CERES :: Browsing by Author "Macdonald, Emma K."

Browsing by Author "Macdonald, Emma K."

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Open Access
All for one and one for all : encouraging prosocial behaviours through brand-convened consumer groups
(Cranfield University, 2013-05) Champniss, Guy; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.
Academic and practitioner interest in sustainable consumer behaviour continues to grow. Yet the focus remains on marketing appeals based on awareness raising, perspective taking and concern. Whilst such an approach may be suitable for an established niche of committed consumers, it continues to be inappropriate for the majority. Situated within the debates on consumer behaviour, prosocial behaviour, brand communities and social identity theory, this study proposes an alternative route towards sustainable behaviours. This study focuses on such behaviours via the brand's formation of 'pop-up' consumer groups, and the subsequent influences these groups can exert on group members. Adapting aspects of social identity theory and self-categorisation theory, the study uses a novel field-based experiment to manipulate consumers into specific group structures (high/low group salience; normal/sustainable group goals) and measures the effects of these manipulations on prosocial behaviours both within and beyond the group. The effects on the consumer brand relationship are also observed. The results show first that such rapid group formation can lead to prosocial behaviours. Second, the results show that social identification with the group mediates the relationship between group salience and prosocial behaviours, but does not mediate the relationship between group goal and prosocial behaviours. Hence, it is suggested that two distinct processes are at work: social identity influence and social norm influence. Third, the study shows that group manipulations increase the consumer brand connection. Fourth, the study proposes novel distinctions between money and time as tradeable consumer resources, and suggests how the context of the request for these resources may alter the propensity to give. This study is the first of its kind to create a novel, minimal and temporary group within a natural consumer context, in order to encourage prosocial behaviour. The creation of these ‘pop-up’ groups provides an original contribution to both theory and practice.
Open Access
Antecedents of retweeting in a (political) marketing context
(Wiley, 2017-02-13) Walker, Lorna; Baines, Paul R.; Dimitriu, Radu; Macdonald, Emma K.
Word of mouth disseminates across Twitter by means of retweeting; however the antecedents of retweeting have not received much attention. This study uses the CHAID decision tree predictive method (Kass, 1980) with readily available Twitter data, and manually coded sentiment and content data, to identify why some tweets are more likely to be retweeted than others in a (political) marketing context. The analysis includes four CHAID models: (i) using message structure variables only, (ii) source variables only, (iii) message content and sentiment variables only and (iv) a combined model using source, message structure, message content and sentiment variables. The aggregated predictive model correctly classified retweeting behavior with a 76.7% success rate. Retweeting tends to occur when the originator has a high number of Twitter followers and the sentiment of the tweet is negative, contradicting previous research (East, Hammond, & Wright, 2007; Wu, 2013) but concurring with others (Hennig-Thurau, Wiertz, & Feldhaus, 2014). Additionally, particular types of tweet content are associated with high levels of retweeting, in particular those tweets including fear appeals or expressing support for others, whilst others are associated with very low levels of retweeting, such as those mentioning the sender’s personal life. Managerial implications and research directions are presented. The study makes a methodological contribution by illustrating how CHAID predictive modelling can be used for Twitter data analysis and a theoretical contribution by providing insights into why retweeting occurs in a (political) marketing context.
Open Access
Assessing value-in-use: A conceptual framework and exploratory study
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z) Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh; Martinez, Veronica; Toossi, Amir
Developing approaches for understanding customer perceived value is a priority for managers and scholars alike. A conceptual framework for assessment of value-in-use is proposed and explored within the context of a maintenance service provider. In contrast to value models in previous empirical research, the framework includes assessment not just of provider attributes but also of the customer's usage processes, as well as customer evaluations of the value-in-use they obtain. Interviews with members of a cross-disciplinary buying group provide support for the framework, including the observations that individuals can assess the quality of their usage processes and that they can articulate value-in-use at both organizational and individual levels; the further concept of network quality also emerges from the data. Assessment of usage process quality as well as service quality evolves as the customer's goals evolve. Practitioners may wish to elicit usage process quality and value-in-use as well as service quality. Research directions include scale development for both usage process quality and value-in-use.
Open Access
Best practice: charity marketing
(2012-02-01T00:00:00Z) Blades, Fiona; Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh
Charity marketers are taking advantage of their long-standing expertise in areas such as speaking with authenticity and brand advocates
Open Access
Best practice: immersive market research
(2011-11-01T00:00:00Z) Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh
When and how to use immersive techniques for understanding customers
Open Access
Best Practice: Integrated Marketing Communications
(2012-11-01T00:00:00Z) Schultz, Don; Macdonald, Emma K.; Baines, Paul R.
Integrated marketing communications can substantially improve target audience reception, message resonance, and positive behavioural response but, to reach its true potential, the process requires a strong focus on data integration/customer insight.
Open Access
Best practice: social media marketing
(2012-04-02T00:00:00Z) Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh
Embedding social media into marketing practice
Open Access
Consumer Savvy: Conceptualisation and Measurement.
(Westburn Publishers, 2007-07) Macdonald, Emma K.; Uncles, Mark D.
The notion of savvy consumers increasingly appears in the e-marketing and e-management literatures, usually in discussions about the importance of consumer-centricity. A synthesis of the literature identifies six broad characteristics of these savvy consumers: they are enabled by competencies in relation to technological sophistication, interpersonal networking, online networking and marketing/advertising literacy, and they are empowered by consumer self-efficacy and by their expectations of firms. This understanding of consumers is formalised by developing a SAVVY scale. Standard scale development procedures are applied using a sample from an online panel of consumers. As part of the process of validating the new scale, comparisons are made with related, established scales -- focusing on measures of consumer advantage (persuasion knowledge and market mavens) and consumer disadvantage (confusion arising from over-choice and vulnerability at the shopping interface). Our findings show the value of formal, empirically-grounded measures of consumer savvy, something that has been absent from many previous commentaries on the characteristics of savvy new consumers.
Open Access
Customer engagement: "only connect", a reconciliation between scholastic and practitioner perspectives.
(Cranfield University, 2022-05) Mollen, Anne; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.
The scholastic view of customer engagement is that it is a critical metric, albeit within the academic world there is a debate as to whether this critical metric is best represented experientially or behaviourally. The practitioner world is divided: for some the construct is a “vanity metric” (Weigel, 2011); others recognise the importance of the phenomenon but discard the experiential metric in favour of behavioural proxies. This thesis aims to achieve concordance between these perspectives by challenging the assumptions of both worlds about the concept’s provenance and utility It is structured around three papers. The conceptual paper (paper 1) defines customer engagement as an experiential construct, distinguishes it from neighbouring constructs (notably telepresence and interactivity), and establishes its dimensions, laying the groundwork for scale development. This paper was published in Journal of Business Research in 2010. It has become a central part of academic discourse on engagement, having 1590 Google Scholar citations by May 2022. Paper 2 explores the scholastic-practitioner disconnect about engagement. Through two large-scale surveys of media websites (n=12,125 and 3,030), it: (1) refines paper 1’s definition of engagement to take account of conceptual work in the intervening decade; (2) develops and validates an engagement scale reflecting that revised conceptualisation; (2) compares the impact on outcomes (loyalty, satisfaction and NPS) of this experiential engagement measure (‘CE’) with a behavioural measure (‘CEB@Site’), showing that the former outperforms the latter; (3) refutes the hypothesis, reflecting practitioner heuristics, that CEB@Site is a robust proxy for CE; and (4) illustrates that CEB@Site nonetheless remains a valuable metric in its own right. Context (here, different site ‘genres’) is a moderating factor that does not, however, inhibit comparisons between sites within the same category. Paper 3 examines the effect of CE on advertising receptivity (AdRecep), another crucial outcome for practitioners. Reusing paper 2’s second survey, it finds that: (1) CE drives AdRecep; (2) CE dimensions differ in their impact on AdRecep by context; (3) contextual targeting is an effective driver of AdRecep, and (4) respondents who are ‘receptive’ to advertising are also ‘responsive’ to it and exhibit a propensity to be ‘micro-influencers’. Paper 3 thereby makes the case for CE as an advertising metric of value.
Open Access
Engagement logics: How partners for sustainability-oriented innovation manage differences between organizational logics
(Wiley, 2024-07-23) Watson, Rosina; Wilson, Hugh N.; Macdonald, Emma K.
Innovation partnerships frequently experience tensions due to differences in partners' organizational logics. The literature recommends that partners adopt collaborative, empathetic mindsets but even so, tensions can threaten outcomes and partnership continuation. Difficulties can be exacerbated when firms engage stakeholder organizations in sustainability-oriented innovation projects, where each partner is seeking their own combination of social, environmental, and economic objectives. This study explores strategic responses to these differences in logics through eight case studies of sustainability-oriented innovation engagements between a focal business and an external organization. The key finding is that partners can respond to their differing logics by shaping a new “engagement logic” that guides members of both (or all) organizations. A logic frame with four value-related dimensions—value salience, instrumentality, temporality, and language—allows a subtly idiosyncratic engagement logic to be created that is acceptable to both parties. This classification of ingredients of a logic frame forms a wider contribution to the institutional-logics literature. A complementary range of logic practices is identified, covering logic emergence, logic enactment, and boundary defining. The engagement logic aids the partnership by contributing to four partnership-level generative outcomes: partnership commitment, capability integration, scope flexibility, and system orientation. A notable finding is the presence of a logic boundary, specified in work, time, and space, enabling the engagement logic to co-exist with organizational logics; a research direction is whether this boundary also exists in logics at organizational and field levels. The study shows partnerships to be a new context within which novel logics can emerge, contributing to an understanding of how logics evolve.
Open Access
Engaging stakeholders in sustainablilty-orientated innovation.
(Cranfield University, 2018-10) Watson, Rosina; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.
Companies increasingly collaborate with external stakeholders to deliver sustainability- oriented innovations intended to address environmental and social challenges. These partnerships have the potential to combine the diverse resources and capabilities required to implement systemic change, but suffer from conflicts and tensions arising from differences in partners’ objectives driven by their contrasting institutional logics (or ‘value frames’). Through three interconnected studies written as journal articles, this thesis contributes to our understanding of how companies can effectively engage their stakeholders in sustainability-oriented innovation. A systematic literature review integrates evidence from 88 scientific articles into a framework revealing the hierarchy of capabilities required to integrate a company’s stakeholders in sustainability-oriented innovation. Notably, a tier of second-order stakeholder learning capabilities is identified which enables companies to acknowledge, work positively with and learn from differences between themselves and their partners. These differences, as well as the mechanisms and strategies employed to navigate them, are further investigated through eight case studies of sustainability-innovation partnerships. First, findings from a subset of five business-nonprofit partnerships are synthesized into an action-oriented ‘CIMO- logic’ framework which sets out the stakeholder interventions used and the value outcomes generated. Whilst project outcomes are achieved by partners enforcing their own interests through agent control, total value is enhanced when partners recombine their resources and capabilities through resource integration; this process is facilitated by partners navigating differences between their value frames through value empathy. Second, analysis of all eight case studies focuses in on this issue of recognizing and reconciling difference. Five dimensions of difference between partners emerge (goal salience, goal instrumentality, temporal focus, language and collaborative intent) along with five strategies deployed to reconcile tensions arising from these differences (engagement logic alignment, cultural bridging, partner positioning, project scoping and success measurement). Taken together, the thesis’s findings advance our understanding of how companies can effectively integrate stakeholder perspectives into their sustainability-oriented innovation processes. They may have implications for other innovation and partnerships contexts involving stakeholders, including those from diverse institutional settings.
Open Access
Harnessing difference: a capability-based framework for stakeholder engagement in environmental innovation
(Wiley, 2017-06-02) Watson, Rosina; Wilson, Hugh; Smart, Palminder; Macdonald, Emma K.
Innovation for environmental sustainability requires firms to engage with external stakeholders to access expertise, solve complex problems, and gain social legitimacy. In this open innovation context, stakeholder engagement is construed as a dynamic capability that can harness differences between external stakeholders to augment their respective resource bases. An integrative systematic review of evidence from 88 scientific articles finds that engaging stakeholders in environmental innovation requires three distinct levels of capability: specific operational capabilities; first-order dynamic capabilities to manage the engagement (engagement management capabilities); and second-order dynamic capabilities to make use of contrasting ways of seeing the world to reframe problems, combine competencies in new ways, and co-create innovative solutions (value framing), and to learn from stakeholder engagement activities (systematized learning). These findings enhance understanding of how firms can effectively incorporate stakeholder perspectives for environmental innovation, and provide an organizing framework for further research into open innovation and co-creation more broadly. Wider contributions to the dynamic capabilities literature are to (i) offer a departure point for further research into the relationship between first-order and second-order dynamic capabilities, (ii) suggest that institutional theory can help explain the dynamic capability of value framing, (iii) build on evidence that inter-institutional learning is contingent on not only the similarity but also the differences between organizational value frames, and (iv) suggest that operating capabilities impact the effectiveness of dynamic capabilities, rather than only the other way around, as is usually assumed. A methodological contribution is made through the application of quality assessment criteria scores and intercoder reliability statistics to the selection of articles included in the systematic review.
Open Access
How business customers judge solutions: solution quality and value in use
(American Marketing Association, 2016-05) Macdonald, Emma K.; Kleinaltenkamp, Michael; Wilson, Hugh
Many manufacturers look to business solutions to provide growth, but success is far from guaranteed, and how solutions can create superior perceived value is not clear. This article explores what constitutes value for customers from solutions over time, conceptualized as value-in-use, and how this arises from quality perceptions of the solution’s components. A framework for solution quality and value-in-use is developed through 36 interviews combining repertory grid technique and means-end chains. Significantly extending the extant view of quality as a function of the supplier’s products and services, findings show that customers also assess the quality of their own resources and processes, and of the joint resource integration process. Contrasting strongly with prior research, value-in-use corresponds not just to collective, organizational goals but also to individuals’ goals. Four moderators of the quality-value relationship demonstrate customer heterogeneity across both firms and roles within what the authors term the usage center. When shifting towards solutions, manufacturers require very different approaches to market research, account management, solution design and quality control, including the need for a value auditing process.
Open Access
How organisations generate and use customer insight
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-05-07) Said, Emanuel; Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh
The generation and use of customer insight in marketing decisions is poorly understood, partly due to difficulties in obtaining research access and partly because market-based learning theory views knowledge as a fixed asset. However, customer insight takes many forms, arrives at the organisation from increasingly diverse sources and requires more than mere dissemination if it is to be useful. A multiple case study approach is used to explore managerial practices for insight generation and use. Multiple informants from each of four organisations in diverse sectors were interviewed. Findings reveal the importance of value alignment and value monitoring across the insight demand chain, to complement the information processing emphasis of extant research. Within the firm, the study suggests the importance of customer insight conduct practices including insight format, the role of automation and insight shepherding, to complement the much-researched process perspective. The study provides a basis for assessing the effectiveness of insight processes by both practitioners and scholars.
Open Access
Identifying the right solution customers: a managerial methodology
(Elsevier, 2016-04-24) Maklan, Stan; Macdonald, Emma K.
The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a methodology for identifying, assessing and segmenting customers for business solutions. Firstly, criteria for evaluating solution customers are identified from the literature. These criteria are then refined and differentiated through interviews with 23 solution project managers. Secondly, a longitudinal case study with three solution suppliers and five of their customers is conducted to transfer the selection criteria into a managerial methodology which is validated by both solution suppliers and customers. The developed methodology comprises 21 criteria which are structured into two dimensions: the quality of the relationship to date and the customer's potential for future solution partnership. By combining these two dimensions into a portfolio analysis, four customer segments are identified to help suppliers determine customer attractiveness. The study's contribution lies in bridging academic knowledge and managerial practice to develop a new methodology for helping solution providers to make better informed decisions and reduce the risk of solution failure.
Open Access
The impact of different touchpoints on brand consideration
(Elsevier, 2015-02-07) Baxendale, Shane; Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh
Marketers face the challenge of resource allocation across a range of touchpoints. Hence understanding their relative impact is important, but previous research tends to examine brand advertising, retailer touchpoints, word-of-mouth, and traditional earned touchpoints separately. This article presents an approach to understanding the relative impact of multiple touchpoints. It exemplifies this approach with six touchpoint types: brand advertising, retailer advertising, in-store communications, word-of-mouth, peer observation (seeing other customers), and traditional earned media such as editorial. Using the real-time experience tracking (RET) method by which respondents report on touchpoints by contemporaneous text message, the impact of touchpoints on change in brand consideration is studied in four consumer categories: electrical goods, technology products, mobile handsets, and soft drinks. Both touchpoint frequency and touchpoint positivity, the valence of the customer's affective response to the touchpoint, are modeled. While relative touchpoint effects vary somewhat by category, a pooled model suggests the positivity of in-store communication is in general more influential than that of other touchpoints including brand advertising. An almost entirely neglected touchpoint, peer observation, is consistently significant. Overall, findings evidence the relative impact of retailers, social effects and third party endorsement in addition to brand advertising. Touchpoint positivity adds explanatory power to the prediction of change in consideration as compared with touchpoint frequency alone. This suggests the importance of methods that track touchpoint perceptual response as well as frequency, to complement current analytic approaches such as media mix modeling based on media spend or exposure alone.
Open Access
The impact of product, service and in-store environment perceptions on customer satisfaction and behaviour
(Cranfield University, 2016-09) Manikowski, Adam; Macdonald, Emma K.
Much previous research concerning the effects of the in-store experience on customers’ decision-making has been laboratory-based. There is a need for empirical research in a real store context to determine the impact of product, service and in-store environment perceptions on customer satisfaction and behaviour. This study is based on a literature review (Project 1) and a large scale empirical study (Projects 2/3) combining two sources of secondary data from the largest retailer in the UK, Tesco, and their loyalty ‘Clubcard’ provider, Dunnhumby. Data includes customer responses to an online self-completion survey of the customers’ shopping experience combined with customer demographic and behavioural data from a loyalty card programme for the same individual. The total sample comprised n=30,696 Tesco shoppers. The online survey measured aspects of the in-store experience. These items were subjected to factor analysis to identify the influences on the in-store experience with four factors emerging: assortment, retail atmosphere, personalised customer service and checkout customer service. These factors were then matched for each individual with behavioural and demographic data collected via the Tesco Clubcard loyalty program. Regression and sensitivity analyses were then conducted to determine the relative impact of the in-store customer experience dimensions on customer behaviour. Findings include that perceptions of customer service have a strong positive impact on customers’ overall shopping satisfaction and spending behaviour. Perceptions of the in-store environment and product quality/ availability positively influence customer satisfaction but negatively influence the amount of money spent during their shopping trip. Furthermore, personalised customer service has a strong positive impact on spend and overall shopping satisfaction, which also positively influences the number of store visits the week after. However, an increase in shopping satisfaction coming from positive perceptions of the in-store environment and product quality/ availability factors helps to reduce their negative impact on spend week after. A key contribution of this study is to suggest a priority order for investment; retailers should prioritise personalised customer service and checkout customer service, followed by the in-store environment together with product quality and availability. These findings are very important in the context of the many initiatives the majority of retail operators undertake. Many retailers focus on cost-optimisation plans like implementing self-service check outs or easy to operate and clinical in-store environment. This research clearly and solidly shows which approach should be followed and what really matters for customers. That is why the findings are important for both retailers and academics, contributing to and expanding knowledge and practice on the impact of the in-store environment on the customer experience.
Open Access
Insight into action: how firms use customer insight
(Cranfield University, 2014-12) Said, Emanuel; Macdonald, Emma K.
Customer insight is fundamental for market oriented organizations to understand their markets. However, the use of customer insight in marketing decisions is poorly understood, partly due to the difficulties in obtaining research access within organizations. But in part because under the perspective of market-based learning (MBL) theory, knowledge is a fixed asset so while there has been interest in insight acquisition, there has been less interest in the processes of insight use. This doctoral research focuses on managers’ use of customer insight within the organisation. It applies the case research method within two organisations using multiple sources of data, including interviews with multiple individuals and real-time experience tracking over a period of time. A framework of the process of insight use is developed from a review of literature and then explored and expanded upon through case study analysis. The emergent framework provides a more granular understanding of the multiple stages of the customer insight use cycle within an organization. It identifies that the insight use process is a perpetual feedback loop learning mechanism and involves several stages identified as: acquiring, filtering, transforming, sharing, analysing/interpreting, actioning and storing. The study finds that some phases are more likely to involve an individual manager while others are more likely to involve managers working collectively. For instance, the stages of acquisition and transforming tend to be individual while the stages relating to interpretation and actioning of insight tend to be collective. Managers may also opt to store insight as their next step for potential actioning at a later stage after any of the process stages. In addition to identifying the stages of insight use, this study identifies the pivotal role of organizational memory in the insight use process. Enablers and blockers of insight use are identified including that managers may respond to perceived information overload by (consciously or unconsciously) blocking information.A key contribution of this thesis is that it incorporates the first use in an organizational behaviour context, of the real-time experience tracking (RET) method. This pioneering use of RET demonstrates that this method may address some of the limitations that plague traditional participant observation techniques in organizational settings, such as active or moderate participation. It demonstrates that RET can be used to track the insight use process of individuals in organizations over time, helping to understand their individual and collective insight use processes. This multi-informant, multi-method study of customer insight use thus provides a deeper understanding of the processes of customer insight use than most previous MBL studies, which have typically employed single-informant, cross-sectional survey approaches. Practitioner implications include that new individual competencies in information use may be needed and that organisations may need to foster a new code of etiquette for information sharing and feedback between peers in organizations operating in today’s information rich environment.
Open Access
Meanings and practices of customer experience managment.
(2017-09) Arkadan, Farah; Macdonald, Emma K.
The notion of creating a superior customer experience is increasingly determining business focus and shaping marketing practice. The strategic role of customer experience management (CEM) is evidenced in the central role customer experience has in mission statements of prominent companies and the addition of customer-dedicated teams and senior-ranking roles. The use of the term “experience” both signifies and imposes a shift in marketing management thinking and practice because an experience, unlike a product or service, by definition, is always from the point of view of the person doing the ‘experiencing’ (e.g. the customer). Despite its prominence and popularity in practice, it is unclear what customer experience management (CEM) as an overall business focus means or entails. This research comprises a doctoral thesis presented in ‘paper format’, presenting the work in the form of four papers in journal paper style rather than in the style of a monograph. The research is conducted in three phases ((1) a systematic literature review of the field, (2) longitudinal multi-informant case studies and (3) new multidimensional scale development) with the aim of answering the overall research question of, what are the meanings and practices of customer experience management? The thesis contributes to CEM literature and theory and provides several contributions to practice. Key contributions of this research are (1) systematically identifying a comprehensive and integrative body of CEM literature, (2) developing a grounded-theory firm-side conceptualization of CEM practice and organizational values, (3) demarcating CEM from market orientation (i.e. a prevalent firm-wide marketing management approach) and proposing an updated and distinctive orientation relabelled customer experience orientation (CXO) and (4) developing a scale for measuring CEM organizational values and exploring their associations with performance outcomes. The thesis concludes with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research.
Open Access
Measuring communication channel experiences and their influence on voting in the 2010 British General Election
(Westburn Publishers, 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z) Baines, Paul R.; Macdonald, Emma K.; Wilson, Hugh; Blades, Fiona
This article describes how a unique research approach was used to evaluate how different communication channel experiences influenced floating voters during the campaign period of the 2010 British general election. Most previous research focuses on voting behaviour as a single cross-sectional phenomenon, and on self-assessments of the relative importance of marketing communications - during, or more typically after, the campaign. This study outlines the influence of different marketing communications (including word-of-mouth and PR through mediated communications) over time using a longitudinal panel of floating voters and a real-time tracking approach. Results indicate the relative importance of the debates, used in 2010 for the first time in the UK, and more surprisingly the relative importance of party election broadcasts and posters.