Elizabeth Hemphill

Investigation of agency agreement formation: new opportunities for marketing relationship development in service industries

This paper examines agent–principal agreements that prevail in marketing structures. Structural equation modeling reveals a new positioning of the relative importance of antecedents in agreement formation for two agency contexts (recruitment consultants and real estate agents). The insignificance of negotiation in agreement formation deviates from services marketing relationship models in which negotiation pre-empts commitment. A close coupling of agent attributes and information disclosure similarly positions business and consumer exchanges, contrary to sales literature. As agreement formation is not directly determined by any single event, management should not focus on outcome-based metrics for process refinement.

Segmenting a general practitioner market to improve recruitment outcomes

Recruitment is an ongoing challenge in the health industry with general practitioner (GP) shortages in many areas beyond rural and Indigenous communities. This paper suggests a marketing solution that identifies different segments of the GP market for recruitment strategy development. In February 2008, 96 GPs in Australia responded to a mail questionnaire (of which 85 questionnaires were useable). A total of 350 GPs were sent the questionnaire. Respondents considered small sets of attributes in the decision to accept a new job at a general practice and selected the most and least important attribute from each set. We identified latent class clusters (cohorts) of GPs from the most-least important data. Three cohorts were found in the GP market, distinguishing practitioners who emphasised job, family or practice attributes in their decision to join a practice. Few significant demographic differences exist between the cohorts. A segmented GP market suggests two alternative recruitment strategies. One option is for general practices to target members of a single cohort (family-, job-, or practice-focussed GPs). The other option is for general practices to diversify their recruitment strategies to target all three cohorts (family-, job- and practice-focussed GPs). A single brand (practice) can have multiple advertising strategies with each strategy involving advertising activities targeting a particular consumer segment.

Defining a Process for Segmenting the General Practitioner Market for Rural Practice Recruitment

General practitioner (GP) to patient ratios fall below benchmarks, particularly in rural areas. A marketing solution to this significant social problem might be to develop recruitment strategies differentiating medical practices (brands) and targeting different segments of the GP market. This article uses data gathered in Australia from practice managers, GPs, and recruitment advertisements to develop a taxonomy of family, job, and practice attributes that could be used to recruit GPs. Current recruiting strategies emphasize a mix of family, job and practice attributes, but better recruitment outcomes might be achieved by the implementation of branding principles that more clearly differentiate general practices with targeted recruitment advertisements. This research prescribes a path for future research on GP recruitment. The first step is to gather data on the relative and absolute value of different attributes within the taxonomy. These data can then be used to develop targeted marketing strategies for recruiting GPs to rural practices.

Which Employers Offer Hope for Mainstream Job Opportunities for Disabled People

Employer reluctance to hire disabled people narrows the economic and vocational opportunities of disabled people. This study investigates employer hiring decisions to identify which mainstream employers are most likely to hire disabled people. The study reports findings from interviews with eighty-seven employers in urban and regional South Australia. Analysis reveals differences across groups of employers based on their previous hiring behaviour. Communication from employment support agencies should specifically address concerns of non-hirers and light hirers. Long-term financial concerns present strong but surmountable barriers to light hirers employing disabled people. Policy mitigating long-term employer concerns could attract employers to hire disabled people for the first time (non-hirers) or return to hiring (light hirers) disabled people. Negative employers (antagonists) and employers already sustaining ongoing workplace relationships with disabled people (loyals) have insurmountable reasons to not hire any (or more) disabled people and should not be targeted.

Long-Term Export Performance of Export Manufacturing Firms from a Developing Economic Environment: The Case of Thailand

Export performance literature still prevails with contradictory and inconclusive results. One serious shortcoming that might well be the cause of limitation in the literature is ignorance of choosing the appropriate time horizon in modeling of performance relationship. Little effort has been expended to specify the chronological relationship between long-term export performances and their determinants in the firm level. This article therefore developed a long-term export performance model to test the overlooked links. It found that in the long run export manufacturing firms from Thailand must achieve their noneconomic export performance goals prior to getting rewards by excellent economic export performance outcomes.

Recruitment ad analysis offers new opportunities to attract GPs to short-staffed practices.

As baby-boomer practitioners exit the workforce, physician shortages present new recruitment challenges for practices seeking GPs. This article reports findings from two studies examining GP recruitment practice. GP recruitment ad content analysis (Study 1) demonstrated that both Internet and print ads emphasize job attributes but rarely present family or practice attributes. Contacts at these medical practices reported that their practices offer distinctive family and practice attributes that could be exploited in recruitment advertising (Study 2). Understaffed medical practices seeking to attract GPs may differentiate their job offerings in a crowded market by incorporating family and/or practice attributes into their ads.