Ayantunji Gbadamosi

• Bsc (Hons) Msc, PhD SFHEA FCIM FCMI Associate Professor of Marketing University of East London UK
• Associate Professor of Marketing at University of East London UK

Given the symbolic significance of places such as nations, regions, cities, and gated communities, the ideas of brands and branding are being applied to them in recent times. For example, nation branding is becoming common especially as countries compete among themselves for resources and opportunities like investment inflows and skilled profession...

Notably brands and branding distinguish and position businesses’ market offerings in relation to competitors’. They constitute parts of the core elements of the marketing system that contribute to how businesses satisfy their customers. Hence, branding is inextricably linked to the marketing philosophy of creating and delivering value to the custom...

Consumers are influenced by a myriad of factors in their choices of brands which can be categorised differently. The impact of psychological and personal influences which comprise of factors like perception, motivation, learning and memory, and attitudes on brand consumption is considerable. This chapter features a meticulous discussion of these is...

Purpose Despite the plethora of scholarship outputs on masculinity showing it as a fertile research domain, there are noteworthy lacunae on the topic especially in relation to its dynamics among ethnic minority groups. Accordingly, this paper aims to address masculinity and symbolic consumption among Black African consumers in the UK. Design/metho...

Purpose This study aims to investigate sustainability practices in the banking industry, focusing on a developing economy. It uses the triple-bottom-line framework to answer the following research question: how do banks in Nigeria conceptualise sustainability, and what role does it play in their banking practices? Design/methodology/approach This...

The devastating effects of COVID-19 permeates virtually all aspects of life across geographic boundaries. As the lockdown is eased, and reinstated, across many parts of the world, attention is now shifting towards how to navigate the ‘now normal’ rather than the ‘next normal,’ of doing business with a view to achieving sustainable development. This...

Social media live streaming, in the form of live video and user stories, is widely used by influencers, organisations and individuals to connect with their audiences. Its popularity is well-established in a range of theoretical and managerial contexts. However, there is a lack of scholarship on the role of this phenomenon on consumer decision-makin...

It is argued that the role of the Chinese government to support the cross-border operations of Chinese firms is to assist these firms in overcoming their limited established brands, and their disadvantages in technology and managerial resources, which were also the reasons why such firms decided to enter emerging markets instead of developed market...

Whether mobility, auditory, sensory, visual, cognitive, or other types, living with a disability is a challenging experience. The individual dimension of this phenomenon is complemented by the social experience. In fact, as compared to individual experiences, social and political structures are considered as the leading cause of disability percepti...

Inequity is demonstrated in a plethora of ways. Although it varies in its manifestation from one society to another, the notoriety is global with lingering devastating impacts in many ramifications. Accordingly, it has attracted the attention of various stakeholders on the need to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion in various walks of life. T...

Christmas is a special period in most countries of the world for many consumers. It is often associated with consumption on a considerable scale. This is especially true for children who are driven by a high need for affiliation which prompts their requests for goods and services that will give them the opportunity to interact with other children....

Conventionally, marketing is about identifying the needs and wants of the target market, and satisfying them efficiently and effectively to ensure mutual benefits to both parties. So, it is about creating and delivering value to the consumers. In fact, an extension of this perspective emphasises the notion of value co-creation between marketers and...

Purpose Although consumption is a universal phenomenon, it is characterised with considerable degree of diversity in relation to various factors such as culture, age, gender, ethnicity and many others. Accordingly, more often than not, these factors underpin consumers' reactions to different market offerings including luxury products. While a pleth...

It is our collective view that the neglect of the informal sector coupled with the below par attention afforded to the informal and/or self-employment sector, may have hampered African business development. In the light of these, this special issue seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion as to how entrepreneurship in Africa can be made more s...

Examining how religion influences the dynamics of consumption in developing nations, this book illuminates the strategic placement of these nations on the global marketing stage both in terms of their current economic outlook and potential for growth. Expert contributors highlight the individual aspects of religion that influence consumers, from p...

The pervading force of corruption, across the globe, remains a major concern among nations, multilateral agencies, such as Transparency International, and more profoundly in major business and public policy discourses. For many developing countries, especially those with weak institutions, high levels of corruption are causatively associated with h...

The complexity that characterise the dynamic nature of the various environmental factors makes it very compelling for firms to be capable of addressing the changing customers’ needs. They are expected to achieve agility in combining data across the organisation. Big data has become a crucial driving force in any company’s success. The current study...

Generally, entrepreneurship is a fertile research domain that has attracted significant scholarship effort in many ways (McGrath et al., 1992; Madichie, 2009; Davidson, et al, 2010; Rwelamila, et al., 2014; Gbadamosi, 2015; George et al, 2016; Gbadamosi, 2019; 2020). Meanwhile, the prospects of African business development have been marred by the l...

The complexity that characterises the dynamic nature of the various environmental factors makes it very compelling for firms to be capable of addressing the changing customers' needs. The current study examines the role of big data in new product success. We develop a qualitative research with case study approach to look at this. Specifically, we l...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate the market in terms of sheer number of organisations; yet, scholarly resource materials to assist in honing skills and competencies have not kept pace. This well renowned textbook guides students through the complexities of entrepreneurship from the unique perspective of marketing in SME contexts,...

As the landscape of marketing knowledge changes, contemporary buyers, be it individuals or organisations are now more informed, more demanding and crave value co-creation with marketers. This, coupled with technological and socio-cultural changes, provides robust evidence that the old perspectives, assumptions, and practices of marketing are no lon...

This chapter sets the scene for others in the book by conceptually tracing the historical issues in marketing and linking it to the notions of value-creation, value-delivery, and value co-creation; and discusses how these are linked to contemporary perspectives on the issues. The chapter takes readers through areas of convergence among these views...

Essentially, this chapter addresses the evolving issues around what we buy, how buy them, and why our decisions are so patterned. The chapter covers the emerging trends in consumer-decision making process, postmodernism and the contemporary consumer. It also discusses the Consumer Culture Theory and Consumer complicit behaviour in relation to the c...

This chapter examines the foundational philosophical underpinning of marketing ethics – the utilitarian and deontological perspectives. The chapter also highlights and discusses the numerous and growing criticisms levied against marketing. These range from the issues around the types of products offered to the market, the mode of pricing and distri...

Although postmodernism and celebrity culture are closely linked, research attention on this has not been adequately synthesized with ethnic minority groups. Hence, this article, which is rooted in an interpretive research paradigm, explores the symbolic consumption of Black African women in the UK with specific reference to celebrity culture. Altho...

The notion of value co-creation has been a well-established phenomenon in strategic marketing. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of studies that specifically link this to women entrepreneurship and religiosity. This is the lacuna filled by this paper which is interpretive in nature and based on 11 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group discussion data...

As developing nations increase their consumption rate, their relevance in the global marketplace grows. Existing assumptions and postulations about consumer consumption in various societies are being displaced largely due to the dynamic nature of the market. However, research has not been adequately devoted to explore the developments in consumer b...

Consumption is a global phenomenon that permeates virtually every walk of life in developed and developing nations. Consequently, extant literature is awash with postulations on consumer behavior in these contexts in varying forms. Most of the perspectives relating to developing nations explicate various issues that revolve around how the lower eco...

This paper examines colour cosmetic consumption of Morrocan women in relation to the influence of attitudes, religion, and the media. With data from 498 women and using the theory of planned behavior, this study shows that attitude and Perceived behavior control (PBC) affect positively consumer intention to buy colour cosmetics. It also shows that...

The diversity of the student population in the United Kingdom’s higher education sector evokes a vision of the world as a global village. The effect of this diversity on the UK economy has been considerable. Nevertheless, the research attention given to how overseas students can become integrated into UK culture remains inadequate. This interpretiv...

It is crystal clear that the relevance of young consumers in family consumption activities is increasing by the day. Meanwhile, the profundity of scholarship attention on them as a consumer group is evident and still gaining momentum. Nevertheless, the rapid changes in the marketing environment across various areas such as the technological and soc...

Although a broad contextual platform of marketing communication is explored in this study, the core objective of the study is to examine children’s attitude towards advertising in Morocco. This study performed within the Moroccan territory using primary data focuses on this issue from a local perspective. Different factors were taken under consider...

Purpose Over the years, a considerable depth of research has established the link between trust, commitment and relationship marketing and its relevance to consumers’ brand preferences. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on how they are linked to religiosity. Accordingly, this paper aims to address the palpable gap. Design/methodology/app...

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategies undertaken by “entrepreneurial” universities to leverage their bottom-line especially in response to withdrawals of public funding. Internationalisation has been the most prominent from setting-up overseas branch campuses to aggressive recruitment drives for international students, and more r...

Drawing from the extant literature, this paper explores prevalent consumer opportunism in insurance transactions, its links to consumers' perception, and the relevance of marketing strategies in curbing the menace. It shows that insurance opportunism could be perpetrated by any party in the insurance transaction system and at any stage of the proce...

Irrespective of the differences between us, one of the binding cords that explain our homogeneity is that we all are consumers. However, there are idiosyncratic issues that might still differentiate consumption in one society from another. These constrain the extent to which we can generalise on the existing relevant postulations. Hence, this chapt...

The purpose of this study is to depict the attitude of Moroccan consumers towards the concept of debt, as well as examine factors triggering their intentions to get a loan. A sample of 310 Moroccans was selected across four cities of the country, namely: Fes, Meknes, Rabat, and Casablanca. Social factors are critically analyzed to understand why th...

A plethora of evidence suggests that developed societies such as the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly multicultural by the day. Hence, the diversity of consumption in these societies becomes gradually evident in the form of residents' age, gender, income and ethnicity. Accordingly, this article explores the brand personification and symboli...

Purpose – This paper aims to unravel how membership of Pentecostal fellowships aids the entrepreneurial activities of African-Caribbean (AC) members. While many issues about the entrepreneurial engagements of AC people have been discussed in the literature, there are far less studies documented about the link of these activities to faith, especiall...

Unabating mobility of populations across national frontiers has become as much a hot and challenging issue globally as it is to Britain. Peculiarly to Britain, its adventurous history, especially in Africa and Asia, positioned the country as a magnate for people from the erstwhile colonies. The consequence is that Britain is discernibly multi-ethni...

In June 2011 South Sudan joined the United Nations as a new state, marking the final stage of years of struggle for independence. Its secession is witness to the potential of regions with no historic claims of statehood to achieve independence. This unique situation gives researchers the opportunity to explore how the brand of a nation comes into e...

Objectives - The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategies being undertaken by higher education institutions (HEIs) to leverage their bottom-line especially in situations where public funding has been removed and they are left with no other option but self-funding. Strategies have ranged from internationalisation i.e. setting up overseas...

African entrepreneurs in the diaspora are increasingly leveraging the duality of transnational space to expand economic opportunities in their countries of origin. Using the UK (London) and Sub-Saharan Africa migration corridor as a contextual prism, this paper explores the 'everydayness' of entrepreneurship among African entrepreneurs in relation...

This study, based on lived experiences of a sample of Nigerian entrepreneurs in the UK, provides an insight into why ethnic minority entrepreneurs work and feel justified in working outside the formal/legal structures regulated by government. It contributes an understanding of ethnic entrepreneurship at the periphery or grey zones of the market eco...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how African‐Caribbean Pentecostals use the platform of their faith to reconstruct their entrepreneurial values and identities, improve entrepreneurial learning and exploit the cultural resources of faith‐based networks to promote and sustain their entrepreneurialism. Design/methodology/approach – Methodological...

This article examines the impact of management structure on the performance of population control program in Pakistan. Specifically, it explores the relationship between management structures and program outcomes in social marketing program (SMP) contexts. A combination of pattern matching and explanation building techniques for embedded case analy...

Despite an ongoing debate, authors agree that factors that determine consumers' involvement in any goal object are the characteristics of the object, the characteristics of the customer involved and the situational context of the decision. With this as the theoretical background, this paper advocates the need to study African‐specific contextual fa...

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the practices of customer relationship management (CRM) strategy implementation in the Gulf Banking sector, contextualizing with Kuwait. There is broad consensus in the literature that improving and enhancing the relationship with customers is imperative and a determinant factor to gaining competitive edge in th...

Multinational enterprises, especially those in the fast-moving consumer goods market, have long been concerned with the dynamics of family-oriented consumption behavior. What is little known is the changing locus of power as children assume more power in family buying decisions. This paper adopts qualitative methods to address the changing role of...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the intricate interconnection between religion, spirituality and pursuits of economic opportunities among ethnic entrepreneurs, using British Africans as a frame. Against the backcloth of institutional constraints confronting ethnic minorities, the paper investigates how African immigrants in the UK u...

This paper is aimed at exploring African children’s attitudinal reactions to television advertisements. A total of 65 children from four African countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda – participated in 12 focus group discussions on the subject matter. Findings suggest that they like television advertising in relation to its entertainment feat...

Purpose – Given that a “one size fits all” strategy might not be sufficiently robust enough to capture all the idiosyncrasies of the ethnic minority market in Britain, due to the heterogeneous nature of their consumption behaviour, the purpose of this paper is to specifically explore clothing acculturation of Black African women in London, UK. Des...

Purpose The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore how Africa has been branded, and to suggest ways the continent could be re‐branded to attract both international and domestic investments. Design/methodology/approach An extensive review of literature that encapsulates branding, nation branding, place/destination branding, foreign direct i...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the Nigerian advertising environment with children as the target audience in relation to its regulatory system. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive review of the extant relevant literature was conducted to provide the needed framework for exploring the state of ethics in advertising to children in Nigeria...

Branding is at best a complex phenomenon in conventional commercial settings and even more so in social marketing where the application of branding concepts and techniques are fairly recent but nevertheless gaining momentum. Against the backdrop of contraceptive social marketing programs implemented in Pakistan over the past 2 decades to promote th...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct an exploratory analysis of low‐income women consumers' consumption of low‐involvement grocery products, and to explore the relevance of cognitive dissonance in this consumption. Design/methodology/approach One focus group discussion and 30 in‐depth interviews are conducted with low‐income women consu...

Purpose – Given the diversity which exists among various groups of consumers, the purpose of this paper is to explore students' consumption of non‐alcoholic beverages in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Three focus groups and 20 in‐depth interviews were conducted with students in three universities located in Lagos, Nigeria. Findings – Init...