Easwar S. Iyer

Corporate environmentalism : antecedents and influence of industry type

How does a business firm manage its relationship with the natural environment? What are the factors that influence the choice of such strategies? Does industry type matter? The authors introduce and operationalize the concept of corporate environmentalism in an effort to answer these questions. Using stakeholder theory, the authors identify four important antecedents to corporate environmentalism, namely, public concern, regulatory forces, competitive advantage, and top management commitment. The authors then use a political–economic framework to develop testable hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, the authors perform multigroup path analysis on data gathered from more than 240 firms. They find that corporate environmentalism is related to all hypothesized antecedents and that industry type moderates several of those relationships. In the high environmental impact sector, public concern has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. In the moderate environmental impact sector, competitive advantage has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. There are strong direct and mediating influences from top management commitment, which is the antecedent with the greatest impact on both industry groups. The influences of regulatory forces, public concern, and competitive advantage are all significantly mediated by top management commitment and moderated by industry type. The empirical findings and the ensuing discussion will be of interest to managers and public policy officials.

Shades of Green: A Multidimensional Analysis of Environmental Advertising

Abstract Environmental appeals are becoming increasingly common in advertising, but all green ads are not created equal. The authors report the results of a content analysis designed to uncover the underlying structure of green advertising. A convenience sample of 95 green TV ads and 173 green print ads were content-analyzed. Multidimensional analysis indicates that the structure of green advertising can be captured in three dimensions: sponsor type (for-profit or nonprofit), ad focus (whether the ad focuses on the advertiser or the consumer), and depth of ad (shallow, moderate, or deep depending on the extent of environmental information mentioned). A majority of advertisers in the sample attempted to project a green corporate image rather than focusing on the environmental benefits of their product or service.

The Influence of Verbal Content and Relative Newness on the Effectiveness of Comparative Advertising

Abstract This study examines the role of the verbal content and relative newness of a brand in determining the effectiveness of a comparative format. Measures of attitude toward and intention to use the sponsoring brand were taken. In general, a comparative format that emphasizes factual information is best suited for a new brand launch.

Theory of Alliances: Partnership and Partner Characteristics

SUMMARY Alliances have been referred to by many other terms such as symbiotic marketing, horizontal integration, collaboration, or strategic partnerships. There is a lot of literature on alliances, although most of that has generally focused upon the nature of alliances, e.g., formality, symmetry, and number. Much less has been written about the characteristics of the alliance partners, e.g., strategic goals, administrative structures, range of activities, etc. There are also very few empirical studies in this area. Based on the limited empirical evidence that is available, the author will integrate partnership and partner characteristics to develop a comprehensive theory of alliances. Such an integration will considerably enhance development of alliance theory as well as help potential partners better understand themselves and their partnerships.

Creating Effective Direct Mail Charitable Solicitations: The Effects of Enclosures and Different Appeals

ABSTRACT This article presents a study examining the effect on direct mail response rates of two different types of enclosures or premiums included in a fund raising packet. Also, the effect of audience involvement combined with the effect of varying enclosure types was examined. A field experiment was conducted on individuals from two mailing lists of recent charitable donors. Managerial implications are discussed.

Bases for the Formation of Product Gender Images

A study was undertaken to identify the bases on which a product’s gender image is contingent. The study concluded that the gender of the perceived user, purchaser, and promoter of a product were critical factors in that process. Results also suggest that a three category classification scheme is optimal in identifying a product’s gender. The implication is that a bi-polar scale, rather than two independent scales, would suffice when measuring a product’s gender image.

Gender Stereotyping of Products: Are Products Like People?

The literature on sex-role identification is reviewed and the same framework is applied to classify products/services into gender categories.Subjects tended to perceive products along a continuum of masculinity and feminity with few products being perceived and classified as androgynous and undifferentiated.The differences in the perception of male and female subjects is discussed.It is suggested that the product user, purchaser, and promoter characteristics may be important determinants of the gender of a product/service.

Technical and management notes

In a dynamic and unpredictable environment, a firm may increase its chances of survival by improving its ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment. The firms strategic posture toward innovation is a key factor that affects the quickness and appropriateness of the response function. Integrating Thompsons definition of innovation and the concept of cost-benefit-risk profiles, a framework for defining a firms strategic posture toward innovation is suggested.

The Impact of the Great Recession on Financial Services Advertising: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT We explore how advertising managers of financial services organizations have responded to the repercussions of the Great Recession in their advertising strategies. To this end, we compare print ads for financial services that appeared in six magazines at two periods in time: 2005, prior to the Great Recession and 2010, after the end of the Great Recession. We content analyzed 755 prints ads and found major differences in the advertising strategies from prerecession to postrecession, particularly in the type of appeals. We further examined these strategic shifts by audience focus (business-to-business and business-to-consumer) and gender focus (male, female, or both).

Financial Services Advertising: Comparing Business-To-Business and Business-To-Consumer Contexts

The distinction between services and goods marketing as also the differences between B2B and B2C marketing are well accepted by scholars and practitioners. Turley and Kelley (1997) content analyzed print ads for services in the B2B and B2C domains, but there has been no update in the intervening fifteen years in spite of a spurt in the advertising volume as also the birth of social media. Our research intends to fill that void and provide an update. Specifically we focused on financial services ads because they are targeted to both B2B buyers and B2C consumers. We analyzed 755 ads that appeared in 6 magazines in 2005 and 2010. We found that financial service ads used different appeals in the two sectors. We also found that websites promoted active involvement more in the B2B sectors. We saw that there was a slight bias towards females in the B2B sector. Lastly the ads were tangibalized differently in the two markets.