Vida Siahtiri

Can Islam and status consumption live together in the house of fashion clothing

Purpose – Religion is a significant force in the lives of many people, however; its role in fashion clothing consumption is still unclear. To expand the knowledge on this issue, the present study seeks to understand the role of religiosity in affecting status consumption and fashion consciousness (FC) among Generation Y Muslim consumers, specifically focussing on Iran.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was designed and administered in Iran to a sample of 300 young adults aged between 18 and 24.Findings – The findings of research show an inverse association between status consumption and religiosity, where individuals FC is contingent upon the degree to which they are status conscious or religious. The other major finding of the present study is the importance of brand status in mediating the relationship between FC and willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for fashion clothing brands.Originality/value – The originality of the study rests on exploring the moderating role of religiosity on the relat...

Are young adult Chinese status and fashion clothing brand conscious

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine fashion clothing consumption in relation to status consumption and perceptions of fashion clothing brand status (BS) in transition economies. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was designed and administered in China to a sample of 460 young adults aged between 18 and 24. Findings – The results indicate that individuals’ status consciousness (SC) has an impact on fashion clothing brand preference (BP) and perceptions of the brands status. Also, individuals’ BP and perceived BS were found to mediate the relationship between individuals’ SC and their willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for a specific brand of fashion clothing. Originality/value – The originality of this study rests on a detailed examination of SC and status perceptions in the context of branded fashion clothing (western vs Asian brands) in China, where individuals’ wealth, status-consciousness and brand-consciousness are growing. Equally, it provides knowledge for academics about the deve...

Marketing resource-capability complementarity and firm performance in B2B firms

Purpose – This study aims to examine how market orientation (MO), marketing resources and marketing resource deployment are related and impact business-to-business (B2B) firm- and customer-level performance. Design/methodology/approach – A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data from 251 firms out of a sample of 1000 B2B firms selected from a database of businesses. Findings – Marketing resources and marketing capability are complementary in contributing to both firm and customer performance. In addition, they are partial mediators of the relationship between MO and firm- and customer-level performance. Only marketing resources fully mediate the relationship between MO and firm-level performance. Research limitations/implications – This study relied on self-reporting by marketing executives, thus inferences about causality should be made with caution. Specifically, the time sequence of the relationships among resource possession and resource deployment and marketing results is not easily...

Examining the marketing planning–marketing capability interface and customer-centric performance in SMEs

Managers face a constant challenge to develop specific capabilities that will assist them to deploy resources which provide positional advantages in an effort to achieve superior financial or customer performance. To address mechanisms to provide solutions for these challenges, this study examines the relationships between marketing planning capability, marketing mix implementation capability, market orientation (MO) and customer-centric performance. The contention is raised and supported that firm resource–capability co-alignment drives towards superiority in customer-centric performance. The results of a survey of senior executives from firms in Australia show that marketing planning capability and MO improve marketing implementation capability, which in turn fosters customer-centric performance (customer attraction and customer retention). In particular, while MO and marketing planning capability do impact marketing mix implementation capability, marketing planning capability does so more significantly than MO. The contribution of this study is in examining marketing across three main domains: marketing as culture; strategy; and tactics in SMEs in Australia.

Does cooperating with customers support the financial performance of business-to-business professional service firms?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between Business-to-business professional service firms (B2B PSFs) customer cooperation capability (CCC) and its financial performance. This study explores how deep and broad expert and customer knowledge assist PSFs to enhance CCC and increase financial performance. Design/methodology/approach A multiple informant survey was designed and administered to B2B PSFs’ managers in Taiwan. Findings The results indicate that customer and expert knowledge improve PSFs’ CCC and that CCC has a positive U-shaped relationship with financial performance. Importantly, the ability to control for the efficiency of customer cooperation moderates the U-shaped relationship between CCC and financial performance by diminishing the negative effect of low levels of CCC. Originality/value The contribution of this study rests on the theory developed and empirical support disclosing the complex relationship between PSFs’ CCC and financial performance. The study further contributes to the literature by presenting different effect of deep and broad expert and customer knowledge on development of CCC. The study extends the literature by introducing control for efficiency of customer cooperation as a mechanism that has the capacity to compensate for lower levels of CCC.