Information Technology and Customer Orientation: A Study of Direct,Mediated, and Interactive Linkages

This study investigates whether and how information technology (IT) is linked to a firm's ability to understand and fulfil customer needs, i.e. customer orientation. IT alone or in tandem with other strategic resources may enable businesses to process market intelligence and coordinate organisational responses to meet evolving buyer preferences. Based on a survey of senior marketing managers and PLS path model analyses, we learned that greater IT capabilities are associated with higher customer orientation but in mediated and interactive ways with marketing information quality and organisational trust. These and other findings largely supported the conceptual model. An implication is that while IT capabilities can help firms be more customer-focused, other critical resources must also be present.     

Buyer/supplier partnering in British industry: The automotive and telecommunications sectors

Practitioners and academics in the fields of marketing and purchasing management share an interest in the effective management of inter‐firm buyer‐seller relationships. Buyer/supplier partnering has been advocated as an effective approach to the management of key customer or supplier relationships. Within both the automotive and telecommunications sectors of the British economy there is intense interest among major buying organisations in the development of durable partnerships with key suppliers. However, within both industries the major UK and American owned firms have to operate under the shadow of traditionally antagonistic relations with suppliers. The current state of buyer/supplier partnering within the two industries is evaluated within this historical context, and the key problem identified is the need to overcome antagonism within the inter‐organisational culture. The costs and benefits of partnering approaches to both marketing and purchasing are discussed, and implications for marketing managers seeking to develop partnerships with major customer organisations are outlined.     

The Potential of Information Technology in Facilitating Relationship Marketing

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of information technologies in facilitating a relationship-marketing orientation. On the basis of conceptual and empirical contributions, we propose that while the use of IT can improve customer knowledge, it does not facilitate me acquisition of me other elements required to develop long-term relationships with customers and clients (i.e., trust, commitment and personalization). Our survey of top managers supports our contention that the use of IT does not suffice to facilitate marketing orientation.     

Factors for Success in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

The importance of effective customer relationships as a key to customer value and hence shareholder value is widely emphasised. In order to enhance these relationships, the application of IT to marketing through customer relationship management (CRM) software, e-commerce and other initiatives is growing rapidly. This study examines the factors that influence the successful deployment of CRM applications, with particular emphasis on those factors which are distinct from other areas of application. Using the analytic induction method, success factors were derived from five in-depth case studies. Resulting factors underemphasised in previous literature include: the need for project approval procedures which allow for uncertainty; the need to leverage models of best practice; the importance of prototyping new processes, not just IT; and the need to manage for the delivery of the intended benefits, rather than just implementing the original specification.     

Undergraduate Education: The Implications of Cross-Functional,Relationships in Business Marketing–The Skills of High-Performing Managers

ABSTRACT

Like other specialty areas in the business school curriculum, marketing management classes emphasize an analytical perspective and provide students with a valuable set of strategy tools, but fail to come to grips with other facets of the managerial work of marketing-namely, the relational skills that are required for managing across functions, reconciling diverse interests, and creating integrated strategies and customer solutions. By serving as an advocate for the customer at various levels of the organizational hierarchy and across functions, the business marketer must initiate, develop, nurture, and sustain a rich network of relationships with multiple constituencies within the firm and within customer organizations. To effectively perform this challenging interdisciplinary role, a unique set of relationship management skills are required. This article explores the collaborative skills that high-performing managers have mastered and examines the resulting implications for the business marketing course. Recent research is examined that reveals the characteristics of reputationally effective managers, isolates the factors that define effective cross-functional exchange episodes, and details the specific behavior that top-performing account managers employ. By exploring the relational competencies that are instrumental to the work of marketing managers, the business marketing course can fill an important gap in the marketing curriculum.     

Money management practices influencing household asset ownership

The purpose of this research is to describe the types and amounts of assets owned by households, and to determine socio-demographic variables and money management practices that influence the household's total asset ownership. The data used for this study are from a survey conducted during the winter of 1982. Definite patterns of financial asset ownership emerged. A majority, 70% or more, of the households owned current and savings accounts, and cars and real estate. A minority, 30% or less, owned certificates of deposit, mutual funds, stocks, bonds and individual retirement accounts. Age, net income and housing tenure were significant socio-demographic variables in explaining variation in total asset ownership among households. Only two money management practices, i.e. number of credit cards owned and the amount the manager felt comfortable charging on these cards, were significant in explaining variations in the amount of total assets owned by a household.     

Adapting a book to make a film: how strategy is adapted through professional practices of marketing middle managers

Abstract

For an organisation to be competitive its strategy must be highly responsive to both environmental challenges and customers continuously shifting demands. Yet many organisations treat strategy making as an exclusively top management concern, even though the top management team is often remote from the daily interactions and communications taking place at the organisation, market, and customer interface. We challenge the assumption that strategy making ‘belongs’ to top managers and argue that marketing middle managers, possessing expert market and customer knowledge and insights, adapt top manager’s strategy to shifting customer demands in a changing environment. We explore this argument by adopting a strategy-as-practice perspective and analysing marketing middle manager’s practices across three case companies operating in a dynamic retail environment. Our research enables two key contributions. Our primary confirmation is to demonstrate that marketers are not passive implementers, but active adapters of top management strategy through three critical practices of sensing, challenging, and transmitting. We use the novel analogy of how adapting a book to make a film involves minor changes to the story line and characters to suit the new medium and to illustrate the strategically relevant and influential role marketing plays in adapting the strategy developed by the top management team for implementation. By demonstrating the value of the strategic practices of functional middle managers we also contribute to the growing debate of the need for greater inclusion and transparency in strategy making.     

Building loyalty in e-commerce: Impact of business and customer characteristics

Abstract

Understanding, building, and predicting customer loyalty in e-commerce are critical activities for long-run profitability. Successfully carrying out these activities is challenging due to the complex mix of both business organization and customer factors that may influence and drive e-loyalty. We demonstrate that business factors, such as credibility, e-satisfaction and site knowledge, and customer factors, such as inertia, innovativeness, and aggressiveness, influence e-loyalty. Our analyses show that business credibility is affected by the reputation of the e-business and its congruence with the customers’ self-image; e-satisfaction by the customers’ value perception, care, and choice; and site knowledge by customer experience, involvement, and expertise. Business factors account for about 75% of the explained variation in e-loyalty and customer factors for the rest. Understanding the controllable business and uncontrollable customer factors that drive customer loyalty should enable e-commerce retailers to continually assess these factors and make appropriate changes in marketing strategy.     

心理所有权对顾客公民行为的影响——基于感知支持和社交焦虑的调节作用

本文探讨了营销学领域中顾客所产生的心理所有权对顾客公民行为的影响。通过对收集的332份问卷数据运用SPSS25.0进行分析,结果表明:促进性心理所有权正向影响顾客公民行为;防御性心理所有权负向影响顾客公民行为;相比低程度的感知支持,高程度的感知支持可以增强促进性心理所有权对顾客公民行为的正向影响;相比低程度的社交焦虑,高程度的社交焦虑可以增强防御性心理所有权对顾客公民行为的负向影响。研究结果为心理所有权与顾客公民行为之间的关系提供了理论依据,并为企业和相关的管理者提供了实践启示。     

Managing boundary-spanning marketing activities for supply-chain efficiency

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to advance and empirically investigate how perceived organisational support influences marketing managers' boundary-spanning marketing activities (cross-functional communication and customer connections), and how these activities subsequently impact supply-chain efficiency. By analysing survey responses from 348 marketing managers, we demonstrate that a supportive organisational climate provides managerial incentives not only to develop strong allegiance to the welfare of multi-foci groups within the organisation but also to engage in active cross-functional market intelligence exchange and customer servicing, which in turn leads to superior supply-chain efficiencies. The paper offers strategic guides to both academicians and practitioners on how to promote marketing managers' role in strengthening dependencies among various functional departments for cohesive product, service, and financial offerings.     

国有企业实施电子商务与管理创新

我国国有企业在实施电子商务过程中尤其要重视管理创新与电子商务相适应。本文主要阐述了电子商务在国有企业的实施产生的对企业管理理念、组织结构、生产管理和营销管理的创新。有一定的借鉴意义和参考作用。     

Empowerment and Customer Satisfaction Strategies in Multi-Cultural Hotel Restaurant Environments

ABSTRACT

The paper addresses empowerment issues for hotel restaurant managers, as they affect: (a) quality service, (b) customer satisfaction, and (c) financial implications. It investigates empowerment in restaurant management in Dubai five star hotels, how managers operating in Dubai's multi-cultural environment perceive empowerment in their operations, and how this perception relates to their organization's quest for service quality, customer satisfaction, and financial return. Primary data was collected in focus group interviews with (n = 24) managers. Findings suggest managers are well informed, see empowerment as beneficial, support its application, but harbour some concerns, and as literature suggests, there are ambiguities and disagreements over its application.     

关系营销理论与顾客关系管理

关系营销将建立和发展与相关个人、企业组织的关系作为市场营销的关键变量 ,把握了现代市场竞争的时代特点 ,体现了电子商务时代的互动性、合作性和个性化发展趋势。因特网作为一种有效的双向沟通渠道 ,使企业与顾客之间可以实现低成本、高效率的沟通和交流 ,为关系营销提供了有效的技术保障。在电子商务时代 ,抢占市场的关键已从管理营销组合转变为企业与顾客的互动关系管理 ,顾客关系管理为关系营销提供了有效的技术支持     

Marketing Management in Nonprofit Organizations: A Customer Analysis of Church Volunteers

ABSTRACT

Volunteers who work in nonprofit organizations serve an important role in our society, as evidenced by their economic impact. Nonprofit organizations which rely on volunteers are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of volunteers to fulfill their missions. Faced with this situation, managers need to become more marketing oriented in their approach of dealing with their volunteers. A manager's first step in becoming more marketing oriented is obtaining a better understanding of the organization's volunteers. This article presents an example of a customer analysis of a specific group of volunteers–church volunteers, to test the efficacy of this approach in better understanding a target group of volunteers. Collecting data from survey respondents, comparisons are made between church volunteers and non-volunteers, between church volunteers and secular volunteers, and between church members who volunteer in their churches and church members who volunteer in secular organizations. The findings support the utility of such a customer analysis in helping a manager develop a more accurate mental model of the organization's volunteers.     

Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Customer satisfaction, the cornerstone of the marketing concept, has been the subject of considerable research. Since 1970 over 15,000 academic and trade articles have been written on the subject. Salespeople, frequently the primary link between the company and the customer, have the opportunity to deliver/improve customer satisfaction. It is not surprising therefore that organizations seek to maximize salesforce performance and resolve customer complaints. However, attaining optimal performance is hindered by dysfunctional salesperson behavior and low levels of customer satisfaction. Research that improves our understanding of the critical roles salespeople and sales managers play in determining customer satisfaction is needed. A proposal that ties the theoretical gaps in the communication processes with the salesperson's role in affecting customer satisfaction is presented.     

Consumer Household Materials and Logistics Management: Inventory Ownership Cycle

This paper examines the various stages and activities of consumers' management of owned possessions including acquisition, ownership, and disposition. Using a materials management perspective, more frequently found in industrial marketing, the authors develop a consumer model of management of household goods. Stages of the model are illustrated using consumer anecdotes collected as exploratory research. Implications for researchers, practitioners, educators, and policy makers are discussed in terms of how the materials management perspective can be used to help deliver better value in products and services to consumers by understanding the activities in each stage of ownership.     

Differences in Marketing Managers' Decision Making Styles Within the Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

Marketing managers around the world are being asked to work with foreign counterparts as never before, but with limited success. This requires integration of decision making styles. The purpose of this study is to apply a management style of decision making measurement technique to selected countries of the Asia-Pacific region to determine the extent of differences in decision-making style among marketing managers.

This study surveys marketing managers within Australia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, and China. Within each country different sampling processes and modes of data collection were used by locally-based associates of the researchers, as appropriate for the country.

The study results indicate that substantive differences do exist between marketing managers from different cultural/national backgrounds within the Asia-Pacific region and these managers differ in their decision-making styles from managers in other parts of the world. doi:10.1300/J042v21n01_06     

U.S. lodging managers and the internet

Most Hotel managers believe that the internet's primary use will be as a marketing tool—and that its real impact has yet to be felt.     

Faith in four Ps: An alternative

McCarthy's mnemonic of the four Ps, by offering a seductive sense of simplicity to students, teachers and practitioners of marketing, has become an article of faith. Among the consequences of this have been a lack of empirical study into what are the key marketing variables and how they are perceived and used by marketing managers, a neglect of process in favour of structure and a neglect of product range considerations. What is needed is a form of analysis developed by sociologists that would focus on the process by which managers construct their own interpretations of marketing realities and develop individual styles of management and decision‐taking.     

Internal Relationship Management

SUMMARY

In the quest for sustainable competitive advantage, managers have sought to differentiate themselves through a customer (as opposed to product) focus. This has given rise to successive strategies designed to improve the customer experience (e.g., objective quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer loyalty, etc.). The problem, however, is that a satisfied, loyal customer who is persuaded to consistently buy a firm's product or service over and over again because of its quality can be and often is unprofitable. Therefore, using such strategies does not guarantee increased profits. As a result, firms will increasingly rely on the measurement and management of customers' lifetime values to guide their customer loyalty efforts.