相马与识人

人为万物之灵.对人的认识,非一朝一夕之功.一则对人的内心不容易看见和识别,即知人知面不知心;二则人的内心是会变化的,即往往是"子系中山狼,得志便猖狂".     

Classifying a customer as a national account

A recent article [Stevenson and Page, Industrial Marketing Management 8, 94–100 (1979)] addressed the issue of how industrial marketers determine if their firms can use national account marketing. Once that decision is made, a next logical step is to determine which customers should be classified as national accounts. This article discusses appropriate classification criteria that industrial marketers can use to make such decisions. The information presented here is based on a study of national account marketing.     

Assessing a runaway of a Grignard reaction

The venting and control strategies of a Magnesium Grignard formation reaction were assessed by theoretical predictions of the exotherm and the reaction rate, by simple laboratory measurements of the self heat rate, and by Leung's simplified equations and SAFIRE evaluations, based on DIERS methods. SAFIRE computations showed that the 150 mm dia vent was capable of keeping the reactor pressure below its maximum (MAWP) of 860 kPa for the worst-case exotherm. The response to this evidence was to increase safety protection in the automatic control strategy, following a quantified fault tree analysis of the worst-case runaway scenario.     

Strengthening a weak rival for a fight

We provide a new model wherein firms of different productivities survive in an industry despite the threat of entry by high productivity firms. We demonstrate that an efficient incumbent has a unilateral incentive to establish a relational contract, softening price competition to strengthen its inefficient rival in a war of attrition that emerges post-entry, and raising the price of the inefficient firm in the acquisition market. We show that this equilibrium gives rise to persistent performance differences, market compression, and stability in the identity of firms in the market. Moreover, the relational contracting equilibrium is facilitated by strong anti-trust laws.     

Segmenting a business market for a professional service

This article uses benefit segmentation to analyze the structure of an industrial market for professional services— the market for CPA services among business firms. Data were collected from a random sample of U.S. business firms, stratified to include a broad cross section of the market for CPA services. Benefit segments were described by linking CPA selection criteria importance ratings with client firm characteristics such as business firm size. Examples of ways in which information about market structure can be used in marketing professional services are presented. The results provide evidence about the applicability of prior industrial marketing research and multilevel industrial market segmentation models to a professional services market.     

Management information system for a research institute in a developing country: a case study

Abstract: An information system which is designed for and is being implemented at Marmara Scientific and Industrial Research Institute, Turkey, is described. The basic objectives of the system are to provide for a continuous review of the activities carried out at the Institute based on quantitative as well as qualitative information and to facilitate the gathering of timely and accurate information required by the organizations with which the Institute is affiliated.     

Becoming a preferred customer one step at a time

A preferred customer is a buying organization who receives better treatment than other customers from a supplier, in terms of product quality and availability, support in the sourcing process, delivery or/and prices. The decision to become a preferred customer implies a continuous commitment by the purchaser to a complex, expensive and often uncertain process. It is important to use a strategic approach, as well as appropriate tactics. Based on well-known models on the development of buyer-supplier relationship, on customer portfolio analysis and on the emergent literature in customer attractiveness and preferred customer status, we suggest four steps to become – and remain – a preferred customer: initial attraction, performance, engagement and sustainability. The process takes the perspective of a buyer willing to obtain the preferential status and focuses on the strategies and tactics that could influence the supplier's decision of granting this status. The proposed process considers that the supplier is continuously comparing the value offered by the customer to its expectations, and to the value offered by other customer relationships.     

Inducing Cooperation with a Carrot Instead of a Stick

The Supreme Court’s reasoning in Leegin turned on the insight that manufacturers may use resale price maintenance (RPM) for procompetitive purposes. This paper presents a model of manufacturer-retailer interactions that clarifies why, as a rule, retailers and manufacturers are joint beneficiaries of service-inducing RPM. The model identifies factors that determine how RPM-generated benefits are allocated between a manufacturer and its retailers. The paper then shows that manufacturers may use market share discounts (MSD) in lieu of RPM or other vertical restraints to induce retailer performance. The outcomes and efficiency effects that are achieved with RPM can be replicated and usually surpassed if manufacturers substitute MSD for RPM, thereby enabling a manufacturer to retain all incremental profit rather than conceding some of it to retailers.     

具有自营平台的制造商与零售商的竞争与合作模型

本文研究了由1个制造商和1个零售商组成的供应链中的竞争与合作定价问题,其中制造商具有平台直销渠道。本文建立了竞争下的Stackelberg博弈模型,并分析了解的唯一性和合理性,然后给出合作定价模型和各渠道的定价策略,结果表明制造商和零售商最优策略是降低线下渠道销售价格而线上平台销售价格不变。通过对比表明供应链合作所增加的收益等于非合作下零售商的收益,并证明了顾客对线下渠道购买偏好越高,合作所增加的收益越大。进一步地,分析了在合作的情况下制造商是否放弃通过平台直销渠道销售商品的问题,并给出双渠道下供应链总利润比单渠道下总利润高的判定条件。最后给出一个算例,对所获得的结论进行验证和补充。     

Managing business relationships during a pandemic: Conducting a relationship audit and developing a path forward

During stable times, firms will generally aim to create reliable B2B relationships that provide increased efficiency and profitability. However, tumultuous times, such as the time during a major pandemic, cause many significant disruptions in both internal and external environmental domains. Thus, we argue that it is critical during this time to reevaluate the company's business relationships as a whole. While long-term partnerships are great for handling incremental changes during stable times, disruptive environmental changes may require managers to consider disruptive changes to their businesses. A pandemic may also present opportunities for establishing new relationships as there may be other partners/suppliers who are better equipped to help the company address urgent short-term needs and to capitalize on significant long-term opportunities. In this paper, we design a new relationship audit template to help B2B firms weather the immediate crisis at hand and position themselves more strategically for the future. We explore this idea in relation to the coronavirus outbreak, introduce the idea of a B2B crisis relationship audit, and offer potential steps forward for firms.     

Organizational attraction toward a company that adopts a smoke-free policy

The current study investigated Korean smokers’ and non-smokers’ evaluations of an organization implementing a policy which either mandated or recommended that employees quit smoking. Undergraduates (n = 268) were randomly assigned to one of 2 (high vs. low severity of smoke-free policy implementation) × 2 (high vs. low organizational assistance) conditions and indicated their attraction to a hypothetical organization, posing as job applicants. The findings showed that non-smoking individuals’ perception of organizational support was more strongly and positively related to organizational attraction when they were more likely to endorse employers’ right to control employee smoking behaviors. Ex-smokers indicated greater attraction toward the organization when it was described as implementing a high severity policy than a low severity policy. Non-smokers indicated greater attraction toward the organization when it was described as offering a high level of assistance than a low level of assistance for smokers’ cessation efforts. These and other findings concerning individuals’ perception of severity, perception of organizational support, smoking sensitivity, and employer control are presented in detail, and the implications thereof are discussed.     

Developing a strategic marketing orientation in a large industrial firm

This article outlines the approach one firm, Parker Hannifin, has taken during the past three years to begin the development of a marketing/strategic planning orientation throughout the 80 plus business units of the corporation.     

GPS定位一个市场

随着成本下降到可以负担的水平,GPS芯片销售开始起飞过去,当SiRF Technology 公司创始人Kanwar Chadha向客户解释他的公司是全球定位系统(GPS)芯片市场的领先供应商时,通常得到的是客户茫然的眼     

Viewdata—a product in search of a market?

One of the classic marketing fiascos of the pasr decade was the $200 million boondoggle project hatched at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, known as Picturephone® service. Heralded as the new telephone of the 1980s, rosy sales projections suggested that as many as 1 000 000 Americans would have Picturephone® sets in their homes and offices by the mid 1980s. Wile these figures look delightfully quaint today, the shareholds of AT&T must not have felt so amused by that $200 million expenditure on engineering a system that no one wanted. Through the year 2000, MBA students at Harvard will be able to rediscover in case study form just how dangerous it can be for an organization to allow its engineering department to dictate new product development to the marketing staff. Of course in the Picturephone® case, AT&T could proffer a legitimate excuse: the Vice President of Marketing position at Bell had lain dormant and abandoned for almost a quarter of the century. After all, who needs to sell telephone service?     

Technology foresight using a Delphi approach: a Japanese-German co-operation

This article describes a joint project conducted from 1991 until 1993 by the Japanese National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) and the German Fraunhofer institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI). Some first outcomes, and different alternatives on how to use the data for trend interpretation and priority setting, are described.
The Japanese Delphi survey is conducted every five years and was first undertaken in 1971. In 1992, NISTEP and ISI agreed on a joint project. About 3000 Japanese experts were asked to answer more than 1000 questions based on 16 different technological areas. With financial aid from the Federal German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) the Japanese fifth Delphi survey was replicated in Germany. The Japanese questions were translated and more than 1000 German experts responded to the questionnaires and judged the possible technological development within the next 20 to 30 years. The aim of this joint project is to compare the Japanese and the German answers in order to analyse possible differences and to understand the cultural influences on technology assessment.     

Lessons learned from a hydrogen explosion in a process unit

Polysar Limited operates a large petrochemical complex in Sarnia, Canada with several plants that produce monomers and synthetic rubber. On Good Friday, April 20th, 1984, there was a hydrogen explosion and fire in the Litol benzene unit of Polysar's Styrene I plant. Two men were killed and two more were injured. Injury and loss of life would likely have been greater had the explosion not happened on a plant holiday. The explosion occurred when the unit was being restarted following a scheduled shutdown for maintenance. The explosion followed the release of about 30 kilograms of hydrogen gas into a compressor shed from a burst flange operating at 4800 kPa (700 psig). The findings of the investigation into the explosion and the actions taken to prevent a re-occurrence are discussed.     

做战略管理者 还是市场政治家？

如果推举学习的榜样,我通常会列举两家公司:第一是GE,第二是戴尔。从GE你可以学习到百年老店如何获得持续,而从戴尔你却可以学习如何对待成功。但我常常在很多场合强调,戴尔更值得中国企业家学习,这并不是因为GE已经有100多年,而戴尔不过短短20年,而是因为我们的企业家视为成功“珍宝”的因素,GE基本上都有,而戴尔却基本上没有。比如中国企业家始终强调的核心技术,戴尔没有;中国企业家始终强调的品牌、规模,戴尔也都没有,但戴尔为什么能够把拥有核心技术,拥有品牌、规模等成功因素的IBM、COMPAQ、HP挤出计算机领导者行列?戴尔成功模…     

Multidimensional social capital as a boost or a bar to innovativeness

Innovation does not only demand new ideas, financial resources and knowledge of supplier and user systems, but is also influenced by social capital which has an impact on the innovativeness in business networks. However, social capital is often vague, at times described as a “catch-all notion”. In this paper definitions of social capital are suggested to support the management of innovation in networks. Three dimensions of social capital are applied in a case study of a regional strategic network – the socio-economic, the structural and the actor-oriented dimensions – while focusing on the last one. Data were collected at two points in time, at the start of the regional strategic network in 2004 and at the end of the project in 2010. The application of the concepts and the comparison between these two points in time highlight the influence of social capital and how it can hinder or be used to promote innovation processes.     

实行全球能源战略建立全球供应体系

实行全球能源战略的目的不是为了谋求支配与控制全球能源资源，而是为了使我国建立长期安全稳定的全球能源供应体系，为全面建设小康社会提供能源保障，并为实现现代化建设第三步战略目标创造有利的能源供应条件。全球能源供应体系应由国内能源勘查开发供应体系、国外能源供应体系和能源战略储备体系三部分组成。国内能源供应体系应是以煤炭为主，煤炭、石油、天然气、水电、核电和其他新能源多元发展的供应体系。国外能源供应体系应是市场采购与直接开发相结合的全方位多渠道供应体系。能源战略储备体系应是实行“实物储备与产地储备相结合”，“国家为主、分级储备、官民结合”的储备体系。全球能源战略的基本特点是双向式发展，即既要利用国内资源，又要利用国外资源；既要利用陆地资源，又要利用海洋资源；既要利用传统能源，又要利用新型能源；既要开源，又要节流；既要消费，又要储备。