Customer identification: The missing link between relationship quality and supplier performance

Maintaining good relationship quality (RQ) with customers is crucial for supplier firms to remain competitive. Yet, empirical evidence linking RQ with supplier-firm performance remains inexplicably vague. Drawing on social identity theory and the relationship marketing literature, this study therefore examines the role of customer identification—a customer firm's sense of shared connection with a supplier organization—in bridging the gap between RQ and outcomes beneficial to the supplier firm. A study involving 389 CEOs and directors of Australian firms finds that customer identification mediates the effects of affective RQ-dimensions (i.e., benevolent trust and affective commitment) on customers' willingness-to-pay premium price (WTP) and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors. Further, the mediating effect of customer identification is moderated by organizational distance and supplier's relationship-specific investments (RSI), such that the indirect effects are stronger when the organizational distance between the supplier and customer firm is low and supplier's RSIs are high. Moreover, while cognitive RQ has direct effects on WTP, its influence on WOM is mediated by customer identification. By identifying the role of customer identification in facilitating the link between RQ and supplier-firm performance, our findings provide valuable insights for supplier firms to optimize their relationship marketing efforts.     

Will they buy it? The potential for marketing organic vegetables in the food vending sector to strengthen vegetable safety: A choice experiment study in three West African cities

Considering the hazardous use of synthetic pesticides in vegetable production in urban West Africa, this research investigated the marketing potential of organic vegetables in the food vending sector of Cotonou (Benin), Accra (Ghana) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Certified organic production and marketing was examined as a potential strategy to improve chemical food safety. A stratified random sampling strategy was applied to study the preferences of food vendors (n = 180) and consumers (n = 360); vegetable use, risk perception, choice preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic certification were specifically analyzed. The results showed that awareness of chemical contamination risks was generally low. Appearance of a product was central to vendor choice; consumers attributed similar utility to taste and organic certification. Consumer WTP was calculated to be a premium of 1.04 USD (per plate) if the food served contained only certified organic vegetables. In restaurants, this would mean an average premium of 19% for a meal. If certified organic vegetable production is to make a positive impact on food safety in urban West Africa, we suggest concentrating marketing efforts on the educated “elite” who frequent restaurants. However, considering that restaurant owners exhibited a lower preference for organic certification than lower class food vendors, the marketing situation is difficult. We therefore conclude that demand from the food vending sector alone will not institutionalize domestic certification mechanisms; this underlines the need for public commitment to facilitating such change.     

Creating superior customer value for B2B firms through supplier firm capabilities

In a dynamic global business-to-business (B2B) environment, innovation and marketing appear crucial to providing supplier firms' positional advantage through the ability to create value for customers. Our examination is grounded in seeking to address the research question: To what extent is the creation of superior performance, relationship, and co-creation value driven by market orientation, product innovation and marketing capabilities in B2B firms? The results of a survey of 155 large B2B firms show product innovation capability and marketing capability partially mediates the relationship between a firms' market orientation and its ability to create value (performance and co-creation), except for the role of marketing capability which we found acted as a full mediator of the relationship between market orientation and relationship value.     

Marketing ecosystem: An outside-in view for sustainable advantage

In the modern business environment, consumers are increasingly influenced by megatrends involving marketplace, technology, socioeconomics, geopolitics, and natural environment. Simultaneously, the data and insights that can inform consumer attitudes and behaviors often reside outside of firms' direct control. Consciously incorporating these interdependent factors into firms' decision-making is essential for adaptability and sustainable profitability.Building on the “outside-in” perspective, we propose that firm strategies should be informed through the lens of the marketing ecosystem that considers the interrelated and dynamic megatrends. By leveraging advances in data and technology, firms can sense-make the marketplace by extracting insights from massive amounts of diverse consumer data with modern-day analytics. By mapping out the megatrends with marketing analytics, firms can 1) more accurately predict consumers' changing preferences and formulate appropriate strategies to engage with them; and 2) become more market-adaptable and competitive in the present and the future.To deliver sustainably compelling value to customers, firms should adopt an ecosystem mindset and cooperate with various stakeholders. A broad-thinking, agile, and humble firm culture can enable the development of more robust outside-in capabilities. We elaborate on the megatrends in the interconnected world of the marketing ecosystem, and propose emerging research directions in each area.     

Product and relationship quality influence on customer commitment and loyalty in B2B manufacturing relationships

The article examines how product and relationship quality influence customer commitment along with their combined effect on customer loyalty. The results show that product quality influences positive and negative calculative commitment. With regard to relationship quality, its “social” dimensions such as cooperation and trust have a much greater influence on commitment than its “technical” dimensions such as knowledge transfers and adaptation. On the “social” side, cooperation and trust positively influence affective and normative commitment, with trust also positively affecting positive calculative commitment, while on the “technical” side the only significant link is between adaptation and normative commitment. As for the consequences of commitment, affective commitment positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, while negative calculative commitment positively influences behavioral loyalty. In addition to indirect effects, product quality also directly positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. The results imply that customer loyalty depends more on “emotional” (affective commitment) than on “rational” (negative calculative commitment and product quality) motivation to continue the relationship.     

Managing opportunism in a developing interfirm relationship: The interrelationship of calculative and loyalty commitment

This research develops a framework for investigating associations among the duration of an exchange relationship, the interrelationship between a supplier's calculative and loyalty commitment, and opportunistic behavior on the part of a buyer. The findings indicate that (1) calculative commitment and loyalty commitment by suppliers function as substitutes; (2) a supplier's loyalty commitment increases gradually as a developing exchange relationship endures, whereas calculative commitment increases and then decreases; and (3) a supplier's calculative commitment leads to an increase in a buyer's opportunism, whereas the supplier's loyalty commitment leads to a decrease, and a supplier's loyalty commitment decreases the positive impact of calculative commitment on opportunism. These findings provide insights into how relationship duration affects buyers' opportunism through the interrelation between suppliers' calculative and loyalty commitment.     

Interpersonal guanxi and partner extra-role behavior: Mediating role of relational and transactional governance strategy

This paper identifies interpersonal guanxi between boundary spanners as an individual-level antecedent of partner firms' extra-role behavior (ERB) in interfirm relationships. Drawing on interfirm governance and the guanxi literature, we propose that guanxi between boundary spanners at the operational level may promote partner firms' ERB through two governance strategies: interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment. We analyze 268 pairs of sales managers and salespeople in a variety of industries in China, and we find that guanxi between boundary spanners positively affects partner firms' ERB and that this positive relationship is strengthened by interfirm ownership homogeneity. Moreover, the relationship is mediated by interfirm trust and relationship-specific investment, and the mediation effect of interfirm trust is stronger than that of relationship-specific investment. These findings provide new insights into the relationship marketing and guanxi literature by highlighting the effects of guanxi between operational-level boundary spanners on partner firms' ERB.     

Building commitment in buyer-seller relationships: A tie strength perspective

The strength of inter firm buyer-seller ties is vital to understanding the formation of commitment. Drawing upon the tie strength sociology and embeddedness literature, this study conceptualizes four dimensions of tie strength and examines their effects on the buyer firm's commitment to the selling firm, as well as the impact of commitment on favorable buyer behavior. A survey of 119 buyer organizations reveals that three of the four identified properties of tie strength (reciprocal services, mutual confiding and emotional intensity) are positively related to buyer commitment to the selling organization. Interestingly, the strongest relationship was found between emotional intensity and commitment — an understudied dimension of buyer-seller relationships. This study contributes to the B2B relationship marketing literature by increasing our understanding of the differential effects of behavioral and emotional aspects of ties on commitment. The study suggests to managers in manufacturing firms to develop strong behavioral and emotional ties with buyer firms in their relationship marketing strategy.     

Service innovation and adoption in industrial markets: An SME perspective

Service innovation is essential, particularly for companies operating in highly competitive environments, as it can lead to innovation adoption behaviors, which in turn influence overall business performance. Drawing upon the innovation adoption and relationship marketing literature, and grounded within the structure-conduct-performance paradigm and social exchange theory, this study examines the reputational and relational mechanisms through which service innovation influences the innovation adoption decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A survey of 336 Australian SME representatives reveals the critical role of suppliers’ sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) and affective commitment in mediating the relationship between service innovation and innovation adoption behavior. However, industry-relevant moderators in the form of technological turbulence and long-term orientation constrain the mediating effects. Specifically, perceived SCA has stronger mediating effects among short-term-oriented customers, whereas affective commitment has stronger mediating effects when technological turbulence is low. The findings provide useful insights for organizations in terms of capitalizing on their reputation and relationship with customers to encourage the adoption of innovation by SMEs.     

The structure of service firms and their marketing policies

There is a growing interest in understanding the way in which firms' marketing and manufacturing policies interact. The studies carried out so far have almost entirely concerned themselves with goods-producing organizations. However this paper suggests that these studies also provide useful insights into the problems faced by service firms in organizing themselves efficiently. Furthermore it suggests that a distinctive problem faced by such firms is that adaption of their organizations may have a significant effect upon consumers' perceptions of the service they offer. The paper first outlines some investigators' views of the link between marketing and manufacturing and follows this by discussing the concept of ‘production’, ‘delivery’ and ‘consumption’ of services. A brief consideration of the pressures for change which particularly impinge upon service firms precedes a discussion of the problems, and apparent contradictions, whch are linked with the concepts of standardization and personalization of services. The paper concludes with three examples of the issues discussed.     

Drivers of green cooperation between Chinese manufacturers and their customers: An empirical analysis

Although green customer cooperation can help manufacturers increase their overall performance, it is difficult for manufactures to effectively achieve green customer cooperation. This paper discusses how manufacturers can achieve green customer cooperation through the theoretical lens of capability-based view. It suggests that internal green process innovation and learning from their customers can lead to green customer cooperation and such positive relationships are dependent upon senior management's calculative and affective commitment towards the customer firms. Using multi-respondent data collected from 217 Chinese manufacturing firms, the results show that both green process innovation and learning from customers drive green customer cooperation. However, affective commitment counter-intuitively diminishes the positive effect of learning from customers on green customer cooperation, while calculative commitment further strengthens this effect. This paper contributes to green supply chain management literature by conceptually explaining and empirically proving the effects of green process innovation and learning from customers on green customer cooperation and the moderating role of calculative and affective commitments. Based on the research findings, the paper gives practical suggestions to Chinese manufacturers and their customer firms regarding green cooperation and the dynamics of senior management's commitment towards the customer firms.     

Drivers and outcomes of relationship quality with professional service firms: An SME owner-manager perspective

Strong relationships are important, particularly for business partners dealing with business-to-business (B2B) professional service providers, as the quality of the relationship can serve as a proxy for evaluating the service delivery. Grounded in the RM paradigm, this study focused on this unique inter-firm business exchange between professional service firms (PSFs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to investigate the drivers and outcomes of relationship quality (RQ). Specifically, we utilized a mixed-methods approach to understand (i) the key dimensions of RQ and its drivers, (ii) the mechanism through which RQ affects relational outcomes (i.e. loyalty and willingness-to-pay premium price), and (iii) the moderating role of relationship duration and perceived risk among these relationships in a B2B professional service context. The results from a survey of 324 SME CEOs and/or owner-managers confirmed the importance of relationship value in mediating the effects of RQ and its outcomes, particularly in long-term relationships and under high-risk situations. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for theory and practice in the PSF context, and acknowledge the research limitations.     

The trade-off between institutionally proximal and distal markets: The impact of home market pressures on firms’ export market selection

This study uses an organizational change perspective to analyze firms' export market selection (EMS) to adapt to home country market pressures. We argue that firms' strategic objectives influence whether they will enter institutionally proximal or distal markets. A model with two curvilinear (U-shaped and inverted U-shaped) relationships is found by testing 1940 Taiwanese export firms based on two official datasets. The model shows that firms are more likely to increase their exports to institutionally proximal markets and to decrease their exports to institutionally distal markets if they have an increasing but still controllable degree of competitive and marketing pressures in the home country. This response represents an incremental change by exporting firms. However, firms increase their exports to institutionally distal markets while decreasing their exports to institutionally proximal markets if they have an excessively increasing degree of competitive and marketing pressures in the home country. This response represents a radical change by exporting firms. We find that export firms' strategic objectives in choosing different organizational change styles (incremental or radical) are highly related to this trade-off in their EMS decision making.     

Marketing capabilities: Antecedents and implications for B2B SME performance

The study provides a new perspective on SME marketing strategies in the B2B context. Using a resource-based view of the firm, the study develops a structural model linking marketing capabilities and marketing performance. A study of 367 SME Australian firms reveals that two key marketing capabilities, namely branding and innovation, have major performance outcomes in the SME B2B context. This is the first SME study to evaluate concurrently the contribution of innovation and branding marketing capabilities, with innovation capability the strongest determinant of SME performance. The study also finds market orientation and management capability act as enabling mechanisms for building marketing capabilities. Disaggregation tests indicate that the same findings apply to three size categories denoting micro firms (less than 20 staff), small firms (20-99 staff) and medium-sized firms (100-499 staff).     

Exploring the characteristics of the market-driven firms and antecedents to sustained competitive advantage

During the last few decades, identifying and examining the characteristics of market-driven firms have been a dominant theme in strategic marketing research. It has been argued that market-driven firms are superior in their market sensing and customer linking capabilities, enabling market-driven firms to outperform their competitors. This paper reports the findings of a study that examines the role market-focused learning capability and marketing capability in innovation-based competitive strategy on sustainable competitive advantage. The findings indicate that entrepreneurship is an important factor in sustained competitive advantage (SCA) and while market-focused learning capability leads to higher degrees of innovation, marketing capability enables SCA.     

An inquiry on dimensions of external technology search and their influence on technological innovations: evidence from Chinese firms

A central part of technological innovation for industrial firms involves search for new external knowledge. A well‐established stream of literature on firms' external knowledge search has demonstrated that firms investing in broader search may have a great ability to innovate. In this paper, we explore the influences of technology search on firms' technological innovation performance along three distinctive dimensions: technical, geographic, and temporal dimensions, using a unique panel data set containing information on Chinese firms that were active in technology in‐licensing and patenting during the period 2000–2009. Our findings reveal that Chinese firms' technological innovation performances are related to external technology search in quite different ways from the ones suggested in the extant literature using evidence from developed countries. We find that Chinese firms searching ‘locally’ along the technical dimension have better technological innovation performance than those searching ‘distantly’. However, when a Chinese firm in‐license relatively old (mature) technologies or those from geographically nearby areas, it will be less bounded to searching familiar technical knowledge.     

The evolution of firm networks: from emergence to early growth of the firm

This paper addresses whether cohesive networks of socially embedded ties or sparse networks rich in structural holes are more conducive to the success of new firms. We propose that the networks of emerging firms evolve in order to adapt to the firm's changing resource needs and resource challenges. As firms emerge, their networks consist primarily of socially embedded ties drawn from dense, cohesive sets of connections. We label these networks identity based. As firms move into the early growth stage, their networks evolve toward more ties based on a calculation of economic costs and benefits. This shift from identity-based to more calculative networks is manifested in the evolution of the firm networks: (1) from primarily socially embedded ties to a balance of embedded and arm's-length relations; (2) from networks that emphasize cohesion to those that exploit structural holes; and (3) from a more path-dependent to a more intentionally managed network. Thus, this paper suggests that both cohesive and sparse networks are conducive to firm performance when they are aligned with and address firms' evolving resource challenges. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transfer of market knowledge in a channel relationship: Impacts of attitudinal commitment and satisfaction

This paper attempts to explain how a manufacturer's attitudinal commitment and a distributor's kind and degree of satisfaction have an impact on the transferring of market knowledge from the distributor in a channel relationship. Using data from 225 paired distributors and manufacturers in the Chinese household appliances entity, six of our seven research hypotheses were supported. Results of the study show that a distributor's economic satisfaction directly promotes market knowledge transfer, while a distributor's social satisfaction will enhance market knowledge transfer only when positive economic satisfaction already exists. Furthermore, both the calculative commitment and the loyalty commitment of a manufacturer have inverse U-shaped relationships with a distributor's economic satisfaction, and are negatively and positively related, respectively, to the distributor's social satisfaction. The study thus points out the distinct roles of economic satisfaction and social satisfaction and their interaction in market knowledge transfer, and the insightful impacts of calculative and loyalty commitment on economic and social satisfaction. These findings provide new theoretical thinking about channel relationship management and the business practices of manufacturers.     

The digital marketing capabilities gap

Over the past two decades, digitalization has revolutionized not only consumer marketing but also industrial marketing. Both industrial marketing scholars and industrial marketers seek insights to understand how our knowledge and practice of digital marketing has been structured and configured. To address this gap, we adopt the resource-based perspective as an organizing framework and systematically review 129 articles spanning two decades of research to identify different digital marketing capabilities in industrial firms. From this analysis, we identify four themes: channels, social media, digital relationships, and digital technologies. We then stress-test this knowledge with managerial practices by conducting an online survey of 169 managers, designed to establish the repertoire of current and future marketing capability needs of industrial firms. Herein, we identify two marketing capabilities gaps: the practice gap—which identifies the deficit between managers' ‘current’ practices and their ‘ideal’ digital marketing capabilities; and, the knowledge gap—which demonstrates a significant divide between the digital marketing transformations in industrial firms and the extant scholarly knowledge that underpins this. Based on these results, we build an agenda for future research on digital marketing capabilities.     

Antecedents and consequences of relationship intention: Implications for transaction and relationship marketing

The terms relationship marketing (RM) and loyalty have been extensively promoted in marketing literature. Advocates of RM and loyalty have argued that RM leads to loyalty and loyalty leads to profitability. However, currently available evidence questions these arguments. We propose a term relationship intention. Relationship intention is willingness of a customer to develop a relationship with a firm while buying a product or a service attributed to a firm, a brand, and a channel. We build a multi-item scale for measuring relationship intention. We propose a framework, wherein we argue that the relationship intention is influenced by the customers' perceived firm equity, perceived brand equity, and perceived channel equity. We propose the consequences of relationship intention as being low cost to serve, price premium, word-of-mouth promotion, and company advertisement. We also argue that relationship intention moderates the association between lifetime duration and profitability. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications of relationship intention in terms of transaction and RM.