An attitudinal evaluation of hospitals: A determinant attribute and market segmentation study

There has been increasing interest in the application of marketing knowledge to non-traditional fields of endeavour. This paper outlines how the determinant attribute approach to attitude measurement can be used as the basis for segmenting a hospital's market of potential patients. Based on a telephone survey of a stratified random sample of potential patients several distinct market segments were found. The conclusion was drawn that if maximum patient satisfaction was desired it would be necessary to have various types of hospitals in any given geographical area.     

Consumer life styles and market segmentation

Consumer behaviorists faced with the task of segmenting markets increasingly turn to the study of consumer life styles. The life style concept and its role in predicting consumer decisions are analyzed here. One methodology known as AIO or life style research has proven especially useful in identifying heavy users of specific product categories. Three representative AIO portraits—for beer, eye make-up, and bank credit cards—are outlined. An evaluation of life styles as a systems concept suggests bright prospects for presenting research findings to clients, formulating creative strategies, positioning products and services and selecting media. C. W. Post Center, L.I.U. Doubleday Advertising Co.     

Profit oriented and decision time market segmentation

The authors report a refinement of their Survey Implemented Market Segmentation (SIMS) algorithm that adds decisiontime implementation by retailers. The analysis incorporates more completely the complexity of practical market segmentation policy alternatives. Two retailing executives aided in classifying variables that characterize potential market segments in terms of their temporal implementability. The result is an ability to formulate a segmentation policy applicable to long-range, medium-range, or short-range planning horizons.     

Geographic mobility and demographic and socioeconomic market segmentation

A change in geographic location is a common occurrence in American society and it tends to initiate a series of consumption decisions. Past research indicates that those who move tend to differ in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics from those who do not move. Likewise, local movers have been found to differ from long-distance movers. This study analyzes the extent to which intercounty movers differ from intracounty movers on socioeconomic and demographic variables. The results suggest that these two groups are not unique market segments.     

Managing trade promotions in the context of market power

The use of trade promotions as a channel-programming tool has increased substantially in the past decade. In focusing on the tactical implications of trade promotions, some firms appear to have underestimated the tendency of poorly planned trade promotions to interfere with the implementation of a marketing strategy. In this article, the authors examine the complex issue of trade promotion use from both long-term and short-term perspectives. Different trade promotions can produce dissimilar types of channel cooperation, consumer responses, and postpromotion channel member behavior, resulting in differences in distribution-programming preferences between suppliers and retailers. The authors argue that the adjudication of these different preference structures is addressed through the market power of the channel participants. Based on an assessment of these channel relationships, an approach for suggested courses of action is forwarded. Jack J. Kasulis is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Oklahoma. He obtained his Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and has research interests in marketing channels, retailing, and consumer behavior. His articles have appeared in such journals as theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, and various other journals and proceedings. Fred W. Morgan is the Ashland Professor of Marketing at the University of Kentucky. He obtained his Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University in East Lansing and has research interests in legal issues in marketing, sales management, and marketing channels. His articles have appeared in such journals as theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing and Public Policy, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Channels, and various other journals and proceedings. David E. Griffith is an associate professor and the Harvey Jones Chair of Marketing at Ouachita Baptist University. He obtained his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Texas in Austin and has research interests in marketing channels, marketing strategy, and ethics. His research has appeared inMarketing Letters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Channels, and various other journals and proceedings. James M. Kenderdine is an associate professor and director of the Distribution Research Program at the University of Oklahoma. He obtained his D.B.A. from Indiana University in Bloomington. His research interests are in wholesaling, retailing, and marketing channels. His publications have includedThe Changing Economics of Wholesaling: A North American Chart Book, Wholesaling in Transition: An Executive Chart Book, and articles in various journals and proceedings.     

An investigation of consumer product warranties as market signals of product reliability

Several explanations of the purpose for consumer product warranties can be found in the marketing liteature. However, comparatively little research has been done to develop and test a theory of the consumer product warranty. Recently the Market Signal Theory which posits that warranties serve as signals of product reliability, has emerged in the economic, legal, and marketing literature. In this article, a test of the Market Signal Theory is conducted usign pre- and post-Magnuson-Moss Act warranties. Marketing and public policy implications of the Market Signal Theory and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Consumer creations of product meaning in the context of African-style clothing

In this article, the author conducts a multisite ethnography to examine how US consumers construct product meanings and assign them to African clothing worn in different consumption settings. Contextual product meanings both emphasize the changing role of the consumption setting and reveal the consumer’s use of place. A model emerges from the data to show that consumers establish contextual product meanings through the use of interpretive frameworks, or meaning domains, and that the consumption setting influences this process by affecting consumers’ use of meaning domains and their selection of potential influences on that meaning.     

The effect of market orientation on product innovation

Numerous scholars have debated whether marketing fosters or stifles innovation. The discussions, however, have been inconclusive due to limited empirical evidence. The authors investigate the relationship between two focal constructs in the debate: market orientation and product innovation. On the basis of a sample of U.S. manufacturing companies, the authors’ analysis shows that product innovation varies with market orientation. Specifically, (1) customer orientation increases the introduction of new-to-the-world products and reduces the launching of me-too products, (2) competitor orientation increases the introduction of me-too products and reduces the launching of line extensions and new-to-the-world products, and (3) interfunctional coordination increases the launching of line extensions and reduces the introduction of me-too products. Bryan A. Lukas is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of strategic marketing and strategic innovation. His publications have appeared in theJournal of Business Research and other journals. Two conference papers have received recognition from the American Marketing Association. O. C. Ferrell is a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has served as president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association and is a fellow of the Society for Marketing Advances and Southwest Marketing Association. His publications have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, as well as others. He has co-authored 17 books and more than 100 articles and proceedings’ publications. He has worked as a consultant with organizations such as General Motors, Emerson Electric, and the Water Quality Association.     

Deal proneness and heavy usage: Merging two market segmentation criteria

The relationship of two different market segmentation criteria is investigated in order to establish a more powerful segmentation tool. These two segmentation criteria are level of consumer use of the product (a volume criterion) and consumer deal proneness (a market factor criterion). A two-year purchase diary of over 6200 households in a national probability sample forms the data base of this research. In general, it was found that deal-prone consumers tend to be heavy users and that light users are significantly less deal prone. Implications for management are discussed.     

A market segmentation analysis of users of a black-owned neighborhood shopping center

This study examines the characteristics and shopping behavior of urban blacks who patronize a black-owned and managed neighborhood shopping center in a large mid-western city. The shopping center is located in a community that reflects typical inner city characteristics of high unemployment, low income, and classic shortage of necessary retail and commercial facilities. The community promotion analyzed in the study was the shopping center's first formal attempt to promote the mall and provided an opportunity both to measure the traffic and the sales generating impact of the promotion and to learn about the profiles of the center's shoppers. Covered in the study are demographic and socio-economic variables, attitudes toward and perceptions of various characteristics of the mall, and various dimensions of the respondent's retail shopping behavior. Analysis of the characteristics of the shopping center's customers indicates two distinct market segments that live different distances from the mall with sex, income, age, and shopping behavior varying by segment. The hypothesis that the two groups of black shoppers, with different demographic characteristics, will also exhibit different shopping behavior was not rejected, and therefore, the authors could suggest marketing policy and strategy recommendations to management to more effectively reach and satisfy the heavy user of such shopping centers. Alpha Development Corp.     

The influence of organic organizational cultures, market responsiveness, and product strategy on firm performance in an emerging market

Organizational culture is a strategic resource that influences a range of activities within firms, and empirical evidence from management and marketing demonstrates that it impacts performance. In this study, we investigate how organic types of organizational culture (i.e., adhocracy and clan) serve as a strategic resource to influence marketing effectiveness and performance in an emerging economy, using an extended form of the resource-based view as our theoretical framework. We posit that organic cultures, which are relatively dominant in emerging-nation firms, serve as antecedents of competitive advantage and superior performance. We selected China as the context to test the veracity of our model and use multiple informants and archival performance data to minimize common method variance. Our results support the proposed model and demonstrate that organic cultures impact market responsiveness, while confirming the critical roles of market responsiveness and product strategy change in producing superior performance. We further demonstrate a direct effect between clan culture and product strategy change, in addition to its indirect effect. Importantly, our results uncover that, although individually either adhocracy or clan culture can significantly improve the firm’s responsiveness, their combined effect does not enhance market responsiveness; that is, their interaction yields a negative coefficient. Additionally, the influence of organic cultures on market responsiveness varies across different industry types. These important differences, along with theoretical contributions and managerial implications of our findings, are discussed, and several avenues for future research are proposed.     

The impact of product market strategy-organizational culture fit on business performance

Drawing on the organization theory literature concerning configuration theory, competing values theory, and fit assessment methodologies, we examine the existence and performance impact of product market strategy–organization culture fit. Specifically, we assess the relationship among three important elements of a firm’s product market strategy and the four cultural orientations that comprise the competing values theory of organizational culture using primary and secondary data from the US trucking industry. Using two different conceptualizations and operationalizations of fit, our results provide the first empirical support for the existence of interrelationships among product market strategy decisions and organizational culture orientations consistent with configuration theory conceptualizations of product market strategy–organizational culture fit. We also find support for theorized but previously untested relationships between product market strategy–organizational culture fit and firms’ customer satisfaction and cash-flow return on assets (CFROA) performance. Since product market strategy is heavily reliant on the input of marketers, and organizational culture has long been recognized as having an important impact on marketing-related decision making, these findings have important implications for marketing strategy research and practice.     

Environmental marketing strategy and firm performance: Effects on new product performance and market share

Recent studies on marketing and the natural environment have called for research that links environmental marketing strategies to the performance of the firm. This research operationalizes the enviropreneurial marketing (EM) construct and examines its relationship with firm performance. It is the first empirical research to operationalize the EM construct. The new scale, albeit a first attempt, demonstrates encouraging psychometric properties. According to the resource-based view of the firm, a resource such as EM should directly influence firms’ capabilities (e.g., new product development success) but not competitive advantage (e.g., change in market share). A nationwide study of top-level marketing managers supports this perspective. In addition, although market turbulence also affects new product development success, it does not have an impact on EM. This suggests that EM formation is driven by internal rather than external forces. William E. Baker (william.baker@sdsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at San Diego State University. His research interests lie primarily in advertising effectiveness, new product success, organizational learning, and market orientation. He has published in leading scholarly journals including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Product and Innovation Management, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, and theJournal of Market Focused Management. He has also served as the head of research in a major communications firm and is actively involved in consulting. James M. Sinkula (james.sinkula@uvm.edu) is John L. Beckley Professor of Marketing in the School of Business Administration at the University of Vermont. His research interests lie primarily in the areas of organizational learning, market orientation, product innovation, environmental marketing strategy, and organizational performance. He has published in the leading scholarly journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Product and Innovation Management, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Market Focused Management, theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, theJournal of International Marketing, and others.     

The government and the market place: An evaluation of the FTC

“The Government and the Market Place: An Evaluation of the FTC” is a critical political and historical analysis of the Federal Trade Commission. It explores the initial reasons for the regulatory agency and then provides an, in-depth study of its legislative history and the subsequent powers Congress provided for the FTC’s operation. Although the Federal Trade Commission occasionally receives favorable headlines, the authors contend that the agency is politically motivated and business oriented. The reasons for the failure of the FTC are assessed and a constructive solution is offered. Reports by the second Hoover Commission, James Landis, the American Bar Association and Roy Ash-as well as others-are cited to support the authors’ thesis that the FTC should be abolished and reorganized along the lines suggested by the President’s Commission on Executive Reorganization. The article is well researched employing government documents and the most recent articles and books on the FTC.     

Generating new product ideas: An initial investigation of the role of market information and organizational characteristics

Although product innovation is widely recognized as crucial to the success of organizations, the literature still contains certain gaps that limit our understanding of successful product innovation. These gaps include a lack of research employing a decompositional approach (i,e., analysis of the drivers at each stage of the process) to studying product innovation and a related lack of research investigating the effect of organizational characteristics on specific stages of the product innovation process. The authors attempt to close these gaps by developing and testing a model examining the moderating effects of organizational characteristics on the relationship between the amount of market information gathered and the number of new product ideas generated by work groups in organizations. The study findings provide insights into the types of organizational structure and climate characteristics that can have an impact on the relationship between amount of market information and new product idea generation. Lisa C. Troy is an assistant professor of marketing at Utah State University. She earned her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Her research interests include product innovation management, environmental marketing, and international marketing management. Her work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Marketing. David M. Szymanski is the Al and Marion Withers Research Fellow and Director, Center for Retailing Studies in the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in the areas of applied meta-analysis, marketing strategy, personal selling and sales management, product innovation, and retail strategy. Representative research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Retailing. P. Rajan Varadarajan is a professor of marketing and the Jenna and Calvin R. Guest professor of business administration at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in the areas of corporate, business, and marketing strategy. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAcademy of Management Journal, theStrategic Management Journal, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Business Horizons, and other journals.     

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.     

French versus American consumers’ attachment of value to a product in a common consumption context: A cross-national comparison

This article investigates the influence of French and American national culture on consumer perceptions of productrelated value. Employing means-end theory, hypotheses are developed to predict how French versus American national culture influences the content and structure of consumer value hierachies. Hypotheses are tested using data from in-depth laddering interviews with a matched sample of French and American consumers. The findings support the contention that differences exist in the meaning and relative importance of consumer value hierarchy dimensions across the two national cultures. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that consumption consequences are especially culturally sensitive. Jeffrey W. Overby (joverby@cob.fsu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing and international business in the Department of Marketing at Florida State University. He holds a doctorate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests focus on customer value determination, service quality, and cross-cultural marketing issues. His work has appeared inInternational Marketing Review and numerous domestic and international conferences, includingProceeding of the 2001 Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference andProceeding of the Tenth Biennial World Marketing Conference. Sarah Fisher Gardial (sgardial@utk.edu) is an associate professor and associate dean for academic programs in the College of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee. She holds a doctorate from the University of Houston. Her research interests focus on customer value and satisfaction, consumer decision making and information processing, and buyer/seller dyadic relations. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Advertising, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Macromarketing. Robert B.Woodruff (rwoodruff@utk.edu) is the Proffitt’s, Inc. Professor of Marketing and head of the Department of Marketing and Logistics at the University of Tennessee. His primary interests are in customer value theory, customer satisfaction theory, and market opportunity analyses, all with applications to customer-value-based marketing strategies. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction & Complaining Behavior. He has received two outstanding reviewer awards from theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

Bundle evaluation in different market segments: The effects of discount framing and buyers’ preference heterogeneity

Heterogeneity of buyers’ preferences has played a significant role in the earlier economic analyses of bundling and continues to be important in the recent investigations initiated by marketing and consumer researchers. Guided by a decision-framing conceptualization, this study suggests that in a market characterized by heterogeneous preferences for items included in a bundle offer, buyers’ bundle evaluations may vary significantly depending on which item is featured as the price leader (i.e., the discounted item). When two unequally preferred items were evaluated for purchase as a set, bundle evaluation was more enhanced when the price leader was also the more preferred item. Thus, under such preference conditions, bundle evaluation may be quite sensitive to the choice of the price leader. Besides highlighting the importance of incorporating psychological considerations in bundling research, the results of this study also raise questions about the validity of a key assumption made in the extant analyses of bundling strategies. Specifically, perceived savings on one item may not always transfer readily to other items included in a bundle offer. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His research interests include price perception, pricing strategy, price bundling, and decision making. His research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, andReview of Marketing. He is a member of the editorial advisory board ofPricing Strategy & Practice.     

Alternative indexes for monitoring customer perceptions of service quality: A comparative evaluation in a retail context

Customer satisfaction and service quality measures obtained through consumer surveys invariably have skewed distributions. As such, researchers have questioned the appropriateness of the popular approach of using the mean rating to summarize such data. However, no detailed study on this topic has yet been conducted. In two independent studies, the relative validity of the various indexes that can be used to summarize consumer’s service quality ratings (e.g., mean, median, mode, kurtosis, skewness, top/bottom-tail percentiles) are examined. In Study 1, using typical commercial survey data from a fast-food/convenience retail chain, both the mean and top-box percentiles are found to be the best indicators of service quality, based on their correlation with customer-driven business performance measures. In Study 2, the results are further confirmed by an extensive simulation that varies factors such as the shape of the underlying distribution of customer ratings and the strength of the relationship between customer ratings and business performance measures. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications for future research. Robert F. Hurley is an assistant professor of marketing at Fordham University. He received his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Advances in Services Marketing and Management, theJournal of Business Research, California Management Review, theJournal of Applied Social Psychology, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Engineering and Technology Management. Hooman Estelami is an assistant professor of marketing at Fordham University. He received his M.B.A. from McGill University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Pricing Strategy and Practice, Middle East Insight, Advances in Consumer Research, theJournal of Professional Services Marketing, and theJournal of Business in Developing Nations.