Marketing/Selling Professional Services

No abstract available for this article.     

Differentiation Via Technology: Strategic Positioning of Services Following the Introduction of Disruptive Technology

Introducing a “disruptive” technology into an existing service market provides new opportunities for firms and customers, often altering the nature of the market. Consequently, new technology often destabilizes market equilibrium, forcing firms to consider the role new technology will play in determining the new market structure. In this paper, we focus on understanding how significant new technology forces firms to evaluate and renegotiate their market positions in a service industry newly infused with technology (i.e., brokerage market). Specifically, we examine how firms integrate technology into the service process to create new forms of interaction. We used content analysis and a combination of structuralist methods including multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), clustering methods, and property-fitting regression techniques (ProFit) to examine how technology changes the service process, and how firms leverage these changes for positioning. Our research demonstrates a strategic approach to positioning that suggests (1) introducing significant technology opens new positioning avenues by providing new service interactions, (2) technology must be leveraged via links to customer value sets, and (3) firms that leverage technology through customer values outperform their competitors.     

Affective States of the Consumer and Satisfaction with Services in the Airline Industry

Abstract

While its importance in marketing is never questioned, customer satisfaction has rightly been described as “a complex and elusive phenomenon.” The search continues for factors/variables that determine its presence and magnitude. This paper examines the affective aspect of customer satisfaction in the globally important, but highly competitive airline industry. Two major forms of affective state of the consumer are examined, namely: (i) mood, and (ii) quality of life. Findings show that both tend to have significant influence on the level of satisfaction with services in the airline industry. However, some elementary services tend to be more influenced than others by these affective states of the consumer. Implications, and managerial applications of the findings for augmenting customer satisfaction in the airline industry are discussed.     

The Congruence of Successful International Competitors:

This paper examines the marketing strategies and organization of a matched triad of American, British and Japanese companies competing in the UK market. The sample includes leading companies in industries identified as being under threat by the EC. The relative success of business was measured and strategies identified using multiple depth interviews with senior managers within the businesses. The strategies of successful companies were found to be similar and not dependent on their country of origin or industrial sector. The most successful companies had a balance of marketing, innovation, planning and entrepeneurial orientation. More of these successful firms were Japanese than American, and very few were British.     

An Investigation of Trust,Satisfaction, and Commitment on Repurchase Intentions in Professional Services

Abstract

The predictive ability of trust, satisfaction, and commitment regarding a customer's intent to retain professional service providers is explored. Trust, in business relationships, is typically perceived as a consequent of satisfaction and experience. However, professional service customers may be unable to commence relationships without trusting their providers; thus, the stance that trust leads to commitment may not hold. Given the difficulty that professional service customers have regarding their ability to assess their providers' trustworthiness, customers may take trust for granted once the relationship begins. Regression analyses suggest that professional service customers utilize satisfaction and commitment, rather than trust, to determine repurchase intentions.     

Customer Relationship Management of the Information Education Services Industry in Taiwan: Attributes,Benefits and Relationship

Measuring the key attributes of the services provided is necessary, but it is not sufficient for the improvement of customer satisfaction. This study develops and empirically tests a model examining the relations among attributes, benefits, customer satisfaction, trust, commitment, and customer behavioural loyalty, as relationship duration and product involvement are used as controllable variables in a marketing system. Based on samples collected from PC School, one of the most renowned information education services in Taiwan, the results show that relationship duration does have a positive influence on customer behavioural loyalty, and product involvement has positive effects on customer satisfaction. The findings also suggest that customers purchase information education services with specific benefits, all of which come with corresponding attributes, and hence result in dissimilar levels of customer satisfaction and homologous behavioural sequences.     

服务型跨国公司全球模块化与服务业国际转移及其对中国的启示

日趋激烈的全球竞争迫使服务型跨国公司必须更加高效地整合全球资源,增强全球竞争力和创新能力。全球模块化为服务型跨国公司实现这一目标提供了重要路径,也在客观上有力地推动了服务业国际转移。本文首先进行了相关理论综述;然后分析了服务型跨国公司实施全球模块化的可行性;接着阐释服务型跨国公司全球模块化是如何发展及其如何推动服务业国际转移,并选取国际快递业作为新样本行业进行理论检验;最后,对中国服务企业应该如何运用全球模块化来更好地承接服务业国际转移或整合全球战略性服务资源提出相关政策建议。     

三四级市场连锁超市的促销策略

连锁超市的迅速发展给人们的生活带来很多方便,而在三四级市场中连锁超市的经营状态和经营业绩却不尽理想,超市彼此之间的竞争也日益激烈,为扩大销售额,吸引更多的消费者购物,连锁超市采用适当的促销策略尤其重要。本文针对连锁超市在经营中,从促销理念、促销产品、促销技巧等方面所存在的问题进行分析思考,提出了相应的对策,为连锁超市在促销经营中达到预期目的而提供参考。     

Product,Environmental, and Service Attributes That Influence Consumer Attitudes and Purchases at Wineries

Abstract

Direct sales of wine and winery souvenirs to winery visitors is important in a number of regions throughout the United States and around the world. The attributes that influence winery visitors' beliefs can have a significant impact upon wine purchases, repeat visits, positive word-of-mouth comments, and upon future purchases at restaurants and other retail outlets. A study of winery visitors found four underlying factors from a list of 17 attributes. Regression results indicated that several wine, environment, and service attributes have a significant impact upon consumer attitudes and purchases. Product and purchase involvement were also found to impact purchase behavior.     

Ooh,that's sour: An investigation of the role of sour taste and color saturation in consumer temptation avoidance

This paper draws on the theory of embodied cognition to argue that sensory imagery and consumer recall of past experiences of sour tastes inspire sour taste perceptions that trigger facial muscle activation, which in turn leads to temptation avoidance. Across four experiments, we show that physical action need not be performed to elicit temptation avoidance. Moreover, our findings show that the effects of visual gustatory imagery are more pronounced when presented against a visual red background low on color saturation. Interestingly, they are not significant in the presence of a high color saturation background. We also discuss the implications of these findings for sensory marketing, alternative consumer strategies to avoid temptation, and visual brand management in the consumer experience economy.     

试论市场定位、产品定位和竞争定位之间的关系

定位市场营销理论中的一个重要概念,分析定位的本来含义,研究市场定位?产品定位和竞争定位三者的逻辑关系,具有重要的学术价值。市场定位是一种服务于市场营销总体战略而实施的定位,因而它具有宏观及战略层次的属性;产品定位是针对产品开展的,指明企业用什么样的产品来满足目标消费者需求。竞争定位方式的确定及表达更为直接地瞄准竞争对手。     

Employee Perceptions of Award and Incentive Programs

Abstract

Employee award and incentive programs have become standard practice in the business world and in many nonprofit organizations. A study was conducted to measure employee beliefs about meeting management's objectives and employee satisfaction with award/incentive programs. It was found that employee motivation-in terms of liking awards, willingness to encourage others, and willingness to work hard for awards-was the most important factor contributing to employee satisfaction with the programs and employee perception that management's objectives were satisfied by these programs.     

Interactive effects of marketing strategy formulation and implementation upon firm performance

Abstract

This study employed an integrative approach to investigate the influence of external business environment, strategy formulation, viability of marketing strategy, and strategy implementation upon firm performance. The findings show that while technological change and market competition negatively influence the credibility of the strategy, market attractiveness has a positive influence upon the viability of strategy employed. Moreover, market competition has a positive influence upon the involvement of marketing managers in terms of strategy making and that the presence of an innovative culture is strongly required in executing a strategic marketing plan. In addition, the study shows that the involvement of marketing managers in strategy making, which is strongly supported by an innovative culture, generates their commitment to the strategy, which positively influences strategy viability.     

Services Grids in Industry – On-Demand Provisioning and Allocation of Grid-Based Business Services

Over the last few years Grid computing has attracted considerable attention from the industry, because it offers opportunities for new on-demand business services for enterprises. In this article, we depict the current trend of enterprises to source Grid services offered by third-party utility providers on a use-on-demand, pay-per-use basis, thus leading to faster IT response to changing business needs. We outline the emerging expansion of Grid computing in industry and discuss the significant challenges still needing to be solved to further promote the adoption of Grid technology in the business domain. This article is also available in German in print and via : Vykoukal J, Wolf M, Beck R (2008) Service-Grids in der Industrie – On-Demand-Bereitstellung und Nutzung von Grid-basierten Services in Unternehmen. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: . Accepted after two revisions by Prof. Dr. Buhl.     

Relationship Strategy,Effectiveness, and Responsiveness in Services Marketing

Abstract

Relationship marketing has been recognized as a new paradigm in marketing. Although the practice of relationship marketing has expanded rapidly across the globe, most of the published researches in this area of study are based on data collected from North America or Europe. This research studies the relationship between relationship strategy, relationship effectiveness, and responsiveness to customer needs using data collected through the administration of the One-to-One Gap Tool (Peppers, Rogers, and Dorf 1999) in the Indian service sector. The results of statistical analysis using LISREL provide strong support for the positive relationship between relationship effectiveness and responsiveness to customer needs. The Organizational Activity of relationship strategy was also found to possess relationships consistent with theory. However, findings regarding the Informational Activity and the Operational Activity are less conclusive. Managerial implications and directions for future research in relationship marketing are discussed.     

商业银行金融产品营销策略的探讨

金融营销的竞争日益激烈,金融产品作为一个商业银行竞争的支点,它的营销策略也日益受到银行业的重视。金融产品的特点、生命周期、竞争环境、金融产品的市场定位、金融产品的营销队伍的建设均是制定商业银行产品营销策略的重要环节。     

Advances in strategic marketing and the advancement of the marketing discipline: the promise of theory

ABSTRACT

Hunt (2018, Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: From promise, to neglect, to prominence, to fragment, (to promise?). Journal of Marketing Management, 34, 16–51. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2017.1326973) provides a synthesis and critical review of over 100 years of marketing literature organised into four eras. In his prognosis of the outlook for Era V, Hunt notes that there are reasons to be optimistic about the prospects for both the marketing discipline, broadly, and the field of strategic marketing, specifically. However, he also draws attention to the concerns voiced by a number of marketing scholars regarding the current state of the field and the future outlook for the field. Hunt argues that the prospects for the marketing discipline and the field of strategic marketing are closely intertwined, and that the health of the latter contributes significantly to that of the former. Against this backdrop, this commentary focuses on the promise of theory for advances in strategic marketing and the advancement of the marketing discipline.     

外贸企业开展绿色营销的必要性及策略分析

随着绿色消费观念的深入人心和国际贸易中"绿色壁垒"的高筑,我国企业日益认识到改变传统营销方式、实施以可持续发展为特征的绿色营销的紧迫性。由于诸多因素的制约,我国企业开展绿色营销仍存在阻碍。为提高企业竞争力,企业应尽快建立绿色营销体系等应对策略。     

服务业外国直接投资与天津市经济增长关系的实证分析

服务业外国直接投资(FDI)是当前跨国投资的主体,随着国内服务业市场的逐步开放,服务业外国直接投资对区域经济增长的作用不可低估。1990-2006年的数据表明,天津市服务业引进的外国直接投资发展迅速,并对天津市的经济增长起到了促进作用,发挥显著作用的路径为通过增加就业、引进软技术促进经济增长,而注入资金、优化产业结构、增加贸易等其他路径的作用并不显著。     

日本服务业与制造业FDI状况及其影响因素的实证比较

对外直接投资转向服务业是世界对外直接投资发展的新趋势。目前服务业对外直接投资在规模和增长速度上均超过了制造业。虽然我国目前接受的外商直接投资以制造业为主,但是世界市场对外直接投资的趋势和规律依然值得关注。本文以服务业、制造业对外直接投资的主要代表国家—日本为研究对象,分析了其服务业与制造业对外直接投资在投资规模、区位和产业分布上的异同点。比较其影响因素从而探索服务业在国际投资中独特的规律,并为我国吸引日本直接投资提供建议。