Perceptions of marketing journals by senior academics in Australia and New Zealand

Increasingly, business schools are under pressure to produce quality outputs, including high quality international refereed journal publications. Understanding senior Australian and New Zealand marketing academics' views of journal quality is valuable to individual scholars and to the marketing discipline. This paper presents the findings of a study of such perceptions provided by senior academics in Australia and New Zealand. A survey containing a comprehensive list of 73 journals was sent to all professorial members of ANZMAC and Heads of Marketing Schools in Australia and New Zealand, with an overall response rate of 45%. Respondents rated the journals on a 5-point quality scale and means of ratings were used to establish overall rank. The results suggested that, while senior faculty in Australia and New Zealand have their own distinct perceptions of journal quality, these views are not inconsistent with international views. The implications of the results and directions for future research are discussed.

Anxious futures: Magpie2 and 'new generationalism' in Australian youth-specific theatre

The field of contemporary youth-specific theatre in Australia is one of change and, in some cases, anxiety. While Drama Studies continue to grow in popularity in schools, previously conventional developmental paradigms have become less mandatory for theatre, for, by, and about young people outside the school context. Instead, 'new generation' approaches in youth-specific performance are placing greater value on young people's own preferences in cultural activity. Yet this development is being tempered and further complicated by a cultural 'generationalism', particularly in larger arts organization as the youth sector becomes a more integral part of marketing strategies for the future. The resulting ambiguity in the representation, value, and positioning of young people and youth-specific arts in Australia's theatre industry is considered by focusing on Magpie2, a former youth-specific company attached to the State Theatre Company of South Australia. Magpie2 ceased operation in 1998 after experimenting with a 'new generation' approach to theatre for young people in the State Theatre realm. Both the artistic policy of Magpie2 Director, Benedict Andrews, and the critical reception of his two productions in 1997, Future Tense and Features of Blown Youth, demonstrate how competing systems of cultural value characterize the field of youth-specific theatre in Australia.

New product warranty: A literature review

Warranty is an important element of marketing new products as better warranty signals higher product quality and provides greater assurance to customers. Servicing warranty involves additional costs to the manufacturer and this cost depends on product reliability and warranty terms. Product reliability is influenced by the decisions made during the design and manufacturing of the product. As such warranty is very important in the context of new products. Product warranty has received the attention of researchers from many different disciplines and the literature on warranties is vast. This paper carries out a review of the literature that has appeared in the last ten years. It highlights issues of interest to manufacturers in the context of managing new products from an overall business perspective. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

An investigation into commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships

This paper reports an investigation into the antecedents of commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships. The authors draw the antecedents from extant literature and posit that commitment is related to trust (integrity and reliability), communication quality, conflict, and similarity (social, ethnic, and economic). It is further argued that trust mediates the effects of communication, conflict, and similarity on commitment. As an extension, the authors examine the moderating effects of normative contracts (an implicit understanding of roles and responsibilities) on the construct interrelationships. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from approximately 150 industrial marketing relationships sampled from overseas Chinese firms. The results generally support the authors' framework; however, the mediating hypotheses are not supported. There is evidence of systematic differences in the effects of the studied antecedents on commitment and trust. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis provides evidence of significant moderating effects due to contracting mode. The study provides new insights into the theory and practice of industrial marketing. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

"Owned by...". Country of origin's new cue

This study identifies and explores a new country of origin (COO) cue, “owned by….” The importance of three extrinsic cues “owned by …,” “made in …” and price was examined using conjoint analysis. Data were collected from a sample of 268 undergraduate students familiar with color televisions. Segments were formed using cluster analysis and analyzed using multiple discriminant analysis. “Owned by …” was found to be important and distinct from the “made in …” cue. Segments based on the two COO cues were identified using importance weights and individual utilities. When segments were formed using individual utilities the individual difference construct, economic nationalism, provided discriminatory power while consumer ethnocentrism did not, supporting the hypothesis that economic nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism differ. Practitioners can now use “owned by …” knowing that it forms an important and distinct marketing tool. Limitations and future research are discussed.

Nonprescription medicine purchases in New Zealand

This study aimed to explore purchases of non-prescription medicines in New Zealand. Researchers were stationed for 5 days in 12 pharmacies throughout New Zealand during June and July of 1999. A brief questionnaire was administered, for each medicine purchased, to all available purchasers aged 16 years and over. At least partial data were collected from 2,597 medicine purchases (approximately 71.2% of medicine sales). Respiratory products comprised 42% of sales. Pharmacists were involved in 19.9% of medicine sales. Pharmacy staff featured in 62.2% of 792 influences on first-time purchases. This study tested a viable method for data collection and yielded valuable pharmaceutical marketing data.

A new perspective on service quality: A multi-dimensional, hierarchical scale

This study offers a new perspective on the nature, content and structure of perceived service quality. The Nordic and Gap schools of quality assessment are integrated with recent advances in the literature to develop and test a multidimensional, hierarchical scale. The scale provides a framework for assessing service quality within a high involvement, high contact, ongoing service environment. Empirical results indicated that service quality conforms to a multidimensional, hierarchical structure consisting of four primary dimensions, which in turn comprise nine sub-dimensions. The results obtained extend our understanding of service evaluation and have important implications for service providers seeking to improve the quality of the services they provide.

Towards an understanding of creativity and innovation within professional services and marketing

Greatly increased competition in the professional services and marketing sectors has reinforced the need for firms to develop an organisational culture that facilitates adaptation to changing conditions and competitive threats. More generally, competitive changes within business environments require new and creative ways of organising and managing firms. In order for marketing practitioners to be ahead of competitors in identifying and meeting customer needs, creative thought is essential. An organisational culture that supports creativity and facilitates the adoption of innovative practices, products and services, improves a firm’s ability to remain competitive within an uncertain environment. This paper presents a conceptual model of an organisational culture supporting creativity and innovation. The model posits relationships between creativity and innovation and organisational performance. The main contribution of the paper is to build a foundation for future research directed primarily towards exploring the relationships in the theoretical model of interest. Implications for marketing practitioners are also considered.