Celebrity endorsements,self-brand connection and relationship quality

The extant literature on celebrity endorsement effects largely focuses on the endorsement effects on consumer evaluations of the endorsed brand. The current study extends the literature by assessing the impact of endorser credibility on two consumer–brand relationship-oriented outcomes – brand relationship quality and consumer self-brand connections. Additionally, the self-brand connection is positioned as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on relationship quality. A conceptual model is developed and estimated on a sample of 535 Generation Y (youth) consumers from India. The hypotheses are supported and the model demonstrates acceptable fit to the data. Overall, the present study introduces a relationship-building perspective to the celebrity endorsement literature. The results suggest that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to provide meaningful self-definitional benefits to consumers as well as cultivate enhanced relationship quality with the endorsed brands, thus contributing novel insights into celebrity endorsement dynamics.     

Empirical models of manufacturer-retailer interaction: A review and agenda for future research

The nature of the interaction between manufacturers and retailers has received a great deal of empirical attention in the last 15 years. One major line of empirical research examines the balance of power between them and ranges from reduced form models quantifying aggregate profit and other related trends for manufacturers and retailers to structural models that test alternative forms of manufacturer-retailer pricing interaction. A second line of research addresses the sources of leverage for each party, e.g., trade promotions and their pass-through, customer information from loyalty programs, manufacturer advertising, product assortment in general, and private label assortment in particular. The purpose of this article is to synthesize what has been learnt about the nature of the interaction between manufacturers and retailers and the effectiveness of each party’s sources of leverage and to highlight gaps in our knowledge that future research should attempt to fill.     

Putting market-facing technology to work: Organizational drivers of CRM performance

A large proportion of firms that adopt customer relationship management (CRM) technology find it challenging to integrate CRM technology into their core marketing processes and utilize CRM strategically to appreciably improve their performance. The authors conceptualize a model to understand the drivers of superior CRM performance after CRM technology has been adopted by a firm and examine strategic utilization of CRM technology as driven by user acceptance and proficiency in the form of employee buy-in and expertise. Top management championship practices, employee information technology (IT) skills, and CRM knowledge are identified and examined as key building blocks toward strategic utilization. The empirical test of the conceptual model is based on a mail survey of North American firms that have adopted information technology-based CRM systems. The results, based on random effects model, show that strategic utilization of CRM technology leads to higher performance when there is an emphasis on using it to manage business-to-business rather than business-to-consumer relationships, user expertise (but not buy-in) impacts CRM performance through strategic utilization, and top management championship practices, CRM knowledge, and employee IT skills impact strategic utilization through buy-in and expertise.     

Why Querétaro? The Development of an Aeronautical Manufacturing Cluster in Central Mexico

In recent years, an aeronautical manufacturing cluster has emerged in Querétaro state, Mexico. In 2013, the aeronautical industry in Querétaro state represented 10% of the state's gross product and employed more than 5,000 people, and further private investments of over US$160 million related to the aeronautical industry were expected (Secretaría de Desarrollo Sustentable, 2014). This article investigates the causes for the development of such a cluster, drawing upon Brenner and Mühlig's (2013) study of 159 industrial clusters, and identifies both the key factors in the development of the cluster and what makes Querétaro attractive to foreign direct investment. The findings indicate areas for further research for potential cluster development in other regions of Mexico. The article concludes with the challenge facing the aeronautical cluster in Querétaro if it is to create a sustainable competitive advantage and compete on a global scale. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Discrete and Continuous Representations of Unobserved Heterogeneity in Choice Modeling

We attempt to provide insights into how heterogeneity has been and can be addressed in choice modeling. In doing so, we deal with three topics: Models of heterogeneity, Methods of estimation and Substantive issues. In describing models we focus on discrete versus continuous representations of heterogeneity. With respect to estimation we contrast Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and (simulated) likelihood methods. The substantive issues discussed deal with empirical tests of heterogeneity assumptions, the formation of empirical generalisations, the confounding of heterogeneity with state dependence and consideration sets, and normative segmentation.     

Information distortion and competitive remedies in government transfer programs: The case of ethanol

This paper reconsiders the analogy between competitive markets and the political process that is central to much of the literature on the efficiency of government transfers. The key problem is that property rights in politics are much less well defined than they are in competitive markets. As the paper outlines, obtaining accurate information about the benefits and costs of transfers is likely to be much more difficult than envisioned in the literature. Investigators, as well as general voters, often must rely on the government and competing parties for provision of information about underlying program parameters and functional relationships. We argue that politicians and the affected interest groups have incentives to limit and distort the information that is released to voters and that political competition is unlikely to be an effective counter. In developing the argument, a theoretical framework is provided and applied in a case study of the ethanol transfer. The documented efforts to disguise the actual costs and benefits of the program are important for gaining a broader understanding of the functioning and costs of government transfers in the economy.     

Information,sophistication, and foreign versus domestic investors’ performance

Using an intraday transaction dataset with trader identity, we study foreign and domestic investors’ trading activities and investment performance ahead of open-ending events of Taiwanese closed-end funds. Simply buying the funds at a discount and holding until open-ending generates large abnormal returns. All information required to execute this strategy is made public, so the events set up natural experiments to examine how investors trade, holding constant access to information. Foreign investors are net buyers ahead of the open-endings, more than doubling their positions and earning large abnormal returns. Domestic investors are net sellers while the discounts are still large, and forego large abnormal returns. The results suggest that investor sophistication in interpreting the same information is potentially an important determinant of investment performance differences across foreign and domestic investors.