Acceptance of Social Marketing
Concepts by Selected Romanian
Librarians: Culture and Context
Hermina Anghelescu
Irene Owens
Bill Lukenbill
James Lukenbill
Researchers Involved in the Study
Hermina Anghelescu, Associate Professor, School of Library
and Information Science, Wayne State University,
Irene Owens, Professor and Dean, School of Library and
Information Science, North Carolina Central University,
Bill Lukenbill, Professor, School of Information, University of
Texas at Austin,
James Lukenbill, Manager of Information Systems, Ingenix, (A
health care information and research company).
Background: Culture and Context
• Faculty members of the
School of Information and
Wayne State University
(assisted by others)
conducted a series of
conferences in Romania
(late 1990s to 2000s).
Conferences were
sponsored by various
organizations, including the
Romanian Ministry of
Culture and Romanian
libraries.
Social marketing
• Purpose was to help
Romanian libraries
move forward into
more modern ways of
library management
and services.
The team, Timişoara
Conference, 2000
Governmental Culture
• Romania became a part of
the Soviet style
communism and sphere of
influence in 1946.
• All libraries became
instruments of state
indoctrination.
• People viewed libraries as
another means of political
control enforced through
state censorship and
control of collections.
Social marketing
• In December 1989
following a revolution,
Romania became
independent of Soviet
dominance.
• The Romanian
revolution was one of
the bloodiest
preceding the fall of
the former Soviet
Union in 1991.
Celebrating the
Revolution’s Victory,
Timişoara
Politics and Culture
• This revolution brought
great expectations for a
western democratic state
and a free marketing
system.
• The quick execution of
Ceausescu and his wife at
the hands of a military
tribunal gives evidence of
the hatred for the regime
and expectations for
changes.
“You shoot them and throw them in
the basement. Not a single one
should come out alive.”
(Elena Ceausescu, giving orders
regarding the handling of the
insurgents, from a Stenogramme of the
meeting of the Political Executive
Committee of the Central Committee of
the Romanian Communist Party, 17th
December 1989)
• After the revolution, the
social structure, political
and economic life, and all
institutions in Romania
faced change.
• This was particularly true
of libraries which were
widely viewed by the
population as institutions
of state indoctrination and
control.
• Formal library education had
ended in the 1970s, and no
Library Association existed. They
had no membership in IFLA.
Romanian libraries were isolated
from modern ideas of
management and services.
• The primary objectives of these
conferences were to help
acquaint Romanian libraries with
new library management and
service models.
Social marketing
• This experience offered
a quasi-laboratory
situation for
researching and
studying change.
A change model: 1. Library and information systems theory; 2. Deduction
of needs, and current models of service; 3. Hypotheses of working
service and management models; 4. Observations of models from
western librarianships; 5. Analysis of needs, reinforced by conferences;
6. Generalizations based on former management and services models; 7.
Inductive analysis based on present situation and western librarianship;
8. Improved Romanian-based theory and practice.
Library Change Research in
Romania
In studying professional change with
a similar group of librarians in this
series of conferences, Owen and
Anghelescu (1999) found this:
• Change was difficult for
librarians to accept in terms of
programming, management, and
services.
• The idea that libraries were
cultural institutions and not
active information or
educational systems was well
ingrained in professional
ideology.
Owens
Anghelescu
Marketing as a Change Model for
Romanian Librarianship
Introduction of marketing
concepts
– Marketing as a model for
librarianship was first
introduced in 1993 to
Romanian librarianship
through a collection of essays
in the professional journal
Biblioteca. These were
largely abstracted theoretical
articles from western
journals, with no practical
applications to Romanian
librarianship.
Social marketing
• These compilations were followed by at least 10
other publications beginning with Anghelescu
(1997) through Niţă’s piece (2005) which presented
practical suggestions for marketing of libraries.
• The groundbreaking statement on marketing of
Romanian cultural institutions is Marketing şi
Cultura (Dragoş, 2002), published in Biblioteca.
Social Marketing:
Theoretical Concepts
for this study
Social marketing concepts (Kotler
and Anderson [1987, 2008];
and Rogers’ diffusion and
innovation theory [1983, 1995,
2005] ) were the prevailing
theories that underpinned this
research.
Theoretical Bases
• Social Marketing
Concepts:
– Use most of the strategies of
commercial marketing (e.g.,
planning, pricing, design and
execution of strategies,
promotional campaigns,
etc.).
– Differ from commercial
marketing in that they are
designed to promote social
improvements and well
being.
• Goals:
– Change for the good of
society an existing behaviors
or attitudes (groups and
individuals).
– Reinforce existing positive
behaviors and attitudes.
– Offer services and products
that potential customers
will find beneficial.
– Design strategies that
customers will find
informative and rewarding
and will take action to
acquire.
Practical Principles of Social Marketing
Understand:
The customers’ perceptions of problems, issues, and products;
The importance of the product and/or service to them;
The actions they are willing to take to have the service/and or
product.
Plan Marketing Strategies that:
Will encourage acceptance of the product and/or service;
Promote the welfare of both individuals and society.
The AD Council: Social Marketing
Examples
Governmental Social Marketing
Examples
Library Examples: Social Marketing
Social Marketing promotion services,
usefulness and convenience, and contact
information.
Rogers’ Diffusion and Innovation
Theory
• When new ideas or
concepts are
introduced into a social
order, they follow a
standard process of
adoption or rejections.
• Personal predictors of
individuals who will be
early adopters.
Rogers’ Characteristics for
Innovators
•
•
•
•
•
•
Age.
Gender.
Educational levels.
Professional cosmopolitanism.
Administrative position within the hierarchy.
Decision-making authority.
Overview of the Research
Environment
• This was one in a series
of conferences held
around Romania. Each
conference was from 35 days in length.
Participants were
selected by managers
and their expenses
were paid. They were
also given certificates.
Examples of Conference Sites
Brasov (1991)
Cluj
Târgu Mures
Timişoara*
• The conference team met
in Bucharest and departed
by train to the site. In this
case the location was
Timişoara.
• Our host library
was the Biblioteca Centrală
Universitară, “Eugen
Todoran.”
This research was unfunded
expect for room and board.
Social Marketing Research
• Problem Statements
– To develop and test a survey instrument for
measuring the acceptance of social marketing for
librarianship.
– To determine on an experimental level the
degree of acceptance of social marketing as
applied to libraries in Romania; and through this
to access librarians’ willingness for change.
Development of the Questionnaire
• Step 1. Questions were developed in English
to reflect concepts of social marketing (Kotler
and Anderson) and diffusion and innovation
(Rogers). (B. Lukenbill).
• Step 2. Questions were reviewed by a
measurement and evaluation specialists
(J. Lukenbill).
• Step 3. Questionnaire was rewritten based
on this review (B. Lukenbill).
Social marketing
• Step 4. Questions were reviewed by a
Romanian cultural expert (Anghelescu).
• Step 5. Questions were rewritten based on
this review (B. Lukenbill).
• Step 6. Questions were translated into
Romanian and completed (Anghelescu).
– No post-testing of the questionnaire was conducted due
to time and language constraints.
Social marketing
• The questionnaire contained 6 demographic
questions and 10 questions based on their
willingness to accept social marketing within
Romanian Librarianship.
• Measures were based on a Likert scale:
– 5: definitely agree; 4: probably agree; 3: unsure;
2. probably do not agree; 1. absolutely do not
agree.
The Participants
• A convenience sample of 72 selected
librarians and librarian assistants in
attendance at the conference representing
largely university and public libraries
throughout Romania.
• Rogers’ characteristics:
– Gender: n = 69: females (93 %); males (7%).
– Age: n = 68: 99% born between 1938-1979.
Social marketing
– Positions held: n=71
•
•
•
•
•
Professional (65 %)
Top Administration (1%)
Mid-level management (17%)
Clerical/support (17%)
Other (8.5%)
– Education n = 67
•
•
•
•
High-level university degrees (4.5%) (doctoral*)
Mid-level university degrees (24) % (bachelor)
Secondary (67%)
Other (4.5 %)
*Commonly students move directly from bachelor studies to doctoral
studies, master’s degree are just beginning to be offered.
Social marketing
– Policy-making activities n=123
•
•
•
•
Required to make policies (24%)
Comfortable helping to make policies (29%)
Follow policies set by others (33%)
More comfortable following policies set by others (14%)
– Cosmopolitanism n= 156
•
•
•
•
•
Read domestic library journals (36%)
Attend domestic library meetings (33%)
Read foreign language journals/books (20%
Travel aboard (7%)
Attend foreign library meetings (4%)
The Research Intervention
• This 3-day conference was devoted to information
services, programming, and resources necessary in
the 21st century.
• Nine papers were presented dealing with various
aspect of reference.
• The second paper in the conference was titled
“Introducere ȋn Marketingul Social al Bibliotecilor”
and presented concepts of social marketing within a
library context. It was delivered in English with
Romanian (oral) translation.
Findings
• The Questionnaire was given on the first day of the
conference at mid-day, following a lecture on social
marketing in libraries. The results showed a
Cornback’s α = .67 This was acceptable for
reliability of data based on a base α =.60.
• Personal predictors of innovators (Rogers) were
not significant at the .05 level based on analysis of
variance. Reason: sample was too small and
lacked homogeneity to measure these attributes.
• Rejection of Social Marketing based on mean
scores for questions.
Social marketing
• General attitudinal responses: mean scores
– Highest: Administration and staff have
appropriate knowledge. n=68, M=2.76, SD=1.01.
– Lowest: Social marketing directed at changing
behaviors and attitudes. n=71, M=1.40, SD=0.90
– Personally willing to help in social marketing
campaign. n=67, M=1.40, SD=0.67.
Social marketing
– Reasons given for rejection:
• Librarians lacked knowledge of social marketing.
• Lack of institutional resources.
• Lack of support and/or problems with governmental support for
social marketing.
• Social marketing not acceptable within Romanian society.
• Too involved on a personal level.
• Romanian society understands the role of libraries well enough.
• Library social marketing would not increase Romanian economic
competitiveness.
– Signification correlations (Person’s r)
• Appropriate knowledge and administrative well (r=
.53, p = <0001).
Social marketing
• Central Finding:
– Participants strongly indicated that they did not
have the knowledge to undertake social
marketing nor the administrative support for
social marketing.
Reflections
• Lack of perception concerning redefining the role of libraries
and librarians.
• Lack of understanding the role of the library in a democratic
society.
• Lack of understanding that libraries are in competition with
other agencies for resources and support.
• Need to identify and foster the development of innovators
who understand the need for change.
• Need for better library education and opportunities for the
development of a more cosmopolitan librarianship.
Social marketing
• Cultural history’s influence on willingness to
respond to questions about the workplace.
• Protection of identity is suspect.
• Old institutional concepts are difficulty to
change.
• Few participants held advanced degrees.
• Little knowledge of standard management
practices.
Social marketing
• Decline of Romanian libraries since 1990
nge is the
of life and
se who
k only to
pastor
ent certain
miss the
ure."
ohn F.
ned
(Anghelescu, 2003, 2005), (Regneală, 2004), (Vasilescu, 2005).
Signs of Progress
• Gates Foundation’s
involvement in bringing
computers to Romanian
libraries.
– Anghelescu is currently
involved with the
implementation of the
Global Libraries project in
Romania, a $1.4 million pilot
project in Romania
sponsored by the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation,
to be followed by a $25
million rollover project at the
national scale.
Website and orientation film for Bibliotecă
Centrala Univeritară, Timişoara, Romania.
“Change is the law of life and those who
look only to the past or present are
certain to miss the future."
—John F. Kennedy
Questions and Comments?