The Engel Kollat Blackwell (EKB) Model of Consumer Behavior

The Engel Kollat Blackwell Model of Consumer Behavior  was created to describe the increasing, fast-growing body of knowledge concerning consumer behavior. This model, like in other models, has gone through many revisions to improve its descriptive ability of the basic relationships between components and sub-components. The Engel Kollat Blackwell model describes consumer behavior as a 4-step decision-making process involving problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, and purchase decision. The model also considers how external factors like culture, social class, and reference groups as well as internal factors like motivation, personality, and knowledge influence the consumer’s decision journey. A key feature is distinguishing between high and low involvement purchases based on perceived risk. The Engel Kollat Blackwell Model of Consumer Behavior or  consists of four distinct stages; Information Input Stage:  At this stage the consumer gets information from marketing and non-marketing sources, which also influence the problem recognition stage of the Continue reading

What is Intrapreneurship? – Definition, Meaning and Features

In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary acknowledged the popular use of a new word, intrapreneur, to mean “A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation”. Intrapreneurship is now known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.  They are entrepreneurs who catch hold of a new idea for a product, service, or process and work to bring this idea to fruition within the framework of the organization. Intrapreneurs with their innovations and dedicated effort are perceived as a valuable asset by the organization, inspiring others. He serves as a champion to others in the organization. In recent times, a number of intrapreneurs are leaving their jobs to start Continue reading

Stagflation and Phillips Curve

Meaning of Stagflation The present day inflation is the best explanation for stagflation in the whole world. It is inflation accompanied by stagnation on the development front in an economy. Instead of leading to full employment, inflation has resulted in un-employment in most of the countries of the world. It is a global phenomenon today. Both developed and developing countries are not free from its clutches. Stagflation is a portmanteau term in macro economics used to describe a period with a high rate of inflation combined with unemployment and economic recession. Inflationary gap occurs when aggregate demand exceeds the available supply and deflationary gap occurs when aggregate demand is less than the aggregate supply. These are two opposite situations. For instance, when inflation goes unchecked for some time, and prices reach very high level, aggregate demand contracts and a slump follows. Private investment is discouraged. Inflationary and deflationary pressures exist Continue reading

The Importance of Brand Equity

“If the businesses were split up, I would take the brands, trademarks and goodwill, and you could have all the bricks and mortar – and I would fare better than you.” The optimism for the concept can be stated on the fact that when one would say as a predictor of future financial performance, brand equity, if reported, would be valuable for capital marketers and shareholders. Brand equity has the potential to become the set of measures of business performance that matter most. For example, Starbucks can sell its coffee at a higher price than solid market competitors because consumers associate the brand with quality and value. This is why brand equity is oftentimes directly correlated with a brand’s profitability. The motivation for brand equity comes from the observation that many marketing efforts “realize” benefits; such as sales or profit and these are accounted for in the firm’s profit and Continue reading

Exchange Rate Regimes: The Bretton Woods System

Bretton Woods is the name of the town in the state of New Hampshire, USA, where the delegations from over forty five countries met in 1944 to deliberate on proposals for a post-war international monetary system. The two main contending proposals were “the White plan” named after Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury and the “Keynes plan” whose architect was Lord Keynes of the UK. Following the Second World War, policy makers from victorious allied powers, principally the US and UK, took up the task of thoroughly revamping the world monetary system for the non-communist world. The outcome was the so called “Bretton Woods System” and the birth of new supra-national institutions, the International Monetary Fund (the IMF or simply the “Fund”) and the World Bank. Under this system US Dollar was the only currency that was fully convertible to gold; where other countries currencies were not directly convertible Continue reading

Global Depositary Receipts (GDR’s)

A depositary receipt (DR) is a type of negotiable (transferable) financial security that is traded on a local stock exchange but represents a security, usually in the form of equity, which is issued by a foreign publicly listed company. The DR, which is a physical certificate, allows investors to hold shares in equity of other countries. One of the most common types of DRs is the American depositary receipt (ADR), which has been offering companies, investors and traders global investment opportunities since the 1920s. Since then, DRs have spread to other parts of the globe in the form of global depositary receipts (GDRs) (the other most common type of DR), European DRs and international DRs. ADRs are typically traded on a U.S. national stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the American Stock Exchange, while GDRs are commonly listed on European stock exchanges such as the Continue reading