Intermediary roles in local mobile advertising: Findings from a Finnish study

Abstract

This research examines the intermediary roles that advertising agencies perform between small local advertisers and a mobile advertising service provider. The intermediary roles have been left unexplored, although the agencies have influence on their client's decisions to use new media. A real-life experiment of new mobile advertising system was conducted, and interview data from eight advertising agencies were collected. The findings show that agencies may play three types of roles. In playing connecting, mediating, and inhibiting roles, agencies influence the value created not only for their clients' but also for themselves and the advertising media provider.

Keywords::

• intermediaries
• roles
• advertising agencies
• m-advertising
• SMEs
• Finland

Notes

^1. Although we would advise our colleagues against undertaking such a long research process, we are proud to say that three new babies and a PhD thesis have been introduced to the world and prioritized during it.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hanna Komulainen

Dr Hanna Komulainen is postdoctoral researcher (Academy of Finland) at Oulu Business School, Finland. Her main research interests include business-to-business relationships, service marketing and value creation. She has published in the Journal of Service Management, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management and International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising.

Tuija Mainela

Tuija Mainela is Professor of International Business at the Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Finland. Her main research interests relate to the dynamics of business networks, roles of social relationships in business, networking in internationalization of firms and international entrepreneurship. She has published in the International Journal of Management Reviews, Industrial Marketing Management, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Management Decision, Journal of Service Management and Journal of International Entrepreneurship.

Jaana Tähtinen

Jaana Tähtinen is Professor of Marketing at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her main research interests relate to management in business nets, emotions in business, and the dissolution of business relationships. She is one of the founders of the biannual Nordic Workshop on Relationship Dynamics (NoRD). She has been published in, amongst others, the European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Service Management and Marketing Theory.