Designing sales force satisfying selling positions: a conjoint measurement approach

To design selling positions that appeal to both new and incumbent salespersons, management needs to understand salespersons' preferences for job characteristics. The study reported here exemplifies an effort to operationalize salespersons' preferences for job and task characteristics that takes account of both career stage and gender. Findings indicate that salespeople in the sample prefer salary-based compensation and that female salespeople prefer sales jobs that are fixed in location.     

Strategizing in industrial networks

This paper provides an overview of the implications for strategizing offered by an industrial network perspective and a comparison of this view with strategic management thinking. We argue that it is crucial for a company to relate its activities to those of other firms in order to enhance its performance, and it is through the continuous combining and recombining of existing resources that new resource dimensions are identified and further developed within business relationships. From the standpoint of a single company, strategizing from an industrial network perspective implies that the heterogeneity of resources and interdependencies between activities across company boundaries, as well as the organized collaboration among the companies involved, must be considered simultaneously.     

The coexistence of transaction and relational marketing: Insights from the Chinese business context

Transaction and relational approaches to marketing have been promoted as alternative forms but recent evidence suggests that they may coexist. We explore this in the context of China. If firms operating in a highly relational society, such as China, exhibit transactional behavior, these two approaches must be compatible. We argue that Chinese values give rise to business practices consistent with both transactional and relational perspectives. These are summarized in six propositions for research. Theory building and managerial practice could benefit from thinking in terms of how elements from the two perspectives can be brought together rather than remain as alternatives.     

Determinants of economic and social satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships

The aim of this work is to examine the dimensions of satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships as well as identifying the antecedents of both the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. A literature review about satisfaction in marketing channels is followed by quantitative research into how this interchange process is perceived by food product distributors in their relationships with manufacturers. The results provide strong support for the impact of communication, trust and commitment on satisfaction, as well as the interrelationships among the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are extracted from these findings.     

Relationship equity and switching behavior in the adoption of new telecommunication services

This paper first defines and then presents a model of “relationship equity” for business markets. It points out that the potential benefits of managing relationship equity have been largely ignored and that a general model and stream of relevant research questions could be useful to marketing and relationship practitioners. The model developed considers the special case of key account management as antecedent, two different types of moderator variables, relationship equity as a perception by the buyer, and switching behavior via adoption of new telecommunication services as a result of this perception. The model is used as a basis for developing a number of working propositions.     

An investigation into the mediating role of cross-functional coordination on the linkage between organizational norms and SCM performance

Organizational norms as a set of embedded values and beliefs have long been recognized in literature to provide norms that bind individuals into collectivities. Drawing on resource dependence and relational marketing theories, the present study specifies five organizational norms: cooperative, cross-functional information sharing, intraorganizational knowledge sharing, participative culture and mutual trust for supporting cross-functional coordination in supply chain management (SCM). These organizational norms are examined in terms of the mediating role of cross-functional coordination for the relationship between organizational norms and supply chain performance. Analyses of data from a survey of high-tech firms in the U.K. substantiate that organizational norms impact on both supply chain responsiveness and firm performance through cross-functional coordination as a mediator. The implications of the positive effect of organizational norms on SCM performance are discussed for theory, practice and research.     

Value creation in the relationship life cycle: A quasi-longitudinal analysis

Among the growing literature on value creation in collaborative buyer-seller relationships, most researchers examine relationship value at a single point in time. In the present research, we explore whether different stages of the relationship life cycle moderate the relative importance of value-creating dimensions. To shed light on the dynamic nature of value in B2B relationships, we present the results of a survey among purchasing managers using a quasi-longitudinal research design. Our findings confirm the moderating role of the relationship life cycle in value creation. More precisely, our results indicate that a key supplier's potential for value creation in customer's operations increases in relative importance as relationships move through the life cycle. In turn, supplier's capabilities to create superior value at the level of the customer's sourcing process display a decreasing role over the life cycle of a business relationship. No significant link was found in the present study between value creation through a supplier's core offering and different stages of a buyer-seller relationship.     

Business partnering—a driving force for innovation

Win-Win situations are used and also created by companies which cooperate with each other, complement each other on a synergy basis and work together fairly and competently. Today, business partnering has therefore become a key qualification for companies. This should not depend alone on the commitment of individual persons.This article describes how Siemens has organized its company, services and products using partnering solutions and how it has installed this concept as an intrinsically dynamic process. Thanks to institutionalized partnering, B2B interfaces have been established to form a rational alliance, offering benefits to all involved, and can be used regardless of the size of the company. These offerings generate Win-Win situations themselves—and provide individual employees in large companies with a structural framework for a personal partnering initiative.     

National culture and R&D and marketing integration mechanisms in new product development: A cross-cultural study between Singapore and New Zealand

The integration of R&D and marketing in new product development (NPD) is an important contributor to NPD performance. Of the mechanisms developed to aid functional integration, many have been developed in western cultural environments and may not have applicability in other national cultural settings. Using a sample of NPD workgroup personnel in New Zealand (NZ), the western cultural environment, and Singapore, quantitative and qualitative data have been used to measure national culture and determine the applicability of different organization integration mechanisms. Results show key differences between the two samples, indicating a link between formalization, centralization, role flexibility and interfunctional climate mechanisms with the Hofstede dimensions of Power Distance, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance of national culture. Managerial implications are that national cultural values and settings of the respondents are important when determining best integration mechanisms.     

The contingent value of marketing strategy innovativeness for product development performance in Chinese new technology ventures

This study extends research on entrepreneurial behavior by investigating the relationship between the marketing strategy innovativeness (MSI) and new product performance in technology-based new ventures in China. Specifically, premised on contingent resource-based view we argue that MSI is a firm capability that must be bundled with external managerial relationships and be deployed in the appropriate environment to ensure its success. We found that the team's extra industry relationships and market dynamism enhanced the impact of MSI on new product performance. In contrast, top management team's intraindustry relationships, financial relationships, and technology dynamism hindered the impact of MSI on new product performance.