Papers by Geoffrey Soutar
Specificity of CSR Ties That (Un)Bind Brand Attachment
Australasian Marketing Journal, 2021
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences brand personality, trust, firm attitudes, and pu... more Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences brand personality, trust, firm attitudes, and purchase intentions. Yet, little attention has been paid to its effects on brand attachment. This study integrated message specificity, self-identity, and attachment theories to explain how socially responsible communication can be used to influence brand attachment. We show that CSR boosted brand attachment when messages contained specific (rather than generic) information that fostered positive brand elaborations, but eroded it when specific information was interpreted negatively. This effect was present only when socially responsible engagement was personally relevant to consumers, pointing to significant variations in message effectiveness. CSR was also more effective when firms announced socially responsible support for the first time and less effective when firms already had a CSR track record, pointing to a ceiling effect.
The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 1991
Linking social media to customer relationship management (CRM): a qualitative study on SMEs
Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 2017
Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owner-managers were interviewed to understan... more Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owner-managers were interviewed to understand the underpinning factors of social customer relationship management (social CRM), customer engagement behaviors, and social CRM as dynamic capability. Findings show that SMEs’ customers use social media to generate content, influence other customers through positive reviews, and mobilize others’ actions toward the brands or products. However, SMEs tend not to use social media for making important strategic decisions or calculating CRM indicators. Key issues are around a lack of resources, data management, and privacy and control. Resource constraints force SMEs to manage their social media on a reactive and ad hoc basis. This study confirms that social CRM can be characterized as a dynamic capability in SMEs, and recommends that automated and sustained ways of collecting and integrating social data with CRM can help SMEs realize the true benefits of social CRM, and thus outweigh their resource constraints in the long term.
Customer engagement in CSR: a utility theory model with moderating variables
Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 2017
Purpose Both customer engagement (CE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked ... more Purpose Both customer engagement (CE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked to customer loyalty. Past studies use service dominant logic and customer value co-creation to explain this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to apply utility theory to develop and test a new theoretical model based on CSR initiative preference to understand the relationship between CE and customer loyalty to the organisation in a CSR platform. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study uses choice theory in the form of best-worst scaling, and structural equation modelling, to measure the impact of sports club members’ choice preferences for a range of CSR initiatives on their intention to engage with the initiative and subsequent loyalty to the club. Findings This study highlights the importance of engaging members in the CSR strategy they prefer as it enhances not only the extra value to the organisation via customer loyalty to the organisation, but also CE with the orga...
Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 2017
An exploration of ethical consumers' response to social Labelling of wool apparel
Academics around the world are being subject to increasing scrutiny, especially in terms of resea... more Academics around the world are being subject to increasing scrutiny, especially in terms of research performance and Australian marketing academics are not exception. The present paper examines their research impact, updating and extending an earlier ANZMAC paper and providing research impact benchmarks for Level B, Level C, Level D and Level E marketing academics in Australia.
Predictors of Behavioural Loyalty in a Professional Sport Membership Context
Marketing and Management Sciences, 2010
1. Background Professional sport teams have emerged as significant businesses in their own right.... more 1. Background Professional sport teams have emerged as significant businesses in their own right. No longer do these teams just provide entertainment for spectators; their sport product is now a business commodity sold to four distinct groups (fans, television and other media companies, communities and corporations)(Mason, 1999). As a result, the marketing of professional sport has become a complex operation that involves decision-making at a number of different levels and in a
The Spread of Green Practices in Business Networks
Differences in the start-up goals and later satisfaction of women small business proprietors in Western Australia: a comparison across years
This paper examines the start-up goals of a sample of women small business proprietors from Weste... more This paper examines the start-up goals of a sample of women small business proprietors from Western Australia and their later satisfaction with the achievement of these goals across two time periods, using samples obtained in 1996 and 2003. The changes in both start-up objectives and satisfaction across time are examined in a variety of ways and the implications of the
The Effects of Productivity Enhancement: Some Community Views
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 1992
The need to improve workplace performance and productivity is a commonly expressed view. This pap... more The need to improve workplace performance and productivity is a commonly expressed view. This paper reports on community perception of productivity. It suggests that workers’ negative perceptions regarding a distribution of the benefits of productivity may act as a barrier to productivity enhancement.
Generational Differences in the Start-Up Goals and Later Satisfaction of Women Small Business Proprietors
Small Enterprise Research, 2004
Abstract This paper examines generational differences in the start-up goals of a national sample ... more Abstract This paper examines generational differences in the start-up goals of a national sample of women small business proprietors and the satisfaction they derived from the achievement of these goals. Prior research has shown that there are gender differences in goals, but generational effects are an unknown quality in the small business literature. Using one-way ANOVA, the results reveal significant differences in initial start-up goals across generations, although levels of satisfaction were very similar.
Corporate Innovation: Some Australian Experiences
Prometheus, 1993
Corporate innovation has not been well studied in Australia. The present study examined the exten... more Corporate innovation has not been well studied in Australia. The present study examined the extent and type of innovation in companies listed on the Western Australian Stock Exchange and it identified the high and low innovators by calculating an Innovation Score for each of the 184 companies in the sample. Factors which influence the level of corporate innovation were also determined. Companies with high levels of innovation were found to involve company employees in the innovative process. As in America, venture teams, ...
Job Satisfaction in the South Western Australian Timber Industry: A Perceptual Mapping Approach
Management Research News, 1983
A multivariant approach to the complex issues of worker satisfaction, providing analytical and di... more A multivariant approach to the complex issues of worker satisfaction, providing analytical and diagnostic results which can be extremely useful to a management concerned about this aspect of the workplace.
Exploring consumer beliefs about wool apparel in the USA and Australia
Journal of the Textile Institute, 2012
The wool industry has responded to the decline in wool&am... more The wool industry has responded to the decline in wool's share of the textile market with innovations in production, processing and marketing that are aimed at increasing consumer demand for wool apparel. However, little is known about whether consumers' beliefs about wool apparel reflect these innovations and whether consumers' beliefs are uniform or vary in different markets. This exploratory study investigated consumers' beliefs about wool apparel in three different locations (New York and Colorado in the USA and Western Australia). ...
Service Quality in Western Australian Educational Institutions
Journal of Customer Service in Marketing & Management, 1995
In 1985 the Australian government allowed vublic tertiarv educa-" tional institu... more In 1985 the Australian government allowed vublic tertiarv educa-" tional institutions to market their courses overseas for the first time, charging full fees for such services. Since then the export of education has become a growth industry at a time when Australia is struggling to improve its balance of payments and address a significant trade imbalance. Lewis (1989) noted that education contributed $220 million to the national economy in 1988 and that it was predicted to yield more than $500 million to Australia by 1995. Senior politicians ...
Export Barriers in the Western Australian Horticulture Industry
Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 1995
This study was designed to identify perceived barriers to exports specific to Australian horticul... more This study was designed to identify perceived barriers to exports specific to Australian horticulture industry and the relative impact of these barriers on firms' export decisions. Specifically the study attempted to examine the differences, if any, in perceived export barriers by non-exporting and exporting firms. The analysis suggested seven major export barrier factors/variables. These barriers are somewhat different to barriers identified in recent studies suggesting that export barriers may be industry and country specific. The perceived seriousness of some of the barriers was significantly different for non-exporters and exporters. A discriminant analysis suggested, however, that it was not possible to predict whether a firm will be an exporter or not based on their perceptions of export barriers. The implications of the findings for the management of Australian horticulture exports are discussed.
Online and off-line travel packages preferences: a conjoint analysis
International Journal of Tourism Research, 2009
Abstract Past research has suggested that a number of travel package attributes impact on people&... more Abstract Past research has suggested that a number of travel package attributes impact on people's choices. In the present study the impacts of a number of these elements (price, package characteristics, travel agents and a seal of approval) in online and off-line environments were examined using conjoint analysis. It was found that price had the biggest impact, although travel agent and airline reputation and trustworthiness also impacted on people's preferences. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the attributes' ...
Supervisory Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction in Public Accounting Firms
Australian Accounting Review, 2000
This paper reports the results of a survey of 350 junior‐level accountants working at public acco... more This paper reports the results of a survey of 350 junior‐level accountants working at public accounting firms in Australia. The survey obtained information on their perceptions of the extent to which the supervisory actions recommended in the Accounting Education Change Commission's (AECC)Issues Statement No. 4 were applied in their organisations. We test whether these supervisory actions have an effect on their job satisfaction. The results indicate that each of the three major elements of supervisory actions recommended by the AECC ‐ leadership and mentoring, working conditions and assignments ‐are significantly associated with overall job satisfaction.
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Papers by Geoffrey Soutar