1,720,974 research outputs found
Social networks: the future of marketing for small business
Full text linkPurpose – The authors review recent developments in online marketing strategy that demonstrate the growing power of online communities in building brand reputations and customer relationships. Design/methodologies/approach – This work draws upon the results of an ongoing research project that is investigating the use of new technologies by entrepreneurial growing businesses in the London area. A range of examples from our 30 case study businesses are drawn upon to illustrate some of the opportunities and threats associated with these new marketing priorities.<br/
The revenge of the gifted amateur… be afraid, be very afraid…
No full textPurpose – The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the characteristics and impact of “gifted amateurs” who are maximising the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to grow their businesses creatively and in a cost-effective manner. They are “punching above their weight” in their dealings with larger competitors who are less exposed to these new skills and more restricted in their structures. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 378 small businesses in the South East of England are surveyed and 30 detailed empirical case studies charting the activities of these “early adopters” of Web 2.0 tools are developed. Findings – Proactive “gifted amateurs” can systematically raise their profile through blogging, networking and judicious use of search engine optimisation techniques. They are competing effectively against larger organisations by applying network effects to their marketing activities, often circumventing the need for increasingly complex IT systems by continuing to rely upon cost-effective Web 2.0 tools and their own networking skills as the business grows. Practical implications – Technology has now developed to the point where the entry costs and barriers to remote and collaborative working have disappeared. “Gifted amateurs” can acquire new online marketing skills and secure IT systems, plus the ability to network and collaborate globally if necessary on knowledge projects, by creating virtual (and even disposable) organisations without having to commit themselves to a traditional IT infrastructure. Therefore they can avoid reliance on IT suppliers and grow their businesses in more flexible ways. Originality/value – By recording the characteristics and experiences of these early adopters, this paper is one of the first to document the significant changes in business growth patterns and priorities that these tools are starting to facilitate. <br/
Out on the pull: how small firms are making themselves sexy with online promotion techniques
No full textWe examine the range of online marketing options that are now available to small businesses and demonstrate how the sands are shifting from 'push' communications based on e-mail, to 'pull' technologies such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), where customers choose precisely which promotional messages to receive and which to reject. We draw upon the early results of an ongoing research project investigating how the 'early adopter' small firms are using these new technologies. We discuss the problems faced by small businesses in promoting themselves on limited budgets and we consider how the so-called 'Web 2.0' technologies, such as RSS, social networks, video and blogs are transforming the online marketing landscape for the proactive firms in our study. We conclude that the 'early adopters' we profiled are starting to develop expertise and fluency in how these tools can be used, successfully promoting their businesses and generating competitive advantage by 'punching above their weight' online
Punching above their weight: the role of networking in SMEs
No full textPurpose:We draw upon the findings of a research project which investigated networking styles by owner/managers of small businesses. Our specific objective was to analyse the impact of such networking activities on business growth to develop a taxonomy of networking based on size, business model and attitudes of the owner to their use of online and offline networking.Design/methodology/approach: Our data comes from analysis of an online survey completed by 645 firms based in both the USA and Europe. We compared the networking behaviours of small businesses using face to face vs online modalities, and assessed the differences between business size and home market (US vs UK vs Europe). The data was analysed for significant differences between the responses of different classes of respondent, providing us with a unique taxonomy of networking across a broad geographic area.Findings: Our results identified three distinct categories of networking behaviour in terms of attitude towards scaleability and geographic reach, and we showed that effective online networkers tended to be good face to face networkers also.Practical implications: We confirmed that effective online networkers can stay small and flexible but still ‘punch above their weight’ in competition with larger organisations that are often more traditional in their approach and structure. Originality/value: We have undertaken one of the first analyses of the circumstances in which SMEs make use of web 2 tools to supplement their more conventional marketing activities, and developed a coherent framework for analysing which companies are likely to make the best use of them.<br/
Building a personal brand through social networking
No full textPurposeThe ‘digital divide’ between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the developed world is now less about access to the web than it is about understanding how to actively participate in the networked society. We show how people with the skills, time and confidence to navigate and manage the online chaos will gain access to new career opportunities, find audiences for their work, or enrich the lives of others. Those without such initiative risk being marginalised or left behind.DesignOur work draws upon the results of a research project which investigated the use of new technologies by entrepreneurs and small businesses in the South East of England. FindingsWe demonstrate how various online services such as blogging and social networking can be harnessed to develop and enhance a personal brand.ValueThe paper provides practical guidance on building a personal brand for business or career development, based on lessons learned from ‘early adopters’ in the field.Practical implicationsFinding a job and managing career progression increasingly involves understanding how today’s networks work and how to deploy them effectively to build a personal brand, both online and offline.<br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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