Purpose – While technology continues to make a dramatic and profound impact in service industries and radically shapes how services are delivered relatively little is understood about the impact of advancing technology on customers; their expectations, perceptions and behaviours. As banking enters an increasingly digitised world this study reports on the views of 667 e-banking customers with respect to the perceived potential of social media to add value in retail banking relationships. The purpose of this paper is to propose that in order to realise this opportunity requires the case bank to embrace the second-order level changes required within socio-technical theory (STT) in order that such value can be co-created between the relational parties. Design/methodology/approach – Using the lens of STT to interpret the findings drawn from the case bank’s e-banking customer base (n=5,500), it is argued that social media has the potential to fundamentally change customer-bank relationships and to add value to the way in which the parties interact with each other into the future. A survey methodology was adopted. Findings – The findings presented indicate a wide spectrum of customers actively using transactional e-banking solutions in the case bank. The findings showed that those in the 15-30 age group saw “real-time/up-to-date information” as the main gain of their bank being on Facebook while their older colleagues in the 31-60 age group had a desire for different returns (“competitions, events”). That the analysis showed that age was the only significant determinant of Facebook appropriateness for the case bank, and in the context of the age-related preferences outlined above, the issue of segmentation is strongly highlighted. Originality/value – This study contributes to the academic domain through a rare application of STT in a service context, offers implications for practice and highlights important areas for future research, inter alia; the role for new media in banking relationships, the impacts of new media on bank staff roles, where value now accrues in bank-customer communication, where social media fits in the promotional mix and relational strategies of banks and what are the issues emerging at the social-technical interface between both customers and staff and new technology and media.

There is a commercial imperative to take into account the gender of an advertisement's target audience and gender is the primary segmentation variable used by advertisers to capture attention and encourage action. This entry examines reasons why gender matters to advertisers and society. It discusses how men and women often react differently to adverts because of the differences in how they process information, with two theories dominating this field: the selectivity hypothesis and the item‐specific versus relational processing model. It discusses to what extent adverts can be manipulated to appeal to a particular gender, acknowledging that a commonly used strategy is to depict men in agentic roles and women in communal roles. With respect to online advertising, there appears to be a continuation of the agentic/communal distinction witnessed in offline platforms. Further, it is found that, notwithstanding some recent changes, gender stereotyping remains prevalent, particularly in relation to the portrayal of women's occupational status and women's portrayal in decorative roles. With that said, advertising's role in gender stereotyping is more of a reaction to, rather than a driver of, societal values, but has been shown to be lagging behind as societies move toward more gender equality. An examination on gender stereotyping in children's advertising reports broadly similar results to that reported by studies concerning advertising to adults. It is also agreed that men and women's role portrayal in advertising differs by culture, and that gender affects responses to advertising aimed at LGBT consumers.

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Purpose The purpose of the paper is to advance knowledge of small firm performance by explicating how networking helps small firms carry out marketing and perform better. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of small firm owner-managers in a regional economy of the UK was executed. Hypotheses were tested including the proposition that networking proactiveness moderates the relationship between market orientation (MO) and performance. Findings It was found that networking is undertaken by all small firms across a spectrum of business types. Networking is seen as applicable, it results in valuable outcomes and these outcomes contribute to marketing. The contribution increases with firm size and is valued more in small firms with a dedicated marketing function. Proactive networking creates greater value than reactive networking, but proactive networking in and of itself does not lead to greater performance. Rather, networking proactiveness moderates the relationship between MO and performance. Practical implications It is argued that networking should not be dismissed as “not quite proper” marketing and should be harnessed as a way of compensating for marketing activities that are outside the reach of the small firm. Small firms are advised to adopt a proactive approach to their networking activities, as without a reasonable level of proactiveness, there is likely to be no benefit in being market oriented. Originality/value There has been little research that has examined the specific ways in which networking contributes to marketing and none that probes if and to what extent this contribution makes a difference to overall firm performance. This paper addresses this gap.

Despite recognition of Entrepreneurial Marketing’s (EM) growing global importance, Entrepreneurial Marketing Education (EME) is relatively under-researched. Applying the concept of autonomous motivation, this article proposes that EME might offer a more valuable learning experience for students and their future employers as compared with either Entrepreneurship Education (EE) or Marketing Education (ME). Through two studies involving undergraduate students, the research found that when set alongside EE and ME, EME is not more attractive to students overall, but was more likely to be participated in by business students as compared with non-business students. However, when little or no prior knowledge of EM was possessed, likelihood to participate by any student was very low. Evidence emerged that EME is not only or mainly associated with starting a business but instead is seen as relevant to students expecting to work in a smaller organization. The research confirms that intrinsic motivation is not sufficient to encourage participation but rather extrinsic motivation, in the form of an appreciation of the benefits that it might generate, is also required. Recommendations are made as to how EME can be presented to business and non-business students such that motivation to participate is enhanced.