The Role of Buyer Trust in Outsourced CRM: Its Influence on Organizational Learning and Performance

Purpose: Company outsourcing of customer relationship management (CRM) functions is increasing (Kalaignanam and Varadarajan 2012). Although outsourcing CRM may provide financial benefits, the tasks of developing and utilizing the complex, cross-functional processes needed to gain enhanced customer knowledge from CRM may be more difficult when some or all CRM activities are outsourced. Trust in the information provided by the outsourced CRM supplier is vital. In this study, the authors examine the influence of buyer trust in its outsourced CRM supplier on cross-functional learning processes and firm performance within the buyer firm.

Methodology: Data were collected from a survey of marketing managers in 221 firms. LISREL 9.2 was used to assess convergent, discriminant, and nomologic validity using the two-step approach (Anderson and Gerbing 1988). Convergent and discriminant validity were evaluated in the measurement model phase, whereas the structural model provided an appraisal of nomologic validity.

Findings: The results provide evidence of buyer firm trust in the outsourced CRM supplier playing a critical role in the buyer firm’s success with information sharing, and both trust and information sharing strongly influencing information interpretation and information access in the buyer firm. All three organizational learning processes positively influence buyer firm customer satisfaction/retention and market performance.

Research implications: An important area for future research is the possibility of varying levels of trust needed for success with outsourced CRM depending on the buyer firm’s goals for its CRM system. It is possible that the simpler CRM functions could be outsourced effectively through efficiency strategies that do not require significant levels of trust, whereas the more complex CRM activities that affect organizational learning require more stringent coordination and inter-organizational development. Varadarajan’s (2009) cost versus quality classifications of outsourcing could be a useful starting point for this type of analysis. Considering the finding in this study that information sharing is critical for information interpretation and information access in the buyer firm, another area for future research is possible differences in the extent of information sharing required by firms that are outsourcing CRM versus those that conduct the CRM function in-house. One starting point could be possible differences in relevance among Maltz and Kohli’s (1996) factors affecting information dissemination.

Practical implications: For effective use of CRM data, it is important for buyer firms to develop trust in their outsourced CRM supplier. Managers can assist in this by communicating qualifications of the outsourced CRM supplier, such as any trade-specific certifications, awards, information about the supplier’s number of years in business, and examples of other companies the supplier has assisted. Managers can also help employees develop confidence in the supplier’s integrity by sharing the supplier’s code of ethics and serving as a champion for the supplier. In addition, firms engaged in outsourced CRM are encouraged to develop reward systems that motivate employees to build relationships with their counterparts in the supplier firm, and it would be useful for the buyer firm to help its employees understand the importance of the CRM outsourcing relationship to the buyer firm’s success. Finally, it is important for management to provide opportunities for interaction between the outsourcing partner and key buyer firm employees who will use the CRM data, to encourage effective processes in information sharing, information interpretation, and information access.

Contribution of the article: This article addresses the significance of outsourcing the CRM function and provides evidence that buyer trust in its CRM supplier is a critical factor in its utilization of CRM data for organizational learning and firm performance. It also demonstrates that effective sharing of information, cross-functional integration of customer data, and CRM information accessibility are critical for firm success.     

Buyer Loyalty in Business Markets: Can the Firm and Salesperson Get What They Truly Desire?

Purpose: Prior literature has acknowledged multi-foci customer loyalties (loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty) and argued that both entities (selling firms and salespersons) foster customer loyalty through respective loyalty-capturing efforts (relationship investments). However, scholars have not investigated the influences of different types of interfirm relationship-specific investment (RSI) activities and salesperson behaviors (brand-building and guanxi behavior) on customer loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, especially their simultaneous (interaction) effects. The current research attempts to address this issue and examines the impacts that RSIs and salesperson behaviors have on customer loyalties.

Methodology/approach: A survey of seller–buyer dyads was conducted to test the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Using 192 dyadic data from customers and salespersons in the Chinese business-to-business contexts, this study specifies the direct and interactive effects of sellers’ RSIs and salespersons’ behaviors on customer loyalties.

Findings: Results indicate that selling firms’ loyalty-capturing efforts—property-based and knowledge-based RSIs—have different influences on two types of customer loyalty. Salespersons’ relationship investments—brand-building and guanxi behaviors—also have asymmetric impacts on customer loyalty. Counterintuitively, salespersons’ loyalty-capturing efforts weaken the relationships between firms’ RSIs and customer loyalties.

Originality/value/contribution: This study specifies different types of relationship investments and examines their respective and interactive impacts on two types of customer loyalty—loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty. The findings indicate that firms’ and salespersons’ efforts may lead to unexpected and unintended effects on multi-foci loyalties. Therefore, the current study enriches our knowledge about multi-foci loyalty management and relationship marketing.

Practical implications: Because firms’ and salespersons’ loyalty-capturing strategies exert positive direct influences on loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, both entities may actively leverage relationship investments’ impact on customer loyalty. However, as the interactive effects derived from concurrent loyalty-enhancing activities are negative, firms need to clearly assess the nature and

characteristics of their relationship with buyers and properly design relationship investments and guide salesperson behaviors. Managers should use property-based RSIs as a primary safeguard of customer loyalty to the selling firm. Meanwhile, internal branding and training programs can help salespersons develop brand building behaviors and better understand the potential unintended outcomes that different behaviors may induce. Aligning a branding goal between the firm and salespersons can benefit both parties while avoiding counter-productive outcomes.     

Enhancing Export Performance for Business Markets: Effects of Interorganizational Relationships on Export Market Orientation (EMO)

Purpose: Drawing on the relationship marketing perspective, this study explores the effects of interorganizational relationship variables on export market orientation (EMO), in turn enhancing the export performance. Furthermore, firm internationalization was included as a moderator between export market-oriented behavior and export performance.

Methodology: The authors tested the hypotheses via a mail survey involving 235 exporting firms. LISREL and regression analysis were used to test the proposed model.

Findings: The results support the hypotheses, which posit that commitment, trust, and social interaction are positively related to EMO behavior, whereas power is negatively related to such behavior. Second, firm EMO behavior is positively related to export performance. Third, the degree of internationalization strengthens the effect of EMO on export performance.

Research implications: This study improves existing theoretical understanding by supporting the relationship marketing perspective and international channel research for performing export market-oriented behaviors.

Practical implications: The leverage of interorganizational relationships appears a solid strategy for performing export market-oriented behaviors. Exporters can focus not only on export market-oriented behaviors being performed but also on expansion to new markets.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the marketing and international business literature and provides insights to exporters by examining the relationships among interorganizational relationship variables, EMO, and export performance. This study also introduces the degree of internationalization from a contingency-based view and demonstrates that internationalization complements EMO, and thus facilitates export performance.     

Impact of CRM technology on sales process behaviors: empirical results from US,Europe, and Asia

Purpose: The diffusion of customer relationship management (CRM) systems across the globe, over the last decade, has created a need to improve the understanding of the impact of technology on the sales process from a global perspective. The authors examine how CRM technology impacts the sales process (creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships) in three regions of the world (US, Europe, and Asia).

Methodology/Approach: The differences among US respondents (n = 789), European respondents (n = 327), and Asian respondents (n = 91) were explored. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted on creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships, with dichotomized CRM effectiveness and geography (US/Europe/Asia) as factors.

Findings: The MANOVA revealed a significant influence of CRM effectiveness, but a non-significance for geography and a non-significance for the interaction between CRM effectiveness and geography. This pattern of results suggests that CRM effectiveness leads to significant differences in sales processes; however, these influences are not qualified by the geography to which the firm belongs. Ensuing univariate Analysis of Varirances (ANOVAs) revealed a significant influence of CRM effectiveness on creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships, but not for firm–geography or its interaction with CRM effectiveness. Post hoc tests revealed that firms high on CRM effectiveness were better at creating opportunity, managing opportunity, and managing relationships. Differences in CRM effectiveness lead to significant differences in sales processes; however, these influences once again are not qualified by the geography to which the firms belong.

Originality/Value Contribution: This study provides several contributions to the stream of research focused on CRM globally. First, due to globalization, CRM use and process can be more standardized across regions and cultures. With the evolution of technology such as Web 2.0 and cloud computing, barriers to communicating and exchanging information, regardless of time zone or location, have been decreased. A US firm’s use of a CRM platform can essentially capture the same information on a client that a firm in Europe or Asia also manages. CRM’s ultimate measure of success is for the buyer–seller relationship process to positively impact the level of business conducted.     

Moderating roles of national culture for alliance relationship advantages and performance in Asia

Purpose: Despite the fact that some studies examine the role of cultural attributes as determinants of successful alliance relationships, there has been lack of studies that explored how a firm’s orientation toward alliances, as a culture, might provide competitive advantages in the form of alliance relationship, which influences the firm’s performance. The current study therefore proposes a research model, in which alliance orientation as an intangible resource enhances the alliance relationship advantage, which eventually improves alliance performance, with national culture as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach: To test the hypotheses, responses were obtained from 145 South Korean and 123 Chinese firm samples. The proposed model was estimated using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis.

Findings: The empirical study confirms that alliance orientation directly influences alliance relationship advantage, en route to alliance performance. When uncertainty avoidance is greater, the relationship between alliance relationship advantage and alliance performance grows weaker, whereas when masculinity and long-term orientation are greater, this relationship becomes enhanced.

Research implications: Leveraging source–positional advantage–performance structures (Day and Wensley 1988), this study clarifies how alliance orientation influences a firm’s alliance relationship advantage as a positional advantage, which eventually enhances its alliance performance. Moderating effects of cultural factors arise between alliance orientation and alliance relationship advantage, thereby revealing the important, contingent role of cultural factors in managing the link between alliance orientations and competitive advantage.

Practical implications: This study provides managerial guidelines for how firms operating in different countries such as Korea and China can manage their alliance orientation and alliance-related activities to enhance their competitive advantages and firm performance, by noting and accommodating different cultural characteristics.

Originality/value/contribution: The proposed contingency model relies on the moderating role of national culture, reflected by uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation, to explain the relationships between alliance competitive advantages and alliance performance.     

The power of international marketing functions: antecedents and consequences

Purpose: This paper addresses intra-organizational power of international marketing (IM) functions. While IM functions play an important role in firms that operate in continuously changing international environments, their power has been under-explored. Importantly, IM managers need to understand their function’s power and its implications for business performance.

Methodology/approach: Drawing on resource-dependency and interaction theories, we contend that IM functions’ power is affected by the power of non-marketing functions and coordination and conflicts with them. Additionally, IM functions’ power should affect international performance. However, contingency factors may change this effect. The empirical study uses data from senior managers of B-to-B international firms. The model is tested using multiple regression analysis and extensive post-hoc tests.

Findings: While IM functions are powerful, their power is enhanced by coordination with other functions and is reduced by the power held by non-marketing functions. Surprisingly, conflicts with other functions increase IM functions’ power. Finally, IM functions’ power enhances international performance but its effect is weakened by intra-IM conflicts and differs across hi- and low-tech firms.

Research implications: This study provides insights about drivers and outcomes of IM functions’ power based on their relationships with non-marketing functions. Performance consequences of IM power are dependent on contingencies. The study extends knowledge on the under-researched phenomena of marketing power in a B-to-B international context.

Practical implications: IM managers should manage sources of relative functional power and unique intra-firm interactions to sustain or promote their power and thus benefit their firms’ international performance. Practitioners recognize mechanisms to control IMs’ power.

Originality/value/contribution: The study is the first to focus on the interactions of IM functions with non-marketing functions in B-to-B firms and thus complements prior research on IM, general marketing, and non-marketing functions.     

Strategic positioning,timing of entry,and new product performance in business-to-business markets: do market-oriented firms make better decisions?

Purpose: The mechanism by which market orientation contributes to positional strength of a new product, appropriate timing of entry to the market, and new product performance is examined in a business-to-business (B-to-B) context.

Methodology/Approach: We examine the role of new product positional strength and the role of timing of entry in the market orientation—new product performance relationship using 178 firms operating in the B-to-B market.

Findings: The results show that establishing a new product’s positional strength is a key step in the success of the new product. Market orientation does not directly influence new product performance. Instead, it shapes a new product’s positional strength, which, in turn, positively influences new product performance in the B-to-B market. Timing of entry decision for the new product, shown to be an outcome of its positional strength, is not a determinant of new product performance.

Research implications: We depict the tactical process in new product success and highlight the role of new product positional strength in linking market orientation and new product performance.

Practical implications: The findings reveal that market-oriented firms achieve superior new product performance through well-defined positioning strategy for a new product, not rapidity of action.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This study explains how market orientation influences new product performance in the B-to-B market, taking into consideration new product positional strength and timing of entry.     

How Strategic Purchasing Orientation and Transformational Leadership Impact Performance: The Mediating Role of Information and Communication Technologies

Purpose: Purchasing orientation (greater efficiency, use of information and communication technologies; ICT) is becoming an underlying part of company strategy in an increasing number of business organizations. Transformational leadership by purchasing managers is also emerging as a tool to generate more intense and effective use of ICT and as a means of enhancing performance. The present research pursues 2 goals: firstly to explore how the strategic nature of the purchasing function and transformational leadership of purchasing managers impacts ICT use intensity and purchase efficiency, and secondly to pinpoint how the use of ICT affects purchase performance.

Methodology/approach: The empirical work is based on an analysis of the information provided by a sample of 130 Spanish firms. Empirical verification of the proposed model was carried out through partial least squares analysis.

Findings: Findings show that the strategic importance which management attaches to the purchasing function impacts the intensive use of ICT. However, the transformational leadership exercised by purchasing managers proves relevant in achieving greater cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers.

Research implications: This work has sought to merge as determinants of efficiency both strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as managerial aspects of said function (manager’s transformational leadership and the use of ICT). This research breaks new ground by empirically comparing the relationship between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a relation which has been the subject of very little inquiry and for which the mediating role of ICT in the link between strategic orientation and purchase performance is brought to light.

Originality/value/contribution: The study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the present research seeks to bring together strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as other management factors involved in said function (managers’ transformational leadership and use of ICT) as drivers of efficiency. In this sense, the findings point to the important role played by the purchasing manager vis-à-vis the strategic vision of the purchasing function in achieving cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers. Secondly, this research breaks new ground by empirically verifying the link between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a link which has been the focus of scant attention and for which we underpin the mediating role of ICT in the relationship between strategic orientation and purchase performance.     

Why do buyers share knowledge with suppliers in new product development? current and alternative supplier antecedents

Purpose: Interfirm knowledge sharing has been well recognized to activate the performance and competitiveness improvement of the firms. Previous research has discussed the impacts of current suppliers on buyer–supplier knowledge sharing, but does not explain how this influence occurs. This study aims to disclose the mechanism by which both current and competing suppliers impact buyer–supplier knowledge sharing in buyers’ new product development activities.

Methodology/approach: This study proposed a conceptual model based on relational exchange theory and developed eight hypotheses. Questionnaire survey was used to collect empirical data from R&D staff of Taiwanese electronics firms. This study distributed 1,475 questionnaires and received 246 eligible questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to test and verify appropriateness of the proposed model.

Findings: The findings show that current supplier asset specificity positively and directly influences buyer–supplier knowledge sharing in new product development. The current supplier asset specificity also has indirect positive influence on buyer–supplier knowledge sharing in new product development via the mediating effects of buyer trust, satisfaction, and commitment. However, the attractiveness of alternative suppliers only indirectly and negatively affects buyer–supplier knowledge sharing via the mediating effects of buyer trust, satisfaction, and commitment.

Research limitations/implications: This study surveyed the firms in Taiwanese electronics industry. Nevertheless, new product development activities are executed by electronics firms in numerous countries and firms in various industries. For validating the generalization of this study’s results, future research can investigate firms in other industries and countries to verify the proposed model and hypotheses.

Practical implications: Current suppliers’ asset specificity is found to exert more influence on buyer–supplier knowledge sharing than alternative attractiveness. The findings imply that current suppliers should focus on investing specific assets for buyers other than stress the attractiveness and threat of competing suppliers.

Originality/value/contribution: This study initiates to approach the antecedents and influence mechanism of current buyer–supplier knowledge sharing via both perspectives of current and competing suppliers.     

New Product Development Process Implementation in a Business-To-Business Firm: The Driving and Moderating Factors for Improved Program Performance and Time-To-Market

Purpose: The study aims to examine the critical factors affecting the implementation of a formalized new product development (NPD) process in a business-to-business (B-to-B) company with product-driven growth.

Methodology/approach: Case study using a combination of survey, artifacts, and long interviews

Findings: The findings suggest that (1) the initial phase proficiency can improve NPD effectiveness (NPD program performance) and NPD efficiency (i.e., time-to-market), but this relationship is moderated by the effective communication of the new NPD process throughout the entire firm; (2) the process formalization enhances time-to-market and NPD program performance, but its effects are asymmetric and contingent upon the decision concerning the inclusion of ad hoc and extended NPD team members; and (3) the product approval (executive) committee’s (PAC) ineffective communication could alienate team members from NPD efforts while resource availability moderates the influence of PAC’s decision making quality on time-to-market.

Research implications: Future research could examine the PAC decision-making quality as a multidimensional construct, composed of rigor and timeliness dimensions. That way, a more granular understanding of the effect of PAC decisions could be achieved. Future studies could make a clear distinction of the NPD process type in the study context when NPD decisions are examined.

Practical implications: Managers should acknowledge that decision-making processes and their comprehension by worker bees affect an NPD program’s success. It is interesting to note that removing go-no go decisions by the product approval committees at each phase may not lead to faster product development as these executive committee meetings have double entendre: they are not only to get the executives informed and get their signoff, but also is a facilitator to capital approvals. Hence, appropriate measures must be taken to remove or ease all bottlenecks in the NPD process.

Originality/value/contribution: This study uncovers several crucial factors that can improve the effectiveness and time-to-market of an NPD program in B-to-B companies, especially when firms implement a new formalized NPD process.     

Exploring the impact of product service quality on buyer commitment and loyalty in B TO B relationships

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand and empirically test causal relationships among components of product service quality and commitment and buyer loyalty in business-to-business (B to B) relationships.

Methodology/approach: Data were collected through a web-based survey from 314 buyers of B to B manufacturers in Korea.

Findings: Product quality enhances all three types of commitment in B to B relationships, service quality is positively associated with affective commitment, and support quality has a significantly positive effect on affective and normative commitment. Also, the moderating effects of competitive intensity are significant. If competitive intensity is low in the buyer’s market, product quality and service quality play important roles in deriving buyer commitment; however, if competitive intensity is high, support quality is effective in maintaining long-term committed relationships with buyers.

Research implications: To fully consider product service quality in this study, we established support quality, product quality, and service quality as discrete components of product service quality.

Practical implications: Previous quality-related works have focused on products and services with little research about support activities, and the literature is lacking empirical analyses of support activities. However, this study elucidates the importance of operational and technical support activities in B to B relationships. Specifically, in a fiercely competitive market, a high-quality consumer support strategy is shown to be highly effective in maintaining long-term committed relationships with buyers.

Originality/value/contribution: We analyzed the relationships among components of product service quality and commitment and buyer loyalty in B to B transactions. Our detailed results will help firms develop context-specific quality management strategies at the product service level in order to strengthen customer loyalty.     

Double-Loop Sales Adaptation: A Conceptual Model and an Empirical Investigation

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to conceptualize and discuss the phenomenon of a double-loop sales adaptation in sales and its practical application. The resultant framework is developed from existing academic literature on adaptation in sales and marketing and inspired by the concept of double-loop learning.

Methodology/approach: The study adopted an abductive approach, iterating between the empirical world of two service firms and the theoretical world. The developed framework is refined with interview-based feedback from key informants in business-to-business organizations.

Findings: This article develops a framework for double-loop sales adaptation, which combines adaptations of selling behavior with a sales mindset.

Contribution: Although previous research recognizes adaptation as a central aspect of relationships, the link between adaptation and sales mindset has arguably been inadequate in the literature. Accordingly, this study focuses on sales adaptation occurring at the two levels of behavior and mindset.

Implications for practice: The proposed framework provides sales practitioners with a model for adaptation in their customer relationships. By distinguishing between two sorts of adaptation, managers can optimize resource allocation to both benefit the company and strengthen the relationship among parties.     

A longitudinal study of franchisor failure according to Altman’s Z model

Purpose: The foremost objective of this study is to obtain segments/clusters of franchisors that are more likely to fail. A second aim is to evaluate the influence of the usual variables of the franchise contract on the solvency of franchises.

Design/methodology/approach: This study set up a database with information collected from several Spanish franchising yearbooks and franchisors’ websites to establish the census of Spanish franchisors. This article worked with a census of the franchises operating in Spain from 2001 to 2011. Latent class regression analysis is used.

Findings: This research found four segments or classes of franchisors with regard to their failure pattern. In addition, this article defined the most influential variables in the franchisors’ risk of failure. The relationships between the variables that define a franchise contract and the Z scores of Altman’s model have been extracted. The dependent variable has been the Altman’s Z model and the independent variables are those that define the franchise contract.

Research implications: This methodology offers potential franchisees a new criterion for assessing the franchise chains they are investigating, taking into account their risk of failure. This allows franchisees to better highlight those franchisors that have a lower crash risk and avoid the damage incurred by the closure of the chain. The information provided for franchisees should be accessible, usable, and suitable to help franchisees to choose the best franchise systems in which to invest. This methodology is of course very useful for franchisors, because they can comprehend their financial situation and how they could manage the franchising variables in order to improve their solvency.

Practical implications: All the segments are solvent, except Segment 3. The distinguishing feature of this segment is that over 64 percent of the firms are retailer chains. In addition, more than 20 percent of the franchises from our database are in financial danger, and this is the group where the number of service companies is lower.

Originality/value: This research is unique in two ways. First, this study presents a new methodology in this field that allows researchers to use the historical-financial data of franchisors, and the information of the franchise contract to predict franchisor failure. Second, this article helps franchisees to make their own decisions on the basis of the franchisors’ level of risk of failure. Third, this research offer a theoretical contribution about franchisor failure, this topic is scarcely treated by academic literature.     

A behavioral model of international channel relationships

Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to fill the existing gap in international relationship marketing (IRM) literature by developing and testing empirically a comprehensive conceptual model of firms’ relationship with their marketing channels in export markets. Whereas concepts such as power, conflicts, trust, commitment, and communication have been shown to be related to the economic success of interfirm cooperation in general and buyer–seller relations in particular, the need for a comprehensive model is often expressed in the literature.

Methodology/approach: The authors combine commitment-trust theory with resource-based and knowledge-based view perspectives to develop a new comprehensive conceptual model of firms’ relationship with their marketing channels in export markets. Data from 104 strategic business units in Israel was used to test the model empirically.

Findings: Notably, the model tested explained a higher percentage of the variance in performance. The findings suggest that noncoercive power enhances relationship quality (i.e., communication, trust, and commitment), which in turn improve cooperation and export performance. Conflict had a negative effect on relationship quality. In addition, cooperative conflict management strategies had a positive moderating effect on the conflict— relationship quality link, whereas competitive conflict management strategies had a negative moderating effect on the impact of conflict on relationship quality. Finally, the results suggest that there are strong positive relations between communication and trust and between trust and commitment.

Research implications: The research develops and tests empirically a conceptual comprehensive model of firms’ relationship with their marketing channels in export markets by including major performance drivers. The model incorporates conflict management strategies and combines commitment-trust theory with resource-based view (RBV) and knowledge-based view (KBV), an innovative combination with great explanatory potential. Based on the findings, there is sufficient support for using the suggested model as a new integrative behavioral model that explains channel relationships.

Practical implications: The results indicate that managers should use noncoercive power and cooperative conflict management strategies in order to positively affect relationship quality (i.e., communication, trust, and commitment), which in turn enhances cooperation and export performance.

Originality/value/contribution: The suggested research model presents a novel combination of existing relationship marketing (RM) knowledge with the limited IRM knowledge into a comprehensive IRM model. It includes new relationships beyond those studied before. Integrating and synthesizing results from a large body of conceptual and empirical literature led to the final model. Accordingly, it contributes elements of newness. First, the model includes major antecedents of performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive model of firms’ relationship with their international marketing channels in export markets. Second, there are almost no studies investigating conflict management strategies neither in RM nor in IRM models. Accordingly, a contribution of this research is incorporating conflict management strategies within the model and analyzing their effects.     

Relationships between Entrepreneurs in Business Incubators. An Exploratory Case Study

Purpose: Business incubators are areas created to help firms find their feet and are devised to promote entrepreneurial initiatives. From the relationship marketing approach, the present study seeks to identify the key differentiating variables involved in relations between entrepreneurs located in the same incubator.

Methodology/approach: The research process is grounded on an exploratory qualitative analysis, based on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs who belong to two Spanish public business incubators, which form part of the Chamber for Business Creation and Development (INCYDE) network of incubators.

Findings: Findings allow us to highlight aspects such as complementarity of resources, awareness and shared values, frequent contact, and a psychological commitment, as well as certain specific aspects of the relations to emerge in such contexts.

Originality/value/contribution: The article contributes to the literature on business-to-business relationships by developing a conceptual framework of relations among entrepreneurs located in incubators. Moreover, it provides an agenda for future research on the process whereby value and social capital is created through business incubators.     

Niche Firms and Partnerships in International Food Supply Chains

This study applies the partnership model to explore how internationally oriented niche firms organize and develop partnerships with their supply chain members, and how these niche firms are benefiting from these partnerships. This exploratory study uses semistructured in-depth interviews of key informants in four supply chains to obtain qualitative data.

The findings include observations of the drivers, facilitators, components, and outcomes of niche partnerships in supply chains. The results suggest that niche firms are able to overcome some of the weaknesses, without losing the advantages of being small, by forming channel partnerships.     

Marketing and Technological Absorptive Capacities: Environmental Antecedents and Performance Outcomes in High-Tech Firms

Purpose: This article investigates marketing and technology absorptive capacities as distinct types of external knowledge while considering three environmental conditions, namely uncertainty, munificence, and heterogeneity and two distinct outcomes, namely innovation and financial performance.

Methodology/approach: Using a quantitative approach, the authors analyze data from 141 Israeli business-to-business high-tech firms.

Findings: The data mostly supported the hypotheses. Empirical findings imply that an uncertain environment is a precursor for a strong effort to develop a technological absorptive capacity and, to a lesser extent, a marketing absorptive capacity. Technological and marketing absorptive capacities were found to be distinct constructs with positive impacts on financial and innovation performance. Marketing absorptive capacity had a stronger impact than technological absorptive capacity on financial performance. Surprisingly, marketing absorptive capacity was negatively associated with innovation performance.

Originality/value: This study attempts to overcome some limiting assumptions of absorptive capacity theory that have contributed to its reification in order to make three theoretical contributions. First, it distinguishes between marketing and technological absorptive capacities. Second, it tests differential responses of the two absorptive capacities to environmental contingencies. Third, it compares the differential impacts of marketing and technological absorptive capacities on financial and innovation performance.     

Theoretical perspectives of supplier–buyer long-term relationships in India

Purpose: The purposes of this study are to investigate changing Indian supplier–buyer relationships and to propose an effective conceptual model using theoretically developed constructs such as power, performance, satisfaction (economic and noneconomic), conflict (economic and noneconomic), trust, cooperation, switching cost, and commitment

Methodology/approach: This study is focused on supplier–buyer relationships among Indian companies in the processed/packaged (not fresh) food business. All of the measures for the constructs were developed for and empirically tested in previous studies. Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were used to test the conceptual model.

Findings: First, Indian suppliers’ power sources and performance significantly influence satisfaction and conflict. Second, satisfaction and conflict are significantly related to cooperation, trust, and switching cost. Third, cooperation and trust have a significant impact on commitment.

Research implication: One of the unique aspects of the study is to analyze the differential effects of satisfaction and conflict in India. Using dichotomized (economic and noneconomic) constructs, the ways in which Indian buyers’ economic satisfaction, noneconomic satisfaction, economic conflict, and noneconomic conflict are related to other relationship constructs (power sources, performance, cooperation, trust, switching costs, and commitment) are investigated.

Originality/value/contribution: For global companies, a key requirement for success is how to develop and sustain long-term relationships with local companies. This study suggests practical and information for successful marketing strategies to establish long-term supplier–buyer relationships in India.     

Exploring booth design as a determinant of trade show success

Purpose: Marketing scholars have joined managers in recognizing the significance of design in many domains. Superior design can enhance products, communications, packaging, and retail settings. However, no scholarly research has investigated design effects in a business-to-business (B-to-B) context. This research will explore the impact of design decisions in trade shows, a key component of the B-to-BB-to-B marketing mix. Trade show success depends on attracting attendees to an exhibitor’s booth because buyer preferences and business relationships are formed and nurtured in that space. The design of a booth plays an important role in attracting visitors and providing a positive business atmosphere.

Methodology/approach: The present study draws upon several streams of literature to examine this neglected aspect of B-to-B research. We offer a conceptual framework, followed by an empirical study of trade show attendees. Respondents evaluated various booth prototypes representing different combinations of key design elements via a conjoint-based method.

Findings: Findings suggest that design matters in a B-to-B trade show setting. Our results indicate that specific design elements affect an attendee’s willingness to enter different booths. Our sample displayed a coherent set of preferences for exhibit design features. Finally, we found that some attendee characteristics moderated the effect of design on preferences—notably the theory-driven characteristics of product agenda breadth and CVPA, rather than simple demographics produced these moderating effects.

Research implications: We have shown that the topic of design is relevant for B-to-B researchers. This research has identified meaningful and managerially relevant design preferences. In addition, we constructed a research framework for investigating behavioral responses to trade show booths, including four key design attributes. We empirically examined this framework with an easily reproducible conjoint methodology that may be useful for future research.

Practical implications: Our results provide actionable managerial guidance on the aesthetics of booth design. There is a general preference for closed designs i.e., attendees prefer having an intercept point in the booth where they may gain information. In addition, the closed design signals a higher density of things to see in the booth, while offering a private, safe environment as well as more spatial comfort. Attendees preferred higher amounts of surface decoration. Booths with low decoration tend to be perceived as less complex, and therefore less stimulating.

Originality/value/contribution: We examined long neglected implications of design to B-to-B marketing and investigated a key determinant of trade show performance. We believe this study has relevance to both scholars and practitioners while setting a roadmap for future research.