Annmarie Ryan

Sustainable SMEs network utilization: the case of food enterprises

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine how sustainable SMEs utilize their networks. Here utilization refers to activities SMEs perform in network and how the SMEs are influenced by and influence networks. While the importance of networks has been acknowledged in SME marketing research, linking sustainability to SME networking has been a more neglected area of research.Design/methodology/approach – A multiple case study of two Finnish SMEs operating in the food sector was conducted for this study. The main methods applied to gather the research data were group and individual interviews.Findings – This study shows that SMEs utilize their networks as a source of opportunities and resources and their networks can serve as an avenue for change towards sustainability. Moreover, learning in the network was identified as a key process through which the enterprises and the network evolve.Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of this paper is that the case study interviews were conducted at a singl...

Evolving priorities in sponsorship: From media management to network management

Abstract Commercial sponsorship has continually adapted to the needs of the market. The purpose of this paper is to tracks these changes and draw out the evolution in management capabilities required to manage sponsorship effectively. Five distinct approaches to sponsorship have been identified from an extensive review of the literature, including: the philanthropic approach, the market-centred approach, the consumer-centred approach, the strategic resource, and finally the relations and networks approach. By examining these approaches, the paper identifies key capabilities required for the future of sponsorship, including network visioning, network orchestration, and relationship portfolio management. This is presented in a four-level framework for sponsorship network management. This paper serves two key audiences. On the one hand, for sponsorship managers, it examines past and future capabilities required to manage sponsorship effectively. For researchers, the paper historically reviews the emergence of sponsorship capabilities and sets out a research agenda to progress our understanding on a network perspective on sponsorship.

Mobile phones as an extension of the participant observer's self: reflections on the emergent role of an emergent technology

Purpose – This paper examines the value of mobile phones in ethnographic research, and seeks to demonstrate how this particular technology can support and enhance participant observation.Design/methodology/approach – Reflecting in detail on one researchers experience of incorporating this technological device into an ethnographic study, the paper considers how new observational tools can contribute to research beyond data generation.Findings – The study suggests that the mobile phone can be an extension of the ethnographer and act as a powerful prosthetic, allowing the researcher to translate ethnographic principles into practice.Research limitations/implications – This paper reflects on the uses of a mobile phone in an ethnographic study of young mens consumer experiences. Thus, the discussion focuses on a research site where the mobile phone holds a ubiquitous position. However, there are now more than four billion mobile phones in circulation worldwide, so whilst acknowledging important differences i...

The emotional dimension of organisational work when cultural sponsorship relationships are dissolved

Abstract The emphasis of current research into cultural sponsorship has been on understanding the key factors required for successful sponsorship relationships and also understanding the causal factors of relationships ending prematurely or relationships fading. This paper considers the importance of the interpersonal ties that develop between the employees of the sponsoring and the sponsored organisation. Then, by utilising research on the ending of business relationships and drawing on Fiskes (1992) Relational Models Theory with its extension into the discussion of ‘taboo trade-offs’, the paper examines the nature and management of emotions when such sponsorship relationships end. We find that boundary-spanning agents employ behavioural and cognitive defence mechanisms to ameliorate pressures faced at this time, which are evidenced in their attempts to resist management calls to end the relationship.

Exploring the brand’s world-as-assemblage: the brand as a market shaping device

Abstract Brands are integral to contemporary marketing practice. Notwithstanding their ubiquitous presence in marketing, the question of what brands do in the shaping markets remains understudied. We examine the brand as a market shaping device which acts within, and alongside, its world to actualise the reality envisioned. We base on ethnographic material on the Good African brand and on a performative text authored by the entrepreneur behind the Good African brand, to explore the unfolding agencement (brand world) and reveal the brand’s performativity achieved.

Learning to Play the Drum: An Experiential Exercise for Management Students.

This paper proposes that introducing musical/percussion activities to university classrooms represents an opportunity for innovative teaching that could create positive experiences replete with learning potential. An analysis of 17 students’ written reactions to a ‘drumming circle’ activity demonstrates that the experience created a positive, energised classroom climate. The value of the exercise was demonstrated in the observations that students made about how the experience engaged them emotionally and how it could be linked to insights about specific aspects of their programme of study. With some preliminary guidance provided in advance of the activity, students were able to identify analogies between aspects of the experience and topics within their management curriculum. The paper provides suggestions and ideas that can help teachers to introduce similar learning experiences into their own classroom settings.

Pedagogy and Relationship Marketing: Opportunities for Frame Restructuring using African Drumming

This paper details the emerging need for relational skills in marketing. The challenges of fostering relational resources within marketing practice and pedagogy are then discussed. Next, the paper explores the value of experiential learning approaches in education and considers different experiential models for fostering relational resources. An African Drumming circle was chosen, because it offers exciting opportunities to explore relational principles both through the actual lived experience as well through the active exploration of the metaphor. The paper concludes that the drumming circle offers an interesting access to experiencing the movement from being an individual actor to collaborating as part of a wider network of actors. Thus, insights are generated at the level of lived experience as well as at a more metaphoric one. The paper therefore serves to foreground the role of pedagogy in Relationship Marketing

Responsible business practice: re-framing CSR for effective SME engagement

This paper explores attempts to translate the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) discourse to Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The transfer of the CSR discourse is problematic because of the inherent differences between large-scale enterprises and SMEs as well as the heterogeneity existent within the SME sector. Within this context the authors argue that Responsible Business Practice (RBP) is a more appropriate term which recognises that SMEs have different motivations for engagement with, and methods of operationlising, RBP. The paper introduces a new typology to help understand and progress the mainstreaming of RBPs among SMEs, acknowledging four primary enterprise categorisations: market-driven responsible enterprises, environmentally responsible enterprises, socially responsible enterprises and sustainable enterprises. This paper extends the extant literature through its explicit consideration of SMEs in enhancing RBP. This approach, while building on the core essence of CSR, will help to facilitate the sector to progress beyond CSR and begin to develop to SME-specific theory and practice in this area.

Affinity fraud and trust within financial markets

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a financial fraud which originates as an affinity fraud can utilise the interpersonal trust, which is a central feature of an affinity fraud, to move the fraud into situations such as organizational markets, where personal relationships are much less dominant.Design/methodology/approach – Sources of information consisted of scholarly articles and articles retrieved from the web.Findings – The trust which develops naturally between members of a community with common interests can be exploited by a fraudster who is, or purports to be, a member of that community. This trust can then be used as the basis of creating trust within other types of relationships – especially where some people are active in more than one relationship – where personal relationships play a minor role.Practical implications – Both individuals and organizations when making investments should regularly formally evaluate their relationship with the organization in whom they are inv...

Interpreting the nature of business to business exchanges through the use of Fiske’s Relational Models Theory

Organizational strategies determine with which other businesses a firm will interact. However, organizational strategies are in part implemented through the interactions of the two businesses’ boundary-spanning personnel. This paper uses Fiske’s Relational Models Theory (Fiske, 1992, 2004) to develop an analysis of the interplay between the macro- and micro-level dimensions of business-to-business interactions. The analysis provides insights into the nature of an exchange that evolves through the macro- and micro-interactions which occur in organizational exchanges as they change over time.