Central European Business Review

14-19

Authors: Marija Tisovski

The type of customer who buys luxury is continuing to evolve. This research investigates the value and service-dominant theory effects on the value co-creation process between a service provider and service consumer within the luxury retail environment. The goal of the paper is two-fold: first, to offer a new view on value co-creation and second, to suggest potential in-store target segments based on experiential drivers in order to improve value sharing within luxury stores for diverse luxury shoppers. In other words, the author noticed a gap between the existing writing and practice – customer involvement has become interactive, and not neglected. The paper, thus, introduces four groups of customers: Experts, Popular, Exclusive and Aspirational. The methodology used combines analyses of four value creation denominators within the luxury setting: actor’s role, aesthetics, networks and luxury brand with findings from secondary research to integrate into the existing writing in this field. The managerial implications mainly target brand managers of luxury and premium brands with the objective to offer insights on how to address, with higher precision, the types of clients visiting and shopping for luxury products.

30-36

Authors: Daniela Kolouchová, Jan Rožek

Functional cooperation between marketing and sales should be the basic element in all market-oriented companies. This paper investigates the fundamental instruments and tools how to foster the relationship between marketing and sales departments. The authors begin with a review of existing literature in order to gain an overall picture of the respective field. Subsequent qualitative research is based on in-depth expert interviews with midlevel managers. Middle management representatives and their subordinates must interact with the opposite department on a daily basis. Sixty expert interviews reveal that respondents evaluate their relationship with the other department mostly as functional in the way that the common goals are always reached. Research results have shown that the most functional interconnecting elements are the organizational culture that promotes cross-functional communication and information exchange between the representatives of both departments. Very beneficial are common goals, cross functional teams and an open data sharing culture. Effective cooperation should be always endorsed by the top management. At the end, several managerial implications are developed.

43-48

Authors: Mohammad Reza Hamidizadeh, Maryam Zargaranyazd

Internationalization has different connotations for different social sciences and its social, economic and cultural impacts have been examined by a number of studies. While firms’ internationalization processes have been understood as being dynamic, the concept of international readiness has rarely been the main focus of research efforts, which until a decade ago, focused principally on explaining sequences of entry modes and choices of markets. The emergence of the study of international entrepreneurship has enhanced the role of readiness. This study reviews the concept of international readiness by experimental and theoretical studies. Axioms in this research are based on content analysis. The framework incorporates measures to evaluate SMEs’ international readiness. The paper concludes with a research agenda as a guide for future work on considering the readiness as a critical phase before the internationalization process.

16-22

Authors: Tetyana Kuvita, Miroslav Karlíček

In the race to get the attention of the target audience, advertisers often use special attention-getting devices. This in turn exposes them to a higher risk of creating a vampire effect when the core message about the brand or a product is “eaten up” by such devices. The concept of a vampire effect in advertising appears to be under-researched in the current literature. Therefore, this paper provides deeper insights into the vampire effect occurrences in printed advertisements using celebrity endorsement. The paper is based on a qualitative study with an eye-tracking device with 12 participants and on the following experiment with 60 university students. The research found that a significantly higher risk of creating a vampire effect exists when using an unrelated celebrity as an attention-getting device than when using a related celebrity or no celebrity at all. Marketers are advised to use related celebrities if choosing to stick to this attention-getting approach. However, the concept of “relatedness” should be pre-tested prior to launching an advertising campaign.

31-37

Authors: Petra Koudelková

The success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for the development of the Czech economy. Czech SMEs contribute to innovation and economic growth; they provide employment opportunities and stimulate economic growth. The aim of this research is to determine the key elements of growth and innovation in Czech SMEs. A questionnaire survey of innovation in SMEs in the Czech Republic was used; the research was held in the second quarter of 2013. The research results show that innovation has a positive impact on the growth of Czech SMEs and hence it should become a top priority for the Government strategies and policies that aim to promote economic growth and business development in the Czech Republic.

46-53

Authors: Mohammad Reza Hamidizadeh, Mohammad Reza Karimi Alavije, Morteza Rezaee

Due to multi-dimension viewpoints, since decision-making and purchase process are emerging based on the human spirit or internal value of customers, this research seeks to introduce and analyze a model in this regard. In this research, the effects model of ethicality on brand personality dimensions and creation of brand equity were studied, aiming on raising awareness and highlighting the role of ethical values in branding. The population includes all the customers within Iranian chain stores (as a developing country). The results show that “perceived business ethicality” has a positive effect on responsibility, activity and emotionality. Moreover, responsibility and activity have a positive effect on “overall brand equity”. According to total effect, "responsibility" and "perceived business ethicality" have the highest effect on brand equity.

58-61

Authors: Tomáš Poucha

John Westby: We Need to be the First in Class