In our increasingly chaotic political arena, Public Broadcasting News (think: Germany’s 'Tagesschau') drive people's political participation and civic engagement -- in ways that commercial news media do not. Public Broadcasting News (PBN) also contribute to people's political knowledge and their support for democratic values, two key foundations of any (truly) democratic society.

This paper by Sonja Gensler and Arvind Rangaswamy (Penn State, USA) highlights key developments in digital marketing since 1990, emphasizing the shift from static interactions to dynamic, data-driven ecosystems. While significant research on digital marketing has focused on the promotion and distribution aspects, the “Product” component of the 4P framework remains underexplored.

At the end of a successful year, we would like to highlight one final milestone. This December, three MCM scholars participated in two major conferences that allowed us to share our research and engage in productive academic exchanges.

Prof. Manfred Krafft and his team from the Chair of Marketing Management (IfM) at the University of Münster recently participated in a doctoral colloquium hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Business at the  University of Zaragoza.

Firms using a direct selling (DS) distribution channel delegate selling and sales management responsibilities to an independent-contractor distributor force. The DS firm’s inability to directly control distributors’ efforts, and the fact that most active distributors choose to work part-time rather than full-time at their DS business, makes an examination of the drivers of DS performance outcomes important for academic study and managerial insight.

In light of scarce resources, firms strategically weigh off between investments in value creation and value appropriation. They do so by placing more emphasis on one of the two strategic orientations which defines their strategic emphasis. So far, literature has relied on accounting data – specifically on reported investments in R&D and advertising – to operationalize reported strategic emphasis and studied its association with a firm’s financial performance. Previous studies suggest that firms benefit from emphasizing value appropriation.