Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 10, Issue 4, Year 2020

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Editorial Board of “Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University) Editor-in-Chief Theodor Valentin PURCĂREA

Bernd HALLIER

John SAEE

John L. STANTON

Léon F. WEGNEZ

William PERTTULA Levent ALTINAY

Andrew KILNER Dana ZADRAZILOVA Riccardo BELTRAMO Sinisa ZARIC Gabriela SABĂU Hélène NIKOLOPOULOU Vasa LÁSZLÓ Peter STARCHON John MURRAY

Holistic Marketing Management

President of European Retail Academy; President of EuCVoT, Member of the Astana Economic Scientists Club; Former Managing Director EHI Retail Institute, Germany, Chairman of the Advisory Board of EuroShop, Chairman of the Board of the Orgainvent, Trustee of EHI Retail Institute at GLOBALG.A.P. President - Association of Global Management Studies (USA); Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues & Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Management Systems, USA; Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology; Member of France’s National Academy of Scientific Research (CNRS); Director - ESB International Teaching and Research Exchanges, Reutlingen University, Germany Professor of Food Marketing, Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University Philadelphia, USA; Director, Institute of Food Products Marketing, Editor, Journal of Food Products Marketing; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2016 Secretary General, International Association of the Distributive Trade, AIDA Brussels; Member of France’s Academy of Commercial Sciences; Doctor Honoris Causa of NUPSPA (SNSPA) Bucharest; Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy, Honored Personality 2015; Administrator Secretary General of the Diplomatic Club of Belgium Internet Marketing Professor, College of Business, San Francisco State University, USA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Research Area Leader, Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK First MBA Director at the Rennes Graduate School of Business in France; Director of RAFME Research into Management Excellence; PhD (Cambridge), MBA (City, London) Faculty of International Economic Relations, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic University of Turin, Italy University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Canada University of Lille 3, France Szent Istvan University, Hungary Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Faculty of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

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Kamil PÍCHA Irena JINDRICHOVSKA Norbert HAYDAM Constantin ROŞCA Hans ZWAGA Roxana CODITA Dumitru MIRON Valeriu IOAN-FRANC Iacob CĂTOIU Virgil BALAURE Gheorghe ORZAN Luigi DUMITRESCU Marius D. POP Petru FILIP

Ion VOICU SUCALA Virgil POPA Alexandru NEDELEA Ana-Maria PREDA Ovidiu FOLCUȚ Doinița CIOCÎRLAN Costel NEGRICEA Tudor EDU Alexandru IONESCU Andreea Elisabeta BUDACIA Marius Dan DALOTĂ Mihai PAPUC Gheorghe ILIESCU Oana PREDA Olga POTECEA Nicoleta DUMITRU Monica Paula RAȚIU Alexandra PERJU-MITRAN

Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice Deputy Head of Department of Business Economics, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic Faculty of Business, Marketing Department, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa President of Romanian Scientific Society of Management - SSMAR Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences, Finland Technische Universität München, TUM School of Management Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest National Institute for Economic Research, Romanian Academy; Romanian Marketing Association; Romanian Distribution Committee Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Management and Economic Engineering Department; University of Glasgow, UK, College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences; Managing Editor, Review of Management and Economic Engineering Valahia University of Târgovişte Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University Romanian-American University

Associate Editors Dan SMEDESCU Irina PURCĂREA Diana SOCA Art Designer Director Alexandru BEJAN Holistic Marketing Management

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“Holistic Marketing Management” (A refereed journal published four times annually by the School of Management-Marketing of the Romanian-American University)

Volume 10, Issue 4, Year 2020 Contents

Theodor PURCĂREA - Restarting the Internal Processes of the Company’s Receptive Ecosystem, and Managing Complexity by Better Impacting Organization Based on the Humanocratic Management Model..................................................................................................4

Andreea Elisabeta BUDACIA - Aspects Regarding the Advantages and Disadvantages of Lucian Constantin Gabriel BUDACIA

Online Education..............................................8

Ioan Matei PURCĂREA - Marketing Transformation under the Pressure of the New Technologies and Emotions Impact on Decision Making..............13

Bernd HALLIER (by courtesy of) - Thematic University Network: From Tracing to Branding, Which Standards are Standard, UA Youth 2020, Environmental/Ethical Prices.............................................................................................................23

Dan SMEDESCU - “Marketing Science and Inspirations”: A Means of Interactive Dialogue Between Practice and Theory.....................................................................30

The responsibility for the contents of the scientific and the authenticity of the published materials and opinions expressed rests with the author.

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Editorial: Restarting the internal processes of the company’s receptive ecosystem, and managing complexity by better impacting organization based on the humanocratic management model

Customer Science, and closing the natural gap concerning value perception by marketers (their own perception) and customers (customers’ own perception). Responding appropriately to the disruptions provoked by the new coronavirus crisis, including with the help of the marketing technology used to capitalize on company’s growth initiatives

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly accelerated the transition to new competitive organizations’ models allowing both efficiency gains and improved customer experience (CX), in other words able to deliver a new value proposition made possible by blending continuous improvement (as a traditional method, for instance) with the digital technologies’ advantages Holistic Marketing Management

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(SSON, 2020). In our last issue we expressed the conviction that adjusting to the new reality on the path to the Next Normal (as coined by McKinsey, 2020), connecting to customers, and responding appropriately to the new coronavirus crisis involves a better understanding of the Customer’s Mind (as approached by MECLABS Institute, 2018), of the Emotive CX for Customer Interaction (as argued by Hill-Wilson, 2020 – while also considering, in our opinion, Forrester’s Customer Emotion Matrix, 2016), of the IMPC concept (as coined by Hunnicutt, 2020), and of the three essential factors involved by intrinsic motivation (as argued by Ben-Hur and Kinley, 2016), while continuing to underline (Purcarea, 2018) the importance of focusing on valuable digital activities and a digital culture strategy specific to the human-machine partnership (Purcarea, 2020).

In an interview published in Forbes – conducted by David Benjamin and David Komlos, CEO and Chief Architect of Syntegrity, and co-authors of the book “Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything” – with Gary Hamel (London Business School, and cofounder, together with Michele Zanini, of the Management Lab, both of them being also co-authors of the new book “Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People”), the reputed representative of the London Business School highlighted the need of understanding that in a crisis like COVID-19 the real problem is the bureaucratic (old) management model which must be replaced with the humanocratic management model that “assumes that the ultimate goal is to have impact as a human being, and to earn a living as well”, making possible to change an organization as fast as the world around it, proving the capacity for proactive change, solving customers’ new problems (Benjamin and Komlos a, 2020). What presupposes: to understand the need of turning every employee into an entrepreneur (working with small operating units having both real profit and loss responsibility, and autonomy, each person having a meaningful financial upside, and the business skills of frontline employees being upgraded); ensuring a proper use of the new collaborative technologies so as to allow crowdsourcing the organization’s strategy and direction-setting, flattening the pyramid; making organizations more resilient, adaptable and inventive, taking into account the lessons to learn from COVID-19, and also from the other significant challenges faced today (Benjamin and Komlos b, 2020).

Looking at the above mentioned human-machine/technology partnership it t is worth mentioning: • The message of Colin Shaw (the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world’s leading Customer experience consultancy & training organizations), at the end of December 2020, with regard to the Customer Science concept as the next wave of change, considering its contribution to “anticipate customers’ needs and ensure you have what they want when they want it in a personalized interaction” (Shaw, 2020). This is made possible by increasing understanding of customers (what they want and what they do to get it) on the basis of what is Customer Science: “the fusion between digital technology, artificial intelligence (AI), behavioral

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science”. According to Shaw, these new technologies and approaches are facilitated by the new way of thinking about customers within the current turning point; • The results presented by Gartner 2020 Marketing Technology Survey (this research being conducted online from July 2020 through September 2020 among 4,387 respondents in the US, Canada, France, Germany and UK), such as those related to the fact that “Martech roadmap decisions have a finite shelf life and should be reviewed regularly” (Bloom, Reid and McCune, 2020); • The opinion expressed in September 2020 by Daniel Burstein (Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, which is the parent organization of MarketingExperiments) concerning marketers’ hard task of helping customers properly perceive the value in the goods and services they sell, by succeeding in dealing with prospects’ perception gap (Burstein, 2020). And in order to better understand this natural gap concerning value perception by marketers (their own perception) and customers (customers’ own perception), and to close it (seeing conversion opportunities through the prospects’ mind), Burstein recommended to watch an episode with Flint McGlaughlin (CEO and Managing Director, MECLABS Institute) and learn practical ways to achieve marketing results by increasing the perceived value, communicating value adequately (knowing that to be believed value must be previously perceived).

And as we all receive several email newsletters daily, allow us finally to make reference to an inspiring one from Business Insider and entitled “How Marketers Can Help with Vaccine Distribution” (Business Insider, 2021). According to them, critical to COVID-19 vaccine success is the locally relevant advertising, considering the reluctance to take it and the need of building trust and dispelling misinformation, by personalizing messages (based on behavioral insights), engaging consumers with timely updates (on both their mobile devices, and their preferred platforms), and ensuring responses to their searches in real time (on the basis of keyword targeting).

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor-in-Chief

References Benjamin, D. and Komlos, D., 2020. Gary Hamel On The Pandemic And Wringing Bureaucracy Out Of Organizations, Forbes, Nov 9. [online] Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminkomlos/2020/11/09/gary-hamel-on-the-pandemic-andwringing-bureaucracy-out-of-organizations/?> [Accessed 14 January 2021].

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Benjamin, D. and Komlos, D., 2020. Why It’s Time For Leaders To Radically Rethink Power Structures And Create ‘Humanocracies’, Forbes, Nov 16. [online] Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminkomlos/2020/11/16/why-its-time-for-leaders-toradically-rethink-power-structures-and-create-humanocracies/?> [Accessed 14 January 2021].

Bloom, B., Reid, C., McCune, M., 2020. 2020 Marketing Technology Survey: Cost Pressures Force Martech Optimization and Innovation. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, pp. 1-29. [online] Available at: <marketing_technology_survey_research_2020.pdf> [Accessed 1 December 2020].

Burstein, D., 2020. The Conversion Heuristic Analysis: Overcoming the prospect’s perception gap, The Marketer as Philosopher, Episode 3, MarketingExperiments, Sep 22. [online] Available at: <https://marketingexperiments.com/conversion-marketing/episode-3-conversionheuristic-analysis> [Accessed 30 September 2020].

Business Insider, 2021. How Marketers Can Help with Vaccine Distribution. Business Insider Intelligence, Newsletter, Locally Relevant Advertising Critical to COVID-19 Vaccine Success, January 12, Tue 17:01 Komlos, D., Benjamin, D., 2019. Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything, Publisher: Nicholas Brealey, May 7.

Hamel, G., Zanini, M., 2020. Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People, Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, August 18, 2020.

Purcarea, T., 2020. Adjusting to the New Reality on the Path to the Next Normal, Connecting to Customers, and Responding Appropriately to the Current Unprecedented Crisis, Holistic Marketing Management, vol. 10(3), pp. 04-08, November.

Shaw, C., 2020. The Most Significant Things We Learned in 2020, LinkedIn, December 30. [online] Available at: <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/most-significant-things-we-learned2020-colin-shaw/?> [Accessed 12 January 2021].

SSON, 2020. Cultural Transformation as a Key Enabler of End-to-End Process Optimization. [online] Available at: <https://www.ssonetwork.com/continuous-improvement-processimprovement/reports/cultural-transformation-as-a-key-enabler-of-end-to-end-processoptimization> [Accessed 13 January 2021].

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Aspects regarding the advantages and disadvantages of online education

Andreea Elisabeta BUDACIA Lucian Constantin Gabriel BUDACIA Abstract The pandemic period that we face has brought profound changes in our society, economy and education, and even if they take place in a limited timeframe, or at least this is what we hope for, their effects will be noticed for another few years after the pandemic is over. At this moment, many employees work from home, the learning process takes place online, which was hard to imagine some time ago, at least in Romania, and anyhow not in its entirety, as it happens today. In this context, some valid questions are raised: will online education be extended in Romania? In what context? What are the advantages and disadvantages of online education?

Keywords: Online education; advantages and disadvantages JEL Classification: A2; D83; H52; H75; I21

In U.S., in April 2020 McKinsey & Company’s representatives wrote on “entering new educational territory”, showing among other aspects how this “forced and abrupt move to remote learning has not been easy” (Heitz, et al. 2020). Some months later, other McKinsey & Company’s representatives underlined that the “necessity of continued remote learning cannot be an excuse for inaction or indifference” (Dorn, et al. 2020). At the European Union level was set the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 (by building on the 2018-2020 plan), in which was underlined from the very beginning (among other aspects) that: “Online, distance and blended learning are specific examples of how technology can be used to support teaching and learning processes” (European Commission, 2020).

It is well-known that on their important path of experiencing the relationship between what they inherit and acquire, students’ awareness should be raised by education (preparing for knowing), as highlighted by John Lyons while analyzing Paulo Freire’s educational theory (Lyons, 2018).

A Romanian Professor, Varujan Pambuccian, mathematician and computer scientist, does not believe that online education will be made permanent: “I don’t think that after the current crisis we will witness a rapid development of this type of education, because when the crisis is over, we will find ourselves again in the classic paradigm and it will be perpetuated. I am not sure if it’s desirable or not, this is a matter of necessity after all. We need to be careful, if online education is needed somewhere, then the answer is yes, it is desirable. If there is no need for it somewhere else, then it is not desirable, obviously” (Coroianu a, 2020) Holistic Marketing Management

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From an institutional, administrative and organizational point of view, online education allows the continuation of the teaching activity, the carrying out of the teaching – learning – evaluation process, even if in a new paradigm; practically, everything continues its course, the activity takes place as usual, but in fact in a new normal manner, within the framework of the new technologies, which were already present in the daily lives of children, students, education beneficiaries.

We believe that this special moment that we all face, will leave its mark on our society and on our lives in general. Concerning education, two hypotheses emerge: a) The general use of online education, or in other words, mass online education and the transfer of the “face to face”, classic, traditional education to the private sphere, thus becoming a minority (given the fact that, in Romania, private lessons are still present); b) The extension of online education or rather its use where it is necessary (isolated places or with a low school population, for example).

Regarding this subject, the President of the Romanian Academy, Professor Ioan Aurel Pop, stated: “I view this solution as a temporary one, necessary during these times when we cannot see our pupils and students face to face, but it is not a long term solution. School, ever since it was organized by the Greeks and the Romans, implies the presence of the teacher face to face with those who are meant to receive the school’s message. Therefore, I do not believe that this solution should be made permanent. I don’t think it will be imposed, it could be used more frequently – as distance learning already exists in Romanian and international high education – some might even prefer it, but I repeat, my opinion is that classic education, with the pupil’s eyes facing the eyes of the teacher, with the emotion that the teacher transmits, cannot be replaced by anything. The message goes from one person to another” (Coroianu b, 2020).

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Starting from the aspects mentioned above, we highlight a series of advantages of the online education system: • Reducing the time, in fact gaining the time that otherwise would be used to go to and come from school, which implies a reduction of the traffic in big cities (for those who choose a school that is further away from home) and eliminating the effort of the children from the rural areas, who had to walk long distances in order to get to their schools; • Children remain in their environment, the one from home, which is beneficial for those who had to face the school’s infrastructure problems; thus, improper conditions are avoided, such as classrooms which lack proper heating; • Bullying is avoided, as it is a major issue nowadays, but in fact it is transferred online; • Children become more familiar with technology and in fact use it in a proper manner, with a view to learning; technology should be regarded as a support mechanism for the learning process; • Overcrowding is avoided in schools, especially in the urban areas, where there are many overcrowded schools; • Parents have access to the class activity, they can see how the child is doing in classroom, but also the teacher’s activity, and they can follow up on homework and supervise the child’s activity; • Students who also have a job and support themselves can participate in the online courses.

Regarding the disadvantages, the most relevant are the following:

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• The lack of access to technology poses serious challenges (not enough devices, but also bad connections, especially given the fact that networks are overused) or insufficient devices (students frequently invoke the lack of the webcam, for example); • The lack of a proper and correct evaluation, in the context of an academic ethic, which implies creativity from the teachers’ part, so that subjects, projects and homework are not copied; • Many teachers have limited abilities in using online platforms or do not have the proper digital abilities, which means that they should be trained in an organized manner, on the one hand, but also individually through personal study, on the other hand; • The lack of appropriate spaces for online study in small houses, where there are more children in the family, in the rural areas, in poor families or in families where parents work from home; • The lack of concentration at the online lessons, given the fact that the teacher cannot supervise the pupils and that at live lessons the webcam and/or the microphone can be turned off; • More pressure on the pupil/student who has to make more effort than he/she was used to; the pupil/student is often forced to study and discover certain notions on his/her own and for some this is more difficult or extremely difficult; • More pressure for parents, especially for those with small children, from the primary and secondary school, as they have to assist them also with the use of devices (if they have these abilities, of course) and with their homework (and most of them do not know how); practically, the parent becomes the teacher of his/her own child, which means taking on a new role; • The interaction between pupil/student and teacher is more difficult, especially if the former does not understand certain concepts, which means that tutoring becomes necessary (if the teacher is available); • Children, students interact less with one another and social distancing affects their social relations and abilities; they do not communicate as much and depend even more on technology and the online environment, which is a major issue of current times.

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Conclusions This quasi online pandemic period invites us first and foremost to be more creative, in order to cope with the situation on a personal and professional level. For teachers, creativity implies finding the most effective and attractive teaching and motivation methods for students. Moreover, evaluation receives new meanings in the context of academic ethics and freedom; without evaluation, the educational process cannot be finalized and this phase is essential in order to move forward, progress and overcome the present period.

References Coroianu, E., 2020. Învăţământul online – învăţământul viitorului? Radio România Internaţional, 2020-05-01. [online] Available at: <https://www.rri.ro/ro_ro/invatamantul_online_invatamantul_viitorului> [Accessed January 2021].

Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J. and Viruleg, E., 2020. COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, pp. 8. [online] Available at: <COVID-19-and-student-learning-in-the-United-States-FINAL.pdf> [Accessed January 2021].

European Commission, 2020. Digital Education Action Plan 2021 – 2027. [pdf] Resetting education and training for the digital age, p. 2. [online] Available at: <deap-communicationsept2020_en.pdf> [Accessed January 2021].

Heitz, C., Laboissiere, M., Sanghvi, S. and Sarakatsannis, J., 2020. Getting the next phase of remote learning right in higher education. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, pp. 1, 5. [online] Available at: <Getting-the-next-phase-of-remote-learning-right-in-higher-education.pdf> [Accessed January 2021].

Lyons, J., 2018. Paulo Freire’s Educational Theory, NewFoundations, September 20. [online] Available at: <https://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Freire.html> [Accessed January 2021].

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Marketing transformation under the pressure of the new technologies and emotions impact on decision making Drd. Ioan Matei PURCĂREA

Abstract Improving marketers’ contribution to organizational adaptation and resilience involves a better approach of the unified customer view and of the digital customer experience. While facing uncertainty there is a clear need to optimize the technology stack and its utilization with regard to the data collection, integration and analysis. In the same time, marketers are under pressure of better understanding the emotions of the anxious consumer within the current evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, because consumers’ anxiety can cause strong emotions. There is no doubt that marketers must be truly connected to what the today’s anxious and more cautious consumer values within the context of the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, without neglecting both the deeply inter-relation between gradients of emotion, and the clusters of emotions, taking into account the broader influence of emotions, especially as motivation to reduce uncertainty, on dynamic decision-making process.

Keywords: Marketing transformation; Unified customer view; Digital customer experience; Technology stack; Emotions and Consumer Behaviour JEL Classification: D83; L81; L86; M15; M31; M7; O32; O33

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Improving marketers’ contribution to organizational adaptation and resilience involves a better approach of the unified customer view and of the digital customer experience COVID-19 pandemic, combined with other destabilizing forces as shown by Gartner in the below figure, is continuing to redesign lives and businesses, hybrid experiences taking precedence, physical and digital commerce channels being blended (Omni channel adoption and integration being accelerated, physical spaces being reimagined on the basis of customer insights), marketers also needing to: focus on both subscriber retention and lifetime value, and managing churn ( considering the disrupted shopping journeys); integrate marketing, sales and customer experience (CX) into a single function (using end-to-end customer journey maps, sharing customer and market insights, working cross-functionally); drive internal dialogue and change by sharing voice of the customer (VoC); drive engagement valorising user-generated content (like text, videos, images, reviews etc. monitoring, moderating and managing it accordingly) shared on many social media and retailer platforms. (Gartner, 2020) And from this last point of view it is important to become aware of what eMarketer revealed recently with regard to the fact that: ‘Social platforms are starting to resemble each other... Never in the past two decades of social media history have the features, ad formats, and other business initiatives of the four major social platforms looked as similar as they do today. But they don’t just look alike – many of the social platforms’ new offerings are a nod to TikTok, 2020’s breakout social star... the pandemic has greatly increased the speed at which these changes are happening. As the pandemic propelled social media usage – particularly on TikTok – and temporarily slowed ad spending, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and others quickly rolled out new services to retain users and diversify their revenue streams’. (Enberg, 2021)

Figure no. 1: Market forces are shifting consumer behavior Source: Gartner, 2020. Gartner Marketing Predictions for 2021 and Beyond: Marketing Hits Reset, Gartner for Marketers, p. 2 (work cited)

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In the opinion of Acquia’s CMO (Capozzi, 2020), a unified customer view is representing the secret to marketing transformation, marketing and personalization efforts being sabotaged by the siloed data, good decisions needing comprehensive customer data and complete customer profile. As a result it is recommended to use customer data platforms (CDPs) which permit marketers real-time self-service access to this necessary unified customer view specially now within the business disruption by COVID-19 pandemic.

And as the importance of the digital customer experience (DCX) is considerably increasing, marketers need to be more aware of: • the digital moments across platforms (mobile, tablet, or desktop) which are shaping essential KPIs (within the overall CX), feedback data being critical for improving the digital customer journey, by better responding to customers’ expectations, including by creating emotional connections with them (Qualtrics a, 2020); • optimising the ecommerce experience, by focusing mainly on Omni channel improvements (Qualtrics b, 2020); optimising customer journey moments that matter and designing feedback programs with a mobile-first mindset (Qualtrics c, 2020); • helping customers progressing through their customer journey by ensuring them a holistic content experience viewed through the audience’s eyes (Qualtrics d, 2020).

While facing uncertainty there is a clear need to optimize the technology stack and its utilization with regard to the data collection, integration and analysis

Also according to Gartner, the only certainty within the context of the above mentioned destabilizing forces is uncertainty, and the transformation’s acceleration efforts determined by the disruption to the present state of affairs are affected accordingly (Polk and Neufeld, 2020).

Consequently, being under the pressure of embracing change and building adaptability, marketers’ actions on the organization’s path to right responding, recovering, and renewing must agilely and cleverly impact their strategic marketing, as shown in the figure below. And while considering the evolution of changes to strategic business priorities they need: to align organization’s marketing plans and budgets, supporting the digital transformation and growth by optimizing the technology stack and its utilization with regard to the data collection, integration and analysis, and influencing organization’s strategic decision making accordingly; to link positioning to action by prioritizing brand authenticity, and align marketing strategies with digital business goals, including by enabling DCX and engagement based on adequate alliances and partnerships.

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Figure no. 2: How quickly can your organization adapt as conditions change?

Source: Polk, J., Neufeld, E., 2020. Leadership Vision for 2021: Chief Marketing Officer. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, p. 5 (work cited)

At the beginning of December 2020, a traditional RetailWire discussion, moderated by Tom Ryan, and based on the findings of a 2020 report from Infosys (which revealed the double helix of Marketing and IT in a live enterprise, as shown in the figure below), started from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the working together of marketing and IT. According to this report, for example, evolving CX into HX (human experience) was seen by the marketing respondents (58%) as a greater challenge than for IT respondents (35%), as in the case of both agility (69% vs. 46%), and collaboration (77% vs. 62%). The debate generated some significant comments, such as: COVID-19 pandemic sped up an always anticipated trend (taking into account the existence of customer-facing technology solutions like e-commerce, loyalty apps, mobile payment, and scan and go mobile checkouts), the increasing of the adoption rate of the customer-facing technology solutions (e-commerce, 20%; scan and go mobile checkout programs, over 30%) being obvious (Di Di Chan, President of FutureProof Retail); CMOs (as the stewards of the brand and CX) and CIOs (as the stewards of the technology) need to collaborate more closely to respond quickly to the ever-changing environment (Kim DeCarlis, Chief Marketing Officer, PerimeterX); through better data governance and collaborative workflows companies can break down data silos and minimize friction (Brian Cluster, Director of Industry Strategy, CPG & Retail, Stibo Systems).

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Figure no. 3: The double helix: Marketing and IT in a live enterprise Source: Infosys, 2020. CMO and C-Suite: The DNA of Partnership (work cited)

The above mentioned report from Infosys underlined that this double helix presented in the above figure is bound by the digital initiatives which are driving stakeholder engagement and enterprise success, the collaboration (expected to deliver the right technological solutions for a company) of Marketing and IT being enabled by the CMO’s distinct human-focused skill set which allows helping change the organizational culture.

Better understanding the emotions of the anxious consumer within the current evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, because consumers’ anxiety can cause strong emotions It is well-known that: human behavior is impacted by different types of emotions (which have been analysed profoundly beginning with the 1970s and later by the psychologist Paul Eckman, then by the psychologist Robert Plutchik with his ‘wheel of emotions’, and by many others researchers, including more recently by creating an interactive map suggesting the deeply inter-relation between gradients of emotion), being no doubt about critical role played by emotions in interactions with others and the way of making decisions (Cherry a, 2020); as a complex psychological state (as demonstrated by Don Hockenbury and Sandra E. Hockenbury in the book ‘Discovering Psychology’, New York: Worth Publishers, 2007) an emotion involves a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioural/expressive response (Cherry b, 2019); the ‘Theories of Emotion’ (physiological, neurological, and cognitive) have a long and rich history, and the research is continuing (Cherry c, 2020).

A rigorous study published in September 2020 by Ipsos underlined from the very beginning both how the understanding of the concept of emotion in respected dictionaries is so variable (becoming often meaningless), and how much confusion was produced further in the research industry after the publication in 2011 by Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences laureate Daniel Kahneman of his book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ (Garcia-Garcia, M., 2020). Ipsos embraced the ‘Constructionist’ approach (a recent prominent theory of emotion, according to Holistic Marketing Management

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which emotion is a constant stream of different processes containing different elements interpreted and adapted by the brain continuously within the context of a specific situation), and offered its â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Dynamic Decision-Making Modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (DDMM, considered more advanced over the prevailing default interventionist dual process theory, DPT) described in the figure below.

Figure no. 4: Visual depiction of the Ipsos Dynamic Decision-Making Model (DDMM) Source: Garcia-Garcia, M., 2020. The role of emotion in human decision making. Implications for brand success.

Global Lead of Neuroscience, Ipsos Global Science Organization, The Advertising Research Foundation, AUDIENCEXSCIENCE 2020, September, p. 5 (work cited)

In the opinion of Ipsos there is a broader influence of emotions on decision making, and a representation of the different roles of emotion in DDMM can be seen in the next picture below.

Figure no. 5: Representation of the different roles of emotion in DDMM Source: Garcia-Garcia, M., 2020. The role of emotion in human decision making. Implications for brand success.

Global Lead of Neuroscience, Ipsos Global Science Organization, The Advertising Research Foundation, AUDIENCEXSCIENCE 2020, September, p. 7 (work cited) Holistic Marketing Management

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Ipsos also made reference to the fact that it was argued that emotions are often associated with the motivation to reduce uncertainty (Lerner, Small & Loewenstein, 2004), and this given that anxiety is characterized by the formal assessment content of facing uncertain existential threats (Raghunathan & Pham, 1999). It is also worth mentioning, within this framework, that Ipsos is prototyping promising applications of affective neuroscience constructs (such as anticipatory emotion) for a wide range of application.

In December 2020, the renowned global influencer Colin Shaw attracted the attention that for a business strategy today is critical to incorporate ways to measure and manage customer emotions as a significant part of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interactions with its customers (being specific with regard to the emotion you want your customers to feel after your CX; defining the emotions driving the most value for your business; measuring the specific emotion across the customer journey; designing the emotions into the customer journey; training marketers how to evoke emotions properly). Within this framework he made reference (Shaw, 2020) to the significant research (concerning the 20 emotions driving and destroying value) with London Business School which allowed the discovery of the four clusters of emotions (Destroying Cluster, Attention Cluster, Recommendation Cluster, and Advocacy Cluster) presented in the figure below:

Figure no. 6: The four clusters of emotions Source: Shaw, C., 2020. The 5 Rules of Measuring and Managing Customer Emotions, LinkedIn, December 8 (work cited)

And all these aspects above mentioned must be connected to what the todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anxious and more cautious consumer values within the context of the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic.

That means to consider his new priorities, attitudes and behaviors shaped by his living and buying experience while taking specific risks (Rogers and Cosgrove, 2020). In the face of the Holistic Marketing Management

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current evolution of COVID-19 pandemic consumers’ anxiety can cause strong emotions (CDC, 2020).

Instead of conclusions Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Consumer Electronics Show (CES; the first CES took place in June 1967 in New York City) is considered the most influential technology event in the world, where exhibiting companies (manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems etc.) encounter in order to discover the answer to what comes next, addressing the industry’s most relevant issues (CES, 2021). The displayed product categories include: 3D Printing, 5G Technologies, AR/VR/XR, Artificial Intelligence, Audio Technologies, Blockchain, Cloud Computing/Data, Cybersecurity, Digital Currency/Cryptocurrency, Digital Health, Drones, Education, Energy/Power, High-Tech Retailing/E-Commerce, IoT/Sensors, Marketing and Advertising, Mobile Hardware and Accessories, Quantum Computing, Robotics and more.

According to The NPD Group’s “Future of Tech” forecast – its report package includes a three-year, high-level volumetric forecast through 2022 for all 200+ categories and subsegments, and now being more important than ever to know what the future holds, innovation continuing to transform this significant consumer technology market, (NPD, 2020) – 2020 U.S. consumer technology sales have saw the strongest growth in at least seven years being driven by COVID-19 pandemic needs (Cision PRWeb, 2021). It was interesting to notice the beginning of an article published just before the opening of CES by the reputed The Wall Street Journal: ‘This week’s show will be held online – and exhibitors and attendees aren’t quite sure what to expect.

The Las Vegas Convention Center, which was a coronavirus testing center in May, won’t be home to a massive in-person CES this year’ (Rothman, 2021).

In our last HMM issue we made reference to a Conference paper focused on Innovation in Distribution by approaching E-Commerce (a Disruptive Innovation & Technology) & Omni channel, taking into account retailers’ imperative to better answer to the new requirements of the Supply Chain 4.0 (applying Industry 4.0 innovations) & Value Chain 4.0 (generating and capturing value in the whole chain using technology usually associated with Industry 4.0 everywhere), while implementing the philosophy of the ECR concept (Efficient Consumer Response, as a strategic partnership between Producer, Distributor and Consumer) in order to obtain a rigorous answer to what kind of problems are consumers facing with the second wave of COVID-19 (Ioan-Franc & Purcarea, 2020). And at the end of the article we underlined the importance of matching consumers’ needs and expectations, avoiding consumers’ anxiety and friction (Purcarea a, 2020). Just a month later, we also showed the need to better understand digital transformation as a blending of process knowledge, intelligent automation, and data, valuing and mastering data and content through the disruptive technologies which are the supporting structure of the Industry 4.0 concept, and considering the 5Cs marketing principles for it (Purcarea b, 2020).

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An article prepared in the first half 2020 – and entitled ‘Consumer Behaviour during Crises: Preliminary Research on How Coronavirus Has Manifested Consumer Panic Buying, Herd Mentality, Changing Discretionary Spending and the Role of the Media in Influencing Behaviour’ – has concluded that: ‘to date, consumer behaviour in the form of panic buying, herd mentality and discretionary spending as anticipated by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs appears to align with behaviours exhibited during shocks and crises of the past’ (Loxton, et al. 2020). Very recently, we highlighted (in a new conference paper presented in December 2020) the real need for marketers to consider both the evolution of customers’ anxiety in front of the third wave of COVID-19, and people’s uncertainty about vaccination. We can add now that marketers, without doubt (as we have seen above), must be truly connected to what the today’s anxious and more cautious consumer values within the context of the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, without neglecting both the deeply inter-relation between gradients of emotion, and the clusters of emotions, taking into account the broader influence of emotions (especially as motivation to reduce uncertainty) on dynamic decision-making process.

References Capozzi, L., 2020. The Secret to Marketing Transformation Is a Unified Customer View, Adweek, December 29. [online] Available at: < https://www.adweek.com/sponsored/the-secret-to-marketing-transformation-is-a-unifiedcustomer-view/?> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

CDC, 2020. Coping with Stress, Updated Dec. 11. [online] Available at: <https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html> [Accessed 12 December 2020].

CES, 2021. CES is the Global Stage for Innovation, About CES. [online] Available at: <https://www.ces.tech/About-CES.aspx > [Accessed 12 January 2021].

Cherry, K., 2020. The 6 Types of Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior, Verywell, January 13. [online] Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Cherry, K., 2019. Emotions and Types of Emotional Responses, Verywell, July 17. [online] Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Cherry, K., 2020. Overview of the 6 Major Theories of Emotion, Verywell, June 29. [online] Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/theories-of-emotion> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Cision PRWeb, 2021. NPD Forecast: Historic U.S. Consumer Technology Sales in 2020 Set the Stage for LongTerm Industry Expansion, January 08. [online] Available at: <https://www.prweb.com/releases/npd_forecast_historic_u_s_consumer_technology_sales_in_2020_set_the_stage_f or_long_term_industry_expansion/prweb17648641.htm > [Accessed 12 January 2021].

Enberg, J., 2021. Social platforms are starting to resemble each other, eMarketer, Jan 5. [online] Available at: <https://www.emarketer.com/content/social-platforms-are-starting-resemble-each-other?> [Accessed 5 January 2021].

Garcia-Garcia, M., 2020. The role of emotion in human decision making. Implications for brand success. [pdf] Global Lead of Neuroscience, Ipsos Global Science Organization, The Advertising Research Foundation, AUDIENCEXSCIENCE 2020, September, pp.1-10. [online] Available at: <the-role-of-emotion-in-human-decisionmaking.pdf> [Accessed 12 January 2021].

Gartner, 2020. Gartner Marketing Predictions for 2021 and Beyond: Marketing Hits Reset. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, pp. 1-15. [online] Available at: <marketing_predicts_playbook.pdf> [Accessed 6 January 2021].

Infosys, 2020. CMO and C-Suite: The DNA of Partnership [online] Available at: <https://www.infosys.com/navigate-your-next/research/cmo-csuite-dna-partnership.html> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Ioan-Franc, V. & Purcarea, I. M. (2020). The gait of ideas and of economic reflections on the path to the next normal and the touchpoint between citizens and their local community represented by a retail progressively adapting Holistic Marketing Management

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to the technology trends, Conference paper presented on November 27, at the 7th International Conference ESPERA 2020 “30 Years of Inspiring Academic Economic Research – From the Transition to Market Economy to the Interlinked Crises of 21st Century”, Romanian Academy “Costin C. Kiritescu” National Institute of Economic Research (INCE), National Bank of Romania, Centre for Economic Information and Documentation (CIDE), Session 3: Knowledge, Innovation, Smart Development and Human Capital. Retrieved from Agenda ESPERA 2020_25.11.2020.pdf Lerner, J. S., Small, D. A., & Loewenstein, G., 2004. Heart strings and purse strings: Carryover effects of emotions on economic decisions. Psychological science, 15(5), 337-341.

Loxton, M., Truskett, T., Scarf, B., Sindone, L., Baldry, G. and Zhao, Y., 2020. Consumer Behaviour during Crises: Preliminary Research on How Coronavirus Has Manifested Consumer Panic Buying, Herd Mentality, Changing Discretionary Spending and the Role of the Media in Influencing Behaviour, Journal of Risk Financial Management, MDPI, 2020, 13, 166; doi:10.3390/jrfm13080166.

NPD, 2020. The Future of Tech, Exclusive Insights. [online] Available at: <https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/products/the-future-of-series/the-future-of-tech/> [Accessed 12 January 2021].

Polk, J., Neufeld, E., 2020. Leadership Vision for 2021: Chief Marketing Officer. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, pp. 117. [online] Available at: < leadership-vision-chief-marketing-officer.pdf > [Accessed 19 December 2020].

Purcarea, I. M., 2020. Over Tipping Point for Digital Disruption: E-Commerce & Omni Channel Working Together Within the Acceleration of the Digitization of Customer and Supply Chain Interactions, Holistic Marketing Management, vol. 10(3), pp. 30-39, November.

Purcarea, I. M., 2020. Digital transformation and the impact on e-commerce of the disruptive technologies which are the supporting structure of the Industry 4.0, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 11(3), pp. 32-49, December.

Qualtrics, 2020. Understanding the content experience [online] Available at: <https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/customer/content-experience/> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

Qualtrics, 2020. What is digital customer experience? [online] Available at: <https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/customer/digital-cx/?> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

Qualtrics, 2020. Optimising the ecommerce experience. [online] Available at: <https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/customer/ecommerce-experience/> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

Qualtrics, 2020. Your guide to mobile customer experience. [online] Available at: <https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/customer/mobile-customer-experience/> [Accessed 3 January 2021].

Raghunathan, R., & Pham, M. T., 1999. All negative moods are not equal: Motivational influences of anxiety and sadness on decision making. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 79(1), 56-77.

Ryan, T.M., 2020. Will the pandemic finally bring marketing and IT teams together? [online] Available at: <https://retailwire.com/discussion/will-the-pandemic-finally-bring-marketing-and-it-teams-together/> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Rogers, K, Cosgrove, A., 2020. Future Consumer Index: How to serve the 'Anxious Consumer' after COVID-19, EY, 28 May. [online] Available at: <https://www.ey.com/en_gl/consumer-products-retail/how-to-serve-the-anxiousconsumer-after-covid-19> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

Rothman, W., 2021. CES 2021: The World’s Largest Tech Show Trades Las Vegas for Cyberspace, The Wall Street Journal, Tech, Personal Technology: Review, News, Jan. 10. [online] Available at: <https://www.wsj.com/articles/ces-2021-the-worlds-largest-tech-show-trades-las-vegas-for-cyberspace11610290800> [Accessed 12 January 2021].

Shaw, C., 2020. The 5 Rules of Measuring and Managing Customer Emotions, LinkedIn, December 8. [online] Available at: <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-rules-measuring-managing-customer-emotions-colin-shaw/> [Accessed 8 December 2020].

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Thematic University Network: From Tracing to Branding, Which

Standards are Standard, UA Youth 2020, Environmental/Ethical Prices Bernd HALLIER

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European Retail Academy (ERA) is a distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of our “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal. The Romanian-American University (RAU) has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Special Academic Merit”. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier is also an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”. The “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Excellence”. It is well-known that based on the preparations for the 200 years Anniversary of the University of Bonn, the two international networks EQA (Education Qualification Alliance) and ERA (European Retail Academy) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU, signed by the Chairman of the Board of EQA, Christian Gruetters and Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier for ERA) to institutionalize the socalled Thematic University Network conceived as an excellent platform for global dialogue, whose vision and mission were explained jointly by Prof. Dr. Brigitte Petersen, President of the International Center for Food Chain and Network Research (FoodNetCenter Bonn, founded in 2006 as interdisciplinary center of the University of Bonn, and having as main objectives: interdisciplinarity; contribution to university profile; outstanding research & development; Focus Groups: Food Waste, One Health, Responsible System Information) and Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier (ERA).

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From Tracing to Branding In his Reader “From Crisis to Competence” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier describes at pages 118/119 the importance for food producers to have a strategy to move for example anonymous meat via tracing/tracking plus marketing into the sector of brands. “In a market which is living from differentiation BRANDING is the key of success” Prof. Hallier explained “... and certification by Third Parties is necessary to gain the TRUST of consumers”, he added.

A very nice up-to-date certification scheme for the total production stream is according to Hallier the chicken brand Cocorico from the poultry producer AAylex Group from Romania. The brand has different certifications from farming and production for its marketing claims. Cocorico respects nature, is complying with EU environmental directions and is using sustainable energy where possible. Social responsibility is a cornerstone for Cocorico’s activities like promoting healthy living through various initiatives: healthy lifestyle education, social causes, sustainable business practices.” The brand is by those claims and testimonials also a reflection of the penetration of standards and its supervision by certification institutions" Hallier concluded.

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Which Standards are Standard Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier points to the fact that the state of art of a Standard depends on the status quo of the level of national economies and their potential connections with other markets on the globe. “Therefore benchmarks are very helpful as we can see for example in our Globalgap-system for the chain from farm to fork” Hallier explained in a lecture about Innovations. “There is always an interdependence between what could be done and which technologies are available/affordable.” Macro-Innovations seem to have a Rhythm of roughly 50 years, Retail/Wholesale in Western Europe from the year 1800 onwards major developments all 25 years according to Hallier.

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Nikolai Kondratieff was the first who published in 1926 observations about innovations having long-term effects on macro-economic levels: 1939 called “Kondratieff-Cycles” by Joseph Schumpeter. A period of innovation driven by cotton/steam engine (1800) was followed by railways/steel production (1850), electrical engineering/chemistry (1900), petrochemical industry/automobiles (1950) and information-technology/revitalization of global trade networks for sourcing and distribution (2000). Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier defines as the next Kondratieff-Cycle the Lithium Production/Applications of Lithium/ CryptoCurrencies in a world of Smart Economies. Lithium production will replace the petroleum production in the impact of the geopolitical power-play according to Hallier. Taken the period of 1974-2018 measured in metric tons Australia leads by 123.206 units, followed by China (45.747), Zimbabwe ((34.604), Canada (22.097) and Chile (16.137). “South America is expected to increase its volume by roughly 200 percent in the next decade” Prof. Hallier expects.

UA Youth 2020 In 2011 the Visegrad University Association (VUA) was founded in Nitra/Slovakia as an international network for academia of agriculture. The success-story of VUA shows Annual General Meetings and Summer Schools - also in connection with double-diploma.

Additionally an annual Youth Forum followed. The 7th VUA Youth Forum was organized in 2020 as a hybrid Zoom Conference by Szent Istvan University/Hungary chaired by Prof. Dr. R. Magda/Hungary and as keynote speakers Prof. Dr. B. Hallier/Germany and Prof. Dr. U. Raut/India.

All three professors agreed on the point that as well on the macro-level as also on the micro-levels the world is in a dramatic disruption with effects on standards not only on the business world with new business-models but also in the education-sector.

A total of 21 PhD-students from Bangladesh, Germany, Hungary, India, Slovakia and Ukraine followed their papers under the general headline: “Challenges and Changes under the shadow of COVID-19”.

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Environmental/Ethical Prices In the hybrid Shymkent Conference at the 2020 International Day of Science the Korean Nobel Laureate of 2007 Prof. Dr. R. Chung proposed a new calculation for including the use of Carbon into the prices of products/services. That proposal was now enlarged by Prof. Dr. B. Hallier due to activities initiated by his friend, the German Federal Environment Minister Prof.

Dr. Klaus Toepfer, in the 80ies of the last century. “Chung’s as well as Toepfer’s considerations are based on the idea to add the costs of Carbon (Chung) and for Redistribution of Package Materials/Recycling/Waste disposal (Toepfer) to the traditionally calculated costs for products and services. This is not only fair in respect of used resources of the environment but also ethical in terms of the present versus the future generations of our globe! We have to harmonize our economic, ecological and ethical as well as local, regional and global needs in new optimization formulars!” Hallier summarized the Conference input and presents the following new holistic environmental/ethical price calculation formular:

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Recalling the situation of the 80ies he remembers three German Regulations which determined the package design ( DPP-models to measure the costs for individual products in the distributionand redistribution processes ), standardizations of palettes/transport- and sales-units, green-dotesystem for recycling etc. “Klaus Toepfer was the first politician who discovered the Power of Listing Products in Trade” Hallier remembers.

“After that common experience I used the same principle for Tracing/Tracking cows/beef at the BSE-crises1994/1996 (developing the EU-Regulations in this sector) and shortly after that the European Good Agricultural Practice for fruit and vegetables (EUREP-Gap) which meanwhile is well established as GLOBALGAP as a benchmark in around 150 countries worldwide!

We used publications and seminars about Best Practice of Partners as a Marketing-Tool to push the speed of transformation (Applied Sciences) between the Vision and the Realization of the projects. That was the key for the success of the systems: therefore it did not remain Theory but Applied Cases! -- The Limits remain the Competition/ social acceptance of the price needed to get all factors in!” Prof. Hallier added.

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“Marketing Science and Inspirations”: A means of interactive dialogue between practice and theory

Dr. Dan SMEDESCU Associate Editor of the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal Member of the scientific association Romanian Distribution Committee

JEL Classification: Y30 The well-known “Marketing Science and Inspirations” Journal, a true brand of the Comenius University in Bratislava (Faculty of Management, Department of Marketing), Slovakia, is constantly reconfirming the recognized vocation of giving its educated, affluent and implied readers a holistic perspective on modern marketing issues, rigorously encouraging their engagement and improving the brand image by maintaining the memorable connection with them, always ensuring that experience desired by highly motivated readers with purpose.

Therefore we are continuing to witness our partners’ hard and smart work to provide to both current and new readers truly relevant and useful content on current business situations and key challenges faced by agile marketers.

We were happy to receive by post the new Issue 3, Volume XV, 2020, of our Partner Journal “Marketing Science and Inspirations”, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.

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As usual, the new issue of this well-known academic journal addressing to academics and practitioners covered a wide range of interesting topics in the marketing research field, such as: • “CSR in corona time”.

The authors Eva Jaderná, Jana Pechová and Hana Volfová present CSR activities in the Corona Time and internal stakeholders´ perception of these activities. Many of successful business would like to be more social responsible not only in usual time period, but during the crises, too. They would like to support and help the society. The paper introduces the Case Study of SKODA AUTO. How the business helped the society by CSR activities, and how the internal stakeholders perceive these activities. The description of the perception is based on the survey organized in May/June 2020, immediately after the quarantine and reducing of emergency measure. The sense of the CSR activities is in their marketing communication, too. Therefore, the attention of researchers was focused on the effectiveness of the marketing communication to internal stakeholders.

• “Artificial intelligence in personnel selection and its influence on employer attractiveness”.

The authors Stephan Weinert, Elmar Günther, Edith Rüger-Muck and Gerhard Raab have argued that attracting and retaining talented employees has become one of the most pressing challenges for companies in their struggle for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Personnel assessment and personnel selection plays an important role in this context.

On the one hand, its methods can help, to distinguish between suitable applicants and less suitable ones. On the other hand, personnel assessment and selection affects the perceived attractiveness of the employer. Therefore, it is closely related to employer branding.

In the course of digitization, artificial intelligence is now increasingly used in personnel attraction and selection. New instruments are being introduced. For example, computer aided speech recognition can allegedly be used to generate personality profiles of applicants. However, the scientific debate on this topic seems to lag far behind the marketing of corresponding instruments. From a scientific point of view, it is questionable not only whether such instruments are prognostically valid, but also whether they are accepted by applicants. Within the framework of an experimental study, two important questions are thus investigated: What effect do job advertisements have on the perceived attractiveness of an employer if the use of computer-aided speech recognition for personnel selection is explicitly pointed out? To what extent is the relationship between job advertisements with and without reference to speech recognition on the attractiveness of employers moderated by technology acceptance, country-specific differences and qualification? Answers to these questions will enhance our understanding of applicant reactions to selection procedures. In addition, they provide important information for the practice of human resource management in the context of employer branding.

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• “Networking and entrepreneurial orientation in internationalization of small-and medium sized enterprises: A two case study of Ostrobothnia company in Finland”.

The author Rosmeriany Nahan-Suomela showed that the objective of this paper is to gain an increased understanding of how networking and entrepreneurial orientations facilitate internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study is a qualitative research and the research is drawn upon findings of a sample of two SMEs located in Ostrobothnia, Finland. A qualitative data is gathered through personal interview with managers of the enterprises. The study has shown importance of networking and entrepreneurial orientations for understanding internationalization pattern of small and medium size enterprises.

My findings suggest that in order to be successful in international markets enterprises need to consider components of entrepreneurial orientations which are reflected by the two case enterprises in their internationalization. Furthermore, success of the enterprises depends largely on the ability of the companies to relate entrepreneurial orientation and networking in facilitating internationalization of the companies.

• “Attitudes of the inhabitants of the capital of the Slovak Republic towards selected topics of advertising. Part II.” The authors Martina Jantová and Peter Štarchoň underlined from the very beginning that as part of the process of implementing an advertising campaign, the participating parties, primarily the advertiser and the advertising agency, respectively communication agency, have social responsibility, which manifests itself in an ethical level. Since the implementation of an advertising campaign is initiated by a specific company or other client, its recipients or the target group itself, instead of accepting it, may not only perceive it as unsolicited, but also as annoying.

It is on the attitudes of the recipients of advertising, in the case of this contribution the attitudes of the inhabitants of the capital of the Slovak Republic which are oriented to the outputs of the primary research. The article emphasizes the attitudes of recipients towards selected controversial aspects of advertising, namely attitudes towards advertising of cigarettes, hard alcohol, beer, wine and medicines and attitudes towards erotic motives in advertising. The starting point for the research was “Czechs and advertising for year 2020”. In Slovakia, 726 respondents took part in the research.

This new issue of the “Marketing Science and Inspirations” Journal also includes other sections such as: ▪ “Marketing Briefs”: Pavel Štrach – “Let’s go shopping (online): Diminishing boundaries between traditional and online stores”; ▪ “SHORT COMMUNICATIONS”: “FLEMA Media Awards 2020”; ▪“Dictionary of Useful Marketing Terms”, Dagmar Weberová.

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We always remember with pleasure that the Editor-in-Chief of the “Marketing Science and Inspirations” Journal – Professor Peter Štarchoň, Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia – is also a Member of the Editorial Board of both the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal, and of the “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”.

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It is also our honor and pleasure to remember both the significant meeting in Koln, Germany, in 2011, on the occasion of the working meeting of the European Retail Academy (ERA), and the different significant moments when the ERA President, Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier (also a Member of both above mentioned Editorial Boards), visited the Romanian-American University.

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