Using a customer-Level marketing strategy to enhance firm performance: A review of theoretical and empirical evidence

It is becoming increasingly apparent from the literature that marketers need to consider customer-level information when they generate a marketing strategy for the firm. In this article, the authors develop a customer-focused framework that uses a marketing strategy with an overall objective of maximized financial performance. This strategy is driven by seven customer-level marketing tactics and shows how actual customer data can be used to generate an actionable marketing strategy leading to optimal levels of profitability, customer equity, and shareholder value. In addition, the authors discuss a successful implementation of this strategy for several business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms and offer insights as to how to customize an implementation strategy for any firm, along with presenting potential challenges a firm may encounter during the implementation process. Several suggestions for future research are offered to explore and harness this newly available evidence. V. Kumar (VK) (vk@business.uconn.edu) is the ING Chair Professor of Marketing and the executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut. He spends his time by transferring his knowledge (however little it may be) to his two daughters about customer lifetime value, diffusion models, forecasting sales and market share, retailing, and marketing strategy. J. Andrew Petersen (apetersen@business.uconn.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include customer lifetime value, word-of-mouth effects, and customer-level marketing strategy. His research has been published inMarketing Research Magazine and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

Fundamental changes in marketing organization: The movement toward a customer-focused organizational structure

There has been growing interest in the future of marketing and changes in marketing’s organization and role within the firm. However, there has not been research that holistically explores key changes in marketing organization. The authors draw on qualitative interviews with 50 managers in the United States and Germany and argue that changes in marketing organization that have been discussed in isolation are part of a more general shift toward customer-focused organizational structures. They initially discuss two specific changes related to the overall shift: changes concerning primary marketing coordinators and increasing dispersion of marketing activities. They then introduce the concept of a customer-focused organizational structure that uses groups of customers as the primary basis for structuring the organization. They identify typical organizational transitions as firms move toward a customer-focused organizational structure and discuss the challenges firms face in making this transition. They conclude with implications for academic research, managerial practice, and business school curriculum. Christian Homburg is a professor of business administration and marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department at the University of Mannheim in Germany. He received his Ph.D. and master’s degrees from the University of Karlsruhe and earned his habilitation at the University of Mainz. His research interests include organizational issues in marketing, customer orientation, industrial marketing, and relationship marketing. Dr. Homburg has consulted and delivered executive education programs for more than one hundred companies, including Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Hoechst, RWE, Thyssen, Krupp-Hoesch and Sodexho. John P. Workman, Jr. is an associate professor of marketing at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Workman conducts research on the organization and role of marketing within the firm, on new product development in high-tech firms, and more recently on organizational issues for e-commerce initiatives. His research uses concepts from organization theory, strategy, and sociology to examine the interactions between marketing and other groups in the firm. Dr. Workman has a B.S. from N.C. State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. He has consulted for a number of organizations on the topics of e-commerce and marketing organization. Ove Jensen is a Ph.D. student studying under Professor Homburg at the University of Mannheim. He received his master’s degree from the WHU Koblenz. He conducts research on sales management, organizational issues in marketing, and incentive systems. He has extensive consulting experience in the areas of market-focused management and sales management.     

Relationship marketing of services—growing interest,emerging perspectives

Relationship marketing is an old idea but a new focus now at the forefront of services marketing practice and academic research. The impetus for its development has come from the maturing of services marketing with the emphasis on quality, increased recognition of potential benefits for the firm and the customer, and technological advances. Accelerating interest and active research are extending the concept to incorporate newer, more sophisticated viewpoints. Emerging perspectives explored here include targeting profitable customers, using the strongest possible strategies for customer bonding, marketing to employees and other stakeholders, and building trust as a marketing tool. Although relationship marketing is developing, more research is needed before it reaches maturity. A baker’s dozen of researchable questions suggests some future directions. holds the J. C. Penney Chair of Retailing Studies, is a professor of Marketing, and is director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. He is a former national president of the American Marketing Association. His research interests are services marketing, service quality, and retailing strategy. He has published numerous journal articles and books, includingDelivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations (Free Press, 1990),Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality (Free Press, 1991), andOn Great Service: A Framework for Action (Free Press, 1995).     

Exploring CRM effectiveness: an institutional theory perspective

This study identifies the potential contribution that institutional theory can make to understanding the success of marketing practices. Based on institutional theory, we argue that the effectiveness of marketing practices decreases when firms are motivated to adopt such practices under the influence of institutional pressures originating in firms’ environments. However, alignment between a practice and a firm’s marketing strategy may buffer against these negative effects. We apply these insights to the case of customer relationship management (CRM). CRM is considered an important way to enhance customer loyalty and firm performance, but it has also been criticized for being expensive and for not living up to expectations. Empirical data from 107 organizations confirm that, in general, adopting CRM for mimetic motives is likely to result in fewer customer insights as a result of using this practice. Our study suggests that institutional theory has much to offer to the investigation of the effectiveness of marketing practices.     

Toward a theory of customer engagement marketing

Customer engagement marketing—defined as a firm’s deliberate effort to motivate, empower, and measure customer contributions to marketing functions—marks a shift in marketing research and business practice. After defining and differentiating engagement marketing, the authors present a typology of its two primary forms and offer tenets that link specific strategic elements to customer outcomes and thereby firm performance, theorizing that the effectiveness of engagement marketing arises from the establishment of psychological ownership and self-transformation. The authors provide evidence in support of the derived tenets through case illustrations, as well as a quasi-experimental field test of the central tenet of engagement marketing.     

为营销理论发展寻找新的“路标”

针对美国市场营销学会对营销概念的重新界定之弊端，本文以服务和关系营销为研究的逻辑起点，对一般意义上的营销概念进行了拓展，提出了新的营销定义。首先，对传统和新的营销概念进行深层次分析；其次，结合营销定义最重要的构成要素，对营销作为一项组织职能的拓展与延伸进行了探讨；最后，通过对上述命题的分析，将营销概念与承诺管理等概念进行耦合，阐述本文所提出的新营销概念的理论意义和现实意义。     

国外有关顾客参与的研究综述与发展方向

顾客参与已成为近年来国际营销学研究热点之一,西方学者针对顾客参与的研究取得了丰硕成果。通过对顾客参与的概念界定,顾客参与的过程和构成维度,企业管理学和服务营销学角度中有关顾客参与的角色,顾客参与的各种投入和强度等方面的国外顾客参与相关研究成果进行全面梳理,可以发现现有研究对顾客参与概念、顾客参与维度和测量均未形成一致观点,顾客参与的角色不清晰,缺乏系统、动态视角的观点。未来研究中应准确定位顾客参与的概念和维度,探索服务员工对顾客参与的影响、参与结构的效用,重点推进服务供应系统的顾客参与,关注服务供应环境。     

Demand and supply integration: a conceptual framework of value creation through knowledge management

Strategy identifies two primary sets of processes through which the firm creates value for its customers by moving goods and information through marketing channels: demand-focused and supply-focused processes. Historically, firms have invested resources to develop a core differential advantage in one or other of these areas—but rarely in both—often resulting in mismatches between demand (what customers want) and supply (what is available in the marketplace). This paper suggests that successfully managing the supply chain to create customer value requires extensive integration between demand-focused processes and supply-focused processes that is based on a foundation of value creation through intraorganizational knowledge management. Integrating demand and supply processes helps firms prioritize and ensure fulfillment based upon the shared generation, dissemination, interpretation and application of real-time customer demand as well as ongoing supply capacity constraints. We draw upon literature in marketing, logistics, supply chain management and strategy to introduce a conceptual framework of demand and supply integration (DSI). We also offer insights for managerial practice and an agenda for future research in the relatively under-researched, but strategically important, area of demand and supply integration.     

Incentivizing CEOs to build customer- and employee-firm relations for higher customer satisfaction and firm value

This research reveals customer- and employee-firm relations to be two routes by which firms can leverage executive incentive structures to create customer and firm value. Analyses of a unique dataset with multiple archival sources show that (1) increases in the proportion of CEOs?? long-term equity-based compensation positively influence actions that build customer- and employee-firm relations as measured by the Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. (KLD) data source, (2) such effects are stronger in unstable markets, and (3) customer and employee relationship-building actions affect firm value both directly and indirectly via the mediator of customer satisfaction as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) data source. The findings have implications for the improvement of customer satisfaction, the role of marketing in the organization, and the design of CEO incentive packages leading to higher customer satisfaction and firm value.     

Intraorganizational determinants of key account management effectiveness

While there is a significant amount of research on determinants of selling effectiveness for individual salespeople, there is a surprising lack of study offactors that affect selling effectiveness in team-selling situations. The authors focus on the context of key account management (KAM) and develop a conceptual model offactors that affect KAM effectiveness. They test hypotheses with data from 385 firms using structural equation modeling and find that firms should seek to build esprit de corps among those involved in KAM, should proactively initiate activities with key accounts and do these activities more intensively, should ensure that key account managers have access to key resources within the marketing and sales organization, and should involve top managers of the firm. John P. Workman Jr. is an associate professor of marketing at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He conducts research on the organization and role of marketing within the firm, on new product development in high-tech firms, and on the interpretive process of learning about the market. His research uses concepts from organization theory, strategy, and sociology to examine the interactions between marketing and other groups in the firm. He has a B.S. from North Carolina State University, an MBA from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He formerly was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christian Homburg is a professor of business administration and marketing and chair of the marketing department at the University of Mannheim in Germany. He received his Ph.D. and master's degrees from the University of Karlsruhe and earned his habilitation at the University of Mainz. His research interests include organizational issues in marketing, customer orientation, industrial marketing, and relationship marketing. He has consulted and delivered executive education programs for more than 100 companies, including, for example, Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Hoechst, RWE, Thyssen, Krupp-Hoesch, and Sodexho. Ove Jensen is a partner and managing director at Prof. Homburg & Partners, a strategy consulting firm (www.homburgund-partner.de). He has studied in Germany, France, and the United States. He holds a master's degree from the WHU Koblenz (Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Mannheim, both in Germany. His research interests encompass key account management, marketing organization, sales management, incentive systems, and pricing issues. He has conducted many consulting projects, market research studies, and management seminars in Germany, the United States, France, and Japan. Among his clients are Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Bayer, BASF, Lafarge, and Saint-Gobain.     

Overcoming the “recency trap” in customer relationship management

Purchase likelihood typically declines as the length of time since the customer’s previous purchase (“recency”) increases. As a result, firms face a “recency trap,” whereby recency increases for customers who do not purchase in a given period, making it even less likely they will purchase in the next period. Eventually the customer is effectively lost to the firm. We develop and illustrate a modeling approach to target a firm’s marketing efforts, keeping in mind the customer’s recency state. This requires an empirical model that predicts purchase likelihood as a function of recency and marketing, and a dynamic optimization that prescribes the most profitable way to target customers. In our application we find that customers’ purchase likelihoods as well as response to marketing depend on recency. These results are used to show that the targeting of email and direct mail should depend on the customer’s recency and that the optimal decision policy enables the average high recency customer, who currently is virtually worthless to the firm, to become profitable.     

Do institutional investors pay attention to customer satisfaction and why?

Extant marketing, accounting, and finance research has neglected to examine the relevance of customer satisfaction information for institutional investors, despite their potential importance. This study develops and supports a framework suggesting that firms with positive changes in customer satisfaction are more attractive to transient institutional investors than to non-transient institutional investors. We also find that the impact of customer satisfaction on transient institutional investor holdings is contingent upon firm intangible asset intensity, product-market demand uncertainty, and financial market volatility. In addition, transient institutional investor holdings at least partially mediate the effects of changes in customer satisfaction on firm abnormal return and idiosyncratic risk. Thus, transient institutional investor investments represent a mechanism through which customer satisfaction affects firm value.     

Customer value impact of sales contests

Although firms spend more than $26 billion annually on sales contests, no empirical research has investigated the effects of contests on individual customers. While some short-term firm effects of contests have been documented, the impact on long-term customer value has remained a matter of speculation. This research investigates the long-term customer impact of sales contests, by applying the customer value framework. We add to previous research that has used customer value of marketing programs by employing the acquired, retained, and add-on framework to segment customers based on their purchase history. We develop hypotheses drawing on theories in the buyer behavior, customer loyalty, and sales management domains. By disaggregating the overall customer value into initial and subsequent components, we demonstrate a greater long-term value per customer in the retained customer cohort and lower short-term and long-term value per customer among the two other cohorts (acquired and add-on customers). There is no adverse impact on other drivers of customer value such as customer churn and purchase frequency. While our study focuses on individual customer effects, we note the significantly higher volume of customers during the contest leads to a positive aggregate-level assessment. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for managers and researchers.     

The theoretical underpinnings of customer asset management: A framework and propositions for future research

Most research in customer asset management has focused on specific aspects of the value of the customer to the company. The purpose of this article is to propose an integrated framework, called CUSAMS (customer asset management of services), that enables service organizations (1) to make a comprehensive assessment of the value of their customer assets and (2) to understand the influence of marketing instruments on them. The foundation of the CUSAMS framework is a careful specification of key customer behaviors that reflect the length, depth, and breadth of the customer-service organization relationship: duration, usage, and cross-buying. This framework is the starting point for a set of propositions regarding how marketing instruments influence customer behavior within the relationship, thereby influencing the value of the customer asset. The framework and propositions provide the impetus for a research agenda that identifies critical issues in customer asset management. Ruth N. Bolton (ruth.bolton@owen.vanderbilt.edu) is a professor of marketing in the Owen Graduate School of Business at Vanderbilt University. Her current research is concerned with high-technology services sold to business-to-business customers. Her most recent work in this area studies how organizations can grow the value of their customer base through customer service and support. Her earlier published research investigates how organizations’ service and pricing strategies influence customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as company revenues and profits. She has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Service Research, Marketing Letters, Marketing Science, and other journals. Katherine N. Lemon (katherine.lemon@bc.edu) is an associate professor in the Wallace E. Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Her current research investigates the antecedents and consequences of customer-firm relationships. In addition, her research examines relevant metrics for measuring and managing the value of customer relationships. Her earlier published research investigates how emotional reactions (such as anticipated regret) inflence customer retention decisions. She has published articles in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Service Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Product Innovation Management, and other journals. Peter C. Verhoef (verhoef@few.eur.nl) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His main research interest is customer asset management. He has also done research on other topics, such as waiting times, private labels, and out-of-stocks. He has been a visiting professor at the Tuck School of Business Dartmouth College in fall 2003. He has published a wide variety of articles in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Retailing, Marketing Letters, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Consumer Psychology.     

Customer relationship dynamics: Service quality and customer loyalty in the context of varying levels of customer expertise and switching costs

As customer-organization relationships deepen, consumers increase their expertise in the firm’s product line and industry and develop increased switching costs. This study investigates the effects of customer investment expertise and perceived switching costs on the relationships between technical and functional service quality and customer loyalty. Technical service quality is hypothesized to be a more important determinant of customer loyalty than functional service quality as expertise increases. Both technical and functional service quality are hypothesized to have a reduced relationship with customer loyalty as perceived switching costs increase. Three-way interactions between the main effects of service quality, customer expertise, and perceived switching costs yield additional insight into the change in relative importance of technical and functional service quality in customers’ decision to be loyal. Six of eight hypotheses receive support. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management over the relationship life cycle. Simon J. Bell (s.bell@jims.cam.ac.uk; Ph.D., University of Melbourne) is a university lecturer in marketing at the Judge Institute of Management, the business school of the University of Cambridge. His research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, andMarketing Theory, among others. His.areas of research interest include organizational learning, sales force management and internal marketing, services and relationship marketing, and corporate social responsibility. Seigyoung Auh (sauh@brocku.ca; Ph.D., University of Michigan) is an assistant professor of marketing at Brock University, Ontario, Canada. His research has been published in theJournal of Economic Psychology, theJournal of Business to Business Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and others. His research interests are in application of a resource-based view to marketing strategy, top management team diversity and marketing strategy, customer orientation (customer satisfaction) and loyalty, interface between marketing and entrepreneurship, and services and relationship marketing. Karen Smalley (B.Comm. Hons, University of Melbourne) is an honors graduate in marketing at the University of Melbourne.     

Customer response capability in a sense-and-respond era: The role of customer knowledge process

An organization’s customer response capability, its comptence in satisfying customer needs through effective and quick responses, is critical for sustained success. In this article, the authors examine how customer knowledge process influences customer response capability. They highlight two dimensions of customer response capability, customer response expertise and customer response speed. It is observed that apart from its direct positive association with customer response expertise and speed, the customer knowledge process also diminishes the positive association between risk propensity and these dimensions of customer response capability. The influence of customer response expertise and speed on performance is also examined. The hypotheses are tested using survey data collected from a sample of retailing firms and the findings triangulated using qualitative data collected through depth interviews with managers. The results highlight the importance of customer knowledge in enhancing customer response capability. Satish Jayachandran is with the Department of Marketing at the University of South Carolina. His research interests are in the area of marketing strategy, specifically market responsiveness of firms and the impact of organizational performance on subsequent managerial and firm behavior. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He was a recipient of the Harold H. Maynard award for 2001 from theJournal of Marketing. Kelly Hewett is with the Department of Marketing at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on the management of relationships between buyers and sellers, as well as between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries in managing the marketing function globally. Her research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of International Marketing, among others. Peter Kaufman is with the Department of Marketing at Illinois State University. His research focuses on buyer-seller relationships, retailing, and distribution issues. He received an Honorable Mention in the Marketing Science Institute’s 2003 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Competition.     

Customer engagement: the construct,antecedents, and consequences

In this study, we highlight the need and develop a framework for customer engagement (CE) by reviewing the marketing literature and analyzing popular press articles. By understanding the evolution of customer management, we develop the theory of engagement, arguing that when a relationship is satisfying and has emotional connectedness, the partners become engaged in their concern for each other. As a result, the components of customer engagement include both the direct and the indirect contributions of CE. Based on the theoretical support, our proposed framework elaborates on the components of CE as well as the antecedents (satisfaction and emotion) and consequences (tangible and intangible outcomes) of CE. We also discuss how convenience, nature of the firm (B2B vs. B2C), type of industry (service vs. product), value of the brand (high vs. low), and level of involvement (high vs. low) moderate the link between satisfaction and direct contribution, and between emotions and indirect contribution of CE, respectively. Further, we show how customer engagement can be gained and how firm performance can be maximized by discussing relevant strategies.     

Improving customer-focused marketing capabilities and firm financial performance via marketing exploration and exploitation

Evidence within the marketing literature has shown that marketing capabilities are important drivers of firm performance. However, very little is known about how firms improve their marketing capabilities via the embedding of new market knowledge. Organizational learning theory provides us with a theoretical lens through which we can examine how existing customer-focused marketing capabilities may be improved and new customer-focused marketing capabilities may be created via marketing exploitation and exploration capabilities. In addition, this study investigates whether ambidexterity in marketing exploration and exploitation exists and finds that firms cannot do both at high levels without risking a negative impact on customer-focused marketing capabilities. This study also presents findings demonstrating how improving the two customer-focused marketing capabilities in our study, brand management and customer relationship management, impacts objective financial performance.     

Market-focused strategic flexibility: Conceptual advances and an integrative model

This article develops the concept of market-focused strategic flexibility. It begins with a review of the historical perspectives of strategic flexibility. To support the conceptualization, the authors offer a theoretical schema that considers market-focused strategic flexibility as conceptually rooted in capabilities theory, resource-based views of the firm, and options. With the conceptualization in place, the authors propose an integrative model that explicates the mediating role of market-focused strategic flexibility in marketing strategy frameworks. Propositions are developed relating market-driven and driving orientations to market-focused strategic flexibility with consideration for how turbulent macro environments modify the relationship. In addition, the authors offer propositions regarding outcomes of market-focused strategic flexibility under conditions of macro environmental turbulence. Jean L. Johnson is an associate professor of marketing at Washington State University. Her research includes partnering capabilities development in, and management of, interfirm relationships and management of international strategic alliances. Her research appears in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. She serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and reviews for others. She spent several years in the advertising industry and has lived, taught, and conducted research in France and Japan. Ruby Pui-Wan Lee is a doctoral candidate in the marketing department at Washington State University. Her areas of research include interfirm relationships marketing strategy, and international marketing. She has presented papers at major conferences. In addition, her research has appeared in the theJournal of Advertising Research and theJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Amit Saini is a doctoral candidate in marketing at Washington State University. He conducts research in the area of marketing strategy implementation, technology-marketing interface, e-commerce strategy, and customer relationship management. He has presented papers at major conferences, and his research appears in theAmerican Marketing Association—Marketing Educator's Conference Proceedings. His industry experience includes sales management and quantitative market research. Bianca Grohmann is an assistant professor in the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. She received her Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2002. Her research focuses on consumer behavior issues such as gift giving, selfprophecy, and consumer response to sensory stimuli in purchase situations. She has made numerous presentations at major conferences such as those of the Association for Consumer Research and the Society for Consumer Psychology.     

Marketing strategy: An assessment of the state of the field and outlook

This article provides an assessment of the state of the field of marketing strategy research and the outlook. Using institutional theory, the authors develop an organizing framework to serve as a road map for assessing research in marketing strategy. Their assessment of the state of the field based on a review of extant literature suggests that significant strides in conceptual development and empirical research have been achieved in a number of areas. Several recent developments in the business world, including deconglomeration and increased organizational focus on managing and leveraging market-based assets such as brand equity and customer equity, suggest that marketing is likely to play a more important role in charting the strategic direction of the firm. However, the theoretical contributions of the field to the academic dialogue on strategy leave much to be desired. P. Rajan Varadarajan (Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst) is a professor of marketing and the Jenna and Calvin R. Guest Professor of Business Administration at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in the areas of corporate, business, and marketing strategy; marketing management; and global competitive strategy. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAcademy of Management Journal, theStrategic Management Journal, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Business Horizons, and other journals. He is coauthor of a textbook entitled,Contemporary Perspectives on Strategic Market Planning. He served as editor of theJournal of Marketing from 1993 to 1996. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing Science, as Chairperson of the Marketing Strategy Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association, on the Editorial Review Boards of theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of International Marketing, and as an ad hoc reviewer for a number of journals in themarketing and management disciplines. In recognition of his research and publications, in May 1994, he was awarded the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award for Research, the highest honor the University bestows. Satish Jayachandran is a doctoral candidate in marketing at Texas A&M University. His research interests include competitive behavior of firms and the impact of organizational performance on subsequent managerial and firm behavior. His research is forthcoming in theJournal of Marketing and has been presented at American Marketing Association and Academy of International Business conferences. His professional experience spans sales and channels management in the computer industry and account management in advertising.