Kola real's low‐cost international expansion strategy

This case provides an interesting and relevant scenario of a family‐owned firm entering the low end of the cola market in Peru and expanding into other Latin American countries. For a family business owner, or for an entrepreneur looking for business pathways in Latin America, this look into Ajegroup's strategic planning to take advantage of expansion opportunities in the region can serve as either a cautionary tale, or an avenue toward future growth. The case is accompanied by comments from practitioner experts. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of organizational service climate in generating control and empowerment among workers and customers

Previous studies have found a relationship between service climate and customers’ satisfaction. This paper presents two studies that used structural equation modeling to examine the role of control and empowerment in mediating this relationship. In the first study, questionnaires were administered to 113 pairs of customers and service workers. The results show that service climate is related to a customer's satisfaction through the mediation of a service worker's self-reported control of the service situation. In the second study, the service worker's sense of empowerment was predicted with service climate and the supervisor's empowering behavior. The data was gathered with questionnaires administered to 255 workers in service roles. Service climate was found to have a positive effect on empowering leadership behaviors of the service worker's supervisor which, in turn, enhance the service worker's sense of empowerment. The results are discussed in regard to the role of control and empowerment in service organizations.     

Do satisfied customers bad‐mouth innovative products?

For many years marketing academics have recommended, and practitioners have implemented, organization‐wide programs that measure customers' levels of satisfaction with a firm's offerings because it is believed that satisfied customers are both more likely to continue using a previously adopted product and less likely to engage in negative word‐of‐mouth communication. Given the ubiquity of product‐review forums resulting from today's increasing levels of e‐commerce, this paper pairs cause constructs from the diffusion literature with effect constructs from the satisfaction and services literatures to reconsider that perspective. Specifically, it examines the relationships bet‐ween six perceived innovation attributes known to influence a new product's diffusion process and two post‐adoption behaviors, satisfaction and negative word‐of‐mouth communication. The results quash previous assumptions that satisfaction mediates negative word‐of‐mouth communication and reveal that satisfied customers do speak ill of previously adopted products. Implications for both theory and practice are also presented. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Big Five dyad congruence and compulsive buying: A case of service encounters

This research examines how the Big Five personality congruence between buyers and sellers influences compulsive buying in a dyadic service encounter. We gathered 904 buyer-seller data and computed personality congruence using the difference score technique. The study findings manifested that buyer-seller congruence in agreeableness and openness increases compulsive buying behavior, whereas buyer-seller congruence in neuroticism decreases this behavior. Further analysis showed that pleasure enhancement dampens the negative impact of neurotic congruence on compulsive buying. In contrast, stimulation enhancement strengthens the positive influence of open-minded congruence on compulsive buying. Conclusively, compulsive buyers exhibit varying buying behaviors based on their personality congruence (incongruence) with their corresponding sellers'. Hence, marketing managers should create similar (dissimilar) buyer-seller pairs to boost firms' sales.     

Intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors: Roles of family communication and peer influence in environmental consumer socialization

Intergenerational research on sustainable consumption remains scarce, particularly in relation to which factors may affect the level of intergenerational similarity and the direction of intergenerational transmission. The present study addresses these gaps and adds to the growing body of literature in environmental consumer socialization by examining intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors in a sample of 146 dyads comprised of mothers and college-age daughters. In the domain of intergenerational influence, we study two potential moderating factors suggested in past consumer research: communication effectiveness and peer conformity. Using the co-orientational model and nominal dyad method, we reveal the existence of intergenerational similarity in dyads' sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors—after accounting for nominal effects— and show that stronger parent–child communication between mother–daughter pairs leads to greater intergenerational similarity, whereas stronger peer influence on daughters reduces intergenerational agreement. Our analysis further suggests the presence of reverse environmental socialization, in which intergenerational influence predominantly occurs from daughter to mother. Dyads' subjective knowledge regarding sustainable consumption provides empirical insights for this co-orientational model finding on reverse intergenerational transfer. Overall, outcomes of this study encourage marketing managers to leverage young-adult offspring in the process of communicating sustainable marketing strategies.     

流媒体调度仿真平台的系统模型设计

在流媒体调度研究中，利用仿真平台可以模拟用户行为和系统运行，从而比较不同调度策略的优劣。本文对3种主要用户行为进行了形式化描述，建立起其数学模型，并对构成仿真平台的几个主要组成模块分别进行了描述和讨论。     

Effects of managers' entrepreneurial behavior on subordinates

The recent surge of interest in promoting corporate entrepreneurship seems linked to a growing body of empirical evidence of a positive relationship between a firm's entrepreneurial orientation and its improved financial performance. Logical induction suggests that organizations that promote corporate entrepreneurship must employ managers who are entrepreneurial in their behaviors. By extension, it would seem that managers who are entrepreneurial must have a positive impact on their subordinates if the organization's entrepreneurial initiatives are to be successful. Unfortunately, despite the implicit appeal of this logic, what would “seem” to be true has not yet been substantiated empirically.To address this shortcoming and to provide managers with information from which to judge their efforts to promote corporate entrepreneurship, research was undertaken to address two specific research questions:

• 1.1. What behaviors distinguish managers who exhibit an entrepreneurial orientation?
• 2.2. How do subordinates judge the actions of managers who work for an organizational metamorphosis to an entrepreneurial model of management?

Providing a rigorous assessment of these issues necessitated the selection of a setting not typically seen as receptive to entrepreneurial initiatives. Thus, the data were collected from the two largest units of an electric utility system, one with 8,000 employees and $2.847 billion in 1992 revenues and the other with 10,000 employees and $4.297 billion in 1992 revenues. Together, these units employed 60% of the corporate staff and generated 89% of total corporate revenues.Because of the perception of the company's top management that the prospect of deregulation, if not its inevitability, threatened the viability of the company's traditional management style, executives considered specific programs to become more competitive. They formulated a plan for the long-term development of an entrepreneurial organization based on the belief of the company's executives that its future success required fundamental change in corporate culture and competitive posture.To track the evolution of its managers toward an entrepreneurial orientation, the company used two survey instruments developed with and administered by executives of the company to monitor each manager's progress and to evaluate its impact.To assess the types and frequency of entrepreneurial behaviors among managers, a theoretically driven, management “behaviors” questionnaire was developed. Eleven of its items were designed to assess entrepreneurial behavior as a distinguishable subset of generally advocated management practice. This survey was administered by the company to all 833 immediate subordinates of each of 102 individual managers.A second survey instrument, completed approximately 6 months after the behaviors questionnaire, was used to assess the “effects” of the managers' behaviors. Of particular interest were 12 questions from this instrument that measured the satisfaction levels of the 102 managers' 1,522 immediate and second level subordinates with the supervision that they received, i.e., the 12 items provided an indication of the effects of managers' entrepreneurial behaviors on their subordinates' satisfaction with the managers.The results of the data analyses support the idea that managers who are entrepreneurial in their behavior have a positive impact on their subordinates' satisfaction with their supervisors. The results indicate that as entrepreneurial behaviors increased, subordinates' satisfaction with supervision increased. Whereas 62% of the subordinates of entrepreneurial managers reported high levels of satisfaction with their supervisors, 69% of subordinates of bureaucratic managers reported low levels of satisfaction with their supervisors. Further analysis indicated that eight of 11 of the “behaviors” survey items were able to discriminate high and low subordinate satisfaction. This demonstrated that the scale developed through this research is robust in the measurement of entrepreneurial behaviors of managers.The major contributions of this study were in the development and validation of a scale that can be used to gauge entrepreneurial behaviors, and the finding that corporate entrepreneurship, as gauged by these behaviors, was well received by subordinates even when entrepreneurial management was counter to its organization's preexisting culture.     

Action control,proxy control,and consumers' evaluations of the service exchange

This article adopts a consumer's point of view, and extends current literature that models the relationships between consumers' control perceptions, service providers' fair behaviors, and consumers' satisfaction with the exchange. Perceived control is disassembled into action and proxy control and their differential actions in the service exchange discussed. This article models, for the first time, the joint effects of perceived control and service provider behaviors on consumer satisfaction by explicitly connecting service‐provider fair behaviors to consumers' perceptions of control. The results from two repeated‐measures experiments provide support for the hypotheses. Specifically, a multivariate analysis of the data demonstrated main effects for the experimental manipulations on perceived control, perceived fairness, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. An interaction effect between perceived control and perceived fairness was also evident in one experiment. Future research and managerial implications are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Formation of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Students Employed in University Dining Services

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been associated with consequences such as favorable performance evaluations, improved organizational performance, and reduced actual employee turnover. The impact of managers and co-workers work behaviors on the formation of OCBs towards individuals (OCBI) and OCBs towards the organization (OCBO) in student employees was investigated in this study. Hierarchical regression results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between managers' and coworkers' exhibition of OCBI, and student employees' exhibition of OCBI, after accounting for several control variables. Path analysis results indicate that exhibition of certain transformational leadership behaviors by managers indirectly impact exhibition of OCBO by student employees. A weak, but significant, negative relationship was found between student employees' exhibition of OCB and intent to turnover. Managerial implications are discussed.     

An agentic perspective of resourcefulness: Self-reliant and joint resourcefulness behaviors within the entrepreneurship process

We integrate social cognitive theory, and its tenets of personal and collective agency, to develop an individual-level perspective on entrepreneurs' resourcefulness behaviors that illustrates how resourcefulness behaviors can be classified as ‘self-reliant behaviors’ or ‘joint resourcefulness behaviors’. Using this novel cognitive theoretical approach, we provide and test a framework that explains how dispositional, perceptual, and behavioral factors interact in the enactment of purposeful action with regards to entrepreneurs' resourceful behaviors. Consistent with our hypotheses, results from a quantitative study of entrepreneurs (N = 178), as well as a supplemental study involving qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs (N = 15), highlight that entrepreneurs higher in frugality tend to perceive higher levels of environmental hostility. This relationship, in turn, leads to higher amounts of self-reliant resourcefulness behaviors (i.e., customer-related and internal self-financing bootstrapping behaviors) but not joint resourcefulness behaviors. Multiple theoretical and practical contributions emerge from our findings as the extant literature does not yet account for human agency as a reason why some entrepreneurs may choose to engage in certain resourceful behaviors relative to other behaviors.     

High-involvement human resource practices,affective commitment,and organizational citizenship behaviors

Although understanding the concept of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in a service context is important, very few studies have investigated what motivates frontline service employees to exhibit such behaviors. This study examines how high-involvement human resource (HR) practices influence affective commitment, which contributes to citizenship behaviors in service settings from the employees' point of view. Based on previous studies, this study proposed a conceptual model and hypothesized that five constructs of HR practices (i.e. recognition, empowerment, competence development, fair rewards, and information sharing) facilitate the development of frontline employees' affective commitment. This kind of organizational commitment in turn contributes to OCB (i.e. loyalty, participation, and service delivery). Data were collected from 172 contact employees of Taiwanese restaurants. The result indicated that high-involvement HR practices play an important role in determining contact employees' affective commitment. Moreover, affective commitment was found to be an effective linkage between high-involvement HR practices and contact employees' citizenship behaviors.     

Consumers' Role Performance and Brand Identification: Evidence from a Survey and a Longitudinal Field Experiment

Why do some consumers evangelize brands and create value for them even without receiving any direct reward in return? How do their motivations influence their role behaviors and their identification with the company or brand? We draw on motivation theory and the in- and extra-role literature of leadership to propose a theoretical framework. We use this framework to analyze data from one cross-sectional survey conducted with members of two online brand communities and one longitudinal field experiment with consumers of one new online brand community. We first separate community members' motivations into three types of psychological needs (self-competency, self-belongingness, self-autonomy) that are fulfilled by membership in a brand community. We investigate how each of these needs influences consumers' in-role and extra-role behaviors, which in turn positively affect their brand identification and create value for the company. Our results show that self-competency motivates both in- and extra-role behaviors, self-belongingness only increases less involved in-role behaviors, and self-autonomy only affects more involved extra-role behaviors. Both role behaviors foster beneficial consumer brand identification. We discuss how these findings can inform marketers' brand community-building strategies.     

The Impact of Environmental,Firm, and Relational Factors on Entrepreneurs' Ethically Suspect Behaviors

Entrepreneurs' engagement in ethically suspect behaviors (ESBs) can have seriously negative business and social consequences. Yet what defines entrepreneurs' ESBs remains unclear. Further, little is known about what factors contribute to such behaviors. This study provides conceptual clarification of entrepreneurs' ESBs and examines environmental, firm, and individual factors in relation to them. Results, based on data from 158 Chinese entrepreneurs, indicate that dynamism, firm performance, and relational social capital are all negatively related to ESBs. Firm performance partially mediates the relationship between dynamism and ESBs, and albeit with marginal support, the relationship between entrepreneurs' relational social capital and their ESBs.     

Market Segmentation for Fast-Food Restaurants in an Era of Health Conciousness

Abstract

Recent societal changes toward heightened interest in health and nutrition indicate consumers' health- and nutrition-related attitudes and behaviors may be important for segmenting the market for fast-food restaurants (FFR's). This research conducted a recent survey of 387 consumers to investigate the extent to which these variables, as well as demographics, predict patronage of FFR's. Findings indicate that consumers who do not patronize FFR's have the strongest involvement with health-related issues, while frequent patrons have the weakest involvement. Thus, marketers could use a combination of general health- and nutrition-related attitudes and behaviors to supplement demographic information when plotting their marketing strategy.     

The impact of service robots in retail: Exploring the effect of novelty priming on consumer behavior

This study aims to bridge a gap in the extant research by examining consumer behavior that is unrelated to, but elicited by, service robots. The results of six studies showed that participants primed with robots (vs. humans) were more likely to engage in exploratory consumption behaviors. This effect was mediated through the elicitation of a sense of novelty, affected by the degree of service robots' intelligence and moderated by consumers' subjective knowledge. The study also examines different types of exploratory buying behaviors that have implications for marketers' and retailers’ use of service robots to promote exploratory consumption.     

Ethnic identity,socialization factors,and culture‐specific consumption behavior

This study is designed to discover the degree to which ethnic identity and socialization factors influence the culture‐specific consumption behaviors of Asian American young adults, in general as well as in specific situational settings. Findings indicated that perceived parental cultural identification tended to strengthen the ethnic identity, which in turn influenced Asian American young adults' culture‐specific consumption behaviors. However, although their perceived parental acculturation level had no effect on their ethnic identity, it directly weakened the subject group's culture‐specific consumption behaviors. The ethnic‐friendship orientation was found not only to influence ethnic identity but also to influence directly the group's culture‐specific consumption behavior. Further analysis revealed that a situational factor (i.e., the presence or absence of ethnic friends) influenced culture‐specific consumption behavior, regardless of the strength of ethnic identity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exploring the Calorie-Nutrition Interface

ABSTRACT

Using a sample of cola drinkers who are also cereal eaters, this paper focuses on the interplay of calorie consciousness and nutritional consciousness among consumers. The results of the study reveal that more calorie conscious consumers are also significantly more nutritionally conscious. Further analysis reveals that this finding is significant only among the occasional cereal eaters. The implications of these findings to the practicing marketer are discussed.     

Modeling inflation-induced adaptive behaviors

Predicting consumers' responses to inflationary pressures has been a dominant research area in psychology, economics, and marketing. The present study attempts to model consumers' inflation-induced adaptive behavior using demographic, shopping patterns, and attitudes as predictors. Also, the present study is not limited to purchase behaviors. Rather, inflation-induced adaptive behaviors are examined for the purchase, preparation, and consumption of necessity goods (food items) involving a relatively low expenditure per purchase but a relatively high annual expenditure.     

The mediating effect of satisfaction on consumers' switching intention

Most previous research on consumers' switching intention has focused on individual variables that have immediate effects on consumers' intentions or behaviors, rather than analyzing it as a complex phenomenon. This article provides evidence that some service provider behaviors precipitate relationship dissolution, whereas other behaviors create a predisposition to switch. This different effect is observed through the mediating effect of customer satisfaction. While poor service quality and low firm commitment undermine consumer satisfaction and have only an indirect effect on switching intentions, price unfairness and anger incidents have a strong effect on switching, both directly and indirectly through satisfaction. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.