Mai Anttila

Marketing capability—A key success factor in small business?

This article focuses on the marketing problems of small manufacturing companies. The principal thesis is that marketing is generally perceived from too narrow a perspective. A more comprehensive and yet detailed view of marketing should benefit small business management. The authors develop a marketing capability framework which can be used as a qualitative tool for examining the “state‐of‐the‐art” of marketing in small manufacturing companies. This marketing capability framework is employed in examining the performance of 36 Finnish and Swedish companies using case study analysis.

Bundling of information goods: a value driver for new mobile TV services

Information goods have several characteristics that make their pricing especially challenging. From the point of view of revenue management, bundling has many advantages that seem to match the challenges of pricing information goods. Because bundling is a value-based pricing strategy, segmentation has a significant role in supporting and increasing efficiency of bundling. In this context, we develop a conceptual model showing how many characteristics of information goods support or limit the selection of bundling as a pricing strategy. The conceptual model developed and the hypotheses stated are tested with conjoint analysis in the context of a new mobile TV service bundle. The mobile TV is a new innovation, and the service is expected to be launched in Finland in 2006. Totally 164 respondents gave answers to our internet survey. In this study, bundling increased the demand in all cases. However, consumers strongly preferred two-part pricing and flat access rates of new mobile TV services. Actually, our research findings give support to segmentation on the basis of bundling.

Consumer price perceptions after translation to Euro currency

The membership in the European Union (EU) affected price perceptions of citizens in many European countries at the beginning of 2002. How did the transition from the national currency to the Euro, the new single currency of EU, actually take place? Examines the confusion among Finnish consumers concerning internal reference prices in different product and service categories immediately after the transition to the Euro. Proposes tentatively and empirically tests a framework model. Provides the relationships between the papers key constructs of consumer price perception and some attitudinal and behavioral variables shortly after transition to Euro currency. Basically price perception took place in similar way, when Markka and Euro scales were utilized. This result was shown, first, by analyzing price perception strategies of consumers, and, second, by showing with correlation analysis that as internal reference price increases, the width of price latitude increases, and, third, by modelling reference price perception on the basis of Volkmanns range theory. Money illusion effect was found to exist to some extent.

Assessing innovativeness through organisational adaptability: a contingency approach

Characteristics of the post-industrial era include increasing knowledge and competence, competitive and technological dynamics, and growing environmental complexity. A firm can handle market- and technology- driven uncertainties if its repertoire of knowledge and competencies is expanded continuously, and its ability to exploit such a repertoire is correspondingly improved. Hence, we examine in this study how competence- based adaptability affects the level of innovativeness, and how internal and external strategic postures influence this interplay. Our findings provide strong empirical evidence for a positive association between adaptability and innovativeness. This interplay is significantly influenced by the underlying mechanism of a firms dominant business logic and environmental uncertainty. Thus, companies are able to improve success in new product development and commercialisation, by enhancing their ability to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions, in line with the dominant business logic utilised.

The Role of Marketing and Innovation Management in the Finnish Electrical and Electronics Industry

Very often in industrial companies, the role of marketing is perceived from too narrow a perspective. A more comprehensive view of marketing identifies three distinct roles of marketing: marketing as business philosophy at corporate level, marketing as strategy at business level, and marketing as tactics (marketing mix) at functional level. Thus, marketing is a synthesis of particular skills and practices learned and resources created translating the philosophy into specific business strategies in order to achieve competitive advantages and superior performance. The empirical study is based on a survey concerning a sample of manufacturing companies with national and international operations. The 42 companies or divisions comprise 38%; of the member companies or divisions of the Finnish Electrical and Electronics Industry Association. Market orientation of these companies or divisions was assessed with MARKOR scale of Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar. The Miles and Snow strategy typology - prospectors, analysers, defenders and reactors - is a very extensively used approach when business strategy has been investigated. In this sample, it was shown that market orientation is very high in the seven prospector companies or divisions and high or very high in the 26 analyser companies or divisions. Both prospectors and analysers are also keenly following latest developments in technology. Further, differences in business strategies and practices, as well as differences in marketing strategies and practices, innovation management between successful and unsuccessful companies or divisions and between companies or divisions at different levels of market orientation were examined. Emphasis in this research is on identifying strategies and practices of innovation management that enhance a close working relationship between marketing and R&D, and that enable companies to survive and thrive in the turbulent and competitive market environments, as in the electronics industry, at present and in the future.

Current Trends in the Finnish Marketing Research

The Finnish academic marketing research and the marketing research made in practice can be clearly distinguished. However, there are many efforts to narrow the gap and marketing information systems are emerging which constitute a positive factor in the use of analytical marketing models and methodology in business decisions. The use of marketing concept in extending to the areas of of industrial marketing, marketing of services and nonprofit and government marketing. There is also a growing interest in strategic marketing planning.