A meta-analytic review of opportunism in exchange relationships

The potential to engage in opportunism is a central theme in institutional economics, yet prior research has not quantitatively reviewed the role of opportunism in marketing research. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to synthesize research on opportunism conducted over the last quarter century. The analysis of 183 effect sizes extracted from 54 publications from the period 1982 to 2005 offers some support to extant channel theory. The research also indicates that the informant’s frame of reference and the research design significantly influence the observed effects. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Business cycle research in marketing: a review and research agenda

Business cycles (BCs) may affect entire markets, and significantly alter many firms’ marketing activities and performance. Even though managers cannot prevent BCs from occurring, marketing research over the last 15 years has provided growing evidence that their impact on consumers, and hence on firm and brand performance, depends to a large extent on how firms adjust their marketing mix in response to these macro-economic swings. In this study, we review the growing marketing literature on how to attenuate or amplify the impact of BC fluctuations. Our discussion focuses on three key aspects: (1) the scope of, and insights from, existing BC research in marketing, (2) advancements in the methods to study various BC phenomena in marketing, and (3) some emerging trends that offer new challenges and opportunities for future BC research in marketing.     

Using a customer-Level marketing strategy to enhance firm performance: A review of theoretical and empirical evidence

It is becoming increasingly apparent from the literature that marketers need to consider customer-level information when they generate a marketing strategy for the firm. In this article, the authors develop a customer-focused framework that uses a marketing strategy with an overall objective of maximized financial performance. This strategy is driven by seven customer-level marketing tactics and shows how actual customer data can be used to generate an actionable marketing strategy leading to optimal levels of profitability, customer equity, and shareholder value. In addition, the authors discuss a successful implementation of this strategy for several business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms and offer insights as to how to customize an implementation strategy for any firm, along with presenting potential challenges a firm may encounter during the implementation process. Several suggestions for future research are offered to explore and harness this newly available evidence. V. Kumar (VK) (vk@business.uconn.edu) is the ING Chair Professor of Marketing and the executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut. He spends his time by transferring his knowledge (however little it may be) to his two daughters about customer lifetime value, diffusion models, forecasting sales and market share, retailing, and marketing strategy. J. Andrew Petersen (apetersen@business.uconn.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include customer lifetime value, word-of-mouth effects, and customer-level marketing strategy. His research has been published inMarketing Research Magazine and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

A review of empirical studies of aggregate marketing costs and productivity in the United States

This article reviews empirical studies of aggregate marketing cost and aggregate marketing productivity in the United States. A methodological comparison is made of five cost studies for 1929 and seven productivity studies covering a period from 1869 to 1968. The cost studies do not clarify—one way or the other—if marketing costs too much or too little. The productivity studies, on the other hand, despite a variety of methodologies, reveal a rising secular trend over the past century. Thus, it may be concluded that irrespective of changes in cost, marketing is becoming more productive.     

Spreading the word: Investigating antecedents of consumers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context

Empirical studies investigating the antecedents of positive word of mouth (WOM) typically focus on the direct effects of consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with previous purchasing experiences. The authors develop and test a more comprehensive model of the antecedents of positive. WOM (both intentions and behaviors), including consumer identification and commitment. Specifically, they hypothesize and test commitment as a mediator and moderator of satisfaction on positive WOM and commitment as a mediator of identification on WOM. Using data obtained from customers of a retailer offering both products and services, they find support for all hypothesized relationships with WOM intentions and/or WOM behaviors as the dependent variable. The authors conclude with a discussion of their findings and implications for both marketing theory and practice. Tom J. Brown (tomb@okstate.edu) is Ardmore Professor of Business Administration and an associate professor of marketing at Oklahoma State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His articles have appeared in leading marketing journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. His current research interests include causes and effects of corporate reputation and the customer orientation of service workers. He is cofounder of the Corporate Identity/Associations Research Group. Teaching interests include marketing research, services marketing, and corporate communications. He is coauthor (with Gilbert A. Churchill Jr.) ofBasic Marketing Research (5th ed.). Thomas E. Barry (tbarry@mail.smu.edu) is a professor of marketing and vice president for executive affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. His primary teaching and research interests are in the areas of integrated marketing communications, marketing management, brand equity, loyalty, and advertising effectiveness. His research has appeared in numerous journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is the author or coauthor of two books in marketing and advertising management. He has consulted for a variety of firms and is a director on four boards. In 1995, he received the Outstanding Contributions in Advertising Research Award from the American Academy of Advertising. Peter A. Dacin (pdacin@business.queens.ca) is a professor of marketing at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. His primary teaching and research interests lie in consumer/managerial judgment formation, brand equity/dilution, corporate reputation, and research methods and design. He has also published in the area of sales force management. His research has appeared in several leading journals including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Consumer Research. In addition, he has published in numerous conference proceedings. He is currently the chair of the American Marketing Association’s ConsumerBehavior Special Interest Group, serves on the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association, and is cofounder of the Corporate Identity/Associations Research Group. Richard F. Gunst (rgunst@mail.smu.edu) is a professor and chair of the Department of Statistical Science at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. He received his Ph.D. from SMU. His primary teaching and research interests are in the areas of linear and nonlinear modeling and regression analysis, with an emphasis on spatial statistical modeling. He has co-authored three books on regression analysis and the statistical design and analysis of experiments, in addition to publishing scholarly articles in theJournal of the American Statistical Association, Biometrika, Biometrics, andTechnometrics. He has received the W. J. Youden (1974, 1985) and Frank Wilcoxon (1994) Publication Awards fromTechnometrics, and the American Statistical Association’s Award for Outstanding Statistical Application Award (1994). He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and received its Founders Award in 1999.     

Changes in the theory of interorganizational relations in marketing: Toward a network paradigm

The marketing environment in the 21st century promises to be knowledge rich and very turbulent. The classic, vertically integrated, multidivisional organization, so successful in the 20th century, is unlikely to survive in such an environment. The evidence indicates it will be replaced by new forms of network organization consisting of large numbers of functionally specialized firms tied together in cooperative exchange relationships. This article explores the characteristics of four types of network organization that may represent prototypes of the dominant organizations of the next century. These include the internal market network, the vertical market network, the intermarket network, and the opportunity network. The economic rationale and the types of coordination and control mechanisms driving network organizations are very distinct from those studied under the current exchange or dyadic paradigm. This article analyses the kinds of changes involved in key variables and their meanings in moving from a dyadic view of exchange to a network view. Prior to joining the faculty of The George Washington University in 1991, he was on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. His areas of research interest include interorganization theory and marketing strategy. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Social Science Research, Journal of Business Strategy, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and various other publications. He is a member of the editorial review board of theJournal of Marketing.     

Instituting the marketing concept in a multinational setting: The role of national culture

A growing concern among international marketing managers is how to increase the market orientation and thereby performance of their transnational organizations. This study broaches this issue by investigating how the marketing concept, the heart of the market orientation, may be established in a multinational setting and the effects of national culture on that process. From a wide array of literature, the authors construct a theoretical framework and propositions on how global organizations may transform this philosophy from an abstract platitude to an operational reality. Their findings suggest that the process consists of complex, interdependent steps—interpretation, adoption, and implementation of the marketing concept. Cultural values shape interpretation and facilitate or impede adoption and implementation. The overall framework and findings can be used to guide institutionalization of the marketing concept across the organizational span, in particular by anticipating culture-based reactions from international subsidiaries. Cheryl Nakata is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago and received her doctorate from the same institution in 1997. Her work appears in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Product Innovation and Management, Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series, International Marketing Review, and other publications. Her primary interests are in global marketing and marketing management and strategy. K. Sivakumar (Ph.D., Syracuse University, 1992) is the Arthur Tauck Professor of international marketing and logistics at Lehigh University. His research interests include pricing, international marketing, and technology management. His research has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Marketing Letters, Pricing Strategy & Practice, and other journals. He has won several awards for research and is on the editorial boards of six scholarly journals.     

Gender,income differences,and marketing: Examining the “earnings gap” in three areas of marketing

This research explores empirically a socioeconomic/equity issue that has been extensively investigated in many areas, but never marketing—the so-called “earnings gap.” Specifically, the study investigates income differences between men and women in marketing, while controlling for differences in business experience, level of education, corporate level, type of industry, and size of firm. The research focuses on three areas in marketing: (1) marketing management, (2) marketing research, and (3) advertising agency management. Findings indicate that there is an “earnings gap” for marketers. Importantly, however, the data show that a substantial portion of the gap can be explained by variables other than sex.     

Institutionalization of ethics and its consequences: a survey of marketing professionals

Because of increasing ethical problems in business, organizations have tried to control these problems by institutionalizing ethics, such as by creating new ethics positions and formulating codes of ethics. In this study, the authors develop a scale for measuring the institutionalization of ethics in organizations and assess it for dimensionality, reliability and validity. Two separate studies are conducted, both using samples drawn from an American Marketing Association practitioner population. In Study 1, using a sample of 126 marketing practitioners, we performed exploratory factor analysis on 44 institutionalization items resulting in two separate dimensions of the institutionalization of ethics construct: implicit and explicit institutionalization. Using a national sample of 306 marketing practitioners in Study 2, we performed confirmatory factor analysis on these two dimensions and investigated the effects of these dimensions on perceived importance of ethics, job satisfaction, esprit de corps and organizational commitment. Implicit institutionalization had a significant direct affect on all four of these constructs. On the other hand, explicit institutionalization significantly influenced only the perceived importance of ethics.     

Exciting red and competent blue: the importance of color in marketing

From beverages to consumer electronics, marketers are using color in innovative ways. Despite this, little academic research has investigated the role that color plays in marketing. This paper examines how color affects consumer perceptions through a series of four studies. The authors provide a framework and empirical evidence that draws on research in aesthetics, color psychology, and associative learning to map hues onto brand personality dimensions (Study 1), as well as examine the roles of saturation and value for amplifying brand personality traits (Study 2). The authors also demonstrate how marketers can strategically use color to alter brand personality and purchase intent (Study 3), and how color influences the likability and familiarity of a brand (Study 4). The results underscore the importance of recognizing the impact of color in forming consumer brand perceptions.     

Cultural variations in the use of marketing signals: a multilevel analysis of the motion picture industry

Movies are experiential products that include a myriad of cultural cues, and their box office performance varies across countries with different cultural backgrounds. The profusion of studies on the motion picture industry notwithstanding, this aspect has been largely ignored in the literature. Drawing on signaling theory, this study examines how a country’s cultural fabric moderates the impact of movie-related signals on the opening weekend box office performance. We test our hypotheses using a multilevel model and a comprehensive dataset of 1,116 movies released in 27 countries between 2007 and 2011. Results reveal that the impact of star power on box office performance is amplified in high uncertainty avoidance and indulgent cultures, while it is attenuated in high power distance cultures. Moreover, the positive relationship between sequels and performance wanes in individualist cultures. Movies with high production budgets perform better in culturally open countries, while critics’ reviews are more instrumental in high uncertainty avoidance cultures.     

On the trait antecedents and outcomes of service worker job resourcefulness: A hierarchical model approach

In a series of three studies, a four-level hierarchical model of personality was employed to identify the antecedents and three validating criteria of a newly developed trait labeledjob resourcefulness (JR). JR is defined as an enduring disposition to garner scarce resources and overcome obstacles in pursuit of job-related goals. Across three service contexts, JR was shown to predict customer orientation, self-rated performance, and supervisor-rated performance. The results also revealed that the hierarchical model accounted for more variance in performance ratings than one version of the 5-Factor Model of personality. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for selecting high-performing service employees. Jane W. Licata (jwlicata@sosu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She has published articles in theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Business Research. John C. Mowen (jcmmkt@okstate.edu) is Regents Professor and holds the Noble Chair of Marketing Strategy at Oklahoma State University. He has published articles in numerous journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, Decisions Sciences, theJournal of Applied Psychology, and theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology. Eric G. Harris (eharris@lklnd.usf.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. He has published articles inPsychology & Marketing and theJournal of Marketing Management. Tom J. Brown (tomb@okstate.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Oklahoma State University. He has published in numerous journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Consumer Research.     

The effect of market orientation and its components on innovation consequences: a meta-analysis

While there is a rich body of research on market orientation’s effect on business performance, much little attention has been given to its effect on innovation consequences. This is the first meta-analytic effort to study the independent effects of market orientation components (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination) on innovation consequences. Also, it is the first meta-analysis to study the impact of contextual characteristics on the way market orientation affects innovation consequences. The study finds that market orientation components positively affect innovation consequences but that competitor orientation’s effect depends on a minimum level of customer orientation. The study also suggests that the relationship between market orientation and innovation consequences is stronger in highly competitive environments but weaker in technology turbulent ones. Finally, findings suggest that the relationship is stronger in large firms, service companies, and in countries characterized by high individualism and high power distance national cultures.

Including the effects of prior and recent contact effort in a customer scoring model for database marketing

Database marketers often use a scoring model to predict the likely value of contacting customers based on their purchase histories and demographics. However, when purchase history has been a partial result of the firm’s own contacting efforts, these contacts should also be accounted for in the scoring model. The current work extends the existing literature to account for the firm’s contacts by focusing on each customer’s most recent purchase. Contacts prior to that purchase are designated “prior contacts” and those after that purchase “recent contacts.” A new latent variables formulation of the customer’s propensity to respond is used to predict the likelihood and time of response as well as the relationship to the independent variables. The methodology also addresses the statistical problems of “selection bias” and “endogeneity,” which have been largely ignored in most customer scoring models. An application to the database of a charitable organization confirms that, in this case: (1) the effect of the firm’s customer contact efforts is associated with a stronger propensity to respond than is the case for the included demographics; (2) the firm’s “recent contact” efforts are associated with larger returns in customers’ propensity to respond than the “prior contact” efforts; and (3) the “recent contact” efforts are associated with an at-first increasing but then diminishing propensity to respond up to a point beyond which actual decreasing returns are observed with further contacts. Clearly, too much contacting can alienate would-be donors. The proposed model is general enough to calibrate such impacts in other database marketing applications where the relative effects might be different.

The service-dominant logic and a hierarchy of operant resources: developing masterful operant resources and implications for marketing strategy

Marketing’s evolution toward a new dominant logic requires the focus of marketing to be on the intangible, dynamic, operant resources that are at the heart of competitive advantage and performance. First, building on resource-advantage theory’s notion of basic resources and higher-order resources, this article proposes a hierarchy of basic, composite, and interconnected operant resources. Second, reviewing research on business strategy and marketing strategy, several resources that correspond to the proposed hierarchy are identified and discussed. Third, the notion of developing masterful operant resources is introduced. Fourth, based on the proposed hierarchy and the notion of masterful operant resources, some exemplars of potential research avenues for marketing strategy are provided. Finally, the article concludes with the discussion of implications for marketing practitioners, researchers, and educators. In sum, this article extends and elaborates the concept of operant resources in the service-dominant logic of marketing.     

诚信与效率对经济发展的影响

本利用经济学理论对市场诚信问题进行了分析，发展不诚信使市场交易成本上升，继而导致企业规模缩小和市场效率低下，以及延缓制度的变迁，破坏效率与公平。提出解决我国信用问题的思考。     

Examing the effects of positive social labeling,time, and request sizes on compliance in a multistage marketing survey context

Following the lead of Reingen and Bearden (1983), this study examines the effectiveness of positive social labeling, particularly in conjunction with other factors, as a means of influencing verbal and behavioral compliance in a multistage marketing survey context. Such results offer a systematic extension to the labeling literature and provide further insight into labeling’s role as a practicable method of shaping and stimulating respondent behavior.     

Capital market impact of product marketing strategy: Evidence from the relationship between advertising expenses and cost of capital

To analyze the prospect of a firm’s advertising decision affecting shareholder wealth, this article investigates the relationship between a firm’s advertising expenditure and the market-imposed weighted average cost of capital. For a sample of U.S. firms, the results show that advertising expenditure is negatively related to the cost of equity and positively related to debt utilization, resulting in a lower weighted average cost of capital. A higher debt level, however, associates with a lower level of financial strength. In addition, and plausibly by lowering the cost of capital through product market advertising, firms with higher advertising expenditure experience higher performance in terms of market value added. Manohar Singh (msingh@willamette.edu) is an associate professor of finance at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His published research includes publications in theJournal of Banking and Finance, Financial Review, theJournal of Multinational Financial Management, and thePacific Basin Finance Journal, among others. His research interests include corporate governance and corporate finance and strategy. Sheri Faircloth (fairclos@unr.nevada.edu) is an associate professor of finance at the University of Nevada at Reno. She holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research interests include corporate finance, investments, and real estate finance. She has published in finance journals such as theJournal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, theJournal of Real Estate Literature, Review of the Academy of Finance, theJournal of the Academy of Finance, andApplied Economics. Ali Nejadmalayeri (aliala@unr.edu) is an assistant professor of finance at the University of Nevada at Reno. He holds an M.B.A. from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Arizona. He has published in finance journals such as theJournal of Business, theJournal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and theJournal of Multinational Financial Management. He was awarded the College of Business Researcher of the Year Award for 2004.     

公益营销:我国企业体现社会责任的双赢选择

当今企业普遍注重社会责任的理念,公益营销已经成为高频亮相、成本低廉的提高企业知名度和美誉度的方式,但是我国企业对公益营销的认识尚处于起步阶段。本文分析了跨国公司在我国公益营销成功运作的经验,剖析了我国企业公益营销不成熟运作的原因,提出了我国企业从战略高度看待公益营销、真正实现社会利益与企业效益双赢的策略选择。