the cohort. The results from the first cohort established the elusive nature of the concept of student engagement and the challenge in measuring it quantitatively. Research limitations/implications – This ...