Kaleel Rahman

The role of embeddedness for resource integration Complementing S-D logic research through a social capital perspective

Marketing research highlights the importance of actors’ relationships as mechanisms for integrating resources. With its roots in sociology, the concept of embeddedness has gained prominence in the literature on organizations, providing in-depth insight into how relational structures regulate resource integration processes and outcomes. However, the concept of an actor’s embeddedness is rarely discussed in association with service-dominant (S-D) logic. This limits the extant understanding of factors that influence resource exchange and value cocreation among individual actors in service ecosystems. Against this background, this article links S-D logic with social capital theory to establish and conceptualize embeddedness as a key concept. More specifically, this research identifies and delineates structural, relational, and cultural properties of embeddedness and offers a systematic and complementary theoretical understanding to better explain relational constellations based on actors’ resource integration potential. In so doing, this research significantly advances marketing science and particularly the S-D logic school of thought by explicitly clarifying the role of embeddedness and its implications for resource integration. A set of research propositions is presented laying the foundation for future research.

Can Sentiment Toward Advertising Explain Materialism and Vanity in the Globalization Era? Evidence From Dubai

ABSTRACT This report presents the first study to address sentiment toward advertising, materialism, and vanity in the globalized city of Dubai. A conceptual model is developed and subsequent hypotheses are tested via structural equation modeling. The main research findings suggest that consumers in Dubai exhibit positive perceptions of advertising as well as higher levels of materialism and vanity. Sentiment toward advertising is found to positively influence materialism levels, while materialism strongly influences views, concern for physical appearance, and personal achievement. Sentiment toward advertising, however, has no direct effect on any vanity trait, suggesting that vanity is more an internal personal trait.

Customer-to-customer interactions and word of mouth: conceptual extensions and empirical investigations

Although the importance of customer orientation has been well addressed in strategic marketing, these ideas generally focus on managing business-to-customer interactions. Strategic importance of understanding customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) has received very little attention. Word of mouth (WOM) research has recently been broadened in the context of CCI. Research that addresses during-the-experience word of mouth (WOMde) in the actual service setting is scant. Thus, we empirically distinguish WOMde and post-consumption experience (WOMpe) and investigate their interconnected relationships within a nomological network. We use a mixed-methods approach to generate and code a collection of WOMde events and a survey to capture further variables of interest including WOMpe. Our exploratory study demonstrates that WOMde has a positive impact both on customers’ emotional reaction in the service context and on brand perceptions. Subsequently, the magnified brand perceptions act as a significant driver of customer trust and WOMpe. We also distinguish between brand-related and brand-unrelated WOMde and offer insight into the effect of both types of conversation on customer perceptions and attitudes.

Marketing strategies for services: is brand architecture a viable way forward?

Importance of branding as a strategic thrust is well understood by services marketing practitioners. Yet, in developing brand architectures, some researchers have suggested that the company is the only meaningful brand for service products, whereas others have argued for the development of strong sub-brands at the product level. The main objective of this study is to assess whether services in general have the capacity to develop successful brand architectures. Using a sample of 14 representative service companies, brand associations were elicited through a free association technique. These associations were categorised under a taxonomy with five brand meaning components and were hypothesised to have a competing impact on the overall attitudes towards the service product. The results of this research support the idea of brand architecture strategies and that services have equity at the sub-brand level in cases where the sub-brand has been built up meaningfully.

Generic, genuine, or completely new? Branding strategies to leverage new products

This research presents a framework for branding new products that distinguishes between combining a parent brand with a generic sub-brand that is little more than product category identifier, combining a parent brand with a genuine sub-brand that creates associations unique to the new product, and developing a completely new brand with no reference to the parent brand. Within the framework, branding strategies for new products depend on the fit of the new product category with product categories in which the parent brand already exists, and the congruity of the positioning strategy of the new product with the current positioning of the parent brand. Discussing examples from various industries in multiple countries, this research identifies a number of factors that influence product category fit and brand positioning congruency, and hence, determine how much product-specific brand equity is necessary to leverage the launch of the new product.

'Wow! It's cool': The meaning of coolness in marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the common meaning of vernacular usage of “cool” in terms of the related concepts consumers use to describe the term, using the symbolic interactionist perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Using literature review, we first analyse how cool has evolved from its original meaning to its contemporary form in global consumer culture (GCC). Next, from a content analysis approach, using associative group analysis (Szalay and Deese, 1978) we determine the cultural meaning of cool from a sample of young respondents (n=127) drawn from United Arab Emirates. Then, using another set of respondents (n=98), we assess the statistical reliability of our themes. Findings – Results of our analysis indicate that there is a common set of themes describing the term cool: fashionable, amazing, sophisticated, unique, entertaining, eye-catching and composed. Fashionable theme significantly dominates the meaning of cool. Research limitations/implications – The findings are on...

Why Consumers Seek ‘Coolness’? Evidence from the Arab World

The charm of coolness is seemingly enhanced by the mysteriousness of what cool actually means. Figuring out how to be “cool” is arguably an important phenomenon amongst many modern cultures today. Consumers identify their coolness by seeking products and brands that provide them with cool status (Belk et al, 2010). While researchers have identified this cultural shift having a significant impact on how consumers are buying products, an in-depth understanding of its origin and meaning of this vernacular usage for the relevant consumer research is limited. As such, the purpose of this research is to understand consumers’ ’cool seeking’ behavior by exploring its possible determinants using a stepwise regression analysis. Drawing evidence from the Arab world our findings indicate that although the primary need for uniqueness drives cool identity, status concern is the most dominant predictor of cool-brand consciousness. We also demonstrate that in the Arab world cool is influenced by West, but not related to income, religion or gender.

A mixed-method approach for converting free brand associations to a brand equity index

Researchers suggest quantification of qualitative data as an innovative approach to knowledge creation. Brand associations, a form of qualitative data, are common in measuring customer-based brand equity. The branding literature suggests that not all brand associations are equal. The strength, uniqueness and valence of brand associations need to be considered when assessing brand associations (Keller 1993). Although Kellers work is cited by many, no study has devised a method to quantify and integrate these three dimensions into a single index. This study provides an approach to address all three dimensions simultaneously. The approach first determines uniqueness of brand associations by coding associations into several mutually exclusive meaning categories. Then the serial order of free-association elicitation is used to assess association strength. The serial order, combined with a measure of valence, creates a quantification of open-ended brand associations called a ‘weighted valence index’ (WVI). In conclusion, the paper discusses the reliability and validity of the proposed measure.

From Sentiment Towards Advertising to Materialism and Vanity: An Assessment from the Middle Eastern Perspective

This paper presents the results of a study conducted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and aims to analyze the relationships between the concept of sentiment towards advertising, vanity and materialism. A conceptual framework is developed and analyzed via structural equation modeling.