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1 – 10 of 49M. Bilal Akbar, Nihar Amoncar, Erik Cateriano-Arévalo and Alison Lawson
Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.
Abstract
Purpose
Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, the authors conducted an open-ended online questionnaire with 48 worldwide social marketing experts, most with more than 20 years of experience in the field. The authors analyzed data using topic modeling, a machine-learning method that groups responses/terms into cluster topics based on similarities. Keywords in each topic served to generate themes for discussion.
Findings
While behavior change is mentioned as paramount to conceptualizing success, participants prefer to use more tangible and less complex forms to define/measure success, such as campaign recall uptick. In addition, lack of funding was considered an important factor in measuring success. This study provides a two-stage taxonomy to better understand success in social marketing.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to conceptualize success in social marketing practice.
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Rachael Millard and M. Bilal Akbar
This paper aims to understand what reflexivity means and explores which types of reflexivity could be applied within social marketing practice as a critical approach to overcoming…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand what reflexivity means and explores which types of reflexivity could be applied within social marketing practice as a critical approach to overcoming failures.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a critical literature review.
Findings
The study proposes a typology for a reflexive approach to social marketing practice to overcome failures. The typology is built on self and critical reflexivity, simultaneously allowing social marketers to reflect on external and internal factors that may affect the individual's role and could negatively affect social marketing practice unless otherwise considered. The types of reflexivity discussed are not prescriptive; instead, the authors intend to provoke further discussion on an under-researched but vital area of social marketing.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed typology is conceptual; an empirical investigation to gain social marketer's views would further enhance the effectiveness of the applications of the typology.
Practical implications
Social marketers could use the proposed typology for future practice.
Originality/value
This is the first study that conceptualises various types of reflexivity within social marketing practice to overcome failures.
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M. Bilal Akbar, Lawrence B. Ndupu, Jeff French and Alison Lawson
This paper aims to develop and present a new planning framework of social marketing, known as consumer research, segmentation, design of the social programme, implementation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop and present a new planning framework of social marketing, known as consumer research, segmentation, design of the social programme, implementation, evaluation and sustainability (CSD-IES).
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed framework is based on recent theoretical developments in social marketing and is informed by the key strengths of existing social marketing planning approaches.
Findings
The CSD-IES planning framework incorporates emerging principles of social marketing. For example, sustainability in changed behaviour, ethical considerations in designing social marketing programmes, the need for continuous research to understand the changing needs of the priority audience during the programme and the need for explicit feedback mechanisms.
Research limitations/implications
The CSD-IES framework is a dynamic and flexible framework that guides social marketers, other practitioners and researchers to develop, implement and evaluate effective and sustainable social marketing programmes to influence or change specific behaviours based on available resources.
Originality/value
This paper makes an important contribution to social marketing theory and practice by integrating elements of behaviour maintenance, consideration of ethical perspectives and continuous feedback mechanisms in developing the CSD-IES framework, bringing it in line with the global consensus definition of social marketing.
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Seamus Allison, M. Bilal Akbar, Claire Allison, Karla Padley and Stephen Wormall
This study aims to demonstrate the evaluation of an incentive scheme to encourage pregnant people to set a quit-smoking date.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to demonstrate the evaluation of an incentive scheme to encourage pregnant people to set a quit-smoking date.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper outlines a collaborative approach, working with pregnant people, clinicians, tobacco dependency practitioners and academics to gain insights into their perspectives and experiences. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed.
Findings
The incentive scheme and appropriate support from clinicians have been shown to encourage pregnant people to set a quit date. The tobacco dependency practitioners helped remove barriers, such as the perception of the stigmatisation of smoking when pregnant. The practitioners also helped pregnant people make informed decisions to support successful behaviour change. The impact of the scheme resulted in improved infant health indicators. The scheme’s evaluation also supported establishing stakeholder knowledge exchange and learning processes.
Research limitations/implications
This is a single-site study among a relatively small group of people designed to achieve a specific evaluation objective. Caution in generalising to wider settings should be exercised.
Practical implications
This study highlights the efficacy of an incentive scheme, complemented with support from clinicians, and the significance of knowledge exchange and collaboration between stakeholders in health care with significance in similar settings.
Originality/value
The paper details the incentive scheme input, actions, output, outcomes and impact involving a wider range of stakeholders, including the emotional consequences for participants, clinicians and academics.
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Keywords
Muhammad Usman, Bilal Akbar, Sajjad Miran and Qazi Shahzad Ali
Wind energy has become a distinguished field of energy among the alternative energy resources. Despite economical disadvantages, the production of wind energy is desired to…
Abstract
Purpose
Wind energy has become a distinguished field of energy among the alternative energy resources. Despite economical disadvantages, the production of wind energy is desired to fulfill the demand of the energy. Low reliability is a big issue in the development of wind energy technology that has affected wind farm operations. The purpose of the study is to find the reason for the low reliability and high downtime for wind turbines.
Design/methodology/approach
The systems engineering approach has a high success rate in handling complex systems such as wind farms. A failure finding model is presented based on the systems engineering, with the focus to analyze the failures at the interfaces. The required data have been collected by reviewing the literature.
Findings
Gear box interfaces are a vital reason for the higher downtime and frequent failures of wind turbines, and the bearing and the lubricant in the gear box are affected because of their inappropriate combination.
Originality/value
The reliability and the maintainability of the wind turbine is a topic of major importance. The study is an attempt to contribute to a more sophisticated solution to the reliability problem of the wind turbine. Moreover, it shows the importance of interfaces in designing the complex systems.
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This research study aims to investigate supplier integration's (SI) impact on supply-side resilience (SSR) while considering the intervening role of supplier sustainability and…
Abstract
Purpose
This research study aims to investigate supplier integration's (SI) impact on supply-side resilience (SSR) while considering the intervening role of supplier sustainability and supplier flexibility (SF).
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in the dynamic capabilities view (DCV), the study posits that integration of the focal firm with firm's suppliers leads to sustainability on the supplier's side, which makes the firms more flexible to work with during disruptive circumstances, resulting in resilience on the supply side. The hypotheses are tested on the data of 181 manufacturing firm supply chain managers from a developing country.
Findings
The research findings confirmed the hypothesized model suggesting that SI positively impacts SSR. The results also confirm the existence of sequential mediation of supplier sustainability and SF between the SI–SSR relationship.
Practical implications
The results of this study show that SI is the primary capability for organizations seeking SSR. Furthermore, the supply-side capabilities, to be effective, are developed in a specific order.
Originality/value
This research advances the body of knowledge by identifying the underlying mechanisms through which SI augments SSR.
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Jawad Raza, Fateh Mebarek-Oudina and B. Mahanthesh
The purpose of this paper is to present an exploration of multiple slips and temperature dependent thermal conductivity effects on the flow of nano Williamson fluid over a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an exploration of multiple slips and temperature dependent thermal conductivity effects on the flow of nano Williamson fluid over a slendering stretching plate in the presence of Joule and viscous heating aspects. The effectiveness of nanoparticles is deliberated by considering Brownian moment and thermophoresis slip mechanisms. The effects of magnetism and radiative heat are also deployed.
Design/methodology/approach
The governing partial differential equations are non-dimensionalized and reduced to multi-degree ordinary differential equations via suitable similarity variables. The subsequent non-linear problem treated for numerical results. To measure the amount of increase/decrease in skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number, the slope of linear regression line through the data points are calculated. Statistical approach is implemented to analyze the heat transfer rate.
Findings
The results show that temperature distribution across the flow decreases with thermal conductivity parameter. The maximum friction factor is ascertained at stronger magnetic field.
Originality/value
In the current paper, the magneto-nano Williamson fluid flow inspired by a stretching sheet of variable thickness is examined numerically. The rationale of the present study is to generalize the studies of Mebarek-Oudina and Makinde (2018) and Williamson (1929).
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Bilal Ahmad, Da Liu, Naeem Akhtar and Muhammad Imad-ud-Din Akbar
The current research provides a conceptual framework that explains how sales managers' aggression across business-to-business (B2B) sales organizations triggers salespeople's…
Abstract
Purpose
The current research provides a conceptual framework that explains how sales managers' aggression across business-to-business (B2B) sales organizations triggers salespeople's surface acting, deep acting and service recovery performance. It also investigates the moderating role of ethical leadership through sales managers' aggressiveness on service recovery performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the model using multilevel analysis with cross-sectional data of 367 salespeople from different sales organizations.
Findings
The study shows that the aggression of sales managers has an adverse influence on service recovery performance. Additionally, aggressiveness among sales managers is positively connected with surface acting while adversely affecting deep acting. The study’s findings also indicate that ethical sales leadership is positively moderate among sales managers' aggressiveness and service recovery performance.
Research limitations/implications
The authors collected data from individual salespersons, which is the limitation; however, future studies could collect data using the dyadic approach, such as matching responses from both managers and salespersons. This method could enhance the model's internal validity.
Originality/value
Several studies have mainly focused on positive supervision styles in the literature on service recovery. At the same time, building a negative supervision model in the B2B service recovery context, which has been persistently ignored, is noteworthy.
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S. Bilal, Muhammad Sohail and Rahila Naz
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the studies of momentum and transmission of heat on mixed convection boundary layer Darcy‒Forchheimer flow of Casson liquid over a linear…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the studies of momentum and transmission of heat on mixed convection boundary layer Darcy‒Forchheimer flow of Casson liquid over a linear extending surface in a porous medium. The belongings of homogeneous‒heterogeneous retorts are also affianced. The mechanism of heat transmission is braced out in the form of Cattaneo‒Christov heat flux. Appropriate restorations are smeared to revolutionize coupled nonlinear partial differential equations conforming to momentum, energy and concentration of homogeneous‒heterogeneous reaction equations into coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs).
Design/methodology/approach
Numerical elucidations of the transmogrified ODEs are accomplished via a dexterous and trustworthy scheme, namely optimal homotopy analysis method. The convergence of planned scheme is exposed with the support of error table.
Findings
The exploration of mixed convection Darcy‒Forchheimer MHD boundary layer flow of incompressible Casson fluid by the linear stretched surface with Cattaneo‒Christov heat flux model and homogeneous‒heterogeneous reactions is checked in this research. Imitations of the core subsidized flow parameters on velocity, temperature and concentration of homogeneous‒heterogeneous reactions solutions are conscripted. From the recent deliberation, remarkable annotations are as follows: non-dimensional velocities in xa− and xb− directions shrink, whereas the non-dimensional temperature upsurges when the Casson fluid parameter ameliorates. Similar impact of Casson fluid parameter, magnetic parameter, mixed convection parameter, inertia parameter, and porosity parameter is observed for both the components of velocity field. An escalation in magnetic parameter shows the opposite attitude of temperature field as compared with velocity profile. Similar bearing of Casson fluid parameter is observed for both temperature and velocity fields. Enhancement in concentration rate is observed for growing values of (Ns) and (Sc), and it reduces for (k1). Both temperature and concentration of homogeneous‒heterogeneous upturn by mounting the magnetic parameter. Demeanor of magnetic parameter, Casson fluid parameter, heat generation parameter is opposite to that of Prandtl number and thermal relaxation parameter on temperature profile.
Practical implications
In many industrial and engineering applications, the current exploration is utilized for the transport of heat and mass in any system.
Originality/value
As far as novelty of this work is concerned this is an innovative study and such analysis has not been considered so far.
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Muhammad Irfan and Bilal Ahmad
Service–sales ambidexterity (SSA) offers sales managers crucial information about dealing with customer service failures through an effective management control system. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Service–sales ambidexterity (SSA) offers sales managers crucial information about dealing with customer service failures through an effective management control system. This study aims to scrutinize the relationships among SSA, salesforce control system, salesperson’s role stressors and service recovery performance (SRP) in the business-to-business (B2B) context.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis is conducted based on survey data collected from 586 B2B sales employees participating in an extensive survey. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Empirical findings suggest that behavior-based control harms SSA. On the other hand, outcome-based control has a positive impact on SSA. The research outcomes further disclose that SSA positively impacts salesperson role conflict and emotional fatigue, whereas emotional fatigue negatively impacts SRP. Salesperson resilience notably moderates the association between SSA and emotional fatigue.
Originality/value
The study addresses there is a dearth of research on SSA applying the sales management control system. When studying about ambidexterity in sales context, many supervisory styles have been explored; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic attempt to understand how sales management control systems play a role in SSA.
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