2020 was the year when everything went online, including academic workshops, colloquiums, and conferences. And opinions about such online events differ. I have heard about academics’ varying experiences of virtual conferences, and have attended a few smaller online seminars myself. But I have yet to experience a full-scale international virtual academic conference. However, my curiosity…
On conceptualizing ‘alignment with customers’
I share with you, the reader, a part of my journey as I am working on one conceptual paper for my PhD related to customers and ecosystems. This article is also on the meaning of words, especially high-mileage words that we frequently take for granted. Being immersed in the practice of service design, and now…
Do you care if your research is managerially relevant?
You often hear people criticize scientific articles saying that they rarely address genuinely managerially relevant and topical issues let alone offer recommendations for how to deal with these. While offering value to practitioners indeed for many scientific journals is of secondary priority, it is nothing but a shame that journals cannot more often than now…
Innovation in times of crisis
The world has in many ways been turned on its head. Rather than borderless mobility, abundance of alternatives, and extensive cultural sharing that we are accustomed to in the 21st century, individuals and organizations across the globe are faced with physical restrictions, political turmoil and governmental interventions. As a marketing professor interested in innovation, consumer…
My best advice during Covid-19: Keep your eyes on the ball
During Covid-19, discussions are slipping towards confrontation – who is to blame for doing or for not doing something, what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is not. The way we talk to each other strikes me as depressing, and at times even cruel. Particularly online discussions follow ghastly rhetoric…
From local experts to global contributors: the changing roles of Finnish marketing scholars
The Finnish marketing research has evolved from serving the general goal of informing international audiences about the development of Finland, its economy, consumers, and companies; to studying the applicability of models and frameworks initiated in the international marketing discourse to the local markets and players in it; and, finally, to studies stemming from the Finnish…
We can give up handshakes, but we will never shake off hugging
During the COVID-19 epidemic we have all become effective germaphobes. We are advised to avoid going out, and if we do so, to keep our six-feet distance from each other. Under no circumstances we are to avoid crowds, doorknobs, table surfaces, and most of all – touching our faces. No nose-picking, no eye-rubbing, no thoughtful…
Marketing can help with social inequality
During one of the classes for a course that I participated a few months ago, there was a discussion about marketing field not exerting enough influence on government policies. This has made me to start thinking about how marketing can exert more influence especially on governmental development policies. Competition is needed to boost efficiency, innovation,…
Matching market and brand strategy to changes in consumers’ habitual buying behaviour due to Covid-19
To the extent that the Covid-19 pandemic may change certain fundamental patterns of consumer behaviour, companies must carefully consider how to adjust their market strategies and tactics accordingly. One classic pattern of consumer behaviour that seems to be subject to change due to Covid-19, is the so called habitual buying behaviour. Under normal circumstances, one…
Marketing communication needs a new logic!
My doctoral dissertation originated in my desire to understand the effects of the cognitive turn in the field of marketing communication from the late 1950s. Cognitivism saw people as active, thinking, meaning-building subjects instead of as passive, receiving objects. The view of learning changed radically, and people came to be viewed increasingly as builders of…