Strategic Innovative Marketing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Internet forum is a platform in which its members exchange views and acquire knowledge through dialogue. The interested person has the opportunity to visit the forum of the field that concerns him, in order to exchange views and gain knowledge.By using the forum, businesses benefit greatly. In this way, they promote their products and/or services through social marketing. The users are able to provide documented opinions about the products and if these are positive, then visitors of the forum are encouraged toward their market.

With the unprecedented strength held by the consumers, marketers seek the opportunity to come into contact with the customers. In addition, considering the facilitation of communication, the event industry rose significantly in recent years. The Digital Business Transformation has come to stay, forcing each company to adapt to the digital era. Moreover, the introduction of Web 2.0 technology and consequently of the social networking sites, provide countless opportunities for businesses to target and attract the right audience in order to conduct an event successfully. Although the events hold a little time, preparation and post-event awareness takes in overall much longer. However, considering the success of the event, someone unintentionally asks, which might be the strategy that needs to be followed in social media and how the results are predicted and optimized. This research paper analyses and merges the components of the social media promotion in conjunction with the needs of an event. The overall social media strategy will be defined, in order to build a dynamic simulation model which optimizes the results but also provides a risk-free environment to promote the event through this strategy with a well-defined budget.

This work investigated the latent variables of 25 export companies located in Mexico, with its organization; objectives and problematic production could be known. This research paper was focused on the knowledge of technology latent variable. PLS is an efficient statistical technique that is highly suited for information systems research. In this regard, we present guidelines for the applying of PLS, as well as an explanation of the different steps implied for the assessment of the measurement model and the quality structural model. Finally, we present information systems models of quality in which we have put previous recommendations into effect.

Despite the fact that Information Systems (IS) in hospitals increase the organizational value and performance, several Information Technology (IT) investments fail, due to the lack of strategic development. A strategic plan should include the strategy of healthcare organization or strategic aims the resulting information management strategies, the existing state of Hospital Information Systems (HIS), and an evaluation on how far the existing IS align. Previous researches have examined HIS frameworks for planning and success, and HIS success factors, but they do not provide an integration of strategic planning with the HIS development. The purpose of this paper is to present a state of the art of knowledge about strategic planning and success of HIS with a focus on the challenges in developing HIS. The findings show that there are a number of important issues that lead to inefficiencies in the current implementation practice.

As the economic and financial crisis and attendant austerity policies have a negative influence on the Greek National Health System (Greek NHS), the NHS professionals, as well as dentists, have to confront unsatisfactory working conditions, job insecurity, and added workload. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the occupational stress of dentists in public healthcare sector in Greece, during the current economic crisis. A survey collected data from 135 non-hospital dentists in Greece using the Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, a contemporary research instrument. The results show that a relative imbalance between efforts given and rewards received was found in non-hospital (primary care) Greek NHS dentists. Greek government should implement interventions to address occupational stress which is increased during the economic crisis. Also, Greek government should elaborate and improve the public dental care system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.