Social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Groupon, Twitter) have changed the way consumers and advertisers behave. It is crucial to understand how consumers think, feel and act regarding social media, online advertising, and online shopping. Business practitioners, students and marketers are trying to understand online consumer experiences that help instill brand loyalty. This book is one of the first to present scholarly theory and research to help explain and predict online consumer behavior.

This volume examines corruption and provides tools and that can be utilized to combat it and encourage development. Using Romania as a case study, the authors argue that corruption can be reduced via institutional reforms and effective civic education. Describing various causes and types of corruption, the authors explore the causes and influences that result in corruption and the current political and bureaucratic practices that inhibit social, political or economic reform. The nations of Europe, including Romania, have different civil traditions varying in their intensity, cultural heritage, scope of activity, religious or non-religious affiliation, among other factors. Western Europe has experienced over a century of modern government involvement crowding out the efforts of traditional civil society, while Romania, along with the other Eastern nations of the former Soviet bloc, experienced almost a half-century of systematic efforts by communist regimes to eradicate and control all spheres of voluntary, nongovernmental civil life. Moreover, the inexperience and immaturity of Romanian society in the early transition period after communism, particularly its so-called "entrepreneurial class," have discredited and abused the concept of civil society, utilizing it solely for tax benefits and selfish purposes. Having had to learn the hard way about some of the key aspects of public administration often taken for granted in other countries more experienced in democratic participation, Romania has most recently made significant progress toward overcoming corruption and implementing reforms and policies that will allow it to participate more fully in the global arena.

Isabell Koinig examines how a standardized promotional message for a fictitious over-the-counter (OTC) medication is perceived by consumers in four different countries (Austria, Germany, the U.S., and Brazil), and the degree to which it contributes to their self-empowerment. Building on previous research, informative appeals were expected to not only be most appealing, but also to aid consumers in making qualified and reasonable decisions, educating and "empowering" them by strengthening their beliefs in their own capabilities. A field study on three continents revealed mixed promotional messages to be most effective with regard to both ad evaluation and consumer self-empowerment.

Based on the syllabus of the Institute of Export and the author's extensive practical and teaching experience in the area, this book offers a comprehensive guide to the issues involved in assessing export markets. The book lays out in a clear and authoritative manner the central aspects of:
Assessing market potential and making the selection decision
Market research and sources of information
Collecting and using market data
Creating the marketing plan and monitoring performance

Every chapter has test questions to allow students to measure their knowledge. The practical approach the book takes will make it ideal for those taking professional exams in this field and for executives in exporting businesses."

Principles of International Marketing Research "is in the Principles of Export Guidebooks series, published in association with the Institute of Export, each of which covers a core area in the Institute's internationally renowned membership qualification. The series editor, Michael Brooke, is one of the world's leading authors on international business and export management, having written over 20 books in the field. Other titles in the series are:
Principles of Marketing
Principles of International Marketing
Principles of International Trade and Payments
Principles of International Physical Distribution
Principles of Management in Export
Principles of Law Relating to Overseas Trade

This book addresses the challenges and subtleties behind marketing to women and confronts the idea that gender alone can be used as an indicator to target your market. Darroch provides practical insights into market segmentation and recommends a new approach that focuses on targeting human needs, not gender, in order to reach female customers.

How can marketers navigate the growing array of marketing specialties, multiplying media options and data sources, and increasing content saturation to improve effectiveness and return on investment? How can they provide consumers with seamless experiences of value across channels that overcome behavioral barriers and actually deliver results? In The Activation Imperative, William Rosen and Laurence Minsky provide a straightforward guide for marketers to move beyond building brands to activating them-from simply projecting what a brand is to optimizing what it does-to move people closer to transaction. Drawing on years of research and experience with the world's most sophisticated brands, Rosen and Minsky share a unifying cross-discipline marketing approach designed to impact critical behaviors and more effectively drive business results. They reveal how today's more personalized and trackable communications illuminate tremendous diversity in paths-to-purchase and explain how to leverage this data to develop more effective strategies and creative targeted to individual inflection points. With actionable advice and best-in-class examples, Rosen and Minsky offer marketers a road map to manage today's increasingly fragmented marketing landscape to more effectively and efficiently build brands and business.

Advances in Advertising Research are published by the European Advertising Academy (EAA). This volume is a compilation of research presented at the 12th International Conference in Advertising (ICORIA) which was held in Zagreb (Croatia) in June 2013. The conference gathered 105 leading researchers from 23 countries under the conference theme "To Boldly Go... Extending the Boundaries of Advertising". The book provides international state-of-the-art research with 23 articles by renowned scholars from the worldwide ICORIA network.

This book aims to contribute to the literature and aid in developing a theoretical and practical framework in the area of health and wellness tourism. With contributions and research from different countries using a practical approach, this book is an essential source for students, researchers and managers in the health and wellness tourism industry. Recently, there has been an increased interest in health and wellness due to greater life expectancy, aging populations, increasing levels of stress among others. In this context, the concepts of health, wellness, beauty, relaxation, and tourism can be combined to satisfy the needs of people seeking better quality-of-life. This has given rise to health and wellness tourism, a new market segment that contributes to employment and economic growth in the new economy. Health and wellness tourism involves two aspects: therapeutics, which seeks to cure certain diseases; and relaxation and leisure. As an alternative to traditional tourism, health and wellness tourism provides a new means of achieving regional and local development from a demographic, social, environmental and economic point-of-view. It contributes to tourist destinations' economic growth, acting as a pillar to support other complementary activities. In short, health and wellness tourism contributes to employment growth and regional wealth, contributes to tourism seasonality, promotes quality in tourism destinations, helps create new tourist services with high value, promotes establishment of international cooperation networks, and yields a number of additional benefits. Featuring a variety of programs and initiatives from different regions, with an emphasis on thermal and thalassotherapy establishments, this volume sheds light on this emerging market segment and its implications for economic and policy development.

This monograph presents new developments in multi-level decision-making theory, technique and method in both modeling and solution issues. It especially presents how a decision support system can support managers in reaching a solution to a multi-level decision problem in practice. This monograph combines decision theories, methods, algorithms and applications effectively. It discusses in detail the models and solution algorithms of each issue of bi-level and tri-level decision-making, such as multi-leaders, multi-followers, multi-objectives, rule-set-based, and fuzzy parameters. Potential readers include organizational managers and practicing professionals, who can use the methods and software provided to solve their real decision problems; PhD students and researchers in the areas of bi-level and multi-level decision-making and decision support systems; students at an advanced undergraduate, master's level in information systems, business administration, or the application of computer science.

This book investigates the less-explored dimensions of how industries in different Indian subnational spaces or states have responded to the growing phenomenon of internationalization. What factors have influenced firms participating in global business? Have state (both central and provincial) policies acted as catalyst for local firms? Not only does this study delve into these issues; it also painstakingly develops a comprehensive database that remains unique in the absence of reliable official statistics on this subject to date. Efforts have been made to establish a reasonably consistent dataset for the period 1990-2008 derived from the CMIE-PROWESS database. Care has been taken to condense the data and classify it by sector, location, size and ownership. The study delineates export patterns by firm and state and explores factors influencing export decisions according to sector, size and location. A further interesting aspect is the book's critical examination of industrial and trade promotion policies at the state/regional level that might have contributed to or hindered exporting by firms. The states considered for detailed policy discussions are highly diverse and include Gujarat, Odisha and Karnataka. To address the glaring absence of literature on the role of subnational factors in enterprises' export performance, a preliminary state-by-state analysis of the spatial determinants of firms' export activities is also provided.

The nature, institutional foundations, and issues surrounding the apparent success of Chinese business networks is examined in this book. Major concepts such as guanxi, xinyong and gangqing, exploring the nature of trust, relationships and sentiments in Chinese business networks, are re-examined. A significant amount of literature has been devoted to the study of Chinese business, and it largely falls into two broad schools: the culturalist approach, arguing for an essentialist formulation to explain success and the market approach, suggesting that there is nothing inherently unique about Chinese business. This book critiques both these approaches and argues, based on primary data collected in various countries, and with case studies of a large number of Chinese businesses, that another approach, the institutional embedded approach, provides a better explanation for the success, and failure of Chinese business and Chinese business networks.

This book covers the issues related to human resource management (HRM) in an international context. It gives perspectives and future direction in International HRM research. The chapters explore the models, tools and processes used by international organizations in order to assist international managers to better face the challenges and changes in HRM. It is suitable to HR managers, engineers, entrepreneurs, practitioners, academics and researchers in the field.

This book focuses on Indian manufacturing industries and analyses the impact of inward foreign direct investment on the domestic sector on the one hand, and exports and outward foreign direct investment by Indian companies on the other. Although the emphasis is mostly general, specific industries, such as the automotive industry or the wind energy sector are also explored. The differences between low and high technology industries are also addressed. In terms of theoretical setting and analysis, the book draws both from international business and industrial organization literature. The various characteristics of Indian industries, such as the determinants and impacts of R&D, the effects of spillovers, the drivers of productivity and technical efficiency are thoroughly researched employing appropriate quantitative methodologies that are relevant to the specific domain and topic under investigation. The book also focuses on the bearing of policy on promoting manufacturing industries in India and is therefore of interest to researchers, industrialists and policy makers alike.

Coping with Retail Giants critically analyzes the modern retail market and identifies how businesses gain the competitive edge over the major retailers that currently control the market. Dr. Samli argues that as society advances economically, consumers will seek better values generated by the retailing sector.

Capitalism produced entrepreneurs and property rights, the two basic pillars of innovation and growth. As the speed of technology is steadily increasing only radical innovation can be the name of the game. This book discusses technology and innovation trends by looking into historical examples and telling the latest business stories. It opens the discourse about pirates, pioneers, innovators and imitators; proposes the framework of dominant, science-driven and high-tech industry for innovation management and gives insights into intellectual property rights, industrial designs and technical risk management. Finally, it offers 8 important innovation principles for technology driven enterprises that have turned out to have a big effect on the outcome - and in the end on growth.

This book presents hidden champions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Turkey that have been studied as a joint project between CEEMAN and IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia. This is an outcome of extensive research undertaken by over 30 researchers and covers 15 countries from Russia to Albania; covering many contexts, political systems, cultures and infrastructures. The reader is provided with a detailed introduction to the concept of hidden champions and describes the cases studied in this project. This book is an invaluable resource providing a culmination of interdisciplinary, cross-study chapters ranging from leadership to performance drivers; from organization to culture and governance; from innovativeness to sustainability and further to the financial aspects of hidden champions business models. These meta level chapters are followed by 15 country-specific chapters which provide an overview of each country's history, economic indicators and vignettes of the cases involved in this study.

The rise of emerging market luxury brands, digital and online innovations, and growth in consumption globally has opened the doors for seasoned luxury houses and new players to expand their horizons. This book charts the trends that are shaping the luxury industry, particularly the rise of the luxury industry in Asia and emerging markets.

China is entering a new stage of economic and societal development, called China 2.0, a new era that is characterized by China's diminishing low-cost advantage and increased local competition. Succeeding in the China 2.0 era will require western managers to reposition their businesses. Inspired by their extensive experience in doing business in China, the authors present more than 40 key issues in a compact format suitable for time-constrained executives. The book covers the overall effects on the economy, highlights future challenges, gives first-hand advice on how to manage a business in China, and helps the reader to understand the Chinese culture. China Business 2.0 also contains valuable insight sections in which top executives and consultants share their on-the-ground experiences in China. In addition, it features numerous practical tips that will help managers to be effective in China.

Simon Kempf has developed hedonic (quality-adjusted) office rent indices for German metropolitan areas. His study explores new territory as it constructs, for the first time, such indices for Germany. The author thereby has taken into account the different qualities of the underlying lease contracts regarding location factors, lease factors, building factors, equipment and layout factors of the office rental unit - using more than 22,005 office lease contracts stored in the Rental Databank of IPD GmbH in Wiesbaden. This hedonic index construction methodology is well known among real estate researchers and statisticians, but it has been mainly used in the residential sector. As a second novelty the multiple imputation method in the statistical analysis to solve the problem of missing data is employed. Quality-adjusted office rent indices serve as market and economic indicators as well as a bench-marking instrument.

On 1 August 2008 the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law entered into force, introducing a comprehensive framework for competition law to the Chinese market. One set of the new rules pertains to merger control. China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was nominated as the authority responsible for enforcing merger control in China and has been actively doing so ever since. Recent years have established China as one of the most important merger filing jurisdictions for cross-border mergers alongside the EU and USA. This work evaluates the Chinese merger control law regime and MOFCOM's decision-making practice after more than five years of application. In particular, it assesses which policy goals (competition policy goals or industrial policy considerations) prevail in the written law and its application and provides suggestions for a further improvement of the law - with the aim to develop a transparent merger control regime that promotes long-term economic growth in China.

Relationship management, key account management and customer orientation are concepts that have become central to modern management. This book is dedicated to illustrating and reflecting these concepts and their corresponding methods and instruments in depth. It is thereby focused on the business-to-business realm and equally applies to traditional industrial markets as well as to business-to-business services. Contributions include state-of-the-art research results that are conveyed in a comprehensible fashion to be applied in both executive education as well as in practice.

This collection provides access to up to date, very high quality research and critical perspectives on China's CCIs on an industry by industry basis. Industries dealt with by this collection include: advertising, architecture, art and antiques, computer games, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, music, performing arts, publishing, software, TV and radio, digital media. The collection combines recently translated work by acknowledged experts on individual sectors of the creative industries from within China with more critical work by internationally-based experts on China's CCIs and their implications beyond China. The collection draws on the expertise of research academics and of industry based practitioners. China's Creative and Cultural Industries Reports is a Lens on China providing fresh, new material and perspectives on a key area of cultural and economic development in one of the world's fastest growing economies. Publication in the form of a collection, which could be sold in multiple of traditional and digital formats, either as a volume or as individual reports, makes it possible for readers to select the format most relevant to their interests.

This volume explores the value of business integrity and ethics as a "best practice" model in business strategy. The authors define business integrity, explore areas in which integrity is often absent or discredited, and provide a framework and tools to help build better business ethics and corporate social responsibility. The volume aims to reveal that beyond the immediate economic effect, corruption can ruin entire countries by destabilizing key economic and political players, warping their vision for state development. Against the backdrop of global financial and ethical crises, the authors argue that integrity in business is a key component for long-term success. Integrity includes the ability to be consistent with one's moral values and principles and places society's wishes at the center of business decision-making. The cornerstone upon which a culture of integrity is built within a certain business is the ethics code. It explicitly states the values and principles to which a company adheres. The continuous promotion, support and communication of the ethics code stipulations provide the basis upon which integrity in business is built. Featuring case studies from countries such as Sweden, Great Britain and France and companies such Starbucks, Nike, PSEG, and Anglo-American PLC, this volume provides a comprehensive study of business integrity and social responsibility that will be of interest to students, scholars, professionals and policy-makers from around the world.