Editorial

Citation

Phau, I. (2010), "Editorial", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml.2010.00822daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Volume 22, Issue 4.

To mark the end of 2010, this issue is a collection of research that spans across cultures and Asia. We are also proud to announce a sponsorship of the MAG Scholar Conference “Riding the Asian Wave” in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011[1]. Asia has been receiving tremendous interest from both practitioners and researchers alike in recent years, we are enthused that the conference will provide a beneficial platform for researchers to trade ideas and spur discussion.

As an opening paper to the issue, Kustin provides an overview of the movements of our globalized world by examining standardization across nations – Australia, Japan and the USA. The study prodded the question as to whether a firm's strategy of marketing standardization provides positive results to a firm's profits? It was found that standardization is superior under conditions whereby the corresponding host and foreign markets have greater market and economic similarities. Further implications for practitioners were also highlighted. The second paper, by Alam, is a comparative cross-national study of new service development (NSD) processes on financial service firms in Australia and India. The findings suggest differences between NSD in Australia and India. It is evident from the study that while some key NSD practices may be common to all countries and cultures, others may have to be adjusted for national variations.

The next three papers focus on the world of retailing. Chung and Shin investigate the significance of relationship quality factors on positive world of mouth (WOM) in the world of online retailing in Korea. The authors found that causal relationships exist between site characteristics, relationship quality and WOM. The results shed important insights on the impact of site characteristics in online retailing on customer satisfaction. It is highlighted that e-trust and e-commitment are important antecedents of e-WOM. Sternquist and Wang investigate the Chinese retail industry by examining the retail buying system, with emphasis on the buying committee. The results show that guanxi has a greater influence in the retail firms without a buying committee. Furthermore, state-owned enterprises (SOE) were also more likely to use a buying committee than non-SOEs. Insights into the internal structure of buying committees within a Chinese retail store provide valuable implications to suppliers. Chang and Luan aim to examine consumer perceptions of store image attributes and consumer preference in comparison between an international retailer and a domestic retailer. The authors employ a three-stage data collection approach by using a mixture of semi-structured interviews and surveys. The results show 18 important attributes in building a hypermarket retailer's store image. It also finds that Chinese consumers place greater emphasis on retailer's reputation and services than on price and that store atmosphere is most important to them. While there are limitations in terms of the scopes of the research, practical implications are delineated in the study.

The next two papers examine consumer behavior from Malaysia and Singapore. Ahmed et al. investigate credit card usage behavior in Malaysia. As credit card debt has become a widespread concern, the authors take to understanding consumers' attitude and spending behavior using credit cards. The study explored the psychographic factors influencing attitudes towards using credit cards, therefore lending valuable contribution to banks and financial institutions issuing credit cards. Pornpitakpan's research examines the effect of option choice reversibility on the number of options chosen, total spending, upset/regret from action/inaction in the Singapore context. An experimental approach is employed. It is found that participants in the reversible choice condition select more options and end up with higher total spending, whereas in the irreversible option choice condition, participants anticipate more upset when they take actions. Numerous practical implications are derived from the study that include suggestions in providing refunds and option change permission policies to induce greater number of purchases.

The concluding paper of the issue looks at consumer revisit intentions in the Australian context. Quintal and Polczynski examine the influence of university students' satisfaction with perceived attractiveness, quality, value and low risk on their revisit intentions to a holiday destination. A pen and paper questionnaire is distributed to students using a non-probability, convenience sampling approach. The results from the structural model indicate that satisfaction with the attractiveness, quality and value provided by destination positively influences revisit intentions. The authors also highlight practical implications based on the key findings of the study.

While we bid farewell to 2010, we look forward to bigger and yet better things to come in the near future. We also seize this opportunity to announce the inclusion of a fifth issue from 2011 onwards. Last, we do hope that this issue and the array of researches throughout this year have stimulated further research ideas. We continue to thank the EAB and the reviewers for their constructive reviews and feedback. More importantly, we thank the authors for their continuous support and contribution of high caliber to the APJML.

Ian PhauCurtin University of Technology, Australia

Note

1. For more interest in the MAG Scholar Conference, please contact Professor Kim Fam at: kim.fam@vuw.ac.nz