Strategic Innovative Marketing: 6th IC-SIM, Pafos, Cyprus 2017 [1st ed.] 978-3-030-16098-2;978-3-030-16099-9

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Managing Consumers’ Negative Comments in Period of Crisis. The Case of the Greek Super Markets (Ioannis Antoniadis, Vasilis Patoulidis)....Pages 3-8
Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Satisfaction in a Port Logistics Organization (Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis, Panagiotis Trivellas)....Pages 9-16
“Emotional Exhaustion and Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study of a Port Logistics Organization” (Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis, Panagiotis Trivellas)....Pages 17-24
Public Sector Marketing in a Period of Crisis: Perceptions and Challenges for the Public Sector Managers (Ioannis Antoniadis, Maria Stathopoulou, Panagiotis Trivellas)....Pages 25-31
Front Matter ....Pages 33-33
Consideration of Consumer Behaviour on Environmental Labelled Agrifood Products (Matinio Tzitzira, Dimitris Aidonis, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Dimitris Folinas, Thomas Fotiadis)....Pages 35-41
Evaluation of the Reuse of Packaging in the Food Supply Chain (Aristi Moisidou, Nikos Voulgarakis, Dimitris Folinas, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Kokmotos Efthymios, Sofia Anastasiadou)....Pages 43-50
Front Matter ....Pages 51-51
Public Policies and Benchmarking in Tourism as a Key to Success for Destinations (Ruben Molina, Melissa Ochoa, Beatriz Ledesma)....Pages 53-57
Customer Relationship Management and Social Media in Greek Tourism (D. Belias, E. Velissariou, D. Kyriakoy, L. Vasiliadis, C. Mantas, L. Sdrolias et al.)....Pages 59-65
Tourism and Destination Marketing the Case of Greece (D. Belias, E. Velissariou, L. Vasiliadis, D. Kyriakoy, C. Mantas, K. Varsanis et al.)....Pages 67-74
Front Matter ....Pages 75-75
Marketing Challenges of Sports Tourism Development in Destinations with Focus on Generation Y and Z (Alžbeta Kiráľová, Iveta Hamarneh)....Pages 77-82
Local Food and Beverages as a Tool of Destination Marketing (Iveta Hamarneh, Alžbeta Kiráľová)....Pages 83-89
How to Win with the Use of Creative Thinking—The Integration of Theory and Practice in Tertiary Education (Marcela Göttlichová)....Pages 91-97
Front Matter ....Pages 99-99
Ambient Media Design as a Tool of Creation of New Communication Media (Tomáš Šula, Milan Banyár)....Pages 101-106
Implementation of Current Marketing Communication Tools into Practice in the Czech and Slovak Republic (Tomáš Šula, Milan Banyár)....Pages 107-112
Quo Vadis Advertisement? Positives and Negatives of Current Ad (Pavel Horňák)....Pages 113-118
European Class III Medical Devices: Strategic Considerations for Marketing in the Middle East (Rami Al-Khateeb)....Pages 119-127
Front Matter ....Pages 129-129
The Analysis of the Perceived Usefulness of Online Communication Tools When Searching for SMEs (Radovan Bačík, Richard Fedorko, Jakub Horváth, Ján Mihál)....Pages 131-136
An Empirical Examination of Innovation Management System and Financial Performance (Juho-Petteri Huhtala, Iiro Vaniala, Henrikki Tikkanen)....Pages 137-142
Assessing Reputation of an Enterprise as a Socially Responsible Organization (Tomasz L. Nawrocki, Danuta Szwajca)....Pages 143-150
Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Peter Štarchoň, Dagmar Weberová)....Pages 151-158
A Methodological Approach for Effective and Sustainable Strategic Planning in Independent Authorities: The Case of the Hellenic Ombudsman (Athanasios Raptis, Odysseas Kopsidas, Labrini Motsia, Stefanos Polymenopoulos, Adamadia Simopoulou, Athanasios Gegkas et al.)....Pages 159-168
Front Matter ....Pages 169-171
Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of the Internet Forum Aiming at Business Success of High-Technology Companies (Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, Panagiotis Reklitis)....Pages 173-183
Modeling the Strategy of Digital Communications (Apostolos S. Sarlis, Damianos P. Sakas, Panagiotis Reklitis)....Pages 185-193
Partial Least Square Modeling Measurement and Technology Evaluation of Exporting Companies (Ruben Molina, Joel Bonales)....Pages 195-202
Hospital Information Systems Planning: Strategic IT Alignment in Healthcare (Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou, Vicky Manthou)....Pages 203-209
Work-Related Stress in Public Health Care: A Case Study in Greece During Economic Crisis (Aristomenis I. Syngelakis, Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou)....Pages 211-216
Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Marketing in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies (Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, Panagiotis Reklitis)....Pages 217-226
Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Social Media Networks in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies (Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, Panagiotis Reklitis)....Pages 227-236
Front Matter ....Pages 237-246
Modelling and Simulation of Pedestrian Behaviour on Museum Exhibition Spaces (Melpomeni Liakou, Odysseas Kosmas)....Pages 247-253
Improving Website Usability and Traffic Based on Users Perceptions and Suggestions––A User-Centered Digital Marketing Approach (Ioannis C. Drivas, Damianos P. Sakas, Panagiotis Reklitis)....Pages 255-266
The Problems of Teaching and Learning in a Cross-Cultural Environment (Yulia V. Taratukhina, Lyubov A. Tsyganova)....Pages 267-275

Citation preview

Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics

Damianos P. Sakas Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos   Editors

Strategic Innovative Marketing 6th IC-SIM, Pafos, Cyprus 2017

Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11960

Damianos P. Sakas Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos •

Editors

Strategic Innovative Marketing 6th IC-SIM, Pafos, Cyprus 2017

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Editors Damianos P. Sakas Faculty of Economics, Management and Informatics University of Peloponnese Tripoli, Greece

Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos Faculty of Economics, Management and Informatics University of Peloponnese Tripoli, Greece

ISSN 2198-7246 ISSN 2198-7254 (electronic) Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ISBN 978-3-030-16098-2 ISBN 978-3-030-16099-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935479 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface: 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2017)

Aims and Scope of the Conference The 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing 2017 took place in Pafos, Cyprus, during September 6–9, 2017. IC-SIM is an international interdisciplinary conference focusing on the theoretical approach of the contemporary issues evolved in strategic marketing and the integration of theory and practice. More than 300 pre-registered authors submitted their work at the conference. IC-SIM 2017 finally accepted and hosted 95 original research papers, after a double-blinded peer-review process. During the conference, 9 Workshops were held in order to advance and contribute to specific research areas in the field of Innovative Marketing. The conference aims at creating a forum for further discussion for a Strategic Innovative Marketing Field incorporating a series of issues and/or related organizations that manage marketing in their everyday operations. Therefore, the call for papers was addressed to scholars and/ or professionals of the fields of Social Media and Marketing Innovation, E-marketing and new Technologies, Strategic Marketing, Services and Cultural Marketing, International and Cross-cultural Marketing, Marketing research and Analytics, Marketing Communications, B2B and B2C Marketing. Furthermore, papers focused on issues of Consumer Behavior and Advertising and Promotion were also welcomed. IC-SIM provides a common ground for the exchange of insights on strategic issues in the science of innovation marketing, ensuring significant contributions to this field. The primary objective of IC-SIM was the theoretical approach of contemporary issues evolved in strategic marketing and the integration of theory and practice. The conference provides a common ground for the exchange of insights on strategic issues in the science of innovation marketing, ensuring significant contributions to this field.

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Preface: 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2017)

Grouping emerging technologies in the Marketing field together in a close examination of practices, problems and trends, IC-SIM, and its emphases on integration and marketing presented the state of the art in the field. This Annual Event is addressed jointly to academics and practitioners and provides a forum for a number of perspectives, based on either theoretical analyses or empirical case studies that foster the dialogue and the exchange of ideas.

Topics Marketing of Innovation, Social Media Marketing, Innovations in online Marketing, Marketing Technological Innovation, Facebook marketing strategies, Mobile Marketing, Blogging, Network analysis, e-branding & Brand Experience, Management Digital marketing, Marketing and Electronic Commerce, Marketing Analytics, Marketing Research, Marketing Information Systems, Marketing of Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Marketing, Distribution Channel Management, Integrated Marketing, Communications Strategic Marketing, Services Marketing, Services Branding/Online Brands, Benchmarking strategies, Customer satisfaction, Emerging Markets, Marketing Management, New Product Design and Development, Creativity Marketing, Sports Marketing, B2B and B2C Marketing, Pricing Strategies in Marketing, Marketing Theory and Applications, Art & Cultural Marketing, Cross-cultural marketing, Tourism & Destination, Marketing Transport Industry, Marketing Experiential and Sensory, Marketing Customer, Relationship Management and Social CRM Collaborative Marketing, Safety Marketing, Business economics, Economics of Business Strategy, Accounting Marketing, Global Business Marketing, Finance Healthcare Management, Accounting Education Skills & Competences Higher Education

Paper Peer Review More than 225 original researches had been submitted for consideration in ICSIM 2017. All papers submitted to the Conference were reviewed using a double-blind peer-review process. The Conference Scientific Committee decided about the acceptance or not of the submitted papers, with the contribution of competent and expertised reviewers.

Preface: 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2017)

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Thanks We would like to thank all members that participated in any way in the ICSIM 2017 Conference and especially: • The famous publication house Springer for their communication sponsorship. • The co-organizing Universities and Institutes for their support and development of a high-quality Conference scientific level and profile. • The members of the Scientific Committee that honored the Conference with their presence and provided a significant contribution to the review of papers as well as for their indications for the improvement of the Conference. • All members of the Organizing Committee for their help, support, and spirit participation before, during and after the Conference. • The Session Organizers for their willing to organize sessions of high importance and for their editorial work, contributing to the development of valued services to the Conference. • Dr. Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, Chairman of the Organizing Committee. • Ms. Antonia Veltsista, editorial assistant.

Conference Details

Chairs Damianos P. Sakas, University of Peloponnese, Greece

International Advisory Committee Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, UK Michael Belch, San Diego State University, USA Philip Kitchen, ESC Rennes School of Business, France Yorgos Zotos, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Sally Dibb, The Open University, UK C. B. Bhattacharya, ESMT European School of Management and Technology, Germany

Scientific Committee Fiona Lettice, University of East Anglia, UK David P. Evans, La Rochelle School of Business, France Carlota Lorenzo Romero, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain Giacomo Del Chiappa, University of Sassari, Italy Denisa Kasl Kollmannová, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic Russell Belk, York University, Canada Nergis Aziz, Suleyman Sah University, Turkey Barry Friedman, State University of New York at Oswego, USA Chris Cooper, Oxford Brookes University, UK Annette Pritchard, Cardifff Metropolitan University, UK

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Conference Details

Adriana Giurgiu, University of Oradea, Romania Panagiotis Trivellas, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Greece Apostolos Giovanis, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece Yiorgos A. Bakamitsos, A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, Luisiana, USA Sarfraz Mian, State University of New York at Oswego, USA Ram Herstein, Jerusalem Academic Center, Israel Melanie Smith, Budapest Business School, Hungary Maja Konečnik Ruzzier, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Kir Kuščer, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, University of Peloponnese, Greece Cristinel Constantin, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania Can Seng Ooi, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Ausrine Armaitiene, Klaipeda University, Klaipeda, Lithuania Alzbeta Kiralova, University of Business in Prague, Czech Republic Nigel Morgan, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK Nikolaos Konstantopoulos, University of the Aegean, Greece Konstadinos Kutsikos, University of the Aegean, Greece Jan Jirak, Charles University, Prague/Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic Kimberly Armani, State University of New York at Oswego, USA Dragos Paun, Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Axel Schlich, University of Applied Sciences, Fachhochschule Koblenz, Germany Umran Yugruk Planken, The Hague University, Netherlands Renata Tomljenović, Institute for Tourism, Croatia Ahmet Sengonul, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey Evgenia Bitsani, Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata, Greece George Boustras, European University, Cyprus Diren Bulut, Istanbul University, Turkey Radka Johnova, Vyssi Odborna Skola Informacnich Sluzeb, Prague, Czech Republic Efstathios Kefallonitis, State University of New York at Oswego, USA Françoise Lorant, Université Paris Nord 13, France José Manuel Rosa Nunes, Universidade dos Açores, Portugal Tijana Rakić, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Teresa Borges Tiago, Universidade dos Açores, Portugal Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Senija Causevic, SOAS, University of London, UK Goetz Greve, Hamburg School of Business Administration, Germany Saila Saraniemi, University of Oulu, Finland Peter Yannopoulos, Brock University, Canada Nick Marinescu, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania Suleyman Degirmen, Mersin University, Turkey Jakub Fischer, University of Economics in Prague, CZ Republic

Conference Details

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Jekaterina Kipina, Tallinn University, Estonia John Tsalikis, Florida International University, USA Irene Tilikidou, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece Monika Jedynak, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland Efthymios Constantinides, University of Twente, The Netherlands Ana Pereira Roders, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands Adina Letitia Negrusa, Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Christos Sarmaniotis, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece Dimitrios Vlachos, University of Peloponnese, Greece Aspasia Vlachvei, Technological Educational Institute of West Macedonia, Greece Ourania Notta, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece Leszek Koziol, Malopolska School of Economics, Tarnow, Poland Maria Luisa Medrano, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain Charalambos Yakinthos, Merchant Marine Academy of Macedonia, Greece Marianna Sigala, University of South Australia, Australia Marina-Selini Katsaiti, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates Christos Fragkos, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece Klimis Ntalianis, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece Christos Riziotis, National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Greece Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou, TEI of Central Macedonia Stella Sylaiou, Hellenic Open University Shailendra P. Jain, University of Washington, USA Lee Li, York University, Canada Avlonitis George J., Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece Dimitrios Belias, University of Thessaly, Greece

Organizing Committee Dr. Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos, University of Peloponnese, Greece Richard Rutter, University of East Anglia, UK Ioannis Drivas, Linnaeus University, Sweden Radoslaw Pyrek, Malopolska School of Economics, Tarnow, Poland

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Conference Details

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Jochen WIRTZ

NUS Business School

Jochen Wirtz is Professor of Marketing at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the founding director of the dual degree UCLA—NUS Executive M.B.A. Program (ranked globally #6 in the Financial Times 2016 EMBA rankings), an international fellow of the Service Research Center at Karlstad University, Sweden, and Academic Scholar at the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (CIHF) at Cornell University, US. Previously, Dr. Wirtz was an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (from 2008 to 2013), and a founding member of the NUS Teaching Academy, the NUS think-tank on education matters (from 2009 to 2015). In recognition of his excellence in teaching and research, Prof. Wirtz has received over 40 awards, including the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) 2012 Outstanding Marketing Teacher Award (the highest recognition of teaching excellence of AMS globally) and the prestigious, top university-level Outstanding Educator Award at NUS. He also was the winner of the inaugural Outstanding Service Researcher Award 2010 and the Best Practical Implications Award 2009, both awarded by Emerald Group Publications. He serves on the editorial review boards of over ten academic journals, including the Journal of Service Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Service Science, Journal of Service Theory & Practice, Service Industries Journal, and Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.

Contents

Part I

7th Symposium on Management Challenges (IANOS): Crisis Kills or Links?

Managing Consumers’ Negative Comments in Period of Crisis. The Case of the Greek Super Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ioannis Antoniadis and Vasilis Patoulidis

3

Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Satisfaction in a Port Logistics Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis and Panagiotis Trivellas

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“Emotional Exhaustion and Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study of a Port Logistics Organization” . . . . . . Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis and Panagiotis Trivellas

17

Public Sector Marketing in a Period of Crisis: Perceptions and Challenges for the Public Sector Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ioannis Antoniadis, Maria Stathopoulou and Panagiotis Trivellas

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Part II

Green Marketing

Consideration of Consumer Behaviour on Environmental Labelled Agrifood Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matinio Tzitzira, Dimitris Aidonis, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Dimitris Folinas and Thomas Fotiadis Evaluation of the Reuse of Packaging in the Food Supply Chain . . . . . . Aristi Moisidou, Nikos Voulgarakis, Dimitris Folinas, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Kokmotos Efthymios and Sofia Anastasiadou

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Part III

Contents

Reconsidering the Role of Place in Marketing

Public Policies and Benchmarking in Tourism as a Key to Success for Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruben Molina, Melissa Ochoa and Beatriz Ledesma Customer Relationship Management and Social Media in Greek Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D. Belias, E. Velissariou, D. Kyriakoy, L. Vasiliadis, C. Mantas, L. Sdrolias, G. Aspridis and A. Koustelios Tourism and Destination Marketing the Case of Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . D. Belias, E. Velissariou, L. Vasiliadis, D. Kyriakoy, C. Mantas, K. Varsanis, L. Sdrolias, A. Koustelios and D. Tselios Part IV

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User Generated Content and Marketing

Marketing Challenges of Sports Tourism Development in Destinations with Focus on Generation Y and Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alžbeta Kiráǐová and Iveta Hamarneh Local Food and Beverages as a Tool of Destination Marketing . . . . . . . Iveta Hamarneh and Alžbeta Kiráǐová How to Win with the Use of Creative Thinking—The Integration of Theory and Practice in Tertiary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marcela Göttlichová Part V

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91

Market Acceptance

Ambient Media Design as a Tool of Creation of New Communication Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Tomáš Šula and Milan Banyár Implementation of Current Marketing Communication Tools into Practice in the Czech and Slovak Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Tomáš Šula and Milan Banyár Quo Vadis Advertisement? Positives and Negatives of Current Ad . . . . 113 Pavel Horňák European Class III Medical Devices: Strategic Considerations for Marketing in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Rami Al-Khateeb

Contents

Part VI

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Marketing & Consumer Perceptions

The Analysis of the Perceived Usefulness of Online Communication Tools When Searching for SMEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Radovan Bačík, Richard Fedorko, Jakub Horváth and Ján Mihál An Empirical Examination of Innovation Management System and Financial Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Juho-Petteri Huhtala, Iiro Vaniala and Henrikki Tikkanen Assessing Reputation of an Enterprise as a Socially Responsible Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Tomasz L. Nawrocki and Danuta Szwajca Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands in the Czech Republic and Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Peter Štarchoň and Dagmar Weberová A Methodological Approach for Effective and Sustainable Strategic Planning in Independent Authorities: The Case of the Hellenic Ombudsman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Athanasios Raptis, Odysseas Kopsidas, Labrini Motsia, Stefanos Polymenopoulos, Adamadia Simopoulou, Athanasios Gegkas and Charalampos Platis Part VII

3rd Symposium on Business Informatics and Modelling

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of the Internet Forum Aiming at Business Success of High-Technology Companies . . . . . . . . . 173 Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos and Panagiotis Reklitis Modeling the Strategy of Digital Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Apostolos S. Sarlis, Damianos P. Sakas and Panagiotis Reklitis Partial Least Square Modeling Measurement and Technology Evaluation of Exporting Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Ruben Molina and Joel Bonales Hospital Information Systems Planning: Strategic IT Alignment in Healthcare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou and Vicky Manthou Work-Related Stress in Public Health Care: A Case Study in Greece During Economic Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Aristomenis I. Syngelakis, Fotis Kitsios and Maria Kamariotou Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Marketing in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies . . . . . 217 Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos and Panagiotis Reklitis

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Contents

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Social Media Networks in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos and Panagiotis Reklitis Part VIII

7th Symposium on Integrated Information

Modelling and Simulation of Pedestrian Behaviour on Museum Exhibition Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Melpomeni Liakou and Odysseas Kosmas Improving Website Usability and Traffic Based on Users Perceptions and Suggestions––A User-Centered Digital Marketing Approach . . . . . . 255 Ioannis C. Drivas, Damianos P. Sakas and Panagiotis Reklitis The Problems of Teaching and Learning in a Cross-Cultural Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Yulia V. Taratukhina and Lyubov A. Tsyganova

Part I

7th Symposium on Management Challenges (IANOS): Crisis Kills or Links?

Organized by: Panagiotis Trivellas TEI of Central Greece, Department of Logistics Management, Greece Description This symposium attempts to cast light on concurrent advances on the fields of Organisational Behaviour, HRM, Innovation and Knowledge Management, Strategic Leadership, Sustainability, SCM, and Higher Education. Diverse and modern perspectives on the development and evolution of the relative disciplines on regional and national level will be discussed and debated. However, does the current crisis impose threats to survival (kills?) or yield opportunities for changes and synergies to growth (links?)? Are the same fundamental cornerstones such as leadership, strategy, knowledge, and innovation that produce both excellence and perish? (Knowledge Innovation Leadership Learning Strategy: KILLS?, Leadership Innovation Networking Knowledge Strategy: LINKS?) In the light of the current recession, this symposium aims to track different views, discuss, and publish research on the challenges in the field of management which influence societies, cultures, networks, organizations, teams, and individuals. Furthermore, this session will put special emphasis on the investigation of those business processes fostering innovation and facilitating management transitions from dominant structures to more evolutionary, developmental paradigms.

Managing Consumers’ Negative Comments in Period of Crisis. The Case of the Greek Super Markets Ioannis Antoniadis and Vasilis Patoulidis

Abstract The use of social media by firms and marketers is becoming essential due to the huge possibilities offered for low-cost promotion and improvement of their brand image. But, by nature, social media could be harmful for companies and brands as the published content often attracts negative comments by consumers and social media users. In the present paper, the negative comments on the official Facebook pages of Greek supermarkets are analyzed in order to examine the strategies used by firms to tackle negative electronic word of mouth (NEWOM). The particular strategies are evaluated based on the literature and provide useful conclusions about the effect on the corporations’ brand image. Keywords Negative eWoM · Content analysis · Customer satisfaction · Social media

Introduction Social media has been in the epicenter of every integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign, as it provides firms with unprecedented capabilities of interaction with a fraction of the cost compared to traditional media. Firms and brands have recognized the immediate need of focusing on the development of a two-way personal relationship with consumers, encouraging interaction, communication of experiences, and creation of content by both sides [5]. Social media is used as means of connecting brands and consumers either through targeted IMC campaigns and micro-campaigns, or as a constant channel of corpoI. Antoniadis (B) Department of Business Administration (Kozani), Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences, Kozani, Greece e-mail: [email protected] V. Patoulidis MA in Public Relations and Marketing with New Technologies, Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences, Kastoria, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_1

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A. Ioannis and P. Vasilis

rate communication between the customers and the company. Especially the brandrelated promotion activities in social media can be used to increase brand awareness, improve brand image, customer loyalty, and prompt customers to talk about the brand through e-word of mouth (eWoM) in social media, building positive social capital for the brand [2]. These activities can include or attract user-generated content such as experiences, photos, and consumer stories, that can trigger a constant public dialogue in the social media between present and potential customers and the firm concerning their services and brands, that will affect the brand image of the firms’ products/services [3] in a positive or negative way. Therefore, internet and social media offer consumers and stakeholders the ability to communicate positive or negative information, views, and experiences concerning a brand, affecting the brand image and influencing current and prospect consumers. While positive comments are helpful for the image of the brand and more common, negative comments can have a faster and more devastating effect on the brand image due to virality of Negative e-Word of Mouth (NEWOM) [9]. Consumers often use NEWOM to communicate unpleasant experiences and low-quality services, and this can be proven to be a useful tool for marketing practitioners should these complaints and remarks are properly handled [16]. In this paper, we examine the way firms manage negative comments on their Facebook pages in Greece. We examine the 4 biggest supermarkets in Greece using content analysis to identify the nature of complaints and negative comments, and the ways that the firms handle them. Our paper contributes to the relevant literature as it expands the research in a market facing an ongoing and lasting crisis that had a significant effect on consumers’ behavior. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The following section reviews the literature on the characteristics of the services provided by retailers and the nature of complaints and NEWOM by customers. The methodology of our research is provided in Sect. “Methodology”, followed by the findings of the content analysis. The paper concludes with a summary of our findings and suggestions for further research.

Literature Review Retailers operate in an increasingly competitive environment, having to face continuous changes in terms of market structure, consumer demographics and behavior, and of course technology and Internet. This environment is even harder for retailers in Greece as the result of the ongoing financial crisis. Consumers do not only seek good quality and reasonably prices products but a complete shopping experience that should be reflected in positive image for the retailer and his shop [15]. Ailawadi and Keller [1] list some of the factors that influence the total image of the retailer as variety and quality of the products, the level of service prices, and the intensity of promotional activities. Marketing campaigns and promotional activities through social media create greater exposure of the retailer to the consumers,

Managing Consumers’ Negative Comments in Period of Crisis …

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encouraging interactive communication and help marketers discover user-generated content, issues and problems that consumers face, related with the provided services [11]. In that regard, comments and experiences can be an important tool of discovering opportunities or problems and improving the brand image of a retailer. User-generated content and comments affects more the perceptions of consumers towards a brand compared to content generated by firms [13]. That is more important for negative comments and experiences especially in social media. Negative electronic word of mouth (NEWOM) consists of all the personal negative experiences and opinions, concerning products, services, and organizations, that a consumer posts in the internet and social media [10]. Consumer uses NEWOM to communicate an unpleasant experience, regarding a product failure ,or low level of provided services [17]. Users of social media may freely express their thoughts and emotions on these bad experiences, as a way to encourage firms to improve their product, services or the way they are running their business [17]. The majority of negative comments in social media and especially in Facebook concerns products or services [6]. Einwiller and Steilen (2015) report that 74% of the complaints in the official pages of firms in social media are about products and services. NEWOM may have a negative effect in brand image even if consumers are aware of the positive aspects of the brand and support her [4], since consumers are more prone to believe negative comments in the social media than to positive (Positive electronic word of mouth—PEWOM) [12]. It is important for the firm to quickly handle and reply to these complaints for two reasons. First unanswered complaints and comments may drive away existing or prospective customers, and second consumers are more positive after they see that the company replies and take cares of reported issues, restoring the satisfaction levels of consumers [14], and improving the firm’s or brand’s image [8]. Notwithstanding the importance of complaint management Deκay (2012) found that 60% of the firms he surveyed reply in less than 25% of the negative comments in their Facebook page, while Einwiller and Steilen [8] also find that firms adopt a moderate approach in managing complaints in social media.

Methodology In this paper, we are going to investigate the nature of complaints and NEWOM in Greece and the retail sector and the ways that these complaints are being managed. In order to achieve that we have chosen the supermarket industry and more specifically the official Facebook page of the out of the 5 biggest supermarket in Greece.1 These

1 The

second biggest retailer did not have an official page in social media during the time this research was conducted.

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Table 1 Classification of negative comments

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Products or services

160

15.3

Pricing

136

13.0

Marketing mistakes—faults

38

3.6

Personnel mistakes—behavior

83

7.9

Corporate Social Responsibility

25

2.4

Inventory—Offers availability

184

17.6

Operations—business policies

305

29.2

Contests

114

10.9

1045

100.0

Total

companies were chosen based on the sales volume, and it must be noted that they are the ones with the biggest numbers of likes and followers in Facebook. Content analysis has been performed regarding comments in these supermarkets official Facebook pages for the first 9 months of 2016, using the methodology suggested by Einwiller and Steilen [8]. More than 200,000 consumers’ comments and firms’ replies were examined identifying a total of only 1.045 negative comments (less than 0.5% of the total posts). Eight main categories of complaints and negative comments (NEWOM) and six ways of responding were identified, according to relevant literature and were adopted to Greek business environment. The classification of the complaints and replies are presented in the following section.

Content Analysis Findings In the following table, the complaints and negative comment classification made by consumers in the official page in Facebook of the four Greek supermarkets are presented (Table 1). The majority of complaints concern the operations and business policy of the firms (29.2%), and these are mainly about the procedures concerning loyalty cards and programs, that three out of the four examined firms operate. Another important issue that triggers complaints is the inventory policy of the shops and the availability of offers (17.6%), that can be attributed to the economic crisis as consumers are more offer-conscious, followed by complaints and negative comments concerning products and services offered (15.3%). The latter is important since it is not in line with the findings of Crecelious et al. (2012). Despite the economic crisis consumers do not complain about pricing (13.0%). Another important issue are complaints about contests (10.9%), while personnel behavior accounts only for the 7.9% of the negative comments and posts. Marketing

Managing Consumers’ Negative Comments in Period of Crisis … Table 2 Management of negative comments

7

Frequency No response

Percentage (%)

497

47.6

33

3.2

199

19.0

Acceptance—Apology

12

1.1

Request more information

71

6.8

233

22.3

1045

100.0

Satisfy the request—inform the appropriate department Avoiding public discussion—referral to customer service.

Disclaim responsibility—explain Total

failure and Corporate Social Responsibility attracts the least negative attention with 3.6% and 2.4% of the posts, respectively. In Table 2, the ways that firms choose to answer to negative comments are documented. Interestingly the most preferred answer to negative comments is no answer at all (47.6%). That is in line with the findings of Dekay [7] and Einwiller and Steilen [8], that have pointed out the reluctance of firms in answering negative posts. For the remaining 52.4% of the replied comments, five main patterns of replies were identified. The most common strategy is to deny responsibility and offer an explanation (22.3% of the total complaints). The second most preferred pattern of replies is to avoid public discussion in social media and refer the subject to the customer service department (19.0%).

Conclusions The purpose of the present paper was to investigate the nature and management of complaints and NEWOM by consumers in the social media in a period of crisis, specifically in the retail sector of supermarkets. For that purpose, content analysis was performed in the official Facebook pages of the 4 biggest supermarkets in Greece. Our findings shed light in a crucial process in social media marketing, especially in a period of crisis, where consumer is supposed to be more sensitive and cautious in their choices. Interestingly consumers focus on their negative comments in the process and policies of the examined supermarkets, and the offers availability, and not in the products/services or their pricing. Furthermore, firms tend not to reply in almost half of the negative comments they receive, and try to disclaim responsibility by offering explanations, or take the conversation away from the social media. Another interesting finding is the low number of negative posts that should be further examined.

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Our research however comes with limitations. The sample of firms is small and should be expanded, both in the supermarkets industry and in other retailers (such as electronics, clothing, etc.). Further research on the strategies of replying and managing NEWOM by firms, and their effectiveness should also provide useful insight for social media managers. The research should also be expanded in focusing on the reactions of the consumers to the reply they received on their complaintnegative post.

References 1. Ailawadi, K.L., Keller, K.L.: Understanding retail branding: conceptual insights and research priorities. J. Retail. 80(4), 331–342 (2004) 2. Antoniadis, I., Charmantzi, A.: Social network analysis and social capital in marketing: theory and practical implementation. Int. J. Technol. Mark. 11(3), 344–359 (2016) 3. Ashley, C., Tuten, T.: Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychol. Mark. 32(1), 15–27 (2015) 4. Bambauer-Sachse, S., Mangold, S.: Brand equity dilution through negative online word-ofmouth communication. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 18(1), 38–45 (2011) 5. Bernoff, J., Li, C.: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston (2011) 6. Crecelius, I., Einwiller, S., Himmelreich, S.: Complaint management in social media. How companies deal with critical comments on Facebook. In: ECREA 2012–4th European Communication Conference Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 24–27 (2012) 7. Dekay, S.H.: How large companies react to negative Facebook comments. Corp. Commun. Int. J. 17(3), 289–299 (2012) 8. Einwiller, S.A., Steilen, S.: Handling complaints on social network sites–An analysis of complaints and complaint responses on Facebook and Twitter pages of large US companies. Public Relat. Rev. 41(2), 195–204 (2015) 9. Jalonen, H., Jussila, J.: Developing a conceptual model for the relationship between social media behavior, negative consumer emotions and brand disloyalty. In: Conference on e-Business, eServices and e-Society, pp. 134–145. Springer International Publishing (Sept 2016) 10. Lee, Y.L., Song, S.: An empirical investigation of electronic word-of-mouth: informational motive and corporate response strategy. Comput. Hum. Behav. 26(5), 1073–1080 (2010) 11. Murdough, C.: Social media measurement: It’s not impossible. J. Interact. Advert. 10(1), 94–99 (2009) 12. Park, C., Lee, T.M.: Information direction, website reputation and eWOM effect: a moderating role of product type. J. Bus. Res. 62(1), 61–67 (2009) 13. Schivinski, B., Dabrowski, D.: The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 9(1), 31–53 (2015) 14. Stauss, B., Seidel, W.: Complaint management. In: Introduction to Service Engineering, pp. 414–432 (2010) 15. Theodoridis, P.K., Chatzipanagiotou, K.C.: Store image attributes and customer satisfaction across different customer profiles within the supermarket sector in Greece. Eur. J. Mark. 43(5/6), 708–734 (2009) 16. Thota, S.C.: A resolution model of consumer irritation consequences and company strategies: social networking and strategy implications. J. Appl. Bus. Econ. 13(4), 114–124 (2012) 17. Verhagen, T., Nauta, A., Feldberg, F.: Negative online word-of-mouth: behavioral indicator or emotional release? Comput. Hum. Behav. 29(4), 1430–1440 (2013)

Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Satisfaction in a Port Logistics Organization Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis and Panagiotis Trivellas

Abstract Job satisfaction is a crucial factor if a company wants to sustain their employs. Several studies investigated the role of job satisfaction and they have found out that satisfied personnel will help on future recruiting, will help on retaining key employees and it will make employees more motivated. Since corporate responsibility can be a factor that can affect job satisfaction, it is highly important to examine their relationship. Moreover, as a consequence of the global economic crisis, there is a growing interest about the responsibility of corporations towards the society, local communities, and the environment. For the aforementioned reasons, the purpose of this paper is to examine if ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of perceived corporate social responsibility are positively related to job satisfaction. The field research is based on a sample of 93 employees of a port logistics management services organization. A structured questionnaire was developed in order to measure employee perceptions about CSR activities and their impact on job satisfaction. Building on the claim that employee perceptions of CSR activities may significantly related to workplace attitudes, this paper examines three CSR dimensions (social, ethical and environmental) and job satisfaction. The outcomes of this research delineate that only Social CSR exerts a positive significant effect on job satisfaction, highlighting the importance of CSR activities with social impact and worth aiming at caring for the well-being of others (suppliers, customers, community, and employees). Managerial and theoretical implications are developed based on survey results. Keywords CSR · Job satisfaction · Logistics · Strategies P. Reklitis (B) · P. Trivellas (B) Department of Logistics Management, Technological Education Institute of Sterea Ellada, Thiva, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Trivellas e-mail: [email protected] A. Fotiadis College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_2

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Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee job satisfaction have been a hot topic for many organizations. As the logistic industry continues to enlarge, the governance of those types of organizations has focused their attention on finding ways to integrate CSR activities into their business operations, as it was clear that this could improve their reputation within a community [15, 18]. CSR is an initiative that incorporates organization efforts to affect positively the way the environment around the company is developed. In many cases is related to environmental issues such as environmental friendly products or it can be related with the community the company is located. Many times also it can be related with the living of employees and their families [16]. However, not much attention was given on how perceived CSR can affect the level of employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a crucial factor if a company wants to sustain its employees. Studies investigating the role of job satisfaction have found out that satisfied personnel may help on future recruiting, on retaining key employees and it may make employees more motivated [10]. For all these reasons, this paper aims to examine if ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of perceived corporate social responsibility are positively related to job satisfaction.

Literature Review Corporate Social Responsibility The concept of CSR was introduced several years ago and as usually relates with a sustainable way an organization or company can be developed. “Broadly speaking, CSR means that an enterprise, in addition to pursuing the maximal interest of a shareholder, should also take care at the same time the interests of related persons that include the employees, consumers, suppliers and the community environment, etc.” [35]. One of the main reason for not implementing CSR policies is the fact that they usually cost a lot but in several cases, although they can involve heavy costs, it is generally believed to be profitable for organizations [32]. That occurs when different interested groups can be affected by these policies. According to Turker [31], there are four different types of ways a company can affect their stakeholders: The first stakeholder is the society at large, such as the environment, the future of the next generations. The second includes the employees, and the ethics and the policies a company follows related to them. The third one is the customers, for whom CSR is evaluated based on their dignity about their respect to pricing, product quality, and appropriate information. The last stakeholders group is the government, where an ethical interaction on how they pay taxes or following the laws is important.

Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility …

11

Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is considered as an idiosyncratic response that employees can give to their working situation. Usually, satisfaction will be related to what someone receives while he is working compared with what it was expected. In their study, Tziner et al. [32] examined the relationship among CSR, organizational justice and job satisfaction. They claim that in both cases there is a positive relationship. Moreover, a study by You et al. [35] found that organizations should make an investment in CSR as there is a significant relationship with job satisfaction which can lead to organizational commitment of the employees. Different CSR strategies can affect job satisfaction too. Lim and Greenwood [17] mention one of these strategies can be a responsiveness strategy which can lead to increased engagement with the working capital and it can retain and attract talented employees.

Ethical CSR Dimension Several researchers examine how important is ethics for a company as they can affect the performance, pride, corporate identity, employ socialization, and satisfaction [14, 21, 33, 36]. Similarly, Valentine and Barnett [33] examined the relationship between ethics policies and perceived CSR. On their results, they claim that corporate social responsibility has mediating effects on different ethics programs and individual job satisfaction. They suggest that a multidimensional ethical policy is more efficient than a single policy. In a similar logic, Somers [24] has found out that usually organization commitment is significantly affected when organization develops an ethic code and ethics training fostering job satisfaction. Based on this logic, the following hypothesis is presented: H 1 : Perceived CSR Ethics dimension is positively related to Job Satisfaction.

Environmental CSR Dimension As the society develops, environmental issues are becoming more and more important for the success of an organization [19]. Business evaluation changed as the new managerial approach indicates that only financial success is not acceptable as other important factors such as the environment based on corporate social responsibility are implemented. Several studies have investigated what is the impact of companies for the present and mostly for the future of our environment and what kind of corporate action should be developed to protect it [2, 3]. The main actions companies should make as part of a successful CSR is to put emphasis on environmental preservation and if it is possible to revitalize it. Thus, the following hypothesis is developed: H 2 : Perceived CSR Environmental dimension is positively related to Job Satisfaction.

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Social CSR Dimension One of the views researches attempted to explain the relationship between social CSR dimensions and job satisfaction was the well-known social exchange theory. Social exchange theory indicated that employees engagement on CSR action can give them benefits to reciprocate [12]. Adoption and evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Thailand was examined by Patnaree [20] and it was found that social values are affected by CSR development. Others claim that usually, employees serve as organization representatives in relation to CSR activities as they are the ones that present the social activities and policies of the corporation [23]. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed: H 3 : Perceived Social CSR dimension is positively related to Job Satisfaction.

Methodology Sampling The present study investigates the role of CSR and job satisfaction in the case of a Greek port management organization. A structured questionnaire was developed and tested for its relevance to the CSR activities pursued by services firms across the supply chain. The survey respondents’ selection was based on their engagement on the firm’s CSR activities in order to ensure their in-depth awareness of CSR activities. The outcome of this process yielded 93 valid questionnaires. 55% of the respondents were male. The majority of them (56%) were less than 35 years old and 54% were singles. The vast majority of them (62%) hold a university degree, and 22% have received basic education. 51% of the participants possess more than 5 years of work experience in the same company. 46% of the sample have a monthly net salary of 800e or less.

Measurement The research instrument was based on constructs empirically validated by other scholar, on 7-point Likert type scales. More specifically, CSR measure was based on Glavas and Kelley [11] study. In order to measure job satisfaction, the scale suggested by Wright and Cropanzano [34] was adopted.

Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility … Table 1 Multiple regression analyses results

13

Independent variables

Std. beta coefficients

Social CSR

0.393b

Ethical CSR

0.163

Environmental CSR

0.139

Control variables Gender

0.110

Work experience

−0.003

Educational level

−0.183

Hierarchical level

0.094

Salary

−0.039

Adjusted R-square

0.374c

a Significant

at the 0.05 level, at the 0.01 level, c significant at the 0.001 level, N = 93. b significant

Results Principal Component Analysis was performed in order to confirm the multidimensionality of the CSR scale. Three subdimensions were detected with eigenvalues greater than one. These factors explained over 84% of the total variation of this construct. Applying a cutoff criterion of 0.60 for item categorization, and varimax rotation, three distinct factors emerged, corresponding to: “Social”, “Environmental”, and “Ethical” aspects of CSR. In addition, two more tests (Bartlett test (p < 0.001) and the KMO index = 0.890) confirmed the appropriateness of the sample for exploratory factor analysis. Furthermore, scale reliability for all subscales was checked by Cronbach’s coefficient alphas (social CSR = 0.895, environmental CSR = 0.858, Ethical CSR = 0.863, job satisfaction = 0.905). All scores exceed the minimum acceptable value of 0.7. The hypotheses put forth for the associations among CSR (social, ethical and environmental aspects) and job satisfaction, controlling for gender, level of education, hierarchical level, and tenure were checked by multiple regression analysis. Results indicate that the predictor variables explained the 37.4% of job satisfaction variance (p < 0.001). Given that Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) is far below the 3 points cutoff limit, multicollinearity between the independent variables is not present. In Table 1, the results of regression analyses are presented (standardized betas, adjusted R-square, significance levels). Findings provide support for the hypothesis that social aspects of CSR have significant positive relationship to job satisfaction (stand. b = 0.393, p < 0.01). On the contrary, the other two dimensions of CSR (environmental, ethical) failed to be

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related to job satisfaction. Regarding control variables, no significant associations were detected.

Conclusion This study aims to explore the impact of CSR activities on job satisfaction, drawing from a sample of employees of a port logistics management services organization in Greece. Examining the three CSR dimensions (social, ethical and environmental), results revealed that only social CSR activities exert a positive significant effect on job satisfaction. Building on Social exchange theory, employees’ engagement on CSR activities may provide them with benefits to reciprocate [12]. Moreover, Patnaree [20] concluded that the adoption and evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Thailand exerts an impact upon social values. In line with this logic, our study highlights that CSR activities focused on social issues dominate in causing high levels of employee satisfaction in comparison to ethical and environmental CSR activities. In fact, when employees perceive that their corporation put special emphasis on its social impact, initiate philanthropic and community supportive activities as part of a CSR plan, they are more satisfied at their workplace leading to higher productivity, lower turnover and increased individual performance (Cropanzano, 2003, Karatepe and Aleshinloye, 2009) [22, 26]. Future research investigating the role of CSR should also take into consideration the effect of other internal and external variables such as organizational culture, leadership, burnout, emotional intelligence, job stress, learning organization, commitment, general individual competencies, and service quality [1, 4–9, 13, 25, 27–30].

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8. Belias, D., Koustelios, A., Sdrolias, L., Aspridis, G.: Job satisfaction, role conflict and autonomy of employees in the Greek banking organization. Procedia–Social Behav. Sci. 175, 324–333 (2015) 9. Dekoulou, P., Trivellas, P.: Measuring the impact of learning organization on job satisfaction and individual performance in Greek advertising sector. Procedia–Social Behav. Sci. 175, 367–375 (2015) 10. Edmans, A.: The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. Acad. Manag. Perspect. 26(4), 1–19 (2012) 11. Glavas, A., Kelley, K.: The effects of perceived corporate social responsibility on employee attitudes. Bus. Ethics Q. 24(2), 165–202 (2014) 12. Im, S., Chung, Y., Yang, J.: Employees’ participation in corporate social responsibility and organizational outcomes: the moderating role of person–CSR fit. Sustainability 9(1), 28 (2016) 13. Kakkos, N., Trivellas, P., Fillipou, K.: Exploring the link between job motivation, work stress and job satisfaction. In: A case study in the banking industry, proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Enterprise Systems, Accounting and Logistics (ICESAL 2010), pp. 211–225. Rhodes, June 28–29 (2010) 14. Kaptein, M.: Ethics programs and ethical culture: a next step in unraveling their multi-faceted relationship. J. Bus. Ethics 89, 261–281 (2009) 15. Lee, S., Heo, C.Y.: Corporate social responsibility and customer satisfaction among US publicly traded hotels and restaurants. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 28(4), 635–637 (2009) 16. Levy, S.E., Park, S.Y.: An analysis of CSR activities in the lodging industry. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 18(1), 147–154 (2011) 17. Lim, J.S., Greenwood, C.A.: Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR): Stakeholder responsiveness and engagement strategy to achieve CSR goals. Public Relations Rev. (2017) 18. Loussaïef, L., Cacho-Elizondo, S., Pettersen, I.B., Tobiassen, A.E.: Do CSR actions in retailing really matter for young consumers? a study in France and Norway. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 21(1), 9–17 (2014) 19. Michalko, G., Fotiadis, A.: The role of the rural tourism in assuring the sustainable development of the agrarian territories: comparing the Greek and Hungarian prospects. In: International Conference of Trends, Impacts and Policies on Tourism Development (2006) 20. Patnaree, S.: From altruistic to strategic CSR: How social value affected CSR development—a case study of Thailand. Soc. Responsib. J. 9(1), 56–77 (2013) 21. Prado, A., Woodside, A.G.: Deepening understanding of certification adoption and nonadoption of international-supplier ethical standards. J. Bus. Ethics 132(1), 105–125 (2015) 22. Platis, Ch., Reklitis, P., Zimeras, S.: Relation between job satisfaction and job performance in healthcare services. Procedia–Social Behav. Sci. 175, 480–487 (2015) 23. Slack, R.E., Corlett, S., Morris, R.: Exploring employee engagement with (corporate) social responsibility: a social exchange perspective on organisational participation. J. Bus. Ethics 127(3), 537–548 (2015) 24. Somers, M.J.: Ethical codes of conduct and organizational context: a study of the relationship between codes of conduct, employee behavior and organizational values. J. Bus. Ethics 30, 185–195 (2001) 25. Trivellas, P., Dargenidou, D.: Organisational culture, job satisfaction and higher education service quality. The case of technological educational institute of Larissa. TQM J. 21(4), 382–399 (2009) 26. Trivellas, P., Santouridis, I.: TQM and Innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs, the mediating effect of job satisfaction. In: International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM 2009), Dec 8–11, pp. 458–462. Hong Kong, China (2009) 27. Trivellas, P., Santouridis, I.: Job satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between service quality and organizational commitment in higher education. An empirical study of faculty and administration staff. Total Qual. Manag. Bus. Excel. 27(1–2), 169–183 (2016) 28. Trivellas, P., Akrivouli, Z., Tsifora, E., Tsoutsa, P.: The impact of knowledge sharing culture on job satisfaction in accounting firms. The mediating effect of general competencies. Procedia Econ. Financ. 19, 238–247 (2015)

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29. Trivellas, P., Gerogiannis, V., Svarna, S.: Exploring workplace implications of emotional intelligence (WLEIS) in hospitals: job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Procedia–Social Behav. Sci. 73, 701–709 (2013) 30. Trivellas, P., Reklitis, P., Platis, Ch.: The effect of job related stress on employees’ satisfaction: a survey in health care. Procedia–Social Behav. Sci. 73, 718–726 (2013) 31. Turker, D.: Measuring corporate social responsibility: a scale development study. J. Bus. Ethics 85, 411–427 (2009) 32. Tziner, A., Bar, Y., Oren, L., Kadosh, G.: Corporate social responsibility, organizational justice and job satisfaction: How do they interrelate, if at all? Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones 27(1), 67–72 (2011) 33. Valentine, S., Barnett, T.: Ethics code awareness, perceived ethical values, and organizational commitment. J. Pers. Sell. Sales Manag. 23, 359–367 (2003) 34. Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R.: Emotional exhaustion as a predictor of job performance and voluntary turnover. J. Appl. Psychol. 83(3), 486–493 (1998) 35. You, C., Huang, C., Wang, H., Liu, K., Lin, C., Tseng, J.: The relationship between corporate social responsibility, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Int. J. Organ. Innov. 5(4), 65–77 (2013) 36. Zwetsloot, G.: From management systems to corporate social responsibility. J. Bus. Ethics 44(2/3), 201–207 (2003)

“Emotional Exhaustion and Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study of a Port Logistics Organization” Panagiotis Reklitis, Anestis Fotiadis and Panagiotis Trivellas

Abstract In an era of economic crisis, and at the shadow of major ethical scandals in organizations, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy has emerged as a crucial element to reestablish the bond between corporations and all other stakeholders such as the local community, society and labor force. Crisis makes employees more stressful, since they work on unwarranted jobs causing them emotional exhaustion. This study aims to examine the association between employee emotional exhaustion and perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR). For this purpose, this study conducted a survey which examines if CSR (ethical, social, environmental dimensions) is negatively related to emotional exhaustion of employees on a sample of 93 employees of a port logistics management services organization. A structured questionnaire was developed in order to measure emotional exhaustion and employee perceptions about CSR activities. Building on the claim that employee perceptions of CSR activities may significantly related to emotional state, this paper examines three CSR dimensions (social, ethical and environmental) and emotional exhaustion. The results of this study indicate that environmental CSR exerts a negative significant effect on Emotional exhaustion. These finding will be of great value as they can contribute on understanding the impact of environmental CSR on emotional exhaustion with detrimental effects on employees’ productivity, job performance, and creativity. The importance of CSR environmental aspects and the relative strategies guiding CSR impact on emotional exhaustion affecting job-related outcomes are also discussed. Keywords CSR · Emotional exhaustion · Logistics · Strategies P. Reklitis (B) · P. Trivellas (B) Department of Logistics Management, Technological Education Institute of Sterea Ellada, Thiva, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Trivellas e-mail: [email protected] A. Fotiadis College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_3

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Introduction During the last decades there were different types of crises such as banking, currency, debt, equity, and inflation in different continents and different countries. One of the latest crises arises around 2008 and it is still an issue for countries, such as Greece. Greece has been affected more by the financial turmoil beginning in 2007 than any other European country. Indeed, fifteen years of continuous growth has now been reversed [13]. By the end of 2009, due to both the world financial crisis and uncontrolled government spending, the Greek economy faced a severe crisis. In light of this situation, the current Government has been striving to address existing inefficiencies and reduce the size and costs of its public sector [12]. Economic crisis affects social life when translated into an increase of unemployment rates through the loss of numerous jobs, thereby guiding a large part of population into deeper poverty as well as widening inequality and lack of access to basic social services [6]. In Greece, the consequences of global financial recession and the application of austerity measures created a difficult situation whose burden was not only evident in the economic field but also extended to several national or private sectors and social services [6, 12, 21]. Crisis makes employees more stressful, since they work on unwarranted jobs causing them in many cases job insecurity and emotional exhaustion. As Lee and Chelladurai [15], mention in their study “emotional labor may result in emotional exhaustion, defined as a lack of energy and a feeling that one’s emotional resources are depleted”. One factor that might work positively on easing emotional exhaustion is corporate social responsibility (CSR). If a company aims to improve its reputation, it should include CSR activities into organization business operations [14, 18]. It can be related to environmental friendly products or activities that can affect positively the community or an action to improve employee feeling or solve problems [16]. As it is clear in a country with several problems CSR actions that can help the family and the employees could have significant importance for employee emotional exhaustion. Although, this topic looks to be highly important for companies, it was not examined so far on an adequate level. For that reason, this study aims to examine the association between employee emotional exhaustion and perceived corporate social responsibility.

Literature Review Corporate Social Responsibility Many years ago CSR was initiated and usually it is an action where a company or an organization will try to do positive activities which can improve the interests of related stakeholders that include the employees, consumers, suppliers, and the community environment [34]. It is crucial for companies to understand that firms’ CSR invest-

“Emotional Exhaustion and Perceived Corporate …

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ments on employee’s enhancement is very important as imbalanced CSR portfolios promote emotional exhaustion and intention-to-quit [25]. In their study Vlachos et al. [32] found out that one important mediator between employees exhaustion and CSR strategies is how management and leadership theories are implemented as they can strengthen or weaken these gushing effects.

Emotional Exhaustion One the most well-known problem with abusive supervision is psychological distress that causes emotional exhaustion [26]. Emotional exhaustion is a result of employment burnout and several researchers investigate it relationship with job performance and turnover. In fact, “individuals experience emotional exhaustion, when they lose resources (e.g., time, money, and knowledge) while handling difficulties stemming from work and family roles” [11]. As Karatepe and Aleshinloye [10] revealed, emotional exhaustion has a strong relationship with emotional dissonance on turnover intentions and emotional dissonance is affecting significantly job performance. More of that, emotional dissonance is responsible for poor psychological detachment from work during nonwork time which can cause high levels of emotional exhaustion and need for recovery [27]. Tijdink et al. [28] noticed that employee exhaustion differs depending in an early career stage where notably higher emotional exhaustion scores occurs and on the level of professional engagement where an inverse correlation was detected.

Ethical CSR Dimension Unethical behavior by supervisors can affect job performance and emotional exhaustion [33]. Many studies tried to investigate the impact of ethical or unethical behavior for a company and the ways in which several variables such as performance, pride, socialization, and satisfaction are disturbed [9, 22, 30, 35]. Companies develop ethical codes and ethical strategies and CSR can have a significant consequence on job satisfaction [17, 31]. Across a similar rationale, Trivellas and Kakkos [29] concluded that employees who perceive inequity in the Performance Appraisal processes and outcomes may be prone to emotional exhaustion, reflecting a lack of energy and a feeling that their emotional resources are used up. Also, emotional exhaustion can affect job satisfaction [4, 23, 28] so perceived CSR ethical strategies that prevent emotional exhaustion is expected that they will affect job performance. Thus, the following hypothesis is presented: H 1 : Perceived CSR Ethics dimension is positively related to Employee Emotional Exhaustion.

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Environmental CSR Dimension As the society develops, environmental issues are becoming more and more important for the success of an organization [20]. Organizations can cause negative or positive impact on the environment and in different countries different ways to impact environment was noticed [8]. The main actions companies should make as part of a successful CSR are to give emphasis on preventing environmental harm, protect it and if it is possible rejuvenate it [1, 24]. As a result the following hypothesis is developed: H 2 : Perceived CSR Environmental dimension is positively related to Employee Emotional Exhaustion.

Social CSR Dimension In their study, Hur et al. [5] found out that social issues such as organizational justice has an effect on emotional exhaustion by creating or not an organizational loyalty link. Social exchange theory delineates that employees engagement on CSR action can give them benefits as a return [7]. Based on social exchange theory, Cropanzano [2] suggested that emotional exhaustion could predict job performance, and turnover intentions. In addition, their results indicated that emotional exhaustion exerted a significant indirect path in the prediction of turnover intention. H 3 : Perceived Social CSR dimension is positively related to Employee Emotional Exhaustion.

Methodology Sampling The present study investigates the role of CSR and emotional exhaustion in the case of a Greek port management organization. A structured questionnaire was developed and tested for its relevance to the CSR activities pursued by services firms across the supply chain. The survey respondents’ selection was based on their engagement on the firm’s CSR activities in order to ensure their in depth awareness of CSR activities. The outcome of this process yielded 93 valid questionnaires. The 55% of the respondents were male. The majority of them (56%) were less than 35 years old, the 54% were singles. The vast majority of them (62%) hold a university degree, and 22% have received basic education. The 51% of the participants possess more than 5 years of work experience in the same company. The 46% of the sample have a monthly net salary of 800e or less.

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Measurement The research instrument was based on constructs empirically validated by other scholar, on 7-point Likert type scales. More specifically, CSR measure was based on Glavas and Kelley [3] study. In order to measure emotional exhaustion, the scale suggested by Maslach and Jackson [19] was adopted.

Results Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was adopted in order to detect latent factors within the CSR construct. Kaizer criterion revealed three components with eigenvalues greater than one, accounting for over 84% of the total variation of this scale. Normalized varimax rotation method was selected in order to bring about simple structure among subdimensions of the construct. A cutoff of 0.60 was used for item scale selection. Following an inspection of the items’ loadings on each factor, and applying a cutoff of 0.60, three distinct principal components were detected, corresponding to: “Social”, “Environmental”, and “Ethical” aspects of CSR. Preceding PCA, the Bartlett sphericity test (p < 0.001) and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) index verified the appropriateness of the sample (KMO = 0.890). Cronbach’s coefficient alphas were calculated for all subscales (social CSR = 0.895, environmental CSR = 0.858, Ethical CSR = 0.863, emotional exhaustion = 0.912) in order to confirm the internal reliability of each scale. Moreover, multiple regression analysis was conducted in order to test the hypotheses presenting the relationships between CSR (social, ethical and environmental aspects) and emotional exhaustion, controlling for gender, level of education, hierarchical level, and tenure. Results verified that the predictor variables explained the 30.5% of job satisfaction variance (p < 0.01). No serious problems of multicollinearity exist between the independent variables since VIF indices are less than the 3 points cutoff limit. The outcomes of regression analyses (standardized betas, adjusted R-square, significance levels) are exhibited in Table 1. Findings provide support for the hypothesis that environmental aspects of CSR have significant negative relationship to emotional exhaustion (stand. b = −0.553, p < 0.001). On the contrary, the other two dimensions of CSR (social, ethical) failed to be related to job satisfaction. Regarding control variables, no significant associations were detected.

22 Table 1 Multiple regression analyses results

P. Reklitis et al.

Independent variables

Std. beta coefficients

Social CSR

0.081

Ethical CSR

0.002

Environmental CSR

−0.553c

Control Variables Gender

−0.203

Work experience

−0.088

Educational level

−0.098

Hierarchical level

−0.016

Salary

−0.014

Adjusted R-square

0.305b

a Significant

at the 0.05 level, at the 0.01 level, c significant at the 0.001 level, N = 93. b significant

Conclusion This study aims to investigate the impact of CSR activities on emotional exhaustion, drawing from a sample of employees of a port logistics management services organization in Greece. Examining the three CSR dimensions (social, ethical and environmental), results revealed that only environmental CSR activities exert a negative significant effect on emotional exhaustion. Building on Social exchange theory, employees’ engagement on CSR activities may provide them with benefits as a return [7]. Following this rationale, our study highlights that CSR activities focused on environmental issues dominate in causing high levels of employee emotional exhaustion in comparison to ethical and social CSR activities. In fact, when employees perceive that their corporation put special emphasis on its environmental impact, initiate activities on preventing environmental damage or rejuvenate it as part of a CSR plan [1, 24], they feel less emotional exhausted leading possibly to higher productivity, lower turnover, and increased individual performance [2, 10].

References 1. Cegarra-Navarro, J.-G.: Environmental knowledge, unlearning, and performance in hospitality companies. Manag. Decis. 51(2), 341–360 (2013) 2. Cropanzano, R.: The relationship of emotional exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. J. Appl. Psychol. 88(1), 160–169 (2003) 3. Glavas, A., Kelley, K.: The effects of perceived corporate social responsibility on employee attitudes. Bus. Ethics Q. 24(2), 165–202 (2014)

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4. Halbesleben, J.R., Bowler, W.M.: Emotional exhaustion and job performance: the mediating role of motivation. J. Appl. Psychol. 92(1), 93–106 (2007) 5. Hur, W., IL Park, S., Moon, T.: The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services. J. Serv. Mark. 28(3), 195–206 (2014) 6. Ifanti, A.A., Argyriou, A.A., Kalofonou, F.H., Kalofonos, H.P.: Financial crisis and austerity measures in Greece: their impact on health promotion policies and public health care. Health Policy (2013) 7. Im, S., Chung, Y., Yang, J.: Employees’ participation in corporate social responsibility and organizational outcomes: the moderating role of person–CSR fit. Sustainability 9(1), 28 (2016) 8. Jindrichovska, I., Purcarea, I.: CSR and environmental reporting in the Czech Republic and Romania: country comparison of rules and practices. Account. Manag. Inf. Syst. 10(2), 202–227 (2011) 9. Kaptein, M.: Ethics programs and ethical culture: a next step in unraveling their multi-faceted relationship. J. Bus. Ethics 89, 261–281 (2009) 10. Karatepe, O.M., Aleshinloye, K.D.: Emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees in Nigeria. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 28(3), 349–358 (2009) 11. Karatepe, O.M., Uludag, O.: Conflict, exhaustion, and motivation: a study of frontline employees in Northern Cyprus hotels. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 26(3), 645–665 (2007) 12. Kastanioti, C., Kontodimopoulos, N., Stasinopoulos, D., Kapetaneas, N., Polyzos, N.: Public procurement of health technologies in Greece in an era of economic crisis. Health Policy 109(1), 7–13 (2013) 13. Kentikelenis, A., Karanikolos, M., Papanicolas, I., Basu, S., McKee, M., Stuckler, D.: Health effects of financial crisis: omens of a Greek tragedy. Lancet 378(9801), 1457–1458 (2011) 14. Lee, S., Heo, C.Y.: Corporate social responsibility and customer satisfaction among US publicly traded hotels and restaurants. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 28(4), 635–637 (2009) 15. Lee, Y.H., Chelladurai, P.: Affectivity, emotional labor, emotional exhaustion, and emotional intelligence in coaching. J. Appl. Sport. Psychol. 28(2), 170–184 (2015) 16. Levy, S.E., Park, S.Y.: An analysis of CSR activities in the lodging industry. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 18(1), 147–154 (2011) 17. Lim, J.S., Greenwood, C.A.: Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR): Stakeholder responsiveness and engagement strategy to achieve CSR goals. Public Relations Rev. (2017) 18. Loussaïef, L., Cacho-Elizondo, S., Pettersen, I.B., Tobiassen, A.E.: Do CSR actions in retailing really matter for young consumers? a study in France and Norway. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 21(1), 9–17 (2014) 19. Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E.: The measurement of experienced burnout. J. Occup. Behav. 2(2), 99–113 (1981) 20. Michalko, G., Fotiadis, A.: The role of the rural tourism in assuring the sustainable development of the agrarian territories: comparing the Greek and Hungarian prospects. In: International Conference of Trends, Impacts and Policies on Tourism Development (2006) 21. Polyzos, N., Karanikas, H., Thireos, E., Kastanioti, C., Kontodimopoulos, N.: Reforming reimbursement of public hospitals in Greece during the economic crisis: Implementation of a DRG system. Health Policy 109(1), 14–22 (2013) 22. Prado, A., Woodside, A.G.: Deepening understanding of certification adoption and nonadoption of international-supplier ethical standards. J. Bus. Ethics 132(1), 105–125 (2015) 23. Richter, A., Schraml, K., Leineweber, C.: Work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion and performance-based self-esteem: reciprocal relationships. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health 88(1), 103–112 (2015) 24. Rivera, J.: Does it pay to be green in the developing world? participation in Costa Rican voluntary environmental program and its impact on hotels’ competitive advantage. Acad. Manag. Proc. 2001(1), C1–C6 (2001) 25. Scheidler, S., Schons, L.M., Spanjol, J.: Internal marketing of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives: CSR portfolio effects on employee perceptions of corporate hypocrisy, attitudes, and turnover. In: Petruzzellis, L., Winer, R.S. (eds.) Rediscovering the Essentiality of

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Public Sector Marketing in a Period of Crisis: Perceptions and Challenges for the Public Sector Managers Ioannis Antoniadis, Maria Stathopoulou and Panagiotis Trivellas

Abstract Public sector marketing has been an important field of marketing study as public sector management paradigms evolve and change because of the challenges posed by e-governance and information technologies. These changes are also reflected in the new models of public administration (New Public Management—NPM) that are more market and customer oriented. In this paper, the perceptions toward the importance of marketing in the public sector are examined, using the NPM model. Structured interviews were performed and questionnaires were filled in by 30 executives working in the public sector in the region of Western Macedonia and Epirus. Our findings show that public sector executives do not consider marketing to be a priority and therefore it is not used at the full of its potential in a way that it could promote the provided services and improve the image that citizens have toward the public administration. Keywords Public sector marketing · Public sector management · Greece

Introduction Public sector management has always been a hot issue of debate in Greece. This discussion has become fiercer and important during the last 7 years due to the unprecedented financial crisis plaguing Greece. The transformation of public sector management with introduction of the New Public Management in the 1990s by many developed countries [5] along with the adoption of Information and Communications

I. Antoniadis (B) · M. Stathopoulou Department of Business Administration (Kozani), Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences, Kozani, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Trivellas Department of Logistics Management, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Thebes, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_4

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Technologies (ICTs) have made the need of transforming the Greek public sector imperative. Known for inefficiency and low levels of “customer satisfaction”, public sector marketing in Greece has never been a priority for public management. However, the role of marketing in the public sector cannot be underestimated and further overseen. Marketing public services are now necessary since it leads to a more customercentric approach of providing services, enhancing this way the efficiency and the accountability of the public sector through better levels of customer satisfaction and quality of service [7]. Therefore, especially in times of crisis, it is important to communicate to citizens the services provided and actions were undertaken by the public sector, to improve the feeling of accountability in regards to public fund management. In this paper, we look into the perceptions of public sector manager toward the usage of marketing in the public sector in Greece. More specifically, we examine the marketing efforts of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus—Western Macedonia, as they are perceived by the public sector managers employed. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were filled, concerning the importance of marketing in the Greek public sector and the channels of communications that are used to get in touch with the citizens, and promote the work that is being done by this civil service. Our paper contributes to the relevant literature as it provides insight concerning the usage and perceptions of public sector marketing in a financial crisis environment. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The following section reviews the literature on public sector management and marketing [12]. The methodology of our research is described in section “Methodology”, followed by the main findings of the interviews and questionnaires. The paper concludes with a summary of our findings, and suggestions for public administration managers.

Literature Review In contrast to the private sector, marketing in the public sector has not drawn the respective attention by practitioners and researchers. Public management has long been described as a bureaucratic system that is mostly focused in procedures in favor of the internal customer, that is the civil servant, than in favor of the external “customer”—citizen [4]. It has only been during the 1980s and 1990s that the demand for the provision of high-quality services by the public sector was strengthened by society and the private sector, as the dissatisfaction concerning the quality and the cost of provided services grew. During this period the first proposals regarding the transformation of the public sector, through cutting costs and a more market-oriented approach through marketing emerged [1]. During the 1990s, the concept of New Public Management (NPM) was heavily promoted by OECD, and with the appropriate modifications was adopted by several developed countries [5]. The core initiatives of this concept included the downsizing

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of the public sector, the decentralization of the administration, the introduction of evaluation mechanisms, the transformation of the organizational culture, the modernization of human resources management, and the application of ICTs and Internet technologies [1, 10]. NPM in contrary to traditional public management models emphasizes in the administrative and economic efficiency and performance, and in the extroversive orientation toward the citizens, aiming to the improvement of the quality of services provided [8]. This development has upgraded the importance of marketing for the public sector. Although marketing principles of the private sector cannot be applied as a whole in the public sector, some best practices can be implemented [14], altering them in order to meet the needs and special characteristics of the operational and organizational environment in which public sector operates [2]. Marketing techniques and tools can be used by public sector agencies to actively change the communications patterns with stakeholders, improve their performance, and demonstrate the transparent and efficient usage and the return of the resources they are granted [13]. NPM, in that regard, focuses in bridging the gap between the private and public sector, altering the modus operandi and the orientation of the latter toward results, not just rules [6] and that also includes marketing practices. Public sector management and marketing are also influenced by the three main characteristics of the public sector namely compulsion, accountability, and motivation of the public servants to offer to their country and society [9]. Governments and regional administrations have come to realize the importance of marketing in promoting their activities and goals. For example, marketing campaigns have been developed by public sector agencies and services to promote goals such as attracting investors, privatization processes, environment protection, fighting smoking, alcohol abuse, etc. [3]. Marketing communications can also be used to inform citizens concerning procedures and services provided by specific public sector agencies, reducing bureaucratic procedures, and enhancing the efficiency of the provided services. In the sections to come, we examine the way that Greek managers use marketing and communications to everyday practice.

Methodology In our research, we aim to identify the marketing and communications strategies used by the Greek public sector at a regional level. To that end, we are examining the Decentralized Administration of Epirus—Western Macedonia that is a regional administration and investigate the perceptions and everyday marketing practices used by the managers working in this agency to promote the provided services by this administration. The administration is responsible for 8 Regional Units and 30 Municipalities of the geographic regions of Epirus and Western Macedonia. The main responsibilities of the administration concern the legal control of decisions and actions taken by other

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local government agencies, issues concerning nationality migration and refugees, and public property and wealth. In our research, 30 public sector managers of the administration participated. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with the help of a questionnaire that was filled in electronically by the participants, during April and May of 2017. The respondents were two General Directors, six Heads of Directorates, and twentytwo Heads of Departments. The main findings are presented in the following section.

Presentation of the Responses An interesting finding of our research is the high-educational level of the respondents. 54% of the administration managers hold a university degree, 33% of them hold a postgraduate degree, and 10% of the managers hold a doctorate degree. In our question concerning how familiar they are with the application of marketing in public sector marketing, only 5 of the respondents claimed to have a good and very good knowledge of marketing and the ways. The two-thirds of the managers that participated in the research hold their position for more than 5 years, therefore they hold significant experience in public sector management in responsible positions. In Table 1, the main marketing communications channels used by the citizens to get information regarding the services provided by the administration are presented as perceived by the managers. The website and word of mouth, according to the managers, are the most important way for citizens to find information concerning the services provided by this administration. Traditional marketing communications such as an advertisement in media or the Internet have not been regarded to be a source of information and have not

Table 1 Information sources—marketing communication channels used by citizens

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Social media

4

13.3

Laws and relevant documentation

1

3.3

Other public services—administration

4

13.3

Printed material—Brochures

6

20.0

Positive word of mouth

2

6.6

Website of the decentralized administration

15

50.0

From acquainted persons—word of mouth

15

50.0

8

26.7

Redirected from other websites

Public Sector Marketing in a Period of Crisis … Table 2 In which ways marketing could help the administration

29

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Promotion of the administration

6

20.0

Improvement of provided services

5

16.7

Comparison between similar public administration services

2

6.7

Promote cooperation with stakeholders

1

3.3

13

43.3

Recognize the importance of marketing but cannot think of how could help No answer Total

3

10.0

30

100.0

been reported in the answers we have received. Social media is also not considered to be an effective way of communicating with citizens [11]. In our question concerning how familiar they are with the application of marketing in public sector marketing, only 5 of the respondents claimed to have a good and very good knowledge of marketing and the ways that marketing can be beneficial to the public sector management. That is also reflected in the answers given regarding the ways in which marketing could help public sector management that are presented in Table 2. Only one of the respondents saw marketing as an opportunity to develop relations and joint actions with stakeholders, and six of them stated the obvious goal of promoting the work and services provided by the administration. It is interesting to note that all managers of the administration identified the lack of knowledge that citizens of the region have concerning the work and provided services of the decentralized administration. But most importantly half of the managers that answered the question acknowledge the importance of marketing for the public sector, but could not suggest how it would help the work of the decentralized administration.

Conclusions The purpose of the present research was to investigate the perceptions of managers of the public sector in Greece during a period of crisis toward marketing. We have chosen a regional administration facing problems regarding the awareness of citizens concerning the services is providing. For that purpose, semi-structured interviews with the use of questionnaires were conducted with 30 managers of the administration.

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Our findings showed that marketing and its techniques are not being used, despite the problems that could be solved by its implementation. Managers recognize the usefulness of marketing but cannot understand in which ways it can be used to help them cope with the problems they are facing concerning effective communication with the citizens of the region. A clear marketing strategy could largely benefit the awareness of the administration we examined. Also, shift in culture and the organizational behavior of the Greek public sector, especially in this prolonged period of crisis, could change that and improve the quality of provided services through better communication and improvement of the image of the public sector. Our research however comes with limitations. The research should also be expanded to include managers from other public sector agencies and administrations in other regions of the country. Further research should also be focused on the potential of using more interactive and user-friendly websites, along with social media and their roles in public sector marketing.

References 1. Bouzas-Lorenzo, R.: Public sector marketing, political science and the science of public administration: the evolution of a transdisciplinary dialogue. Int. Rev. Public Nonprofit Mark. 7(2), 113–125 (2010) 2. Butler, P., Collins, N.: Marketing public sector services: concepts and characteristics. J. Mark. Manag. 11(1–3), 83–96 (1995) 3. C˘atan˘a Gh Al.: Marketing: philosophy of market success. Dacia Publishing House, Cluj Napoca (2003) 4. Frederickson, H.G.: Comparing the reinventing government movement with the new public administration. Public Adm. Rev. 263–270 (1996) 5. Gray, A., Jenkins, B.: From public administration to public management: reassessing a revolution? In: Comparative Public Administration, pp. 543–572. Emerald Group Publishing Limited (2006) 6. Hood, C.: The “New Public Management” in the 1980s: variations on a theme. Acc. Organ. Soc. 20(2–3), 93–109 (1995) 7. Kakouris, A.P., Meliou, E.: New public management: promote the public sector modernization through service quality. Current experiences and future challenges. Public Organ. Rev. 11(4), 351–369 (2011) 8. Karkatsoulis, P.: The State in Transition: From the Administrative Reform to New Public Management and Governance. I. Sideri, Athens (in Greek) (2004) 9. Maroto, A., Rubalcaba, L.: The structure and size of the public sector in an enlarged Europe, Publin Report No. D14 (2005) 10. Nasiopoulos, D.K., Sakas, D.P., Vlachos, D.S., Mavrogianni, A.: Modeling of market segmentation for new IT product development. In: AIP (American Institute of Physics) Conference Proceedings, vol. 1644, p. 51 (2015) 11. Nasiopoulos, D.K., Plikas, J.H., Giakomidou, D.S.: The contribution of social media in the management of social relations with customers. In: Modelling and Simulation of the Problem. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 515–521 (2017)

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12. Sakas, D., Vlachos, D., Nasiopoulos, D.: Modelling strategic management for the development of competitive advantage, based on technology. J. Syst. Inf. Technol. 16(3), 187–209 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-01-2014-0005 13. Serrat, O.: Marketing in the public sector. In: Knowledge Solutions, pp. 111–118. Springer, Singapore (2017) 14. Walsh, K.: Marketing and public sector management. Eur. J. Mark. 28(3), 63–71 (1994)

Part II

Green Marketing

Organized by: Thomas Fotiadis Democritus University of Thrace, Production and Management Engineering, Greece Description Green or sustainable marketing is a contemporary marketing philosophy that promotes production and selling of eco-friendly products. It is a multidisciplinary paradigm expressing the voice against production, consumption, and/or disposal of such products that could cause harm to consumers, to the society, and to the environment. Adoption of green marketing strategies may prove to be a difficult task in the short run, albeit in the long run, substantial benefits are readily detectable and identifiable. This workshop discusses the benefits and guidelines to the implementation of green marketing strategies, politics and tactics, along with the respective spectrum of relevant constituent factors. It aims to enlight this crucial issue through the thorough examination of various relevant aspects and angles.

Consideration of Consumer Behaviour on Environmental Labelled Agrifood Products Matinio Tzitzira, Dimitris Aidonis, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Dimitris Folinas and Thomas Fotiadis

Abstract This paper explores the perception of Greek consumers about environmentally labelled agrifood products. A survey was carried out to assess the extent by which consumers are involved in specific environmental actions, demonstrating their environmental sensitivity. First, a bibliographic survey on environmental issues, environmental labelling, and the conditions for obtaining it, as well as the factors influencing the decisions of the “green” consumer, was carried out. Additionally, primary research was carried out using a questionnaire probing consumers from different regions of Greece on their perception of the significance and benefits of targeted products. The results of the survey were quite encouraging in terms of consumer environmental behaviour, while the environmental product statement, despite its limited application in Greece, appeared to be well known to consumers. Keywords Environmental labelling · Environmental product statement · Life cycle analysis · “Green” consumer · Environmental awareness

Introduction By placing particular emphasis on climate change and human health, consumers become increasingly demanding with regard to the features of the products they buy, as well as the effects their production and distribution has on the environment [2]. On account of this, it is frequent for manufacturers to voluntarily provide, even M. Tzitzira Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece D. Aidonis · D. Folinas (B) Department of Logistics, Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia, Serres, Greece e-mail: [email protected] A. Konstantoglou · T. Fotiadis Department of Production Engineering and Management, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_5

35

36

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promote, information associated with the environmental aspects of their products, either on a label or through advertising (Gallastegui 2002, International Organization for Standardization) [3]. Pursuant to ISO 14020, Environmental Labelling is a set of tools which aims, by providing information (eco-label), to increase the demand for products and services that have less adverse effects on the environment. In the European Union, environmental labelling rests on Council Regulation (EEC) 880/1992, revised in 2000, which aims to promote the demand and supply for products with reduced environmental impact (certified green products). Frequently, the definition for the eco-label is confused with all labels that reference the environment. In reality, however, there are many types of labels and environmental statements/declarations. All fall under a great group, environmental labelling. Environmental benefits from the packaging management by companies, such as their recycling, are part and parcel of their overall marketing strategy [4, 5]. By promoting the environmental features of their products, businesses contribute, on the one hand, to the protection of the environment while, on the other hand, attain greater economic returns. This happens since consumers are more sensitized in ecological issues and, consequently, prefer products that cause as small damage to the environment as possible (International Organization for Standardization). The ISO 14020 series, being part of ISO 14000, deals specifically with the aspects of environmental labelling and statements. Depending on the manner environmental information relating to the product are managed, the optional labels may be distinguished to those falling under Types I, II and III: Type I Environmental Label—Eco-labels (ISO 14024). Eco-labels aim to educate and increase consumers’ awareness of environmental protection, by encouraging them to purchase environmentally friendly products. International Standard ISO 14024 establishes the principles and procedures for acquiring this type of ecological label. It rests on multiple criteria based on which a product is certified and is awarded the eco-label. Type II Environmental Label—Self-declared Environmental Claim (ISO 14021). ISO 14021 is the International Standard that deals with what is known as a selfdeclared claim, an initiative, that is, of the company. The standard cites that the principal aim of environmental labels and claims is to increase the demand and offer for environmentally friendly products, driven by the protection of the environment, via verifiable information (International Organization for Standardization). Type III Environmental Label—Product Environmental Declaration (ISO 14025). This type of labels is of great significance for business to business trade, but have a limited application in consumer markets (supermarket). ISO 14025 establishes the principles and defines in detail the procedures for the publication of quantified environmental information for products, based on the data of their life cycle. The aim of this paper is to investigate consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards agrifood products with an Environmental Declaration. A survey was carried out to assess the extent by which consumers are involved in specific environmental actions, demonstrating their environmental sensitivity and their perception about environmentally labelled agrifood products.

Consideration of Consumer Behaviour …

37

Research Methodology Questionnaires were employed to collect the primary data. The survey was carried out in the following geographical locations: (a) Katerini, (b) Thessaloniki, (c) Florina and (d) Athens. 300 individuals participated in the survey (Also, informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.). The questionnaire consists of three sections: (1) personal information (sex, age, family status, income, education); (2) environmental behaviour, which includes 18 characteristicsvariables associated with the environmental sensitization of consumers. Using a five-point Likert scale, interviewees were called to assess specific statements (1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Some times, 4 = Usually, 5 = At every opportunity), and (3) Agrifood products with Environmental Declarations. This section includes 21 features-variables associated with the interviewees’ vies on agrifood products with an Environmental Declaration. Using a five-point Likert scale, interviewees were called to assess specific statements (1 = Absolutely disagree, 2 = Probably disagree, 3 = Neither agree or disagree, 4 = Probably agree, 5 = Absolutely agree). Research has been approved by the academic research ethics committee and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Findings According to the findings of the survey, the largest percentage of people who participated in the survey were women, while their age ranged between 31 and 40 years. Additionally, most responses were from members of four- and three-person households, while their annual income ranged from 9,001 up to 21,600 Euros. Most of the participants to the survey held a degree from a Higher Educational Institute or University. With respect to the environmental behaviour of the consumer, Table 1 presents the means (M) and standard deviations (SD) of the sub-scales relating to environmental behaviour. As can be seen from the table, environmental behaviour most frequently adopted by interviewees is to replace lamps with energy-saving lamps (M = 4.23) and to purchase local products (M = 4.21), while they are less inclined to participate in environmental actions (M = 1.89) and to compost waste (M = 1.90). Table 2 presents the means (M) and standard deviations (SD) of the sub-scales relating to interviewees’ views on Environmental Declaration products. As can be seen from the table, the factors with which interviewees agree to a larger extent is that a product with an environmental declaration is environmentally friendly (M = 4.12) and that it is healthy (M = 3.96), while they agree or disagree to a lesser extent with the assertion that such products are not differentiated from the other products

38 Table 1 Mean and standard deviation of environmental behaviour sub-scales

M. Tzitzira et al.

Variable

M

SD

Replacing lamps with energy-saving lamps

4.23

1.033

Purchase of local products

4.21

0.969

Packaging recycling

3.99

1.222

Paper recycling

3.97

1.299

Limiting the wasting of water

3.83

1.114

Using energy saving products

3.71

1.136

Limiting the use of appliances that consume more energy

3.61

1.183

Purchase of products produced in an environmentally friendly manner

3.60

1.151

Purchase of products with recyclable packaging

3.24

1.265

Minimizing waste

3.23

1.246

Using environmentally friendly detergents

3.15

1.123

Shift of buying preferences for environmental reasons

3.08

1.187

Using public transportation instead of cars

2.90

1.487

Purchase of products produced using “green energy”

2.83

1.215

Purchase of products with biodegradable packaging

2.75

1.227

Composting waste

1.90

1.266

Participating to actions for the environment

1.89

1.141

Donating to environmental organizations

1.86

1.138

(M = 2.10) and that they are addressed to consumers with a higher-level of education (M = 2.61). In order to detect statistically significant relations between the demographic characteristics of the sample and the sub-scales of the environmental behaviour and the views on products with Environmental Declaration, a number of statistical checks were performed (Mann–Whitney U and Spearman correlation tests). First, a significant difference between men and women with respect to their environmental behaviour was observed (U = 9221.500, p = 0.008), with women participating more in actions relating to the environment, verifying the findings in relevant surveys by Tsakiridou et al. [11], Diamantopoulos et al. [4], Mainieri et al. [8], Aertsens et al. [1] and Hughner et al. [7]. Important correlations were observed between the age and the environmental behaviour of consumers but only for paper recycling being the most significant of them (rs = 0.756, p = 0.000). Thus, the older the interviewees were the greater the frequency of paper recycling, as it was also noted by Diamantopoulos et al. [4] and Roberts [9]. Moreover, individuals belonging in this age group (more senior

Consideration of Consumer Behaviour … Table 2 Mean and standard deviation of sub-scale views on products with environmental declaration

39

Variable

M

SD

Environmentally friendly

4.12

1.046

Healthy

3.96

1.101

Consumer’s sense of safety

3.87

1.013

Is directed at environmentally sensitized individuals

3.86

1.229

Specific specifications during its production

3.85

1.106

Higher quality

3.75

1.067

Excels compared to conventional products

3.69

1.083

More vitamins and micro-nutrients

3.61

1.184

Its production does not burden the environment

3.56

1.176

Strict checks

3.55

1.127

Ethical production

3.48

1.168

Organic product

3.46

1.195

Tasty and delicious

3.45

1.227

Is directed at high income consumers

3.28

1.321

Better value/price relation

3.25

1.214

Better quality/price relation

3.21

1.101

Suitable for vulnerable consumer groups

3.20

1.275

Is directed at consumers of a higher social standing

2.71

1.381

Perfect appearance

2.69

1.150

Is directed at consumers with a higher level of education

2.61

1.377

Is not different from other products

2.10

1.221

interviewees) are under the impression that products with an Environmental Declaration are addressed to more environmentally conscious consumers. In accordance with the findings of the survey, a negative relation was observed with respect to the number of family members and the use of mass transportation instead of cars. Thus, the greater the number of family members the less likely they are to use mass transportation, which is understandable on account of the convenience offered by the use of private cars to larger families (rs = −0.706, p = 0.000). As regards the annual income, it was found that consumers with larger income use public transportation less frequently, purchase energy-saving and biodegradable packaging products, as well as detergents that are environmentally friendly (applied only for the targeted sample). They manifest, that is, a positive environmental behaviour, a finding that coincides with that concluded by Diamantopoulos et al. [4] and Straughan and Roberts [10], while they contradict the findings by Roberts [9], who demonstrated a negative relation between income and environmental behaviour,

40

M. Tzitzira et al.

justifying his findings from the fact that individuals from lower economic strata became significantly sensitized by realizing the gravity of environmental problems. Additionally, such individuals believe that products with an Environmental Declaration are addressed to consumers with a higher education and do not believe that such products are more suitable for vulnerable groups. Finally, consumers with a high-level of education exhibit a positive attitude towards environmentally friendly actions (rs = 0.821, p = 0.000), as it has been demonstrated also from other surveys, since they can better understand some concepts-terms with an environmental nature [4, 6, 8, 10], (Ecological Consumer Behaviour: an empirical analysis, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31:26–33.). Furthermore, the consumers belonging to this category deem that agrifood products with an Environmental Declaration are not organic products but, rather, products of integrated management, affirming the knowledge they possess on environmental issues.

Conclusion The main goal of the realized survey was to investigate the behaviour of Greek consumers with respect to agrifood products with an Environmental Declaration. Parallel to this, their attitudes were also assessed with respect to specific environmental issues, such as, for example, recycling, energy saving, and others. The research showed that a very large percentage of consumers recycle paper and product packaging while, in parallel, pays particular attention to the way the products they buy are produced, showing preference to those that are “environmentally friendly”. Moreover, the survey showed that in their majority consumers deem agrifood products with an Environmental Declaration to the effect that they are environmentally friendly, to be safe, healthy, of higher quality, while they are aimed at environmentally sensitized individual, although consumers reject the assumption that such products are aimed at consumers with a higher educational background. Based on the findings of this survey, one could suggest that Greek consumers, aware of the seriousness of environmental problems, have environmental concerns and make considerable efforts in order to contribute to the protection of the environment, despite the difficulties they have been faced with in recent years. Future research may be carried out focusing on Environmental Labelling and in particular the Environmental Declarations for Products and the benefits ensuing from it, such as, for example, the capacity they offer to compare similar products with respect to their environmental impact throughout their life cycles. There is a pressing need for Environmental Declarations to be wider known as an environmental label that significantly contributes to the response and treatment of the more serious environmental issues.

Consideration of Consumer Behaviour …

41

References 1. Aertsens, J., Verbeke, W., Mondelaers, K., Van Huylenbroeck, G.: Personal determinants of organic food consumption: a review. Br. Food J. 111(10), 1140–1167 (2009) 2. Bonnett, M.: Environment education and the issue of nature. J. Curric. Stud. 39(6), 707–721 (2007) 3. Carlsson-Kanyama, A., Ekstrom, M.P., Shanahan, H.: Food and life cycle energy inputs: consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency. Ecol. Econ. 44(2–3), 293–307 (2003) 4. Diamantopoulos, A., Schlegelmilch, B.B., Sinkovics, R.R., Bohlen, G.: Can sociodemographics still play a role in profiling green consumers? A review of the evidence and an empirical investigation. J. Bus. Res. 56, 465–480 (2003) 5. Durmaz, Y.: An impirical study on the effect of family factor on consumer buying behaviours. Asian Soc. Sci. 7(10), 53 (2011) 6. Fraj, E., Martinez, E.: Ecological consumer behaviour: an empirical analysis. Int. J. Consum. Stud. 31, 26–33 (2007) 7. Hughner, R.S., McDonagh, P., Prothero, A., Shultz, C.J., Stanton, J.: Who are orgnic food consumers? A compilation and review of why people purchase organic food. J. Consumer Behav. 6(2–3), 94–110 (2007) 8. Mainieri, T., Barnett, E.G., Valdero, T.R., Unipam, J.B., Oskamp, S.: Green buying: the influence of the environmental concern on consumer behavior. J. Soc. Psychol. 137(2), 189–204 (1997) 9. Roberts, J.A.: Geen consumers in the 1990s: profile and implications for advertising. J. Bus. Res. 36, 217–231 (1996) 10. Straughan, R.D., Roberts, J.A.: Environmental segmentation alternatives: a look at green consumer behavior in the new millennium. J. Consumer Mark. 16(6), 558–575 (1999) 11. Tsakiridou, E., Boutsouki, C., Zotos, Y., Mattas, K.: Attitudes and behavior towards organic products: an exploratory study. Int. J. Retail Distrib. Manag. 36(2), 158–175 (2006)

Evaluation of the Reuse of Packaging in the Food Supply Chain Aristi Moisidou, Nikos Voulgarakis, Dimitris Folinas, Aggeliki Konstantoglou, Kokmotos Efthymios and Sofia Anastasiadou

Abstract Fresh fruits and vegetables are a special group of products in need of special treatment, due to their sensitivity to external factors such as microorganisms, moisture, etc., as well as, their movement and storage across the supply chain. As consumer needs and requirements are constantly growing, a number of new practices in packaging have been introduced to cater for the proper transport and storage of fruit and vegetables. An important role in this field is represented by reusable boxes/containers which offer, in addition to safe transportation and storage, space saving, less damage, more stable stacking, etc. while facilitating and supporting the deployment of green and sustainable supply chain practices and technologies. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the movement of fresh fruit and vegetables using reusable containers in a Greek retail chain. The methodology included the collection of information from electronic databases, from publications on the subject under consideration and from direct contact with executives of large retail chains. The results demonstrate both the importance of packaging to maintain the freshness of fresh fruits and vegetables and the importance of recycling. Keywords Green and sustainable supply chain · Packaging · Recycle · Food supply chain · Reverse logistics

A. Moisidou · N. Voulgarakis · D. Folinas (B) Department of Logistics, Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia, Serres, Greece e-mail: [email protected] A. Konstantoglou · K. Efthymios Department of Production Engineering and Management, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece S. Anastasiadou Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Western Macedonia, Kozani, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_6

43

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Introduction Loss of food is a serious global problem. A report by the United Nations estimates that around 50% of food is being lost globally [2, 3]. Food losses occur during harvest, storage, transportation, distribution and finally their sale to consumers. These losses have a tremendous economic impact, increase the cost of production, transportation, and selling. Limiting the loss of food is obviously part of the solution to the global food problem [4]. As part of this effort to reduce food losses along the examined supply chain, retail chains around the world assess and adopt methods and practices that help alleviate this problem [8]. Fresh fruit and vegetables are one of the groups of foods with the highest loss risk. Significant losses occur during storage and distribution, with their main causes being the interruption of the cold chain, inappropriate packaging, prolonged storage, and inefficient handling. One can overcome some of these problems with the use of synthetic and reusable containers that allow the easy packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables [6]. They can be folded in order to take up less space after use, while at the same time allowing optimal ventilation and temperature control due to their special design. And, what is most important, they can be reused. It is believed that such approaches contribute to the better quality and cost-saving execution of logistics processes for fresh fruit and vegetables and the implementation of green practices [7]. In the context of this paper, a solution/practice of packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables is being presented and evaluated; a solution attempting to mitigate both the problem of food losses and the problem of excessive consumption of available resources by exploiting “cyclical economy” [1]. This packaging system consists of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) that allow easy packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables, can be folded to save space after use and allow for optimum ventilation and temperature control due to their special design. Overall, these applications contribute to better quality and cost-saving logistics for the transportation and storage of fresh fruit and vegetables [5]. The purpose of this research is to examine, as a case study, the adoption of the solution above (RPC) by a retailer of food products and vegetables in Northern Greece. It identifies the benefits and challenges for this type of packaging, movement, and distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables in retail chains, using the responses from a number of interviews with company logistics managers, as well as its key suppliers for fresh fruit and vegetables. The authors believe that the analysis of the case study will help to identify its weak points and will also highlight possible points where the RPC system in place better preserves the quality characteristics of fresh fruit and vegetables, reduces losses and logistics costs and is environmentally friendly.

Evaluation of the Reuse of Packaging …

45

Research Methodology The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the practice of the use of plastic reusable plastic containers (RPCs) in the supply chain of fruits and vegetables of a large retail chain serving its shops across Northern Greece. In particular, one of the four largest retail chains in the Greek market has been selected and it has a large branch network in Northern Greece. This company has been co-deciding with its suppliers to use a particular type of RPC exclusively for the transportation, distribution, and storage (both in the warehouses of supply chain members and chain stores). These containers are made of polypropylene and are 100% recyclable. They are designed exclusively for the packaging of fruits and vegetables, can be reused after they have been washed, disinfected, passed through quality control and certified according to the regulations on safety and hygiene. Two (2) questionnaires were used to collect the required data, which are given as follows: A questionnaire that included open and closed-ended questions, answered by the executives of the retail chain’s logistics division, for the presentation and evaluation of the use of RPC trunking. Questionnaire for the vendors, to evaluate problems encountered in managing fresh fruit and vegetables using conventional staples.

Responses from the Logistics Managers Presented and analyzed in this section are the responses of the Logistics Manager, the Procurement Manager and the Warehouse Manager of the company under assessment. These managers were asked to cite the supply method they implemented for fresh fruit and vegetables. It was found that 70% of this supply was realized by direct supply from producers, 20% from wholesalers and 10% through imports. Subsequently, they were asked to report on the extent the reasons driving the initial decision of the members of the supply chain (upon the recommendation by the retail chain) to opt out for RPC as the main logistics unit load, were dealt with. The findings show that the main reasons focused on dealing with “practical” matters revolving around logistics and supply, and more specifically: the philosophy of Just-in-Time (a goal for the company’s management) is supported at a great extend, as RPCs can be furled and any needs on storage can be reduced; their design is more “ergonomic” than that of conventional containers and make the operation of stacking easier. Loaded containers can be easily properly maintained, to some extend, which—in turn—is key to the proper management of fresh fruit and vegetables (since the construction of RPCs favors faster and more stable cooling of the products). The top management of the firm was quite satisfied by the ability of the RPCs to be available in different sizes, so that they can satisfy more “specialized” needs in terms of the packaging and the characteristics of the products, while at the same time they help to reduce damage to

46

A. Moisidou et al.

fruit and vegetables, they ensure uniformity on the shelf and make their appearance more appealing to customers. All of the above, prove to be really important when it comes to saving storage space, maintaining the quality characteristics of the products (better cooling) and improving working conditions (ergonomics). They are also the grounds for choosing this logistics unit load. The fact that RPCs have lower microbial loads and less pollutants than conventional single-use/disposable containers, due to the disinfection that takes place and the fact that the RPCs have a better environmental balance, proved to be a less persuasive reason, albeit one of significant importance. During the initial discussions that took place and regarded the selection of the RPC system, some of the managers mentioned reasons that advised against the decision. In the corresponding question, the higher cost that arises when compared to the use of conventional, single-use/disposable containers, stands as the main deterrent for the selection of RPC containers. Significantly less importance is attributed to the difficulty that resides in imposing the system on suppliers, cooperations, and wholesalers. They were, then, asked about the weak points that the selection of the RPC containers poses. According to the responses that the firm provided, during the relatively short period in which the RPC system was implemented, relatively small problems were noted regarding shortage on suppliers of RPC—fact attributed mainly to the poor coordination between companies. Issues of lesser importance were observed, regarding the quality of the containers, while in the cases where the tenters were poorly cleaned were evaluated as of practically no importance. The risk of minor injuries for the employees when furling the tenters, also appeared to be of no importance.

Responses from the Suppliers The difficulty that resides in the adoption of the Reusable Plastic Containers (RPC) system by suppliers, producer cooperations, wholesalers and importers of fresh fruit and vegetables, functions as the reason that, in many cases, prevents the adoption of this system by large firms in the industry. For this reason, the 10 largest (in value and in volume) suppliers of fresh fruit and vegetables were asked to prioritize the problems that the users of conventional (wooden or paper) containers were facing. The importance of these problems also highlights a number of additional reasons that led the firm to decide in favor of the adoption of the specific, reusable containers (Table 1). The most important problem faced by the firms which used the conventional containers was the often occurring, high rate of wastes and the reduction in the quality of products during transportation and storage, which result in the rejection of part of the

The use of conventional (disposable) packages is accompanied with negative environmental balance

Often appearing, high rate of decay and reduction in the quality of products during transportation and storage, which result in the rejection of part of the cargo as not appropriate

X X

High cost of collecting and recycling the conventional (disposable) packages

7

X

X

6

High logistics cost due to poor utilization of the available spaces (transportation/warehouses) when using conventional packages

X

5

The stability and safety of the conventional (disposable) packages are often inadequate for the transportation and storage of the products

4

The sizes of the conventional packages often don’t match the available dimensions on the shelves

3

X

X

2

The appearance of the conventional packages is often inadequate for their placement on the shelves

Emergence of hygiene problems with the use of conventional (disposable) packaging

1

X

8

9

10

Table 1 Evaluation of the problems emerged during the management of fresh fruit and vegetables with conventional containers (1 = no importance, 10 = very important)

Evaluation of the Reuse of Packaging … 47

48

A. Moisidou et al. IniƟal producƟon of 66,667 reusable plasƟc containers (RPC)

15,667 new RPC will replace the damaged RPC’s

IniƟal producƟon of 3,330,000 paper / wood containers

3,32 m. RPC’s are cleaned, disinfected and recirculated 3,32 m. one-use paper / wood containers are used for the transportaƟon of the products

15,667 new RPC will be recycled

3,32 m. RPC’s are used for the transportaƟon of the products

Recycling of 66,667 RPC aŌer 10 years

Recycling of 3,330,000 paper / wood containers

Fig. 1 Comparison of the two types of fruits and vegetables handling

cargo as inappropriate. Among the problems that the firm finds extremely important are the problems of high cost logistics due to poor utilization of the available spaces (transportation/warehouses) with the use of conventional packaging, the high cost of collecting and recycling the conventional single-use/disposable packages, as well as the fact that the use of conventional single-use/disposable packaging is accompanied by a negative environmental balance. Of average importance are problems that relate to the appearance of the conventional packages that is often inadequate as far as their placement on the shelves is concerned, to the sizes of the conventional packages that often do not match the available dimensions on the shelves, and to the stability and safety of the conventional single-use/disposable packages that are often inadequate for the transportation and storage of products. The existence of hygiene problems in conventional packaging is assessed as not having any special importance regarding the management of fresh fruit and vegetables. Although the materials used to create single-use/disposable containers favor the growth of microorganisms, the relatively short time-frame in which fresh fruit and vegetables transport, under often low-temperature conditions, seems to significantly reduce the emergence of hygiene problems (Fig. 1).

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Discussion—Conclusion During the last two decades, the food retail industry, due to the nature of its operations, has adopted a number of technological innovations, which often require significant investment. The proposed technological situation (Reusable Plastic Containers) for the handling of fresh fruit and vegetables is an innovation that is not only functional but also economical and environmentally friendly. The examined retail chain decided 15 months ago to use RPC, as part of its effort to lengthen the life and quality of available fruit and vegetables along the supply chain, to reduce losses due to quality product degradation, reduce logistics costs and ensure a better environmental balance as part of its corporate responsibility. The purpose of this research was to record and evaluate the processes and benefits of handling fresh fruit and vegetables using RPC in relation to conventional disposable wooden/paper containers. After 15 of operations of the new RPC system, the top management of the retailer estimated the expecting saving costs. Specifically, about 600,670 lb of 15 kilos are required for the transport and storage of 1,000 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. Considering that in the most conservative scenario plastic containers have a life span of at least 10 years and are used about 50 times, 66,670 × 50 = 3,333,500 times the 66,670 plastic containers during the ten years will be in circulation. In the meantime, a renewal of 15,667 blocks is expected due to various damages. While according to the above for the transfer of 50,000 tons (1,000 t × 50 times) in a decade 82,337 plastic containers will be required, in contrast with the 3,333,500 disposable wooden/paper trays that are required to satisfy the same quantity. The following figure compares the two solutions. But what are the experiences of the retail chain with the RPC system in the short space of time since the system was implemented and in terms of supply chain management and green practices? Experience so far may, to a lesser or greater degree, justify the company’s decision to adopt the system for handling fresh fruits and vegetables? Beginning with the negative experiences, the problems encountered in the relatively short period of implementation of this system were assessed to be relatively minor due to their limited scope. Negative events are limited to bottlenecks in a few cases, mainly due to poor coordination between companies. Minor problems have been also identified in the quality of the plastic containers, while practically irrelevant are the cases of poorly cleaned crates. On the other hand, the findings of this research clearly show the multifaceted positive role that a cyclical economy system using plastic packing containers can play in the logistics of fresh fruit and vegetables, containers which, after being washed and disinfected, pass through quality control and are certified according to hygiene regulations, so that they can then be reused in more cycles. The conclusions drawn from this investigation are considered sufficient to be used more widely by other companies in the industry. Despite the satisfactory approach to the subject by one of the largest supermarket chains in Greece, it is evident that

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further research is required, on more companies in the industry, provided that they have adopted reusable storage systems in their logistics.

References 1. Evenson, R.E.: Assessing the impact of the green revolution, 1960 to 2000. Science 300(5620), 758–762 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1078710 2. FAO: Save Food: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (2016). http://www.fao. org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/ 3. Gustavsson, J., Cederberg, C., Sonesson, U., van Otterdijk, R., Meybeck, A.: Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy (2011) 4. Jalava, M., Guillaume, J.H.A., Kummu, M., Porkka, M., Siebert, S., Varis, O.: Diet change and food loss reduction: what is their combined impact on global water use and scarcity? Earth’s Futur. 4, 62–78 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/2015EF000327 5. Mollenkopf, D., Closs, D., Twede, D., Lee, S., Burgess, G.: Assessing the viability of reusable packaging: a relative cost approach. J. Bus. Logist. 26(1), 169–197 (2005) 6. Rendulic, S.: Reusable Plastic Containers on The Function of Reducing Logistics Costs (2014). http://www.efos.unios.hr/repec/osi/bulimm/PDF/BusinessLogisticsinModernManagement12/ blimm1214.pdf 7. Wood, G., Sturges, M.: Reusable Packaging—Factors to Consider. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) (2010) 8. Wyman, O.: Reducing Food Waste How Can Retailers Help? (2014). http://www.oliverwyman. com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/global/en/2014/jul/OW_Reducing_Food_Waste.pdf

Part III

Reconsidering the Role of Place in Marketing

Organized by: Mark Rosenbaum Northern Illinois University, United States Description The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers interesting in pursuing new perspectives of the role of place in marketing and its impact on consumer well-being. Building upon the recent work of Rosenbaum, Kelleher, Friman, Kristensson, and Scherer, workshop participants will be encouraged to explore pioneering theoretical, empirical, and humanistic opportunities given the REPLACE framework. Drawing from resource exchange theory and attention restoration theory, the REPLACE framework problematizes the assumption that places are merely physical locales by foregrounding how places can become inseparable aspects of consumers’ lives. The framework presents an alternative resource-based perspective of place, namely as a repository of resources that are potentially available to consumers through exchange processes. These exchange processes, and the complexity of the offered resources, influence consumers’ relationship with a locale as well as their sense of well-being. With this alternative perspective, REPLACE bridged the place concept to public health and extend the understanding of attachment in service settings. Mark Rosenbaum will lead the Workshop in idyllic Cyprus settings opportune for brainstorming. Participants will understand how the authors crafted the REPLACE framework to bring marketing back to its exchange origins. The workshop offers insights into how environmental and natural psychology play a role in marketing. Participants will consider the transformative role of marketing exchanges in consumers’ lives. We will clarify concepts such as place attachment, Attachment Restoration Theory, and well-being, to understand how places become profound centers of a consumer’s existence. Participants are encouraged to present preliminary or developed research on the topic or to brainstorm together in “breakout sessions” to apply the REPLACE framework to commercial and nonprofit settings.

Public Policies and Benchmarking in Tourism as a Key to Success for Destinations Ruben Molina, Melissa Ochoa and Beatriz Ledesma

Abstract Tourism is an activity that is vitally important for countries because of the contributions to economies. This relevance, therefore, is reflected in the creation of public policies for the tourism sector and to achieve competitiveness in international tourism markets. Tourism has experienced continued growth and diversification and we can say is the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. Tourism is a complex sector that involves many different activities and this paper examines the importance of public policies and benchmarking in tourism and how to attract a major number of visitors based on what other destinations have made. This work analyses a theoretical view of the benchmarking for destinations and a view of public policies in tourism. Likewise, the paper presents a discussion about these theories and proposes a series of actions aimed to increase the number of international tourist to Mexico. Keywords Tourism · Public policies · Benchmarking

Introduction Tourism has experienced continued growth and diversification and we can say is the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. Tourism is a complex sector that involves many different activities. The tourism industry is one of the industries which can support country’s income. Public policies play a significant role in tourism, like promoting the image of the country in the international perception, make strategies, and plans to attract more tourists to visit the destination. But we must know that destinations face competitive pressures which are more and more important and complicated in today’s globalized society. Therefore, tourism destinations compete for visitors at tourism market and subsequently get into a competitive struggle and it’s important that destinations know and analyses their weaknesses and strengths R. Molina (B) · M. Ochoa · B. Ledesma Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, México e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_7

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in order to improve and maintain destination performances. A recent management methodology that can help analyze the tourism is the benchmarking; it evaluates the weaknesses and strengths of companies and assesses comparative advantages of leading competitors. Even though the tourism sector is not the typical sector where the benchmarking methods are widely used, this approach could be successfully applied. So, through the analyses of benchmarking and the impact of the public policies, destinations can success to attract a major number of visitors.

Public Politics When we talk about public policy, we made allusion to the processes, decisions, results done, but without conflicts of interest, different tensions between definitions of the problem to be solved and between different evaluated perspectives; evaluators are excluded; It is a landscape full of conflicting powers, confronting and collaborating to opinions and individual action courses. Harold Lasswell is an important author in the field of political science. He defined in the fifties public policy as “discipline concerned of explaining the processes of elaboration and implementation of policies, science-based, interdisciplinary and service democratic governments”, twenty years later in 1971 he would add a crucial point in the definition: “knowledge of the decision process”. This concerns to the professional skills necessary to participate in decision of making policy (know the process of policy decision) and on the reliable scientific skills required to contribute to the invention of theory and practice (incorporate data and theories of science in the process of decision policy in order to improve public decision). Traditional science considered in the fifties and sixties, that policies were dependent variables of political activity (politics). They assumed that policies were nothing more than the result, the product, the consequence of the rulers or who were represented in the system by political parties. That is, policy decisions were the rulers to solve a particular problem, and that only were made to legitimize his power to the governed [7]. Tamayo [9] defines that public policies are the set of goals, decisions, and actions carried out by a government to solve the problems that at any given time citizens and the government itself considered a priority. A public policy is not any government action that can be singular and fleeting, in response to particular political circumstances or social demands, it is to be a set of intentional and causal actions, aimed at achieving an objective of public interest or benefit, that uses different actions, agents, instruments, procedures, and resources corresponding to the fulfillment of public functions that are of nature permanent or the care of public problems whose solution involves sustained action.

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Tourism Policy Tourism is an activity that is vitally important for countries because of the contributions to the domestic product and balance of payments. This relevance, therefore, is reflected in the presence of the public sector in creating actions, plans and programs for developing countries, so it is necessary to create public policies for the important development of the tourism sector and achieving competitiveness. The World Tourism Organization defined Tourism Policy as the action developed by the public sector from the set of administrations and institutions that compose it and materially affect the way public activity. Another definition proposed by the National Tourism Administration (NTA) said is the set of measures adopted for the greater use of tourism resources in Arcoraci [2]. Acerenza [1] defines the tourism policy as “the set of decisions in tourism which are harmoniously integrated into the context of the national policy of development (sustainable) guide the management of the sector and regulate the actions to follow, which are translate into plans and sectoral development programs”. Public policies in tourism promote the growth of national income, create jobs, increase foreign investments and help the tourist flows to different areas of a country [5]. This results in improving the quality of life and welfare of society [6]. The position of a government in developing public policies in tourism can be passive, while answers basic actions that affect the activity, but without influencing its development, or active, manifested in actions that favor the touristic development. This implies the recognition of specific needs such as provision of accommodation in areas of attractive potential, tourist protected areas, etc. [6]. One of the main objectives of tourism policy is to promote inbound tourism, so different types of measures have to be applied, such as marketing campaigns, improving the country’s image to the outside as well as the presentation of products at trade shows and international exhibitions, to support the tourism enterprises and measures for the establishment of foreign companies [2]. According to Hall [3], in Martínez et al. [5], the objectives and functions of public policies on tourism are related to coordination, planning, legislation, promotion, stimulation, and support with the public interest. Benchmarking shows where a destination is stronger or weaker and adopts some features of another destination, therefore, with public policies, a tourist destination will be able to create or strengthen their tourism products through strategies and actions according of what other destination made to success, improve the quality and conditions of the tourist destination and influencing the competitiveness of it.

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Destination Benchmarking Benchmarking is a recent management methodology that analyses the weaknesses and strengths of enterprises and measures the comparative advantages of competitors [10]. Kozak [4] says destination benchmarking is a measurement of a destination’s performance by its operators compared with other destinations in order to win the competition. It measures the strengths and weaknesses of tourist destinations against other destinations in the same place or in another country and can evaluate primary data in order to establish priorities, objectives and achieve improvements in order to gain competitive advantages. Some benefits of destination benchmarking are that it helps destination authorities improve their competitive performances; analyses their potency and powerlessness in order to improve and maintain destination performances; monitor the performances of their tourist products and services. It is also a way to learn how to control and coordinate a variety of activities in tourist destinations to achieve high standards and can teach the governments how to research their policy applications and review their positioning in global market.

Political Benchmarking Benchmarking experiences in the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of public policies in industrialized countries has been systematic and has led to a new type of benchmarking called “political benchmarking” [8]. It is a style of doing politics, observing and comparing political decision processes considered of high impact and emphasizes on learning and not especially or exclusively in the transmission of ideological messages. The application of benchmarking facilitates innovation and institutionalization of public policies. This is stated that knowledge management is positioned in the center of the political agenda displacing large ideological models. However, criticism has been swift and identified the weaknesses of this style, which tends to confuse the role of benchmarking; some argue that, despite its importance as an instrument of public policy, benchmarking mainly plays the role of “leaking information” [8]. It could be said that the application of benchmarking in the public sector of industrialized countries has an empirical experience and the theoretical development of “political benchmarking” is at an early stage. Therefore, political benchmarking exists when production of valid decisions for the collective is based on comparisons of yields between own decision units and environmental decision units [8].

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Conclusions Public policies in tourism include actions and provide a background that guides actions and strategies for a better advance of the tourism activity. In addition, for a destination can be successful, it is necessary that the government acknowledge the social and economic factors that influence in the tourism sector and stimulate the creation of new products to be competitive in the market and add value to the country. Therefore, the government has to make strategies and actions to guideline and to attract new tourists. Some key points are suggested to be taken into account to attract new tourists: Tourist superstructure: requires an organism to develop and implement plans, also required to review the structure and legal framework on a regular basis. Tourist Promotion: the country’s tourism sector requires greater promotion and more capital to be more competitive in world markets. Training and Human Resources Training: improve human resources according to the new tourism markets. Tourist Services: modernization of facilities, equipment, operation systems to make them attractive to tourists. National Tourist Information System: through the Internet, maps, brochures, videos, and photos. Tourist Culture: generate greater tourist culture and raise awareness of the importance of tourism. Therefore, making a depth benchmarking analysis, countries can learn from others: see what they did to attract more tourists, compare different economic variables and adapt what suits over the country so it can compete and succeed.

References 1. Acerenza, M.: Tourism Policy and Planning of Tourism. Trillas, México (2006) 2. Arcoraci, E.: Tourism Policy (2009). http://www.utntyh.com/alumnos/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/11/UNIDAD-8-.POLITICA-TURISTICA.pdf. Accessed 20 July 2016 3. Hall, M.: Tourism Planning: Policies, Processes and Relationships. Pearson Education, Harlow (2000) 4. Kozak, M.: Destination Benchmarking: Concepts, Practices and Operations. CABI, Wallingford (2004) 5. Martínez, R., Ochoa, M., Gil lafuente, A.: Public policies and tourism marketing. An analysis of the competitiveness on tourism in Morelia, Mexico and Alcala de Henares, Spain. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. (2014) 6. Monfort, V.: Tourism policy: an approach. J. Tour. 6, 7–27 (2000) 7. Roth, A.: Public Policy Formulation. Implementation and Evaluation Aurora, Bogotá (2006) 8. Straheim, H.: Der Ruf der Sirenen- Zur Dynamik politischen Benchmarkings. Eine Analyse anhand der US-Sozialreformen. Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung GMBH (2001). http://www.top.org.ar/ecgp/FullText/000002/2725.pdf 9. Tamayo, M.: The Analysis of Public Policies “The New Government”. Alliance, Madrid (1997) 10. Wöber, K.W.: Benchmarking in Tourism and Hospitality Industries. The Selection of Benchmarking Partners, CABI, Wallingford (2002)

Customer Relationship Management and Social Media in Greek Tourism D. Belias, E. Velissariou, D. Kyriakoy, L. Vasiliadis, C. Mantas, L. Sdrolias, G. Aspridis and A. Koustelios

Abstract It is important to investigate how managers and employees can build customer relationship management, well known as CRM, with their clients in the tourism sector through the use of social media which is the aim of this research. The research has concluded that an important insight for the Greek companies operating in the tourist sector so to link the CRM with social media so to use the social media as a point where the tourist company can retrieve important information. The research has revealed that there is a lack of research on this field. For this reason it is recommended that a future research will evaluate the best practices used. Keywords CRM · Greek tourism · Social media · ICT

Introduction Marketing is on the most fascinating disciples of modern business administration. Marketing has developed from a minor discipline during the 60’s to one of the most effective and important business disciplines, having the benefit of been able to tune with the changes that have occurred in the modern management, in particular of the use of the Internet on modern corporations. Another important shift for modern D. Belias (B) · E. Velissariou · L. Sdrolias · G. Aspridis Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Larisa, Greece e-mail: [email protected] D. Kyriakoy Department of Economic Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece L. Vasiliadis Department of Accounting and Finance, T.E.I of Central, Chalcis, Greece C. Mantas Centre of Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK A. Koustelios Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_8

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marketing is the shift from the concept of mass marketing, that we learnt during the 80’s and 90’s, to the customization of marketing based on the needs and wants of the customer. From the 90’s firms used direct marketing methods and personal sales in order to reach the individual customer with a unique offer. Actually changes on the ICT have emerged a number of new strategies where firms have to be effective and ready to respond on the simultaneous changes that occur from day to day. Innovative firms like Google have changed the way that firms are marketing their products. They can use googlewords so to share documents with googledocs and communicate with their customers all over the world using goggle talk or Skype [3]. A marketing discipline that has benefited from all those changes is the Relationship Marketing. It is important to note that Marketing is about satisfying the customer needs and wants and at the same time to bring benefits and create value for the firm. Actually it seems that marketing has moved beyond the product-based (Marketing 1.0) to consumer-based (Marketing 2.0) while Marketing 3.0 regards consumers from a holistic approach where the customer is a value driven person and it can become even a collaborator of the firm. Using social networking and new technologies the organizations have a unique chance to have their get away from the traditional relationship of seller-buyer but to have the customer on their side as a collaborator [13]. CRM can apply on all of the service sectors, including tourism. Nevertheless, the effects of CRM in the tourism sector seem to be an academic field with a limited number of surveys. The same rule applies for the Greek market, where it seems that there is not any similar research. For this reason it was taken the decision to investigate how managers and employees can build customer relationship management, well known as CRM, with their clients in the tourism sector which is the aim of this research. The paper uses the literature review as being its methodological approach. This means that the authors rely on the use of researches that have been published and they are on online databases. The expected outcome of this paper is that the social media can have a positive impact on CRM for the Greek hotels, since they rely heavily on the interaction with the customers.

Methodology The methodology used in this paper is the critical review of the current literature. Relevant literature selection was derived from popular online bibliographic databases, like Science Direct, Emerald, EBSCO host and scientific search engines like Google Scholar. Also, general search engines like Google have been used. The paper has used reference which have derived from similar papers and articles published on the internet and mostly on credible academic resources. Those resources include books, conference proceedings, reports and white papers along with online

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material. The selection criteria used on this project are related with examined issues and topics.

Literature Review The Relationship Lifecycle An important element of Relationship Marketing is the stages of the relationship. Like on human relationships, there are two parts; the firm and its customers are two strangers. The customer may have heard somewhere about the firm but he has no or limited knowledge on the firm. Organizations will have to find a way to defreeze the relationship that they have with the consumers and bring them close to the organization. Weinberg and Terlutter [22] have recommended a revised version of the Customer Life Cycle model. Its traditional version includes the reach, acquisition, conversion and finally the acquisition and loyalty of the customer. Grönroos [10] agrees with that model and writes that the consumer will start constructing a relationship with the customers slowly but as time passes on and the consumer is satisfied, the relationship will become close and after the sales there is going to be the customer recovery phase. Depending on the satisfaction or not of the customer, the customer will decide for the fate of his relationship with the seller. Initially there is the customer acquisition phase; the customer does not have any link with the company but there is some progress. The next stage is the sales phase. At this phase the relationship comes into effect. The company has to keep its promises and satisfy the customers’ expectations. This is the critical moment of the relationship between the tourist company and its customers. On the customer recovery phase, the customer will measure what he expected and what he received from the tourist provider not only in terms of the final product but mostly on terms of relationship [10]. The customer measures the way that the tourist company communicated with him, whether the tourist company meet its obligation and how it treated to the customer. On many occasions the moment of truth will be when the customer will ask from the tourist company for tips, says how to deal with a problem. Service quality will determine the fate of the relationship [8]. At this point the customer has two choices, (a) the case that the relationship endeavor is successful and the customer becomes loyal to the tourist service provider or (b) recovery endeavor is not successful and the customer decides to end the relationship. The firm may have one last chance to avoid the second choice if the customer shows his intention and the firm has the willing to improve its relationship marketing tactics. On many case the dissatisfaction may be because of an answered call or of a rude employee and not so much because of the product itself [1]. On the royalty phase the tourist company uses online activities with a newsletter that sends from time to time to customers. Offline activities occur only on emergencies

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and mostly with the retailers. An end-consumer will have a direct communication with the tourist company only on emergencies [2].

Strategic Shift to On-Line Relationship Marketing In the beginning we discussed how ICT have changed our lives. Everyday a new technology appears while the managers often seem unable to catch up with the latest technological advances. There are managers, employees and executives that afraid of new technologies [17]. There are organizations unaware of the potentials of the Internet and people who are afraid to use new technologies, without considering that one day their enterprise will lag behind its competitors [13]. The Internet can be the vehicle for a tourist company’s new era. Strategy offers many alternatives; differentiation, cost leadership and focus strategy. For a tourist company differentiation is a one way road [9]. Differentiation is when you can achieve an innovation that will make you unique in the industry. There is not doubt that the Internet can head the new strategic shift [4, 6 20]. Online Relationship Activities can supplement the offline activities of the early stages. A tourist company can create innovative strategies like online games and banners in order to create relationships with its customers. At this stage it will have to create a number of strategic alliances with well-known tourist web sites and forums in order to start an open dialogue with the audience. A tourist company will call the audience to create its own content on social media, will take part on public discussion on internet forums, will send its video and a number of activities will bring the audience of the tourist industry close to the company. This strategy will go on with the other phases in order to keep the consumers close to the firm [19]. The proposed strategy will not refer to the “customer” but to the “partner”. The moto will be “be our partner”. A great deal on this will have the social media, but their impact will be discussed on the following chapter.

Discussion In recent years the tourism industry has turned to the internet as the main mean of distributing tourism services as well as communicating with the public [15]. As a result, the transition to the internet has also greatly influenced the way in which tourist services are distributed. The operating model of the tourist market, as it was a few years ago, was the operation of the market with intermediaries to have a particularly important role. It should be mentioned that in the context of the intermediary we refer to professionals in the sector such as tour operators and tour operators. This means that tourists and entrepreneurs who operate in the tourist industry, as well as

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destinations, were largely dependent on tourism intermediaries [12, 14]. Especially in order for a tourist to be able to contact and close a tourist package for a destination abroad, he would definitely have to contact the appropriate tourist office while the details of the trip were largely dependent on the way the intermediary would organize the tourist package. So we are talking about a case where the intermediaries are the ones with the negotiating power. This is particularly important for a tourist destination as this model brings destinations to be captive of market intermediaries. With the entry of the internet, the structure of the tourist market is changing. The distribution of tourist services is via web sites where the tourist can get in direct contact with professionals and tourism operators. Nowadays, purchases of tourist packages are made directly by the tourist business [16]. As it has already been mentioned, the internet has a very important role in the whole communication of destinations with its audience. For this purpose, it is very important to make a very serious investment in the online communication of the destination and especially in social media. At this point, it should be noted that the Internet should not be limited to the creation of relevant websites and groups in social media, but particular emphasis should be placed on their management. An example is the interaction that a destination can have with its audience in annotation on Facebook [5, 11]. This way the tourist becomes part of the communication strategy of the destination. For example, a visitor can make a comment on the operation of services on the island or want to make a proposal regarding the island’s marketing [7]. Then, in this case, the visitor should be considered to be the co-creator in the training of the island’s communication content by participating in social media and may also help the island’s administration to improve the services it offers to Tourists [18]. At the same time, in addition to creating and running the site and the social media groups, there is also the option of using tools like Google AdWords that allow flexible advertising campaigns. A very basic advantage of this kind of advertising is its low cost and its ability for highly targeted advertising [21]. This will enable the island to target very specific groups of the public and multiply the benefits of this approach. It should be mentioned that a particular element in order to make the entire management of online communication is content. In most cases the destinations have what they have to promote their content. This can be done by composing from different media such as video on YouTube, images in Instagram, comments on Facebook, and generally creating content on different media that will all together make up the image of the destination. This brings the need to use social media also for CRM purposes. Many Greek Hotels are relying on the positive word of mouth and on the comments made from the customers. Hence, it is crucial for those hotels to develop a mechanism where the CRM system and their CRM policy will record and interpret the comments made from the customers on the Internet. Overall, this will improve the customer engagement with the tourist business but also its performance [11].

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Conclusion CRM technologies enable the destinations to improve the way that they communicate and interact with the customer, like the web site and the forum, while they can contribute so to identify the customer needs immediately and to make the internet environment to fit with the customer needs. An important insight oin this can be to link the CRM with social media so to use the social media as a point where the tourist company can retrieve important information. The research has revealed that there is a lack of research on this field. For this reason it is recommended that a future research will evaluate the best practices used.

Suggestions for Further Research There is always space for further improvement and excellence of the tourism services and how they are best been provided for the customer. In this research we have allocated the fact that social media can operate together with CRM. However, there is a case of how this can apply in practice. For this reason, a future research can apply with the use of qualitative research upon a sample of tourism professionals. The outcome of this research will be to identify the best practices related with CRM and social media.

References 1. Assimakopoulos, C., Papaioannou, E., Sarmaniotis, C.: The contribution of CRM marketing variables towards improving company’s performance: a case of Thessaloniki area hotels. In: Proceedings of 11th International Conference of the Economic Society of Thessaloniki on Global Crisis and Economic Policies, Thessaloniki, pp. 427–434, 25–27 November 2010 2. Assimakopoulos, C., Papaioannou E., Sarmaniotis, C., Georgiadis, C.: Online reviews as a feedback mechanism for hotel CRM systems. Anatolia Int. J. Tour. Hosp. Res. 6(1), 5–20 (2015) 3. Auletta, K.: Googled: The End of the World As We Know It. Penguin Press (2009) 4. Belias, D., Vellisariou, E., Kyriakou, D., Vasiliadis, L., Mantas, C., Sdrolias, L., Aspridis, G., Kakkos, N.: The importance of Customer Relationship Management and social media in the Greek wine tourism industry. In: 4th International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT), with the theme Innovative Approaches to Tourism and Leisure: Culture, Places and Narratives in a Sustainability Context. Athens, Greece, 25–27 May 2017 5. Belias, D., Velissariou, E., Kyriakou, D., Vasiliadis, L, Roditis, A., Koustelios, A., Sdrolias, L.: The use of digital CRM in the operation of Greek Hotels. In: 5th International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues, Thessaloniki, Greece, 21–23 June 2017 6. Belias D., Velissariou E., Kyriakou D., Vasiliadis L, Sdrolias L., Aspridis G., Koustelios A.: The use of social media as a tool for acquiring knowledge and collaborative environment in Tourism—the case of Greece. In: 6th International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality Management, Athens, Greece, 01–03 June 2017

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7. Carr, N.G.: IT doesn’t matter. Harv. Bus. Rev. 81(5), 41–49 (2003) 8. Claycomb, C., Martin, C.L.: Building customer relationships: an inventory of service providers’ objectives and practices. J. Serv. Market. 16(7), 615–635 (2002) 9. De Wit, B., Meyer, R.: Strategic Synthesis—Resolving Strategy Paradoxes to Create Competitive Advantage, 3rd edn, Cengage Learning (2010) 10. Grönroos, C.: Relationship marketing: strategic and tactical implications. Management Decision 34(6), 5–14 (1996) 11. Harrigan, P., Evers, A., Miles, M., Daly, T.: Customer engagement with tourism social media brands. Tour. Manag. 59, 597–609 (2017) 12. Kim, D., Kim, W., Han, J.: A perceptual mapping of online travel agencies and preference attributes. Tour. Manag. 28, 591–604 (2011) 13. Kotler, P., Kartajava, H., Setiawan, I.: Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit. Wiley (2010) 14. Kyriakou, D., Belias, D., Vassiliadis, L, Koustelios, A.: Social media and tourism: a digital investment for Thessaly? In: 2nd International Conference of Cultural and Digital Tourism Forms and Norms of Tourism and Culture in the Age of Innovation, Athens, 21–24 May 2015. Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 471–483. Springer, Cham 15. Kαζαζης, ´ N.: Aπ oτ ελεσ ματ ικ o´ μαρκετ ´ ινγ κ, Aθηνα: ´

ταμouλης ´ (2006) 16. Middleton, V., Fyall, A., Morgan, M.: Marketing in Travel and Tourism, 4th edn. ButterworthHeinaman (2009) 17. Nolan, R., McFarlan, F.: Information technology and the board of directors. Harv. Bus. Rev. 83(10), 96–106 (2005) 18. Papaioannou, E., Sarmaniotis, C., Assimakopoulos, C., Sotiriades, M.: CRM systems employed in the hotel sector: a case of a Greek 5-star hotel. In: Proceedings of Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management 2011, Istanbul, Turkey, 19–24 June 2011, pp. 408–413 (2011) 19. Sarmaniotis, C., Assimakopoulos, C., Papaioannou, E.: Successful implementation of CRM in luxury hotels: determinants and measurements. EuroMed J. Bus. 8(2), 134–153 (2013) 20. Sarmaniotis, C., Papaioannou, E., Asimakopoulos, C.: Characteristics and dimensions of CRM systems employed in northern Greece hotels. In: Proceedings of Informational Conference on Sustainable Tourism: Debates & Challenges (ICST 2010), Crete & Santorini, pp. 1031–1041, 22–25 April 2010 21. Tsiotsou, R., Ratten, V.: Future research directions in tourism marketing. Mark. Intell. Plan. 28(4), 533–544 (2012) 22. Weinberg, P., Terlutter, R.: Relationship marketing in European consumer goods markets: from marketing mix orientation to customer life cycle management. In: Scholz, C., Zentes, J. (eds.) Management New Rules for Old Europe, pp. 123–136. Gabler, Wiesbaden (2006)

Tourism and Destination Marketing the Case of Greece D. Belias, E. Velissariou, L. Vasiliadis, D. Kyriakoy, C. Mantas, K. Varsanis, L. Sdrolias, A. Koustelios and D. Tselios

Abstract Marketing has an important role today for every tourist business. However, it is important to focus not only on how the organizations are marketing themselves but also how the destination will market itself and remind that tourists first choose destination and then all the rest, including the hotels. From this literature review, it is obvious that destination branding has a number of advantages and that branding can have benefits in different forms of tourism, whether it is a single tourist unit or a destination. In the case of Greece, the variety of destinations that it has can be the ideal place for further research. Hence, it is proposed for future research to examine destination marketing in practice. Keywords Destination marketing · Tourism marketing · Destinations · Greece

D. Belias (B) · E. Velissariou · L. Sdrolias · D. Tselios Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Larisa, Greece e-mail: [email protected] L. Vasiliadis Department of Accounting and Finance, T.E.I of Central, Serres, Greece D. Kyriakoy Department of Economic Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece C. Mantas Centre of Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK K. Varsanis Department of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia, Kozani, Greece A. Koustelios Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_9

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Introduction In today’s times, one of the characteristics of society is the great degree of organization that allows us to refer to an organized society. Tourism as a socioeconomic activity is a complex product consisting of a series of byproducts such as tourist accommodation, transport, leisure services, wine-making, tourism infrastructure, etc. The tourist during his vacation when consuming various tourist byproducts, Consciously or unconsciously, comes in contact with tourist organizations and agencies, which often interfere with the tourists’ choice in terms of destination, type of holiday and the mean of transportation [1–4]. Today, what is important is not only to promote tourism at business level but also to promote it in terms of destination. Hence, it is important to focus not only on how the organizations are marketing themselves but also how the destination will market itself. It is important to remind that tourists first choose destination and then all the rest, including the hotels [12]. Most of the research focuses on the business level and not on the destination level. For this reason, the proposed research will focus on destination marketing as a useful tool for the promotion of Greek tourism. This is a literature review which means that it will focus on acquiring data taken from the online databases which have the existing literature. The expected results are linked with the fact that destination marketing can boost tourism in Greece, though there is a need for further research.

Methodology This is a literature review, which means that the paper relies on the critical examination of the current theories and literature. The source of the data will be from online databases such as EBSCO and emerald, along with Google’s search engine (Scholar Google). Furthermore, the research will use the generic search engine of Google. In order to verify the validity and the reliability of this paper, the authors have retrieved papers which have been published only on well-known and accepted scientific journals, where the publications have been subject of peer review. Furthermore, the authors have used books, conference proceedings, and any other sources which will help them to produce the literature review. The selection criteria used were the time of the publication, the validity of the authors and of course the relevance of the topic.

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Literature Review Tourism Marketing In the tourism industry, there are specific supply and demand aspects that contribute to the implementation of tourism marketing. These views are related to the nature of the demand for tourist services, the nature of their supply, the tourist services, and the prices offered, the characteristics of the promotion which influence the supply of tourist services and the distribution characteristics which can be used to in order to facilitate the demand for tourist services. The tourist market is a series of existing and potential goods that can be purchased as a tourist product. For the categories of customers who choose the existing or potential goods, there may be a different market which in other cases exists, while in other cases it can be created [12]. Based on customer groups, there may be a mass market where large groups of people travel by choosing package packages to achieve the lowest possible cost, with middle and low-income individuals as well as conservative customers, the average market that selected by young and medium-sized business people traveling to organized groups that have higher costs, the market for individual customers where people in the class do not plan these who they want to buy when and how they want, as well as the purchase of common interests that includes groups of common interests such as collecting items and visiting recreational sites. Tourism marketing, like other forms of marketing, faces a number of obstacles to the implementation of its design. An example is the inelasticity of tourist supply as well as the great competition that exists in Greece among tourist products and destinations as well as the instability that characterizes the tourist demand due to the economic crisis. These are key factors of difficulty in shaping a tourism marketing strategy [5, 15]. According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK), marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying the needs of consumers for profit. Another definition states that marketing is the process design and execution of an idea, with the help of pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfying both the individual and the business pursuits. (American Marketing Association) [9]. The first complete scientific approach to tourism was given by Hunziker and Krapf in 1942. According to them, “tourism is the set of relations and events activated during the movement and residence of people outside the place of habitual residence, under the constraint that both the movement and the stay has no incentive to exercise any speculative activity.” There are two main concepts that define the above definition of tourism: the motivation or else the purpose of travel and the movement or else the length of stay [12]. One of the fundamental principles of marketing tourism services is the marketing mix. According to Kotler and Keller [9], the marketing mix includes the control those variables that the company uses to meet customer needs. According to Didd and Simkin [7] the heart of modern strategic marketing moves in three axes: segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

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• Market segmentation is the act of dividing a market into specific groups of buyers who might want separate products and/or marketing mixes. • The target market is the act of preparing measures of segment attractiveness and selecting one or more market segments. • The location of the product is the development of a service and a marketing mix to occupy a particular position in the minds of the target market. Usually, this means that the service has individual characteristics and/or is the transmission of the message of locating a special way. Marketing helps, through the above steps, the greater efficiency of the business. Suppliers can develop the right offer for each target market. Target market is a market segment that has been selected by an agency of the tourism industry to focus on marketing activities.

The Concept of Destination Branding For Middleton et al. [12] the image of the brand with placement is largely related to the perception that consumers have about the product. Brand placement is defined as “the process of differentiating and segregating a business or brand from its competitors, in real dimensions, in a way that the market prefers the business or brand” [16]. The goal of businesses is to take a prominent place in the perception of consumers. Of course, it should be noted that the concept of product placement is related to the perception given to it by consumers, which means that there is the possibility that it does not match the position the company had planned. For example, a hotel’s management may have designed quality-oriented services at a low price. However, the fact that it offers its services at low cost can be interpreted by consumers that the hotel offers low or medium level services. The ultimate goal of destination marketing should be to satisfy a desire or need, but also to be considered to be the primary means of solving a problem for consumers [16]. If the consumer has the need to stay in a luxury hotel then he will automatically choose a brand such as Hilton, Marriot,. etc. because these hotels have been put in the notion of luxury hotels. However, there is a clear lack of putting first the destination and then the hotels or any other facility within the premises of the destination [13].

Strategic Tourism Planning—Managerial Implications Modern marketing does not concern only the tourist businesses but also it concerns the destinations which have to compete with each other so to attract the interest of tourists. This means that a destination would have to identify its competitive advantages, develop its unique product proposition and to become more competitive. This process requires careful planning so to be able to create a unique product offer which will attract the interest of consumers. In order to do so, the tourist authorities of

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a destination would have to create local networks which will be made from the local authorities along with the tourist entrepreneurs so to develop a tourist plan which will be accepted from all side, but also they will be willing to implement it [6, 8]. An important part of this process is to collect appropriate information and knowledge. This means that knowledge management can bring important benefits on the planning process [2–4, 6], an example is to create an online database with data on the destination [10, 14]. The research made by Pike and Bianchi [13] has focused on the need to understand the local networks and to employee them in tourist planning. By understanding how the local market has been structured there can be a major competence which will generate an effective tourist planning process. Hence, it is important to understand that strategic tourist planning stands for cooperating with local business and other networks aiming at leveraging local tourism but also to be able to use the most relevant tourist management processes. The basic principles of tourism management in accordance with the Middleton et al. [12] on: • The design, so as to identify the goals and recognized means of achieving the objectives. • The organization where the work functions are analyzed in a series tasks and associated with some form of structure before these tasks assigned to individuals. The guidance, which is the method of stimulation and the effect of personnel to perform their duties effectively. It is necessary if someone needs to achieve organizational objectives. • The audit, on information gathered about what has been executed. Within organizations involved in tourism sector (e.g., travel agencies, airlines, tourist agencies, and affiliated companies) productive resources are combined; such as staff, money, capital, technology, equipment, and knowledge. The output is achieved through management of these resources. This is also demonstrated by the approach of Leiper [11] for tourism sector. According to Leiper, management of the phenomenon called “tourism” is complicated for several reasons: • The tourism industry is not a homogeneous sector nor it is one solid part of a local economy: it consists from a number of companies and other types of organizations must come together and cooperated in order to satisfy a common cause related with the tourist planning of the destination. • The cooperating industries and sectors sometimes tend not to consider as business associated exclusively with tourism. • The tourist destination visited by tourists is not usually the one responsible of a business or group of businesses but it can be of the sum of the local authorities and businesses. • The public sector and local authorities are trying to intervene to ensure that the business objectives (i.e., profit, increase the number of tourists and revenue) are in equilibrium with the local needs and interests of businesses (known as equity interests) in relation to production basis using tourism (i.e., beaches, attractions, infrastructure, and generally encircling).

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The public sector in a local area has the responsibility to try to interface design and management of different interest groups connected to the tourism, as well as having the main responsibility, in many cases, the marketing and promotion of the destination. The promotion of a tourist requires strategic preparation. The objectives of the campaign promotion should be defined. Those objectives are the update on a new touristic product or the enrichment of an existing one, the influencing and the shaping of the public opinion for climate reversal in case of unpleasant events and the reminder of the destination for the maintenance of share market.

Discussion Kotler and Keller [9] write that branding has the advantage of being able to make a company differentiate itself from competition and identify itself with the consumer’s personality. Middleton et al. [12] refer to the advantages, which are presented together with relevant examples of how destination marketing can leverage a destination: • Branding contributes to overcoming a crisis and limiting the impact of external factors. An exemplary example of London is that, despite all the terrorist attacks it has received since July 7, 2005, as well as innumerable threats, the strong tourist brand of the city has managed not to affect terrorism by tourist demand • Works as a guarantee for the tourist service. If someone chooses to stay the Star of Vouliagmeni only by listening to the name of this hotel, he will know that he will receive high-quality tourist services. • The use of branding can help the company attract consumers only from the market segment that targets it, but also by removing consumers that they would not like to have. A typical example is the club 18–30, which targets particular consumer groups, mainly from Britain, combining holiday with alcohol consumption and intense nightlife. The advantage is that it repels people who are not related to the holiday mode promoted by this particular business and who would not be satisfied with the Club 18–30 offers • Branding can be a strategic goal of a region’s tourism business. If a destination has built its name on agritourism, then all tourist businesses will adapt to offer agrotourism services and thus create the area a strong brand in agrotourism. • Branding also affects the distribution of the tourist product. In many cases, tourist consumers prefer to buy packages from well-known brands such as TUI, Thomas Cook, All of the above examples indicate that the case of destination marketing may have a number of benefits. However, for Greece is important to take advantage of this since there is a variety of tourist choices based on each destination. Hence, the diversity that Greece has a destination can be the starting point of research on this field [2–4, 17].

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Conclusion The use of destination marketing can have many benefits not only for the destination but primary for the tourist companies which operates within its premises. Of the advantages we have mentioned, it is obvious that destination branding has a number of advantages and that branding can have benefits in different forms of tourism, whether it is a single tourist unit or a destination. In the case of Greece, the variety of destinations that it has can be the ideal place for further research. Hence it is proposed for future research to examine destination marketing in practice.

Suggestions for Further Research There is some space for further research. Despite the fact that this has been a case which has been widely examined, the authors can suggest future research which will indicate two research fields. The first one is how the changes on destination marketing, such as the use of social media and the influence of Airbnb and other online sales platforms. For this reason, the authors recommend to have further insight into this field. A second insight may derive from the economic crisis. At this case, the authors suggest examining how the crisis has affected and changed the ways that tourist marketing occurs.

References 1. Belias, D., Velissariou, E., Koustelios, A., Varsanis, K., Kyriakou, D., Sdrolias, L.: Integrating total quality management philosophy in the Greek tourism sector. In: 5th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing, Athens, Greece, 23–26 September 2016 (2016) 2. Belias, D., Velissariou, E., Kyriakou, D., Varsanis, K., Vasiliadis, L, Mantas C., Sdrolias, L., Koustelios, A.: Tourism consumer behavior and alternative tourism; The case of argrotourism in Greece. In: 4th International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT), with the theme “Innovative Approaches to Tourism and Leisure: Culture, Places and Narratives in a Sustainability Context”, 25–27 May 2017, Athens, Greece (2017) 3. Belias, D., Vellisariou, E., Kyriakou, D., Vasiliadis, L., Mantas, C., Sdrolias, L., Aspridis, G., Kakkos, N.: The importance of customer relationship management and social media in the Greek wine tourism industry. In: 4th International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT), with the theme “Innovative Approaches to Tourism and Leisure: Culture, Places and Narratives in a Sustainability Context”, 25–27 May 2017, Athens, Greece (2017) 4. Belias, D., Velissariou, E., Kyriakou, D., Vasiliadis, L, Sdrolias, L., Aspridis, G., Koustelios, A.: Knowledge management in Greek tourism. In: 6th International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality Management, 01–03 June 2017, Athens, Greece (2017) 5. Buhalis, D., Law, R.: Progress in tourism management: twenty years on and 10 years after the internet: the state of eTourism research. Tour. Manag. 29(4), 609–623 (2008) 6. Cooper, C.: Knowledge management and tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 33(1), 47–64 (2006)

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7. Didd, S., Simkin, L.: Marketing Plan, South Western (2013) 8. Dimitriadis, St., Blanas, N., Aspridis, G., Vetsikas, A.: Organizational change management. Delineating employee reaction to change in SME’s located in Magnesia. Acad. J. Interdiscip. Stud. 5(1), 309–318 (2016) 9. Kotler, P., Keller, K.: Marketing Management, 13th edn. Pearson (2009) 10. Kyriakou, D., Belias, D.: Is silver economy a new way of tourism potential for Greece? In: 3rd International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT), with the theme “Tourism, Culture and Heritage in a Smart Economy”, 19–21 May 2016, Athens. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 425–436 (2016) 11. Leiper, N.: Tourist attraction systems. Annals development: an analysis of the positive and of tourism research 17(2), 367–384 (1990) 12. Middleton, V., Fyall, A., Morgan, M.: Marketing in Travel and Tourism, 4th edn. ButterworthHeinaman (2009) 13. Pike, S., Bianchi, C.: Destination brand equity for Australia: testing a model of CBBE in short haul and long haul markets. J. Hosp. Tour. Res. 40(1), 114–134 (2016) 14. Pyo, S., Uysal, M., Chang, H.: Knowledge discovery in databases for tourist destinations. J. Travel Res. 40(4), 396–403 (2002) 15. Rossidis, J., Aspridis, G.: Knowledge management—a theoretical approach. In: 10th MIBES Conference, Larissa [in Greek] (2015) 16. Valakas, I.: Integrated Marketing Communications. Patras, EAP (2008) 17. Vasiliadis, L., Trivellas, P., Belias, D., Meleas, J., Kyriakou, D.: Cultural tourism revisited: the case of Thessaly. In: 2nd International Conference of Cultural and Digital Tourism Forms and Norms of Tourism and Culture in the Age of Innovation, 21–24 May 2015, Athens. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, pp. 69–78 (2015)

Part IV

User Generated Content and Marketing

Organized by: Nga Ho-Dac San Francisco State University, Marketing, United States Description The aim of the session is to explore the impacts of user-generated content (UGC) on marketing theories and practice. As the proliferation of social media, lots of content have been created by users. That changes the landscape of marketing where traditionally, content was created by marketers only. Now, marketers cannot control the content anymore but instead just a part of a web of content creators. The impacts of UGC on marketing are twofold: impact on consumers and impact on marketers. Consumers nowadays rely not only on marketers’ content but also on UGC to make their decisions. On the other hand, UGC provides marketers with useful information to improve their marketing practice. User-generated content (UGC) includes customer reviews, forum discussion, social media content created by users, etc. This session includes but not limited to these topics: impacts of UGC on consumer decision making, sales, branding, product development, public relation, etc.

Marketing Challenges of Sports Tourism Development in Destinations with Focus on Generation Y and Z Alžbeta Kiráˇlová and Iveta Hamarneh

Abstract Destinations must understand the visitors’ attitude to their offer, the visitors’ requirements and preferences to compete in the tourism market. Marketing sports tourism requires sport and the destination to be cross-leveraged to optimize the quality of experiences of visitors. Taking into account the impact of young people, particularly those belonging into Generation Y and Z (Gen Y, Gen Z), on the sports tourism development in destinations, this study examines the preferences of these two segments in the Czech Republic. The study results from Gen Y and Gen Z respondents’ answer focusing on their perception of sports tourism including decision making, costs, the frequency of participation, and kind of sports. The results indicate significant differences between Gen Y and Gen Z behavior. The discussion addresses how the destinations can interpret the results of the study for destination marketing purposes to increase not only the visitation of Gen Y and Z but also their involvement in sports. Keywords Sports tourism · Destination · Marketing · Generation Y · Generation Z

Introduction International sports tourism is considered one of the primary reasons for global growth in tourism [18] and as a significant opportunity for tourism destinations [20, 25]. Sports tourism has been defined in many different ways [8, 9, 21]. Standeven and De Knop’s [17], p. 12 whose definitions are universally accepted, defined sports tourism as “all forms of active and passive involvement in the sporting activity, participated in casually or in an organized way for noncommercial or business/commercial reasons that necessitates travel away from home and work locality.” A. Kiráˇlová (B) · I. Hamarneh University College of Business in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_10

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Sports tourism and sporting activities refer to the experience associated with travel to engage in or view sport-related activities. Attendance at sporting events is the main reason for 76% of journeys [19]. According to UNWTO [19], revenues from sports, tourism represents 25% of total income from, and the market for sports tourism is expected to grow annually by 6% over the next five years. The demand for sports tourists from new experiences creates challenges and opportunities for destinations [13]. For the long-term success of the sports tourism development in the destination, coherent, and strategic planning based on efficient collaboration amongst sport and tourism stakeholders are crucial [6, 10]. De Villiers [7], p. 94 claims that developing sports tourism is about awareness “how to transform the sports event participation into a tourism experience and to convert the tourism destination into a sports practice venue.” Current scientific studies with a focus on sports tourism include a growing interest in the profile of sports tourists. A sports tourist is an active person who devotes himself to his favorite sports in his free time and holidays. Delpy [5] defines sports tourist as a physically active person, with a higher education degree, financially secure, aged between 18 and 44 years. Multigenerational marketing is appealing to the particular needs of individuals within more than one specific generational group. Youth travel represents not just a significant part of the tourism market, but also an important source of innovation and change. Destinations’ marketers need to respond to this trend by adjusting their marketing mixes and strategies, accordingly. Marketing sports tourism requires sport and the destination to be cross-leveraged to optimize the quality of experiences that the sports tourist obtains.

Methodology The study aims to fill the gap in sports tourism research and provides a unique view of the attitude of Generation Y and Z to sports activities. The implication for tourism destinations’ marketing can be found regarding the behavior of Generation Y and Z from deciding on the holiday destination until favorite sports activities. The formulated recommendations can help destinations set marketing activities with a focus on these two segments to further sustainable sports tourism development. Based on the objective of the study, the primary quantitative research has been chosen. Data were collected through the Internet during the period from December 2016 to March 2017. According to the objective of the study, the following research questions were formulated: (1) Do sports activities influence the selection of tourism destination? (2) What recommendations can be derived for the destination to attract Gen Y and Gen Z? Based on the characteristics of the Generation Y and Generation Z the following hypothesis was formulated: (H1) The Generation Y’s decision on destination selection is stronger influenced by destinations’ sports offer than the one of the Generation Z; (H2) The Gen Y do sports activities during their holidays more often than Gen Z.

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To identify the influence of the sports offer on the destination selection decision in Generation Y and Z the differences in proportions test were applied using the Z-Score Calculator for two Population Proportions (www.socscistatistics.com).

Young People and Tourism The concept of youth travel emerged at the beginning of the 1990s when the first studies regarding youth travel were conducted (e.g., [1, 3, 22]); however, precise definition of the youth travel still does not exists. The UNWTO [18] defines youth travelers as individuals aged between 16 and 25 years. The Youth Tourism Consortium of Canada [2] set this edge to 30 years old. The World Youth Student & Educational Travel Confederation [24] defines youth travelers as between 16 and 29 age; Carr [4] has extended the upper limit of this interval to 35 years. The global youth travel industry is estimated to represent almost 190 million international trips a year and has grown faster than global travel overall UNWTO, [18]. By 2020 there will be almost 300 million international youth trips per year, according to UNWTO [19] forecasts. The study of the WYSE [24] detects that young travelers consider special offers as an essential feature of the destination offer and excellent transport links as a critical destination feature; they plan their trips and book accommodation on the internet via mobile phone; the most crucial feature of the accommodation is fast, free WiFi. Most of the travel budgets of the young travelers are spent in the destination (around 60%) directly with the local supplier and so that they contribute directly to the destination. They are tending to revisit the destination over their lifetime while terrorism, political and civil unrest, disease, or natural disasters cannot discourage them from traveling. Young travelers are often the first tourists who discover new destinations and gain cultural benefits from their travel. There is no precise date range for Generation Y; most of the researchers include to it those born between the years 1981 and 2000 [12, 14, 23]. This generation grew up with computers and the Internet; they are connected 24 h a day, seven days a week via smartphones, laptops, and mobile devices. This generation prefers to communicate via e-mail and text messages rather than in person. It is focused on the family, which prioritizes to work. It has flexible schedules and a better balance in life [13]. They like to spend money, shopping in malls but are fewer brands loyal. As children, Gen Y participated in team sports, playing in the group. They enjoy working out, exercising with friends; they love sports and adventure as the sport is for them as much about the socialization as it is the exercising. There is no precise date for when Generation Z begins, but demographers and researchers typically use the mid-1990s to mid-2012s as starting birth years [11]. Generation Z is always connected to the Internet. They use Skype, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook read and write blogs; they want to cocreate. Gen Z prefers communicating through images, icons, and symbols; their attention span is eight seconds. They prefer saving money, and they worry about the world ecology and

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economy. Gen Z is a significant influencer on household purchases, including meals for dinner, vacations, furniture, and family cars; Gen Z is more likely than the general population to connect with brands. Gen Z sees sports as a health tool and often uses the Internet for the passive–active (virtual) sports activities. This way of spending leisure time often results in a lack of involvement in this generation of sports activities. Teens obesity increased three times since 1970 [16]. When it comes to active involvement in sports activities, according to research from Nielsen Scarborough [15], for Gen Z are running, swimming and biking the most popular sports activities.

Results and Discussion From 167 respondents, 75% of respondents belong to Gen Y and 25% of respondents to Gen Z. The Gen Y do sports activities during their holidays more often or at the same level than during the rest of the year at the significant level of 0.05 (0.468) than Gen Z (2.951). 72% of Gen Y and 80% of Gen Z respondents reported that they do not look for sports activities actively. 22% of Gen Y respondents and 17% of Gen Z respondents do different sports during their holiday than in everyday life because they want to try new sports; because of the inappropriate condition for their favorite sport (Gen Y 14% and Gen Z 12%), or they adapt to the fellow travelers (Gen Y 14% and Gen Z 12%). The financial independence of Gen Y is higher at the significant level of 0.05 (0.317) than the financial independence of the Gen Z (0.073). When selecting sports activities in the destination both Gen Y (40%) and Gen Z (46%) accept the offers of destinations’ sports facilities or gather information from animators in the destination (Gen Y 23% and Gen Z 20%). 30% of Gen Y and 24% of Gen Z respondents are not interested in any sports activities in destinations. Sports activities have a higher impact on the decision of the Gen Y at significance level 0.05 (0.595) than on the decision of the Gen Z (0.39) when selecting the destination. The successful development of sports tourism must be in line with the strengths and positioning of the destination. Based on the results of the research the following recommendations for destinations’ marketers can be formulated. Destinations with sports products offer that wish to attract Gen Y should focus on team sports facilities and offer a wide variety of sports activities as Gen Y is up for a challenge and change. Communication with Gen Y will be efficient only, when instant messaging, texting, and interacting on social networking sites will be provided as the electronic literacy of this segment is high. Destinations can motivate Gen Y to generate content about sports activities in a destination. Gen Y actively avoids advertisements and believes more in user-generated content on social media. They like networking so destinations can develop conditions for sports activities in connection with culture, creativity as Gen Y wants to share its activities with its

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network. Gen Y is looking for fun, and flexible sports offer in the “green” visitorcentered destination. For Gen Z everything about the destination’s offer must be mobile friendly. They require fast and efficient internet connections to be able to ask questions online and get immediate answers often in less than in eight seconds. When chatting on the destination website with this segment, use symbols. Gen Z uses mobile phones as tour guides and expects more authentic, local experiences in the destinations. Gen Z watches videos on the internet. Destinations that prepare a short video about sports activities and facilities can win this segment. Gen Z wants to share their sporting activities on Instagram and Snapchat. The destination can organize a competition for this segment to increase visitation. Storytelling and unique product videos can sell sports products. Creativity is vital for Gen Z so the destinations can directly involve this segment into promotion.

Conclusions Although the presented study is not exhaustive, the results along with the review of the selected literature allowed evaluating the sports tourism as an essential part of the destination offer. The results of the study show that Gen Y’s decision is stronger influenced by destination’s sports offer than the one of the Gen Z. The Gen Y is more active in sporting during their holidays than the Gen Z. Based on the results of the study recommendations for the destination were formulated with the focus on both generations. Gen Y and Gen Z travelers are a challenge for destination marketers regarding the use of information and communication technologies and creativity. Opportunities for future research can be seen in spreading the research on the other segments, e.g., Baby Boomers and Generation X. Acknowledgments This paper is based on the research project “Attitude of Generation Y and Z to Sporting Activities and Sports Tourism” GA22_2/2016.

References 1. Abdel-Ghaffar, A.: Youth Tourism. Ann. Tour. Res. 19(4), 792–794 (1992) 2. Alice, D.: Youth Tourism in Canada–A Situational Analysis of an Overlooked Market. Youth Tourism Consortium of Canada, Canada (2004) 3. Bonvecchio, C.: The new needs and new aims of youth tourism in international markets. Affari Sociali Internazionali 19(1), 161–165 (1991) 4. Carr, N.: The young tourist: a case of neglected research. Prog. Tour. Hosp. Res. 4(4), 307–318 (1998) 5. Delpy, L.: An overview of sport tourism: building towards a dimensional framework. J. Vacat. Mark. 4(1), 23–38 (1998) 6. Deery, M., Jago, L.: The management of sport tourism. Sport Soc. 8(2), 378–389 (2005)

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7. De Villiers, D.J.: Presentation summaries: inter-relationship between sport and tourism. J. Sport Tour. 8(2), 94–115 (2003) 8. Gibson, H.J.: Sport tourism: a critical analysis of research. Sport Manag. Rev. 1(1), 45–76 (1998) 9. Hall, C.M.: Adventure, sport and health tourism. In: Hall, C.M., Weiler, B. (eds.) Special Interest Tourism. Belhaven Press, London (1992) 10. Higham, J.: Sport tourism destinations: issues, opportunities and analysis. In: Higham, J. (ed.) Sport Tourism Destinations: Issues, Opportunities and Analysis, pp. 1–14. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinmann, Oxford, UK (2005) 11. Howe, N., Strauss, W.: The next 20 years: How customer and workforce attitudes will evolve. Harv. Bus. Rev. 85(7:8) 41–52, 191 (2007) 12. Howe, N., Strauss, W.: Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. Vintage Books, New York (2000) 13. Kiráˇlová, A., Hamarneh, I.: Sports tourism activities as a driver of destination development. In: V. Klímová, V. Žítek (eds.) 2017 Conference Proceedings on 20th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences Kurdˇejov, June 14–16, pp. 744–751. Masaryk University, Brno (2017) 14. Lazarevic, V.: Encouraging brand loyalty in fickle generation Y consumers. Young Consum. 13(1), 45–61 (2012) 15. Scarborough, Nielsen: Gen Z Audience Report. Nielsen, New York (2017) 16. Sparks and Honey: Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned about Millennials (2014). Accessed from: https://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june17 17. Standeven, J., De Knop, P.: Sport Tourism. Human Kinetics, Champaign (1999) 18. UNWTO: Technical Note. UNWTO International Conference on Tourism and Sports, Da Nang, Viet Nam, 24 Sept 2016 (2016a) 19. UNWTO: The power of Youth Travel. Affiliate Members Report. UNWTO, Madrid (2016b) 20. Varaldo, R.: L’industria del tempo libero: profili e prospettive. In: Resciniti, R. (ed.) Economia e Marketing del tempo libero, pp. 41–55. Franco Angeli, Milano (2002) 21. Weed, M., Bull, C.J.: Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy and Providers. Elsevier, Oxford, UK (2009) 22. Wheatcroft, S., Seekings, J.: Europe’s Youth Travel Market. European Travel Commission, Brussels (1995) 23. Wolburg, J.M., Pokrywczynski, J.: A Psychographic Analysis of Generation Y College Students. J. Advert. Res. 41(5) 33–52 (2001). https://doi.org/10.2501/jar-41-5-33-52 24. WYSE: Youth and Student Travel Market-Global Data, Statistics and Trends II. WYSE Travel Confederation, New South Wales (2014) 25. Zagnoli, P., Radicchi, E.: Sport Marketing. Il nuovo ruolo della comunicazione. Franco Angeli, Milano (2008)

Local Food and Beverages as a Tool of Destination Marketing Iveta Hamarneh and Alžbeta Kiráˇlová

Abstract Local food and beverages, as a part of the local culture, allow visitors to enjoy the destination with all their senses. However, the role of local food and beverages is by destinations in the Czech Republic still underestimated. Local food and drink contribute to the authenticity of the destination and can enhance visitation, visitors’ spends, and the average length of visitors’ stays. When developed sustainably, destinations can use local food and beverages as a creative marketing tool to drive tourism development. The aim of the paper is to identify the role of the local food and beverages in the Czech destinations’ marketing. The article highlights the key findings of quantitative and qualitative research provided with the focus on both the demand and the offer side. Keywords Local · Food · Destination · Marketing · Tourism

Introduction Destinations across the world compete, to maintain their attractiveness and competitiveness in the global tourist industry. Successful destinations can address the different needs of the various market segments, promote their image, and manage marketing activities to attract tourists. To the essential elements of a national cultural identity belong to the various ingredients used, combined, and cooked [2, 3]. Local and regional food and beverages can be featured as a creative way for sustainable and competitive marketing of tourism destination. Gastronomy is a combination of knowledge, experience, art, and craft, which provides a healthy and pleasurable eating experience, forms part of the country’s identity and is an essential component of the cultural heritage. Among the preconditions for gastronomy tourism development are Czech destinations, which have a continuous tradition of food, preparing culture. I. Hamarneh (B) · A. Kiráˇlová University College of Business, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_11

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Some of the authors (such as Murphy et al. [14] claim that visitors to destinations can consume the products and services. Accordingly, it can be stated that the products or services must be something the visitors needs and wants to use during their traveling. Moreover, food and beverages served as the strongest cultural expression in the target destinations [1, 7, 8]. Koutoulas and Zoyganeli [11] state that destination marketing takes place at the micro-level (providers promote their products and services) and the macro-levels (governments and official authorities). Czech economy depends on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and they are significantly, entrepreneurially, and socially connected with the destination. They represent more than 1 million businesses and employ almost two-thirds of total employees. SMEs make up also the majority of the business units in the tourism sector and play a vital role in gastronomy tourism development. It can be agreed with [10] that a cooperating network of stakeholders must be created to strengthen relations between the primary suppliers while maximizing the effects of culinary culture and cuisine. SMEs should play a central role in this network and contribute to the marketing activities to help destination marketers to exploit the synergy effect of the network. According to the results of the survey conducted by UNWTO [17] gastronomy tourism has not enough promotion in the destinations and when it is promoted insufficiently. The research shows that a gastronomy tourism strategy should have a significant place in the destination’s Tourism Action Plan.

Tourism and Local Food and Beverages According to Enteleca [4], local food and beverages can be defined as those locally produced or grown, which acquire a local identity. Such products include fresh farm products, local specialty products for this target destination. Tourism and local food have the potential for a symbiotic relationship [9]. According to Hall and Sharples [6], gastronomy tourism entails a journey to a gastronomic region for purposes such as recreation or performance. This journey includes meetings with the food producers, food festivals, fairs, events, farmers’ markets, cooking shows and demonstrations, tastings of food products, or any tourism activity related to food and gastronomy. The relationship between food and tourism represents an exciting opportunity for product development, marketing as well as for product diversification. Handszuk [7] argues that local food has the power to improve sustainability in tourism, contributes to the authenticity of the destination, and strengthens the local economic development. In the latest years, tourists want to experience and “taste” the place they are visiting [2]. The best way to be familiar with destination’s culture and lifestyle is through gastronomy, which combines traditional values and new trends in tourism: respect for culture and tradition, a healthy way of life, authenticity, sustainability, and experiences.

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Food has a significant role in the promotion of tourism development. Food is shaped by climate conditions, culture, and history of a region. Gastronomy is considered as a sub-element of cultural and heritage type of tourism. Therefore, the linkage of cuisine to a target destination is important than promoting typical local food which can attract and guide tourists to different regions [9]. Gastronomy tourism can create mutual dependence on several levels, and influence the development and the acceptance of destination and its cuisine by visitors. The main advantage of gastronomy tourism is its ability to adapt and respond to the effects of phenomena such as globalization or localization, mainly because living culture-related changes [16]. According to UNWTO Global Report on Food Tourism [17], the growth of gastronomy tourism worldwide is a clear fact. The apparent increase in “new tourism” [15] and “special interest” [5] as part of the changing nature of tourism led to an extension in the visitors’ attraction to local products. Gastronomy tourism has considerable potential to enhance visitor experiences and to contribute to the branding and creative marketing of destinations.

Methodology This study aims to identify the role of local food and beverages in the Czech destinations’ marketing. The presented analysis and data are based on two sets of research. The aim of the primary research was to figure the extent to which local food and beverages are a part of the marketing activities of the SMEs, who are the gastronomy services providers in the destinations. The secondary research is based on the literature review and analysis of documents linked with food and beverages issues. The process of setting the number of respondents was determined by the number of gastronomy facilities in the Czech Republic, and the number of facilities with local gastronomy in addition to the number of restaurants [13]. The typical gastronomy facilities were set at 2 500 according to the quality of the web pages and the facilities’ observance. Considering confidence 99% and margin of error 5%, the sample was estimated on 538 respondents [12]. All the responses, except for characteristics of the respondent, were rated on a five-point Likert scale. Further, the following tools of the descriptive statistics were applied: arithmetic mean (M); sample coefficient of variations (CV); and sample skewness (S). All of these tools were parametric. According to the purpose of the study, the following research questions were formulated: Q1: Can the local food and beverages be perceived as a tool of destination marketing? Q2: Do destinations focus on local food and beverages in their marketing activities?

I. Hamarneh and A. Kiráˇlová

86 Table 1 Tools of marketing communication used by SMEs Tool

M

CV

S

Websites

1.72

0.59

1.68

Social media (Facebook, Instagram…)

1.86

0.46

0.98

Distributing leaflets to households

4.00

0.29

−0.82

Distributing leaflets to travel agencies, hotels, infocenters

4.00

0.29

−0.96

Sales promotion (discounts)

3.28

0.40

0.04

Advertising in national and regional media

3.97

0.34

−1.01

Note M = Arithmetic mean, CV = Sample coefficient of variations, S = Sample skewness Source Authors’ research

Results and Discussion Food and beverages are an integral part of destinations offer. Their place in the tourism product is important as they can illustrate the tradition and culture of the destinations as well as the lifestyle of the destinations’ residents. Although food and beverage-related activities are developed and included in the product portfolio in various destinations of the Czech Republic, they still receive minimal attention in destination marketing. The primary tools of marketing communication used by SMEs are presented in Table 1. The results show that the SMEs’ marketing activities correspond with the new trends in marketing (web promotion and social media). The results in Table 2 show that the local food, beverages, and activities offer have a significant impact on the SMEs business. The highest variability of responses was recorded for evaluation of the impact of local beverages on the increase of guests’ traffic. Sample skewness shows positive values. One-third of respondents reported activities, such as tasting menu, tasting drinks, cooking courses for visitors related to the local cuisine. The same number of respondents affirmed their participation in events linked to food and beverages such as Beer festivals and Christmas markets. Around 50% of respondents are involved with the other SMEs in their region/area, mainly with the supplier of products/services and with housing establishment. Based on the results of the research the following recommendations for destinations’ marketers can be formulated: (1) provide interactive marketing communication to build relationship with visitors, (2) prepare creative social media campaign, (3) ask visitors to send videos to the destination’s web page, (4) ask visitors to generate content and plays it on the web page, (5) organize a web contest where the price is estate in the destination and motivate the winner to share his/her experiences during his/her stay and/or after the return home on social media blogs, etc., (6) enhance visitors to act as a ambassador of the destination, (7) use emotions to promote the destination, (8) involve visitors in creative activities in food and drink preparation,

S

2.38 2.67

The image of the facility

The enhancing the average spending of guests

0.40

0.42

0.40 0.42

0.79

0.58 2.58

2.43

2.43

2.42

Note M = Arithmetic mean, CV = Sample Ccefficient of variations, S = Sample skewness Source Authors’ research

2.50

The increase of guests traffic

0.90

0.44

0.47

0.49

0.48

CV

M

CV 0.41

M 2.42

Local beverage

Local food

The revenue growth

Impact on

Table 2 Impact of local products on SMEs businesses S

0.53

0.87

0.74

0.78

2.65

2.59

2.53

2.60

M

Activities CV

0.42

0.42

0.45

0.43

S

0.44

0.56

0.64

0.58

Local Food and Beverages … 87

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(9) organize regular local food and beverage tasting, (10) organize traditional local food and beverage workshops.

Conclusion Eating is an important activity for destinations’ visitors. Local food and beverages enhance the appeal of a destination. Nature and culture seeking tourists are also attracted to local food products and trying local authentic food and drinks. The increase of demand for local food and beverages might extend the value of the target destination, its sustainability, and competitiveness. Gastronomy tourism has expanded beyond being an income-generating activity to become a cultural enhancement activity adding to the value of the tourism experience. Thus, its essential role must be considered as an important element in the marketing activities of a destination. Food festivals and other food and beverage-related events can enrich the existing tourism products in the destinations and can strengthen the image of food and beverages produced in the destination. There is no doubt that food and beverages should be more integrated into the marketing activities of the destinations. Creating a unique product that is fair priced based on local food and drinks in authentic promises is the prerequisite for satisfied visitors and as such a potential of the welfare of the destination. Acknowledgements This paper was produced according to the findings of the research project “The influence of food tourism on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic,” which is supported by the University College of Business in Prague (FRV 1/2015)

References 1. Bernard, A., Zaragoza, I.: Art and gastronomy routes: an unexplored tourism proposal for latin Amerika. Paper presented at the First Pan-American Conference (1999) 2. Bessiere, J.: Local development and heritage: traditional food and cuisine as tourist attractions in rural areas. Sociol. Rural. 38(1), 21–34 (1998) 3. Cusack, I.: African cuisines: recipes for nation building? J. Afr. Cult. Stud. 13(2), 207–225 (2000) 4. ERC: Tourist’s Attitudes Towards Regional and Local Food. Enteleca Research and Consultancy Ltd. London: The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (2000) 5. Hall, C.M., Mitchell, R.: The changing nature of the relationship between cuisine and tourism in Australia and New Zealand: from fusion cuisine to food networks. In: Hjalanger, A.M., Richards, G. (eds.) Tourism and Gastronomy, pp. 188–206. Routledge, London (2002) 6. Hall, C.M., Sharples, L.: The consumption of experiences of the experience of consumption? An introduction to the tourism of taste. In: Hall, C.M., Sharples, L., Mitchell, R., Macionis, N., Cambourne, B. (eds.) Food Tourism Around the World. Butterworth Heinemann, Amsterdam (2003)

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7. Handszuk, H.: Local food in tourism policies. Paper presented at the International Conference on Local Food and Tourism, Larnaka, Cyprus (2000) 8. Hjalager, A., Corigliano, M.A.: Food for tourists-determinants of an image. Int. J. Tour. Res. 2, 281–293 (2000) 9. Hjalager, A., Richards, G. (eds.): Tourism and Gastronomy. Routledge, London (2002) 10. Horng, J.-S., Tsai, Ch-T: Culinary tourism strategic development: an Asia-Pacific perspective. Int. J. Tour. Res. 14(1), 40–55 (2012) 11. Koutoulas, D., Zoyganeli, S.: Analysing the destination marketing task at the regional level: the case of prefecture tourism promotion committees in Greece. In: Proceedings of the 1st Biannual International Conference in Services Marketing, September, Chios-Greece (2007) 12. Krejcie, R.V., Morgan, D.W.: Determining sample size for research activities. Educ. Psychol. Measur. 30(3), 607–610 (1970) ˇ 13. MMR CR: Monitoring stravovacích zaˇrízení. Prezentace hlavních výsledk˚u. http://www. mmr.cz/getmedia/6069294c-8f75-4b4c-934c-d5fc03d3a213/04-Prezentace-SZ-Praha-29-4. pdf. (2015). Accessed 20 Nov 2016 14. Murphy, P., Pritchard, M.P., Smith, B.: The destination product and its impact on traveler perceptions. Tour. Manag. 21(1), 43–52 (2000) 15. Poon, A.: Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategies. CAB International, Wallingford (1993) 16. Richards, G.: Gastronomy: an essential ingredient in tourism production and consumption? In: Hjalager, A., Richards, G. (eds.) Tourism and Gastronomy. Routledge, London (2002) 17. UNWTO: Second Global Report on Gastronomy Tourism. UNWTO, Madrid (2017)

How to Win with the Use of Creative Thinking—The Integration of Theory and Practice in Tertiary Education Marcela Göttlichová

Abstract The integration of theory and practice together with the development of the key competencies of university graduates represent one of the areas, which necessarily need to be focused on within the tertiary education in the Czech Republic. The innovation thinking reflecting in the preset goals and visions is at the same time one of the fundamental conditions of the innovative marketing and plays the priority role also in the growing competitiveness of companies and production enterprises, as well as in education or in nongovernmental nonprofit organizations. The preference of study fields, subjects, or programs in relation to the close links onto the needs of the society and the economy as reflected in the requirements of the world market has thus been becoming one of the most important goals of strategic planning of the tertiary education development in the Czech Republic. The study presents the requirements placed on the key competencies as seen by university students themselves, as well as by nonprofit entities in the role of potential employers. The study simultaneously presents one of the possible solutions to the utilization of the creative potential of the integration of theory and practice with the orientation at the enhancement of regional development. Keywords Integration of theory and practice · Tertiary education · Nongovernmental nonprofit organizations · Key competencies · Innovative marketing

Introduction Higher education is a sector fundamentally contributing to the development of the society as well as the economy and forms an indispensable basis for sustainable growth. No longer is the orientation on the quantity of university students a characteristic feature of today’s tertiary education as it used to be in the Czech Republic M. Göttlichová (B) Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Tomas Bata University, Zlín, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_12

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in the «post-revolutionary era» ; on the contrary, the growing need for the increasing quality of education and vocational training is becoming one of the significant priorities of higher education, all this in continuity with enhancing their relevance for the labor market. First of all, we may speak of the enhancement of theory and practice integration in relation to the development of key competencies of university graduates to which the attention of (not only) the Czech tertiary education has increasingly been attracted. A reference to study fields and subjects and programs then becomes a reflection of the given state in continuity with the narrow relationship between the society and the economy in response to the requirement of the world market which then go hand in hand with the innovative thinking reflected in the preset goals and visions, as it is innovative marketing which plays an essential role as well as the ever-increasing competitiveness of companies and manufacturing businesses, such as in education or nonprofit organizations.

Theoretical Background Innovation, strategic thinking, and creativity represent the core of what we should offer to clients, because these are connected with the necessity to the realization of changes in enterprises and institutions, last but not least, also with changes in collective thinking [4]. Innovation thinking reflecting in goals and visions of the society, its strategy, plans, and future development then become one of the fundamental conditions for the success of innovative marketing, i.e., the process enabling us to involve products or services based on wishes of existing as well as potential customers (clients) [8]. In accordance with the Oslo Manual OECD [9], methodology or analytical guidelines for measuring innovational activities, we differentiate technological innovations (product and procedural innovations) and non-technological innovations (organizational and marketing innovations). Considering the content of the paper, the attention will be directed primarily to marketing innovations, to the objectives of which belong the implementation of new marketing methods, focusing among other things on the change of a marketing strategy, plan, or marketing tools that an organization has not utilized so far, and which reflect for instance in innovation of advertising, promotion, or communication. Let us return to the innovations which may be viewed from different angles. The European Commission (COM (2003) 112) defines innovation as “the renewal and expansion of goods and services, implementation of changes in management, the organization of work, working conditions, and the qualification of the workforce” [3]. It is the workforce that is one of the essential guarantees reflecting in innovation processes of commercial as well as noncommercial entities—and university education thus creates a guarantee in the influx of a highly skilled workforce. The long-awaited reform of higher education in the Czech Republic, adopted at the beginning of 2016 (137/2016 Sb.), had been aimed both at increasing the standard of accreditation and internal quality management and in supporting the

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diversification of study programs by creating different academic and professional profiles for bachelor and master programs. The main task is then to increase the use of initial indicators linked to the quality and relevance in the labor market resulting in a higher efficiency of the utilization of resources and the improvement of the offer of vocational oriented programs, primarily with the focus on strengthening the integration of theory and practice in continuity with the development of key competencies of university graduates [15]. The reinforcement of “key competencies” is also an EC’s focus [6]; and the EC’s primary objective is to strengthen knowledge, skills, and attitudes to help students achieve self-realization, and to become more fully integrated into the labor market in their later life. Whether it is “traditional” skills such as mother tongue and foreign language communication skills, digital skills, etc., or horizontal skills such as learning abilities, entrepreneurial skills, cultural awareness and creativity, initiative, social, and civic responsibility.

Problem Formulation Modern marketing techniques and its potential have not been fully utilized within the Czech educational market. The focus on traditional approaches remains at the forefront which, however, may become a potential threat in the future. It is obvious that other international educational institutions enter the Czech Republic which use advanced marketing techniques, and which the Czech educational institutions—possessing a high-quality educational know-how—will not be able to compete. In 2016/17 academic year, the total of 311,367 university students was enrolled in all study forms and all study programs (out of which: full-time study 203,451 and combined and distant study 36,643) [13]. However, the same situation occurs across the nonprofit sector, as the competitive environment, including nongovernmental nonprofit organizations (NGOs), requires that new ways be found due to limited financial resources [5]. It is no longer enough in today’s overwhelmed market environment to “present” still the “identical” services, even if indispensable to an individual or the society. There is a need to shift from a “customer-oriented” approach to a “customer approach”, where marketing experts represent the key opportunity for NGOs for the increase in their competitive advantage and improving their performance in organizational tasks [1]. At present, the following nongovernmental nonprofit organizations exist in the Czech Republic: foundations (515), endowment funds (1,670), community service companies (2,774), inscribed institutes (752), religious organizations (4,171), associations (93,651), and subsidiary companies (26,414) [10]. Such a state of affairs is increasingly driven by the need for a skilled workforce capable of sustaining productivity, quality, and innovations. However, the difference between skills required in the labor market and their real supply is still very noticeable. It is necessary to acquire such skills and knowledge that would result in the creation of creative ideas, in continuity with the conviction and the “entrepreneurial”

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initiative leading to the realization of these ideas. The attention of higher education institutions must thus be directed toward the development of key competencies, primarily those that (in terms of employers) lead to increased employability. Both the commercial and noncommercial sectors play significant roles. What preferences do NGOs prefer and what do they expect as potential employers from university students? Are they aware of the need for innovation in the journey to achieve their goals, i.e. fulfilling their mission and vision? As it is “the perception of the mission and vision of an organization that presents one of the key elements of strategic planning” [11]. It is necessary to establish perspective visions and to find meaningful strategies for their realization [7]. Are universities also aware of the necessity of NGOs both for the society and for the platform of employing their graduates in the labor market? And how do students look at the needs of NGOs and the possibilities of cooperation or future profiling for noncommercial marketing activities? Does one or the other have anything to offer—not just to each other but to the entire region or society? To assess the answer, a two-phase research had been carried out (2017). The attention was aimed at university students (124 students of the Institute of marketing communications at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Tomas Bata University, bachelor’s study program), and also at nonprofit organizations in the Zlín Region (232 NGOs in ZR) through a questionnaire survey. As apparent from the results of the survey in Table 1, in terms of required competencies for NGOs as well as university students, communication skills, capability of problem-solving, and team working skills took the first positions, which unequivocally corresponds to the needs of NGOs, as well as to the perception of organizations from university students’ point of view. The ability to learn remains being ranked rather high; for students, succeeded by the necessity of being adaptable and flexible in continuity with the importance of responsibility. Foreign language knowledge and understanding the work with numbers are only marginal. Although 33.3% of NGOs view the list of the presented key competencies as complete, we may encounter also some complementing responses commenting on competencies associated particularly with the NGOs mission, such as, for instance, respect for one another, ethical and moral stability, etc. In terms of deficiencies in the preparedness of graduates, among the supplementary requirements NGOs most often reported leadership to accountability (22.4%), ability to solve problems (20.7%), and the ability to lead (10.7%).

Problem Solution As demonstrated by previous results, in terms of key competencies, as seen by NGOs and IMC FMC students, communication skills, problem-solving skills and teamwork skills are essential for working in the nonprofit sector, which corresponds directly to the wide range of FMC TBU subjects responding to the current market requirements (employers) in continuity with increasing the quality of education built on the integration of theory and practice. Students can contribute to NGOs not only

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Table 1 Preference of key competencies in terms of NGOs and university students Key competencies/preference

NGO

Students

%

Ranking

%

Ranking

Communication skills

81.0

1

77.5

1

Capability of problem-solving

75.9

2

55.0

2

Team working skills

63.8

3

37.5

3

Willingness to learn

58.6

4

12.5

7/8

To take responsibility

53.4

5

30.0

5

Mastering information processing

48.3

6/7

22.5

6

Adaptability and flexibility

48.3

6/7

32.5

4

Ability to make decisions

43.1

8

12.5

7/8

IT skills

32.8

9

2.5

10–13

Reading and comprehension to work instructions

19.0

10/11

7.5

9

Leadership skills

19.0

10/11

2.5

10–13

Foreign language knowledge

12.1

12

2.5

10–13

Work with number in the working process

69

13

2.5

10–13

Source Göttlichová

by their expertise, but also by their inventions and creative thinking to discover new ways to effectively reach out to existing and potential customers (clients), while also helping to make NGOs more competitive in the competitive market, as confirmed by the results which were part of the aforementioned research. We can find a positive acknowledgment of the NGO’s interest in cooperation with the FMC students (69%), as well as the fact that 79.3% of NGOs are familiar with the subject called Projects of nonprofit organizations (PNPO) in which FMC students apply their theoretical knowledge, particularly in the field of project management and marketing communications in practice, based on a close collaboration with NGOs [2]. This corresponds to the preference of forms of cooperation where 75% of NGOs and 80% of students clearly favor collaboration in promotion and marketing for the preparation and implementation of projects in continuity with creativity reflected in marketing innovations of organizations. Regular internships focusing on marketing and promotion stand in the foreground (40.9% of NGOs and 60% of students), and 56.8% of NGOs (15% of students) would like to benefit from the cooperation in the form of analyses comprised in their theses. The reason for deepening cooperation may be the fact that in 51.7% of NGOs, promotion and marketing are dealt with by a person free for that task, even though 29.3% of NGOs have confirmed employing a qualified expert, and 3.4% even have a special department. The poor situation is attributed mainly to the lack of finance (44.9%), the “needlessness” of a professional marketer (30.6%), and the lack of human resources (14.3%). The problem is also perceived by students themselves, where 47.5% see great shortfalls in the communication of NGOs, 42.5% have pointed out minor deficiencies. And because “classical media is

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and will be less and less effective, it will be necessary to use non-traditional tools in the future” [14]. Nevertheless, both sides are aware of the necessity of strategic marketing. 37.9% of NGOs are absolutely convinced of its importance, 25.9% agree, but do not see the meaning for their own organizations, 24%, 1% do not respond but want to learn about the benefits for their organizations, 8.6% is not interested at all, 3.4% of NGOs consider it to be unnecessary. However, the positive finding is that 90% of students are clearly convinced of the importance of strategic marketing in NGOs as well as innovative marketing (88.7%).

Conclusion Inventions and creative thinking, at the beginning of the innovation process, although they are an integral part and a driving force, are not in themselves sufficient for a business or organization to successfully develop a creative idea of innovation. It is, therefore, important for an innovation policy to be based on versatile learning, promoting innovation and developing creativity. Education enabling young people to develop the skills necessary for both life and work. What becomes the primary task is the need to support the development of transferable skills of university graduates in continuity with the development of cooperation between universities and commercial employers and, as the research investigation has shown, also of noncommercial spheres, for example, in the field of practical part of education and extracurricular activities of students (internships, volunteer activities), engaging employers into creating educational programs, education itself (PNPO), participation in assigning, supervising, and acting as opponents of diploma and other theses, etc.—reflecting in strengthening the integration of theory and practice in continuity with wellprepared initiative and motivated young people. “Innovation does not mean doing the old thing in a new way,” but based on creative thinking “to find a new way to do something new or a new way to do something better” [12].

References 1. Dolnicar, S., Lazarevski, K.: Marketing in non-profit organizations: an international perspective. Int. Mark. Rev. 26(3), 275–291 (2009) 2. Göttlichová, M.: Integration of the theory and practice in continuity with the Czech university education. In: 2017 Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics: Strategic Innovative Marketing, pp. 17–22 (2017). ISBN 978-3-319-33863-7 3. Innovation policy: updating the union’s approach in the context of the lisbon strategy (2003). http://ec.europa.eu/invest-in-research/pdf. Accessed 18 June 2017 4. Jakubíková, D.: Strategický marketing: strategie a trendy. 2. rozšíˇrené vydání. Grada Publishing, Praha a.s (2013). ISBN 978-80-247-4670-8 5. Kavoura, A., et al.: Applying delphi method for strategic design of social entrepreneurship. Libr. Rev. 65(3), 185–205 (2016)

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6. Key Competencies. EC European Commission: Education and Training. http://ec.europa.eu/ education/policy/school/competencies_cs. Accessed 18 June 2017 7. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G.: Principles of Marketing, 9th edn. Prentice Hall (2001) 8. Kotler, P., Trias de Bes, F.: Lateral Marketing, 1st edn. Wiley, Hoboken (2003) 9. Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, 3rd edn. OECD Publishing, p. 162. (2005). ISBN 978-9-264-01308-7 ˇ 10. Statistika poˇctu nestátních neziskových organizací duben 2017. CSO (Ceský statistický ústav). http://www.neziskovky.cz/data. Accessed 22 June 2017 11. Sakas, D.P. et al.: Analysis of strategic leadership simulation models in nonprofit organizations. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 73, 276–284 (2013) 12. Sooy, B.: A Culture of Communication Nurtures a Culture of Innovation (2014). http:// www.aespire.com/blog/communications/culture-of-communication-culture-of-innovation. Accessed 28 May 2017 13. Souhrn student˚u VŠ–výkonné ukazatele. MŠMT. http://dsia.uiv.cz/vystupy/vu_vs_f1.html (2017). Accessed 18 Juni 2017 14. Šula, T., Banyár, M.: Ambient media in the view of the general public and their relation to this communication. In: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics: Strategic Innovative Marketing, pp. 3–9 (2017). ISBN 978-3-319-33863-7 15. Zmˇena zákona o vysokých školách–137/2016 Sb. PAP (Public Administration Portal). https:// portal.gov.cz/app/zakony (2016). Accessed 12 May 2017

Part V

Market Acceptance

Organized By: Eli Gimmon Tei-Hai College, Economics and Management, Israel Description Executing early sales in many high-tech new ventures is not prioritized by the entrepreneurs. Shane found that “The founders’ belief in the value of the technology …leads many of them to believe that customers will buy the technology when it presented to them without requiring any sales effort…they underestimated the importance of selling”. Also, Roberts asserted that founders acquired no knowledge about market strategy: “high technology entrepreneurs are initially orientated toward engineering and technology, not sales and marketing, with evolution toward marketing occurring over time, if the firm survives …Many entrepreneurial founders are unclear when they start their companies as to who will become the initial customers for their products and services.” This tendency of sales-adverse may be due to their limited previous management experience in marketing and sales. Early sales and market acceptance of the product or service demonstrates that entrepreneurs have a clear idea of what they are doing and should predict survival. Some ventures may not be able to cross the chasm from the early adopters onto the early majority, especially when the early adopters are champion customers who had encouraged the venture to initiate product development tailored to their own needs. Srivastava, Fahey, and Christensen called for further work to identify how market-based assets contribute to sustainable competitive advantage.

Ambient Media Design as a Tool of Creation of New Communication Media Tomáš Šula and Milan Banyár

Abstract The article is devoted to the ambient media and possible controlled process of their creation in the environment of marketing communication. The definition of ambient media is stated and its importance is also described as well as the perception of the public. The author specifies parameters of the process of creation of ambient media, which is called ambient media design. The article defines the optimal process including parameters of idea, time, place, and budget. The processes of prototyping, pretesting and production are also mentioned. Everything described above is associated with people working in the fields of marketing communication, design, and associated fields. Keywords Ambient media · Ambient media design · Marketing communication · New media

Introduction into the Field of Ambient Media Ambient media are new and these new media are changing our everyday experience in many ways [2]. Such a general statement is insufficient, other authors are more specific, however, their opinions are questionable. For example, some authors call ambient media as ambient marketing [3]. Unfortunately, these definitions are not completely sufficient. And, for that reason, based on quantitative research made by the author and based on a content analysis of 1,000 implementations of ambient media (2014), a general definition of ambient media could sound as follows: Ambient media are such media that are not primarily determined for communication but they are used for it, or these are media that are primarily determined for communication but they are not used in a traditional way according to their main function. All this, supposed that the use and application of the message is not made in a standard way,

T. Šula (B) · M. Banyár Faculty of Multimedia Communication, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Zlín, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_13

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carries features of exclusivity, creative processing and it is usually unknown to the target group of recipients. If a point list were needed, it is possible to divide the definition into three elementary characteristics which will create two possible variations of the definition. (A) An ambient medium can be a medium that is primarily meant for communication but it is used in a nonstandard or untraditional way. Or (B) Ambient medium can be a medium that is not primarily meant for communication but it is used for it. And, at the same time, (C) Communicative message is not made in a standard way, it carries features of exclusivity, creative processing and it is usually unknown to the target group of recipients.

Ambient Media Design (AMD) Ambient media design can be considered an interdisciplinary process of creating a new nonstandard or untraditional communicative medium which meets at least basic parameters of the definition of an ambient medium and it interconnects in itself three elements: an element of graphic design, industrial design, and interactive design. The outcome of ambient design has been made deliberately with the aim to act as a tool of communication and its output must meet at least one or more communication goals. For the time being, this term is not known in academic writing and it has not been dealt with anywhere.

Basic Characteristics of Ambient Media Design (AMD) AMD uses knowledge of more fields. Basically, this is knowledge from graphic, industrial, and interactive designs. Also, knowledge from the fields of digital technologies, sociology, psychology, and culturology can find expression within AMD. The outcome of ambient media design is always a product which has an aesthetic and communicative impact. A product of AMD must always and by all means be feasible in the designed form with the designed target characteristics and effects. AMD does not produce media which are possible to spread immediately to the whole world. The outcomes of AMD can be universal through languages and continents and/or can be of only a local character., it is possible within AMD to create a medium, the recipient of which can even be a single person. AMD can be used for fulfilling commercial, noncommercial, or social tasks. Each outcome of AMD should be more or less unique, copies of an ambient medium in full scale cannot be possible to consider a product of creation of ambient media design. The above-mentioned characteristics define only the basic parameters of ambient media design. During the time, a redefinition of the above mentioned is possible, considering the current situation and developments in the given field, as well as the development of the disciplines that are used by ambient media design for its output.

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Optimum Process of Ambient Medium Creation in the Frames of Ambient Media Design Definition of the communicative task and setting a goal In the introduction to the creation of an ambient medium, there should be a task in the form of the definition of an achievable communicative goal. This task should necessarily come out of the present communication or out of a plan of communication, where appropriate, it should be incorporated in a brief during communicative strategy preparation. It is expected from the task that it will be conceptually set in the context of other communication and it will be explained, in what way the communication will work and what the position of an ambient medium will be like. It is also useful here to remind or point at the previously stated parameters of ambient media which is Innovation, Intelligence, Interest, Indication [1] and this even though these four characteristics are not always relevant but it is necessary to consider them when setting a task and goal. Mandatory requirements and ideological intention As well as in the case of a traditional task for the creation of a communicative strategy or creation of a single element of communication, even in the case of ambient medium, there must exist mandatory requirements from the advertiser both from the point of view of the content and the form. Timing Within timing, the influence of the ambient medium is defined in a certain time but in various temporal dimensions which consequently influence the tone and the form of the medium itself. These are short-, medium-, and long-term aspects. With some installations, it is possible to consider the part of the day itself as an element that is necessary for the function of the interaction with the recipient or with the environment (here as the environment, we can consider also the environment in a certain part of the day or night and it is complementary to the following point concerning spacial placement). Short- and long-term aspects concern mainly placing in time in the sense of, for example, season of the year if the ambient installation is outside—outdoor, in case of accessibility if the installation is inside—indoor, this point is strongly related to the following point (Graph 1). Spacial placement Spacial placement is one of the most fundamental elements influencing ambient installations. When speaking about spacial placement, we have to consider, at least during the creation of installation, if the installation will be placed outside or inside (will be outdoor or indoor). This basic attribute influences fundamentally the creation of the installation, if we ignore the elements of functionality themselves, then it is mainly influencing from the point of view of used materials, physical placement on a given place and resistence to the surrounding conditions and possible direct interactions with the environment. In case of outdoor placement, we consider climate conditions and weather influence connected with them, both from the point of

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Graph 1. Structure of creating within ambient media design (Source authors design)

“stability” or the ability to stay compact and functionality of the ambient instalation, and, from the point of view of wear and tear of the installation, used materials degradation etc. In case of placing in an interior, the given limitations are in fact similar but, above that, there are more complicated security measures because of generally shorter distance to the recipients, it is also necessary to consider the influence on the place/structure in which the installation is placed, and also higher demands on health and property protection in the form of fire safety requirements, where applicable, requirements on creation of the installation using fireproof materials or nontoxic materials or materials in another way suitable for interiors. Financial limits Financial point of view is a priority within the bounds of any communication, so also in the case of the creation of an ambient medium. A basic problem for defining financial costs of an ambient medium is the fact that if an ambient medium will be conceptually possible to be designed and this medium will not use standardized solutions in the form of tools, materials, and technologies, it is complicated to define, how costly the creation of this medium will be, and this both in the form of human work in various levels of specialization, and also in the form of used materials, volume of consumption of these materials and used technologies. In such a case it is suitable to make a qualified estimation and compare supposed expenditures with the expected communicative effect, and consider how effective the creation of the ambient medium is.

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Prototyping Prototyping is a standardized method across various fields of human activity. When creating ambient media, it is possible to use prototyping also, and mainly in the case in which an ambient medium is supposed to contain implemented technological elements, that should interact with the recipients or the environment. Prototyping can save financial, time and human costs during the process of designing. In case of prototyping ambient media, we can think in the same way as in the case of designing a product in the field of industrial design and testing, or also during prototyping in the sphere of digital products. Pretesting If we have a look at the existing examples of ambient installations, it is often obvious that the financial costs to realize these installations were extremely high, in some cases we can speak about the amount of ten thousand American dollars. But it is only a qualified guess because the advertisers do not usually publish their expenditures on advertisement campaigns or the individual media so neither ambient media are an exception. For that reason, a form of pretesting is generally recommended which is made on a choice of a sample of a target group of a given communication. It is possible to pretest in the form of qualitative research or using qualitative methods of research. The result should be a base for a decision if the concept of an ambient medium is suitable to carry it out or not. It is again also necessary to mention the possibility when a pretest will not be carried out based on the decision of the advertiser. Production It is not possible to strictly define production of an ambient medium, we can only state that during the time and with the development of various technologies the production is and will be easier or, better to say, available. Here it is good to mention a recently fast-growing field of 3D print. Using 3D printers is popular for prototyping nonstandard products and, consequently, this technology is suitable for the creation of ambient media. We can currently watch improvements in 3D print that is not limited only to the production of plastic components but there are also printers that use metals and other materials as a source material. Also, from the point of digital technologies, the time is friendlier to the creation of interactive ambient media using information technologies in the sphere of hardware. There are various solutions, one of them is, for example, Arduino project, which enable an interesting hardware performance using minimal financial means and enable the creation of various nonstandard technology installations. Majority of such solutions is based on modularity, when a central element is a form of a computer and various complements are incorporated to the compact system which has functions of measuring devices, so various sensors and measuring components, mechanic motion components, processing units, data storage systems, etc. Safety The question of safety in the case of an ambient installation arises from the realization itself. As for this topic, it is possible to divide it into two basic spheres. Physical safety which concerns mainly protection of human safety and assets, and virtual safety.

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Physical safety is largely defined by spacial placement, see spacial placement, where basic parameters are defined. Another part is virtual safety where there are spheres of technology safety, that is protection of mobile phones and other electronic devices in the case when they are a part of the interaction with an ambient medium, this is also interconnected with virtual payments, virtual transmission of personal data, and also security measures concerning using the Internet and other data services by the recipient. Legislation and an ethical dimension An ambient installation must necessarily comply with the legislation in force, and this both national and local legislations such as, for example, municipal regulations. Apart from the obligations arising from the legislation, there are also self-regulatory obligations, which are a form of regulations based on ethics which, even if they are unenforceable, they are set in the way that any activity connected with marketing communication is ethical according to given ethic standards. Placement/installation on the place Creating an installation itself is derived from the parameters of an ambient medium and the requirements on the placement. The placement itself is the subject of the existing legal limitations see Legislation, safety measures see Safety, special conditions see Spacial layout, and conditions arising from the aim of the installation.

Conclusion In conclusion, we can state that ambient media needn’t necessarily be a product of random creative thinking but it can be created based on a systematic approach that sets parameters that are necessary to follow so that an ambient medium could appear that will be possible to incorporate into a communicative campaign. Under any circumstances, we must not omit the creative aspect because it plays an important role in the given procedure. If there is a connection with the system and the creative procedures, a synergic effect appears that produces ambient media as well as successful communication campaigns.

References 1. Keswani, R., Ghatawat, M.: Ambient advertising: How long will it survive? Ambient advertising—report (2010). http://www.scribd.com/doc/26980152/Ambient-Advertising-Report 2. Lugmayr, A.: Connecting the real world with the digital overlay with smart ambient media—applying Peirce’s categories in the context of ambient media. Multimed. Tools Appl. 58(2), 385–398 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-010-0671-3. ISSN 1380-7501 3. Pogorelc, B., Lugmayr, A., Stockleben, B., et al.: Ambient bloom: new business, content, design and models to increase the semantic ambient media experience. Multimed. Tools Appl. 66(1), 7–32 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-012-1228-4. ISSN 1380-7501

Implementation of Current Marketing Communication Tools into Practice in the Czech and Slovak Republic Tomáš Šula and Milan Banyár

Abstract The aim of the article is to map out how much are used current marketing communication tools (guerrilla marketing, digital marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing, product placement) in the Czech and Slovak market. Article is based on quantitative research realized in the form of online survey, which respondents were professionals in the marketing communication field (employees of full-service and specialized advertising agencies, people from marketing departments). Keywords Current marketing communication tools · Guerrilla marketing · Digital marketing · Mobile marketing · Viral marketing · Word of mouth marketing · Buzz marketing · Product placement

Introduction into the Topic—Basic Theoretic Starting Points The field of marketing and marketing communication is permanently developing, forming, and constantly undergoing dynamic changes mainly in practice. Probably, the most dynamic changes can be marked in gradual extension of the tools for marketing communication mix, in the use of new communication media or technologies, and in application of new unconventional forms and means of marketing communication. The following figure (Fig. 1) shows relationship between marketing mix and communication mix. Marketing mix is formed by elements called 4P tools (product, price, place, promotion) [1]. Promotion (marketing communication), as a part of marketing mix, is composed of the individual elements forming the so-called communication mix. Communication mix can be further divided according to the current situation on the market. Individual marketing communication tools can be divided into three basic spheres—traditional marketing communication tools, current marketing comT. Šula (B) · M. Banyár Faculty of Multimedia Communication, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Zlín, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_14

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Marketing Mix • Product • Price • Distribution • Marketing Communication

Integrated MC

Communication Mix Traditional tool of MC • • • • •

Advertising Personal Sale Sales promotion Public Relations Direct Marketing

Current tools of MC

New Tools of MC

• Digital Marketing • Viral Marketing • Mobile Marketing • Guerilla Marketing • Buzzmarketing • Word of Mouth Marketing • Product Placement

• Native Advertising • Content Marketing • Participation Marketing • Growth Hacker Marketing • Influencer Marketing etc.

Fig. 1 Relationship between marketing mix and communication mix

munication tools, and new marketing communication tools. Traditional marketing communication tools (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, PR) are the basic tools of communication mix, they have had a long historical development and that is why they are established and their occurrence in marketing practice is the most frequent one. Current marketing communication tools (e.g., digital marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, guerilla marketing, buzz marketing, Word of Mouth marketing, Product Placement) are quite established within communication mix but they are still forming, developing, and changing. New marketing communication tools have been developing for a shorter period of time (these frequently try innovative forms of marketing communication in practice), for that reason, they are not stable, unsteady, and they are changing variably according to present trends. Current as well as new marketing communication tools are often used as additional or supportive tools together with traditional forms of marketing communication. However, the stated arrangement from the point of view of practice cannot be perceived in such an isolated way because traditional, current, and new marketing communication tools blend and complement one another in various ways. In the process of integrated marketing communication, it is necessary to combine these various marketing communication tools so that they work homogenously and manage to create an efficient, synergic communicative effect that is able to hit effectively the chosen target group of consumers. Presented results of the research are given in the following part of the article concentrate on current marketing communication tools; for that reason, it is first necessary to define them in general and give their brief theoretic specifications. Digital marketing—represents a wide range of interactive marketing and marketing communication campaigns using online environment. Digital marketing is an ideal solution for the majority of small- and medium-sized companies because it is possible to reach visible results even with low costs. Efficient targeting of the marketing

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communication message at various target audiences [2] is an indisputable advantage of digital marketing. Viral marketing—is connected with creation of an entertaining, attractive or creative form of a product, service, brand or firm presentation, or company presentation in the form of a viral message, which can be easily and quickly forwarded by its recipients. The business message is thus spread by consumers themselves, thanks to which the companies do not have expenses connected with buying traditional media which is the main advantage of viral marketing. A characteristic feature of viral campaigns is that they are primarily spread via the Internet, within online environment or with the support of mobile technologies [3]. Mobile marketing—denotes one of the methods of direct marketing based on the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, PDA, MDA, tablets and, rarely, portable computers—laptops. To distribute both commercial and noncommercial contents, mobile marketing uses technologies such as SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, WLAN, infrared (IRDA), etc. Mobile marketing arose gradually in connection with the development of the network of mobile operators, and it is currently the most interactive, most targeted and the fastest developing form of marketing communication [4]. Guerilla marketing—mostly defined as an unconventional marketing campaign the aim of which is to reach maximum effect from minimal costs [5]. However, in real life, more forms or guerilla marketing tools (e.g., low-budget marketing, ambient marketing, ambush marketing, astroturfing, etc. [6]) are used and they have their specific functions and goals so we cannot see this definition only in this strict way. Buzz marketing—its aim is to attract consumers’ and public’s attention by an entertaining, remarkable and fascinating theme connected with a brand, firm, or its products or services which will create such a buzz that it will also attract the attention of media, thanks to which the message will spread very quickly further through mass audience and it can even reach a global dimension [7]. Word of mouth marketing—is a form of personal communication based on the exchange of information about products, services, or brands among customers, consumers, and their nearest ones (family, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc.). Word of mouth marketing is based on the fact that oral or personally given information spreading in an informal way builds a higher level of trust among the recipients and it has stronger influence on their decisions concerning buying products, services, or individual brands than information spread via traditional media and using traditional marketing communication tools [8]. Product placement—is a process during which products, brand products, services, brands or logos or trademarks, or mentions of them, intentionally placed in audiovisual or other works for a financial compensation or another equivalent. It is mostly used in films, TV series, and TV programs, entertaining programs including reality shows, chat shows, or sports programs or various kinds of sports broadcasting, in general, also within radio broadcasting, the Internet, computer games, music videos,

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musical compositions and songs, literary works, theatrical performances, visual arts, etc. [9].

Implementation of Current Marketing Communication Tools into the Czech and Slovak Marketing Practice A quantitative research in the form of an online questionnaire was conducted in 2016. A chosen sample of 83 respondents (out of these 59 Czech and 24 Slovak respondents) took part in the research who directly work in marketing practice (e.g., representatives of advertising and communicative agencies, and also various specialized marketing communication agencies or marketing departments of companies) who are best able to consider the use of current forms of marketing communication in practice. Total average of the length of practice of the respondents is 7.75 years (out of which Czech respondents 8.02 years and Slovak respondents 7.66 years). A comparison of these two countries was made mainly because of the fact that the two independent countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, appeared after the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Contrary to commonly shared values and principles, historic reciprocity, cultural and language proximities, these countries have their specific features and differences. For that reason, the research concentrates primarily on the answer if the use of the current marketing communication tools is similar in these countries or, on the other hand, if it varies widely. The answers given to the question if it is possible nowadays to identify a total growth of current marketing communication tools on our market were 41% respondents answered YES, and 40% of the respondents MORE LIKELY YES, only 10% answered RATHER NOT and 0% NOT. Out of these, Czech respondents 39% YES, 41% MORE LIKELY YES, and 8% RATHER NOT, 0% NOT. Slovak respondents 46% YES, 37% MORE LIKELY YES, and 13% RATHER NOT, 0% NOT. It is evident from the respondents’ answers that the use of current marketing communication tools has a general growing tendency both on the Czech and Slovak markets. Comparing the situation between both countries, we will reveal that, based on the conducted research, there is a stronger demand for current marketing communication tools from the Slovak clients—up to 21% of the respondents confirmed that the clients ALWAYS demand current marketing communication tools, 62% OFTEN, 4% RARELY, and 0% NEVER, while in the Czech Republic it is only 5% ALWAYS, 47% OFTEN, 14% RARELY, and 2% NEVER. Which factors have the strongest influence on the formation, gradual development, and more and more frequent use of current marketing communication tools on the Czech and Slovak markets? Answers of the majority of the Czech and Slovak respondents indicate that they attribute it mainly to increasing efficiency of communication tools, constant development of new media and communication technologies (52 respondents), higher speed and flexibility of current marketing communication tools compared to the traditional ones (42 respondents), possibilities to communicate

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Table 1 Comparison of the effectivity of the current marketing communication tools within the Czech and Slovak markets CR very effective (%)

CR: ineffective (%)

SR: very effective (%)

CR: ineffective (%)

1. Digital

69

0

1. Digital

83

4

2. WoM

65

6

2. WoM

41

4

3. Mobile

44

6

3. Mobile

36

5

4. Viral

25

4

4. Viral

31

13

5. Buzz

18

13

5. Buzz

14

24

6. PP

8

23

6. Guerilla

10

37

7. Guerilla

7

21

7. PP

5

10

interactively with the customers (42 respondents), as well as to demographic changes and changes of lifestyle (38 respondents). There was not an essential difference in opinions or answers of the Czech and Slovak respondents. Making a mutual comparison of the answers of the Czech and Slovak respondents, we will reveal that the opinions on effectivity of the current marketing communication tools significantly agree. Both Czech and Slovak respondents consider digital marketing the most effective current marketing communication tool, 69% of the Czech respondents and up to 83% of Slovak respondents marked it as a very effective tool. Word of Mouth Marketing took second place from the point of view of effectivity assessment between both the Czech and Slovak respondents, the only difference being that 65% of the Czech respondents consider it a very effective while only 41% of Slovak respondents ranked it a very effective one. The third place in effectivity is taken by mobile marketing between both the Czech and Slovak respondents. Even the percentage assessment of effectivity is similar—44% of the Czech and 36% of the Slovak respondents consider it a very effective one. The fourth place was taken by viral marketing among the Czech respondents (25% of the respondents consider it very effective), and it took the same position among the Slovak respondents (31% of the respondents marked it as very effective). Buzz marketing finished in the fifth placing for both the Czech and Slovak respondents again—18% of Czech respondents and 14% of Slovak respondents consider it very effective. The only difference in assessing the effectivity of the chosen current marketing communication tools among the Czech and Slovak respondents can be seen on the last places. The Czech respondents consider guerilla marketing the least effective (only 7% of the respondents consider it very effective), while for the Slovak respondents, Product Placement finishes in the last placing (5% of the respondents marked it as very effective). The following table shows a comparison of the effectivity of the current marketing communication tools within the Czech and Slovak markets (Table 1). In their practice, the addressed respondents took part mainly in conducting digital campaigns (65 of the addressed respondents in total) which proves that digital communication has, from the point of view of the use of current marketing commu-

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nication tools, dominant position. Viral campaigns finished in second place, which were conducted by 44 respondents in total. The third position was taken by Word of Mouth marketing campaigns (37 respondents), followed by Product Placement (28 respondents), Guerilla Campaigns (19 respondents), buzz marketing campaigns (19 respondents), and, surprisingly, mobile marketing campaigns finished in the last place (16 respondents).

Summary Based on the results of the conducted research, we can confirm that even 24 years after the split of Czechoslovakia, the Czech, and Slovak markets do not vary greatly in connection with the use of current marketing communication tools. We can also suppose that, in the nearest future, the main trends in marketing communication will include growing interaction with customers, mutual interconnection of traditional, current, and new marketing communication tools, traditional and new media, as well as search for new, bold, creative marketing communicative solutions, which often have a form of interdisciplinary mix based on multidisciplinary approach.

References 1. Kotler, Ph., Armstrong, G.: Principles of Marketing, 14th edn, pp. 51–53. Prentice Hall, New Jersey (2011). ISBN-13: 978-0-13-216712-3 2. Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Johnston, K., Mayer, R.: Internet Marketing—Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 4th edn, pp. 10–12. Financial Times/Prentice Hall (2009). ISBN-13: 978-0-273-71740-9 3. Kirby, J., Marsden, P.: Connected Marketing—The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution, pp. 88–89. Elsevier Ltd., Oxford (2006). ISBN-13: 978-0-7506-6634-3 4. Jurášková, O., Horˇnák, P.: Velký slovník marketingových komunikací, pp. 123–124. Grada Publishing, Praha (2012). ISBN: 978-80-247-4354-7 5. Levinson, J.C.: Guerilla Marketing: Nejúˇcinnˇejší a finanˇcnˇe nenároˇcný marketing, p. 13. Computer Press, Brno (2009). ISBN: 978-80-251-2472-7 6. Horký, V.: Types of Guerrilla Marketing (2009). http://www.guerrillaonline.com/cs/GuerrillaMarketing-types-65.htm 7. Hughes, M.: Buzz Marketing—Pˇrimˇejte lidi, aby o vás mluvili, pp. 12–16. Management Press, Praha (2006). ISBN: 80-7261-153-4 8. Pˇrikrylová J., Jahodová H.:. Moderní marketingová komunikace, pp. 267–272. Grada Publishing, Praha (2010). ISBN: 978-80-247-3622-8 9. Hesková, M., Štarchoˇn P.: Marketingová komunikace a moderní trendy v marketingu, pp. 33–35. Oeconomica, Praha (2009). ISBN: 978-80-245-1520-5

Quo Vadis Advertisement? Positives and Negatives of Current Ad Pavel Hornák ˇ

Abstract Today’s face of advertisement has changed dramatically over the last quarter of the century. There has also been a change in the public’s relationship with the advertisement. The aim of the study is to present an up-to-date view of this current situation, but in particular to highlight the attitudes of the public to the different forms of advertising at present. Through comparative analysis, as well as primary quantitative research, we want to take a look at the useful or at the harmful effects of advertising in our everyday life. The results will be brought to the attention of the professional and the general public in order to improve the situation in practice. The subsequent aim is, therefore, to help improve the content and form of this activity, respectively, to affect the undesirable amount of broadcasting time in the Czech and Slovak media. Keywords Advertising · Public attitudes · Research · Utility · Harmfulness

Introduction We consider the present being the latest history. However, it is also a gate to the future. The twenty-first century has brought with it a lot of new things in all spheres of human knowledge. First, in science and technologies. With all positives and negatives connected with it. And so, as it has been since time immemorial, technical inventions have almost immediately reflected themselves in the world of advertising. Crucial changes occurred in Czechoslovakia, which was split up into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993, even during the revolution in 1989. After the fall of communism, our society changed back again to the market economy. Advertising became again a necessary part of the economy. A huge number of new agencies and marketing communication associations (MC) arose. Together with these, also an ethic body of the Czech Advertising Standards Council, a lot of universities with this orientation, and P. Horˇnák (B) Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Zlín, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_15

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also books, magazines, and journals both translated and original. Apart from these, our advertising was also influenced by the globalization of the market, respectively, when the Czech and Slovak Republics entered the EU. The role of advertising was influenced by changes in the whole field of marketing communication and marketing. When publishing one of my books [2], I considered the following changes in marketing communication (MC) as the basic ones: start of integrated marketing communication, changes in marketing mix or, more precisely, shifts in the importance of the individual activities of marketing communication, change to global marketing and advertising, technical improvements of the means of advertisement, increase of the importance of social marketing and advertising, and some other facts. Nevertheless, the present responds itself. Integrated communication was more music of the end of the past century and the shift to global marketing goes without saying nowadays. The so-called new forms of marketing communication, such as guerilla, product placement, viral, event marketing, and many other [1] are also “renovated” in a similar way. Technical improvements are gradually reflected mainly to online marketing, to mobile marketing but new forms are appearing, too. They include native advertising, crowdsourcing, content marketing, murketing, and other. There are also “new” forms arising, which do not deserve such term. It is often “much ado about nothing”. They are often only a type of advertising or its combination with another one or with another medium and the authors give it a “magic label” new form of MC. Nevertheless, the current commonly disapproving attitude of the public toward advertising, mainly to its amount on TV, has become a key problem.

Methodology of Research The object of our research was the attitude of recipients toward current advertising. The aim was, above all, to find out if the current advertising plays more a positive or negative role in society, that is if it helps us or harms us more. The main hypothesis was that “the involved public understand that advertising is still needed but it is necessary to reduce its amount.” The target group consisted of respondents from the group of “specialists”—students of marketing communication in the Czech and Slovak Republics in the number of 206 (approx. half from the Czech Republic and a half from the Slovak Republic)—and, for comparison, also randomly interviewed respondents (194). 400 respondents altogether, out of which approx. 2/3 were women. In our research, we used the qualitative explorative method of interviewing using a questionnaire that had 12 questions + complementary demographic features. When evaluating, due to the extent of the study, we could interpret exactly only that part of the data which is connected with the main hypothesis of our work. The research was made in the first quarter of 2017.

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Table 1 Attitude of the public toward helpfulness of advertising 1 Czech

Republic

Slovak

Republic

Men

Women

Men

Women

Students of MC

Others

53

133

65

149

206

194

Yes

33

91

34

100

156

102

Partially

19

42

31

49

50

91

No

1

1

Table 2 Attitude of the public toward helpfulness of advertising 2 Czech

Republic Slovak

Republic Students of MC

Others

Men

Women

Men

Women

53

133

65

149

206

194

For buying

29

86

45

96

135

121

Sometimes entertains

12

25

12

24

37

36

Other

12

22

8

29

34

37

Research Results Our research was participated by 400 recipients, approx. half from the CR and a half from the SR (282 women and 118 men), a bigger part out of the total number had a complete university education (210 respondents, others secondary education 168, only 2 elementary…), age structure (aged from 18 to 25–206, others aged over 25). When I was founding the first university of advertising in the republic, which was after the revolution, after the fall of communism in 1990, I promoted a motto: As a country cannot exist without a market, even market cannot exist without advertising. Today, almost 30 years later, 94% (375 respondents) out of the sample (400 respondents) think that a country cannot exist without market. Market without advertising, nevertheless, cannot be imagined only by 65% (259 respondents), on the other hand, 35% (140 respondents) think that it could be possible… (Table 1). Almost a two-third majority (64%) of the respondents answered “yes” to the question if “advertising helps us with anything”, about one-third (35%) admits that partially, and only one respondent does not think so. Both men and women in both republics answer in corresponding numbers in almost the same way but it is evident that students of marketing communication trust advertising much more (Table 2). When asking: “what can advertising be helpful for” a group of women (282), more than half of the majority 59% think that it is helpful for buying things, while 20% that it sometimes entertains us, 21% states other reasons, but relatively high percentage (8%) does not even know what it is helpful for. Assistance with buying things is much lower with a smaller group of men (118), which probably arises from

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Table 3 Attitude of the public toward the amount of advertising in media Czech

Republic

Slovak

Republic

Men

Women

Men

Women

53

133

65

149

Students of MC

Others

206

194

Little

1

1

0

0

1

1

Cannot judge

2

2

1

4

2

7

Adequately

4

9

12

8

15

18

Too much

46

121

52

137

188

168

Students of MC

Others

Table 4 Attitude of the public toward the individual media Czech

Republic

Slovak

Republic

Men

Women

Men

Women

53

133

65

149

206

194

13

30

13

29

55

30

In the streets

4

10

5

24

26

17

I do not mind

3

12

5

6

16

10

In the cinema

2

7

2

7

13

5

On the radio

6

11

2

2

9

12 101

On the Internet

On TV

22

53

30

73

77

In the press

2

2

1

1

1

5

Everywhere

1

8

7

7

9

14

the fact that mainly women buy things for the households [3]. Concerning students and others (according to demographics mainly older respondents), it helps more to students or rather to female students (Table 3). Nevertheless, as for the amount of advertising in media, almost 90% of the respondents of all categories think that there is too much of it. Only 5.5% of the respondents cannot judge it or think the amount is adequate (Table 4). With the following question: “in which type of media do the respondents dislike advertising most” we approach the reason of a general aversion to advertising, which is television. Advertising on TV is most unpopular with the respondents compared to the six stated types of media or out of the eight offered possibilities. Only 6% of the interviewed state that they do not mind advertising in any medium. It is more puzzling that almost 5% of the respondents mind advertising “everywhere”, that is in all types of media. In the first place, almost half of the respondents (47%) do not like TV, in the second place there is advertising on the Internet with approx. by less than half of the respondents (21.25%). Then they are followed by billboards in the streets, cinema, radio, and the press with three respondents is insignificant. If we realize that out of the total number of 400 respondents half of them are students (206), it is understandable that the Internet is problematic in the second position. Less understandable is, that

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Table 5 Attitude of the public toward the amount of advertising in the programs on private TV channels

Adequate

Czech

Republic

Slovak

Republic

Men

Women

Men

Women

Students of MC

Others

53

133

65

4

3

10

149

206

194

3

16

9

Excessive

26

73

21

78

110

88

Catastrophic

19

47

33

55

69

85

Cannot judge

4

10

1

13

16

12

TV still interferes even more also with this younger generation which watches it at the very minimum. No distinctive differences between men and women were confirmed. The reason is mainly the amount of advertising on private TV channels (Table 5). Almost half of the respondents (49%) think that the amount of advertising in the programs on private TV channels is excessive and up to 39% that it is catastrophic. This is almost 90% altogether. Only 5% think that the amount is adequate and 7% cannot judge. And this is catastrophic itself.

Conclusion This research did not show bigger differences between the opinions of women and men or students of marketing communication and other already employed respondents. Neither were confirmed similar bigger differences between the Czechs and Slovaks. However, the research confirmed that a significant majority of the respondents is always aware of the necessity of the country functioning together with the business, which cannot function without advertising. Based on measured correlations, we revealed that advertising helps the sample mainly with shopping but what impedes is the amount of advertising mainly on TV, then on the Internet, in the streets, etc., that it helps the majority of the respondents with shopping but it sometimes even entertains them. All categories dislike mainly the amount of TV advertising on private TV channels. One of the main reasons, apart from the amount, is interruption of TV programs by TV advertisements. The making hypothesis: “Involved public understand that advertising is still needed but it is necessary to reduce its amount” according to the given questions, has undoubtedly been confirmed. This refers, especially, to TV advertising. We would like to stress three most important results in particular. 99% of the respondents who are aware of the fact that advertising is still useful at least in something, 90% that there is too much of advertising and mainly on TV, and that its amount on private TV channels is excessive or catastrophic—88%. The situation with a TV must be definitely dealt with in practice. If we realize that still the majority of financial means is spent on TV advertising in the Czech and Slovak Republics,

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it remains a mystery who the advertisers and advertising agencies produce this costly matter for…. Disrespecting the opinion of the watchers can do even more harm to the efficiency of TV advertising. Apart from that, this situation tends to cause even more harm to the attitude of the recipients to advertising in general. Last but not least, it will cause harm to the whole audience share of the key medium which TV in Czechia and Slovakia still is.

References 1. Arens, F.W., Bovée., L.C.: Contemporary Advertising (5.vyd.), 573 s. Irwin, Boston (1994). ISBN 0-256-134-12-X 2. Horˇnák, P.: Reklama—teoreticko-historické otázky reklamy a marketingovej komunikácie, 318 s. VeRBUuM, Zlín (2010). ISBN 978-80-904273-3-4 3. Vysekalová J., Komárková R.: Psychologie reklamy, s. 356. Grada Publishing, Praha (2002). ISBN 80-247-0402-1

European Class III Medical Devices: Strategic Considerations for Marketing in the Middle East Rami Al-Khateeb

Abstract Many European medical device manufacturers are unfamiliar with the regulatory requirements, approvals, and timelines needed to market it in the Middle East. Due to the lack of publicly available information and regulatory frameworks, there is a huge difficulty for European manufacturers to market their products in the Middle East effectively. This paper’s main purpose is to summarize the regulatory requirements, outline a workflow as a vital component of successful strategic marketing, minimize the existing difficulty, and, thus, provide a model of maximum operational efficiency. Keywords Class III medical devices · Middle East regulatory requirements for medical devices · Marketing Class III medical devices in the Middle East

Introduction Background The regulation of medical devices varies widely across the world. The Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) was founded in response to the need for international harmonization of medical device regulation. GHTF comprises representatives from five countries: USA, the European Union (EU), Japan, Australia, and Canada. Regulations for medical devices in these countries are well established, where they are often used as guidelines for establishing regulations in other countries [4]. The World Health Organization Medical Devices Unit coordinates the medicaldevice-related activities of nongovernmental organizations, academia, professional societies, governments, health professionals, and WHO collaborating centers [9]. In the European Economic Area medical devices are regulated by the following directives: (a) Active Implantable Medical Device Directive (AIMDD) R. Al-Khateeb (B) Elaf Medical Supplies Company, Amman, Jordan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_16

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(90/385/EEC); (b) General Medical Device Directive (MDD) (93/42/EEC); and (c) In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device Directive (IVDMDD) (98/79/EEC). Directive (93/42/EEC) and its amendment (2007/47/EC) describes the definition of general medical devices and their purposes of use for human beings. “European Communities Council 1993; Council of the European Parliament 2007”. The general medical devices are classified into classes, comprising: Class I, Class I sterile, Class I measuring, Class IIa, Class IIb, and Class III, where Class III comprises the “high risk to the user” class of medical devices [3]. Before the use of a device can be authorized, it must undergo European conformity and regulatory process to obtain its “CE Mark”. The CE Mark (alternatively termed the “EC Mark”) is essentially a license to freely market the product within the EEA.

Objectives Until recently, the main issue faced by European manufacturers, despite their products being CE regulated, is marketing their medical devices outside the European Economic Area: unfortunately, this is not possible without undergoing an extensive and demanding regulatory approval process in each country whose market they desire to penetrate. Such regulatory approval processes are time and effort consuming, especially if the manufacturer aims to globalize marketing of the medical device. The required cost, effort, and time investment to develop a global regulatory approval base is, in most cases, beyond the reach of mid-sized manufacturers due to complexities and high-risk factors associated with such processes. This manuscript’s main objective is to summarize the registration requirements of Class III medical devices in the Middle East (ME), outline workflow process and their associated timelines, and, thus, provide a clear strategic scheme for marketing the medical device.

Discussion Strategic planning has a vital role in defining the business road map; it is an invaluable resource for future development of the business, and can be considered an intangible asset. For medical device businesses, one of the most important intangible assets is regulatory approval to market the product. This asset’s value depends on the product type, its market potential, and the number of approvals obtained for different countries’ markets. One of the interesting global markets to target in establishing a regulatory approval base is the Middle East. Definition of the Middle East region varies from several historical, political, and geographical perspectives. For the purpose of this paper, which focuses mainly on Arabic-speaking countries, it includes the following groups of countries:

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• Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Yemen. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. • Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. • Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania. Other countries, such as Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Arteria, Israel, Somalia, South Sudan, Iran, and Turkey do share cultural and historical commonalities, but Arab speakers are minorities in these countries; accordingly, they fall outside the scope of this study. According to the World Bank, the Middle East (defined as “Middle East North Africa”—MENA) includes the groups mentioned above excluding Sudan and Mauritania, and including Iran, Djibouti, Malta, and Israel [2, 10]. The League of Arab States includes the groups listed above in addition to Comoros and Somalia. In 2013, it had a population of 369.8 million, a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 2772 billion, and GDP per capita of USD 6817. The larger MENA had, in 2014, a population of 417.5 million in 2014, and a GDP of USD 3520 billion [2, 10]. In preparing for the process of registering a Class III medical device in the ME, one should consider the following as listed in Table 1. Registration requirements in the ME vary between countries, one prominent example being that while a certain document might not initially be required, its submission might be mandated later in the registration process. Accordingly, and for various reasons, including the time and efforts involved and costs management, the most practical and efficient approach is to prepare the registration requirements according to two categories. The first category contains nearly all the documents commonly required by countries in the ME (Table 2), whereas the second category contains the documents specifically required in some countries (Table 3). The different processes workflows and associated timelines are shown in Table 4. Interested parties should note that prior preparation, along with the simultaneous execution of some processes, substantially minimizes the overall time required.

Conclusion This paper demonstrates the importance of acquiring necessary information about medical device registration requirements in Middle East countries. This information is required to be able to formulate successful strategic planning with pre-evaluated risks. It should be noted that such requirements are intermittently updated on an ongoing basis; therefore, checking the most up-to-date requirements prior to executing a strategic plan is strongly advised. The paper also shows the importance of establishing a unified regulatory system between the competent authorities of EU and the Middle East to facilitate such processes, which can improve the level of patient care, safety, availability of innovative medical devices, and the level of medical services provided.

Considerations The competent authority, usually a health ministry or food and drug administration department in ME countries, requires a letter from the manufacturer authorizing a local representative or distributor, whose responsibilities comprise: registering the product(s), ensuring complete compliance with good trade and distribution practices, handling complaints, handling recall, and reporting any side effects. The letter of authorization must be provided as legalized by the embassy of the target country. The common business model in the ME involves the distributor also acting as an authorized representative. Accordingly, if a distribution agreement exists, it must be provided as legalized by the embassy of the target country The document legalization process is undertaken by related embassies of targeted countries and, in most cases, takes approximately two months, as it includes multistep procedures, involving, for example, notaries, chambers of commerce, and the foreign affairs ministry. The cost of legalization for each single document can vary very widely, depending on the target country and the country of origin in which its embassy is based Labeling, including indications for use, are generally accepted in the English language if medical specialists use the device. However, for Class III medical devices intended for use by the patient themselves or those provided over the counter, Arabic language is required Prior to expiry of an issued certificate of marketing, a renewal process is necessary. This process might require the submission of some documents, but the requirements are minimal Any change in the medical device’s regulatory status in the country of origin, for example, in its CE mark number, contents, or composition, has a disastrous effect on registration processes in the ME. Even if the registration process was completed successfully and a certificate of marketing issued, health authority regulations prohibit imports of the product until such changes have been registered and approved in the ME: in most cases, this takes months to complete. Consequently, any such change directly affects the product’s market availability, thereby inflicting damage to the business. Accordingly, it is vital to maintain high coordination between the manufacturer and distributor regarding a product’s regulatory status, to at least ensure advanced preparation for any expected changes or modifications in the product

Type of process

Appointment of authorized representative

Document legalization

Labeling a Class III medical device

Renewal of registration for Class III medical device

Change in the medical device regulatory status

Table 1 Considerations in preparing for the process of registering a Class III medical device in the ME

122 R. Al-Khateeb

Signature and stamp required from manufacturer

Notarization required

Method of analysis

Reference standard: might be requested for analysis purposes

Finished product specifications

Certificate of analysis plus samples from the batch mentioned in the certificate of analysis

Certificate of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Free (if applicable to the product)

Declaration of conformity (DOC)

Long-term stability reporta

Certificate of stability

Certificate of packaging

Certificate of storage

Certificate of composition

Sterilization validation report (if the product is sterile)

Certificate of sterility (if the product is sterile)

Type of document

Business license

GMP certificate (if available)

ISO certificate

EC Design certificate

EC Mark certificate

Free sales certificate/certificate of marketability

Type of document

Table 2 Common registration requirements for Class III medical devices in the ME

(continued)

European Class III Medical Devices: Strategic Considerations … 123

Certificate of price: Ex-works, CIF, wholesale, retail prices (required in some countries)

Manufacturing process chart (required in some countries)

Artwork, including outer package design

Brochure of the device

Labels used with the device

Instructions for Use (IFU)

Biocompatibility reports/studies

Preclinical and clinical evaluation files plus published clinical studies (if available)

Summary Technical Documentation (STED)

Essential requirements list for the product as prescribed by the applicable medical device directive

List of products produced by the manufacturer

Certificate of risk classification and description of Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) code

Certificate listing countries where the product is marketed

Type of document

long-term stability report should be according to climatic zones. According to the WHO, most ME countries are either in Zone IVa (hot and humid) or Zone II (Mediterranean/subtropical) [1, 11]

a The

Table 2 (continued)

124 R. Al-Khateeb

European Class III Medical Devices: Strategic Considerations …

125

Table 3 Specific registration requirements for Class III medical devices in the ME Country

Type of document

UAE, Bahrain, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Morocco

Embassy legalization required Free sales certificate/certificate of marketability EC certificate EC Design certificate ISO certificate GMP certificate (if available) Business license Signature and stamp required from manufacturer

UAE, Oman, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Lebanon

Specific form for registration of manufacturer—completed, signed, and stamped by manufacturer

UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Sudan, Libya

Specific form for registration of medical device—completed, signed, and stamped by manufacturer

Sudan

Specific form for declaration of conformity—completed, signed, and stamped by manufacturer

KSA

Web-based online registration process which includes: – Phase one: registration of the manufacturer – Phase two: registration of the medical device – Specific templates are provided online for the letter of authorization and the distribution agreement. It is mandatory to provide those templates as embassy legalized – Other specific templates are provided online – Audit report (pdf format) is required – All files are submitted online in pdf format, whereas hard copies (including any legalized documents) should be sent to the authorized representative

Sources UAE: Registration and Drug Control Department [6]; Bahrain: National Health Regulatory Authority [5]; KSA: Saudi Food and Drug Authority [7, 8]

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Table 4 Registration processes workflow and timeline for Class III medical devices in the ME Timeline (months)

Type of process

2

Distribution agreement and Letter of Authorization (LOA) legalization from target country’s embassy

2

Registration requirements preparation and legalization from target country’s embassy

1–2

Submission of registration requirements (including booking an appointment for file submission)

1–2

Health authority committee meeting and decision. Further documents might be requested

1–2

Providing further documents requested

3–9

Registration process and obtaining marketing authorization

Disclosure The author reports no conflicts of interest in this manuscript. It was prepared based on practical experience over 10 years without any funding.

References 1. Ammann, C.: Stability studies needed to define the handling and transport conditions of sensitive pharmaceutical or biotechnological products. AAPS Pharm. Sci. Tech. 12(4), 1264–1275 (2011) 2. Devarajan, S., Mottaghi, L.: Middle East and North Africa Data Book [eBook]. World Bank Group, Washington, DC (2014). Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/ handle/10986/20354. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. Accessed 26 April 2017 3. European Commission: Guidelines relating to the application of the council directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices MEDDEV 2.4/1 Rev. 9 of June 2010. European Commission DG Health and Consumer Directorate B, Unit B2 “cosmetics and medical devices”. Off. J. Eur. Union OJ (L169), 1 (2010) 4. Lamph, S.: Regulation of medical devices outside the European Union. J. R. Soc. Med. 105(1_suppl), 12–21 (2012) 5. National Health Regulatory Authority: Medical Devices Registration/Importation Guideline. NHRA, Bahrain (2015) 6. Registration and Drug Control Department, Ministry of Health and Prevention, United Arab Emirates: Medical Device Registration Guideline. Ministry of Health, UAE (2011) 7. Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA): MDS-G3 Guidance for Medical Device Authorized Representatives. SFDA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2017) 8. Saudi Food and Drug Authority: MDS-G4 Guidance for Overseas Manufacturers. SFDA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2017) 9. Wong, J., Kaiyu, R.T.: Handbook of Medical Device Regulatory Affairs in Asia, 1st edn. Pan Stanford, Hoboken (2013) 10. World Bank: The Little Data Book 2016 [eBook]. World Bank, Washington, DC (2016). Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23968. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. Accessed 26 April 2017

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11. World Health Organization: Annex 2 stability testing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products, Technical Report Series, No. 953, WHO (2009)

Legislation 12. Council Directive 93/42/EEC of 14 June 1993 concerning medical devices. Off. J. Eur. Union, OJ (L169), 1 13. Directive 2007/47/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 5 Sept 2007. Off. J. Eur. Union, OJ L247, 21

Part VI

Marketing & Consumer Perceptions

Organized by: Enrique Marinao Artigas Departamento de Administración, Chile Description Understand that in the area of business, consumer perception should be the primary source of management for making marketing decisions. Scope: The high speed with which the business world moves is a clear consequence of the pressure exerted by changes in consumer perception. To understand these changes, it is necessary to analyze the different elements that affect consumer perception in the process of making purchasing decisions. Why this or any other hotel you choose? Why choose this restaurant or another? Why this smartphone is chosen and not another? The broad spectrum covering consumer perceptions needs to be analyzed. In this sense, colleagues are invited to present their studies to show what is the reality of marketing and consumer perceptions.

The Analysis of the Perceived Usefulness of Online Communication Tools When Searching for SMEs Radovan Baˇcík, Richard Fedorko, Jakub Horváth and Ján Mihál

Abstract The aim of this article is to identify the usefulness of online communication tools when searching for SMEs from the point of view of customers. The aim of this article is to help clarify the impact the selected online communication tools have when reaching target audiences of SMEs. The basic sample for the purpose of the survey was the population of the region of East Slovakian. We have addressed 1,055 respondents and subsequently included 987 properly filled out questionnaires. Specifically, we focused on online communication tools such as websites, blogs, community discussions, social networks, and last but not least, internet advertising. Data collection was conducted through simple random sampling in October and November 2016. To verify the hypotheses, we used the software StatSoft Statistica. Due to the nature of the analyzed variables, we used correlation analysis. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that 72.44% of respondents prefer to obtain information about SMEs on the Internet or using related online communication tools. The research presupposed the existence of a statistically significant dependence between the impact online communication tools have and the usefulness of information when searching for SMEs. The strongest dependency was identified for the variables Social Networking Profiles and Community Discussions. The weakest dependency was identified for online catalogs of companies. The results of our research are relevant to SMEs who perceive marketing on the Internet still somehow skeptically. Research results should help SMEs with the direction of their marketing communication. Keywords Marketing communication · Online environment · Consumer behavior

R. Baˇcík · R. Fedorko (B) · J. Horváth · J. Mihál Faculty of Management, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_17

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Introduction Communicating is a very important function and an inconceivable part of a person’s life. This is also true for the business world, where businesses and SMEs need marketing communication activities in order to triumph in today’s competitive business environment. Advertising as part of marketing communications, aim to deliver a specific message to the target audience. It is done through various platforms online and also the offline world. Advertising can advocate certain behaviors and at the same time decrease the strength of the attitudes or norms. This fact leads to reverse behaviors and also boosts the current beliefs and attitudes related to the targeted behaviors [1, 2]. At present, societal changes, as well as continuous innovation in the field of communication technologies, have a significant influence on the development of marketing and marketing communication [3, 4]. In general, we can say that with the advent of the Internet, a new space has been opened to promote companies’ products, services, or brands. This is a new dimension in the level of creating direct and effective relationships with customers [5, 6]. The issue has been examined by various researchers, mainly Rabová [7] in an article titled “Marketing communication of SMEs specialized in cosmetic industry”, along with Khoshnodifar et al. [8] in their study “Effect of communication channels on success rate of entrepreneurial SMEs in the agricultural sector.” And also study from Balboni and Gabrielli [9] with an article titled “SME practice towards integrated marketing communications.” The main purpose of this paper is to determine how customers perceive online and offline marketing communication channels in the case of service providers.

Methodology Our research is based on material obtained from primary sources. The primary sources of this survey consist of questionnaire-based data obtained from the participants. The basic set of participants consists of inhabitants of the eastern Slovak region, which can be identified as the main target group of SMEs operating within the region. Throughout the research, we have addressed 1,055 respondents. Subsequently, after verifying the completeness of the submitted questionnaires, it was possible to include 987 respondents’ questionnaires. Data collection in the case of the main research took place in October–November 2016. Data collection was also carried out in electronic form via online questionnaire tools (Google Forms). Online questionnaires were sent with the consent of the respondents to the available email addresses. The aim of the questionnaire survey was to identify respondents’ attitudes and preferences in relation to online forms of marketing communication (i.e., Internet information resources––Internet sites, Internet catalogs of companies, Internet (online) advertising, Discussions, Business blogs, social networking profiles) of SME’s.

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Table 1 Symmetric measures––corporate websites Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.578

0.022

25.047

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

Verification of our hypotheses was carried out using the statistical program StatSoft Statistica. Due to the ordinal level of the data and relatively few categories for dependency deduction, we will use the correlation coefficient γ. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey we can state that 48.53% of the respondents were women and 51.47% were men. As for the age structure of the surveyed respondents, it was dominated by the group of 18–25 years olds with a share of 21.28%. The second largest group is those aged 26–30, representing a share of 13.78%. In the broader perspective, respondents aged 18–35 represent a 46.61% share. In all other age categories surveyed, the proportion of respondents did not exceed the 12%.

Results The aim of the following mathematical and statistical survey was to verify whether there is any statistically significant dependence in the selected areas regarding the relationship between the influence of information carriers on the usefulness of information provided by the information carriers. In this case, tests were performed at a significance level of 0.05. The underlying hypothesis was formulated as follows. H1: We assume there is a statistically significant dependence between the degree of influence the information carriers have on the usefulness of information when searching for SMEs. Based on the data in Table 1, it is clear there is a strong dependence between the influence of corporate websites and the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as evidenced by the output value of 0.578. We can state that the degree of influence on corporate websites is significantly dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs. Data in Table 2 shows that there is a strong dependence between the influence rate of Internet (online) advertising and the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as the output value is 0.466. We dare to state that the degree of influence of Internet advertising is significantly dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs. From Table 3, it is clear that there is a strong dependence between the influence discussions have on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as the output value is 0.597. The degree of influence of discussions is

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Table 2 Symmetric measures––Internet (online) advertising Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.466

0.025

18.925

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

Table 3 Symmetric measures––Discussions Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.597

0.022

24.546

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

Table 4 Symmetric measures—corporate blogs Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.584

0.022

24.507

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

Table 5 Symmetric measures––social media profiles of companies Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.599

0.020

27.230

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

statistically dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs. From Table 4, it is clear that there is a strong dependence between the influence corporate blogs have on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as the output value is 0.584. The degree of influence of corporate blogs is statistically dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs. From Table 5, it is clear that there is a strong dependence between the influence of social media profiles of companies and the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as the output value is 0.599. The degree of influence of corporate profiles on social media (Facebook) is statistically dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs. From Table 6, it is clear that there is only a slight dependence between online catalogs of companies and the usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs, as the output value is 0.191. The degree of influence of online catalogs is not statistically dependent on the perceived usefulness of this information carrier when searching for SMEs.

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Table 6 Symmetric measures—online catalogs of companies Variables

Value

Asymptotic standardized error

Approximate Approximate T significance

Gamma

0.191

0.031

6.167

No. of valid cases

987

0.000

Given the existence of the statistically significant dependence between the influence the information carriers have on the usefulness of information provided when searching for SMEs in the majority of cases, it is possible to come to a conclusion that agrees with the outlined hypothesis of this analysis. The strongest dependency was identified between the variable Social media profiles of companies (y = 0.599) and Discussions (y = 0.597). The weakest dependency was identified in the case of the variable online catalogs of companies (y = 0.191). Based on the above, it can be concluded that there is a statistically significant dependence between the influence of information sources and the perceived usefulness of information when searching for SMEs.

Conclusion An important area of small and medium-sized enterprises marketing communication is knowledge of the actual strong competitive market environment. In the present under the influence of rapid IT development, it is achievable to identify changes in the target customer’s preferences. Specifically, preferences like how customers search for information about products or services. On the other hand, it is the overwhelming amount of advertising content consumed by these target audiences on a daily basis. It can be said that online advertising plays a significant role in companies’ communications with their target audiences. Advertising can strengthen a behavior, as desired by the company. Advertising can also regulate unwanted behavior of target audiences [10]. The results of our survey are relevant to SMEs who perceive the online environment from the perspective of marketing still skeptically. The research results should help SMEs in deciding on the strategic direction of their marketing communication efforts. From SMEs viewpoint, tools of online marketing are at present easily accessible and what is more important is the fact that they are more efficient in terms of time and finances. From our point of view, the most significant advantage of the online environment is the complex measurability of implemented marketing activities. A proper understanding of online marketing tools in the context of SMEs strategies is an undeniable competitive advantage. Specifically, the current trends and practices in marketing communication are grasped by the easier implementation of future innovations.

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Acknowledgements This article is one of the partial outputs under the scientific research grant VEGA 1/0806/16 “Research on issues of consumer behaviour of a new generation of customers with emphasis on identifying preferences and usability of mobile platforms in the process of ecommerce of the subjects localized predominantly on the Central European Market” and VEGA 1/0789/17 “Research of e-commerce with relation to dominant marketing practices and important characteristics of consumer behavior while using mobile device platforms.”

References 1. Paramaporn T., Thu N.Q.: Online marketing communications and childhood’s intention to consume unhealthy food. Australas. Mark. J. (AMJ), 79–86 (2016) 2. Svec, M., Olsovska, A., Mura, L.: Protection of an “Average consumer” in the digital society—European context. In: International Scientific Conference on Marketing Identity. Marketing Identity: Digital Life, Pt. II Book Series: Marketing Identity, pp. 273–282 (2015) 3. Gerrikagoitia, J.K., et al.: New trends of intelligent e-marketing based on web mining for e-shops. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 175, 75–83 (2015) 4. Štefko, R., Kiraˇlova, A., Mudrík, M.: Strategic marketing communication in pilgrimage tourism. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2014), Book Series: Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 175, pp. 423–430 (2015) 5. Scott, D.M.: The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Wiley, New Jersey (2010) 6. Baˇcík, R., Gavurová, B., Fedorko, I.: The analysis of the impact of selected marketing communication factors on the online consumer behavior. J. Appl. Econ. Sci. 10(7), 999–1004 (2015) 7. Rábová, T.K.: Marketing communication of SMEs specialized in cosmetic industry in magazines for women. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 175, 48–57 (2015) 8. Khoshnodifar, F., Ghonji, M., Mazloumzadeh, S.M., Abdollahi, V.: Effect of communication channels on success rate of entrepreneurial SMEs in the agricultural sector (a case study). J. Saudi Soc. Agric. Sci. 15(1), 83–90 (2016) 9. Gabrielli, V., Balboni, B.: SME practice towards integrated marketing communications. Mark. Intell. Plann. 28(3), 275–290 (2010) 10. Fishbein, M., Cappella, J.: S1–S17 a 2006 international communication association S5 role of theory in effective health communications. J. Commun. 56 (2006)

An Empirical Examination of Innovation Management System and Financial Performance Juho-Petteri Huhtala, Iiro Vaniala and Henrikki Tikkanen

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between the components of organizational-level innovation management system, i.e. innovation orientation and innovation capability, and financial performance, i.e. profitability and growth. The novelty of this paper stems from the concomitant examination of the relationship between innovation orientation and innovation capability, i.e. the ‘willingness’ to innovate and the ‘ability’ to do so. As organizations develop innovations in open sociocultural systems, this paper also aims to uncover possible performance synergies in the strategic orientation layer (innovation orientation and market orientation) and in the capability layer (innovation capability and customer relationship management capability) of an organization. When empirically examining components of organizational-level innovation management system, it is found that innovation capability is the engine of innovation management system that translates the value of innovation orientation to financial performance outcomes. The results also shed light on possible synergistic effects between strategic orientations and organizational capabilities. Furthermore, empirical results suggest that innovation orientation and market orientation have positive complementary effects on innovation capability. Keywords Innovation management system · Innovation orientation · Innovation capability · Financial performance

Introduction A large number of studies have explored organization-level innovation management to identify the factors that enable organizations to improve their financial performance (see [5]). Two approaches have received significant attention and wider acceptance as determinant of financial performance: (1) innovation orientation as an aspect of organizational culture reflecting an organization’s openness for new ideas and J.-P. Huhtala (B) · I. Vaniala · H. Tikkanen Department of Marketing, Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_18

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commitment towards innovation [10] and (2) innovation capability as an ability to constantly transform ideas and knowledge into outcomes of something new [14]. Interesting gaps for future research have been provided from both perspectives. Research that focuses on innovation orientation has requested for examining organizational factors that increase or decrease its effectiveness [24]. On the other hand, innovation capability studies have called for more research on examining prerequisites for innovation capability [21, 22]. Researchers from both views have also requested for examining the impact of innovation orientation/capability on financial performance in different market conditions [15]. We attempt to respond to these calls by examining the relationship between innovation orientation, innovation capability and financial performance under environmental turbulence. Specifically, we are integrating these two perspectives and exploring them together as the core components of innovation management system, and as potential determinants of financial performance. From the systemic perspective [12], innovation management system is here defined as an entity encompassing a set of innovation-related values, beliefs, abilities and activities and their relationships which interact in creation, transformation and use of new knowledge in the organization. Innovation orientation as a cultural trait captures the ‘willingness’ side [10] that reflects the values and beliefs, while innovation capability as organizational processes captures the ‘ability’ side [14]. Studies have also called research to examine possible synergies in strategic orientation dimension [9] and in organizational capabilities dimension [17]. We wish to also answer to these calls by testing possible complimentary effects between innovation orientation and market orientation, and innovation capability and customer relationship management capability.

Hypotheses Development Empirical studies have shown that both innovation orientation and innovation capability are positively and directly related to firm growth [6, 25, 26]. However, studies that have examined their impact on profitability have yielded mixed results [3, 8, 27]. Innovation capability has been identified as a key capability that can translate the value of cultural traits, such as market orientation, into financial performance [19]. Thus, we hypothesize that: The positive relationship between innovation orientation and the financial performance (i.e. profitability and growth) is mediated by innovation capability (H1). In the strategic orientation dimension, this study focuses on possible synergies with innovation orientation and market orientation. Market orientation places customer at the centre of organization’s activities [18] and uncovering and satisfying customers’ needs as the most prioritized objective of any activity. In line with Menguc and Auh [16], we suggest that innovation orientation and market orientation complement each other. Thus, we hypothesize that:

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Innovation orientation and market orientation have positive complementary effects on innovation capability (H2). CRM capability is understood here as the ability to continuously acquire knowledge about customers through meaningful interactions and transform this knowledge into improved customer satisfaction [1, 4]. As continuous interactions with customers provide valuable knowledge that can be further transformed (by using innovation capability) into offerings that customer’s desire [4], we hypothesize that: Innovation capability and customer relationship management capability have positive complementary effects on the financial performance (i.e. profitability and growth) (H3). Innovation management system is also continuously influenced by the external environment, and therefore, its impact on financial performance is affected by environmental contingencies, such as competitive intensity and technological turbulence. Competitive intensity refers to the degree to which a firm faces rivalry in a market, while technological turbulence refers to the degree of technological advances in a market [11]. As competition intensifies, organizations should strive to innovate and try to be ahead of their rivals in introducing new offerings and occupying new markets [28]. Under high level of technological turbulence an organization benefits heavily of its ability to develop new technologies that can be used for creation of new products, processes and systems that are technologically superior [7]. Thus, we hypothesize: Competitive intensity moderates the positive effect of innovation capability on financial performance, with the relationship being stronger under great levels of competitive intensity (H4a). Technological turbulence moderates the positive effect of innovation capability on financial performance, with the relationship being stronger under greater levels of technological turbulence (H4b).

Data and Results The hypotheses are empirically investigated using data set of 639 survey-based responses from Finnish firms across multiple industries. Multi-item scales for market orientation, innovation orientation, innovation capability, CRM capability, competitive intensity, technological turbulence, growth and profitability were used to measure the constructs under analysis. All measures that are used in the analysis of constructs under examination are subjective, reflective and either adapted from or reflect the existing research. To test the hypotheses, we employed partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of the structural model offer support for H1, H2 and H4a.

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Discussion and Conclusion This study examines the link between the innovation management system and financial performance more comprehensively than most of prior studies (see e.g. [10, 23]). While the impact of innovation capability was found to be significant and positive on growth and profitability, the impact of innovation capability was stronger on growth than profitability. As the initial outcome of innovation management system is a new offering, it immediately creates growth [20]. However, it might take a longer time horizon to capture the full value of the product launch in the sense of profitability [13]. Second, this study, is to our best knowledge, first examines the relationship between innovation orientation and innovation capability. When examining these two together but as separate components, our findings suggest that innovation capability is the engine of innovation management system that translates the value of innovation orientation to financial performance outcomes. Third, this study also shed light on possible synergies between strategic orientations and organizational capabilities. It appears that organizations have a better potential for gaining complementary benefits within strategic orientation dimension than in the organizational capabilities dimension. Our results suggest that innovation orientation and market orientation have positive complementary effects on innovation capability. Thus, organizations should focus on developing both of these cultural traits to enhance their innovation capability if possible. Interestingly, we also found that competitive intensity influences positively on the innovation capability–financial performance link. Thus, it appears that organizations are encouraged to deploy innovation capability specifically when they face intense competition. Companies that possess high-level innovation capability in competitive markets are able to keep the focus on innovation-related processes, i.e. translating ideas into new offerings, despite the heavy rivalry within the market. It also enables to transform knowledge into offerings that create markets, and thus, helps an organization to avoid/to break out intense competition that is often associated with fierce price wars. This study also has limitations that future research could address. First, the research focused on examining possible complementary effects of two types of strategic orientations and two types of organizational capabilities. Results of this study can be enriched in further research by investigating, for instance, possible complementary effects between innovation orientation and learning orientation [2]. Second, all measures used in this study are subjective. It could be also interesting to include objective innovation and financial performance data for measuring these constructs. Finally, a longitudinal study of similar research setting could enrich the findings.

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24. Stock, R.M., Six, B., Zacharias, N.A.: Linking multiple layers of innovation-oriented corporate culture, product program innovativeness, and business performance: a contingency approach. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 41(3), 283–299 (2013) 25. Yam, R.C., Lo, W., Tang, E.P., Lau, A.K.: Analysis of sources of innovation, technological innovation capabilities, and performance: an empirical study of Hong Kong manufacturing industries. Res. Policy 40(3), 391–402 (2011) 26. Yang, J.: Innovation capability and corporate growth: an empirical investigation in China. J. Eng. Technol. Manage. 29(1), 34–46 (2012) 27. Yang, C.C., Marlow, P.B., Lu, C.S.: Assessing resources, logistics service capabilities, innovation capabilities and the performance of container shipping services in Taiwan. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 122(1), 4–20 (2009) 28. Zahra, S.A.: New product innovation in established companies: associations with industry and strategy variables. Entrep. Theory Pract. 18(2), 47–70 (1993)

Assessing Reputation of an Enterprise as a Socially Responsible Organization Tomasz L. Nawrocki and Danuta Szwajca

Abstract In recent years, the reputation of an enterprise as a socially responsible organization has become increasingly important, which is related to the popularization of the corporate social responsibility principles and the idea of sustainable development. All stakeholder groups expect from business entities responsible decisions, ethical behaviour, as well as transparency and honesty in all dimensions and areas of their activity. This expectation creates also a need to evaluate and compare enterprises in terms of social activity level. Thus, the paper presents a proposal for the concept of enterprise’s social involvement assessment model, based on information disclosed in the companies’ interim reports. Keywords Corporate reputation · CSR · CSR measurement · Enterprise’s stakeholders

Introduction Reputation is regarded as one of the companies most valued assets because of its potential for building long-term competitive advantage and market value. Although it is very difficult to measure the value of corporate reputation, it is estimated that its share in the company’s market value can range from 20 to 90% [1, 15]. In recent years, the importance of company’s reputation as a socially responsible organization has become increasingly important, which is related to the popularization and promotion of sustainable development and CSR principles by the scientific community, national and international non-governmental organizations, and the regulators of the European Union or the governments of individual countries. Many studies underline the importance of CSR in building a positive corporate reputation [4, 10, 11]. As a result, more and more companies, especially those of a global nature, are T. L. Nawrocki (B) · D. Szwajca Faculty of Organization and Management, Institute of Economics and Informatics, Silesian University of Technology, Zabrze, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_19

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beginning to develop and implement reputation-building strategies based on CSR programmes [3]. Growing business activity in various areas of social responsibility has triggered the need for CSR assessment and measurement. This need arises, on one hand, of the need and willingness to inform different stakeholder groups about the company’s social commitment to build a positive image and strengthen its reputation, which requires the inclusion of specific data and facts in reports [13]. On the other hand, companies that are naturally driven by economic criteria want to evaluate the effectiveness, and in particular the efficiency of CSR activities, which requires the recognition of these issues in terms of costs and revenues. There is widespread agreement on the need to measure CSR; however, the problem of appropriate identification, universal procedures and instruments for this measurement is empathized [2, 6, 8, 14, 16]. So far, no uniform, universally applicable methods and tools have been developed for this purpose. Therefore, the article proposes a method for evaluating engagement of an enterprise in social activities on the basis of information included in the published, publicly available, interim reports. The application of this method has been shown on the example of chosen building company listed on the Warsaw SE.

Basic Assumptions and Research Methodology For the needs of proposed corporate involvement in socially responsible activities assessment method, the viewpoint of all stakeholders, namely, contractors (suppliers/customers), employees, society, capital providers (investors/creditors) and the environment, was assumed, as well as that each evaluation criterion will be based on publicly available data published by companies in their periodic reports (mainly annual). It should be noted that the assumptions made on one hand cause that final evaluations can be treated as a comprehensive one and, on the other hand, allow for their easy generation and updating. By setting out the key issues postulated in the literature in the context of companies activities assessment towards individual stakeholder groups [5, 9, 12] and the informative value of periodic reports published by enterprises, the table below details the proposed partial evaluation criteria within the different thematic areas of their involvement in socially responsible activities. The final synthetic evaluation of given enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities is in the proposed solution assumed to obtain by the implementation of further steps as shown in Fig. 1.

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Fig. 1 Diagram of synthetic assessment obtaining process regarding enterprise’s involvement in a socially responsible activities

Taking into account the criteria highlighted in Table 1, the conversion into stimulants should be performed for several of them, which are destimulants, in accordance with the formula: xj = cj − xD j ,

(1)

where xD j —j-th variable in the form of destimulant, x j —j-th variable brought to the stimulant form and c j —a positive constant for j-th variable (its value is dependent on the value of the variable). Out of many different variable normalization methods, it was decided to use the quotient conversion formula, which bases on the maximum value of each variable in the study period [7]: zt j =

xt j , max xt j

max xt j = 0, t

(2)

t

where x tj —the absolute value of the j-th evaluation criterion in the t-th study period and ztj —normalized value of the j-th evaluation criterion in the t-th study period (from 0 to 1). In the case of criteria that have negative values, because of their unequivocally negative interpretation and lack of meaning in the scale of ‘negative’, it was decided to accept their normalized value at zero. On the other hand, in order to avoid distortions caused by deviations (too high or too low) of the particular partial criteria values, it was decided to arbitrarily determine their highest reference level (max x tj ) basing on the distribution of their values in the study sample or commonly accepted interpretation. At the same time, if as a result of the above-mentioned assumptions, the situation occurred that x tj > max x tj for the calculations should be adopted max x tj .

146 Table 1 The evaluation criteria within specific thematic areas of an enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities

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Designation and variable name

Variable form

Contractors area (suppliers/customers) x 1 —accounts receivable cycle

S

x 2 —accounts payable cycle

D

x 3 —relation of provisions for litigations and compensations to equity

D

x 4 —relation of paid and received compensations, penalties and fines to sales revenue

D

Employees area x 5 —salaries and benefits per employee

S

x 6 —relation of employees’ salaries and benefits to sales revenue

S

x 7 —relation of employees’ salaries and benefits to costs of outsourced services

S

x 8 —relative (percentage) change in employment

S

Society area x 9 —relation of transferred donations to sales revenue

S

x 10 —the effective tax rate (the ratio of tax burden to gross profit)

S

x 11 —relation of tax burden to sales revenue

S

Capital providers area (investors/creditors) x 12 —dividend yield

S

x 13 —the ratio of net debt to net income on sales and depreciation added

D

Natural environment area: x 14 —relation of energy and materials costs to sales revenue

D

S—stimulant, D—destimulant

Finally, as a basis for the calculation of synthetic measures in the different thematic areas, and then basing on them final assessment of enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities, the weighted average formula was adopted: M St =

K 

w j · zt j ,

j=1

where  wj —the weight of the j-th evaluation criterion zj , w j = 1,

(3)

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147

MS t —a synthetic measure of enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities during t-th study period. At the same time, due to the preliminary nature of proposed solution, it was decided to give equal weight values (wj = 1/K, for j = 1, 2,…, K) both for partial evaluation criteria and the assessments received in different thematic areas. Hence, de facto the evaluations received are a simple arithmetic mean in the range of values from 0 to 1. Values closer to zero indicate lack or low involvement of an enterprise in socially responsible activities, and values closer to one high involvement.

Research Results An exemplary application of the proposed method of assessment an enterprises’ involvement in socially responsible activities was carried out in relation to the Budimex S.A. Capital Group, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which is one of the leaders in the Polish construction sector. The study was conducted on the basis of consolidated annual reports published by the Group in the years 2013–2017. Following presented in the previous point action plan first, the relevant data were collected and then, basing on them, the partial evaluation criteria for the years 2012–2016 were calculated in specified thematic areas. Obtained this way, variables were next unified to the stimulant form (formula 1), normalized (formula 2), and cumulated (formula 3) to the synthetic assessments in each thematic area and finally, basing on them, the general assessment of investigated enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities (Table 2). The calculations show that the overall assessment of the Budimex’s Group involvement in socially responsible activities during the period under review has been systematically improving (from 0.5 to 0.69). Taking into account the particular thematic areas of the assessment, it can be noted that the greatest impact on presented situation had improvement of Budimex’s Group attitude towards employees (systematic increase of the score from 0.52 to 0.81), society (systematic increase from 0.24 to 0.73) and the environment (systematic rating increase from 0.29 to 0.44). At the same time, the assessments in the area of contractors and capital providers remained relatively stable during the analysed period—respectively, quite an average of 0.46/0.47 and generally high of 0.85/1.

Conclusions Presented in the article method of assessing companies’ commitment to socially responsible business is part of a dynamic in recent years’ development of methodology for measuring an enterprises’ activity in the field of CSR. In contrast to the dominant approaches based on survey research or quality criteria based on descriptive data, only quantitative variables derived from published periodic reports, including

1.00

0.44 0.69

0.33

Synthetic assessment of involvement in socially responsible activities:

0.28

0.5

10

Synthetic assessment in the area of environment:

0.26

0.5

10

0.44

0.28

0.35

0.00

x 14

0.00

1.00

0.00

Synthetic assessment in the area of capital providers:

0.00

0.00

0.05

1.00

x 13

–

0.015

1.00

0.03

0.06

–

0.73

0.04

0.08

0.00

1.00

0.06

0.01

0.19

0.001

x 12

0.01

–

Synthetic assessment in the area of society:

0.01

0.08

0.02

0.09

x 11

0.20

0.00

0.18

0.20

0.00

0.20

–

0.59 1.00

0.00

0.00

0.5 0.1

x 10

0.00

– –

0.67

x9

0.25 −0.28

0.29 −0.14

0.2

0.81

0.08

0.28

–

Synthetic assessment in the area of employees:

0.11

0.28

0.12

0.10

0.83

0.29

0.13

120

0.05

0.77

0.26

x8

0.13

–

0.05

0.5

180

x7

0.13

142.28

117.81

0.01

0.5

–

2016 0.00

0.13

138.75

133.00

0.01

0.18

41.36

180

x6

0.01

0.14

53.69

180

1.00

0.01

0.15

51.13

2012 157.03

0.47

0.01

x4

0.147

45.76

2013 203.19

0.66

0.47

0.47

0.93

1.00

0.86

0.63

0.78

1.00

0.11

0.81

1.00

0.56

0.66

1.00

0.46

0.88

0.71

0.25

0.00

2015

0.62

0.44

0.44

0.85

1.00

0.69

0.59

0.66

1.00

0.12

0.75

0.80

0.56

0.64

1.00

0.46

0.85

0.69

0.28

0.00

2014

Variables’ values after normalization

136.82

0.11

x3

2014

205.46

max xtj

x5

47.33

x2

2015

232.62

cj

Synthetic assessment in the area of contractors:

259.47

2016

Variables’ values before normalization

x1

Variable

0.54

0.33

0.33

1.00

1.00

1.00

0.34

0.42

0.48

0.12

0.56

0.00

0.58

0.66

1.00

0.47

0.87

0.72

0.30

0.00

2013

0.50

0.29

0.29

1.00

1.00

1.00

0.24

0.18

0.43

0.11

0.52

0.00

0.51

0.59

0.98

0.46

0.86

0.64

0.23

0.13

2012

Table 2 Values of the partial criteria and the final assessment results regarding involvement of the Budimex S.A. Capital Group in socially responsible activities in the years 2012–2016

148 T. L. Nawrocki and D. Szwajca

Assessing Reputation of an Enterprise as a Socially …

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in particular annual ones, have been used in it. Despite some information limitations, this approach has made it possible to select a number of quantitative indicators that relate to the activities regarding five main groups of enterprises’ stakeholders: contractors, employees, society, capital providers and environment, so it has a comprehensive character. The added advantage of the proposed solution is easy data access, ability to update them regularly and their relative objectivity (they are the result of applying generally accepted principles, e.g. IAS/IFRS), often lacking qualitative (descriptive) variables, which depend on the subjective view of the respondent or evaluator. Finally, it should be noted that CSR measurement with the use of presented method not only allows for intersectoral comparisons in static and dynamic approach but also allows for an analysis of the relationship between level of enterprise’s involvement in socially responsible activities and measures describing other areas of their activity (e.g. financial results, price multipliers or reputation assessment). Acknowledgements This research was financed from BK212/ROZ1/2017 (13/010/BK_17/0026).

References 1. Burke, R.J., Martin, G., Cooper, C.L.: Corporate Reputation. Managing Opportunities and Threats. Gower Publishing Ltd., England (2012) 2. Carroll, A.B.: A commentary and an overview of key questions on corporate social performance measurement. Bus. Soc. 39(4), 466–478 (2000) 3. Fombrun, C.J.: Building corporate reputation through CSR initiatives: evolving standards. Corp. Reput. Rev. 8(1), 7–11 (2005) 4. Haigh, M.M., Dardis, F.: The impact of apology on organization–public relationships and perceptions of corporate social responsibility. Public Relat. J. 6(1), 1–16 (2012) 5. Hermann, S.P.: Stakeholder based measuring and management of CSR and its impact on corporate reputation. In: Huber, M., O‘Gorman, S. (eds.) From Customer Retention to a Holistic Stakeholder Management System. Springer, Berlin (2008) 6. Hopkins, M.: Measurement of social corporate responsibility. Int. J. Manag. Decis. Mak. 6(3/4), 213–231 (2005) 7. Kukuła, K.: Metoda unitaryzacji zerowanej. PWN, Warszawa (2000) 8. Marquez, A., Fombrun, C.J.: Measuring corporate social responsibility. Corp. Reput. Rev. 7(4), 304–308 (2005) 9. Papania, L., Shapiro, D.M., Peloza, J.: Social impact as a measure of fit between firm activities and stakeholder expectations. Int. J. Bus. Gov. Ethics 4(1), 3–16 (2008) 10. Pfau, M., Haigh, M.M., Sims, J., Wigley, S.: The influence of corporate social responsibility campaigns on public opinion. Corp. Reput. Rev. 11(2), 145–154 (2008) 11. Porter, M.E., Kramer, M.R.: Strategy and society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harv. Bus. Rev. 84(12), 78–92 (2006) 12. Sen, S., Bhattacharya, C.B., Korschun, D.: The role of corporate social responsibility in strengthening multiple stakeholder relationships: a field experiment. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 34(2), 158–166 (2006) 13. Szwajca, D., Nawrocki, T.L.: Mo˙zliwo´sci oceny zaanga˙zowania przedsi˛ebiorstw w działania społecznie odpowiedzialne a ich polityka informacyjna w zakresie CSR. Przegl˛ad Organizacji, nr 4, 44–52 (2016)

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14. Turker, D.: Measuring corporate social responsibility: a scale development study. J. Bus. Ethics 85(4), 411–427 (2009) 15. Wang, Y., Berens, G., van Riel, C.B.M.: Competing in the capital market with a good reputation. Corp. Reput. Rev. 15(3), 198–221 (2012) 16. Wood, D.J.: Measuring corporate social performance review. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 12(1), 50–84 (2010)

Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands in the Czech Republic and Slovakia Peter Štarchonˇ and Dagmar Weberová

Abstract This article deals with the perception of domestic brands by consumers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It aims to present the results of research focused on the attitude towards domestic brands and their spontaneous awareness in the environment of the Czech Republic. These results are compared with a similar research conducted by the Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. The survey sample in the Czech Republic was made up of 1028 respondents and 1022 in Slovakia. The issue of brand building is currently intensively addressed by the professional public as well as by companies. A successful brand is a strategic asset for any business. Considering this fact, this article also provides useful information on the real attitude of the consumer public towards domestic brands. Keywords Brand · Brand awareness · Brand perception · Consumer · Marketing · Consumer attitudes

Introduction Brand awareness together with brand image is important for companies because they represent significant dimensions of brand equity [1, 5]. It is particularly brand awareness that is related to the strength of the presence of a brand in the consumer’s mind [1]. As brand awareness has a direct impact on brand equity [9], it is important to examine various types of brand associations held in consumers’ memory [14]. Taking a closer look at the definition of brand awareness, we can see it as the potential ability of a consumer to recognize and remember the name of the brand [1]. Keller [6] claims P. Štarchoˇn (B) Faculty of Management, Department of Marketing, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] D. Weberová Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Department of Marketing Communications, Tomas Bata University, Zlín, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_20

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that high-level brand awareness has three main advantages. First, awareness provides the learning advantage: the higher the level of awareness, the better for the brand because it is appropriately rooted in a consumer’s mind [16]. Second, brands that consumers are aware of tend to appear more easily in their consideration set. Third, awareness helps consumers in their purchasing decisions. Similarly to Keller, Aaker [1] also points out to three levels of brand awareness: First, the highest level of brand awareness—this means that a specific brand dominates the mind of consumers so it is the first brand that the consumer recalls when asked to name a brand within a product category. Second, unaided brand recall—this reflects awareness of a brand when it comes to mind as soon as possible its product category is mentioned [7]. Third, brand recognition which is considered as a manner of aided recall. All in all, companies cannot take brand awareness for granted, their marketing departments have to work hard in order to see their customers making appropriate and adequate brand associations that lead to brand awareness, which is considered an extremely durable and dominant asset [2]. Marketers have been studying the impact of the country of origin on consumer buying behaviour for decades. But in times of globalization, when the product is designed in one country, parts are manufactured in another one and these parts are put into final form in the third one, it is difficult for consumers to determine the origin of these products and whether they can be labelled as domestic or not. Globalization gives producers the opportunity to distribute their products to consumers around the world. This means that consumers can select goods from a wide range of products. International adaptation makes this selection more difficult and that is one of the reasons why a brand or the country of origin plays an important role when making a purchase decision.

Research Methods The article aims to evaluate the attitudes of the Czech and Slovak consumers towards domestic brands. This includes not only their spontaneous awareness, but also the associations that the term ‘domestic brand’ creates for consumers. In order to meet the goal, the results of the research, conducted at the end of 2014, were used. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data. Reliability of research results was set at 95% (the table value for this confidence level is 1.962), accuracy to 3% and the sample size was subsequently determined by 1028 respondents in the Czech Republic. The results are compared with the research conducted by Smolkova et al. [13]. Their survey sample was 1022 respondents. The structure of respondents is based on age, local affiliation, gender, income and education, and it was chosen according to quota distribution. The records from the Slovak [11] and Czech Statistical Office [3] were used as the data for the quotas. The basic set of the research attitudes towards the brand was defined as inhabitants of the Czech Republic over 18 years of age and as inhabitants of the Slovak Republic over 16 years of age. Table 1 shows the

Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands … Table 1 Structure of the Czech and Slovak research sample

153

Criteria

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Gender

Number

Number

Male

505

504

Female

523

518

Education

Number

Number

Primary education

113

75

Secondary education without graduation exam (A-levels)

284

61

Secondary education with graduation exam (A-levels)

423

497

University graduates

208

371

Age

Number

Number

18–29 years old

208

278

30–39 years old

273

228

40–49 years old

185

189

50–59 years old

160

245

60+

130

87

Source Own research

structure of respondents in both countries. The data were processed using the SPSS Text Analysis [4] and by the graphic processing system Tagxedo (2015).

Results and Discussion The research conducted in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia focused on identifying the attitudes and perception of domestic brands by the consumer public. At the same time, spontaneous awareness of domestic brands was also investigated. For this purpose, respondents were asked the following two questions: • When you hear the term ‘Czech brand’ what is it first what comes to your mind? • Give the names of at least three Czech brands.

Consumer Associations with Domestic Products It is important for marketers to investigate the associations consumers have with products, brands and their country of origin. These associations can act like brands in purchasing decisions and have the ability to create added value for consumers [15].

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Fig. 1 Consumer associations with the term ‘Czech brand’. Source Own research

For example, products marked ‘Made in Germany’ or ‘Made in France’ are generally perceived more positively than products marked ‘Made in Bangladesh’ [10]. For the purpose of examining consumer associations with the term ‘Czech brand’ or ‘Slovak brand’, the following question was asked: When you hear the term ‘Czech/Slovak brand’ what is it first what comes to your mind? The most common statement that respondents associate with the Czech brand (Fig. 1) is ‘higher price’ followed by ‘founded and owned by the Czech Republic’, then ‘poor quality’, ‘Czech food’ and ‘the support of the Czech economy’. Considering the Czech economy, it is necessary to add that the respondents most commonly mentioned the automotive industry, food, dairy products, beer and spirits. It can be stated that the initial associations of the Czech consumers are quite ambiguous. They associate Czech brands with quality but at the same time also with a higher price. Besides neutral associations, such as ‘Made in the Czech Republic’ or ‘owned by the Czech Republic’, the respondents associate Czech brands mainly with food, beer and the automotive industry. However, they also perceive Czech brands as deception and thievery. Other associations are ‘substitutes’, ‘the lowest quality for as much money as possible’ or ‘wannabe quality’. The ‘quality food’ and ‘organic products’ can be found among the positive associations. Based on the results, it can be stated that consumers in the Czech Republic are rather critical of domestic brands, especially in relation to the price. On the other hand, they realize that it is necessary to buy these brands to support the Czech economy and they are also aware of higher quality, especially of food. The most common statement that respondents associate with the Slovak brand (Fig. 2) is ‘the quality at a reasonable price’, followed by ‘quality’, ‘good quality’, ‘quality products’, ‘domestic’, ‘Made in Slovakia’ and ‘few Slovak products’. Most

Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands …

155

Fig. 2 Consumer associations with the term ‘Slovak brand’. Source Smolková et al.: Brands and Slovak customer, UK in Bratislava, pp. 161

of their initial associations are positive and relating to the high quality of Slovak brands. Statements such as ‘lack of products in shops’, ‘hardly affordable’, ‘cheap products’ and ‘high price’ can be found among the negative ones. Further associations with the Slovak brands are ‘advantageous prices’, ‘salaš (sheep hut)’, ‘Slovakia’, ‘childhood’, ‘support of economy’, ‘food’, ‘dairy products’, ‘good taste’, ‘excellent’ and ‘best quality’. Based on the results, it can be stated that Slovak consumers perceive Slovak brands in a positive way and associate them with high quality and favourable price. On the other side, they perceive negatively that there is a lack of Slovak brands in stores.

Spontaneous Awareness of Domestic Brands To examine the spontaneous awareness of Czech brands, the respondents were encouraged to give the names of at least three Czech brands. The most common brands mentioned in the survey were Škoda (34.4%), Baˇta (23.3%), Madeta (14.8%), Olma (14.5%), Kofola (12.4%), Hamé, Pilsner Urquell, Eta and Kunín, and the top ten list is closed by Opavia (see Fig. 3). Most of these brands belong to the food industry (Madeta, Olma, Kofola, Hamé, Pilsner Urquell, Kunín and Opavia), with the exception of the Škoda, Baˇta and Eta brands. Food products represent significant clusters, such as dairy products (Madeta, Olma, Kunín, Tatra, Jihoˇceské mlékarny), confectionary (Orion, Opavia), meat products (Hamé, Kostelecké uzeniny, Vodˇnanské kuˇre) and especially beer (Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser Budvar, Radegast, Zubr, Staropra-

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Fig. 3 Spontaneous awareness of Czech brands. Source Own research

men, Gambrinus, Kozel) and other traditional alcohol products (Becherovka, Jelínek) and also non-alcohol beverages (Kofola) or mineral water (Mattoni). On the other hand, the respondents mistakenly classified brands such as Adidas, Avon and Herbalife as Czech. It can be stated, however, that respondents generally demonstrate a very good knowledge of Czech brands. To examine the spontaneous awareness of Slovak brands, the respondents were encouraged to give the names of at least three Slovak brands. The most common brands mentioned in the survey were Sedita, Figaro, Rajo and Eset. They were followed by Coop Jednota, Liptov, Zlatý Bažant, Kofola, Orava, Matador, Rajec, Budiš and Slovenka (see Fig. 4). Most of the brands mentioned belong to the food industry, with the exception of Eset, which is one of the most famous ones. Other brands spontaneously named by the respondents were Orava, Matador, Coop Jednota, Slovenka, Tesla, Eta and Decodom. Some brands such as Kia (or Slovakia), Škoda, Orion, Milka and Pribináˇcek were wrongly classified as Slovak. Clustering based on sectors shows that beverage brands such as Rajec, Budiš, Kofola, Vinea, Zlatý Bažant, Šariš, Corgoˇn and Fatra form a significant cluster. Durable bread and confectionery brands such as Figaro, Sedita, Orion, Horalky and Deva can form another important cluster. Rajo, Liptovská mliekáreˇn, Tami, Zvolenský, Milsy and Levmilk were named among the dairy brands.

Spontaneous Brand Awareness and Consumer Attitudes to Brands …

157

Fig. 4 Spontaneous awareness of Slovak brands. Source Smolková et al.: Brands and Slovak customer, UK in Bratislava, pp. 161

Conclusion According to current research, it can be said that both the Czech and Slovak consumers are rather brand oriented. The economic crisis, which began in 2008, brought changes to the perception of brands by the Czech and Slovak consumers—they have become more sensitive to prices and price changes, they trust more in proven brands and the quality they represent. And although they are ready to pay more money, they expect excellent performance. The crisis also supported the attitudes of the Czechs and Slovaks towards domestic brands—these represent a traditional and proven quality for them. However, they negatively perceive a higher price that has to be paid for this quality—this is particularly visible in the Czech Republic. It has been observed that domestic brands with a long tradition are the most perceived ones by both the Czech and Slovak consumers [8]. Taking a closer look at the Czech respondents, it can be seen that their spontaneous brand awareness is mainly focused on the production of Skoda vehicles, traditional Baˇta shoes and brands of local food products, especially milk and beverages (traditional Czech brands of beer). Comparable spontaneous brand awareness can be observed among the Slovak consumers, but the brands of carmakers are not in the first place, although Slovakia has currently become a relatively important automotive producer. This is mainly due to the fact that brands of cars produced in Slovakia do not have such a long tradition as the Škoda carmaker has in the Czech Republic. Food products, such as dairy products (Rajo, Liptov, Tami, Zvolenské mliekarne) or confectionary (Figaro, Sedita), are the most perceived brands. The same applies to the brands of traditional food chains (COOP or Jednota), beer (Zlatý Bažant) and other beverages (Kofola, Vinea, Budiš).

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It can be concluded that the research results introduced above provide significant insights into spontaneous brand awareness of consumers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings can help domestic companies develop appropriate marketing strategies that would enable them to capture and sustain consumers’ desire to buy and use their brands.

References 1. Aaker, D.A.: Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of Brand Name. The Free Press, New York, NY (1991) 2. Aaker, D.A., McLoughlin, D.: Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. Wiley (2010). ISBN 978-0-470-68975-2 3. Czech Statistical Office: Socio-demographic data (2014). Available from: https://www.czso. cz/ 4. IBM Corporation: IBM SPSS statistics text analysis (data analysis software system) (2015). Available from: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/products/statistics/ 5. Keller, K.L.: Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. J. Mark. 57(1), 1–22 (1993) 6. Keller, K.L.: Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2003) 7. Ližbetinová, L., Weberová, D.: Consumer attitudes towards brands in relation to price. In: The 27th IBIMA Conference, Italy, pp. 1850–1859 (2016) 8. Nadányiová, M.: The quality mark SK and its impact on the shopping behavior of Slovak consumers. Procedia Econ. Financ. 23(2015), 1509–1514 (2015) 9. Pouromid, B., Iranzadeh, S.: The evaluation of the factors affects on the brand equity of Pars Khazar household appliances based on the vision of female consumer. Middle East J. Sci. Res. 12(8), 1050–1055 (2012) 10. Roth, K.P., Diamantopoulos, A., Montesinos, A.: Home country image, country brand equity and consumers’ product preferences: an empirical study. Manage. Int. Rev. 48(5), 577–602 (2008) 11. Slovak Statistical Office: Socio-demographic data (2014). Available from: https://www.ssu.sk/ 12. Smolková, E., Štarchoˇn, P.: Country-of-origin brand within the Slovak consumers’ preferences. In: Marketing Management, business and social aspects of business. Kosice Faculty of Business Economics in Kosice, pp. 416–426 (2013) 13. Smolková, E., et al.: Brands and Slovak Customers, 1st edn. Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava (2013) 14. Štarchoˇn, P., Juˇríková, M., Jurášková, O., Weberová, D., Kocourek, J., Ližbetinová, L., Vilˇceková, L., Kováˇrová, K.: Brands and the Czech Customer (Znaˇcky a cˇ eský zákazník), 1st edn, p. 104. VeRBum, Zlín (2015) 15. Vilˇceková, L.: Spontánna znalosˇt znaˇciek a postoje slovenských spotrebiteˇlov k znaˇckám (Brand recall and attitudes toward brands of Slovak consumers). EMI 6(1), 25–33 (2014) 16. Weberová, D., Ližbetinová, L.: Managing attitudes of consumers towards brands and quality. In: The 27th IBIMA Conference, Italy, pp. 2147–2154 (2016)

A Methodological Approach for Effective and Sustainable Strategic Planning in Independent Authorities: The Case of the Hellenic Ombudsman Athanasios Raptis, Odysseas Kopsidas, Labrini Motsia, Stefanos Polymenopoulos, Adamadia Simopoulou, Athanasios Gegkas and Charalampos Platis Abstract This paper aims to present the benefits of applying a methodological approach for the effective and sustainable strategic planning in Independent Authorities. The proposed strategic plan is to be adopted by an Independent Authority in Greece, the Ombudsman, which is a part of Hellenic Public Administration. The Bryson model of strategic public administration was selected. All the steps of strategic planning, strategy selection and strategy implementation, as well as the definition of operational objectives and how to monitor their achievement are presented in detail. The entire effort to implement the strategic planning is based on the statute 4369/2016, which, together with the statute 3230/2004, constitutes the institutional framework for the system of strategic administration and performance management in Hellenic Public Administration. However, the key reason for the decision to implement a strategic plan is the hypothesized Authority’s own willingness to improve its services and become more effective in the critical role it plays between the citizens and the public administration. An additional reason for this decision stems from the need for the Greek Ombudsman to overcome the increasing burden of the public demand for its services, as the open data analysis showed. The whole strategic plan development methodology constitutes from several models; each Bryson step may be assumed as a discrete method, as well as an implementation of crude qualitative and quantitative analysis, using SPSS and Nvivo software. Key role among the selected models has the Balanced Scorecard business model with regard to breaking down strategic goals to operational and individual goals as well as to developing measurement metrics. Furthermore, the idea of partnership is introduced; it is a methodological tool to expand the service network in terms of efficiency and may have the form of public-to-public or public-to-private. Partnership is a relatively new trend in the public management domain. The final outcome of the strategic planning methodology in the Greek Ombudsman is that according to the strategic mapping

A. Raptis (B) · O. Kopsidas · L. Motsia · S. Polymenopoulos · A. Simopoulou · A. Gegkas · C. Platis National School of Public Administration and Local Government, 211 Pireos Str, 17778 Tavros, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_21

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model, the focus should be placed on the citizen as a user of the services and the rest of the operational goals should be set in such a way as to allow and guide the Ombudsman’s services around the citizen’s needs. Keywords Strategic management · Ombudsman · Public administration · SWOT analysis · PESTEL analysis · Balanced scorecard

Introduction The foundation of the classical ombudsman is a Swedish idea, founded in 1809, and its foundation was a part of a major political reform [6]. The initial idea of the classical Swedish ombudsman was distant from the concept of a human rights institution as it was simply focusing on ensuring the rule of law in public administration [5]. However, it is accepted that the later scope of such organizations was somewhat closer to defending human rights. Since their initial emergence in Sweden in 1809, 178 NHRIs (National Human Rights Institutions) have been established in 133 countries. Depending on the typology, a number of countries have adopted both a classical ombudsman and a commission, but the majority use only one model. According to Koo and Ramirez [5], 83 of them have classical ombudsman offices, 70 have human rights commissions and 25 have human rights ombudsman offices. Among them, the European Ombudsman is a somehow new kind of NHRI, whose status and aim remain fuzzy [6]. While it is typically a parliamentary organization, aimed to strengthen the control of EU institutions, on the other hand, the resulting profile of this organ resembles that of a court. A commonly accepted definition of such NRIs (or “agents” among others) refers to “government-sponsored organs whose functions are specifically defined in terms of the promotion and protection of human rights” [5]. The total number of complaints an Ombudsman receives varies from hundreds to thousands annually. This variation depends not only on the demographic scale of the nation but mainly on the degree of the general public visibility and awareness of the institution in each country [5]. Essentially, demands for increased visibility and awareness as well as response in a proper manner combined with the necessity for accountability lead to the strategic management necessity (Fig. 1). The Greek Ombudsman was established by Law 2477/1997 (1–5) and started operating on October 1, 1998. He works as a “guardian of rights in the public and private sector, with particular emphasis on monitoring and promoting the application of the principle equal treatment, rights of the child and vulnerable groups” (Law 2477). As an Independent Authority, it was constitutionally enshrined in the revision of the Constitution in 2001 (Articles 101A and 103§9). The issues of organization, staffing and operation of the Authority are stipulated in the above founding law, in Law 3051/2002, in Law 3094/2003 (Articles 1–7) and in the Regulation of Operation (PD 273/1999), as amended and in force. This initial institutional framework was enriched with newer laws, which strengthened the Ombudsman with a wide range

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Fig. 1 Results from the Nvivo software. Although the fact that the language of the analyzed documents mainly are written in the Greeks, the above picture of an text search tree is given as a typical example of the tools and methods used in our analysis. In the above tree, the whole needing for actions (according to Ombudsman) are collected

of powers. In addition to the Authority’s legislative framework, the institutional framework for the implementation of the “Governance through Targets” System, which is another “mandate” and constitutive reason for the development of the original agreement, as mentioned in paragraph 1 (Fig. 2). Strategic management is usually referred to as the alignment of internal capabilities with external demands [4]. This may take the form of plans, patterns, positions, perspectives, and plots [9]. According to Williamson [12], “strategy is now considered a field that makes it possible for the leaders of public and private organizations to take options on the future.” Strategic management was initially invented and implemented in order to deal with the “industrial dynamic” marked by “competitive behavior” [11]. As a topic of knowledge, strategic management has been originated, taught, and implemented for over half a century. However, it still remains a lack of consensus about the effectiveness of strategic management in public administrations [8]. Dealing with the complexity of public governance procedures means that governments must abandon the widely held practice that the strategy of public domain services must be limited to viewing the administrative body as a simple naïve machine

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Fig. 2 Results from the regression analysis. Dependent variable selected to be the public demand for the ombudsman services over time. Although it seems to be seasonality, in the background, there is a constant linear increasing trend of the demand for the ombudsman services

that implements public policies [1]. In the public domain, the strategic management implementation is determined by three powers: the power of choice, the power of law, and the power of ways and means [7]. In recent years, many countries have seen multiple reforms in the public domain with varying priorities. The, so-called, New Public Management (NPM) reforms have been a significant influence in various sectors of the public domain [3]. The most significant and key reforms are [10] mainly the creation of “Independent Authorities” (IA). NPM reformation breaks the large vertically integrated public bureaucracies into smaller and more manageable services and delivery-orientated subunits [10]. The ultimate goal is to create highly autonomous public organizations with well-defined strategy and narrow tasks with more “strategic space” in which to operate [10].

Purpose of the Study This research project aims to propose a method for developing a Strategic Plan to be adopted by the Independent Authority of the Ombudsman (hereinafter “Ombudsman”). For the development of this Strategic Plan, we applied Bryson’s Strategic Management Model for Public Institutions (Bryson 1988, 1), due to Ombudsman being an element of Public Administration. According to this model, strategic management in public organizations contains ten essential steps. These steps, such as the implementation in the ombudsman organization, described in the methodology

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section. Furthermore, we are aiming to remark the need of data analysis in the whole strategic planning procedure. In this work, we have focused on the identification of operational objectives and a method of monitoring their achievement.

Methodology Many of the used methods (each Bryson step may be assumed as a discrete method) are data driven. The data set used constitutes from open data available in the official page of Greek Ombudsman, such as the annual reports. In addition, several other open sources used, such as macroeconomic reports in order to implement the pestle analysis. In order to improve the situational awareness of the organization, qualitative and quantitative analyses are performed. The quantitative analysis is implemented using SPSS v.24, while the qualitative analysis is (context analysis) performed using the Nvivo v.10 software. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were implemented in this study. The Nvivo qualitative analysis software were used, which among other uses certain heuristic statistical algorithms in the texts, whom we implemented the Ombudsman’s report. From the peculiar needs, analysis (text search) resulted in interesting conclusions about necessary interventions by third parties seems virtually no mention of what should be done by the Ombudsman in processes revision level, administration, objectives. Step1: Developing an Initial Agreement. It is essential that there is a consensus among the Ombudsman leadership toward a formulation of a strategic plan. Step 2: Recognition and Clarification of Orders from “Above”. The basis of the strategic planning application regarding the Ombudsman is the recent corresponding law. Step 3: Development and Clarification of Mission and Values. This step includes Stakeholders Analysis, Mission, Vision, and Values declaration. Key to the development of the mission of the organization is the analysis of interactions, i.e., all stakeholders that interact to form a network policy (Sabatier P.A., 1987). They contain those affected by the operation of the organization, those who think they are affected, and those who influence him. Some of these stakeholders are listed below: The staff of the Ombudsman, the citizens who could appeal to the Ombudsman, third-country nationals who are (temporarily or permanently) in the country, State Agencies, Ministries, Local Authorities, OCA, Legal Entities, etc.), NGOs, utilities companies, etc. The mission of the Ombudsman set as follows: “The mediation between citizens and public services, local authorities, legal entities and public utilities to protect citizens’ rights, the fight against maladministration and the observance of legality.” The vision of the Ombudsman is defined as “The sustainable coexistence between Citizens and Public Administration.” In terms of values, the IOA (International Ombudsman Association) suggests that all Ombudsmen including the Greek one are committed to adopting the following

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four fundamental values: Independence, Neutrality and impartiality, Confidentiality, and Informality. Step 4: Analysis of the Environment. This step concerns the external and the internal environment analyses. The external environment of the Ombudsman is analyzed using the PESTEL analysis tool. Statistical analysis and qualitative analysis were used in order to derive crucial findings for such internal and external environment. Data analysis resulting from the analysis of the external and internal environment using the SWOT environment analysis tool are classified into four major categories, as shown in Appendix C: Interior environment (Strengths, Weaknesses) and external environment (Opportunities, Threats). Step 5: Identification of Strategic Issues. The results of the above analyses are then used to determine the organization’s strategic issues. For their emergence, the “Direct approach” (Bryson 2004) method was applied. According to this method, the strategic issues arise from the analysis of the mission (Step 2), the commands from above (Step 3), and the PESTEL and SWOT analyses (Step 4). The “culture” of an organization (organizational culture) also strongly influences what strategic issues will be placed in the agenda and which will not. The Strategic Issues according to Bryson are those which stem from the application of the “do nothing scenario” and have an impact on an organization and, most importantly, the organization can do something to address them and has more than one option for this. Step 6: Strategy Formulation and Development Using Balanced Scorecard. At this stage, the organization’s strategy is emerged. From the treatment of strategic issues, the strategic objectives are identified and ultimately operational objectives are emerged, which are further broken down to functional and personal goals. For this purpose, Bryson’s “5-step process” model was used [2]. By applying the five-step process, the following Strategic Objectives for the Ombudsman are achieved: Better quality service to citizens, embarking of the organization toward new fields of action, enhancement of public image/visibility of the Ombudsman, boost in effectiveness, and efficiency of the Ombudsman’s actions. In the case of public institutions such as the Ombudsman, the focus is placed on the citizen and the corresponding services and other dimensions are set so as to track the quality of service. Step 7: Reviewing and Adopting the Strategy. In formulating the Ombudsman’s strategy, support from the political leadership is of the outmost importance. This presupposes that necessary communication processes of the organization’s vision are required in order for the right conditions for developing the required synergies to be created (especially with the Ministry of Interior). Such actions are included in Dimension 4 “External Actions and Partnerships”. Step 8: Description of the Future Image of the Organization. The vision for the success of the organization is diffused inside the Ombudsman, namely, its staff. The staff is informed of its role in the strategic plan, as well as what will be asked in the future (e.g., through the development of its Code of Conduct). Step 9: Development of Effective Application Processes. For the implementation of the strategic and operational plan, the organization will develop a detailed annual work program for each of the 3 years for 2018–2020. This program will

External actions and collaborations

Human resources

Internal processes

X X

Increasing Ombudsman’s visibility (horizontally)

Increasing Ombudsman’s visibility (vertically)

X

Increase staff participation in the organization’s change process

X

Improving scientific staff efficiency X

X

Redistribution—reducing operating costs

Training for staff frontline staff

X

X

Optimization of Ombudsman’s internal processes

Improving frontline services

X

X

X

Create a one-stop shop Ombudsman service in selected ADS throughout the country

Value-added services

1. Improve quality services to citizens

Strategic objectives

Improving cooperation between Ombudsman and Administration

Operational objectives

Dimensions

X

X

X

X

X

X

2. Investigate extension of Ombudsman’s powers and improve status/public image of Ombudsman

Table 1 Strategic and operating objectives in relation with the four dimensions of the balanced scorecard

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

3. Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Ombudsman’s actions

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Operational objective

Creating a “one-stop-shop” Ombudsman services in selected ADS throughout the country for preventive information23 , and citizens’ complaints collection

Improving level civil service

Improving cooperation Ombudsman & Administration

Improving frontline services

S/

1

2

3

4

% reporting except competence Ombudsman

% of reasonable complaints25 with successful resolution with actions of the Ombudsman

Citizens’ satisfaction degree (by completing the relevant form/questionnaire) % complaints on all reports

% Partner CSC (which would provide Ombudsman services) regions

Indicator

48%

83%

–

–

Current value

Table 2 Balanced scorecards dimension 1 (output). Provided value-added services

25%

90%

Rating > 80% 1.0 was found in 58.1% of dentists. This indicates a relative imbalance between high efforts and low rewards at work in the majority of the dentists. Table 1 presents the descriptive elements of ERI dimensions. Dentists demonstrate an imbalance between effort and reward, and therefore have an increased risk of adverse health effects. In addition, researches have revealed that dentists often suffer from stress or even depression [12], while similar or even more intense phenomena have been observed at the stage of dental education [2, 11].

Table 1 Descriptive elements of ERI dimensions Effort (6–24)

Reward (11–44)

Overcommitment (6–24)

Mean

162,417

279,720

137,034

Standard deviation

332,041

523,857

318,466

25

140,000

250,000

120,000

50

160,000

280,000

140,000

75

180,000

320,000

160,000

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Conclusions The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the occupational stress of non-hospital Greek NHS dentists, during the current economic crisis. Human resources are influenced by the wage cut downs, the understaffing, the increase in workload, the lack of materials, infrastructure, and professional perspective, as well as the insecurity about future developments. Definitely, the immense fiscal adaptation had left a mark in the general downgrading of the Greek NHS. However, the negative effects are related also to the malignancies of the Greek NHS (poor organization, lack of coordination and control, lack of motivation, non-meritocratic options, etc.), as well as to the degradation of the role of the primary health care within the Greek NHS. Further reductions in dental personnel’s salaries, combined with the ongoing aggravation of understaffing and curtailment in funding, consist of significant factors that will increase the sense of insecurity and dissatisfaction. The Ministry of Health could achieve reformation of the Public Primary Healthcare System and the modification of the working environment aiming at a more advantageous field for the health professional to operate in by evaluating these elements. The task to reach better conditions for the NHS Dental Care System would also restore the dentists’ prestige in the public health services. The above results indicate that continuous assessment and intervention to improve working conditions and professional prospects for Greek NHS dentists are required [10]. In this respect, it would be important for the Greek Government to provide incentives for human resources: performance-based moral and additional material rewards, as well as a framework that ensures fairness, objectivity, and transparency in health personnel management. Also, findings indicate the necessity of interventions to improve the infrastructure, structure, effectiveness, and efficiency of the Greek NHS. Last but not least, policies to ensure the improvement and viability of the Greek NHS Primary Healthcare System, as well as, the safe preservation of its public character would also be important. Further research and monitoring are required. The results of this survey demonstrate reduced professional satisfaction and increased occupational stress within the group of the Greek NHS non-hospital Dentists as a result of the economic crisis and the austerity policies. Interventions aim to organize the procedure of providing care, better dental personnel’s allocation accompanied with recruitment, improvement of infrastructure, and arrangement of speed-educational programs. So, they are significant in order to ameliorate the situation ([10, 19]). In mid-term bases, the introduction of integrated system of choice, continuing professional development, assessment, personnel’s reward policy, and the configuration of a secure working environment, without sudden and unilateral choices.

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References 1. Bakker, A.B., Killmer, C.H., Siegrist, J., Schaufeli, W.B.: Effort–reward imbalance and burnout among nurses. J. Adv. Nurs. 31, 884–891 (2000) 2. Divaris, K., Polychronopoulou, A., Taoufik, K., Katsaros, C., Eliades, T.: Stress and burnout in postgraduate dental education. Eur. J. Dent. Educ. 16, 35–42 (2012) 3. EC: Quality in and equality of access to healthcare services. Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. European Commission, Brussels (2008) 4. Economou, C., Kaitelidou, D., Kentikelenis, A., Sissouras, A., Maresso, A.: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Health System and Health in Greece. World Health Organization, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014) 5. Kitsios, F., Papadopoulos, T., Angelopoulos, S.: A roadmap to the introduction of pervasive Information Systems in healthcare. Int. J. Adv. Pervasive Ubiquitous Comput. 2, 21–32 (2010) 6. Markantonatou, M.: State –imposed austerity in Greece. Glob. Dialogue 6, 10–11 (2016) 7. Marmot, M.: Fair Society, Healthy Lives. Marmot Review. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, UCL Institute of Health Equity, London (2010) 8. Marmot, M., Ryff, C.D., Bumpass, L.L., Shipley, M., Marks, N.F.: Social inequalities in health: next questions and converging evidence. Soc. Sci. Med. 44, 901–910 (1997) 9. Marmot, M.G., Shipley, M.J., Rose, G.: Inequalities in death-specific explanations of a general pattern. Lancet 1(8384), 1003–1006 (1984) 10. Msaouel, P., Keramaris, N.C., Apostolopoulos, A.P., Syrmos, N., Kappos, T., Tasoulis, A., Tripodaki, E.S., Kagiampaki, E., Lekkas, I., Siegrist, J.: The Effort–reward imbalance questionnaire in Greek: translation, validation and psychometric properties in health professionals. J. Occup. Health 54, 119–130 (2012) 11. Polychronopoulou, A., Divaris, K.: Dental students’ perceived sources of stress: a multi-country study. J. Dent. Educ. 73, 631–639 (2009) 12. Pouradeli, S., Shahravan, A., Eskandarizdeh, A., Rafie, F., Hashemipour, M.A.: Occupational stress and coping behaviours among dentists in Kerman. Iran. Sultan Qaboos Univ. Med. J. 16, e341–e346 (2016) 13. Robolis, S.: Economic Crisis and Welfare State. Epikentro, Athens (2012). (in Greek) 14. Satoh, M., Watanabe, I., Asakura, K.: Occupational commitment and job satisfaction mediate Effort–reward imbalance and the intention to continue nursing. Jpn. J. Nurs. Sci. 14, 49–60 (2017) 15. Siegrist, J., Wege, N., Pühlhofer, F., Wahrendorf, M.: A short generic measure of work stress in the era of globalization: Effort–reward imbalance. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health 82, 1005–1013 (2009) 16. Siegrist, J., Starke, D., Chandola, T., Godin, I., Marmot, M., Niedhammer, I., Peter, R.: The measurement of effort–reward imbalance at work: European comparisons. Soc. Sci. Med. 58, 1483–1499 (2004) 17. Siegrist, J.: Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 1, 27–41 (1996) 18. Sindakis, S., Kitsios, F.: Entrepreneurial dynamics and patient involvement in service innovation: developing a model to promote growth and sustainability in mental health care. J. Knowl. Econ. 7, 545–564 (2016) 19. Syngelakis, A.I., Koletsi – Kounari, H.: Dental care in Greece of the economic crisis. Stomatologia 71, 9–19 (2014). (in Greek) 20. WHO: The Financial Crisis and Global Health Report of a High-Level Consultation. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland (2009)

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Marketing in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos and Panagiotis Reklitis

Abstract This research paper analyzes the strategic use of marketing in search engines, aiming at the business success of high technology companies. Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of online marketing. Businesses in this way promote their website in order to increase their visibility in search engine results and hence in user searches. The SEM is comprised of three processes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), and Social Media Advertising. Keywords Dynamic simulation modeling · Marketing · SEM · SEO · IT companies

Introduction The Search Engine Optimization process (SEO) in search engines is necessary to show a business at the top of the results [1]. An enterprise needs to create an attractive environment so that its search in search engines is of interest. A key to this achievement is the right choice of the keywords on its website. The more generalized the meaning of these words are, the more likely it is to have the expected result. This tactic makes it easier to find the site and thus improve its ranking in the search engine list. Pay Per Click (PPC) is one of the most popular forms of online advertising [2]. It is an option to allow ads to show on private sites and search results. It is, therefore, an advertising model that enables dealers to pay only when their ad is “clicked” by an online user. Thus, websites rank top in the list of results.

D. P. Sakas (B) · D. K. Nasiopoulos Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Reklitis Department of Logistics Management, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Psachna, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_27

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The Social Media Advertising process is equally important for the promotion of business products/services [3]. Customers interact with each other. Therefore, it is a powerful way for businesses to understand and approach the real needs of users.

How SEM Works Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a way of targeted advertising on the Internet. SEM is partly the marketing of a website through paid Cost Per Click (CPC) or Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing plan [4, 5]. The goal of the site is to present an attractive and “friendly” search engine profile. Therefore, the ultimate goal is to achieve high ranking of a website. Thus, anyone interested in one keyword has the choice of the most popular web pages. As a result, the website traffic to which the user enters and the location in search results increases (Picture 1). Each search engine has a different mode of operation in terms of account creation. Since Google represents the largest market share, it is useful to start one’s campaigns from there [6]. Then, the next step is to assign a value for each click. In other words, depending on how much money the business bets for a click, the higher it will be on the search engine list. However, a dominant factor in high-end positioning partly determines the relevance of research results, but also a high incidence of clicks on past visitors’ sponsored advertising.

Picture 1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q= cache, http://www.quantspire.com/search-engine-marketing-ppc-services.php&gws_rd=cr&dcr= 0&ei=5vx1WunjAsTfgAb1_auQDA)

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In the early stages of PPC, businesses were hiring people to increase their website traffic. Through this process, the site’s position occupied a higher position [7]. Now, this is unfeasible because search engines control IP addresses.

SEM Strategies SEM consists of the combination of SEO, PPC and Social Media Advertising [8]. Initially, SEO is related to actions taken on the content of a website, with the ultimate goal of high ranking in search engine results. In addition, it is considered a method of promoting a website. Thus, it is obviously part of the SEM process. For each business, SEO is necessary. More specifically, it is the way in which search engines index the web pages that the user is looking for. Depending on how well the business SEO is organized, its position on the search engine results pages will also be determined. Therefore, customers locate the business website by searching for the desired keywords. Success is considered if the site is ranked highly, if not first, then at least on the first page of the results. Ensuring that the site appears on this first page, referred to as organic listing or organic search, is about optimizing it [1]. Internet dissemination has significantly altered the business models of the advertising industry. The method of selling advertising space on websites is one of the most impressive and profitable innovations. More specifically, with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, the business gives profit to publishers (search engines) depending on the number of users’ clicks and the number of visits to the ad. Therefore, this method is beneficial to the business because it is only charged when users visit this website. By combining the above two forms of online marketing, each business acquires a significant advantage over its competitors [9]. The impact of communications between consumers and businesses has increased significantly in the market. Social Media Marketing is a marketing practice that is used to gain publicity and traffic through social media sources and websites. More in detail, social media is an element of product and service promotion. They offer the provision to consumers of networking platforms and the use of social media tools and advertising. Companies are now more cautious in their advertising. They are mainly focused on preventing consumer responsiveness and avoiding unpredictable shortcomings. Using social networking sites, an enterprise has the potential to reach a very large number of potential low-budget customers [10]. The low cost compared to traditional advertising media is another important factor for choosing Social Media Marketing (SMM) to promote its business.

SEM Simulation Modeling The simulation model implemented is the following (Picture 2):

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Picture 2. Search engine marketing simulation model

Initially, the value of a population in the population stock is given, where a random percentage of potential users are looking for the business website. Potential users are defined by the dynamic users parameter and their value is changed through the Slider Dynamic Users slider. Through the P2US stream, this random percentage of potential users is transferred to the user search pool. Then, from the inventory, user search transfers a percentage of users to the Found company stock through the US2FC stream and the remaining percentage in the Not_Found_company stock through the US2NFC stream. This percentage is determined in both cases by the product of potential users and the found strength parameter. The stock representing the percentage of users that they found and bought from the company’s website is Buy From Company. The flow that represents this function is F2BFC, which is also associated with the buy strength parameter. This parameter specifies the users who found the company’s website and repaired it. Therefore, after the purchase of a product, they also end up in the original stock population. There may be a percentage of users who, while searching for and finding the company’s website, does not want to buy a product at all. This percentage is determined through the FC2P stream and from the found company inventory is in the stock population. Company resources are divided into six stocks to determine the company’s costs. Thus, the model shares the optimal number of resources according to the company’s existing budget, which is necessary for the proper operation of these stocks [11].

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This sharing is represented by streams in stocks Social_Media, Advertise, Buy_seo, Pay_for_clicks, Buy_keywords, and Responsibles_for_Media. The flows are CR2SM, CR2AS, CR2BS, CR2PPC, CR2BK, and CR2RFM, respectively. The CR2PFC feed value is then determined by the cost of each click (cost_per_clicks parameter) and the percentage of users who searched for the business affected by promotional resources (found_strength). At the same time, the flow transferred resources from the CompanyResources inventory to the Buy_Keywords stock is given by the parameter num_per_keys. This parameter calculates the cost value of the selected keywords. Finally, the transfer of resources from the CompanyResources stock to the Responsibles_for_Media stock is via the CR2RFM stream. The price of this flow calculates the total rental cost that the business invests for the media. The number of managers is defined by the NumOfManagers parameter of Slidernom (range 0–10). Subsequently, resources are transferred from these six stocks to the TotalCost inventory, where the company’s total investment is calculated to serve it on search engines. In addition, the company’s return to the original CompanyResources is returned. The gain is calculated in the M2CR flow. Its price is the product of the percentage of users where they buy from the business page (BuyFromCompany stock) and an estimated cost of each market (Profit_per_sale). However, this feed transfers resources from the purchase inventory, which represents the total profit of the business from the market. Finally, the satisfaction parameter calculates the company’s profit percentage after its investments.

Results This simulation model can be applied to any business and study the evolution of resources over time [12–14]. At the same time, the proportion of users using search engines is observed. They are looking for the website of a business through some keywords and whether they are making a purchase or not. Therefore, in this chapter, the corresponding graphs of the SEM model are presented. The model extracts two graphs for the viability of the business and one for the case of bankruptcy. In addition, the corresponding graphs of the number of users are listed. Graph 1 shows the state of resources. More specifically, the CompanyResources stock (pink line) contains the initial investment of corporate resources. As can be seen in the chart, as long as the investment is made, the company gives resources in the first few months. Then, the first profits start from the actions invested in promoting the site. Thus, the pink line grows clearly on the chart. The process of dynamic simulation as described, results in profit. Graph 2 shows the status of the model results. The price of profit depends on the product of the price of the profit gained by the business and each user who makes a purchase. As seen in the initial stage, the profits are small and, with the passage of time, they

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Graph 1. Business success

Graph 2. Business success with greater investment in the media

increase, until they finally stabilize with the allocated budget. Then, it gives profits to the company. Graph 3 shows the bankruptcy of the business. After a thorough study, it turns out that the fewer users buy something from the site, the lower the profit will be. This means that as the remaining factors grow, the company’s profit will decrease as users contribute to the success of the business (Graphs 4 and 5 and Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4). The improvements offered by the model are as follows: • Decide the number of keywords that the company will invest, depending on the resources it has. • Calculate and optimize the expected profit according to the number of users who buy products.

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic … Graph 3. Business failure

Graph 4. User percentages during success

Graph 5. User percentages during failure

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Table 1 Resource values during profit Months

CompanyResources

Satisfaction

Profit

Advertise

0

100.000,00

100.000,00

0,00

0,00

1

97.770,20

97.007,21

6,86

286,38

2

95.019,03

92.317,32

247,56

421,45

3

92.175,20

86.714,62

1.366,51

471,12

4

90.347,58

81.335,37

3.969,09

489,38

5

91.224,77

77.861,69

8.387,35

496,10

6

96.683,13

78.178,03

14.720,38

498,56

7

108.673,46

84.262,18

22.827,64

499,47

8

128.846,70

97.800,56

32.488,89

499,81

9

158.726,32

120.329,10

43.670,50

499,93

10

199.853,19

153.392,86

56.395,45

499,97

11

253.768,66

198.538,47

70.652,24

499,99

12

321.983,51

257.286,21

86.361,28

500,00

Advertise

Table 2 Resource prices at a higher profit Months

CompanyResources

Satisfaction

Profit

0

100.000,00

100.000,00

0

0

1

96.132,46

94.838,96

9,71

400,94

2

91.254,08

86.545,88

355,26

590,04

3

86.109,56

76.570,66

2.012,07

659,57

4

82.354,57

66.638,68

6.046,87

685,13

5

82.763,57

59.483,74

13.286,76

694,53

6

90.775,74

58.504,28

24.320,86

697,99

7

110.424,02

67.716,68

39.396,45

699,26

8

145.717,21

91.126,25

58.627,84

699,73

9

200.946,65

132.979,20

82.481,81

699,9

10

280.986,44

198.087,63

111.580,66

699,96

11

391.314,02

291.866,64

146.536,01

699,99

12

537.998,68

420.329,22

187.859,72

700

• Decide whether or not to take some (specific) actions (the actions that depend on the number of resources). It decides dynamically whether to strategically invest in one action or no.

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic …

225

Table 3 Expected profit CompanyResources

CompanyResources2

Expected profit (%)

100.000,00

100.000,00

0,00

97.770,20

96.132,46

−1,68

95.019,03

91.254,08

−3,96

92.175,20

86.109,56

−6,58

90.347,58

82.354,57

−8,85

91.224,77

82.763,57

−9,28

96.683,13

90.775,74

−6,11

108.673,46

110.424,02

1,61

128.846,70

145.717,21

13,09

158.726,32

200.946,65

26,60

199.853,19

280.986,44

40,60

253.768,66

391.314,02

54,20

321.983,51

537.998,68

67,09

Table 4 User percentages during profit Months

User search

Not found company

Buy from company

0

0

0

0

1

5185,062231

134,6880733

20,1667584

2

11818,75118

5850,32856

722,1610994

3

14159,65337

10080,48827

517,4893075

4

14894,42999

12821,39741

591,7054391

5

15333,94084

13785,84639

599,5987663

6

14936,03483

14282,23718

592,5893123

7

15099,09674

14386,15039

597,2939166

8

15224,61243

14481,25382

596,9014686

9

15286,87384

14580,17316

597,3036379

10

15422,94105

14641,13097

597,6986378

11

15381,89637

14689,51091

597,6635112

12

15357,20614

14756,34133

598,2030012

13

15371,90679

14688,81482

597,3214118

226

D. P. Sakas et al.

References 1. Zuze, H., Weideman, M.: Keyword stuffing and the big three search engines. Online Inf. Rev. 37(2), 268–286 (2013) 2. Kritzinger, W.T., Weideman, M.: Search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing strategies. J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer. 23(3), 273–286 (2013) 3. Hensel, K., Deis, M.H.: Using social media to increase advertising and improve marketing. Entrep. Exec. 15, 87 (2010) 4. Kelley, L., Sheehan, K., Jugenheimer, D.W.: Advertising Media Planning: A Brand Management Approach. Routledge (2015) 5. Vaughan, L.: Discovering business information from search engine query data. Online Inf. Rev. 38(4), 562–574 (2014) 6. Weller, B., Calcott, L.: AdWords in depth. In: The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, pp. 21–37. Apress, Berkeley, CA (2012) 7. Martín-Santana, J.D., Beerli-Palacio, A.: The effectiveness of web ads: rectangle vs contextual banners. Online Inf. Rev. 36(3), 420–441 (2012) 8. Luh, C.-J., Yang, S.-A., Huang, T.-L.D.: Estimating Google’s search engine ranking function from a search engine optimization perspective. Online Inf. Rev. 40(2), 239–255 (2016) 9. David Lichtenthal, J., Iyer, G.R., Busch, P.S., Tellefsen, T.: We are all business marketers now. J. Bus. Ind. Mark. 21(7), 414–421 (2006) 10. Meredith, L.: Multiple marketing plans: an analytical template. J. Bus. Ind. Mark. 31(4), 519–530 (2016) 11. Kutsikos, K., Mentzas, G.: A service portfolio model for value creation in networked enterprise systems. In: Cezon, M., Wolfsthal, Y. (eds.) Towards A Service-Based Internet. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 101–109. Springer, Heidelberg (2011) 12. Bithas, G., Kutsikos, K., Sakas, D.P., Konstantopoulos, N.: Business transformation through service science: the road ahead. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 175, 439–446 (2015) 13. Kutsikos, K., Konstantopoulos, N., Sakas, D., Verginadis, Y.: Developing and managing digital service ecosystems: a service science viewpoint. J. Syst. Inf. Technol. 16(3), 233–248 (2014) 14. Sakas, D., Kutsikos, K.: An adaptable decision making model for sustainable enterprise interoperability. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 148, 611–618 (2014)

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic Use of Social Media Networks in Search Engines for the Business Success of High Technology Companies Damianos P. Sakas, Dimitrios K. Nasiopoulos and Panagiotis Reklitis

Abstract In this research paper, we will analyze how and why the integration of Social Media into the market and sales with the goal of the business success of IT companies is necessary. Nowadays, there is a substantial shift in power from the recent heavy industries that dominated the business of marketing, public relations, advertising, the media market (newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television, and advertising boards) to the users of the Internet who can communicate, update, control, compare, recommend, comment on products, services, and companies. We are informed by Social Media, which is also being updated by us. Keywords Dynamic simulation modeling · Marketing · Social media · IT companies

Introduction The increasing power of Social Media is confirmed by recent measurements showing a steady increase in the number of Social Media users [1]. Main reasons for the impressive increase of social media users are the ability to avoid corporate advertising, free choice in updating from sources we trust. It is also possible for users of Social Media to install tools freely or at low cost. So, our everyday life is now sealed by the unprecedented speed of “information” running among millions of Social Media users. Big media like CNN, ABC, New York Times, etc. are gradually being displaced by the Internet, blogs, search engines, Facebook conversations, and tweets. The goal of this research work is to analyze Social Media in search engines [2]. In addition, all the efforts of an entrepreneur will be examined, the investment returns, D. P. Sakas (B) · D. K. Nasiopoulos Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Reklitis Department of Logistics Management, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Psachna, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_28

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the cost of the customers, and the overall effectiveness of customer communication will be determined [3]. For the emergence of a business, the main purpose is to create a business plan that ultimately aims at understanding the customer, the costs, weaknesses, and potential [4]. By understanding the above, the integration of Social Media marketing can be properly done. Of particular importance is the communication strategy. Analyzing each user group determines what each person can offer and who is his personality. The executives of the company must be authentic and honest toward the customer so that they can build an effective communication and a subsequent relationship of trust between them [5]. Thus, through this relationship, the client creates the need not only to buy a product but also to create a continuous collaboration.

Social Media As a high-tech company, it is necessary to have a profile on all social networks that are widespread. The most well known are as follows: • • • • •

Google+—the fastest growing network in the US, LinkedIn—professional network, MySpace—mainly entertainment network, Ning—usually with a specialized subject or interest, and Plaxo—a big replacement for Facebook.

In this category, an interaction strategy should also be developed. The company needs to understand the culture and operation of each network and “play” with it [6]. It goes without saying that the questions should be answered here: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Essentially, the main job of the responsible person is to understand the vocabulary of the corresponding network (profile, group, fanpage, in-mail, questions, etc.) so that he can participate in anything that can benefit the company.

The Main Step of the Strategy Social networking tools are not an autonomous set of tools that need to be addressed as a separate strategy. It needs to be incorporated. We often wonder, “Should my company do social media marketing?” or “How Much Should My Company Spend in Social Media Marketing?” [7].

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We now need to develop a comprehensive strategy that includes existing conventional marketing and new digital tools. Each company must create and then implement its own strategy. So far, we have referred to the “Analysis of the existing media” and the “Trinity of Social Media”. Once the inefficient, low-return (ROI) information medium is recorded, the third step concerns the combination of these two steps. Since Social Media do not treat them as an autonomous set of tools, we need to integrate them to complete the marketing strategy [8]. When developing the integrated marketing strategy, we need to identify the best Social Media for each demographic grouping [9]. Sometimes they concern conventional marketing tools such as RV sale to retirees. When the integrated marketing strategy is developed, then the best media for each demographic group will be identified either through conventional or Social Media. In addition, for the publication of each message, depending on the Social Media, it needs different management. Once the company’s followers are divided into these groups, each requires its own handling. A publication in the newspaper will be significantly different from that on Twitter or the company’s blog, even if it is addressed to the same group of people. Also, a publication approaches differently each age group of readers.

Simulation Modeling The model that has been implemented is the following (Picture 1):

Picture 1 Social media simulation modeling

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Initially, the value of a population of people in the All_population pool is given where through AP2U flows a percentage of the users stock. This percentage of people is affected by the word_of_mouth parameter in conjunction with the login_users inventory, i.e., who is talking about the business website, and by the pay_for_Advs parameter. How much advertising will yield is determined by the percentage%. Potential users are defined by the Total_Users parameter and their value is changed through the SliderTotalUsers slider. Through the U2LU stream, this random percentage of potential users is transferred to the login_users inventory. Next, from login_users, a percentage of users is transferred to the Write_Articles_Upload inventory via the LU2WAU stream and the remaining percentage in the Read_and_Show stock through the LU2RAS flow. Then, a random percentage of the Write_Articles_Upload stock ends up in the Upload_Photos_Files stock through the WAU2UPF stream and the remaining percentage in the Write_Articles stock through the WAU2WA stream. The stock representing users who want to stay on the business website is Stay_Users. Users ending here from Upload_photo_Files stock through the UPF2SU stream, users from the Write_Articles stock through the WA2SU stream, and users from the Read_and_Show stock through the RAS2SU stream. Perhaps by users who are active on the business website, a reasonable rate is to want to leave the site and another percentage wants to stay with the choice for different actions. For staying, users will be transferred from the Stay_Users stock to the login_users stock via the SU2LU stream. But, if they want to leave the site they will be transferred from the Stay_Users stock to the logout stock. Users who leave will end up in stock users, that is, to users that make up the total population. The random rate that determines users who want to stay on the site and users who want to exit is based on the logouts parameter. Initially, company resources are shared across the three inventories to determine the company’s costs. This sharing is represented through Employees, Support, and Advertise stocks. The flows are CR2E, CR2S, and CR2A, respectively. Their values are determined by one parameter and one slider. Then, the CR2E flow value is determined by the multiplication of the salary price of the employee and the number of employees. At the same time, the flow that transfers resources from the Company_Resources stock to the Support stock is given by the pay_for_support parameter. Finally, transferring resources from Stock Company_Resources to the Advertise inventory is through the CR2A feed. The value of this stream calculates how much advertising costs and this is determined by the pay_for_Advs parameter. Additionally, Company_Resources returns the company’s profit. The gain is calculated in the flow MCR2P. Its value is the product of a user’s revenue (Profit_per_user_in parameter) and the number of users who are logged in (from Stock_Articles_Upload + Read_and_Show). However, this feed transfers resources from the Market_CR stock to the Profit pool, and then returns Profit to the Company_Resources.

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic …

231

Results This model can be applied to any business and study the evolution of resources over time [10–12]. At the same time, there is the proportion of users who use social media, who add comments or read publications. Graph 1 shows the state of resources. In particular, the CompanyResources stock contains the initial investment of corporate resources. The process of dynamic simulation as described, results in profit. This graph shows the state of the model’s results. The price of the profit depends on the product of the profit value acquired by the business and each connected user. As seen in the initial stage, profits are small and with time increasing, until they finally stabilize with the given budget. It then gives firm profits to the company. Thus, the pink line grows clearly on the chart (Graph 2).

Graph 1 Business success

Graph 2 Business success with more investment in advertising

232

D. P. Sakas et al.

Graph 3 Business failure

Graph 4 User percentages during success

Graph 3 shows the bankruptcy of the business. After a thorough study, it turns out that advertising as well as WOM marketing contribute to its success. Word-ofMouth Marketing employs the most powerful asset of your business: your customers. When your customers are very pleased with you, they can become your best advertisers. Therefore, the business is required to invest heavily in its advertising visibility (Graphs 4 and 5).

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic …

233

Graph 5 User percentages during failure Table 1 Resource values during profit Months

Profit

Satisfaction

CompanyResources

Advertise

0

0,00

100.000,00

100.000,00

0,00

1

916,84

97.763,27

99.054,27

190,00

2

2.273,39

96.967,68

99.459,68

390,00

3

3.357,20

97.409,51

101.102,51

590,00

4

4.151,86

98.780,23

103.674,23

790,00

5

4.744,61

100.834,61

106.929,61

990,00

6

5.183,19

103.409,37

110.705,37

1.190,00

7

5.476,33

106.346,08

114.843,08

1.390,00

8

5.727,48

109.551,34

119.249,34

1.590,00

9

5.893,56

112.965,25

123.864,25

1.790,00

10

6.001,69

116.517,30

128.617,30

1.990,00

11

6.108,64

120.172,30

133.473,30

2.190,00

12

6.212,47

123.924,17

138.426,17

2.390,00

Regarding the percentages of connected users, their numbers are similar. This was anticipated from the outset because it is an independent event as to whether they bring profits to the business. More analytically, if users do not buy a product through the forum, it does not mean they do not have access to its functions (Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).

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D. P. Sakas et al.

Table 2 Resource prices at a higher profit Months

Profit

Satisfaction

CompanyResources

0

0,00

100.000,00

100.000,00

Advertise

1

1.165,62

96.776,86

98.607,86

730,00

2

2.890,42

95.217,25

98.849,25

1.530,00

3

4.268,42

95.230,96

100.663,96

2.330,00

4

5.278,79

96.425,70

103.659,70

3.130,00

5

6.032,43

98.489,65

107.524,65

3.930,00

6

6.590,05

101.215,25

112.051,25

4.730,00

7

6.962,76

104.401,04

117.038,04

5.530,00

8

7.282,08

107.928,27

122.366,27

6.330,00

9

7.493,24

111.720,78

127.959,78

7.130,00

10

7.630,72

115.688,93

133.728,93

7.930,00

11

7.766,70

119.787,97

139.628,97

8.730,00

12

7.898,71

124.010,18

145.652,18

9.530,00

0,00

Table 3 Expected profit Months

CompanyResources

CompanyResources2

Expected profit (%)

0

100.000,00

100.000,00

0,00

1

99.054,27

98.607,86

−0,45

2

99.459,68

98.849,25

−0,61

3

101.102,51

100.663,96

−0,43

4

103.674,23

103.659,70

−0,01

5

106.929,61

107.524,65

0,56

6

110.705,37

112.051,25

1,22

7

114.843,08

117.038,04

1,91

8

119.249,34

122.366,27

2,61

9

123.864,25

127.959,78

3,31

10

128.617,30

133.728,93

3,97

11

133.473,30

139.628,97

4,61

12

138.426,17

145.652,18

5,22

All prices depend on the products or services that the company wants to market. Note that when using the model, none of the resource and user values will be absolute. Adaptation of the model and the situation will be made according to the strategic decision and the position of the business, so it will be a combination of the model’s capabilities. The goal of the business is to increase its profits by increasing users and consequently their purchases.

Modeling and Simulation of the Strategic …

235

Table 4 User percentages during profit Months

Read and show

Write articles

Upload photos and files

0

0

0

0

Saty-in users 0

1

6,01

1,15

1,17

1,53

2

9,91

3,10

3,08

4,59

3

12,45

4,82

4,77

7,89

4

14,53

6,07

6,07

10,76

5

16,22

7,10

7,18

12,97

6

17,26

7,95

7,79

14,83

7

17,91

8,47

8,43

16,29

8

18,58

8,90

9,03

17,24

9

18,90

9,33

9,22

18,22

10

19,20

9,67

9,55

18,66

11

19,52

9,62

9,88

19,17

12

20,04

9,79

9,88

19,21

Upload photos and files

Saty-in users

Table 5 User percentages during bankruptcy Months

Read and show

Write articles

0

0

0

0

0

1

6,009245458

1,148926133

1,169356778

1,531848819

2

9,906725433

3,102923311

3,083938959

4,590530056

3

12,45292032

4,823514769

4,767540884

7,893151266

4

14,53378595

6,070670561

6,066045879

10,75740223

5

16,21800941

7,103457358

7,180174591

12,97267325

6

17,26359006

7,953504847

7,789805999

14,83209887

7

17,90643746

8,471255309

8,43177808

16,29280781

8

18,57713893

8,898413028

9,030126972

17,2359413

9

18,89618692

9,33202775

9,215702585

18,21526566

10

19,20097059

9,665650087

9,554066992

18,65589907

11

19,51742012

9,617045743

9,878272903

19,16558659

12

20,03981779

9,788538967

9,881037606

19,21123556

13

19,78086739

9,881606222

10,16008941

19,81459359

236

D. P. Sakas et al.

References 1. Bochenek, L.M., Blili, S.: Social media champions—drivers and sophistication process of social media strategic management. In: Olivas-LujÁN, M.R., Bondarouk, T. (eds.) Social Media in Strategic Management. Advanced Series in Management, vol. 11, pp. 143–167. Emerald Group Publishing Limited (2014) 2. Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., Seymour, T.: The history of social media and its impact on business. J. Appl. Manag. Entrep. 16(3), 79 (2011) 3. O’Murchu, I., Breslin, J.G., Decker, S.: Online social and business networking communities. In: ECAI Workshop on Application of Semantic Web Technologies to Web Communities, August 2004, vol. 107 (2004) 4. Copitch, G., Fox, C.: Using social media as a means of improving public confidence. Safer Communities 9(2), 42–48 (2010) 5. Wang, H.: Six P’s of youth social media from a young consumer’s perspective. Young Consum. 13(3), 303–317 (2012) 6. Opgenhaffen, M., Claeys, A.-S.: Between hope and fear: developing social media guidelines. Empl. Relat. 39(2), 130–144 (2017) 7. Ng, J.C.Y., Ting, Iris Yu., Shao, Y.L.: This is not what I wanted: the effect of avoidance coping strategy on non-work-related social media use at the workplace. Empl. Relat. 38(4), 466–486 (2016) 8. Tsimonis, G., Dimitriadis, S.: Brand strategies in social media. Mark. Intell. Plan. 32(3), 328–344 (2014) 9. Weller, K.: Trying to understand social media users and usage: the forgotten features of social media platforms. Online Inf. Rev. 40(2), 256–264 (2016) 10. Bithas, G., Kutsikos, K., Sakas, D., Konstantopoulos, N.: Business transformation through service science: the road ahead. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 175, 439–446 (2015) 11. Kutsikos, K., Sakas, D.: A framework for enabling service configuration decisions: the case of IT outsourcing providers. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 148, 604–610 (2014) 12. Sakas, D., Kutsikos, K.: An adaptable decision making model for sustainable enterprise interoperability. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 148, 611–618 (2014)

Part VIII

7th Symposium on Integrated Information

Organized by: Damianos P. Sakas University of Peloponnese Aims and Scope The symposium promotes the knowledge and the development of high-quality research in the field of information. It aims to bring its participants the very best analysis and discussion in the developing and interdisciplinary field of the field of information management and integration. It covers a wide field from diverse areas of practice and settings including culture, business, health, education, and government. Information is critical for the survival and growth of organizations and people. The challenge for Information management is now less about managing activities that collect, store, and disseminate information. Rather, there is greater focus on managing activities that make changes in patterns of behavior of users and organizations and also on information that leads to changes in the way people use information to engage in knowledge focused activities. Topics Integrated Information, Information Management, Knowledge Management, Records/Document Management, Conceptual and Organizational Perspectives of Knowledge, Communication Records/Document Management, Data Management, Health Information, Digital Libraries, Electronic Archives, Data Mining, Digital Collections (repositories, j stors, e-scholarship), Semantics Semantic Web, Software Copyright Electronic Publishing Development of New Metrics, Conservation Management, Digital Preservation, Management of Nonprofit Organizations Cultural Heritage Management, Advocacy, Networking and Influencing Managing, Change in Information, Organizations, Financial Management for Excellence in Information, Organizations, Human Resources, Management in Information, Organizations Conceptual and Organizational Perspectives of Knowledge, Communication, Distance Learning, E-Learning and the Contribution of

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Information, Organizations E-research, E-science History of Collections, History of Information, Organizations History of Writing and Writing Technologies. Main Workshops 1. Digital libraries and crowdsourcing Organized by: Mathieu Andro, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Délégation à l‘Information Scientifique et Technique, France Description: How digitization programs and digital libraries may use volunteer visitors, crowdsourcing, gamification, or crowdfunding? 2. Ontology-based Sentiment Analysis Organized by: Nick Bassiliades, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Informatics, Greece Efstratios Kontopoulos, Center for Research and Technology, Hellas (CERTH), Informatics and Telematics Institute (ITI), Greece Athena Vakali, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Informatics, Greece Description: Sentiment analysis, a research area with rapidly increasing popularity, involves a set of processes and approaches aiming at identifying and extracting subjective information (i.e., the attitude of a speaker or a writer wrt. some topic) out of source materials (text, images, videos, etc.). A wide range of applications in various domains and contexts exploit sentiment analysis for various important tasks and decision-making (e.g. in product and services reviews assessment, in sales predictions, in investor’s choices and in politics formation). The underlying methodologies typically involve machine learning and statistical paradigms, which, however, demonstrate several shortcomings that mostly derive from the lack of semantics. Examples of these drawbacks include the need to deal with noise in text from online social media, with the evolving and unpredicted data threads produced, as well as detecting attitudes (such as irony, sarcasm, etc). The emergence of the Semantic Web and the relevant semantically rich ontology-based representations may deliver novel approaches and toolsets which can tackle the previous challenges. Therefore, this workshop investigates the deployment of ontology-based techniques, as well as of semantically rich frameworks and tools towards a more fine-grained sentiment analysis of content of any type. 3. Intelligent Methodologies and Technologies for e-Learning Systems,IMTeLS’16 Organized by: Abdel-Badeeh M. Salem, Ain Shams University, Faculty of Computer and Information sciences, Egypt Description: Intelligent methodologies and machine learning techniques give e-learning systems added computing capability, allowing them to exhibit more intelligent behavior. On the other side, the convergence of artificial intelligence, data science, educational technology, and web science is enabling the creation of a new generation of web-based intelligent e-learning systems. The objective of IMTeLS’16 workshop is to bring together scientists engaged in Educational Technology, Computational Thinking, Web Technology, Knowledge Management,

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and Artificial Intelligence. It will provide a forum for identifying important contributions and opportunities for recent research on the different intelligent methodologies and techniques for developing intelligent e-Learning systems. 4. Next Generation Information Management Systems Organized by: Emmanuel J. Yannakoudakis, Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Computer Science, Greece Description: Information Management constitutes a process related with three core values, (a) the information collection from multiple of sources, (b) the organization and the archiving, (c) the distribution and the dissemination of information to the stakeholders. Libraries and Information Centers have the key role to Information Management sector. This can be seen through the rapid development of Libraries Management Systems via relational databases mindset in the last two decades. In the last decade, the rapid development in the Technology of Information and Communications has led to noteworthy changes to operations and structures of Libraries related with the services that they provide to their users. Printed information start to lose their domination, while users feel free and convenient to use simple methods to search and retrieve information via the Libraries’ services. It can be said that Automated Library Systems have not change significantly in the last two decades, and therefore Libraries in order to respond to the new challenges have to adopt heterogeneous systems such as search engines and database of full-texts, information link resolvers, services of digital libraries, and so on. All the plurality and dimensionality of these services bring confusion and complexity to users and to the library staff as well, in order to manage and complete daily tasks and activities. From the aforementioned thoughts, it can be highlighted a mandatory need for the creation of new a generation of Information Management Systems. The aim of this workshop is the examination of the structure and operationalization of these next generation management systems. Including the following key questions: Which may be the core values and characteristics of Next Generation Information Management Systems? Is it possible for the current database systems to become the core of those next generation systems? Which may be the most important difficulties that need to be treated for the successful adoption of the new systems? 5. Data Exploration Techniques Organized by: Kostas Stefanidis, University of Tampere, School of Information Sciences, Finland Description: Data Exploration is related with the efficiently to extracting knowledge from data even if the user does not know exactly what he is intended to looking for. In this workshop, we analyze several data exploration issues and techniques in order to gather the best possible information, creating in this way the knowledge and therefore the wisdom which is needed for the best possible decision making. The emerging area of Databases and the rapid evolution of Information Systems that produce automatically data tailor the data exploration strategic planning as a mandatory field of movement. Thus, we discuss new ideas on how to

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gather-mine and access data and how the new challenges of data management influence several sectors, such as information science and business analytics. 6. Knowledge Management & Information Systems in the era of the Knowledge Society Organized by: Miltiadis D. Lytras, The American College of Greece/Deree College, Editor: Int. J. on Semantic Web and Information Systems/ Int. J. on Knowledge Society Research, Greece Description: The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how Knowledge Management (KM), through the fusion of the Human-Centered approach and Information Systems (IS) function within daily strategies and activities of organizations. Moreover, this workshop tries to illustrate how the implementation of a strategy that combines the Knowledge Management and the Information Systems approach could contribute maximally in any kind of problematic situation inside the walls of an institution plus to any kind of decision making process. How and with what methods Information Systems support the decision making process for an organization? What are the probably rewards in place regarding the sharing of Information and other core values that constitute the meaning of KM and IS? Which maybe the “state of the art steps” for constructing a strategic plan for implementing KM via using IS solution? With what methods the scientific community indicates and measures if the KM process is in the right order for an organization? These are —but not limited to—some of the main key discussions for this workshop that relies heavily in the values of the new era Information Management and in the meaning of Knowledge Society. 7. Institutional Repositories. The State of the Art Best Practices and Best Policies Organized by: Patrick OBrien, Montana State University, Library, United States Description: Institutional repositories (IR) have become a core function of the academic community’s dissemination of new ideas across research disciplines. Information quality and quantity in the form of publications, research data, and metadata are among the key aspects that establish well-structured repositories. It is crucial organizations responsible for IR designate policies, strategies and technical approaches that constitute the state of the art. Academic libraries tend to manage IR at most research institutions, and they are well-positioned to maximize the value of IR for research and administration stakeholders. Discoverability of IR content is crucial as it can lead to greater access and citation of publications. IR content discoverability, use, and impact depend heavily on the practices, policies, and technologies implemented. To fulfill the promise of IR, information scientists and librarians must empower themselves with knowledge and expertise of the new practices, standards, and software enabling well-structured IR for use by humans and machines. This workshop aims to bring together information scientists and librarians in order to discuss and promote new practices and policies for institutional repositories.

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8. How to deal with semantic heterogeneity in cross-domain information retrieval? Organized by: Peter Mutschke, GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Dep. Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences, Germany Description: Due to the growing complexity of examined phenomena, scientific progress is increasingly achieved at the boundaries of the established sciences and by cross-discipline cooperation. However, the way to interdisciplinary research is often hindered because of the difficulty of many researchers to understand a foreign language of science. By its nature, this problem affects cross-discipline information retrieval as well. A still challenging issue therefore is to improve search accuracy by understanding the contextual meaning of search terms in cross-domain information seeking scenarios. The workshop aims at bringing together researchers from different scientific application fields to discuss scenarios, approaches, applications, test beds and new ideas. 9. Bioinformatics and Smart Data Organized by: Papadopoulou Paraskevi, Deree-The American College of Greece, Department of Science and Mathematics, Greece Description: The latest developments in Bioinformatics require that we move from data management organization culture to learning organization culture where the collection and exploitation of data is meaningful only when it is used to optimize and automate solutions and solve problems. Big Data as a concept is defined around four aspects: data volume, data velocity, data veracity, and data value. Veracity and value aspects of Big Data deal with the quality and the usefulness of big data making management a major challenge for most enterprises in terms of quality. The decisive criterion here is not necessarily the amount of (big) data, but valuable content (smart). Smart Data Analysis (focusing on veracity and value) is to filter out the noise and hold the valuable data, which can be effectively used to solve for example business problems or improve healthcare operations and opens new avenues to optimize computing capacities, explore molecular biology, genomics and proteomics and health informatics applications and implications. Researchers should be in the position to study entire systems of data in parallel using a variety of tools and methods asking for an integration with biological, biomedical data, or business related big data hoping to improve the operations of various molecular biology subdisciplines, medicine, healthcare systems, and businesses. The purpose of this workshop is that through lectures and panel discussions on Bioinformatics and Smart Data Analysis, an overview and solutions to some of these challenges in the fields of genomics, proteomics, medicine, and health informatics will be discussed. Researchers, for example, need to design better collaboration models in health care and ask new questions on physiological and pathological clinical actions leading to real-time assistance in disease prevention, prognosis, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Turning this data from big to smart is the challenge that needs to be addressed today in order to lead to real time assistance hoping to improve medicine and provide better more personalized treatment.

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10. Smart cities for sustainable and inclusive development Organized by: Christina Marouli, Deree—American College of Greece, Department of Science and Mathematics/ Director—Center of Excellence for Sustainability, Greece Description: The smart cities concept has been proposed as a guiding principle for urban development. Smart cities aim to maintain a good quality of life for its inhabitants while increasing resource and energy efficiency, with the use of innovative, cutting edge technologies. The effectiveness of smart urban applications can be assessed in many different ways: e.g., “smart economy”, “smart energy”, “smart mobility”, “smart governance”, and “smart neighborhoods”. But smartness, as it provides new opportunities and improved efficiencies, also poses new challenges and vulnerabilities at both the collective and individual levels. This workshop aims to provide a multidisciplinary forum for academics, researchers, practitioners, and local government representatives in order to explore questions like: How do smart solutions contribute to high energy efficiency, effective mobility, resource efficient and low carbon cities? How can smart urban approaches promote better—good quality of life for all? How can smart cities promote the city as an integrated, balanced (eco)system, promoting social cohesion and justice? How can innovative, integrated technologies help cities become more connected, compassionate and sustainable? We invite submissions on theoretical approaches, research findings and case studies that highlight good practices and challenges related to smart urban solutions/smart cities for sustainable and inclusive development. 11. Information Technology and Environmental Studies Organized by: Anastasia Misseyanni, Deree—The American College of Greece (ACG), Department of Science and Mathematics, Greece Description: Environmental Studies worldwide use an interdisciplinary approach in their study of the environment, promoting significant strategies towards sustainable development. Their integration with leading edge and streamline technologies is a key value proposition for the big challenges of our times. The objective of this workshop is to promote the scientific dialogue for the enhancement of policies related to environmental management, environmental protection, sustainability, and innovative technology intensive services and applications. Five general areas describe the context for contributions for this workshop: Priority 1: Innovative startups for environmental management. The emphasis is given to solutions and real-world services promoting various aspects of environmental sustainability. Priority 2: Strategies and frameworks for the new role of environmental studies in the global economy. The main focus is on theoretical works analyzing how environmental studies contribute to the wealth and prosperity in our times. Priority 3: Pilot projects and case studies. Project presentations and case studies discussions are invited with main emphasis paid on lessons learnt and best practices. Priority 4: Emerging technologies for environment management. Works related to the contribution of big data, cloud computing, recommendation systems, learning management systems, and open source technologies are invited. Priority 5: Visioning the future. Vision articles related to the future trends in the domain are invited.

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Keynote Speakers

Prof. Abdel-Badeeh M. Salem Faculty of Computer and Information sciences Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Professor Dr. Abdel-Badeh M. Salem is a professor emeritus of Computer Science since September 2007 till now. He was a former Vice Dean of the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences at Ain Shams University, Cairo-Egypt (1996– 2007). He was a professor of Computer Science at Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University from 1989 to 1996. He was a Director of Scientific Computing Center at Ain Shams University (1984–1990). His research includes intelligent computing, expert systems, medical informatics, and intelligent e-learning technologies. He has published around 350 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings in these areas. He has been involved in more than 400 conferences and workshops as an Int. Program Committee, organizer and Session Chair. He is author and co-author of 15 Books in English and Arabic Languages. He was one of the founders of the following events, First Egyptian Workshop on Expert Systems 1987, Int. Cairo Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications in 1992 and Int. Conf. on Intelligent Computing and Information Systems 2002, and one of the main sustainers of annual Int. Romanian Internet Learning Workshop Project (RILW), 1997. In addition he was Secretary of Egyptian Computer Society (1984–1990), Member of National Committee in Informatics—Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (1992–200), Member of Egyptian Committee in the Inter-Governmental Informatics Program, IIP-UNISCO, Paris (1988–1990) and Coordinator of the Annual International Conference for Statistics, Scientific Computing, and Social and Demographic Research (1983–1990). In addition, he was a partner of a MEDCAMPUS Projects on Methodologies and Technologies for Distance Education in Mediterranean (1993–1995) He is a member of the Editorial Board of many international Journals.He is a member of Int. Scientific Societies: American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), USA; British Computer

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Society, Expert Systems Specialist Group (SGES), Int. Neural Network Society (INNS), USA; Association for the Advancement of Computing Education (AACE), USA; Int. Society for Computers and their Applications ((ISCA), NC, USA, Dec. 95); Int. Society for Telemedicine & eHealth ISfTeH,, Switzerland; Member of Int. Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee WG 12.5, Knowledge-Oriented Development of Applications, Austria (2000 till now), Member of Int. Association for Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), TC on AI and Expert Systems, Int. Association for Science and Technology for Development, Canada, (2000 till now). Elected member of Euro Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences (EMAAS), September 25,2015, Athens, Greece. Member of Alma Mater Europaea of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, January 2016.

Prof. Peter Mutschke GESIS department, Germany

Peter Mutschke is acting head of the GESIS department “Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences” (WTS) since March 2010. His research interests include Information Retrieval, Network Analysis, and Science 2.0. He worked in a number of national and international research projects such as the DFG-funded project “Value-Added Services for Information Retrieval” (IRM) and the EU-funded project “Where eGovernment meets the eSociety” (WeGov). Currently, he is involved in the EU projects “Data Insights for Policy Makers & Citizens” (SENSE4US), “Open Mining Infrastructure for Text and Data” (OpenMinTeD) and “TraininG towards a society of data-saVvy inforMation professionals to enable open leadership Innovation” (MOVING) as well as in major national und European research networks such as the COST action “Analyzing the dynamics of information and knowledge landscapes” (KNOWeSCAPE) and the research alliance “Science 2.0” of the German Leibniz Association. For both research networks, Peter Mutschke serves as a member of the management committee.

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Prof. Nick Bassiliades Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Nick Bassiliades received his M.Sc. in Applied Artificial Intelligence from the Computing Science Department of Aberdeen University, in 1992, and his Ph.D. in parallel knowledge base systems from the Department of Informatics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1998, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He currently also serves as an academic coordinator at the School of Science & Technology of the International Hellenic University, where he also teaches Knowledge Management in the Web. His research interests include knowledge-based and rule systems, multiagent systems, ontologies, linked data and the Semantic Web. He has published more than 180 papers in journals, conferences, and books, has coauthored 4 books, and co-edited 8 volumes. His published research has received over 2200 citations (h-index 25). He was the Program Chair of 8 conferences/workshops, he has been member of the Program Committee of more than 100 and on the Organizational Committee of 6 conferences/workshops. He has been involved in 32 R&D projects leading 9 of them. He has been the general secretary of the Board of the Greek Artificial Intelligence Society; he is a director of RuleML, Inc., and also a member of the Greek Computer Society, the IEEE, and the ACM.

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Prof. Kostas Stefanidis University of Tampere Kostas Stefanidis is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Sciences of the University of Tampere, Finland. Prior to that, he was a research scientist with the Information Systems Lab of ICS-FORTH, Greece, and a postdoctoral researcher at the IDI Dept. of NTNU in Norway and the CSE Dept. of CUHK in Hong Kong. He got his Ph.D. in personalized data management from the University of Ioannina, Greece. Kostas’s research interests lie in the intersection of databases, information retrieval and the Web, and include personalized and context-aware data management systems, recommender systems, keyword-based search, and information extraction, resolution and integration. He has been involved in several international research projects and coauthored more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed conferences and journals, including ACM SIGMOD, IEEE ICDE and ACM TODS. He is also actively serving the scientific community. Currently, he is the General co-Chair of the Workshop on Exploratory Search in Databases and the Web (ExploreDB), the Web & Information Chair of SIGMOD/PODS 2016 and the Proceedings Chair of EDBT/ICDT 2016.

Modelling and Simulation of Pedestrian Behaviour on Museum Exhibition Spaces Melpomeni Liakou and Odysseas Kosmas

Abstract A model that simulates the behaviour of pedestrians in closed spaces is proposed. Although it can be formulated for emergency and/or non-emergency situations, we here restrict ourselves to an evacuation scenario of a typical museum exhibition space. To this aim, we define an agent-based model using pedestrian dynamics of individuals as the forces for decision-making and behaviour. Previous works have proven that both, decision and behaviour, are strongly affected by the geometry of the enclosed space, the initial random distribution of agents and their social preferences with respect to other individuals. In this work, we improve and extend the existing methodology in order to describe group behaviours. Since museum visitors mostly form groups of students, families and friends such a simulation example offers an excellent case study along this line. Keywords Pedestrian dynamics · Agent based simulations · Pedestrian behavior simulation · Museum evacuation scenario · Museum exhibition spaces

Introduction Recently, models that simulate pedestrians and their behaviour when moving either along the streets or in closed spaces, both in emergency and non-emergency situations, have aroused great interest among the researchers [1, 2]. Those models are applied with the objective to understand the underlying causes and dynamics of pedestrian behaviour and how the environment can be adjusted so as to provide an improvement of human comfort and safety. Nowadays, organizations employ obserM. Liakou School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece e-mail: [email protected] O. Kosmas (B) Modelling and Simulation Centre, MACE, University of Manchester, Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_29

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vations to enrich their knowledge of visitors experience and behaviour. However, these approaches often produce spatially and temporally limited empirical evidence and measurements. In addition, models applied to multilevel complex environments are much more demanding and their simulation requires the ability to describe local dynamics of individual behaviour, a fact that is mainly affected by the geometry of space and social preferences of individuals [2–4]. Pedestrians, when moving individually, in groups or in subgroups are an interesting example of an evolving complex system. Whatever its global structure is, analysing emergent behaviours is of great interest. To that end analytical models proved to be complicated, so agent-based simulations have been introduced [2]. Pedestrians can be then modelled as a collection of autonomous decision-making entities, called agents, which are described to mimic different types of physical and social behaviours [3, 4]. In this present work, we propose an agent-based model that simulates pedestrian behaviour on museum exhibition spaces. We model visitor’s behaviour by introducing a general and flexible framework for the emergency evacuation within a multilevel building. To do that, we first describe how previous agent-based models work and then we extend them by introducing more social forces as decision-making procedures. We do not focus on the positions of those agents, which are taken to be randomly distributed within an area that defines a closed space. Based on dynamical and social forces that either preserve or create groups of individuals, the model introduced explains how agents bypass obstacles, move to stairs or follow other groups on their way out. We finally apply the proposed model for the case of a museum exhibition space, which has proved to be very useful in determining how visitors behave and how dynamical models can be important in the level of service of museums and/or in the optimal exploitation of exhibition spaces.

Modelling Pedestrian Dynamics In order to describe the pedestrian behaviour in closed spaces under emergency situations, we first need to define the way each of them detects the closest exit and second to describe the dynamical equation which describes motion for everybody.

Exit Detection Agents always try to reach their desired destination using the shortest possible path [1]. In order to define that, we initially assume that our space consists of grid points Ω ∈ R2 and its boundary ∂Ω. For the case of a closed space, these points represent the area inside a room and the surrounding walls, respectively. We then compute the nearest path to an exit for every point using equation [5]

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||∇u(x)|| = 1, x ∈ Ω, and u(x) = 0, x ∈ ∂Ω.

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(1)

We here choose x to be each point of the grid (x ∈ R2 ) and u(x) = d(x) the standard metric on R2 , i.e. d : R2 → R. Under those assumptions, the latter equation describes the minimum distance from x to reach ∂Ω, i.e the distance to the nearest exit point. In addition, the negative gradient −∇d(x) is the vector that points in the direction of the shortest path towards the desired exit. To solve Eq. (1) numerically, although we have tested several techniques, for the purposes of the present, we used the fast sweeping method of [6], which is computationally faster and simpler to implement. Other techniques can be also tested and may be more beneficial [7, 8] (for more details on the description and numerical methods to solve such equations see [9–11]).

Agent-Based Pedestrian Dynamics Model For a typical agent-based model [2], the reactions of the agents will mainly be defined by forces of different types. First, we have to define a driving force Fdi of the i-th agent (of mass m i ) as the force that simulates agents desire to move towards the exit (n represents the total number of agents). This force depends on agents position and velocity, simply because when an agent can move freely will not accelerate, but if reaches a speed he will continue with this speed towards the location of the door. Denoting ei ≡ ei (t) this desired direction and by vi ≡ vi (t), its desired speed at time t the driving force (also known as directional change) can be written as [1] Fdi = m i

v0i ei − vi . ti

(2)

The velocity v0 (known as the free flow velocity [1]) simulates agents motion under normal and nervous conditions, and so it will be bounded by two values that describe those conditions. In order to simulate the behaviour of agents that try to move towards the same exit following the same direction, we define repulsive forces from the surrounding walls as [1] Fwi =

 

      i i Ai e(ri −dw )/B + kg ri − dwi n iw − κg ri − dwi vi twi twi ,

(3)

w∈∂Ω

where dwi denotes the distance between the wall and the i-th pedestrian, ri is the size of the pedestrian, g(x) stands for a function which is zero if the argument is negative and equal to the argument if it is positive. In addition, Ai , B i , k and κ are constants, n iw is the normal vector between the pedestrian and the wall and twi is the tangential vector between the pedestrian and the wall. If we consider the terms, then the first term is the typical force to the wall, then next term is a friction term given that the

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pedestrian touches the wall and the last term is the tangential velocity term also given that the pedestrian touches the wall [1, 2]. Furthermore, when moving in crowded places, agents would preferably like to keep some distance between them. That behaviour can be simulated through a social force acting between i-th and j-th agents as [1, 2] Fsi =

 



   i i i j j j Ai e(r j −d j )/B + kg r j − d j n ij + κg r j − d ij v j − vi t ij , (4)

i= j

  where r ij = r i + r j , the last term is the friction due to the relative velocity difference as we also saw to the wall. If we now assume that we are dealing with deterministic trajectories, Newton’s second law of motion for the resulting force acting upon each agent will give Fdi + Fsi + Fwi = m i

d2xi , dt 2

(5)

where the forces of the left-hand side are defined in (2), (3) and (4), respectively.

A Simulation Model for Group Behaviour The pedestrian dynamics model, described in the previous section, has been introduced in order to simulate interactions among individuals. For the application of this model in the case of closed museum spaces, we take into account that visitors come mostly in rather small groups of students, families or friends. To involve such a parameter in the simulations, we consider the group behaviour as a social behaviour not only for agents walking close to each other, but also for individuals intentionally (due to social connections) walking side by side [12]. A natural way to extend the model of section “Agent-Based Pedestrian Dynamics Model” is by adding some extra parameters to Eq. (5) that may simulate interactions among different groups. More precisely, the groups introduced to our model operate independently avoiding the close proximity with members of neighbouring groups that may lead to group merging. To this aim, we define a force of the form Fgi = −μi vi ,

(6)

where the parameter μi describes the strength of the social interaction between group members. Additional terms may also be introduced (see section “Conclusion and Future Work”).

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Simulation Results for a Typical Museum Space In order to check the performance and reliability of our model, even though it has been tested in more complex multilevel closed spaces, here, for simplicity and readers convenience, we restrict ourselves to a simple scenario of a closed area that represents a museum exhibition space, see Fig. 1. We, then, consider that visitors are initially distributed randomly around museum items. We assume that a mass m = 70 kg/visitor is rather uniformly distributed at a site r i ∈ [0.25, 0.35] and that their flow velocity (in m/s) is 0.75  v0  1. The snapshots in Fig. 1 represent different time moments on the evacuation scenario. They are obtained by considering the constants of Eq. (5) to take the values: t i = 0.5 s, Ai = 2 · 103 N and B i = 0.08 m for i = 1, . . . , n (here n = 80). We furthermore, utilize the values k = 1.2 · 105 kg/s2 and κ = 2.4 · 105 kg/m, see [1, 2, 12]. We find it useful to plot the number of visitors that managed to exit the museum exhibition space as a function of time. To this purpose, we consider both cases, i.e. ‘model without’ and ‘model with’ group behaviour of the visitors. In both cases, the initial distribution of 80 visitors was exactly the same. Figure 2 shows the numbers of visitors still inside the museum space for the above two scenarios, namely, (i) when no groups are formed (blue line) and (ii) when several groups are formed (red line). Since museum visitors always appear in groups, we focus on the results of the model that involve in the simulations such a behaviour. A comparison of the two curves shows that visitors start exiting faster when they form groups than those having individual behaviour. But, to the model tested, that creates big numbers of visitors

Fig. 1 Snapshots of the evacuation process in a closed space that simulates a museum exhibition space using the group behaviour described in section “A Simulation Model for Group Behaviour”

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visitors

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0

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time Fig. 2 The number of visitors that exited the museum exhibition space when no groups are formed (blue line) and when several groups are formed (red line)

trying to exit the same door, slowing down the evacuation of the space (for example, for 5 ≤ t ≤ 10 and 15 ≤ t ≤ 20). The latter finding needs further investigation, see next section.

Conclusion and Future Work We present a model for simulations of pedestrian behaviour in closed spaces. This model addresses the social and dynamical behaviour of individuals through interactions between themselves and the physical space, respectively. As an improvement to existing models, an attempt to describe group behaviour inside the model has been done, which now combines real physical forces and non-physical ones in the same mathematical expression. The proposed technique has been tested for a case of evacuation of a closed museum exhibition space from a rather great number of visitors compared to the size of the available space. The preliminary results obtained indicate that our model can simulate group behaviour of different scales and numbers. In some cases tested, the group behaviour results to very high number of visitors moving to the same exit, creating big delays on the evacuation process. Although that can be bypassed using wider exit doors, a real-case scenario must be considered. Furthermore, a future extension of the group model described above may consider more psychological factors, for example, cases that faster groups are walking in the same direction of a pedestrian, that might merge with the slow moving group, or cases where different groups walk in opposite directions and some members of the groups change group (or groups merge). Finally, an interesting extension could involve further separate groups into subgroups, either to the beginning of the simulation process or during it.

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References 1. Helbing, D., Molnár, P.: Social force model for pedestrian dynamics. Phys. Rev. E 51, 4282– 4286 (1995) 2. Bonabeau, E.: Agent-based modeling: methods and techniques for simulating human systems. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 7280–7287 (2002) 3. Burstedde, C., Klauck, K., Schadschneider, A., Zittartz, J.: Simulation of pedestrian dynamics using a two-dimensional cellular automation. Phys. A Stat. Mech. Appl. 295, 507–525 (2001) 4. Yan, W., Kalay, Y.E.: Geometric Cognitive and Behavioral Modeling of Environmental Users. Design Computing and Cognition. Springer, Netherlands (2006) 5. Kosmas, O.T., Papadopoulos, D.: Multisymplectic structure of numerical methods derived using nonstandard finite difference schemes. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 490, 012205 (2014) 6. Tsitsiklis, N.: Efficient algorithms for globally optimal trajectories. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 40, 1528–1538 (1995) 7. Nasiopoulos, D.K., Sakas, D.P., Vlachos, D.S.: Analysis of strategic leadership simulation models in non-profit organizations. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 73, 276–284 (2013) 8. Kutsikos, K., Sakas, D.: A framework for enabling service configuration decisions: the case of IT outsourcing providers. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 148, 604–610 (2014) 9. Kosmas, O.T., Vlachos, D.S.: Local path fitting: a new approach to variational integrators. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 236, 2632–2642 (2012) 10. Kosmas, O.T., Leyendecker, S.: Analysis of higher order phase fitted variational integrators. Adv. Comput. Math. 42, 605–619 (2016) 11. Kosmas, O.T., Leyendecker, S.: Variational integrators for orbital problems using frequency estimation. Adv. Comput. Math. (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10444-018-9603-y 12. Mehdi, M., Niriaska, P., Simon, G., Dirk, H., Guy, T.: The walking behaviour of pedestrian social groups and its impact on crowd dynamics. PLoS One, e10047 (2010)

Improving Website Usability and Traffic Based on Users Perceptions and Suggestions––A User-Centered Digital Marketing Approach Ioannis C. Drivas, Damianos P. Sakas and Panagiotis Reklitis

Abstract Attracting visitors to a website is a complex and multidimensional task for each decision maker in the digital marketing sector. Even an organization in relation with its competitors holds the reins in the provision of the most qualitative products and services rather than others, the hard reality though, depicts that if the online users are not able to navigate easily in the organization’s website, they will jump to another. This fact also brings low visibility and traffic metrics in the organization’s website, which unintentionally leads to poor communicational promotion of products and services. In this paper, the authors combine the fragmented pieces of the usability and the levels of traffic that a website has, based on the utility of Search Engine Optimization process for improving the website’s usability and traffic as well. To this respect, the SEO process addresses and examines the website’s usability in design, architecture, and content, for improving greater volume and quality of online users’ visits to the website through search engines. Following a user-centered digital marketing approach, the authors examine, if the level of traffic of a website, related with its level of usability that express, based exclusively on its user’s perceptions and suggestions about that under examined website. Implementing all user’s suggestions and thereafter, adopting Google Analytics as a web usage mining tool for measuring the optimization, the results indicate that following the website’s user’s perceptions and suggestions about it for improving its usability, the total pageviews, the organic traffic, and also the referral traffic of the website rose significantly. To this end, highlighting the utility and practicality of this paper, it is useful to refer that it could be used as a practical toolbox for each digital marketing team, in order to estimate in a well-organized and descriptive manner, the users’ perceptions as regards to a website in order to improve its usability levels and thus its traffic.

I. C. Drivas (B) · D. P. Sakas Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece e-mail: [email protected] P. Reklitis Department of Logistics, Technological Educational Institute of Chalkis, Thiva, Greece © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_30

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Keywords Website traffic · Website usability · Website visits improvement · Website usability improvement · Search engine optimization · Digital marketing strategies · User-centered website design

Background The online subsistence of websites which are set under organizations’ supervision and paternity, do not ensure instinctively the visibility and the accessibility of their potential online users. Bringing traffic to a website and flexibility in use constitutes a complex task for each decision maker of an organization. Even from the middle of the previous decade, Weideman and Chambers [33] estimated by their research paper suggests that the success of a website is related with the online users’ fluency and flexibility to find in search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. To this respect, although a website provides to online customers a high quality of products and services improving their daily life or working tasks and activities, the website will not be successful if online users cannot find and visit it. On the other side, Hasan et al. [9] pointed out that the success of a website is related with usability issues. More specifically, on how easy online users use and browse into a website. To this respect, the meaning of usability is defined as a quality attribute that assesses how easy user’s interfaces are to use by the users and how to improve the easy-of-use levels [21]. Setting in the same framework the accessibility of the website in the WWW and the ease-of-use factor, the utility and the practicality of Search Engine Optimization process are neuralgic. SEO is related with one of the most important components of the digital marketing strategies. According to Tiago and Verissimo [30], the SEO process is included in the total amount of enterprise investment with a percentage of 32% of the overall digital marketing budget. Giving to the readers of this paper a better perception of what SEO is, the process addresses and examines website’s usability in design, architecture, and content, with the purpose of improving the volume and quality of online users traffic to the website through search engines [12, 14, 18, 31, 34]. However, although the scientific community points out that the SEO process related with the purpose of improving the volume and the quality of traffic by the online users in a website, it needs to be further examined, if the level of traffic of a website related with its level of usability that is expressed exclusively on its visitors perceptions about it. Making this more comprehensible to the readers, the problematic of the paper is unfolded explicitly in the next chapter.

The Problematic The related community in the effort to measure the efficiency of SEO, states that this strategy of the holistic digital marketing process, helps, and allows Internet users to find relevant information quickly and accurately [24]. Additionally, in case that the

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products or services which contained in organization’s website, are not presented in a flexible and easy to use manner, then online users will possibly jump to another website with a greater usability level [1, 5, 7, 31]. However, as the SEO effectiveness lies heavily in the improvement of website traffic, it should be mentioned that the challenge is not only to be top ranked in search engines, but to provide the included information within the website in the appropriate formation to the users, while they type their keywords in search engines’ search boxes. To this respect, search engines’ fundamental scope is the confirmation that the internet users via the keywords they type, are able to find the most useful information, with the appropriate structure, in the best possible time [15, 25]. In addition several studies proposed the SEO process as a practical toolbox for improving websites usability and hence traffic [12, 14, 18, 31, 34]. However, there are no evident research works which finally resulted that users opinion about website usability, potentially related with its greater traffic. Scowen [29] paper is characterized as an exception as he found that increased compliance with usability guidelines that resulted by automated indicators and tools, is correlated with an increased popularity of a website. However, this approach did not take into consideration the perception and suggestions of users for improving website usability and traffic. Controversially, from a broader perspective and in different applied domains, there are several studies that relied on user’s perceptions through interviews process with the purpose of improving only website’s usability and not traffic [11, 20, 32]. Nevertheless, in these studies and their content and approach, there is no obvious research impact that correlates the proper usability level of a website, based on its user’s perceptions, with its possible greater traffic and visits. Take into consideration the statements of the related community, the authors of this research paper, seize the opportunity to investigate if a website could improve its traffic in the WWW while taking into consideration the perceptions and suggestions of its users for improving its usability. Following a usercentered approach of what the visitors of the website believe for that, a methodology is setting up in order to encapsulate users’ beliefs and suggestions and thereafter to optimize the current website usability and traffic.

Research Objectives (A) Make more comprehensible if the perceptions and the beliefs of the users for the website as regards to its usability, constitute an opportunity for improving its traffic. (B) Investigate that after the completion of users suggestions for improving the usability of the website, the under examined website will improve its traffic or otherwise will remain in the same traffic level.

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Research Methodology For the encapsulation of the users’ perceptions and suggestions, the authors conducted 12 semi-structured interviews. More specifically, based on the ThinkingAloud method proposed by Nielsen [21] for a user-centered website evaluation, the authors of this paper extracted multidimensional suggestions for the under examined website usability improvement. The under examined website related with the educational sector and more specifically with a private academic institution website, which operates in the Greek region. In order to environ the complexity that SEO strategy depicts, the first four interviews were conducted to the four administrators of the website, while the other eight interviews conducted to the online visitors of the website asking their experience of using it. Totally, there were approached 30 participants for conducting an interview with them and finally, 12 of them accepted the invitation. The eight visitors of the website have been invited to participate in this research while they were previously subscribed in the website contact form, which was already embedded on it. Taking into account ethical considerations, a form of consent had been sent electronically to their e-mail address with the interview questionnaire, which ensure their anonymity and confidentiality to fill up questions related with the website’s usability. On the other side, the administrators of the website is physically interviewed in their working environment. Asking the administrators of the website plus also the visitors of it has been proven as a solid stepping stone for capturing several technicalities that surround the SEO process plus also navigational and content issues perceived by the visitors. After the encapsulation of users perceptions and suggestions and hence, processing the whole extracted data into a well-organized and readable way, the authors of the paper in cooperation with the administrators of the under examined website, proceeded into the implementation of the suggestions on it. In the next chapter, the results of the interviews are presented clearly and in an understandable manner for the readers of this paper.

Results For a proper visualization of the extracted interview data regarding website usability improvement in order to estimate a possible optimization in traffic, a table is formed below. The table contains the perceptions/suggestions, the kind of participants (administrators or visitors) of the website system, and the related references mentioning these suggestions.

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Website Optimization Process In order to estimate the traffic improvement of the website, a comparison takes place between the previous and the current traffic numbers after implementing all the suggested changes that is shown in Table 1. For measuring the comparison, a wellknown web usage mining tool, the Google Analytics is adopted. Google Analytics has also been used previously by Hasan et al. [9] and also by Beri and Singh [3] for measuring the site’s usability levels. The authors of this paper evaluated the traffic of the website in time before implementing the users’ suggestions for 18 days between 15 of March 2017 till 1 of April 2017. From April 3, 2017 till April 7, 2017 (5 days), the administrators of the website, in cooperation with the authors of this paper, implemented all the suggestions that extracted through the interviews process. From 8 of April till 14 of May 2017, the crawlers of Google Search Engine had the time to reestimate the under examined website usability, and calculating in this way its newer level of visibility in WWW (crawling and indexing process for 37 days). A new evaluation took place as regards to website’s traffic for the same number of days (18) as the previous evaluation, namely from 15 of May till 2 of June. In the next graph, the Google Analytics results are presented to the readers of the paper in order to estimate the comparison between the two periods.

Website Traffic Before Implementing Users Suggestions In the first graphical representation (Graph 1), the website traffic is presented before implementing the user’s suggestions extracted from the interviews. The blue line is related with the total pageviews and all the users that visited the website for these 18 days from 15 of March till 1 of April measuring totally about 3.902 pageviews. In the orange line, the Organic Traffic is presented measuring about 2.974 pageviews. Controversially, there are not paid ads which possibly brings up Paid Traffic to the website. This metric is depicted in the green line which is zero (0). Lastly, the purple line is related with the Referral Traffic (493 total referral traffic), which could be defined as a Google Analytics metric of reporting visits that came in a website from external websites and sources, such as other websites referring on that specific website, or references to the website which came from social media pages.

Website Traffic After Implementing Users Suggestions In the Graph 2, the results indicate the website traffic after implementing the suggested changes proposed by the website users in order to improve its usability level. In comparison with the previous graph, there is an optimization in the website visits in total pageviews, Organic and Referral traffic as well in the same period of metrics,

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Table 1 Findings for improving the under examined website usability Perceptions/suggestions

Suggested by admins/visitors of the website

Related references mentioned these suggestions

Site loading time for appearing all its functions is very slow and also in some cases, the site lacks uniformity in the layout of all the tabs or some fonts are smaller than others

Visitors

[1, 5, 7, 12, 33, 34]

The site does not have easy scrolling from the button of the website back to the top. Also lack of navigation bar informing visitors where they are inside the website/inserting breadcrumbs

Visitors

[5–8, 10, 12, 26, 31]

Presence of social media buttons for engagement is low, as also adding more pleasant content of text and images as the site seems abandoned in some tabs such as the blog of the website

Visitors & Administrators

[2, 6, 7, 10, 12, 19, 22]

Some internal and external links are not working. Broken or 404 error pages and also site’s URLs proper formation for crawlers

Visitors

[8, 12, 23, 24]

Erasing back-end files cause loading speed delays and are not used in the graphical user interface environment of the website and also SiteMap and Robots.txt creation

Administrators

[1, 8, 12, 22, 23, 26]

Proper headings and alt tags on images in relation to the keywords of the website topic

Administrators

[8, 28, 31, 33]

namely for 18 days, from 15 of May till 2 of June. Additionally, it is worth noting to depict the optimization in one other catalytic metric, the Bounce Rate as the percentage of single-page sessions in which there was no interaction amongst the user and the website. The Bounce Rate also indicates the amount of visitors who arrive on the website, browse in the landing page and then leave immediately. The Bounce Rate metric is included in order to strengthen the findings related with the traffic improvement. Taking into consideration the practicality of the paper, the improvement of the traffic does not ensure solely that the users will find the information they want inside a website or they will navigate easily on it. For example, if a tremendous number

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Graph 1 Website traffic before implementing users’ suggestions

Graph 2 Website traffic after implementing the users’ suggestions

of users visit the website, however, the Bounce Rate percentage is high, then a high level of traffic is useless. Thus, the Bounce Rate metric is able to indicate the user’s satisfaction and efficacy of information identification and retrieval inside a website. In the next graph, the previous and after the implementation of Google Analytics metrics as regards to the Bounce Rate, percentage in All Users, Organic Traffic, and Referral Traffic sessions are presented. In Graph 3, the Bounce Rate percentages indicate that after the implementation in the website, there are less possibilities for the users to enter on the website, and then to leave immediately or have no interaction with the website itself (All users:

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Graph 3 Comparison bounce rate metrics. The left red graph depicts the previous situation before implementing the users’ suggestions. The right green graph depicts the situation after implementing the users’ suggestions

Table 2 Comparison of the previous and current situation as regards to the traffic in total pageviews, organic traffic, referral traffic, bounce rate, and average session duration Situation before the implementations

Situation after the implementations

Comparison in percentage improvement & reduction

Traffic in total pageviews: 3.902

Total pageviews: 5.725

Percentage improvement: 46.71%↑

Organic traffic: 2.974

Organic traffic: 3.499

Percentage improvement: 17.65%↑

Referral traffic: 493

Referral traffic: 1.020

Percentage improvement: 106.89%↑

Bounce rate in all users session: 58.74%

Bounce rate in all users session: 52.03%

Percentage reduction: 6.71%↓

Bounce rate in organic traffic session: 49.81%

Bounce rate in organic traffic session 47.99%

Percentage reduction: 1.82%↓

Bounce rate in referral traffic session: 70.88%

Bounce rate in referral traffic session: 49.46%

Percentage reduction: 21.42%↓

58.74% → 52.03% | Organic Traffic: 49.81% → 47.99% | Referral Traffic: 70.88% → 49.46%). Table 2 will make more comprehensible to the readers the comparison amongst the previous and the current situation of the website in its Traffic and its Bounce Rate percentages.

Discussion In this research paper, an effort was given in order to make more comprehensible if the usability level of a website based on its user’s suggestions for improvement, could possibly relate to its traffic augmentation. To this respect, other research studies refer that the SEO process addresses and examines website’s usability in design, architecture, and content, of improving the volume and quality of online users traffic to the website through search engines [12, 14, 18, 31, 34]. In this paper, we additionally confirmed that the improvement of volume and quality of online users traffic also

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takes place if we follow exclusively a user-centered point of view. More specifically, the Bounce Rate in All Users session indicated a reduction of 6.71%, and in Referral Traffic session, a reduction of 21.42%. Especially for Referral Traffic reduction, this means that the users who came from other external resources such as other websites or social media pages to the improved website based on its user’s suggestions, show less possibilities to leave immediately or enter without an interaction on it. The Organic Traffic Bounce Rate percentage show less than 2% reduction and the All Users session depicted a reduction of about 6.71% in Bounce Rate metric. All these reductions (high or even low) indicated that the website has improved its usability and the ease-of-use level as the visitors show less intention to leave the website immediately without making an interaction on it. Regarding the research objectives of this paper, in the first research objective “Making more comprehensible if the perceptions and the beliefs of the users for the website as regards its usability, constitute an opportunity for improving its traffic”, it should be mentioned that most of the proposed suggestions of the visitors and the administrators of the website are, respectively, related with other studies on SEO topic, as can been seen in Table 1. Based on that, this paper contributes to the academia as it relies on the extracted perceptions and suggestions that the users of the website proposed how they would like to use that website in the future. Additionally, the Bounce Rate metrics have been reduced, a fact which indicates that the usability level of the website has been improved. Hence, this paper could be a milestone for other researches to follow Google’s advice referring that web developers should pay higher attention to the potential users of websites, their concerns and informational needs, as also Heng [10] pointed out. Moreover, opposed with other studies which depict, however, do not complete processes and technicalities for improving the traffic of a website [1, 13, 22, 24], this paper not only extracts processes for optimization based on the users’ suggestions, but also tries to implement these suggestions for optimizing website usability and traffic. To this respect, as regards to the second research objective of this paper, “Investigate that after the completion of users suggestions for improving the usability of the website, the under examined website will improve its traffic or otherwise will remain in the same traffic level”, the answer is that the traffic has been improved and did not remain in the same visit levels. As can be seen in Table 2, there is an augmentation in traffic, while at the same time, the organic traffic of the website has been increased by 17.65%. This percentage means that the search terms––keywords of the internet users had more relevancy with the website content than before (15 of March till 1 of April) as the content of the website has been updated and enriched. In addition, it is useful to refer that the renewal of the blog with new posts in the website and also the insertion of the social media buttons for more engagement with the audience, gave to the website an augmentation of 106.89% to the referral traffic numbers. This could confirm that it is completely useful to connect the blog of a website with the social media accounts that an organization has in order to lead the online users directly from a social media page to the Blog of the website, and hence earn more traffic. This kind of traffic is also fortified with low levels of Bounce Rate (49.46% rather than 70.88%), which means

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that people who came externally from other websites or social media pages in an organization’s website are less likely to leave immediately from it. Controversially, they are more likely to stay on the website in order to satisfy their informational needs.

Usefulness for Practitioners Highlighting the utility of this paper to the digital marketing specialists, this study and its unfolded methodology could work as a practical toolbox for each decision maker not only to deeply understand website’s users perceptions, but also to evaluate the effectiveness of users implemented suggestions based on recognized web usage mining tools such as Google Analytics that has been used in this paper. In addition, unlike other digital marketing techniques such as Google AdWords or Facebook ads, in which an analogous budget is required for improving traffic, this research effectively achieved to improve the traffic of the website via a lower cost digital marketing strategy and especially with no budget for digital advertising.

Conclusions, Limitations and Future Research This study fairly introduces a human-to-human (H2H) unintentional approach in order to improve the traffic of a website, as it is completely based on its visitors and administrators suggestions and needs. The academic community needs further laboratory research in order to understand, if the suggested improvements proposed by the users of multiple websites could possibly improve its traffic. This also means that these specific suggested improvements proposed by the participants of this study could possibly operate in a better or even worse way in other websites regarding their traffic optimization and usability. Each website is unique, and hence its visitor’s informational needs and preferences. In case of this examined website which was related with the private educational topic, it would be very useful to reevaluate its level of usability to new other visitors in order to discover and highlight further usability issues that possibly will improve even more its traffic. Additionally, it needs further understanding if the research methodology that was unfolded in this paper via the conduction of interviews for estimating usability level could possibly be equally effective with specific questionnaire items filled up of more participants rather than this paper. This is also linked to the fact that this study focused absolutely to strengthen search engines scope, which is the provision of useful information to Internet users and their informational needs, while the authors believe that each technological optimization is made by the people, for the people. Finally, it is important to further investigate the wider impact of our approach on business strategies and marketing decisions. We have been involved in complementary, top-down research efforts in service configuration [4, 16, 17, 27], but more

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work is needed to link top-down (i.e., business-driven) to bottom-up (i.e. technologydriven) approaches for delivering increased digital value.

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The Problems of Teaching and Learning in a Cross-Cultural Environment Yulia V. Taratukhina and Lyubov A. Tsyganova

Abstract In modern society, tutors often interact with a multicultural student’s audience in the traditional or online format. The majority of tutors emphasize the problem of constructive knowledge transfer in a multicultural learning environment as the main problems in this context, in addition to cognitive, communication, and psycho-pedagogical specifics. The development of education that is receptive to cultures needs not only specialists in different subjects, but also teachers who have knowledge in the cross-cultural differences sphere. These days, training courses and programs including distance learning are monocultural, that is, do not fully meet the needs of students in information society. Thereby, the main question is how to build constructive education in the cross-cultural education context. We claim that nowadays, there is a necessity of training the specialists with a developed cultural intellect. In this paper, we develop some ways of optimizing the education process in a cross-cultural environment. Keywords Cross-cultural environment · Cultural-cognitive personality profile · Educational cross-culture

Introduction The increase in the number of foreign students in universities will lead to the emergence of students belonging to different types of culture within the same audience

Y. V. Taratukhina (B) Department of Innovation and Business in Information Technologies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation e-mail: [email protected] L. A. Tsyganova Department of Integrated Communication, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 D. P. Sakas and D. K. Nasiopoulos (eds.), Strategic Innovative Marketing, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16099-9_31

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(one educational space). In this case, the teacher faces a more complex task of organizing the educational process. The use of methods of biographical reflection, interactive modeling, the method of role games, etc., helps the student to overcome the barriers of interaction in a multicultural environment. The eclectic approach in teaching helps the student to study various aspects of a discipline, and in the case of the cultural heterogeneity of the group, to adapt to the new educational culture. For a number of disciplines, it is possible to conduct classes using the method of contextual learning, which involves immersing students through performance and visualization into the context of the discipline under study. The purpose of the seminar sessions using this technique is to give students the opportunity to practice the theoretical material and skills training. The method of contextual learning allows to track the transition of theoretical knowledge to skills, and comprehensively assess the work of students in discipline, as various methods of immersion in the context are used. In line with the implementation of this methodology, it is appropriate to talk about an individual approach to learning. It is necessary to take into account the fact that the cultural aspect in pedagogical activity of the teacher becomes very significant by reason of the coexistence different national education systems and products in the international academic space.

Cross-Cultural Didactics—Learning Theory in a Cross-Cultural Environment At this stage, we claim that the developments in the field of learning theory in a multicultural environment––a cross-cultural didactics are absolutely essential. In our view, cross-cultural didactics consists of the sections that investigate: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Objectives and values of education in different cultural groups. General peculiarities of cognitive activity in different cultural groups. Learning styles in different cultures. Common features of teaching methods and test materials in different cultural groups. 5. Peculiarities and problems of pedagogical discourse (in particular, academic writing) in a multicultural environment, including the online environment. 6. Developments in the cross-cultural media didactics sphere. 7. Issues and peculiarities of constructive knowledge transfer in a cross-cultural education environment.

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Tools that Facilitate the Organization of Constructive Education Process in a Multicultural Environment: A Model of Cultural-Cognitive Personality’s Profile and a Model of Cultural-Relevant Teacher’s Intelligence In our opinion, educational activities consist of operational and cognitive components. In order to describe cross-cultural differences, we have to consider cultural models by Hofstede,1 Nisbett,2 Hall,3 Holodnaya,4 Lewis,5 Myasoedov,6 Triandis,7 and Trompenaars.8 We can define a number of the following parameters, underlying analysis of the culture-related aspects of behavior, mentality, and activity and determining specificity of cultural-cognitive personality profile (Fig. 1): specific nature of activity; specific features of information representation; specific features of mentality and attention; specific features of social communications; dominant values. In fact, advanced “cultural intelligence” is an important component of the adaptive education process.9 A teacher with mature “cultural intelligence” will be able to identify a cultural-cognitive profile of the person and find appropriate communication strategy, and in case of strategic planning, an individual approach to education with suitable methods and training materials. In our opinion, a cultural-relevant teacher intellect model looks as follows (Table 1).

Table 1 Cultural-relevant teacher intellect model

Cognitive—Emotional—Operational components of educational communication Learning style

Teaching style

Understanding the overall specifics of cognitive activity of the different cultural groups’ representatives The organization of learning content The organization of teaching methods The specifics of pedagogical discourse The peculiarities of control and measuring materials Reflection and constructive feedback

1 Hofstede

[2]. [6]. 3 Hall [1]. 4 Holodnaya [3]. 5 Lewis [4]. 6 Myasoedov [5]. 7 Triandis [8]. 8 Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner [9]. 9 Taratuhina and Bleskina [7]. 2 Nisbett

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Fig. 1 Basic parameters of cultural-cognitive personality profile design

The Specifics of Educational Communication in “Teacher-Student” System in Different Cultural Groups The sociocultural peculiarities define the specificity of communication in the “teacher-student” system in many ways. By using the G. Hofstede’s theory, we consider all the cultural components and determine their influence on the educational interactions (Table 2). In terms of the dichotomy of criterion “low/high power distance” in the educational space, cultures can be divided into the teacher-centered and the learner-centered one. In cultures with low power distance (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Central Europe, etc.), the central figure of the education process is a student and a teacher is an accompanying figure.

– – – – – –

High power distance

Masculinity/Femininity

Collectivism/Individualism

– – – – –

Low power distance

Power distance

Feminine cultures

– – – –

(continued)

The education process is oriented at the average student The ability to adapt in the team is an important and valuable quality Such students’ qualities as non-conflict, moderation in all things, and good teamwork are encouraged Students choose subjects based on self-interests

– Any question can be discussed – Individual performance and the expression of own standpoints are always encouraged by teachers – The confrontations, the clashes of opinions, and disagreements are an average part of the education process – “Lose face” is a characteristic of professional incompetence – There are equal requirements for all students

Individualist cultures

Students pronounce their opinion only when asked and encouraged by the teacher Individual performances are encouraged only in small groups Harmony and emotional comfort are the dominant conditions in the education process Neither the teacher nor the student does not “lose face” in the educational communications The teachers can make some indulgences taking into account personal attitude

– – – – –

Collectivist cultures

Teacher-centered model The students’ initiatives are not encouraged, thus initiatives come from the teacher Communication is initiated by the teacher Students build their own educational pathway, which is based on the prespecified models Students are not allowed to discuss, enter into controversy with teachers and criticize them The effectiveness of education depends on the teachers and regulated by them

Student-centered model. The students’ initiatives are encouraged Communication is initiated by students The teachers encourage students to choose their own learning pathway Students are allowed to discuss, enter into controversy with teachers and criticize them The effectiveness of education depends on the continuous feedback and interactivity

Communication specifics

Ethnometric criteria

Table 2 G. Hofstede’s ethnometric criteria in the educational communication context

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Uncertainty avoidance

Ethnometric criteria

Table 2 (continued)

– – – – – – – – – –

High level

– – – – –

Low level

Masculine cultures

Students feel themselves more comfortable with strict regulations and schedules Teacher must be competent in all spheres A using academic language in the education process is a good teacher’s characteristic Students’ accuracy and compliance with the requirements are encouraged Teachers consider the disagreements in the education process as a personal disloyalty

Students feel themselves more comfortable without strict regulations and schedules Teacher can tell that he does not know something A using simple language in the education process is a good teacher’s characteristic Students prefer a more innovative approach in education Teachers consider the disagreements in education process as stimulating factor

The education process is focused on the best student Students’ academic achievements are valuable Students’ ability to present own achievements and own uniqueness are valuable Students’ emphasizing from the team is encouraged Students choose subjects based on its usefulness for the future career

Communication specifics

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«West» cultures Proactive student The dominance of verbal auditory and visual information perception type; the tendency to abstraction and differences search; deductive thinking; the independence from the context; information framing—cataloging and the knowledge tree Heuristic and problem search methods; paradigms of educational information processing are interactive, discussions, debates; creativity defined as the creating of something new Interactive, multimedia, available for additions and adjustments Interactive, student-centered OK—mistakes are an average part of the education process The choice of one possibility from several ones, or the author’s position to the issue Low-contextual cultures Expression of individuality Discussions and debates Contents are the primary, context is secondary; cognitive style of information exchange; moderation, restraint Linear argumentation model which is based on the facts: “the fact—the fact—the fact—conclusion” (induction)

Criteria

Information structuring forms and features

Methods

The educational content specifics

Education process

Attitude to the mistakes in the education process

The peculiarities of control and measuring materials

Communication context

Discourse purposes and values

The dominant discourse genres

The dominant discourse emotional peculiarities

Discursive models

A ramified argumentation model: “the conclusion is the evidence” (deduction)

Context is dominant; the process of “how tell” is more significant than “what tell”; avoidance of discursive confrontations

Narrative

Unity with the collective, the preservation of harmony

High-contextual cultures

Aimed at the specific answers relaying; the lack of tasks which show the author’s position and creativity

NOT OK—mistakes are associated with “lose face”

Unilateral, teacher-centered

Basically, the text content where any adjustments is not allowed

Receptive and reproductive methods; paradigm of educational information processing is the information relaying; creativity defined as the interpretation of the existing traditions

The dominance of auditory and kinesthetic information perception style; the tendency to similarities search; inductive thinking; the dependence from the context; information framing—full (not always accurate) picture of the situation; use the intuition and figurative–narrative discourse

«Non-west» cultures Reactive student

Table 3 The methodical peculiarities of the education process organization in a multicultural environment

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Y. V. Taratukhina and L. A. Tsyganova

The Methodical Peculiarities of the Education Process Organization in a Multicultural Environment The emergence of the information environment has initiated the emergence of educational cross-culture that led to some systemic changes, which influence the transformation of the information educational environment organizational elements. We define some criteria for multicultural educational environment development in information society: communication criterion (changing the traditional forms of communication in the “teacher—student” system), methodical (the emergence of culturaladaptive methods of educational information processing), content (differentiation and the possible heterogeneity of the educational content in the education process), and information one (development and using of educational resources considering the cultural specifics of information perception and processing) (Table 3).

Conclusion When students enter into the foreign cultural educational environment, they adapt to it gradually under the influence of its semiotic space features. And, teachers also largely consider the specifics of the institute. However, some difficulties may emerge during the process of interaction with a multicultural audience: the multicultural audience does not allow the teacher to be oriented on members of one cultural group, because educational information should be reported to all the students’ audience equally.

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