Academic Marketing Research Articles

FUSING FAITH AND FINANCE VIA FATWA: THE FUTURE OF WAQF-TAKAFUL DEATH COMPENSATION PRODUCT AT FWD TAKAFUL BERHAD

The waqf-takaful concept involves channeling death compensation benefits from deceased takaful participants to selected religious institutions, thereby generating perpetual and sustainable waqf contributions. Despite recent challenges such as inconsistent implementation standards and management issues, some takaful operators in Malaysia have started to incorporate death compensation waqf into their offerings. Key players in this field, such as FWD Takaful Berhad, Waqaf An-Nur Corporation Berhad (WanCorp) and Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia (YWM), have significant potential for collaboration in advancing this product. This study aims to develop a waqf-takaful death compensation product for FWD Takaful Berhad, known as FATWA. This product integrates elements of death compensation waqf and takaful, combining the efforts of FWD Takaful with WanCorp and YWM to optimize takaful benefits. The study uses a qualitative approach, with data collected through focus group discussions involving academics in Islamic finance, waqf, law and marketing, as well as industry players from selected takaful companies in Malaysia, YWM and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA). The data were analysed using thematic analysis via ATLAS.ti software. The study found that waqf-takaful death compensation products, FATWA developed by FWD Takaful Berhad through WanCorp or YWM, have unique strengths. Both are competitive and capable of making significant contributions to the takaful and waqf industries, offering substantial benefits to the Muslim community as a whole.

Islamic Education Marketing Management in Review of the Al-Qur'an; Analysis of Islamic Ethics in Educational Marketing

Education marketing management is very important for the sustainability of any educational institution, especially for Islamic educational institutions. The interests and desires of consumers (society) must be prioritized in marketing management in education so that excellent service can be successful and efficient. This research aims to determine the Islamic ethical values included in educational marketing management in terms of Al-Quran verses so that it is hoped that it can increase the effectiveness of academic marketing. This type of research is qualitative, using a literature review. The data collection technique in this research was carried out by taking and reviewing literature related to the topic in the form of commentaries, books, and journal articles and combining them to reach a finding. Then the data analysis technique used to compile this research is content analysis. As a result, this research found that the Islamic ethical values used to increase the effectiveness of educational marketing are: (1) justice (just), (2) honesty (Siddiq), (3) responsibility (Amanah), (4) humility (tawadhu), and (5) patience (sabr). This research concludes that when carrying out marketing activities, you must apply ethics by Islamic ethics: justice by Surah Al-Maidah verse 9, honesty by Surah At-Taubah verse 119, responsibility by Surah Al-Anfal verse 27, humility by Surah Al-Hujurat verse 11, and patience by Surah Al-Baqarah verse 153.

The role of critical conceptual contributions in academic marketing journals

The role of critical conceptual contributions in academic marketing journals

Marketing Decision Model and Consumer Behavior Prediction With Deep Learning

This article presents a study using ResNet-50, GRU, and transfer learning to construct a marketing decision-making model and predict consumer behavior. Deep learning algorithms address the scale and complexity of consumer data in the information age. Traditional methods may not capture patterns effectively, while deep learning excels at extracting features from large datasets. The research aims to leverage deep learning to build a marketing decision-making model and predict consumer behavior. ResNet-50 analyzes consumer data, extracting visual features for marketing decisions. GRU model temporal dynamics, capturing elements like purchase sequences. Transfer learning improves performance with limited data by using pre-trained models. By comparing the model predictions with ground truth data, the performance of the models can be assessed and their effectiveness in capturing consumer behavior and making accurate predictions can be measured. This research contributes to marketing decision-making. Deep learning helps understand consumer behavior, formulate personalized strategies, and improve promotion and sales. It introduces new approaches to academic marketing research, fostering collaboration between academia and industry.

Cultivating Engagement: Unleashing the Power of Memes in Academic Marketing

Cultivating Engagement: Unleashing the Power of Memes in Academic Marketing

Collective impact for ocean literacy – inspiring the next generation of ocean champions using social marketing

Purpose This paper aims to describe a case between practitioners and social marketing academics to grow and scale a programme that engages with primary schools, teachers, children and the education network, inspiring students to become marine leaders and ocean champions. Design/methodology/approach Over a six-year period, the authors first applied collective intelligence to work with stakeholders across society to better understand the barriers and solutions to teaching children (6–12 year olds) about the ocean in schools. Following this, a Collective Impact Assessment of the Explorers Education Programme took place to grow the impact of the programme. Findings The Explorers Education Programme has grown its numbers higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, the Explorers Education Programme had the largest number of participating children, reaching 15,237, with a growth of 21% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and 79% compared to 2021. In 2023, the programme won the “Best Education Outreach Award” category of the Education Awards in Ireland. Research limitations/implications This research stresses the importance of measuring impact. The long-term impact of the Explorers Education Programme at societal, environmental and economical levels takes a much longer time frame to measure than the six years of these research collaborations. Practical implications The collaborative approach between academics and practitioners meant that this research had practical implications, whereby necessary and effective changes and learnings could be directly applied to the Explorers Education Programme in real time, as the practitioners involved were directly responsible for the management and coordination of the programme. Originality/value The value of collaborations and engagement between academia and practice cannot be underestimated. The ability to collectively reflect and assess impact moves beyond “an” intervention, allowing for more meaningful behavioural, social and system changes for the collective good, inspiring the next generation of marine leaders and ocean champions.

The Impact of Digitalization in Academic Marketing – A Comparative Study

Abstract Using as a starting point the continuous transformation that the academic environment bears under the impact of the digitization phenomenon, our paper aims at a scientific investigation on the online presence of the educational offer of two universities. Current methods issued from theoretical and professional models have allowed us to highlight a series of criteria that reflect the quality and performance of online digital promotion of admission services in the case of two representative universities in Romania. Thus, we can say that, by building an operational dashboard, educational digital marketing can benefit from decision support tools, useful both in branding policy and in operationalizing online presence and communication.

Critical examination of academic marketing and service research’s philosophical foundation

PurposeThe philosophical foundations determine how an academic discipline identifies, understands and analyzes phenomena. The choice of philosophical perspective is vital for both marketing and service research. This paper aims to propose a social and systemic perspective that addresses current challenges in service and marketing research by revisiting the philosophy of science debate.Design/methodology/approachThe paper revisits the philosophy of science debate to address the implications of an emergent, complex and adaptive view of marketing and service research. It draws on critical realism by combining structuration and systemic perspectives.FindingsA recursive perspective, drawing on structures and action, is suggested as it includes multiple actors’ intentions and captures underlying drivers of market exchange as a basis for developing marketing and service strategies in practice. This is aligned with other scholars arguing for a more systemic, adaptive and complex view of markets in light of emerging streams in academic marketing and service research, ranging from value cocreation, effectuation, emergence and open source to empirical phenomena such as digitalization, robotization and the growth of international networks.Research limitations/implicationsThe reciprocal dynamic between individuals and the overarching system provides a reflexivity approach intrinsic to the service ecosystem. This creates new avenues for research on marketing and service phenomena.Originality/valueThis paper discusses critics, conflicts and conceptualization in service research. It suggests a possible approach for service research and marketing scholars capable of responding to current complexities and turbulence in economic and societal contexts.

The Secret Formula for Getting Rich with Scientific Research using Academic Marketing: Prepare to be Amazed!

Objective: How do internet searches work? Have you ever thought about how things could be different if you marketed your research better? In this editorial, I seek to challenge the more restrictive narrative of scientific production and scientific dissemination by blending theory with practical examples, inviting you, the reader, to try a more targeted digital engagement, turning your research into an open conversation with users in general, not just a monologue confined to the digital shelves of journals, merely accumulating points for CAPES.
 Method: Leaving the comfort zone of impersonal, third-person writing, in this editorial, we will dive into the rediscovered art of “selling” research to the public.
 Results: I initially unravel the mystery of the search algorithm, with a touch of academic marketing, to spice up the quest for online visibility.
 Contributions: Among strategies of Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO) and reflections on the reluctance of some academics towards marketing, I propose that we revisit our view of how research can be “sold” to the market. Additionally, I bring some implicit and explicit ideas for research that could be conducted along this line of more effective scientific dissemination.

Comparing the Effects of the Nasdaq and Hang Seng on the Stock Performance of New Oriental

By the end of 2021, New Oriental declared that it would discontinue offering K-9 curricu-lum tutoring available at all its learning centers nationally. It will refocus its efforts and al-locate its resources to academic marketing strategies unrelated to K9 subject education. The goal of this article's research is to evaluate, using regression and CAPM models, the effects of the Nasdaq and Hang Seng on the returns on New Oriental stock. To determine their beta values and intercept terms, regression analysis of New Oriental stock returns, Nasdaq index returns, and Hang Seng index returns were performed. The CAPM model, which mainly investigates the correlation between projected returns and risky assets in the stock market, acts as the asset pricing model. Beta is a crucial variable. The beta coeffi-cient is a risk indicator that measures how volatile an individual stock or stock fund's price is in comparison to the overall stock market. The result is Nasdaq has a higher risk-free rate of interest and lower Beta value. Hang Seng has a lower risk-free rate of interest and higher Beta value.

Academic Marketing Climate, Marketing Strategies And Student Enrollment Turnout Of Council Admission And Marketing In Selected Schools In District 1 Province Of Laguna

Academic Marketing Climate, Marketing Strategies And Student Enrollment Turnout Of Council Admission And Marketing In Selected Schools In District 1 Province Of Laguna

Conceptualizing, Embracing, and Measuring Failure in Social Marketing Practice

Background While failure in social marketing practice represents an emerging research agenda, the discipline has not yet considered this concept systematically or cohesively. This lack of a clear conceptualization of failure in social marketing to aid practice thus presents a significant research gap. Focus This study aimed to conceptualize failures in social marketing practice. Methods A qualitative survey was conducted using purposive sampling to solicit expert views of well-established social marketing academics and practitioners. Participants were asked to discuss failures in social marketing practice based on their experience in the field. A total of 49 participants provided their input to the survey. Thematic analysis was used to develop four themes addressing the research question. Importance It is widely acknowledged that reflecting and learning from past failures to promote future best practices is desirable for any discipline. As an empirically based social change discipline, social marketing would benefit from the elevation of failure within its broader research agenda. Results Four themes were identified: (1) Failures occur when the target behaviors are not achieved, (2) Tactics used to measure failures, (3) Process failure, and (4) Failures either not measured or reframed as lessons learned. A conceptual framework was created to characterize the nature of failures in social marketing practice, representing a feedback loop deemed problematic for the discipline. Recommendations We call for social marketers to explicitly acknowledge and address failures when describing and reporting on their work and project outcomes. Efforts should be made to adopt a reflexive stance and examine and address internal and external factors affecting the program’s failures.

Religiosity scales in marketing research

PurposeThis paper aims to identify religiosity scale usage in academic marketing articles and compare the effectiveness of different religiosity scales in predicting marketing and consumer behavior outcomes.Design/methodology/approachArticles (n = 397) in the top 20 marketing journals are reviewed and a follow-up study is conducted that compares 22 religiosity scales in predicting 18 marketing variables.FindingsMost scales are from preexisting sources (64.3%), only 20% are multi-dimensional and over 58% are used in only one journal article. Only 22.5% of possible regressions in the follow-up study predicting marketing variables from religiosity scales were significant.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited by the journals and dependent variables chosen. Implications include diversify research topics, expand publication outlets, decrease use of author-generated scales, increase use of multi-item and multi-dimensional measures, replicate findings methodologically and conceptually and make cultural context adaptations.Practical implicationsMarketers would benefit from using preexisting scales, ensuring that religiosity is measured using a multi-item measure that contains appropriate items for the dominant religious beliefs of the sample, as well as consider multi-dimensional measures to best guide marketing strategy decisions, such as target market definition.Originality/valueThis is the first research study to compare the use of religiosity scales in marketing. This offers key value to the marketing literature by highlighting tactics to take to improve consistency in research practices to increase the comparability and accuracy of findings.

Quantitative research on the relationship between academic marketing and academic research －Focusing on newspaper reports and press releases related to functional food notification information－

Quantitative research on the relationship between academic marketing and academic research －Focusing on newspaper reports and press releases related to functional food notification information－

The Influence of the Rise of Chinese Feminism on the Marketing Strategy of Beauty Products

This research study is based on the realistic background of the rise of feminism in China, which noticeably influenced female consumers, specifically through the spread of the internet. Due to the high activation of the topic of feminism, this study plans to discover its influence on the beauty market in China, as female consumers occupy a relatively higher proportion in this market. This research has a deep background of the development of the Chinese beauty industry since reform and opening up in China. The marketing principles in the Chinese beauty market are then discussed and analyzed while supported by a questionnaire based on the "snowball" sampling method. It leads to Chinese consumer segmentation based on consumers' definitions of feminism. Throughout the research, consumers' willingness to see feminist elements in beauty advertisements and the variety of feminism that consumers have defined have been discovered. It hints at the future patterns of "how to market" to beauty organizations in the Chinese market. This research study can help widen the range of research in the academic marketing field and provide more ideas to academicians in future marketing coupled with a way to think from a new angle. It could also possibly help business people who work in the beauty industry in the Chinese market to have an idea of how to present consumers and potential consumers think and how to manipulate and reflect under the condition of fast development on feminism.

The Secret Formula for Getting Rich with Scientific Research using Academic Marketing: Prepare to be Amazed!

The Secret Formula for Getting Rich with Scientific Research using Academic Marketing: Prepare to be Amazed!

Learning from Data: An Empirics-First Approach to Relevant Knowledge Generation

A theory-first paradigm tends to be the dominant approach in much academic marketing research. In this approach, a theory is borrowed, refined, or developed and then tested empirically. In this challenging-the-boundaries article, the authors make a case for an empirics-first approach. “Empirics-first” refers to research that (1) is grounded in (originates from) a real-world marketing phenomenon, problem, or observation, (2) involves obtaining and analyzing data, and (3) produces valid marketing-relevant insights without necessarily developing or testing theory. The empirics-first approach is not antagonistic to theory but rather can serve as a stepping-stone to theory. The approach lends itself well to today’s data-rich environment, which can reveal novel research questions untethered to theory. The present article describes the underlying principles of an empirics-first approach, which consists of exploring a domain purposefully without preconceptions. Using a rich set of published examples, the authors offer guidance on how to implement empirics-first research and how it can lead to valuable knowledge development. Advice is also offered to scholars on how to report empirics-first research and to reviewers and to editorial teams on how to evaluate it. The ultimate objective is to pave a way for the empirics-first approach to enter the mainstream of academic marketing research.

Editorial: Marketing’s Role in the Evolving Discipline of Product Management

Product managers have tremendous power to change lives by setting the priorities for innovation. As the product management discipline continues to evolve and grow in popularity, there is an opportunity to strengthen mutually beneficial connections between the practice of product management and academic marketing research. For product managers, marketing academia can be an untapped knowledge resource. For marketing academics, there is an opportunity to directly influence product managers through creating rigorous and relevant research that will shape the courses taught on this increasingly popular topic. This editorial highlights the opportunity to shape the product management discipline, demonstrates that the marketing literature has a body of knowledge on which further contributions to product management can be based, and shares knowledge gaps that the Marketing Science community is capable of addressing.

Factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping amongst young adults in South Africa

PurposeThis study investigates the factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping among young adult consumers in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from selected young adult participants using a stratified probability sampling strategy. Smart PLS was used to analyse the data.FindingsThe findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness (PU), peer review (PR) and attitude (ATT) positively influence continuance intention (CI).Research limitations/implicationsIn line with the available literature, there are few prior post-adoption studies that delineate the influence of individual characteristics on digital commerce usage activities. There is high mobile penetration as a result of positive digital commerce and mobile application usage and adoption, creating the need to investigate and better understand the drivers behind, not just adoption and usage, but continued use of digital commerce platforms and applications. Since the sample size is relatively small, further future research studies can test the same model with bigger sample sizes to assess generalisability of the results in different locations.Practical implicationsThis study adds to the current literature by concentrating on the extent to which systems and marketing elements influence young adult customers' intention to continue using online and mobile grocery shopping platforms in South Africa.Originality/valueThe study adds value from a theoretical standpoint, contributing to the antecedent factors of the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and giving marketing academics insights into what aspects drive re-use of online and mobile grocery shopping and on what should be the focus.

The future of digital technologies in marketing: A conceptual framework and an overview

Digital technologies are key to achieving competitive advantage across marketing and retailing contexts. At the same time, marketing managers are confronted with a variety of challenges surrounding the strategic use of these technologies and the need to re-think their digital strategies. Importantly, managers need to develop a deeper understanding of consumer attitudes towards and engagement with (or lack thereof) digital technologies. Marketing strategists can benefit from academic marketing’s thought leadership to learn how they can transform these challenges into strategic opportunities for competitive advantage. This can lead to technological innovations that create customer, firm, and societal value. Some of these benefits are described in the articles that make up this special issue. We propose a framework that focuses on the role of strategic resources used by managers to develop and deliver on the promise of digital technologies. Then, we report insights from 16 boardroom interviews with senior marketing managers resulting in three broad themes: decentralized marketing, metamodern customer experiences, and marketing mechanization. We close with a research agenda to motivate additional thought-leading research in this fast-growing area.