Sponsored product reviews have emerged as an important tool in influencer marketing. In particular, non-monetary sponsorships, where brands give influencers a product as a gift for a free trial, are widely used in influencer marketing. Yet, there is little understanding of i) the impact of non-monetary sponsorship on consumers’ downstream behaviors, such as social media engagement, ii) the moderating effect of influencer type, and iii) the underlying mechanisms through consumer perceptions of the brand (i.e., brand trust) and product (i.e., perceived product quality). To fill this gap, we first empirically examined the impact of non-monetary sponsorship on customer engagement using an Instagram dataset through regression analyses. In this analysis, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to match non-monetary sponsored posts with other similar posts, which controls unobserved confounding variables and resolves the endogeneity problem. The empirical analysis shows that non-monetary sponsorship increases social media engagement, and the positive impact is stronger when a micro-influencer generates a non-monetary sponsored post. Next, using a lab experiment, we provide evidence for a causal link between non-monetary sponsorship and consumers’ downstream behavior (i.e., social media engagement, purchase intention, and brand attitude) and support the mediation through higher perceived product quality and brand trust. We contribute to the literature on influencer marketing by documenting the positive impact of non-monetary sponsorship on social media engagement, examining the moderating role of influencer type, and providing novel mechanisms underlying the effect of non-monetary sponsorship. The findings also highlight the changes in consumer perception of sponsorship and offer insights into the design of influencer marketing campaigns for marketing practitioners.

Every year consumers spend billions of dollars on impulse purchases across the globe. Noticeably, occasions for impulse buying have been expanding due to new technologies and the growth of e-commerce that enhanced both the consumer’s accessibility to products and the ease of purchase transactions (e.g., one-click purchase) (Strack and Deutsch 2006). For instance, the retail store have become ubiquitous—being present on our desktop, in our mailbox, on our phone, in subway platform, in gas station kiosks—and reaching every street corner in our neighborhood. Such ubiquitous nature of mobile commerce combined with the introduction of IT devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) makes consumers even more vulnerable to the sudden, powerful, and persistent urge to buy something instantly (i.e. impulse buying) (Rook 1987; Watson et al. 2002; Danaher et al. 2015). From the perspective of firms, this indicates that marketing opportunities to influence shopper attitudes and behavior can emerge at any point in the shopping cycle from the couch in a person’s living room to the shopping cart in mobile devices and media (Shankar et al. 2010; 2011). While impulse buying has been a well-known approach to explaining empirical deviations from the rational choice model in the literature (Strack et al. 2006), previous researchers have mainly focused on antecedents of impulsive behaviors, such as mood (Rook and Gardner 1993), self-construal (Zhang and Shrum 2009), chronic goals (Ramanathan and Menon 2006) and consumers’ self-loneliness (Sinha and Wang 2013). However, relatively little has been studied on what factors drive consumers to purchase products impulsively and how firms can utilize marketing activities (e.g., 4Ps) to engage consumers in such behavior. There exist a few studies paying attention to the interaction of individual characteristics and marketing variables for impulse buying (e.g., Bell et al. 2010; Inman et al. 2009; Narasimhan et al. 1996) but several issues still can arise from measurement problems, self-selection, lack of marketing variables, and limited breadth of product categories. In particular, researchers have used the term ―unplanned‖ purchases exchangeably with impulse purchases despite a conceptual distinction between the two terms: impulse buying is defined with three key components; unplanned, difficult to control, and resulting in emotional response (Rook 1987). In other words, mostly all impulse purchases are unplanned, but not all unplanned purchases are impulse buys and we cannot rule out other alternative explanations (e.g., it is a ―reminder‖ purchase based on true needs). In this study, therefore, we aim to differentiate two terms and investigate the consumers’ impulsive purchase behaviors using the actual behavioral data with respect to product characteristics, customer demographics, timing and controllable marketing activities such as advertising. We obtained the data from one of the leading TV shopping channels in Korea on 2,657 products and 17,848 air time slots covering a broader range of both hedonic and utilitarian products including electronics, food, fashion, home appliances, and so on (7.8 million orders and 2 million order cancels). Unlike typical supermarket shopping where consumers can actively search products, programming on TV shopping channels are shown randomly to viewers which helps us rule out self-selection problems. Most importantly, distinct from previous studies, we use an objective measure for impulse buying by exploiting the actual order placement and subsequent order cancellation (i.e., regret with retrospective judgment about purchase decisions). We find that product characteristics are the primary factors explaining the half (60.5%) of impulse purchase ratio variations followed by marketing variables (20.4%), and timing fixed effects (10.9%). Interestingly, we find little evidence of consumer demographics (1%) as a driver for impulsive buying behavior. Consequently, we focus on the interplay between product categories and marketing activities. Specifically, we classified the product categories into utilitarian and hedonic on the basis of the gross product categories and investigated the roles of two main marketing activities: advertising and price promotion. We find that the informative and persuasive roles of advertising (Akerberg 2003; Mehta et al. 2004) lead to a U-shaped effect on impulse purchases over time as the informative role attenuates over time but the persuasive role increases over time. While utilitarian products are more likely to be influenced by informative role of advertising and hedonic goods are more likely to be influenced by persuasive role of advertising, we detect that the U shape would be moved to the left (right) with a price discount (increase). In other words, price information does not change over time but the persuasive role increases over time with a price discount. Hence, our results can provide managerial insights for retailers and manufacturers to utilize point-of-sale marketing tactics and to improve their shopper engagement strategies to trigger impulse purchases.

Introduction This research was conducted in order to examine the influence of corporate innovation such as product innovation and profit model innovation towards sustainable competitive advantage and marketing performance. In B2B, the two biggest concerns of a manufacturing company are to provide products suitable for customer's business and to secure profitability of company business. Especially in an age when customer needs are diverse, companies need a lot of investment and effort to differentiate their products. Even though it is doubtful whether products that achieve such differentiation can achieve successful business results. Unless it is a monopoly, there are limitations in satisfying individualized and customized market trends and diverse customer needs with the technology and product competitiveness of companies alone. Therefore, corporate innovation requires a comprehensive approach in terms of product innovation and business model innovation. And product innovation and continuous profit model innovation for improving the company's profit is a very important factor. In order to achieve these two core values, the company conducts efficient operations internally to continuously develop products that meet customer needs and to conduct close customer relationship management to maintain a firm brand position in the market. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate how the innovation efforts of companies in B2B affect the sustainable competitive advantage development and market performance. Unlike previous researches on corporate innovation which included product innovation, this study included profit model innovation as corporate innovation to investigate the effects of profit model innovation on the actual marketing performance of firms. In addition, it is distinguished from the existing customer-oriented competitive advantage study (Porter, 1985) by studying the effects of sustainable competitive advantage on market performance by defining and applying sustainable competitive advantage variables from the perspective of internal marketing efforts. Theoretical Development Firms' needs and efforts for technological innovation and product innovation are very important for sustainable growth through securing economic benefits of firms (Hauser et al., 2006, Dave et al., 2013). In order to achieve competitive advantage (low cost, product differentiation), companies pursued technological innovation and product innovation through R & D investment. However, in terms of providing a total solution that satisfies the needs of various customers in the global competitive environment and improving the profitability of the company, it is difficult to explain the innovation area of the company only by technological innovation and product innovation. Therefore, in this study, it defines the corporate innovation including the business model innovation such as profit model from the perspective of the system operation to the innovation area of the company according to the claim that the business model mediates the firm and business performance (Markides, 2006; Baden -Fuller & Haefliger, 2013). And using sustainable competitive advantage in terms of product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy, this study analyzes the effects of these firm innovations on the sustainable competitive advantage and business performance. Corporate innovation is broadly categorized into three categories: process innovation, product innovation, and operational management innovation (Lee et al., 2013). And the Oslo manual classifies them as product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation (OECD, 2005). In the past, where product-centered markets and external competition were stable, changes in product technology made business models largely changeable, so corporate innovation could be described as technological innovation and product innovation. However, the development of advanced technologies such as information and communication technology (ICT) requires that the field of corporate innovation activities be analyzed from a new business model perspective. This is because existing product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation are insufficient to explain the birth and change of new business types occurring in the same industry. In addition, we can find examples of business model innovation as a type of corporate innovation in existing studies (Christensen, 1997; Christensen and Raynor, 2003; Markides, 2006; Taylor et al., 2012). Therefore, this study reflects these changes and includes business model innovation such as profit model as a type of corporate innovation. In addition, Porter (1985)'s traditional competitive strategy (low cost, product differentiation) has limitations in evaluating the impact of corporate innovation and analyzing its relationship with business performance. In order to compensate for this, we introduce three main variables: product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy, which can segment the value domain of sustainable competitive advantage and measure strategic performance capability, as a sustainable competitive advantage (Treacy and Wiersema, 1995). Research Design In previous researches, it has focused on technological innovation and product innovation to achieve the competitive advantage of product for better business performance in competitive market. However, these studies do not adequately suggest corporate innovation direction for corporate’s sustainable growth in complex and evolving business environment. Therefore, this study redefines the domain of corporate innovation and sustainable competitive advantage and then analyzes the effect of corporate innovation and sustainable competitive advantage on business performance. The hypothesis to be analyzed through the research model is as follows: H1. Product innovation has a positive impact on sustainable competitive advantage. H2. Profit model innovation in Business model has a positive impact on sustainable competitive advantage. H3. Sustainable competitive advantage has a positive impact on marketing performance. H4. Product innovation has a positive impact on marketing performance. H5. Profit model innovation in Business model has a positive impact on marketing performance. <Figure 1 research model> To analyze this hypothesis, it surveyed 300 machinery manufacturing companies producing intermediate goods in Korea through questionnaires with 5 point Likert scale. And the results were analyzed using SPSS (ver. 24.0) and AMOS (ver. 24.0). Result and Conclusion The findings show that profit model innovation of business model has a positive effect on the sustainable competitive advantage. However, product innovation has only a positive effect on product leadership of sustainable competitive advantage. And the sustainable competitive advantage has had a positive impact on market performance. Profit model innovation of business model also has an impact on market performance but product innovation has not a positive effect on market performance. It is meaningful that the company has confirmed the importance of the profit model innovation as well as the existing product innovation as the corporate innovation direction to pursue continuously. A practical implication of this study is that rapid technological advances, market changes, and globalization, as Bashir and Verma (2017) argue, should change profit model of a business model in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in B2B of manufacturing industry. In order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, business model innovation with a clear profit model is highly needed as a new management strategy for the future. The theoretical implication of this study is that the existing studies on corporate innovation are focused on technology innovation, and the effect of product innovation on business performance is relatively small. In particular, empirical studies on the effect of business profit model innovation on marketing performance were not enough. Therefore, it can be said that the fact that product innovation and business profit model innovation have an influence on market performance expands empirical research.

Marketing literature have widely discussed the interplay between marketing capabilities (i.e. company resources and competences in marketing-mix area), market orientation, company innovativeness and company performance (e.g. Knight & Cavusgil, 2004; Luca & Atuahene-Gima, 2007; Moorman & Slotegraaf, 1999; Morgan, Vorhies, & Mason, 2009). However, these studies presented static view of marketing capabilities and resources which becomes less and less relevant in today uncertain market environments (Day, 2011). In this study we follow dynamic capability view (DCV) in management research (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997) and we distinguish dynamic marketing capabilities (DMC) from other dynamic capabilities, company resources and competencies (Barrales - Molina, Martínez - López, & Gázquez - Abad, 2014; Morgan, 2012). Specifically, we conceptualize Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration (DMR) as a DMC grounded explicitly in dynamic capability view and we provide empirical test for a research model, where DMR is hypothesized as factor complementing Market Orientation and influencing on company product innovation success. Corresponding with contingency theory (Donaldson, 2001; Drazin & Van de Ven, 1985), in this study we hypothesize and test the idea that DMR is a company capability that is in a good “fit” with certain organizational and environmental factors. Morgan (2012) and Barrales - Molina, et al. (2014) have proposed dynamic marketing capabilities (DMC) aligned with concepts of “market knowledge” and “marketing resources” and they distinguish DMC from other company capabilities (e.g. manufacturing capabilities, SCM capabilities). Recent marketing literature illustrated empirically that there are actually various DMCs that the focal company may utilize to achieve competitive advantage. For example, Narver, Slater & MacLachlan (2004) focus on Proactive Market Orientation that enable dynamic sensing and satisfying unconscious consumer needs through new product development. Weerawardena, et al. (2015) tested the impact of global dynamic marketing capability and market focused learning on innovation performance and company early internationalization. In this study we focus on specific dynamic marketing capability that complements prior works in this area, namely Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration (DMR). In line with DCV we conceptualize DMR as company routines oriented at transforming market knowledge into modified and new configurations of marketing resources that are better aligned with market changes. Corresponding with prior studies on static marketing resources and capabilities (Knight & Cavusgil, 2004; Moorman & Slotegraaf, 1999; Morgan, Vorhies, & Mason, 2009), we argue that DMR utilizes such static resources dynamically by systematic enriching and combining them, and,as the consequence, the company equipped with advanced DMR can improve their alignment with the market environment. We do not assume that DMR equals strategy orientating company only at new marketing resources (e.g. utilizing new market knowledge, implementing new advertising instruments, brand repositioning, entering new market segments), but rather at improved configurations of marketing resources (e.g. combing existing resources and marketing experience with new marketing tools in effective way). Our conceptualization of DMR mirrors some real marketing practices that are observable in case of companies operating successfully in regional markets and companies operating on global scale today. The spectacular illustration of DMR is Disney corporation strategy with regard to their new product “Star Wars: the Force Awakens” that was released in December 2015. Disney have implemented very dynamic, innovative and massive approach to promotion of their new product, complementing their traditional advertising tools (e.g. TV advertisement, toys) by modern instruments, such as fan events, new computer games, cartoons and PR in social media (Bart, 2015; Schwartz, 2015). The positive influence of Market Orientation (MO) on company product innovations and company performance was widely discussed in prior studies (Atuahene-Gima, 1996; Han, Kim, & Srivastava, 1998; Hurley & Hult, 1998; Kumar, Jones, Venkatesan, & Leone, 2011). Following Narver, et al. (2004), in this study we treat MO as business’s attempt to understand and to satisfy customers’ needs. Such understanding is useful at every stage of new product development. Additionally, MO does not help the company only through positive impact on product innovativeness, but also through leveraging effectiveness of all marketing resources and instruments, because they are aligned with knowledge about customer needs. Thus, we hypothesize: H1.1: The higher Market Orientation of the company, the stronger success of its product innovations. H1.2: The higher Market Orientation of the company, the better company performance. Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration (DMR) complements company MO in attempts to improve product innovation success, because understanding and satisfying customer needs present rather static approach to marketing-market alignment. MO is not enough in today volatile markets, when company needs to constantly reconfigure marketing resources to develop and, especially commercialize, new products (Day, 2011; Barrales - Molina, et al. 2014). DMR does not only influence positively on product innovations, but it also directly influences on company performance. Systematically adjusting marketing resources to changes in market environment leverages sales of all company products, not only newly introduced ones. Therefore, we hypothesize: H2.1: The higher Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration in the company, the stronger success of its product innovations. H2.2: The higher Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration in the company, the better company performance. This research is focused on product (offering) innovations as the key innovation outcome of a firm’s marketing routines. Product innovation has been established in the management and strategy literature as an important driver of firm performance (e.g. Han et al., 1998). Thus, our hypothesis is:H3: The stronger Product Innovation Success, the better company performance. Companies do not operate in a vacuum, so this study follows contingency theory that postulates finding the “fit” between environmental contingencies and internal configurations within the company (Donaldson, 2001; Van de Ven & Drazin, 1984). So far, only a few studies applying dynamic capabilities perspective have discussed the role of contingencies which creates a research gap for our understanding of DCV (Barreto, 2010). Such research gap is even more visible with regard to our knowledge of dynamic marketing capabilities (DMC), because prior empirical studies in this area have largely ignored contingencies, except environmental uncertainty and firm age (Flatten, et al., 2015). Consequently, in this study we analyse the role of two contingency factors, namely: company size (internal configuration) and industry norms related to product customization (external configuration). Prior studies have presented blurred picture of the role of company size, because dynamic capabilities were also found effective in case of small enterprises (Døving & Gooderham, 2008; Salvato, 2003). Nevertheless, in this study we incorporate original DCV reasoning, because intuitively, in SMEs company routines may be replaced by other factors that are typical advantages of small scale enterprise. On the extreme point, in micro firms (e.g. below 10 employees), there is no need to standardize certain behaviours among employees at all, because all marketing actions, including planning, execution and control are performed usually by one person. Therefore, we hypothesize: H4.1: The Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration has stronger influence on Product Innovation Success in big and medium companies in comparison to small companies. Contingency theory suggests controlling for the effects from not only organizational features, but also environmental factors (Donaldson, 2001; Van de Ven & Drazin, 1984). We follow Lampel & Mintzberg (1996) suggestion that “…some industries favour customization and some foster standardization…” (p. 21) and we assume that all industries may be distinguished into two main categories: High customization industry vs. Low customization industry. Such distinction is based on perceived dominance of customization vs. standardization practices among competing companies and it may be treated as a proxy to the popularization of relationship marketing strategy (Grönroos, 1994) and service-dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004) in a given industry. In industries, where high product customization function as a norm, the new product development works through collaborative efforts with customers and value co-creation (Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft, & Singh, 2010). Dynamic marketing capabilities oriented at marketing reconfiguration may be not effective in case of companies working in high customization industries, as close customer relationships popular in such industries demand customer trust and commitment rather than dynamic marketing, including utilizing newest marketing instruments (Mitrega & Katrichis, 2010; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, & Evans, 2006). In sum, we hypothesize: H4.2: The Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration has weaker influence on Product Innovation Success, when it is implemented in the industry that favours high product customization. We tested our hypotheses on the cross-sectional survey data based on the sample of 155 companies operating in Poland and we applied structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM) to estimate the hypothesized research model using SmartPLS 3.0 (Hair, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2013; Ringle, Wende, & Becker, 2014). As our conceptualization of DMR is grounded in the dynamic capabilities view, we searched for such scales for this construct, which would reflect actions standardized among managers and other people involved in marketing (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Teece, 2007). Thus, for DMR we have adapted selected scales proposed for dynamic capabilities by Pavlou & El Sawy (2011). The market orientation was measured in line with reactive market orientation (Narver, et al. 2004), product innovation success was measured according to Ritter and Gemünden (2003) and company performance according to Reinartz et al. (2004). We applied single item measurement for our contingency factors. Specifically, company size was measured due to number of people employed in the company and industry norms with regard to product customization were measured through question: “Please specify, if your industry demands adjusting company offering to individual requirements of a given customer (e.g. detailed negotiations, product adjustments)”. After purifying measurement model through Exploratory Factor Analysis, we retained 18 items for our 4 latent constructs. The items are available by email upon request. Our measurement model received empirical support for its validity and reliability with regard to literature suggestions, i.e. AVE > 0.5; Cronbach Alpha >0.7; Alpha and Fornell-Larcker discriminant validity criterion (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2012). We conducted PLS-SEM analysis following Hair et al. (2013) suggestions. T-statistics were computed by applying a bootstrapping procedure with 5000 bootstrap samples. The detailed results of model estimation are available upon request. Path coefficients for the research model appeared to be all significant except the link between market orientation and company performance, which supports hypotheses H1.1, H2.1; H2.2 and H3, but rejects H1.2. Additionally, contingency effects were tested using Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) implemented in SmartPLS 3.0 (Ringle, et al.2014). The differences in coefficient for path DMR -> PROD. INNOV SUCCESS were found significant in sub-samples according to company size and according to customization industry norms. Specifically, in case of medium and big companies (n = 71) the influence of DMR on product innovation success was significantly stronger (b=0.59) than in case of small companies (n=84; b = 0.28). In case of companies that did not report product customization as industry norm (n=93) the influence of DMR on product innovation success was significantly stronger (b=0.46) than in case of companies that reported industry pressure on product customization (n=62; b=0.27). Thus, all hypotheses connected with contingency effects (H4.1; H4.2) received support. Our study corresponds with recent research devoted to dynamic marketing capabilities (Flatten, et al, 2015; Weerawardena, et al. 2015) and it enriches this research by looking at DMCs from a different angle. Dynamic Marketing Reconfiguration (DMR) that we focus on embraces explicitly these company routines that transform existing marketing resources into their new combinations better aligned with market changes. Thus, DMR is different to proactive market orientation (Narver, at al. 2004) as such PMO is oriented at latent customer needs, but does not assume marketing reconfiguration, e.g. in terms of utilizing new marketing tools. In contrast to Flatten et al. (2015), DMR does not focus only on dynamic pricing capabilities, but it refers to reconfiguration of all marketing resources (i.e. pricing and other marketing-mix elements as well). Our study validates and enriches study by Weerawardena, et al.(2015), where dynamic marketing capabilities were found as the leverage for innovation performance. Similarly to this recent study, our study also confirms positive influence of dynamic marketing capability on innovation performance, but study by Weerawardena et al. (2015) was limited to early internationalizing firms in US and Australia, so we provide different empirical setting for testing this influence (i.e. companies based in Poland in various stages of their internationalization). More importantly, we qualify Weerawardena et al. (2015) by combining insights from dynamic capabilities theory (Teece et al., 1997) and contingency theory (Donaldson, 2001; Van de Ven & Drazin, 1984) and we test previously neglected contingency effects, namely: company size and industry norms with regard to product customization. Our research results suggest that dynamic marketing capabilities, namely DMR, are especially important for bigger companies and for these companies that are not under pressure for strong product customization. It may mean that DMR should be not applied in case of these companies that follow relationship marketing approach (Palmatier, Scheer, Evans, & Arnold, 2008), especially these companies that operate in B2B settings. In general, our study follows recent call for better understanding of dynamic marketing capabilities through more rigorous conceptualizations and providing tests in various empirical settings (Barrales - Molina, et al, 2014).

Fashion brands are influenced by multiple identities. Even though, for example, the brand name might still be associated with one or more creative founders (Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Hermès, Adidas, Joop) the brand image, and moreover the overall brand reputation are influenced by many different identities. For instance, a specific product identity (e.g., Gucci’s Bamboo Bag), the identity of the city or country of origin (Florence, Italy), the identities of well-known key customers as brand ambassadors (Sophia Loren, Vanessa Redgrave, Lady Diana, Naomi Watts etc.). Of course, also fashion brands who are not directly associated with the name of creative founders are composed of the effects of several identities. In the case of e.g. Nike especially successful athletes (Steve Prefontaine, Michael Jordan etc.), specific sports and sport events, and product lines tailor-made for them did help to build a strong brand reputation. All in all, it seems to be expedient to understand fashion brands as more of less complex systems composed of several identities. To deal in more detail with such “brand systems” is becoming particularly important against the background of several strategic challenges – e.g., when fashion brands are growing older and the creative founders lose their specific gravitational power, when in the process of internationalization new countries gain more and more importance who’s citizens might not have a strong access to the existing brand reputation drivers, or simply when in the context of the growing global competition the fashion brand needs to be “refreshed”. Against the background of cultural differences, or even - as within countries - lifestyle differences between different groups of customers, it can also be quite possibly that very different reputation drivers account for the success of a brand. Thus, it is necessary to identify, in different contexts, the relevant reputation drivers, and to analyze which interplay of those drivers might be particularly promising. Is it the creative founder, the corporate heritage, the country and/or city of origin, a special designer, a specific corporate culture, an outstanding product design, attractive key customers etc.? Which combination of such identity factors leads to what kind of success (e.g., brand loyalty, brand trust, price premium)? Will, for instance, heritage especially lead to brand trust, whereas an outstanding product design and specifically attractive key customers create the readiness for a higher price premium? And, is it necessary to create sub-brands to especially highlight specific identities in the process of building a brand system (e.g., the sub-branding of a Michael Jordan product line in the case of Nike)? Or is sufficient to only communicate an alignment with the brand (e.g., ads showing Naomi Watts wearing a Gucci Bamboo Handbag)? In other words, which kind of brand system, and which kind of brand communications has to be designed to attract specific target groups and to sustain competitive advantages? The present contribution aims to present a conceptual framework for analyzing “brand systems” in the fashion industry. Concomitantly, an approach of measuring such brand systems will be presented. Furthermore, a concept for analyzing the impact of several sub-identities on the development of the overall brand reputation and brand success against the background of existing contingencies will be outlined. With the introduction and discussion of such a conceptual framework it especially is intended to initiate the launching of an international research project which attempts to find an answer basically to the following question: Which via an integrated branding and brand systems communication carefully crafted composition of sub-identities might be how successful under what kind of situational conditions?

While the necessity of closing the marketing capabilities gap is an important issue, little is known about the mechanisms that enable firms create and refine marketing capabilities to market new products. Although it is suggested that market knowledge enables firms to create and refine marketing capabilities, little is known about why some firms are better at generating market knowledge or the extent market knowledge development impacts marketing capabilities. We advance the literature by showing that the development of market knowledge through internal processes is not sole or main foundation, external ties are also required to facilitate closing the marketing capabilities gap. Building on the literature on organizational ambidexterity, relational governance, and positional advantages, we examine the extent that external ties facilitate the effect of the firm’s market knowledge development processes (MKD) on exploratory and exploitative marketing capabilities. We use the positional advantage principle (Day & Wensley, 1988) to uncover the path that exploratory and exploitative marketing capabilities drive new product success through. Data from a sample of 169 industrial firms using a multi-informant design shows that the interplay between MKD and external ties provide the foundation to build exploratory and exploitative marketing capabilities to successfully market new products. Given the differences in the nature (e.g., goal convergence, longevity) and knowledge embedded in business and political ties, we draw attention to the different impacts that business and political ties have in helping to build exploratory and exploitative marketing capabilities. Our findings reveal that business ties promote the positive effect of MKD on exploitative marketing, indicating that business ties promote a firm’s capacity to improve its existing marketing routines. Political ties, however, enhance the positive effect of MKD on exploratory marketing, indicating that political ties provide support required to create new marketing initiatives (e.g., new distribution channel). Further, we show that distinct positional advantages, differentiation and cost efficiency, help explain how exploratory and exploitative marketing capabilities may be more or less effective in driving new product success. Our results suggest that while both new product differentiation and cost efficiency are significant drivers of NPP, their antecedents are different. Hence, achieving fit between the preferred positional advantage(s) and the type of marketing capabilities represents a critical determinant of new product success.

This paper analyses the importance of innovation for 680 EU multinationals subsidiaries involved in international marketing in China, the period of 1998-2009, using unbalanced panel data analysis. To date, the literature on EU subsidiaries has failed to consider product innovation in the strategy interplay in approaching new markets overseas. Building on the resource-based view of the firm, linked with host economic and political institutions, the authors empirically examine the inferential marketing strategy in an EU-China context, by applying econometric techniques to investigate innovation capabilities and to test the presence of agglomeration effect of past innovation activities. We find that EU innovation in China is influenced by both host country institutions and firm capabilities, rendering support to the theory. Our analysis indicates EU subsidiaries’ innovation is positively related to firm advertisement, labour training and host market size. R&D expenditure has a negative bearing on innovation. However, openness has a negative and significant effect on product innovation in China. The study findings have important implications for research on international marketing, new venture decision making, and overseas innovation expansion strategies.

Purpose: This study assesses the marketing practices and value-added fish products under the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP) in East Indonesia. Research design, data and methodology: This study gathered qualitative and quantitative data through i) focus group discussions (FGD) with fishers, traders and COREMAP officers, ii) surveys and iii) interviews with fishermen and traders. This study surveyed 714 households (365 in COREMAP and 349 in non-COREMAP) and 33 traders (17 in COREMAP and 16 in non-COREMAP) using structured questionnaires between January and March 2016. This study used Shepherd’s Index to estimate the marketing efficiency for each stage of the marketing channel. For value-added fish products, the value is determined by the difference between processed output and the raw product used. Results: Marketing cost in the non-COREMAP area was more efficient than in COREMAP as indicated by lower operational cost and higher selling price. However, no value-added fish products were produced in the non-COREMAP area. This study noted a lower catch in COREMAP area, which implies COREMAP program successfully reduced fishing pressure. Conclusions: This study identified poor infrastructure and the limited market as the major problems in developing value-added fish products in both COREMAP and non-COREMAP area.

변화하는 기업 환경에서 무한한 경쟁력을 제고해야 하는 새로운 마케팅 전략연구는 인류 문명의 발전적 도약과 함께 시장의 통찰력을 요구하는 방향으로 새롭게 진화하고 있다. 상품 마케팅을 위해서는 초기 단계부터 그것에 대한 배경을 형성하고 있는 사회와 사람, 지역성, 문화, 심리학 등의 다양한 분야를 통합적으로 리서치 하는 것이 매우 중요하다. 그러한 측면에서 본 연구는 트렌디(Trendy)한 상품 마케팅을 위한 콘텍스추얼 디자인 리서치 평가모델에 관한 연구이다. 콘텍스추얼 디자인 리서치를 위해서는 상품 전체를 이해하면서 창의적인 아이디어를 도출하기 위한 적절한 방법과 분석을 위한 탐구가 선행되어야 한다. 이를 통한 소비자의 경험적 데이터는 상품 기획자에게 문제의 핵심을 객관적으로 파악할 수 있는 사고력 역시 제공할 수 있다는 점이 매우 큰 장점이라고 생각한다. 이를 위해 콘텍스트(Context)에 대한 필요성을 고찰하고 콘텍스추얼 디자인과 그 프로세스의 근간에 대한 이론적 요소를 정리하였다. 콘텍스추얼 디자인 리서치 전개 방법과 과정을 통해서 상품 마케팅의 전반적인 판단과 결정을 돕는 5개의 평가요소를 도출하였고 트렌디한 히트상품을 대상으로 소비자의 경험적 특성을 분류해 사례를 조사하여 실제 리서치에 적합한 평가모델과 그 필요성에 대한 근거를 제시하였다. 향후 콘텍스추얼 디자인 리서치 평가 도구의 활용을 통하여 기업과 개인에게 새로운 마케팅 강화 전략으로 발전할 수 있기를 기대한다.

Customer loyalty is a desired and essential result for companies in a business environment with a lot of competition, of which the fashion industry is no exception. For the fashion industry, the competition between businesses is increasingly fierce with the appearance of tailored fashion brands for each customer, also known as a designed fashion brand. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the antecedents of the relationship (reputation of designer, social media marketing) and customer relationship (trust and intimacy), and loyalty of customer for a designed fashion brand. The mixed research method is used to achieve research objectives with qualitative and quantitative research method. Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interview with 12 participants in Ho Chi Minh City, while quantitative data was collected by a survey of 799 respondents in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi City. The results show that the antecedents of relationship marketing positively affect on customer relationship and customer loyalty. Moreover, customer relationship has a positive impact on the customer loyalty when shopping for fashion products. From the research results, some managerial implications are also proposed for the designed fashion brands to improve the relationship marketing performance.

디지털혁명이 세상을 주도하는 기업 환경에서 경쟁력을 제고 할 수 있는 새로운 이론과 전략연구는 산업혁명 이후에 끊임 없이 제기되어왔다. 디지털 시대에는 인류 문명의 발전적 도약이 시장의 통찰력을 요구하는 방향으로 새롭게 진화하고 있다. 마켓 4.0시대에 변화된 환경에 맞는 마케팅 전략은 사람을 중심으로 하여 지인 간의 상호작용과 콘텐츠 생산 및 소비의 순환 서클을 구성하는 네트워크 구조로 가고 있다. 이에 SNS 뉴미디어를 통한 혁신적인 마케팅이 대두되고 있는데 그 중심에 서 있는 부류가 바로 소셜 인플루언서이다. 본 연구에서는 과거의 수직적인 마케팅이 아니라 수평적인 마케팅을 통해 소셜 미디어를 무대로 활동하고 있고, 소셜 마케팅의 새로운 주역이 된 인플루언서 마케팅 영역에 대한 필요성을 고찰하고 근간에 대한 이론적 요소를 정리하였다. 그리고 실제 소셜 인플루언서 활동에 대한 분석, 그리고 평가와 전략의 필요성에 대한 근거를 제시하고 그에 적합한 평가 도구를 제시하였다. 앞으로 인플루언서 평가 도구 활용을 통하여 SNS에 기반한 바람직한 콘텐츠의 전파가 기업과 개인에게 새로운 마케팅 강화 전략으로 발전할 수 있기를 기대한다.