Product Complexity and Strategic Alliance on Drug Approval

Management of the business-government relationship is critical for firm performance in regulated industries. In this paper, we predict a U-shaped relationship between product complexity and the time to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Moreover, we argue that this association is contingent on the types of strategic alliances (i.e., R&D alliance, Marketing alliance) of the focal firm in that those alliances help FDA and pharmaceutical companies achieve harmony. Using the approved drugs by FDA from 1999 to 2016 as the sample, our hypotheses are supported by the empirical analysis on US pharmaceutical firms. The findings have important implications to achieving harmony between pharmaceutical firms and regulatory agencies.

Research on the Construction of Performance Indicators for the Marketing Alliance of Catering Industry and Credit Card Issuing Banks by Using the Balanced Scorecard and Fuzzy AHP

In recent years, strategic alliances have seen explosive growth in various practical fields. Various forms of strategic alliances and cooperation models have been widely used among various organizations and have received considerable attention from academic and practical circles. However, there are many factors that affect the success of marketing alliances, and the academic community has not reached a conclusion and consensus. Among them, the establishment and monitoring of a performance evaluation mechanism is one of the key points. In the past, many academic studies have devoted themselves to the establishment of performance evaluation mechanisms for many different industries, but few of them have focused on the establishment of performance evaluation mechanisms for marketing alliances between the service industry and the banking industry. The purpose of this study is to assist in the establishment of performance evaluation indicators for marketing alliance between the catering industry and credit card issuing banks by using expert Delphi, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and balanced scorecard methods. The main result of this study is to establish five key performance evaluation indicators including customer factors, cooperative alliance factors, financial factors, learning and growth factors, and internal process factors. In terms of secondary indicators, there are seven customer sub-factors, six cooperative alliance sub-factors, five financial sub-factors, seven internal processes sub-factors, and five learning and growth sub-factors, totaling 30 sub-factors. The research results can be used as a reference for academic and practical areas.

Factors influencing the choice of marketing strategies among cassava microenterprises in Kenya

Cassava (Manihot esculenta L.) production and utilisation in Kenya face stiff competition from other major starchy food crops mainly maize, potatoes and wheat. This is due to the cyanide content in cassava which is lethal when roots are mishandled, leading to avoidance of the crop by potential consumers. This has affected the marketing of the crop and its products.The objective of this study was to analyse factors that influence the choice of marketing strategies among agripreneurs in cassava microenterprises in Kenya. A studywas conducted in Migori County (Kuria West, Suna East, Suna West and Uriri Sub-counties) in Kenya, using a semi-structured questionnaire, administered to a sample of 267 cassava micro enterprises. Results showed that the most used marketing strategies were pricing, product promotion, value addition and formation of a marketing alliance mostly in their combination. Multivariate Probit results showed that age, gender, education level, household size, major occupation (trading), marketing experience, seed money, entrepreneurial training, marketing information, market distance, group membership, farm gate and open-air marketing outlets significantly (P<0.05) influenced the choice of marketing strategies among cassava microenterprises. Therefore, cassava agripreneurs of microenterprises need to combine viable product lines and the marketing strategies that give maximum performance in order to increase their marketing shares and profits.

From Advertisement Integration to Co-Branding: Marketing Alliances Development in Digital Environment

The paper provides a methodological explanation of the essence of shifting from the native advertising format (advertisement integration) to co-branding (brand alliance) involving companies and influencers (opinion leaders) that interact in the digital environment. Such a shift is interpreted by the authors as a process of strategic development of marketing cooperation in the digital environment, since co-branding involves launching new products to the market and is accompanied by creating new markets and needs. The authors propose their own approach to the issue in hand from the perspective of marketing alliance typology based on the marketing complex model. Differences between advertisement integrations and co-branding are conceptualized following this model. The need to consider influencers’ role in forging brand alliances is explained from the branding theory perspective. Differences between celebrity endorsements marketing and influencer marketing are identified. The proposed methodology is applied to study actual cases of co-branding in the digital environment involving Russian and foreign companies that are associated with shaping a new market of gender-neutral cosmetics. Eventually, a conclusion is made on the need for further study of marketing alliances in the digital space to establish a comprehensive theoretical and methodology foundation and accumulate empirical material on the issue in hand.

Marketing strategy in Britain’s mainline railways, 1923-1938

Purpose This paper aims to reassess the marketing strategy of Britain’s Big Four railway companies during the interwar period to locate railway marketing in the broader context of railway business and the general development of service marketing in Britain. Design/methodology/approach By a detailed analysis of internal company records, this paper discusses three aspects of railway marketing: the development of marketing departments within the companies, the control of marketing expenditure and the industry-wide marketing alliance. The three areas of railway marketing are examined by way of comparing them with the corresponding situations in other British industries. Findings It reveals the relatively advanced state of railway companies’ marketing in the contemporary context. Furthermore, a series of re-organisations are interpreted as a response to the inter-modal competition from road traffic. Originality/value By characterising railway marketing in the interwar period as part of the industry’s rear-guard battle in the competitive travel market, in which railways were clearly losing out to road traffic, the paper provides a perspective that enables to understand how the “golden age” of railway marketing coincided with the railways’ decline in the passenger business.