Socializing behaviors in business-to-business selling: an exploratory study from the Republic of Ireland

For many salespeople in business-to-business industries, client entertainment is an integral part of their daily duties. Despite this anecdotal knowledge, few studies have so far attempted to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of socializing with clients in a systematic manner. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation, this paper shows that when approached strategically, socializing with clients can have positive effects on both the exchange as well as the relational aspects of the buyer-seller interaction. In particular, results indicate that some elements of a close buyer-seller relationship are formed as a result of the holistic experience with the other person and may only be established through interaction outside the office environment. The paper thus proposes that socializing strategies represent a unique tool in a salesperson's relationship selling toolkit—a tool that warrants increased attention in both sales practice and research.     

The role of international design orientation and market intelligence in the export performance of US machine tool companies

This paper looks at the role of product design in the export performance of US manufacturing firms in the machine tool (MT) industry. Evidence from a survey of 173 MT companies points to stronger export results among firms that initiate the design process with respect to the needs of foreign buyers. In contrast, firms that enter foreign markets with products that were originally designed for domestic clients typically exhibit weaker export sales. Firms in the latter category spend less on market intelligence than their more internationally-oriented counterparts. For both groups of firms, however, a common finding is that recent interest in export expansion has been driven by rising import penetration (loss of domestic market share). The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the empirical results for future research on export marketing.     

竞争战略的产权观点

产权理论认为，不完备的产权不仅影响利用资产创造价值的程度，也使得人们花费资源用于攫取和保护产权。本文把交易成本看做是与攫取、保护和转移产权相联系的成本。由于攫取和保护行为会耗散企业的价值，企业可以凭借影响攫取和保护的成本来创造价值。本文在产权理论的基础上构建了竞争战略的产权分析框架，并且比较了这一观点与其他竞争战略观点的区别与联系。     

Information technology comes home

The article discusses how information technology affects home activities in the USA. The author considers four significant uses of time at home — working, doing chores, learning, and relaxing — and the ways in which information technologies support these activities. The article focuses on current trends and possible developments in technologies for electronic communications, information distribution and entertainment.     

微电影 一个产业生态变革的开始

贾樟柯搬了张凳子坐在导演位置,仔细看着眼前小屏幕里的每一个细节,神情却和往常略有不同——在这组名为《爱的联想》的微电影里他并不是导演,而是监制。贾樟柯曾执导过多部获奖电影,首部长片《小武》被法国《电影手册》赞誉为摆脱了中国电影的常规,是标志着中国电影复兴与活力的影片,2011年被第68届威尼斯国际电影节"地平线单元"邀请担任评委会主席。     

When e-mail becomes junk mail: The welfare implications of the advancement of communications technology

This paper examines the negative externality imposed by a direct marketing firm on the consumers who must spend time reading and processing the advertising they receive from that firm. A model is developed to show that with low communication costs, a firm would send out more unsolicited advertising messages than would be desired by consumers and a social welfaremaximizing planner. The optimal Pigovian tax to eliminate the problem of excessive message sending is then derived. The extent of the problem in a number of media, including direct mail, telemarketing, and the Internet, is briefly examined.     

金融危机下的国际石油物探市场

金融危机引发了全球石油物探市场的低迷与急剧动荡,地震多客户项目受阻,海上拖缆地震项目萎缩.为此,各物探公司纷纷调整市场策略,采取了一系列应对措施:控制风险,应用新技术,以提高效率、降低成本;致力于提高海上业务能力,增建地震船;加大研发力度,抢占电磁勘探技术制高点.尽管未来物探市场的不确定性明显增加,但物探市场将逐步向多区域发展,尤其是向海上服务区域扩展;国际大物探公司凭借持续的技术创新能力,市场优势将越来越突出,物探技术服务市场仍将呈现少数大型物探公司寡头竞争的局面.     

Urban Land Development and its Prices: The Effects of Conversion Costs with Redevelopment

This paper analyzes urban land development when landowners anticipate a future large-scale redevelopment by a third party developer. Landowners' initial development activities can deter such redevelopment because they impose two conversion costs on the redeveloper: demolition costs and landowners' reservation prices. These costs are eventually borne by the landowners when the developers' market is competitive. For the landowners' initial development activities, we analyze both the efficient solution and the noncooperative solution under the Nash equilibrium. In both cases, the possibility of redevelopment results in a lower level of initial development due to the conversion costs, but increases land prices. However, the magnitude of their effects is smaller in the Nash solution due to an externality. The presence of such an externality provides a rationale for zoning and urban planning.     

Management of dispersed product development teams: the role of information technologies

In recent years, international corporations such as IBM are increasingly relying on dispersed R&D teams in order to keep pace with resource availability and the demands of global markets. The advantages of this approach arise mainly from the utilization of differences in personnel costs and gaining access to a broader knowledge base to satisfy the demands of international clients. The disadvantages of teams of this kind are obvious: geographic distances, differences in culture and work habits as well as the necessity to bridge time zones place greater demands on communication, synchronization and management.
The application of specific project management methods and the intensive use of information technology (IT) lessens the disadvantages in transnational development projects. Recently completed projects involving large-scale commercial software development at IBM demonstrate the potentials of IT in transnational development. The authors advocate the application of IT adapted to specific situations. The central fields of application of IT in dispersed R&D teams are the development of a personal network, the promotion of creativity, the exchange of technical information, and the coordination of decentralized project activities.     

Salespeople's use of entertainment and gifts

This study reports the findings from a national survey of salespeople concerning entertainment and gift giving practices among both consumer and industrial salespeople. The results indicate that industrial salespeople use various entertainment and gift giving practices more than consumer salespeople and that industrial salespeople appear to have a rational, and well- thought-out strategy involving entertainment and gift giving. Furthermore, entertainment is considered more important than gift giving from the sellers' perspective.     

Marketing cost concept in service firms

Marketing costs are usually not clearly defined. This depends partly on the fact that the marketing department is not identical with the marketing function of the firm. Marketing activities may also be carried out by the managing director, service engineers, and others. In fact, everybody with customer contact influences sales. This is especially evident in service firms where the same person may produce as well as market and administrate. In this article, marketing cost concepts for professional service firms are developed and their practical application is discussed. The purpose of these concepts is to help professional service firms evaluate their marketing efforts and determine marketing strategies.     

The role of customer entertainment in B2B sales strategy: Comparative insights from professional buyers and salespeople

Customer entertainment is any activity considered to provide entertainment, amusement, or recreation. Business-to-business firms, as part of their sales strategy, have entertained customers for decades in hopes of influencing purchasing and building long-term relationships. Using social exchange theory and the element of reciprocity, this study examines how customer entertainment influences buyers' perceptions of gratitude, indebtedness, and purchase intention within their relationship with the B2B seller. In order to assess the importance and strategic role of customer entertainment in building and strengthening buyer-seller relationships, this study investigates customer entertainment throughout the sequential relationship stages of exploration, expansion, and commitment. A multimethod research design was developed comprised of 2 qualitative studies, 3 pretests, and a conclusive experimental field study that compared buyer attitudes with salespeople's perceptions of buyer attitudes. The final study contrasts results between 248 buyers and 245 salespeople and consists of a 3 × 3 experimental field study, with the levels of customer entertainment events and stage of relationship as manipulating variables. The analysis reveals that salespeople and buyers view of reciprocity differs, with salespeople being more socially oriented and focused on gratitude while buyers are more economically oriented and more attuned to indebtedness.     

Interactive entertainment: the challenge to broadcast media

Recent developments in microelectronics, especially personal microcomputers and video discs, make possible new forms of interactive entertainment that differ significantly from the current broadcast forms. Through a detailed examination of some new forms of entertainment now possible, this article discusses possible directions for commercial entertainment and some implications of these developments.     

An Empirical Study of Derivatives use in the REIT Industry

We examine the use of derivatives in the real estate investment trust (REIT) industry. Tax considerations and speculative motives should not be important factors here, as REITs pay no corporate income tax and their speculative activities are limited by regulations. We find that 41 % of REITs use interest-rate derivatives, although the amount of derivatives on average is not high. Our principal results are that larger REITs and mortgage REITs are more likely to use derivatives. However, in terms of the amount of derivatives, REITs that are smaller and have a larger amount of debt tend to use more derivatives. We interpret the results as evidence supportive of substantial entry costs for hedging and financial-distress costs being a major consideration for the level of hedging. REITs with greater ratio of market to book value of assets also tend to use more derivatives. However, this result is not robust across different sample sets. We therefore view this as weak evidence supporting the agency-cost explanation for hedging. Additional analysis on interest-rate risk and hedging activities finds that mortgage REITs tend to increase their hedging activities when interest rates decrease, while the opposite is true for equity REITs. We interpret this as evidence consistent with prepayment risk being a major factor for mortgage REITs, while equity REITs primarily hedge to control funding costs.     

国际外包陷阱产生机理及其跨越研究

本文以全球价值链分工体系下发展中国家承接国际外包实践为背景,从承包企业所面临的风险角度审视国际外包,认为承包活动将伴随着陷阱,并提出了分析国际外包陷阱的一个初步理论框架。国际外包陷阱描述了承包企业陷入长期低水平接包而难以自拔的一种状态,其在理论溯源、概念假设、形成机制及产生效应等方面区别于比较优势陷阱。承包企业对发包企业技术上的严重依赖和对低劳动力素质的过度依赖是前者极易落入国际外包陷阱的主要原因,落入国际外包陷阱的后果则是从长期看承包企业人力资本积累缓慢、缺乏技术创新能力积累导致与发包企业间技术差距和边际生产率差距同时不断扩大。基于以上理论框架,本文构建了国际外包陷阱产生机理的数理模型,阐明了承包企业内部技术积累及外部需求推动两大跨越国际外包陷阱的途径,归纳了国际外包陷阱跨越的"单脚"、"双脚"及"跳跃型"三种模式,并对承包企业发展战略和发展中国家相关产业政策制定提出了建议。     

Envy,comparison costs,and the economic theory of the firm

An economic theory of the firm must explain both when firms supplant markets and when markets supplant firms. While theories of when markets fail are well developed, the extant literature provides a less than adequate explanation of why and when hierarchies fail and of actions managers take to mitigate such failure. In this article, we seek to develop a more complete theory of the firm by theorizing about the causes and consequences of organizational failure. Our theory focuses on the concept of social comparison costs that arise through social comparison processes and envy. While transaction costs in the market provide an impetus to move activities inside the boundaries of the firm, we argue that envy and resulting social comparison costs motivate moving activities outside the boundary of the firm. More specifically, our theory provides an explanation for ‘managerial’ diseconomies of both scale and scope—arguments that are independent from traditional measurement, rent seeking, and competency arguments—that provides new insights into the theory of the firm. In our theory, hierarchies fail as they expand in scale because social comparison costs imposed on firms escalate and hinder the capacity of managers to optimally structure incentives and production. Further, hierarchy fails as a firm expands in scope for the simple reason that the costs of differentially structuring compensation within the firm to match the increasing diversity of activities also rises with increasing scope. In addition, we explore how social comparison costs influence the design of the firm through selection of production technologies and compensation structures within the firm. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

国际贸易中的交易成本：一个文献综述

传统贸易理论所讨论的形成比较优势的成本,主要为生产成本。但是,在现实国际贸易活动中,交易成本在塑造一国比较优势时也发挥着重要作用。通过回顾国际贸易中的交易成本及其与生产成本和贸易成本的关系、国际贸易中的交易成本的影响因素及其度量、引入交易成本分析的国际贸易变化之相关文献,指出：现有文献未严格区分＂贸易成本＂和＂交易成本＂,迄今为止新制度经济学中对交易成本的测度与贸易理论中基于引力模型的贸易成本测度还缺乏必要的沟通和融合。     

Problems evaluating sales representative performance?: Try activity-based costing

Activity-based costing (ABC) offers a way to improve performance evaluation by providing estimates of the cost of satisfying sales terms to which a sales representative may agree, such as number of batches in which an order is produced and number of training hours provided to customer employees. It also provides estimates of the cost of resources that a sales representative may use while engaging in marketing activities, such as making sales calls and attending trade shows. Traditional costing, which assumes that costs only vary at the unit level, does not provide estimates of the costs of many of these terms and activities.     

Managing customer relationships: Account manager turnover and effective account management

Managing relationships with customers and clients is a critical task for industrial sales organizations. This paper reports on research that focuses on improving client relationships through effective handling of account manager turnover and improved account management. Even in situations where account manager turnover is high, the relationship between the company and the SME client does not suffer if the account management turnover process is well managed. When account manager turnover is not well managed, customer satisfaction suffers. The research also identifies eleven specific management activities that are highly related to supplier satisfaction with both the account manager and the supplier financial institution.     

Mobile gaming: Industry challenges and policy implications

Mobile games are a prime example of a successful mobile application and demonstrate the increasing range of platforms for the media and entertainment industries. Against this convergent background, this paper introduces the basic features of the mobile gaming market and its industrial ecosystem together with its main actors and activities. The focus of the paper lies in the challenges ahead for the evolution of mobile applications into a potentially dominant game platform and the possible disruptions along this road. The deep personal relationships between users and their mobile devices are considered to further explore the link between mobile games, players’ strategies and pending techno-economic developments. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some policy options to assist with the development of this domain.