Customer benefits and value creation in streaming services marketing: a managerial cognitive capability approach

Customer value analysis and management is a key theoretical and empirical issue in marketing management and strategic management. However, little is known about the influence of customer benefit on customer value from the microfoundations of the dynamic capabilities perspective. Currently, a boom in online video and music streaming services is changing the entertainment industry structure. Thus, marketing managers in the fast‐growing streaming services industry should have dynamic managerial capabilities to anticipate other service elements that customers consider valuable. Based on managerial cognitive dynamic capabilities, this research explored the influences of customer‐perceived functional benefit, experiential benefit, financial benefit, and psychosocial benefit on perceived instrumental and terminal values. General linear model (GLM) and fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were conducted to gain a more nuanced understanding of how different customers’ perceived benefits have different impacts on perceived value. The findings illuminate complex benefit configurations that drive perceived instrumental and terminal values and contribute to the development of value creation and its drivers. The proposed framework can help managers develop managerial cognitive dynamic capabilities by increasing their understanding of the impact of different perceived benefits on value creation for different types of customers.     

Relationship Value in Thai Business-to-Business Marketing

This study focuses on value in the business-to-business relationship among buyers and sellers. Relationship value has long been one of the key research areas in marketing for business to business. By examining from the perspective of the buyers, this research identifies how business buyers can use marketing benefits, product benefits, technical benefits, logistics benefits, financial benefits, risk-reduction benefits, information benefits, and strategic benefits to predict buyer–seller relationship. The study confirms significant relationships among marketing benefits, product benefits, and value in retailer–supplier relationship. The analysis from this study supports that benefit in a business-to-business relationship can be created if suppliers work on mutual benefits with customers. The results also confirm that Thai business customers will look for business partners who can provide risk reduction and marketing benefits for their business.     

What type of cooperation with suppliers and customers leads to superior performance?

This research evaluates cooperation with key suppliers and customers, correlating cooperation to financial performance. Four cooperative behaviors represent cooperation as a multidimensional concept and the research explores the effect of each of these different dimensions of cooperation on performance. Results show that not all cooperative behaviors have similar and positive impacts on performance. Flexibility has no significant effect while shared problem solving has a negative effect. The other two cooperative behaviors, information exchange and restraint in the use of power, have positive impacts on performance. Results also indicate that cooperation with customers affects mostly firm growth while cooperation with suppliers affects firm profitability. Based on a survey of 124 packaging manufacturers, the analysis uses CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) to validate the measurement of constructs and multiple regressions to analyze the relationships between the cooperative behaviors and financial performance.     

The Role of Retail Equity,Value and Relational Benefits in Building B2B Relationships in Retailing

Abstract

The present paper aims to examine if variables widely studied in B2C contribute to building strong relationships in B2B markets. Moreover, it analyzes the existence of differences across retailers related to percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Through a personal survey to retail store managers regarding their relationships with their main suppliers, a structural equation model is estimated through PLS to test the hypothesized relations between retail equity, value, relational benefits, trust, and commitment. A multi-group analysis is performed to test the moderating role of the percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Three types of relational benefits identified have unequal influence on relationship value. In particular, special treatment benefits and social benefits, together with retail equity, emerge as the main drivers of value in the relationship between retailers and their main suppliers. The percentage of purchases from the main supplier plays a moderating role in some of these relations. This research provides evidence in the sense that, in the relations held by retailers with their main suppliers, retail equity contributes to relationship value creation. Relational benefits are relevant in building B2B relations since special treatment and social benefits have a positive influence on value that is positively related to trust and commitment. To build strong relations with their customers, suppliers of retailers should mainly concentrate their efforts on building brand equity and providing evidence of the existence of special treatment benefits beyond the service delivered, in view of its ultimate influence on customer trust and commitment.     

Customer Participation and Project Performance: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing in the Chinese Telecommunication Service Industry

Purpose: Extant literature has devoted more attention to customer value co-creation and knowledge sharing, not only in business-to-customer (B2C) markets, but also in business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study explores and examines the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing in the context of B2B markets by applying the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework.

Methodology/Approach: This empirical study involves two structured surveys of project managers from both suppliers (n = 213) and customers (n = 312), which were conducted in the context of the Chinese telecommunication service industry. The conceptual model of this study was subsequently tested by developing Partial Least Squares (PLS) based structural equation models.

Findings: It was found that customer knowledge sharing is facilitated by four MOA factors: customer orientation, customer perceived benefits, customer socialization, and customer technological capability. It was determined that knowledge sharing has a direct and significant effect on project performance. Furthermore, the study revealed that such relationships vary across suppliers and customers.

Research Implications: This study extends the existing research stream of interfirm knowledge sharing by examining the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing from dual perspectives of customers and suppliers, and sheds light on the benefits of customer knowledge sharing. The dyadic perspective embodied in this design facilitates our understanding and management of knowledge sharing between organizations.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This article provides an important contribution to the existing literature of customer knowledge sharing by revealing how to effectively facilitate interorganizational knowledge sharing, particularly knowledge from customers to suppliers, and discovers conditions under which customers are more likely to exchange information, and share knowledge with their suppliers from the dyadic perspective.     

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

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

THE SUCCESSFUL CROSS‐DOCK BASED SUPPLY CHAIN

A supply chain using the cross‐dock approach can speed goods from upstream suppliers to downstream customers quickly and cost‐effectively, with benefits to the entire chain, if the appropriate type of cross‐dock is chosen and then designed, staffed and managed for effective performance. Unlike a warehouse, which offers storage, a cross‐dock is a high performance rapid transit point that does not provide storage. Although cross‐docks have been studied with some thoroughness, what has not been seen clearly is that a cross‐dock does not operate in isolation and therefore can't be optimized independently from the upstream and downstream processes. To be successful, cross‐dock optimization makes demands for high performance on all members of the supply chain in terms of speed, effective planning, high reliability, near error‐proof processes and a high degree of transparency, visibility and information‐sharing; accordingly, the article refers to this integrative perspective as a “cross‐dock based supply chain.” To make clear this interdependency between the cross‐dock and the chain based on it, a new definition that classifies types of cross‐dock based supply chains is offered. To assist scholars analyzing and industry management choosing a cross‐dock approach, cross‐dock based supply chains are classified as falling into three different types. Lastly, based on field work in industry and on literature review, nine critical success factors for cross‐dock based supply chain operations are offered.     

Supply Chain Citizenship: Investigating the Antecedents of Customer Interorganizational Citizenship Behaviors

Research has consistently established the strategic importance of supply chain collaboration. As a result, interfirm behavioral dynamics and relationships have emerged as key topics for both the academic and practitioner communities. This paper explores an interpersonal exchange tactic that is inherent to many collaborative initiatives—interorganizational citizenship behaviors (ICBs). The study specifically investigates why retail customers in business‐to‐business exchange relationships would exhibit ICBs, and explores how they assess and respond to the ICBs of suppliers. Findings of the study suggest that customers generally interpret and value the various types of ICBs differently, resulting in differential effects regarding the supply chain performance and relational implications of the behavior. These results not only inform managerial practice but also provide future research opportunities in the area of ICBs and the broader realm of interpersonal supply chain dynamics.     

Holding up the mirror: The impact of strategic procurement practices on account management

Procurement has grown up. It is now a strategic business function that increasingly recognizes the importance of strategic supplier relationships, a reflection of key account management. It is time to assess the impact of this shift on the profession and practice of account management. This paper examines customer adoption of strategic procurement and then discusses the implications this has for account managers at the suppliers serving these customers. New techniques are emerging in these special relationships, including the use of psychological contracts and co-measurement and monitoring. Perceived fairness will also have a major impact on the customer's view of their suppliers. Account managers must recognize these changes or fall victim to supplier delusion: the belief that they are performing better than they really are.     

Social Sustainability in Selecting Emerging Economy Suppliers

Despite the growing public awareness of social sustainability issues, little is known about what drives firms to emphasize social criteria in their supplier management practices and what the precise benefits of such efforts are. This is especially true for relationships with international suppliers from the world’s emerging economies in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Building on stakeholder theory, we address the issue by examining how pressures from customers, the government, and employees as primary constituencies of the firm determine the extent to which firms consider social aspects in the selection of emerging economy suppliers. Further, we analyze how such socially sustainable supplier selection relates to the capabilities of the firm’s suppliers, its market reputation, and the learning in its supply management organization. We test the developed research framework empirically using data from 244 U.S. and German corporations. Our findings, consistent with our hypothesized model, suggest that middle-level supply managers as internal stakeholders play a major driving role for firms’ socially sustainable supplier selection, and that strong positive links exist between that selection and the investigated outcomes.     

Restaurant Managers’ Adoption of Sustainable Practices: An Application of Institutional Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior

The restaurant industry uses vast amounts of resources, but only a paucity of research discusses sustainability issues from restaurant management point of views. By applying both institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, this study addresses this gap by asking casual restaurant managers what motivates them to adopt and implement sustainable practices and by examining managers’ behaviors when facing environmental pressures. The study revealed restaurant managers were most influenced by pressures from their suppliers, customers and to a lesser extent from their employees and by expectations of society at large. Future research should investigate a nationwide sample of restaurant managers.     

The Future of Managing Customers as Assets

SUMMARY

Most companies do a very poor job of determining the economic value of their customers. There are three primary reasons that this has been the case: (1) inadequacy of technology, (2) managements' internal focus on products (as opposed to customers), and (3) inadequacy of accounting systems. Each of these areas, however, has undergone rapid transformation in terms of their sophistication and managerial usefulness. As a result, it is manifest destiny that asset valuation and management will evolve to the evaluation of a company's most fundamental asset, its customers (i.e., customer lifetime value). Most managers have come to accept this inevitability. What managers fail to realize is just how radically an understanding of customer lifetime value will transform the business landscape. It will dramatically impact the breadth and type of data collected; the way managers view and segment customers; the types of experiences firms offer customers; the metrics executives provide to the financial markets; and the way companies structure and staff their organizations.     

THE BENEFITS OF USING E‐BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY: THE SUPPLIER PERSPECTIVE

The use of e‐business technologies between supply chain organizations has primarily been examined from the viewpoint of buying firms or retailers, with little attention given to the benefits accrued to suppliers. Further, previous studies have been limited to either financial or marketing performance measures, or a narrow range of operational measures. This study builds on research in this area by testing a model of the relationship between supplier use of e‐business technologies in communication with their primary buyer, degree of buyer‐supplier coordination, and a complete set of benefits that include strategic and operational performance measures. Using data from 241 first‐tier OEM suppliers in the computer industry, the findings show that supplier use of e‐business technologies positively impacts organizational benefits both directly and indirectly by promoting buyer‐supplier coordination.     

Purchasing Higher-Value,Higher-Price Offerings in Business Markets

Purpose: A conceptual framework is proposed and tested to better understand customers' purchase of higher-value, higher-price offerings in business markets. Ambiguity about superior value and consequences of obtaining superior value are the constructs in this framework. Ambiguity about superior value is meant to capture the concern and doubt that managers at customer firms have about whether their business will actually realize the cost savings or ability to earn incremental revenue and profits that suppliers claim for their offerings. Consequences of obtaining superior value refers to the outcomes that a customer manager anticipates or experiences in making a purchase decision for higher-value, higher-price offerings.

Methodology: Two operationalizations of each construct are studied in a pair of experiments with purchasing managers and plant maintenance managers.

Findings: Value evidence and incentive to change each receive significant support as mechanisms to reduce ambiguity about superior value. Notably, reference customers and pilot programs appear to be equally effective as value evidence in reducing ambiguity about superior value. In addition, the results provide strong empirical support that incentive to change operates as a threshold phenomenon, as predicted from social judgment theory. While no significant differences in purchase preferences are found for area of responsibility (purchasing versus plant maintenance managers), significant support is found for performance review and reward system as a manipulation of consequences of obtaining superior value.

Contribution: The conceptual framework and empirical results significantly contribute to our understanding of how suppliers in business markets can use monetary as well as nonmonetary means to persuade customers to purchase higher-value, yet higher-price offerings.     

The friend or foe fallacy: Why your best customers may not need your friendship

Organizational transactions are handled along a continuum of the firm’s customer relationships, ranging from relational and friendly to more adversarial and us-versus-them in demeanor. For top customers, the approach is almost always close and relational. In this article, we question this view and suggest that it is beneficial to condition the firm’s relationship development efforts on an understanding of the true value to be gained from partnering and increased closeness. We provide a framework with which managers can diagnose their current portfolio of relationships with key customers or suppliers and offer suggestions for action. We provide an empirical illustration of the typical distribution of responses among five regions of the framework and discuss its implications.     

Cross-reward effects in a coalition loyalty program: The impact of a point currency devaluation

While single-brand reward programs encourage customers to remain loyal to that one brand, coalition programs encourage customers to be “promiscuous” by offering points redeemable across partner stores. Despite the benefits of this “open relationship” with customers, store managers face uncertainty as to how rewards offered by partners influence transactions at their own stores. We use a model of multi-store purchase incidence and spend to show how the value of points shared among partner stores can explain patterns in customer-level purchases across them. We also allow reward spillovers to be moderated by three measures of store affinity that characterize a coalition’s portfolio: the relative popularity, geographic distance, and overlap in product categories between each pair of stores.For the coalition studied, popularity affinity was the main determinant of the valence of cross-reward effects, both before and after the devaluation. In contrast, category and geographic affinity had a smaller and more heterogenous impact. Through the use of an event where the loyalty program uniformly devalued the entire coalition’s value of reward points, we show that cross-reward effects changed (lessened), leading to larger financial losses for the most popular stores. While we do not observe changes to the composition of the coalition’s portfolio, our results also suggest that the value of a shared reward currency may be driven by the inclusion of smaller partners.     

The managerial issues associated with global account management

The increase in cooperative global arrangements between suppliers and customers has grown precipitously in the last five years. These global account management (GAM) strategies frequently are brought about due to the initiative of the global customer, requiring the customer's supplier to manage their total global needs. In other cases, suppliers perceive GAM as a means to develop long‐term relationships with key global customers and at the same time hinder competitive inroads. The managerial considerations in implementing and managing GAM teams are the focus of this article. A step‐by‐step process for management to follow when implementing a GAM program is also discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Impact of component supplier branding on profitability

In recent years, many business-to-business (B2B) component supplier (CS) firms have added branding to their marketing toolbox. By extending the logic of ingredient branding to B2B components, they aim to create “pull” from B2B end customers by building a strong CS brand image among their customers' customers. In contrast with the established “push” approach of building strong relationships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it is unclear whether and under which conditions CS branding is a worthy strategy. On the one hand, anecdotal evidence suggests that suppliers can leverage strong CS brand image in negotiations with increasingly powerful OEMs to enhance their financial performance. On the other hand, many B2B managers believe that branding does not work in their industry context and erodes profitability. We build a data set consisting of survey measures and archival data across a broad set of industries. Our results indicate that the financial outcomes of CS branding largely depend on the characteristics of the CS and OEM industries. Unlike dyadic OEM–CS relationships, which enhance profitability invariably across industry contexts, CS branding is effective only in well-defined situations. CS branding initiatives can enhance return in CS industries with substantial levels of product differentiation and technology intensity. However, unfavorable results may arise in industry contexts in which OEM–end customer relationships or OEM brands are important.     

Cause mapping of simple and complex marketing strategies

Business-to-business relationships between original equipment manufacturing (OEM) suppliers and customers (brand name buyers) are an often studied issue; however, theoretical and empirical studies seldom focus solely on the suppliers' perspective. This paper examines OEM suppliers' perspectives and reports on the phenomenon of some suppliers choosing single customers while others focus on multiple customers to achieve the adaptive selling as their profit making that cause the parsimonious and complex customer strategies through the empirical studies. The study also uses mental models to analyze two specific cases of OEM suppliers within Taiwan's shoe industry in relation to what kinds of environmental changes that successful managers apply to their parsimonious and complex customer strategies. Mental models are used to map the evolution of these two OEM suppliers' customer strategies, along with their culture, competitive advantages, cooperation relationships, and environment. The study explores these five core propositions to show suppliers to employ different approach to customer strategies, and map the evolution of strategic development of Taiwan shoes companies from the 1970s through to the present day.     

Enhancing value creation of device vendors in the medical service industry: a relationship perspective

Around the world, hospitals receiving government funding and insurance payments are under increasing pressure to cut costs. Based on the literature in relationship value and transaction cost economics, long-term relationships between suppliers and customers can be beneficial to cost reduction and value creation. This study explores the value of long-term relationships between medical device vendors and hospitals from the hospital perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted employing a grounded theory approach. The results show that in addition to product benefits/costs and supportive services, vendor reputation and sales personnel specificity are most influential towards the value of their long-term relationships.