Can cooperatives brand? Exploring the interplay between cooperative structure and sustained brand marketing success

The marketing of much New Zealand farm produce has often been left in the hands of farmer/grower co-operatives. Increasingly concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of such structures. Marketers have identified the need for cooperatives to move from a farmer centric to a market centric approach. However, questions have been raised about the viability of traditional cooperative arrangements to support a market-oriented strategy. This article examines the ability of traditional and new generation co-operatives to develop and support market-based assets including brands and long-term relationships with channel buyers in order to develop a sustainable position for their members and increase returns. The findings suggest that traditional cooperatives may be able to develop innovative marketing programs but struggle to support them over the long-term due to problems in ownership structures. The new generation co-operatives studied had more sustained long-term success, as members were able to capture the equity of intangible assets such as brand value, thus ensuring they undertook actions (such as channel support) consistent with building a sustainable long-term positioning.     

Managing the marketing budget in a cost-constrained environment

Marketing costs have been rising rapidly while both manufacturing and general management costs have been declining. As a result, those concerned with realigning corporate assets to maximize shareholder returns are requiring that marketers start proving their worth or be gradually starved of resources. Reflecting such pressures, marketing managers are being asked to provide more convincing evidence that planned marketing strategies will indeed yield more value for the company and its shareholders. Likewise, those charged with planning the marketing budget are being asked to more thoroughly justify requested budget increases. Whole new financial measures are needed for evaluating the relative productivity of specifically proposed marketing budget expenditures vis-à-vis shareholder value. The paper reviews several procedures that can help address these challenges and presents a detailed example of the application of one of the approaches.     

Factors influencing the relative importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness

It seems logical that performance is maximized when a business produces a creative marketing strategy and achieves marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. However, cultural tensions and resource competition may make it difficult, or impossible, to achieve both. Contingency theory suggests that market and/or firm level influences may exist that make one or the other more important. Thus, it is important for researchers to investigate those conditions so that we can provide managers with guidance regarding where to allocate their resources. The study reported in this article assesses the impact that environmental conditions and business unit strategy have on the relative importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We discuss implications for managers and scholars.     

Practices and functions of customer reference marketing — Leveraging customer references as marketing assets

This multiple-case study focuses on the practices and functions of customer reference marketing and on the ways through which customer references can be deployed as marketing assets. Analysis of 38 interviews with managers in four case companies suggests that customer references can be leveraged externally as marketing assets to (1) gain status-transfer effects from reputable customers, (2) signal passing a selection process, (3) concretize and demonstrate complex solutions, and (4) provide indirect evidence of experience, previous performance, technological functionality, and delivered customer value. Customer references can also be leveraged internally to (1) facilitate organizational learning, (2) advance offering development, (3) motivate personnel, and (4) develop understanding of customer needs, internal competencies, and delivered customer value. By identifying the practices and functions related to customer reference marketing, the paper deepens understanding of this highly relevant but relatively under-researched phenomenon and contributes to the literature on customer-based marketing assets.     

Market orientation,marketing capabilities,and firm performance

Drawing on traditional resource‐based theory and its recent dynamic capabilities theory extensions, we examine both the possession of a market orientation and the marketing capabilities through which resources are deployed into the marketplace as drivers of firm performance in a cross‐industry sample. Our findings indicate that market orientation and marketing capabilities are complementary assets that contribute to superior firm performance. We also find that market orientation has a direct effect on firms' return on assets (ROA), and that marketing capabilities directly impact both ROA and perceived firm performance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of marketing approaches used by high-tech firms: 1985 versus 2001

The authors present a follow-up to a study conducted in 1985 that investigates the use of marketing approaches used by high-tech firms. The firms were surveyed to determine if their use of marketing approaches has changed. The 2001 study confirms the emergence of Web-based marketing approaches as of particular importance to high-tech firms. The findings should serve as a reference for practitioners to assess their marketing efforts and to evaluate the change in tactics used to market high-tech firms.     

Understanding the links between technological opportunism, marketing emphasis and firm performance: Implications for B2B

The capability of firms to sense and respond to changes in technologies, called technological opportunism, is of growing importance to managers as a source of competitive advantage. However, exactly how technological opportunism impacts firm performance is still not clearly understood. Furthermore, the role of marketing in this relationship, if any, has yet to be examined. Understanding this relationship is critical for marketing managers not only for determining strategic investments of resources but also for demonstrating marketing return on activities. This paper explores the links between technological opportunism and firm performance. The results show that technological opportunism has a strong positive impact on key measures of performance such as firm sales, profits and market value. Importantly, marketing emphasis is the mechanism through which the technological opportunism-performance relationship is achieved. Finally, the impact of marketing emphasis on B2B firms is different than that for B2C firms, highlighting the importance of these activities for B2B marketing managers.     

Interplay between internal investment and alliance specialization in R&D and marketing

A firm's efforts to build its technological and marketing capabilities are not limited to internal investments but can be extended to include external knowledge acquisitions. We examine the interaction between a firm's specialization in R&D or marketing through its internal investments and its alliances in two different industrial contexts. Our results, based on secondary data sources such as Compustat and SDC Platinum from 1985 to 2009, show that the interaction effects of internal specialization and alliance specialization are contingent on the types of tasks (i.e., R&D and marketing) and the industrial context (i.e., high- and low-tech industries). Our findings indicate that a firm in a high-tech industry is able to achieve greater gains by complementing its internal focus on R&D with its external focus on marketing or by focusing on R&D both internally and externally. In contrast, a firm in a low-tech industry is able to achieve greater performance when R&D and marketing complement each other, without regard for how they are aligned through internal investments and alliances. The firm is also able to improve its performance by focusing on marketing both internally and externally. These findings provide new insights into the complementarity between internal investments and alliances.     

Marketing strategy and the efficacy of procedural justice: The mid-level marketing manager in industrial service firms

A principal challenge confronting the senior marketing team in B2B firms is how to ensure that the marketing strategies they develop are implemented effectively. The literature indicates that mid-level marketing managers' perceptions of the procedural justice within the firm may be critical in this respect. However, there has been little empirical research on this issue. The authors develop and test a conceptual model of the key drivers and consequences of marketing managers' procedural justice perceptions. The findings show that if mid-level marketing managers trust their senior marketing colleagues and simultaneously operate within moderately organic structures, then procedural justice will thrive. A consequence of this is more effective implementation of marketing strategy which, in turn, leads to increased market performance.     

Collaborative buyer-supplier relationships and downstream information in marketing channels

Research on buyer-supplier relationships has emphasized the importance of collaboration and business networks. We aim to study the effects of downstream information on the collaborative buyer-supplier relationship. Downstream information refers to the information a firm obtains from marketing channels, be they wholesalers, distributors or retailers. The approach allows firms to concentrate their efforts on the most relevant sources of information and not on the whole network. Survey data was gathered from the Dutch potted plant and flower industry to test this hypothesis. Our findings demonstrate that collaborative relationships are contingent on downstream information from both the buying perspective (wholesalers) and from the supplying perspective (producers).     

Strategic business marketing developments in the New Europe: Retrospect and prospect

The unification of Europe is causing considerable effects on industrial marketing strategy. Roughly ten years ago the Industrial Marketing Management journal published a study on the expected consequences of the European Union (EU) single market. In the current study, we investigate the actual results of the single market formation on industrial marketing in the EU and compare them to the expectations noted by industrial marketers a decade earlier. We find that the effects differ markedly from those anticipated and that they have important implications for business marketing practice in the EU.     

trends in Internet-based business-to-business marketing

The Internet is changing the transactional paradigms under which businesses-to-business marketers operate. Business-to-business marketers that take advantage of the operational efficiencies and effectiveness that emerge from utilizing the Internet in transactions are outperforming firms that utilize traditional transactional processes. As an example, Dell computers, by utilizing business-to-business processes that take advantage of the Internet, has gained the largest market share in the PC business when compared to traditional manufacturers such as Compaq. This paper first examines the genesis of the Internet movement in business-to-business markets. The long-term impact of the increase of business-to-business utilization of the Internet on the marketing theory and marketing process is then discussed. Finally, managerial implications and directions for future research are highlighted.     

Enhancing organizational sensemaking: An examination of the interactive effects of sales capabilities and marketing dashboards

Current marketing research highlights the direct effects of marketing resources on firm performance. Few studies, however, examine how such resources interact with one another and contribute to the strategic actions, such as sensemaking. In this study, we investigate how sales capabilities and performance monitoring via marketing dashboards influence a firm's sensemaking. The results from our study suggest that sales capability and the use of marketing dashboards not only contribute directly, but also have an interactive effect, highlighting the importance of integrating both sales and marketing operations. Further, we find evidence that sensemaking influences cost control and enhances customer relationship performance, suggesting that sensemaking has the potential to simultaneously impact both cost efficiency and growth.     

Return on marketing investments in B2B customer relationships: A decision-making and optimization approach

The basic notion of relationship marketing entails that firms should strive for mutually beneficial customer relationships. By combining relationship marketing theory and operations research methods, this paper aims to develop and demonstrate a managerial decision-making model that business market managers can use to optimize and evaluate marketing investments in both a customer-oriented and economically feasible manner. The intended contributions of our work are as follows. First, we add to the return on marketing literature by providing a first decision-making approach that explicitly assesses the optimization of marketing investments in terms of profitability, effort, and resource allocation. Second, we show how the risk of marketing investments can be assessed using sensitivity analysis. By means of an empirical study the versatility of our decision-making approach is demonstrated by assessing various critical decision making issues for business marketing managers in detail.     

Leveraging affiliations by marketing to and through associations

Associations offer a wide range of benefits to their members and thus offer a rich source for understanding relationship marketing practices. Yet, the marketing academic literature is devoid of any frameworks that help us understand the process of marketing to and through associations at the firm level. What are the appropriate dimension(s) of characterizing associations, and how might they be best classified? What are organizational factors that foster or hinder such characterizations, and, what are their consequences and implications?Based on literature review and field interviews with association executives and related exploratory research, we uncover “affinity strength,” or members' attachment to the association, as the key dimension distinguishing associations. We then test to determine antecedent factors (association systems characteristics) that foster or hinder affinity strength as well as its consequences and implications. The major study involved a survey of executives of a wide range of associations, selected from the Encyclopedia of Associations.Certain association systems characteristics do predict affinity strength. Also, affinity strength's relationship with some of the antecedents as well as consequential variables was shown to be stronger or weaker, contingent upon the type of association (i.e., Professional, Cause-based, Common Interest, or Demographic) being considered. Overall, however, attributes of associations (e.g., association systems and outcomes), rather than association types, were more critical in explaining several phenomena pertaining to marketing to and through associations.     

Barriers of purchasing departments' involvement in marketing service procurement

A considerable part of firms' marketing services are supplied by external providers, e.g. advertisement agencies, printing houses, trade fair exhibition builders. Although a large spend category, low involvement of purchasing departments prevails during the procurement decision process. This paper develops a conceptual model of purchasing departments' involvement in marketing service procurement along the dimensions “breadth along process” and “depth of integration”, thus contributing to the measurement of purchasing departments' involvement. Drawing on the findings of a case study, we further propose that the impact of purchasing departments' involvement on procurement success is moderated by procurement complexity, and the duration of the relationship between the purchasing and marketing employees. In addition, barriers to purchasing departments' involvement are conceptualized as lack of skills, lack of motivation, and lack of opportunity.     

无形资产的信息披露与市场检验——基于深圳创业板上市公司数据

本文以2011年5月18日之前成功上市的218家创业板上市公司作为研究对象,对广泛存在且不规则分布于招股说明书和年报中的与无形资产相关的信息进行了较为深入的挖掘和分析。一是对该类上市公司披露的信息进行了基于常规和非常规无形资产的统计分析,并指出无形资产信息披露困境源于相关学科尚未就同一现象形成共识。二是研究了各类无形资产与市净率和企业绩效的关系,发现我国创业板市场已初步具备发现和评价无形资产的功能。三是研究了政府补助、销售费用和研发费用对无形资产的影响。四是就提高创业板上市公司无形资产信息披露质量和促进该类企业实施无形资产优化战略提出了系列建议。     

A framework for offshoring marketing processes in business-to-business marketing relationships

Outsourcing has been a prominent aspect of business strategies in the last three decades. Outsourcing of manufacturing processes is now complemented with outsourcing of various marketing process as well. More importantly, outsourcing to foreign locations — offshoring — has increased for marketing processes in recent years. In this context, the present paper develops a model that identifies the types of marketing interactions and processes that can be offshored in business-to-business markets. We suggest that the decision to offshore marketing processes and interactions depend upon the interaction process that is preferred and the importance of interaction process itself. Marketing interactions that are not critically important and/or those that can be performed through technology can be easily offshored. However, other marketing processes need to be examined in depth before being offshored. Implications for research and practice in the area of offshoring, as well as in the broader area of outsourcing, are also highlighted.     

An integrated marketing capability benchmarking approach to dealer performance through parametric and nonparametric analyses

The role of marketing capabilities as a source of sustainable competitive advantage has been discussed previously in the marketing strategy field. Benchmarking, a well-known learning mechanism, is suggested as a tool to identify and improve the marketing capabilities of a firm. Despite its popularity as a theoretical concept, there is not much empirical evidence to support the view of benchmarking marketing capabilities as a route to guide managers' efforts in this direction. This paper contributes to the three perspectives in the literature that support the view that benchmarking marketing capabilities can offer a basis for sustainable competitive advantage of the firm through both a conceptual and integrated benchmarking model. They are empirically analyzed using stochastic frontier and data envelopment analysis methods based on four-year data set of forty-five dealers of a leading business-to-business supplier. The results indicate the importance of competent salespeople and building a long-term relationship in enhancing dealer performance. In addition, they reinforce a recipe of how marketing capabilities can be benchmarked to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Discussions and implications for managers are also presented.     

Institutional theory in business marketing: A conceptual framework and future directions

Institutional environments exert significant effects on organizational behavior, structure, strategy, governance, and process. To gain competitive advantage, managers are striving for legitimacy while maintaining efficiency. In line with this thinking, we propose the developmental process of institution-driven and legitimacy-embedded efficiency, and emphasize the confluence of legitimacy and efficiency in the context of business marketing. We then highlight several promising directions for further research on the development of institutional theory and its application in business marketing. Finally, we present a brief summary of each paper in this special issue.