The evolution of strategic marketing

This article examines the evolution of the concept of strategic marketing. Strategic marketing does not replace traditional marketing management. Rather it adds new dimensions to the field of marketing, enhancing its role in the determination of corporate strategy.     

Issues in fitting theoretical and measurement models in marketing

This article reviews the applications of linear structural equation modeling in business. It further examines the extent to which measurement models are constructed to fit theory models. The consensus appears to be that modelers intuitively use congeneric models without considering the appropriateness of such use. The other measurement models, such as tau equivalent or parallel form models are used very little in the literature. In addition, there is no use of common factor measurement models. The article also examines the extent to which various indices of fit are used in modeling marketing phenomena. Although chi square tests of model fit are used most frequently, the study documents increasing use of yet other indices, which perhaps more accurately reflect the extent to which the model fits.     

Corporate governance: Assessing corporate performance by boardroom attributes

The corporate boardroom, once an inner sanctum where the secret ritual of top-level policymaking takes place, is slowly opening its doors and letting in a bit of sunshine. As the investing public begins to peer into the corporate “kiva,” it will want to know more about board structure and performance. In anticipation, this study provides an assessment model to correlate 15 boardroom attributes, or directorate dimensions, with company performance. As a major conclusion, the study finds that as yet there is no substitute for technical experience and internal managerial expertise. Neither is there an optimal formula. No two firms have identical boardroom dimensions. As the newer dimensions begin to make contributions, this diversity will be even greater. This accentuates the need for more precise measurement of board structure and effectiveness.     

Social power bases of marketing executives: The relationship with organizational climate

This research paper reports the results of a mailed questionnaire study of 343 marketing executives. The purpose of the research was to investigate whether or not a relationship exists between organizational climate (i.e., specific conditions in the organizational environment of the firm) and the particular social power base of the marketing executive. Results indicate that the three desirable power bases—expert, referrent, and legitimate—are correlated with all four of the organizational climate dimensions studied—reward orientation, personnel policies, MBO orientation, and status orientation. The undesirable power base—coercive power—was correlated with none of these dimensions.     

Market similarity and market selection: Implications for international marketing strategy

International market selection patterns for a sample of 954 new products suggest that firms exhibit a significant preference for markets similar to the home market. Preferences for similar markets decline as firms gain experience in a variety of markets, however. This pattern suggests the importance of uncertainty and information in global market selection and marketing mix management. Alternative means of gathering information about foreign markets permit and support very different approaches to global marketing activity. More fundamentally, a global perspective on the relationship between market conditions, marketing policies and programs, and consumer response can be developed systematically to improve global marketing performance.     

Similarities between conflict and cooperation in the marketing channel

This article examines the relationship between two causes of conflict: domain dissensus and perceptual incongruity, and the levels of conflict and cooperation within a marketing channel dyad. Utilizing a national sample of food broker-food wholesaler dyads, four hypotheses were tested—two relating domain dissensus and two relating perceptual incongruity to conflict/cooperation. Results indicated no significant relationship between either perceptual incongruities or domain dissensus and the level of conflict found in the dyad, while a significant negative relationship was found between both perceptual incongruities and domain dissensus and the level of cooperation in the dyad.     

Price structure as a marketing variable: An experimental investigation

This study examines the relative impact on preferences of price level and price-structure variables. A pair of four-factor experimental designs were developed to investigate the preferences of students for automobile price structures and recent homebuyers for various price arrangements in buying a house. The findings indicate that, for a majority of the subjects, the structural variables of down payment, interest rate, and monthly payment are more important than price level in determining overall preferences.     

Integer goal programming model for the implementation of multiple corporate objectives

The problem of long-range planning and investment project evaluation is complicated by the presence of multiple conflicting goals measured in incommensurable units, indivisibility of alternative projects, and the desire of management to consider mutually exclusive marketing-pricing strategies. The model proposed in this study attempts to allow for these complexities through the use of integer goal programming. It is the hope of the authors that this model will provide management with an additional decision-making tool for implementation of multiple corporate objectives.     

Board size variation and rates of succession in the corporate presidency

Within the setting of 54 industrial corporations, the higher the variation in the membership size of the board of directors, the more rapid the rate of replacement of the president. Variations in board size are developed from a coefficient of volatility identifying yearly changes from 1947 to 1977. Further analysis of the data suggests that for relatively successful companies a significantly negative relationship exists between board size variation and rates of succession, whereas a significantly positive relationship exists for relatively unsuccessful companies. These results have implications for succession planning in the corporate presidency.     

Industrial marketing strategies and different national environments

This article analyzes the marketing strategies of industrial suppliers in five Western European countries. The strategies are characterized in a quality dimension and a customer adaptation dimension. In the quality dimension the strategies are found to be related to characteristics of the industrial environment of the supplier country. In the adaptation dimension they are related to the cultural affinity with the customer country as perceived by industrial purchasers in these countries.     

Segmenting U.S. firms for export development

In attempting to aid firms in their exporting efforts, various segmentation approaches have been developed by government agencies and research groups. Each of these segmentation schemes aims at the identification of specific export needs within different groups of firms. The four major approaches suggested in the literature propose to differentiate firms into groups based on the level of international activities, managerial attitudes, size, and service orientation of firms. The research presented in this article investigates these four segmentation approaches by applying them to common data collected from small and medium sized U.S. manufacturing firms and investigating their effectiveness in differentiating among groups of firms. The results indicate that the differentiation of firms according to their level of international activities is the most effective one of the four approaches investigated. Subsequently, various specific needs of exporting firms are presented and a redirection of current export promotion efforts is suggested.     

Perceived importance of selected product information sources in two time periods by United States and West German consumers

Perceived use of different types of information sources in the purchase of a major durable good is investigated in two countries (West Germany and the U.S.), two age groups (under 35, 35 and over), and two time periods (1970 and 1976). A logit model is constructed to allow probabilistic conclusions about the relationships among time, country, and age as explanatory variables and information source types as response variables. Product testing is found to increase in importance between time periods in both countries and to have the highest probability of use in combination with peer group as a source. Advertising has twice the probability of perceived use in the U.S. as in West Germany, and probability of use has not changed between years. Age is found not to be significant in perceived importance of sources.     

Union steward locus of control,job, union involvement,and grievance behavior

Discretionary behaviors of union stewards are described. The use (or otherwise) of these behaviors may be a critical index of the number of grievances filed in an organization. Utilization of proactive grievance filing behaviors is systematically associated with steward job involvement, union involvement, and locus of control orientations. This hypothesis received empirical support in this research. Implications for organizational theorists and practitioners alike are discussed.     

An experience curve explanation of export expansion

Various explanatory variables have been identified in past research as determinants of the export behavior of firms. This article proposes that while many factors contribute to export behavior, experience curve effects are a major variable explaining the international activities of firms. The research reported here finds that younger firms are much more faborably disposed toward and active in international marketing than older firms. This is attributed to the competitive domestic situation younger firms encounter. Since older firms are often well entrenched in the domestic market, exporting may be the only alternative available to younger firms to obtain the production expertise and efficiency necessary to become a successful domestic competitor.     

Improving the effectiveness of persuasive communications: Matching message with functional profile

The functional approach to improving communication strategy has received little attention. This research attempts to partially correct this oversight by experimentally verifying the major functional hypothesis: matching message with functional profile brings about attitude change. Working adults were integrated into an experiment which was a before-after with control. The major functional hypothesis was confirmed at the 0.10 level. An associated hypothesis regarding the relative ease of changing value- expressive attitudes compared to utilitarian attitudes was confirmed at the 0.10 level. The results show the importance of matching message with functional profile and highlight the potential inherent in the functional approach.     

Exploring determinants of success in corporate ventures

Previous work (Biggadike 1979) has shown that corporate ventures (CVs) typically realize their first profits as eight-year-old “adolescents.” Eightyfour such CVs drawn from the PIMS database were explored to search for strong predictors of financial performance. This analysis resulted in several findings that corporate level managers (i.e., managers of portfolios of business) can act upon to influence CV performance, as well as numerous other findings that lower level managers can use to strategically position their operations better. Some of these findings are either contrary to those reported elsewhere in other studies of CVs or contrary to results of more mature businesses. These conflicting findings should be of particular interest to the growing number of academicans studying CV management.Corporate level managers are responsible for selecting the markets in which they will fund the development of new CVs, and maintaining a corporate environment conducive to the support of the CVs as they develop. Results of this research indicate that in selecting markets to enter, corporate managers should look for situations in which high market growth can potentially reduce the effect of competitive pressures; in which they are likely to realize a technology-based advantage: and in which they can stand up to international competition. An in-house environment stressing a hands off attitude on the part of corporate level managers appears most appropriate.Business level managers directly involved with the operation of the adolescent business can improve their CVs chances of success through good strategic positioning. By aggressively maintaining a high market share after an early entry into a broadly defined market, they can expect to move more quickly down their learning curves and beyond their break-even points. Given the choice of one or the other, a product that stresses quality over price is more likely to produce higher profits, although customers are obviously able to shop for value by considering both price and quality. Finally, any of the adolescent business' resources devoted to vertical integration should emphasize downstream rather than upstream development.Where the supporting results differ from those results expected and/or reported elsewhere, such differences are described and possible explanations offered. Before turning to the results, we need to describe this work's position within a broader context of developing literature on corporate ventures.     

Intrafamily decision making in family planning

58 expectant couples were counseled about family planning postpartum and husbands and wives were asked to rank preference of methods. Husbands preferred IUDs (12%), the pill (7.6%), or diaphragms (8.2%). Wives preferred diaphragm (10%), foam (8%), jelly (8%), and IUDs (6%). The process of discussion was then charted. It was found that wives were more influential than husbands in the joint ranking process, which put IUDs 1st, followed by diaphragms and jelly. As discussion progressed, side effects became more important and the condom was selected as a compromise more often than any other method. It is suggested that marketing attempts for condoms emphasize the lack of side effects as well as promote the advantages to men.