Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Volume 27, Issue 5.

In this fifth and final issue of 2015, we present to you a series of papers covering topics on the social influences on consumer behaviour, relationship and services marketing, business strategy and outsourcing of services in the supply chain. We are also pleased to present, in our industry spotlight section, a paper that shares with us, the unique trends in the Australian do-it-yourself (DIY) industry.

The issue opens with two papers examining the social influencers of consumer behaviour. First, Huang, Lin and Yen present a paper on consumer animosity, an issue that can affect the success of cross-border sales of products. They explore this concept on a regional scale, identifying the antecedents of regional animosity and their influence on regional media preference. Conducted in Taiwan, this study compares regional animosity between Northern and Southern Taiwan. Through this, they help to identify some of the social and political factors that influence consumer animosity, and suggest several strategies that policy makers,and marketing managers can take to address this. Next, research has shown that religion plays an influential role in marketing. Examining social religiosity, and its effects on consumer behaviour, Mathur, Barak, Zhang, Lee, Yoo and Ha present a unique scale development paper for measuring social religiosity across different countries and cultures. Conducted across four Asian countries, and contrasted against the USA, this study helps further our understanding of social religiosity, and its implications for marketing.

In the context of relationship and services marketing, Choudhury presents a paper on the influence of service quality on customers'intentions towards banks. This study employs an adapted SERVQUAL instrument tailored for the retail banking sector, and surveys customers in Kolkata, India. The study provides insight into Indian customers' perceptions of bank service quality, and makes comparisons between private and public sector banks. This provides practical implications on how bank managers can better manage their service offerings to attract and retain valuable customers. The advent of internet technologies has resulted in online shopping becoming commonplace in many markets around the world. However, maintaining strong customer relationships and building trust with consumers still plays a key role in business. Sahi and Khanam investigate the online shopping trend in the developing Indian market, and find that whilst many consumers are aware of online vendors, few actually shop online. Through this, they identify the key factors affecting online purchase intentions, and develop insight on how online vendors can better manage their businesses, and build consumer trust, to encourage more online shopping.

Moving onto business strategy, Bhattacharyya, Jha and Fernandes examine the antecedents to the effectiveness of the speed to market business management strategy. Surveying a cross section of public and private sector organisations in India, they expand on the current literature on the concept of speed to market, and develop a framework for investigating this. Further,they help identify key organisation characteristics that aid in an effective speed to market strategy.

Outsourcing of various business activities can prove advantageous for businesses, particularly in terms of costs. Here, Maley,Kowalkowski, Brege and Biggermann investigate the outsourcing of service activities, specifically in the context of service maintenance. Conducting a qualitative study in the Swedish mining sector, their study sheds light on the key issues around outsourcing service maintenance, and discusses the different managerial considerations involved.

This issue's industry spotlight paper is written by Hatton-Jones and Teah, and presents a case study of the Australian DIY industry, developing insights on the unique trend of DIY decking in Australia. Their findings provide useful knowledge for academics, policy makers and brand managers to better create strategies for tackling this dynamic industry.

I hope this last issue of 2015 has provided interesting perspectives and unique insights to stimulate future research. I thank the reviewers and EAB for their timely reviews and contribution to the APJML; and the authors for choosing APJML as an outlet to publish their research.

Ian Phau