Guanxi,Communication, Power,and Conflict in Industrial Buyer-Seller Relationships: Mitigations Against the Cultural Background of Harmony in China

Purpose: This research aims to investigate how guanxi influences conflict occurrence and conflict-related behavior in transactions of equipment with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) against the cultural background of harmony in China. The influence of guanxi on conflict-avoidance behaviors is discussed, and a model is proposed depicting the relationship between guanxi, the selection of communication modality, the exercise of power, and manifest conflict.

Methodology/Approach: Data was collected from persons selling equipment in the oil industry. The partial least squares method is applied to analyze the collected data.

Findings: Guanxi at the individual level positively influences the use of informal communication and the exercise of non-coercive power and negatively influences the use of formal communication and the exercise of coercive power at the organizational level. The use of informal communication is inversely related to the intensity of conflict, whereas the use of formal communication and the exercise of coercive power are positively related to the intensity of conflict. The combination of these effects is that the guanxi between representatives of business partners is negatively related to manifest conflict at the organizational level.

Contribution: This empirical research is among the earliest studies attempting to examine how guanxi influences interorganizational conflict occurrence and conflict-related behavior in industrial buyer-seller relationships in China, and it reveals a significant relationship between guanxi and the selection of communication modality, the exercise of power, and the occurrence of conflict in a guanxi-intensive market in China.

Practical Implications: First, our findings will help members of the seller's management team, especially foreign members, to better understand the behavior of their Chinese employees. Secondly, our findings should help sellers improve the effectiveness of their conflict management to increase good word-of-mouth and maximize reorders. Thirdly, our findings should help the purchasing managers of SOEs to better understand how to manage conflict to lower the project risk. Lastly, firms doing business with SOEs should take both cultural and political factors into account in their business activities.     

Conceptualization and Integration of Marketing Intelligence: The Case of an Industrial Manufacturer

Purpose: The primary goal of this article was to conceptualize a systematic marketing intelligence process for industrial manufacturers because, up until now, such concepts have only been focused on consumer goods settings. Hence, this article investigates how marketing intelligence activities are developed and managed effectively in industrial markets.

Methodology/approach: The authors conducted a case study of Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen, a German based manufacturer of regulation technology for power transformers.

Findings: We found that a systematic marketing intelligence process should be based on the resource- and market-based view of strategy as well as on the market orientation construct. When implementing marketing intelligence, the integration of the sales force within the whole process is the crucial lever for an industrial company. The formalization of the process is necessary to ensure its continuity and acceptance; however, the varying intensity allows the necessary flexibility of the process.

Research implications: The constraints of the decisive process steps of marketing intelligence have to be further enhanced for industrial markets. It is important to find out how the integration of the sales force can best be designed to incorporate reward systems and motivation structures, and how to establish a corporate marketing-minded culture throughout the organization.

Practical implications: The important steps for a well implemented marketing intelligence process are a preparation phase, followed by the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information. This article highlights the success factors for each process step. Above all, managerial and organizational commitment is necessary for the implementation of the whole process.

Originality/value/contribution: By focusing on the industrial manufacturing business, this study provides deep insights into a neglected area of research. Light needs to be shed on marketing intelligence in industrial markets, where the lack of traditional market research has to be compensated.     

Promotion and Prevention Contracts in Industry Level Firm to Firm Dyad

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This article aims to introduce and distinguish two features of contract design – prevention and promotion contracts – and compares their effects on opportunism within the distributor–supplier relationship. It also examines the moderating role of ex post contract enforcement strategies.     

Operationalizing Trust,Reliance, and Dependence in Business Relationships: Responding to the Ongoing Naming and Cross-Level Problems

Purpose: This article is to test the proposition that the 3 conceptually related constructs of trust, reliance, and dependence are distinct from each other and to test the proposition that the quality of business relationships can be measured with a formative index incorporating trust and reliance.

Methodology/Approach: The authors' propositions are tested with a survey sample of 221 firms in the U.K. construction industry. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to analyze the survey data.

Findings: The independence of the 3 focal constructs of trust, reliance, and dependence is confirmed. The formative index is found suitable for evaluating the level of relationship quality in which reliance carries more significant weight than trust.

Research Implications: The separation of the overall construct of “trust” into trust at interpersonal level and reliance at interorganizational level, as found in this study, overcomes the problem existing in past studies that researchers rarely specify at which level trust operates. The clear conceptual distinction between reliance and dependence as found in this study implies that although both operate at the organizational level, they do not have overlapping boundaries. The finding that reliance is a more important impact factor than trust in constructing the formative index supports the notions that reliance is a necessary and sufficient condition for developing sustainable business relationships, and trust is an insufficient condition to sustain an ongoing business relationship.

Practical Implications: Reliance sets the keynote of the business relationship. In contrast, trust as the interpersonal variable only acts as the facilitator to create a favorable social environment. Nevertheless, both trust and reliance have a significant and positive weight in the relationship quality index formed. This means that a business relationship with high levels of both trust and reliance is particularly resilient and stable and is the most successful and desirable one which is frequently oriented toward the long run.

Originality/Value/Contribution: The confirmation of the difference between trust and reliance makes an important contribution to the study of trust in business to business marketing by showing that what has traditionally been treated as theoverall construct of trust can and should be regarded as being made up of two separate constructs: interpersonal trust and interorganizational reliance. The difference between reliance and dependence as an additional finding makes another important contribution by providing conceptual clarity of the two constructs and confirming that there is no overlapping boundary between them. The formative index and the relative importance of its components are another important contribution of this study.     

Deterrence or Conflict Spiral Effect? Exercise of Coercive Power in Marketing Channels: Evidence from China

Purpose: The article aims to test the appropriateness of deterrence and conflict spiral models in marketing channels. Both models have been alternatively used as bases to explain firms’ power-related behaviors in marketing channels. However, the issue of the appropriateness of such an application in various contexts has not yet been addressed.

Methodology/approach: The authors develop the hypotheses based on deterrence theory and their alternatives based on conflict spiral theory. They gather data from 204 sales representatives of suppliers in China and use linear regression analysis to test their hypotheses versus alternatives.

Empirical findings: The data analysis offers supportive evidence for the deterrence logic but with unexpected results. By elaborating on the empirical results, the original assumption of deterrence theory, and the nature of interfirm relationship in marketing channels, the authors modify the deterrence model for research on power related-behaviors in the given context. The analysis implies a possible explanation for inconsistent findings in the literature regarding exercises of coercive power.

Originality/value/contribution: This article proposes a revised deterrence model that can interpret the empirical results with a consistent logic and better predict power-related behaviors in marketing channels.

Research limitations/implications: The research results may lack generalizability with respect to channel type and culture. It does not directly test the cognitive mechanisms that mediate the impact of power on its exercise. Researchers are encouraged to directly test the mediating constructs in other channels or countries.

Practical implications: The article includes some insights and implications for managers in understanding power structure and implementing influence strategies in business-to-business marketing.     

营销渠道中的渠道关系、权力使用与投机行为

文章基于营销渠道行为及关系营销理论,以制造商与其经销商之间的关系为研究平台,检验了制造商的关系营销导向以及跨组织私人关系对其使用权威机制以及经销商投机行为的影响。研究结果表明:制造商的关系营销导向对于其使用非强制性权力有显著的正向影响,对其使用强制性权力虽然没有直接影响,但会通过跨组织私人关系(情感性与工具性)产生负向影响;制造商与其经销商之间的跨组织私人关系(情感性与工具性)会抑制制造商使用强制性权力,工具性私人关系会促进其使用非强制性权力;制造商使用强制性权力会加重经销商的投机行为。最后,讨论了研究结果与应用及未来的研究方向。     

企业社会资本对渠道权力与依赖的影响

传统渠道权力与依赖研究将研究视野局限在由两个渠道成员构成的二元渠道关系内,关注关系内的资源依赖特征而缺少对关系以外更大范围的渠道关系网络的关注。针对这一缺陷,文章引入了社会资本理论,并实证性地考察了制造商社会资本对其渠道权力和经销商依赖的影响。研究发现,制造商的社会资本对其渠道权力有显著的正向影响,但对经销商的渠道依赖没有显著影响。同时,以中国本土社会心理学理论为基础,研究证实在中国文化背景下渠道权力作为依赖的前因变量对其有显著的正向影响。     

The power of international marketing functions: antecedents and consequences

Purpose: This paper addresses intra-organizational power of international marketing (IM) functions. While IM functions play an important role in firms that operate in continuously changing international environments, their power has been under-explored. Importantly, IM managers need to understand their function’s power and its implications for business performance.

Methodology/approach: Drawing on resource-dependency and interaction theories, we contend that IM functions’ power is affected by the power of non-marketing functions and coordination and conflicts with them. Additionally, IM functions’ power should affect international performance. However, contingency factors may change this effect. The empirical study uses data from senior managers of B-to-B international firms. The model is tested using multiple regression analysis and extensive post-hoc tests.

Findings: While IM functions are powerful, their power is enhanced by coordination with other functions and is reduced by the power held by non-marketing functions. Surprisingly, conflicts with other functions increase IM functions’ power. Finally, IM functions’ power enhances international performance but its effect is weakened by intra-IM conflicts and differs across hi- and low-tech firms.

Research implications: This study provides insights about drivers and outcomes of IM functions’ power based on their relationships with non-marketing functions. Performance consequences of IM power are dependent on contingencies. The study extends knowledge on the under-researched phenomena of marketing power in a B-to-B international context.

Practical implications: IM managers should manage sources of relative functional power and unique intra-firm interactions to sustain or promote their power and thus benefit their firms’ international performance. Practitioners recognize mechanisms to control IMs’ power.

Originality/value/contribution: The study is the first to focus on the interactions of IM functions with non-marketing functions in B-to-B firms and thus complements prior research on IM, general marketing, and non-marketing functions.     

基于渠道权力理论的我国家具业内销网络建设

本文在回顾渠道权力理论相关文献的基础上,深入分析我国家具业内销渠道网络建设受阻的原因,并有针对性地提出了家具业内销网络建设的一般路径。本文的研究将为我国家具企业争取渠道权力、正确处理供销关系进而拓宽内销渠道网络、打开国内市场提供理论依据。希望对正徘徊在国门内外的家具企业有一定的启发,对于其他出口转内销的产业也同样能起到某种程度上的借鉴作用。     

电视频道专业化的探索之路

频道专业化在国内已经由理论走向操作阶段,随着实践的深入,频道专业化实施过程中的各种矛盾逐渐浮出水面。实践证明,在原有电视制作体制下运行的专业化频道经营模式是不成功的,探讨专业化频道新的传播理念和运作模式迫在眉睫。     

Customer Involvement in Product Development: An Industrial Network Perspective

Purpose: In business markets, working with customers and users has become increasingly important to get knowledge about customer needs and to develop new products. The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to develop a framework for analyzing customer involvement in product development in a business market context, and (2) to apply this framework to a particular company to describe and analyze how it practices customer involvement.

Methodology/approach: The article takes its main theoretical starting point in the industrial network approach, but also uses other literature from the innovation and product development field. The empirical study applies a qualitative case study approach and focuses on one company in the truck business.

Findings: The suggested framework deals with four key aspects of customer involvement: Why, when, how, and who. The observed pattern of the truck manufacturer shows how dealers, hauliers, and truck drivers are all part of the overall understanding of the customer. These actors are involved for different, typically very clear, purposes at different points in time through surveys, product clinics, and field testing. The pattern, referred to as mixed facilitative, is not one of close collaboration with individual customers, but one of broad involvement of several customers through business intelligence and direct involvement.

Research implications: First, the article provides researchers with a framework and method for studying customer involvement in product development. Second, the case study provides an illustrative example of the customer involvement pattern pursued by a leading company in a major industry. This enhances the understanding of the focal phenomenon, leads to managerial implications, and gives ideas for future research.

Practical implications: There are several managerial implications related to the why, when, how, and who questions. For example, it is pointed out that managers should consider involving customers more extensively than what seems to be common today—for example, by using customers as codevelopers, working with them throughout the entire development process (i.e., not only early and late), and including different types of users (with different requirements and wishes).

Originality/value/contribution of the article: The contribution lies in the development of a framework centered on the four key questions of customer involvement in

product development and using this framework for observing a pattern, and finding explanations and relating this pattern to how other firms are doing.     

Commentary: Relative Presence of Business-to-Business Research in the Marketing Literature: Review and Future Directions

In this commentary we reaffirm the position taken by LaPlaca and Katrichis (2009 LaPlaca, P. J. and Katrichis, J. M. 2009. Relative presence of business-to-business research in the marketing literature. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 16(1–2) [Google Scholar]) that there is an underrepresentation of business marketing research in the marketing literature. Our comments highlight the sector size of business marketing in the economy, document the degree of difference on the inherent nature of business versus consumer marketing, compare the relative representation of business versus consumer emphasis in the marketing literature with other subfields, and close by suggesting means for enhancing business marketing research.     

Performance Related Nonresponse Bias in Surveys of Dyadic Channel Relationships

In dyadic channel relations research, the combined effects of lack of anonymity, question sensitivity, sponsor ambiguity, and the stakes that are involved in channel relationships may inhibit lower-performing channel members from responding to surveys. Using a sample of 100 manufacturers' representatives from four industrial firms, a difference was found in territorial market shares between respondents and nonrespondents to the initial mailing of a questionnaire concerning channel member relationships. However, respondents in later waves of mailings were found to be no different in market shares than the remaining nonrespondents. These results suggest the use of multiple waves of mailings to minimize the potential of a performance related nonresponse bias.     

Relationship and Market Conditions: Outcomes in Marketing Channels

Purpose: In today's highly competitive business environment, many organizations are tending to reduce the number of suppliers to focus on establishing stable and close relationships with a small number of them. The study here analyzes the influence of both market and relationship conditions on trust, commitment, and customer loyalty.

Methodology/Approach: Empirical research was conducted by collecting information from a sample of 304 retailers. A structural equations model is estimated.

Findings: Results support a positive influence of relationship value on trust and, in turn, on long-term orientation and commitment, with the latter as a strong antecedent of customer loyalty. In contrast, dependence on the main supplier does not seem to exert a significant effect on long-term orientation and commitment.

Originality/Value/Contribution: The evidence suggests that relationship conditions are important for creating value in B2B settings. Results shed additional light on the process of calculating, creating and claiming value.     

基于知识经济的企业经营方式与营销渠道的变革

知识经济是建立在知识和信息的生产、分配和使用基础之上的经济形态。在知识经济条件下 ,企业经营方式和营销渠道出现了新的变化 ,把握这些新变化并改进我国企业经营的渠道策略 ,有利于企业实现“走出去”战略目标。     

The Fight Against Obesity: Influences of Self-Efficacy on Exercise Regularity

Given the current social problem of obesity, past and current research efforts have examined consumer choice and decisionmaking regarding food consumption. However, preventative health behaviors such as exercise are also instrumental in combating the obesity epidemic. Limited studies in the marketing literature have explored how internal and psychological characteristics influence physical activity and exercise regularity. Thus, this study seeks to examine how individual self-efficacy impacts exercise behavior. Findings indicate that in order to fully explain the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and exercise regularity, significant mediating factors such as health consciousness, goal progress, attitude toward exercise, and satisfaction with current weight must be included in the decision-making process. Implications for consumers, social marketers, and public policy makers are discussed.     

Disintermediation in Business-to-Business Service Channels: Mechanisms and Challenges

Purpose: The aim of this article is to delineate a number of different disintermediation mechanisms within the context of business-to-business (B2B) service channels and to identify the specific challenges associated with adopting these mechanisms.

Methodology: The research was conducted in accordance with abductive reasoning, moving continuously between the empirical world of 4 industrial (B2B) firms and the model world.

Findings: This article delineates a choice of 6 disintermediation mechanisms and their attendant challenges within the context of industrial service channels.

Contribution: The article provides an original conceptualization of disintermediation, which is detached from the traditional understanding of the concept. As such, it constitutes a useful starting point for the development of a formal theory of disintermediation.

Implications for Practice: This article should be useful for practitioners, because it presents various disintermediation options available to industrial firms faced by undesired intermediaries in their industrial service channels.     

工业旅游:现状与走势

经过5年16个黄金周旅游浪潮的洗礼,我国旅游市场也逐步发展,渐渐趋于成熟。随着旅游消费者消费品位的提高,旅游产品也越来越丰富,并朝着多样化个性化的方向发展。工业旅游作为一种特色专项旅游,虽在我国起步较晚,但迅速引起了广大旅游者的兴趣和多方关注。     

How Strategic Purchasing Orientation and Transformational Leadership Impact Performance: The Mediating Role of Information and Communication Technologies

Purpose: Purchasing orientation (greater efficiency, use of information and communication technologies; ICT) is becoming an underlying part of company strategy in an increasing number of business organizations. Transformational leadership by purchasing managers is also emerging as a tool to generate more intense and effective use of ICT and as a means of enhancing performance. The present research pursues 2 goals: firstly to explore how the strategic nature of the purchasing function and transformational leadership of purchasing managers impacts ICT use intensity and purchase efficiency, and secondly to pinpoint how the use of ICT affects purchase performance.

Methodology/approach: The empirical work is based on an analysis of the information provided by a sample of 130 Spanish firms. Empirical verification of the proposed model was carried out through partial least squares analysis.

Findings: Findings show that the strategic importance which management attaches to the purchasing function impacts the intensive use of ICT. However, the transformational leadership exercised by purchasing managers proves relevant in achieving greater cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers.

Research implications: This work has sought to merge as determinants of efficiency both strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as managerial aspects of said function (manager’s transformational leadership and the use of ICT). This research breaks new ground by empirically comparing the relationship between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a relation which has been the subject of very little inquiry and for which the mediating role of ICT in the link between strategic orientation and purchase performance is brought to light.

Originality/value/contribution: The study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the present research seeks to bring together strategic aspects of the purchasing function in the firm as well as other management factors involved in said function (managers’ transformational leadership and use of ICT) as drivers of efficiency. In this sense, the findings point to the important role played by the purchasing manager vis-à-vis the strategic vision of the purchasing function in achieving cost efficiency and coordination with suppliers. Secondly, this research breaks new ground by empirically verifying the link between the strategic nature of the purchasing function in a firm and intensity of ICT use, a link which has been the focus of scant attention and for which we underpin the mediating role of ICT in the relationship between strategic orientation and purchase performance.     

移动营销:基于短信息服务的消费者接受实证研究

作为一种新的广告和信息交流的途径,手机短信服务现已经普遍应用。在已有文献提出技术接受研究模型及其它相关理论研究的基础上,探讨消费者对于移动广告的态度和接受源技术接受和使用整合模型,创新扩散理论,任务技术匹配理论的整合模型,并进行实证研究。运用结构方程模型方法对调查数据进行分析,揭示消费者对于移动营销的整体态度,以及影响消费者接受的主要因素。