JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Year:2013 | Volume:5 | Issue:3|Papers Count:10

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of sales promotion mix elements and CRM on brand equity dimensions and also how these dimensions are inter-related. Regarding research methods, this study is a descriptive survey. The population of this study was selected from consumers of food industry and detergent and health care industry. To collect the data, 240 questioners were distributed .The results showed that CRM and immaterial promotions have great influence on increasing brand equity. Also brand awareness of consumers is a key dimension that is considered as a lever or reference on this inter-related condition and causes brand loyalty. Finally, it should be noted that the results of this study can help the marketing managers to improve the quality of their decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges and problems of nonprofit institutes and universities. The research method is a survey in which non-profit institutes’ strategy was determined based on SWOT analysis. The research population included all faculty members and administrators of non-profit institutes, 108 of which were selected based on clustering and simple random sampling method. To collect the data, two researchers-made questionnaires were used. The content validity was confirmed via experts’ point of view and its reliability was confirmed using Cranach’s alpha test (a=0.86). The data analyzed in two levels: descriptive statistics such as determining the factors and indexes, and frequency, and inferential statistics such as nonparametric Binomial test and SWOT used in order to access the internal and external factors. The results show that opportunity is more than threat, and strength is more than weakness, so non-profit institutes and universities on SWOT axis are located in aggressive strategy.

Regarding the importance of the customer in today's competitive world, and considering the previous researches which indicated the cost of attracting new customers is far more than the cost of maintaining customer loyalty, studying the methods of obtaining and maintaining customer loyalty in various businesses has received a high priority. The purpose of this study is to determine the components of store image in achieving the customer loyalty in Hyper Star store and to clarify the causal relationship between the components of store image and customer loyalty. For this purpose, a model retrieved from literature has been tested by using the data collected through questionnaires and structural equation modeling and SPSS software. The components of store image in this research are: merchandise, in-store services, store atmosphere and reputation. The results showed a positive impact of merchandise and reputation on patronage intention and customer loyalty. However, no positive relationship was found between in-store services and store atmosphere with patronage intention.

Nowadays, organizations need the tools which identify, gather and analyze the required information from the external environment in order to use the obtained intelligence in making strategic decisions. In this regard, the organizational external intelligence provides the analyzed information for the organizational decisions. Despite the effectiveness and importance of these tools (i.e. the organizational external intelligence), a model for measuring organizations’ performance with regard to organizational external intelligence has not been designed yet. This study is an applied research and a qualitative survey. The collected data was analyzed using factor analysis methods and structural equation modeling. The findings of this study indicated that organizational external intelligence was measured through environmental intelligence (technological intelligence, political-logical intelligence, economic intelligence, ecological intelligence and social-cultural intelligence) and market intelligence (suppliers’ intelligence, distributors’ intelligence, customers’ intelligence and competitors’ intelligence). Moreover, the selected organizations were reported to have a moderate level of intelligence regarding external factors.

The present study aims to investigate the effect of human capital on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition at knowledge based firms in Yazd’s science and technology park of Eghbal. Research methodology of this paper is the applied research in terms of the objective of the study, descriptive-correlated in terms of the data gathering method, and quantitative in terms of the type of data. Our statistical population includes 75 managers of knowledge based firms in Yazd’s science and technology park of Eghbal. Due to the limited numbers of managers, we decided to apply the census method for sampling. We used structural equation modeling with smart PLS 2 software for analyzing data in two sections of measurement model and structural model. In measurement model section, technical features of the questionnaire in terms of reliability, convergent validity, and discriminate validity were investigated. Moreover, in structural model section, path coefficients were used for testing hypotheses. The results indicate the positive and significant effect of human capital on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition at knowledge based firms in our sample. Thus, in order to get a better recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities through an organization, we should enhance the conditions of human capital.

The aim of this study was to identify the recurring themes and to evaluate methodological components of 204 marketing theses (1384-1389) in four selected universities including: Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), Tehran University (TU), Allameh Tabatabai University (ATU) and Tarbiat Modares University (TMU). Content analysis showed that the most favored subjects in marketing theses are consumer behavior (54 cases), product mix (35 cases), electronic commerce (26 cases), promotion mix (15 cases) and customer relationship management (11 cases). Simple correspondence analysis revealed the meaningful proximities between SBU with retailing (B2C) and traditional marketing, ATU with electronic and service marketing, and TMU with product marketing. TU was not found to be linked with any marketing subjects. Meta method study of the marketing theses indicated the high dominance of such components: Survey, Questionnaire, probability sampling, content validity, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, sample size £300, t-test, conclusive design, replication and extension of current models and single cross section for data gathering.

In recent years, viral advertising has received ample attention from marketers and practitioners due to significant expansion of internet. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of viral advertising. We applied experiment strategy to conduct the study. Students of Mazandaran University constituted the population. Totally 386 students were selected using cluster sampling. The selected sample was equally divided into experiment and control groups. Some viral and some non-viral ads for unfamiliar brands were selected. Viral ads were shown to the experiment group and non-viral ads were shown to the control group. Data was collected through a questionnaire. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Data was analyzed using SPSS. The results indicate that viral ads significantly lead to more favorable ad attitude, brand attitude, purchase intention and forwarding intention than non-viral ads.

Innovation could be recognized as a key factor in an increasingly competitive environments and it is difficult to find an industry that is not engaged in innovation. However, innovation success and achievement to important advantages such as performance improvement is not easy and it relies on applying innovation strategies from firms' top managers and consultants. The objective of this paper is to select the best innovation strategy for improving performance criteria of construction projects. So, a combined Delphi and ANP approach is provided and a practical study is carried out in MAPSA Company. The first stage is Delphi method, where identification, synthesis and prioritization of key performance criteria of the industry and classification of innovation strategies are performed. The second stage is Analytic Network Process (ANP) for selecting the best innovation strategy based on the selected construction projects performance criteria. Findings show that leading and technology importer strategies have high priority as innovation strategies. Because of its facilitating role for firms' top managers to make complex decisions and to select the best strategy, this approach has highly functional properties.