Kim R. Robertson

Strategically Desirable Brand Name Characteristics

Considers psychological, linguistic and marketing aspects of brand name characteristics. Presents the inherent brand name characteristics which lead to memorable names that support the desired product image. Concludes that brand names should be simple, distinctive, meaningful, emotional, make use of morphemes, phonemes, alliteration, consonance, and should make a sound associate of product class, as well as being legally protectable; a well‐planned brand name will require less marketing money to achieve recall and image targets.

Evaluating international markets

Reports the results of a study of experienced exporters and their perceived importance of various types of foreign market information relevant to target market selection. In general, findings indicate that information related to market potential is most highly valued, and information related to culture is rated least important. Differences in perceived importance ratings across types of industry, country of destination, and type of export transaction are examined and implications for exporters, export facilitators, and government agencies are presented.

Strategic orientation and export success: an empirical study

Reviews and synthesizes the literature addressing the concept of strategic orientation and examines the relationship between strategic orientation and export success. Uses survey data from experienced export managers to test the relationship between proactive and reactive strategic orientations and success in exporting empirically. Key dimensions of a proactive strategic orientation are found to be significantly correlated with export success.

Amount of Label Information Effects on Perceived Product Quality

This paper points out the need for advertisers to consider the amount of label/package ingredient information as a variable influencing consumer quality perceptions. Previous research results linking the amount of nutritional information presented on labels with quality perceptions are reviewed, and results of an exploratory study concentrating on non-nutritional ingredient information are presented. Tentative implications for advertisers and multinational marketers are drawn.

Undergraduate student research programs: Are they as viable for accounting as they are in science and humanities?

Abstract This paper reviews a recent thrust in academia to stimulate more undergraduate research in the USA, including a rapidly growing annual conference. The paper also describes programs in which significant foundation grants have been received to fund undergraduate research projects in the sciences and humanities. In particular, selected humanities students working in teams in a new “Philosophy Lab” are allowed to embark on long-term research projects of their own choosing. Several completed projects are briefly reviewed in this paper. In April 1989, Trinity University hosted the Third National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and purposely expanded the scope of the conference to include a broad range of disciplines. At this conference, 632 papers and posters were presented representing the research activities of 873 undergraduate students from 163 institutions. About 40% of the papers were outside the natural sciences and included research in music and literature. Only 13 of those papers were in the area of business administration; none were even submitted by accounting students . In 1990 at Union College, 791 papers were presented; none were submitted by accountants. In 1991 at Cal Tech, the first accounting paper appeared as one of 853 papers presented. This paper suggests a number of obstacles to stimulating and encouraging accounting undergraduates to embark on research endeavours. These impediments are somewhat unique to accounting, and it appears that accounting education programs are lagging in what is being done to break down obstacles in science, pre-med, engineering, humanities, etc. This paper proposes how to overcome these obstacles in accounting. One of the anticipated benefits of accounting student research, apart from the educational and creative value, is the attraction of more and better students seeking creativity opportunities in addition to rote learning of CPA exam requirements. This, in part, might help to counter industry complaints that top students are being turned away from accounting careers nationwide.

Globalization and U.S. Universities: What Realities are Most Relevant to the Successful Internationalization of Their institutions?

This paper presents qualitative findings focusing on the themes, issues and insights that are most relevant to the successful internationalization of U.S. institutions of higher education. A synthesis of the views of over 100 U.S. universities reveals two noteworthy themes and eight “realities” concerning internationalization of institutions of higher education.

An Exploration of the Use of Chronometric Methodology in Mapping Automatically Activated Cognitive Associations

Chronometric techniques have been widely used by psychologists to explore cognitive structures, parallel and serial information processing, attention capacity, information retrieval processes, and learning. Marketing applications of the technique have centered upon investigations into consumer information storage patterns, strength of consumer preferences and certainty of subject responses in surveys. This paper is an exploratory investigation of the use of Chronometric measures in consumer research to map automatically activated pathways of cognitive association which are likely to be activated under conditions of low involvement. Guidelines for researchers interested in this use of Chronometrie analysis are presented.