Unlike the open competition economic sectors where tens, hundreds or even thousands of companies ‘struggle’ to provide consumers not only with services but also with special utility, the regulated markets (power supply, public transportation, public safety etc.) are dominated by a limited number of service providers. Sometimes the situation is pushed to the point where a few companies ‘control’ the market and set the prices. Although the

Developing businesses in compliance with the principles of sustainability has been a tough challenge in our century. A planned, integrated and properly coordinated orientation towards environment protection, involvement in activities of society and local communities, supporting and streamlining its own economic activities are the core elements whereby a business can obtain long-term harmonious development, a synergic evolution and a competitive advantage.

A key challenge in the 21st century is identifying how to satisfy consumers’ needs in the best manner possible, whilst ensuring companies’ financial profitability. Scientists play a major role in achieving this goal, as research methods, techniques and tools have continuously evolved. In the last two decades, the development of these instruments has seen an important boost, as neuromarketing methods and techniques added depth and accuracy to

One of the major themes in the contemporary society—greatly affected by hyper-competition, globalization and rapid change in the behavior of demand agents (buyers)—consists of theoretical debates and practical challenges raised in relation to the concept of brand. There seems to be no clear-cut distinction, both in theory and particularly in practice, between brand, producer’s brand, dealer’s brand, store brand or corporate brand. Therefore,

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the important but neglected role of retail formats in the transfer and positioning decisions of international retailers. The paper examines the role of core and country-specific attributes of particular formats in determining retailers’ local positioning in inter-format competition. Design/methodology/approach – Focussing on three distinguished grocery formats (i.e. discounters, supermarkets,

Counterfeiting and piracy have emerged as a not inconsiderable phenomenon on the world market because it presents a major peril to the national security, the legal businesses, and even to the economic development and the advancement of society. The scourge of counterfeiting represents today an impending danger because it affects consumers’ health and safety, violates the principles of fair competition, fosters illicit trade, illegal migration and

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for assessing the degree of internationalization of undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral business programmes with the aid of complex indicators designed to capture the vast array of characteristics displayed by these programmes and contribute to their promotion in the international academic competition. The methodology should include both general indicators applicable to any study programme

In order to build a better and more profitable corporate image, Western firms have been investing in social responsibility. The Romanian consumers have fairly recently been exposed to this holistic marketing concept. This article verifies conventional corporate social responsibility principles of building customer loyalty as well as goodwill from stakeholders.

In recent years, consumers, producers as well as retailers have exhibited a growing tendency toward healthy, highly nutritious, functional, and, obviously, organic foods. Given that many European states have provided government grants for organic foods, these have become more easily accessible to consumers, both financially and in terms of the place where they can be procured. A field research conducted through the observational method reveals that

Over the last years an increasing number of retailers have undertaken green marketing-specific actions with the purpose of not only bolstering their reputation but also of improving their awareness, increasing their trust or enhancing the target groups’ appeal for the company. These actions/measures will eventually exert a positive effect on how customers perceive retailers. Once a proper, positive and proactive image has been developed in consumers’