Editorial

Citation

Phau, I. (2009), "Editorial", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 21 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml.2009.00821aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Volume 21, Issue 1.

We welcome 2009 with the exciting news that we have scheduled 32 papers for volume 21, an increment of eight papers from 2008. These will be in the form of two special issues of six papers each and two regular issues.

The number “21” in many Asian cultures signifies coming of age and the attainment of adulthood. The APJML has matured through the years, and has now embarked on a new era marked with vitality and youth. In the last two years, we have experienced a massive surge in quality submissions and with the lack of publishing space, our acceptance rate has reached a record low, hovering around 15 per cent. For this, we are grateful to our ever-reliable team of EAB members and ad hoc reviewers to maintain timely publications of each issue. It is in the hope that we can increase the number of issues from 2010 to cope with the rise of quality submissions and to provide publications of currency. For this, we need to thank all our authors to have chosen the APJML as an outlet for their work. We strive to continue with our goal to reflect marketing and business activities in the region and its relationship to the global stage. In the light of the recent financial upheaval, which has sent panic ripples across the world, the APJML has new responsibilities and a bigger role to play – to report on how these turbulence and uncertainties can impact international trade.

This issue opens with a highly technical paper offering some insights and certainly re-igniting debates on structural equation modeling. The empirical analysis of complex sample data with regard to the biasing effect of non-independence of observations on standard error parameter estimates will be of interest to the ever-increasing number of scholars choosing SEM as a statistical tool.

Some scholars claim that this is the decade of China and any themes of Chinese origin that are instrumental to international trade are of utmost interest. This paper examines how China's unique blend of capitalism and socialism has led to unique roles of coercive, normative and mimetic pressures in the diffusion of market orientation among Chinese firms. International companies operating in China are recommended to have a strong understanding of these pressures before devising market oriented approaches in the country.

The next three papers are mainly cross cultural studies. The first examines the effect of personal cultural orientation on brand related consumer behaviours at the individual level in South Korea and USA. It is found that highly collectivistic consumers showed higher brand loyalty and equity than individualistic consumers. The second investigates the portrayal of gender roles in Indian and American advertisements. The authors found significant differences between male and female models portrayal in different advertisements from India and USA. The third explores the regulatory framework of controlling soft issues in advertising across six Confucian societies. It is found that Japan is outstanding in regulating soft issues as compared to the other five societies. All these papers suggest that international advertisers have to formulate better strategies to address international markets with unique cultural values. Further, international advertisers are cautioned to beware of traps and problematic issues when advertising in different East Asian societies.

The next two papers share a common theme in service quality. Rough Sets Theory is examined as a processing method to improve the results in customer satisfaction survey applications in the first paper. This study provides a mathematical and practical tool to discover patterns hidden in survey data, based on a manufacturing firm in Taiwan. On the other hand, new recommendations incorporating different methodologies in service quality efforts are provided to cargo companies in Turkey. The study revealed that the three most important service quality attributes are VIP service, informing customers about delivery time before sending, and taking deliveries from customers' addresses.

Retailing takes centre-stage for the next three papers and provides some very interesting findings. First, Indian consumers are found to be more likely to move from traditional “kirana” stores to large organized retailers when shopping for groceries. This paper also identifies “location” to be the strongest determinant of patronage to kirana stores. Second, the propensity of Taiwanese consumers' intention to use the internet as a retailing platform is significantly influenced by perceived value on information collection and order placement. Third, the use of the analytic network process has identified ten critical selection criteria to help Taiwan TV shopping companies to effectively select their key capabilities. These insights will be of strategic and managerial use to researchers in the retailing field.

This issue concludes with two papers focusing on the different facets of consumers' product evaluations. First, brand awareness and consumer perception fit are found to have significant influences on core-brand image in consumers' product evaluations of brand extensions. However, brand association, product association and brand image had varying impacts on these two variables which will directly and indirectly affect purchase intentions. The findings revealed recommendations that brand managers must be mindful of while implementing brand extension strategies. The last paper investigates how price and country of origin, as extrinsic cues, influence consumer evaluations of product quality when all intrinsic cues are experienced through sensory (taste) perception. Interestingly, it was found that even while evaluating a relatively low involvement product, consumers' belief in the price value schema still dominates quality assessment. Marketers are recommended not to assume that intrinsic product attributes are interpreted accurately when evaluated by consumers.

This bumper issue is a good collection of papers with a myriad of topics. Mind boggling it may seem, but it certainly provides some insightful and thought provoking moments worthy of a second read or future research ideas. We look forward to your contributions in the very near future.

Ian Phau