In 2003, Goldman Sachs published a startling report on the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) region: These four countries would be larger than the G6 economics within 40 years, muscling their way to economic dominance and powering past developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. This book focuses on the technology and technology-enabled services that underpin this revolution. The editor analyses the reasons why these four countries are in a unique position to lead a 21st century growth in international services. He then features 12 chapters written by the most important chief executives from the BRICs service economy.

This book inquires about the processes through which different higher education systems have determined national higher education policies related to competitiveness, as well as the strategies they have adopted to enhance their global competitiveness.

Even casual observers will be familiar with the Cherry Blossom or Sakura tress of Japan. When in full bloom the sight is spectacular but it sadly only takes a week until the tree is bare. In a longer cycle of nations and business, we see, unfortunately, a similar pattern for Japanese Multinational Corporations.

This is an inspiring, and practical book about seeing more of the future markets than the competitors. It is the first comprehensive model for analyzing and managing the future systematically and effectively. The five futures glasses and the 'Eltville Model' are simple, but thorough tools to improve thinking and communicating about the future.

Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory contains original research essays written by the premier thought leaders of the discipline from around the world that reflect the maturation of the field Customer Culture Theory over the last decade. The volume seeks to help break down the silos that have arisen in disciplines seeking to understand consumer culture, and speed both the diffusion of ideas and possibility of collaboration across frontiers. Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory begins with a re-evaluation of some of the fundamental notions of consumer behaviour, such as self and other, branding and pricing, and individual vs. communal agency then continuing with a reconsideration of role configurations as they affect consumption, examining in particular the ramifications of familial, gender, ethnic and national aspects of consumers' lived experiences. The book move on to a reappraisal of the state of the field, examining the rhetoric of inquiry, the reflexive history and critique of the discipline, the prospect of redirecting the effort of inquiry to practical and humanitarian ends, the neglected wellsprings of our intellectual heritage, and the ideological underpinnings of the evolving construction of the concept of the brand. Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory is a reflective assessment, in theoretical, empirical and evocative keys, of the state of the field of consumer culture theory and an indication of the scholarly directions in which the discipline is evolving providing reflection upon a rapidly expanding discipline and altered consumption-scapes by some of its prime movers.

Conjoint analysis (CA) and discrete choice experimentation (DCE) are tools used in marketing, economics, transportation, health, tourism, and other areas to develop and modify products, services, policies, and programs, specifically ones that can be described in terms of attributes. A specific combination of attributes is called a concept profile. Building on the authors? significant work in the field, Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis: Models and Designs explores the design of experiment (DOE) issues that occur when constructing concept profiles and shows how to modify commonly used designs for solving DCE and CA problems. The authors provide historical and statistical background and discuss the concepts and inference.

The book covers designs appropriate for four classes of DOE problems: (1) attributes in CA and DCE studies are often ordered; (2) studies increasingly are computer-assisted; (3) choice is often influenced by competition; and (4) constraints may exist on attribute levels. Discussion begins with commonly used "generic" designs. The text then presents designs that avoid "dominated" or "dominating" profiles that may occur with ordered attributes and explores the use of orthogonal polynomials to describe relationships between ordered attribute levels and preference. Computer administration entails limited "screen real estate" for presenting concept profiles. The book covers approaches for subsetting attributes and/or levels to "fit" profiles into available "screen real estate." It then discusses strategies for sequential experimentation. Choice also is influenced by the availability of competing alternatives. The book uses availability and cross-effects designs to illustrate the design and analysis of portfolios and shows the relationship between availability effects and interaction effects in analysis of variance models. The last chapter highlights approaches to experimental design in which constraints are imposed on the levels of attributes. These designs provide the means to untangle the pricing and formulation problems in CA and DCE.

The projection of authenticity is one of the key pillars of marketing. Research reveals that consumers seek authenticity through the brands they choose. Based on extensive research with consumers and brand managers this book offers seven guiding principles for building brand authenticity.

Addressing the entire care chain, this book presents the outcomes of advanced research on healthcare operations management based on real-world data and practices in China. It includes hands-on methods and applications in this interdisciplinary research field, which combines healthcare service, operations management, industrial engineering and information technology. The content is divided into three parts, reflecting the entire care chain. The first part discusses the pre-hospital service stage and explores resource deployment problems in emergency medical service, such as ambulance allocation. The second part focuses on inpatient care services, including staffing and task allocation among nurses and doctors based on multi-project management under uncertainties. In addition, a highly promising diagnosis approach is proposed and a specific algorithm is derived on the basis of real-world datasets which can improve the diagnosis accuracy remarkably. In turn, the third part considers the post-hospital service stage, which most often takes place at community hospitals, and provides a quantitative evaluation and optimization of scheduling for tasks and team members for home care services. The book is intended for a broad audience, including students, researchers and practitioners working in various areas of healthcare management, service management, and operations management.

The book covers the ongoing shift from mass-marketing and micro-marketing to sensory marketing in terms of the increased individualization in the contemporary society. It shows the importance in reaching the individuals' five senses at a deeper level than traditional marketing theories do.

In today's connected consumer environment, customers are better informed and harder to please, but they also leave a more visible evidence trail in the form of improved databases and customer information. Consumers are increasingly interconnected through various sorts of social networks, a trend that is facilitated by recent advances in electronic media and telecommunication (i.e., MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Cyworld). Consumers are also increasingly connected with brands and seek to play a more participative role in their relationship with companies, stimulating companies to reconsider how to connect with consumers.

This book consists of a collection of chapters by thought-leaders in the field of marketing and beyond that deals with the rich facets of connectivity. This edited volume is a great source of research ideas and fresh theory building for academics and students in marketing and related fields who wish to understand this exciting field. It will be a source of inspiration for practitioners who are eager to take up the challenge and adapt their marketing strategies to the changing nature of consumer and business markets.

"The Branded Mind" is about how people think, and in particular how people think about brands. Brand choice decisions ultimately take place inside the consumer's head. Brain science, then, holds lessons for how consumers respond to brands and make purchasing decisions. Marketers and brand managers should take note.
Erik du Plessis does just that. In this, his second book, du Plessis explores what scientists have uncovered about the structure of the brain and how different parts of the brain interact. He investigates developments in neuroscience and neuromarketing and what lessons this holds for brand managers. What bearing do these developments have on current theories of consumer behavior? How can brain science contribute to marketing and brand-building strategies?
Including research by Millward Brown, "The Branded Mind" touches on key topics such as the nature of feelings, moods, personality, measuring the brain, consumer behavior, decision making, and market segmentation.

Die Beitrage dieses Sammelbandes zeigen Ansatze auf, wie Automobilhandler zu Anbietern elektromobiler Loesungen werden koennen. Dies erfordert die Entwicklung neuer Wertschoepfungskonzepte und innovativer Dienstleistungen in unmittelbarer Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kunden in der Rolle eines interaktiven Wertschoepfungspartners. Daraus entstehen Geschaftsmodelle, die den Automobilhandel auf die tiefgreifenden Veranderungen in der Wertschoepfungskette "Mobilitat" vorbereiten. Erganzt wird dies durch ein neues Konzept fur ein darauf ausgerichtetes Personalmanagement, damit die Mitarbeiter die Kunden fur die Elektromobilitat begeistern koennen, und durch praxisorientierte Empfehlungen zur Erarbeitung eines ganzheitlichen Loesungsangebots im Automobilhandel im UEbergang in die Elektromobilitat.

Drawing together the new techniques available to the market researcher into a single reference, "The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research" explores how these innovations are being used by the leaders in the field. This groundbreaking reference examines why traditional research is broken, both in theory and practice, and includes chapters on online research communities, community panels, blog mining, social networks, mobile research, e-ethnography, predictive markets, and DIY research.

""This handbook fills a significant learning gap for the market research profession" "and Ray Poynter has once again proven that he is a guiding light. The practical and" "pragmatic advice contained within these pages will be relevant to new students of" "research, young researchers and experienced researchers that want to understand" "the basics of online and social media research. Ray's views on 'how to be better" "with people' and 'how to maximise response rates' are vital clues that are likely to" "shape the future of market and social research.""
Peter Harris, National President, Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS).

""It's hard to imagine anyone better suited to covering the rapidly changing world of" "online research than Ray Poynter. In this book he shows us why." "Whether you are new to online or a veteran interested in broadening your" "understanding of the full range of techniques--quant and qual--this book is for you.""
Reg Baker, President and Chief Operating Officer, Market Strategies International

""Finally, a comprehensive handbook for practitioners, clients, suppliers and students" "that includes best practices, clear explanations, advice and cautionary warnings." "This should be the research benchmark for online research for some time. Poynter" "proves he is the online market research guru.""
Cam Davis, Ph.D., former Dean and current instructor of the online market research course for the Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Association

""Ray Poynter's comprehensive, authoritative, easy to read, and knowledgeable" "handbook has come to our rescue ... it is a must read for anyone who needs to" "engage with customers or stakeholders in a creative, immediate and flexible way" "that makes maximum use of all the exciting, new technology now open to us. Market researchers need to know this stuff" "now. I can guarantee that anyone who buys the" "book will find it a compelling read: they will be constantly turning to the next page in" "order to find yet another nugget of insight from Ray's tour de force.""
Dr David Smith, Director, DVL Smith Ltd; Professor, University of Hertfordshire, Business School

Based on the results of 177 survey responses, Tobias Weigl shows that the simple transfer of managerial and organizational skills, techniques, values and culture from developed countries to Russia is a false assumption among academics and practitioners.

This is a perfect guide to understanding the core principles of qualitative marketing research. It presents qualitative marketing research in the broader context of marketing and managerial decisions, consumer psychology and contemporary knowledge about unconscious and automatic processes. Different types of qualitative marketing research methods are examined, from the classic focus group interview (FGI) and individual in-depth interview (IDI), to more cutting-edge methods such as ethnography or bulletin boards, which enable marketing researchers to discover and understand real consumer motivations, needs, values, and attitudes. With numerous international case studies, including PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, Nestle, Aviva and Citibank, the book is uniquely practical in its approach. It is vital reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of marketing research, consumer behaviour and consumer psychology.

On the backdrop of the institutionalisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and the emergence of multi-stakeholder-driven voluntary regulation, this timely collection places special emphasis on India and explores its international voluntary sustainability standards. The authors analyse the adoption and implementation of voluntary governance initiatives across a range of industries, offering insightful sectoral discussion and evaluation of voluntary sustainability standards as forms of transnational private regulation. This book will be of interest to anyone researching CSR, sustainability and supply chain management in emerging markets.

This book provides the definitive economic study of the global motorsport industry. Drawing on a decade of research, and interviews with top industry executives and international commentators, the global grid of motorsport is analyzed and the world's national motorsport industries benchmarked. Motorsport Going Global concludes on scenarios for the global industry as it enters a new era of market growth and global opportunity.

Whereas most insights concerning the dynamics of work groups come from North American or Western European environments, Hannah Titilayo Seriki concentrates on teams operating within the complex societal context of sub-Saharan Africa. The author develops a multi-level theory of African teams' innovative performance and regards the team as a sub-system of the organisation, which is subjected to societal influences.

Product information is excessively commercial and technical. There is no single best product for all, and the price/quality ratio can be deceptive. Word of mouth is growing with opinions shared on the internet. This book calls for the reinvention of a new economy based on real requirements, not only for profit or "technology" but for qualities of use and the environment. A product's use is its purpose. An innovation must always be an improvement to qualities of use. The emergence of new technologies, such as connected objects and the autonomous car, form a new trap for innovation, and progress has been limited to the perfection of technique. Marketing must no longer confuse the consumer (the customer) and the user. Complete with methodology for the reader to follow, this book describes how the ecology of use can become the main wealth of an economy based on quality of life and well-being.

How to understand human behaviour has been a very intriguing question to medicine, computer science, economics, psychology and finance. Each discipline has been trying to study and predict human behaviour through surveys, laboratory-based experiments, questionnaires, interviews, statistics, focus groups; the list is endless. The lack of precision in the existing techniques to predict human behaviour has motivated researchers to move beyond the traditional and search for new and improved techniques. Neuroscience has stepped in to fill this gap. It is based on the assumption that human behaviour is a complex process which has a neural basis and the locus of this process is the higher centre of the brain. Both conscious and unconscious processing of stimulus in the brain is responsible for generating behaviour. So if we could develop a deeper understanding of how the brain functions to generate behaviour, we would be more confident in our understanding and prediction of consumer behaviour. The use of neuroscientific techniques, like functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Electroencephalography (EEG), Evoked Response Potential (ERP), and sensors to measure changes in one's physiological state, to understand the mind of the consumer has just begun, and professionals in the field see a huge opportunity for neuromarketing in India. In the domain of neuromarketing, one important question relates to the distinction between Indian and other global consumers of commercial products. Are we different from consumers across the globe? The answer is probably 'yes'. This is documented by the fact that we find a distinct change in the marketing strategy of companies; the methods to influence Indian consumers are different from those adopted in other countries. This gives rise to the question: what makes us different? The next logical question that arises, assuming that we are different or similar, is can we quantify it? Answering why, what and how we are different marks the beginning of the book, followed by issues related to the ethicality of using such techniques to promote marketing, risk analysis in case of failure and future directions in neuromarketing. The book intends to address each of these issues so that a comprehensive reading in the subject matter would help academicians to decipher consumer behaviour and build theory for possible principles of application in the market.

Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research is the essential guide to the theory and practice of conducting ethnographic research in consumer environments. Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny argue that, while the recent explosion in the use of "ethnography" in the corporate world has provided unprecedented opportunities for anthropologists and other qualitative researchers, this popularization too often results in shallow understandings of culture, divorcing ethnography it from its foundations. In response, they reframe the field by re-attaching ethnography to theoretically robust and methodologically rigorous cultural analysis. The engrossing text draws on decades of the authors' own eclectic research-from coffee in Bangkok and boredom in New Zealand to computing in the United States-using methodologies from focus groups and rapid appraisal to semiotics and visual ethnography. Five provocative forewords by leaders in consumer research further push the boundaries of the field and challenge the boundaries of academic and applied work. In addition to reorienting the field for academics and practitioners, this book is an ideal text for students, who are increasingly likely to both study and work in corporate environments.

Based on face to face interviews with decision makers of 16 German firms Michael Klug analyses the applied strategy and the motivation for market entry. He investigates different strategy theories for their suitability to explain the firms' strategy abroad and discusses the operational design including forms of market presence and marketing mix to realise a chosen strategy.

The world today is drowning in data. There is a treasure trove of valuable and underutilized insights that can be gleaned from information companies and people leave behind on the internet - our 'digital breadcrumbs' - from job postings, to online news, social media, online ad spend and more. As a result, we're at the cusp of a major shift in the way businesses are managed and governed - moving from a focus solely on lagging, internal data, toward analyses that also encompass industry-wide, external data to paint a more complete picture of a brand's opportunities and threats and uncover forward-looking insights, in real time. Tomorrow's most successful brands are already embracing Outside Insight, benefitting from an information advantage while their competition is left behind. Drawing on practical examples of transformative, data-led decisions made by brands like Apple, Facebook, Barack Obama and many more, in Outside Insight, Meltwater CEO Jorn Lyseggen illustrates the future of corporate decision-making and offers a detailed plan for business leaders to implement Outside Insight thinking into their company mindset and processes.