The role of affect in attitude formation: A classical conditioning approach

This study investigates the role of affect in attitude formation. Two experiments, using established conditioning procedures, assessed the impact of affect on attitude formation. The results of Experiment 1 indicate that affect can influence attitudes even in the absence of product beliefs. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that affect plays as important or more important a role than the belief mechanism in attitude formation, depending on the number of repetitions. Implications of the results for understanding the role of affect in advertising are discussed. John Kim is an associate professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at Oakland University. He earned his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include consumer decision making, advertising effectiveness, and brand equity. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Business Research. Jeen-Su Lim is Interim Chair and a professor of marketing at the University of Toledo. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Indiana University. His work has appeared in many journals, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Management International Review, Psychology and Marketing, and theJournal of Health Care Marketing, among others. His research interests include consumer inference processes, new product development and competitive strategy, and export marketing. Mukesh Bhargava is an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Management at Oakland University. He has a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Texas, Austin, and several years of practical experience in advertising and marketing research. His research includes areas such as advertising effectiveness and evaluation of marketing strategy in business and nonprofit organizations. His work has appeared in theJournal of Advertising Research, Marketing Letters, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others.     

Consumer ethnocentrism offline and online: The mediating role of marketing efforts and personality traits in the United States, South Korea, and India

Consumer ethnocentrism is an important concept that is used to understand international marketing phenomena. In this article, the authors conduct two empirical studies. Using consumer data from the United States, South Korea, and India (three diverse cultural and economic environments), they explore six hypotheses. In Stage 1, the results suggest that across all three countries, consumer ethnocentrism provokes negative attitudes toward both foreign advertisements and foreign products. The authors identify a set of consumer variables (i.e., consumers’ global mind-set) that may mediate consumers’ unfavorable attitudes toward foreign advertisements and products derived by consumer ethnocentrism. In Stage 2, the authors find that consumer ethnocentrism dampens consumers’ online consumption activities on a foreign Web site. Finally, the authors find that marketers’ e-mail communications to foreign consumers mediate consumer ethnocentrism in online environments. Hyokjin Kwak (hkwak@drexel.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Drexel University. His research interests include advertising effects, consumer communications, and strategic marketing. He has publications in theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, and other marketing journals. Anupam Jaju (ajaju@gmu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Management at George Mason University. His main research interests are in marketing strategy, marketing-technology interface, and international marketing. His work has been published in theJournal of International Management, Marketing Theory, andMarketing Education Review. Trina Larsen Andras (published as Trina Larsen, larsent@ drexel.edu) is a professor and the head of the Marketing Department at Drexel University. Her research has been published in many of the major professional journals in her field, includingHarvard Business Review, theColumbia Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, Management International Review, theJournal of Global Marketing, and theJournal of International Marketing, among others. Her research is focused on international marketing, specifically, cross-cultural behavioral and relationship issues in international marketing management.     

Agency and trust mechanisms in consumer satisfaction and loyalty judgments

The authors propose a framework for understanding key mechanisms that shape satisfaction in individual encounters, and loyalty across ongoing exchanges. In particular, the framework draws together two distinct approaches: (1) agency theory, rooted in the economic approach, that views relational exchanges as encounters between principals (consumers) and agents (service providers) and (2) trust research that adopts a psychological approach toward consumer-provider relationships. In so doing, the authors specify how trust mechanisms cooperate and compete with agency mechanisms to affect satisfaction in individual encounters and influence loyalty in the long run. Because a multidimensional conceptualization of trust is used, the hypothesized framework offers a fine-grained understanding of the interrelated mechanisms. The high level of specificity allows extraction of multiple propositions, facilitates empirical testing, and encourages theoretical development of the proposed model. Several directions to guide future research are provided. Jagdip Singh is Professor of Marketing at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. His current research interests include consumer dissatisfaction and complaint responses, O-P-C (organization-person-customer) processes that occur in frontline/boundary roles, and measurement issues in marketing. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of International Business Studies, andPsychological Assessment, among others. Deepak Sirdeshmukh is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. His current research involves a multiindustry examination of the role of trust in building consumer-firm relationships. Other research interests include consumer evaluation of brand extensions and consumer information processing. He has published in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Consumer Psychology.     

A dyadic study of interpersonal information search

Although interpersonal word-of-mouth communication, by definition, takes place between two people, rarely has the phenomenon of word of mouth been studied using both members of the dyad. Building on the literature, this article offers a model of active interpersonal information search that is tested by using a method in which information seeker and source perceptions were obtained. Source characteristics were important determinants of interpersonal influence, but seeker characteristics also played an important role. Interestingly, it proved useful to distinguish between demographic and attitudinal homophily of seeker and source as the former was inversely and the latter directly related to interpersonal influence. Mary C. Gilly is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Management and associate dean of Graduate Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her Ph.D. is in marketing from the University of Houston. Her research interests include the unintended effects of marketing actions, such as the effects of advertising on employees. She also has interests in services marketing, such as customer service, including consumer complaint handling, and cross-cultural service encounters. Her work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Business Research, and other academic journals. John L. Graham is a professor in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine. His Ph.D. is in marketing from the University of California, Berkeley. His primary research interests regard international marketing, international business negotiations, and structural equations modeling. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of International Business Studies, Management Science, and other academic journals. Mary Finley Wolfinbarger is an associate professor at California State University, Long Beach and is doing research on the topics of internal marketing and gift giving. She teaches Marketing Principles and Marketing Research. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of California, Irvine. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing and other academic journals. Laura J. Yale came to Fort Lewis College in 1991. She holds degrees in Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. She teaches a variety of courses in Marketing and Travel and Tourism Administration, including Marketing Research, International Marketing and Services. Her industry experience and most of her research interest are in the services sector, particularly the tourism industry. She is on sabbatical leave this academic year, writing an introductory textbook on the tourism industry. She will return to teaching in September 1998.     

Managing culturally diverse buyer-seller relationships: The role of intercultural disposition and adaptive selling in developing intercultural communication competence

Given the increase in cultural diversity within marketing organizations as well as within current and potential customer bases, possessing the appropriate communication skills becomes crucial to success in managing culturally diverse relationships. Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of adaptive selling behavior for successful buyer-seller relationships, the exploration of the intercultural aspects of these relationships has only recently begun. This article examines how adaptive selling behaviors and intercultural dispositions of marketing executives contribute to their perceived intercultural communication competence. Results show that in addition to being adaptive, the intercultural disposition of a marketer is of key importance in developing intercultural communication competence. Theoretical and practical implications for incorporating intercultural communication into the development of successful buyer-seller relationships are discussed. Victoria D. Bush (Ph.D., University of Memphis) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Her research has appeared in such journals as theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Services Marketing. Her research interests are in diversity, advertising, and ethics. Gregory M. Rose (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published or has forthcoming articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Marketing, and other journals and proceedings. Faye Gilbert (Ph.D., University of North Texas) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. She has published in theJournal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics, theJournal of Applied Business Research, theJournal of Marketing Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Marketing Education, among others. Her work emphasizes the application of consumer behavior theory to health care and to channel relationships. Thomas N. Ingram (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has been honored as the Marketing Educator of the Year by Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) and as a recipient of the Mu Kappa Tau National Marketing Honor Society Recognition Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to the Sales Discipline. He has served as the editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and is the current editor of theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice. His primary research is in personal selling and sales management. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is the coauthor of three textbooks:Professional Selling: A Trust-Based Approach, Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making, andMarketing: Principles and Perspectives.     

Customer value,satisfaction, loyalty,and switching costs: An illustration from a business-to-business service context

Although researchers and managers pay increasing attention to customer value, satisfaction, loyalty, and switching costs, not much is known about their interrelationships. Prior research has examined the relationships within subsets of these constructs, mainly in the business-to-consumer (B2C) environment. The authors extend prior research by developing a conceptual framework linking all of these constructs in a business-to-business (B2B) service setting. On the basis of the cognition-affect-behavior model, the authors hypothesize that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between customer value and customer loyalty, and that customer satisfaction and loyalty have significant reciprocal effects on each other. Furthermore, the potential interaction effect of satisfaction and switching costs, and the quadratic effect of satisfaction, on loyalty are explored. The authors test the hypotheses on data obtained from a courier service provider in a B2B context. The results support most of the hypotheses and, in particular, confirm the mediating role of customer satisfaction. Shun Yin Lam (asylam@ntu.edu.sg; fax: 65-6791-3697) is an assistant professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Lam received his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario and has research interests in a number of areas including retail marketing, customer loyalty, and customers’ adoption and usage of technology. His work has appeared inMarketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, andAdvances in Consumer Research. Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar (vshankar@rhsmith.umd.edu) is Ralph J. Tyser Fellow and an associate professor of marketing in the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His areas of research are e-business, competitive strategy, international marketing, pricing, new product management, and supply chain management. His research has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theStrategic Management Journal, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, andMarketing Letters. he is co-editor of theJournal of Interactive Marketing; associate editor ofManagement Science; and serves on the editorial boards ofMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Academy of Marketing Science. He is a three-time winner of the Krowe Award for Outstanding Teaching and teaches Marketing Management, Digital Business Strategy, Competitive Marketing Strategy, and International Marketing (http://www.venkyshankar.com). M. Krishna Erramilli (amkerramilli@ntu.edu.sg) is an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has undertaken many studies on marketing strategy issues in service firms, particularly in an international context, and has published his work in journals like theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Business Studies, theColumbia Journal of World Business, and theJournal of Business Research. He has presented numerous papers at international conferences. His current research interests center on the international expansion of Asia-based service firms. Bvsan Murthy (abmurthy@ntu.edu.sg) is an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Prior to turning to the academe a decade ago, he had 20 years of international industry experience. He has published in journals likeThe Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly and theInternational Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and has also written industry white papers/monographs and chapters in books. His current research interests center on strategic services marketing/management and customer value management.     

Relational benefits in services industries: The customer’s perspective

This research examines the benefits customers receive as a result of engaging in long-term relational exchanges with service firms. Findings from two studies indicate that consumer relational benefits can be categorized into three distinct benefit types: confidence, social, and special treatment benefits. Confidence benefits are received more and rated as more important than the other relational benefits by consumers, followed by social and special treatment benefits, respectively. Responses segmented by type of service business show a consistent pattern with respect to customer rankings of benefit importance. Management implications for relational strategies and future research implications of the findings are discussed. Kevin P. Gwinner is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business at East Carolina University, North Carolina. His primary research interest centers on improving and managing the performance of frontline, customer-contact employees. His research has been published in theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, International Marketing Review, and theJournal of Marketing Education. Dwayne D. Gremler is an assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Idaho. His current research interests are in services marketing, particularly customer loyalty and retention, relationship marketing, service encounters, and word-of-mouth communication. His work has been published in theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, theJournal of Professional Services Marketing, andAdvances in Services Marketing and Management. Mary Jo Bitner is a professor of marketing and the research director for the Center for Services Marketing and Management at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on customer evaluations of service, service quality, and service delivery issues. She has published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, and theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management. She is coauthor of the textServices Marketing (McGraw-Hill, 1996).     

Export marketing,interfunctional interactions,and performance consequences

Firms with export operations have internal environments that are often geared toward serving the home market. As a result, export marketing and other business functions compete for resources, which thus increases the likelihood of conflict between them. Using survey responses from more than 700 exporting firms, the authors test a model of the antecedents and consequences of two important interaction variables: exporting’s interfunctional connectedness and conflict. The model explains 52 percent and 49 percent of variance in exporting connectedness and conflict, respectively. The authors identify the key drivers of successful interactions as follows: management commitment, organizational training and reward systems, relative functional identification, centralization, and export employee job satisfaction and commitment. The authors also demonstrate that connectedness is most critical for export success when export markets are in a state of turbulence, whereas conflict is most detrimental when the firm’s export environment is stable. John W. Cadogan (j.w.cadogan@lboro.ac.uk), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing in the Business School at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. His primary areas of research interest are international marketing, marketing strategy, and sales management. He has published on these issues in theJournal of International Business Studies, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, theInternational Marketing Review, theJournal of Marketing Management, theJournal of Strategic Marketing, and other academic journals. He received his degree from the University of Wales (United Kingdom). Sanna Sundqvist (sanna.sundqvist@lut.fi), Ph.D., is a professor in international marketing in the Department of Business Administration at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland). Her research interests deal with the international diffusion of innovations, market orientation (especially in an international context), and consumers’ adoption behavior. She has published in theJournal of Business Research, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, theCanadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, and theAustralasian Marketing Journal. She received her degree from the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. Risto T. Saiminen (risto.salminen@lut.fi), Ph.D., is a professor of industrial engineering and management, especially marketing, in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. His primary areas of research interest are customer relationships and networks in business marketing, pedagogy in industrial engineering and management, and international marketing. He has published on these issues in theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Management, theEuropean Journal of Engineering Education, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, and theAustralasian Marketing Journal. He received his degree from Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. Kaisu Puumalainen (kaisu.puumalainen@lut.fi), Ph.D., is a professor in technology research in the Department of Business Administration at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. Her primary areas of research interest are innovation, international marketing, and small businesses. She has published on these issues in theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, R&D Management, theCanadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, theJournal of International Entrepreneurship, theAustralasian Marketing Journal, and theInternational Journal of Production Economics. She received her degree from the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland.     

Driving organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson in-role behavior performance: The role of management control and perceived organizational support

Interest in management control approaches and organizational factors associated with higher levels of salesperson performance is reflected in research streams concerned with behavior-based control strategies and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This study makes two distinct additions to the literature relating to control, organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson performance. First, the study distinguishes between salesperson in-role behavior performance and outcome performance to model in-role behavior performance as a mediator between OCB and outcome performance. Second, the work supports sales manager control as an antecedent to OCB. A second model introduces perceived organizational support (POS) as an additional antecedent to salesperson OCB, and more important, as a consequence of sales manager control. This construct has not been included in prior salesperson OCB studies. Results show sales manage control has a stronger impact on OCB through POS, than directly, and POS has a strong impact on salesperson OCB. Nigel F. Piercy (Nigel.Piercy@wbs.ac.uk) is a professor of marketing in the Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales and a higher doctorate (D.Litt) from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. His current research interests focus on strategic sales and account management. His work has been published in many journals including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Marketing, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is coauthor to David Cravens onStrategic Marketing (8th ed., Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2006). David W. Cravens (D.Cravens@tcu.edu) holds the Eunice and James L. West Chair of American Enterprise Studies and is a professor of marketing in the M. J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. He has a doctorate in business administration from Indiana University. His areas of specialization include marketing strategy and planning, sales management, and new product planning. His research has been published in a wide range of journals including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Marketing. Nikala Lane (Nikala.Lane@wbs.ac.uk) is a senior lecturer in marketing in the Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales and was previously a senior research associate at Cardiff University. Her research interests are focused on gender and ethics issues in sales and marketing management. Her work has been published widely in the international literature and includes articles in theJournal of Management Studies, theBritish Journal of Management, the Journal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Douglas W. Vorhies (dvorhies@bus.olemiss.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing strategy, marketing resources and capabilities, the links between innovation, strategic market management and performance, and professional selling and sales management. His other work has been published in many journals including theJournal of Marketing, Decision Sciences, theJournal of Product Innovation Management, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.     

The influence of complementarity, compatibility, and relationship capital on alliance performance

Value creation through alliances requires the simultaneous pursuit of partners with similar characteristics on certain dimensions and different characteristics on other dimensions. Partnering firms need to have different resource and capability profiles yet share similarities in their social institutions. In this article, the authors empirically examine the impact of partner characteristics on the performance of alliances. In particular, they test hypotheses related to both direct impact of partner characteristics on alliance performance and indirect effects through relational capital aspects of the alliance. Empirical results based on a sample of alliances in the global construction contracting industry suggest that complementarity in partner resources and compatibility in cultural and operational norms have different direct and indirect effects on alliance performance. Accordingly, organizational routines aimed at partner selection need to be complemented by relationship management routines to maximize the potential benefits from an alliance. MB Sarkar (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida. His current research includes strategic alliances, innovation and entrepreneurship, knowledge management, and electronic markets. His research has been published in theStrategic Management Journal, theJournal of International Business Studies, and theJournal of Business Research, among others. Raj Echambadi (Ph.D., University of Houston) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida. His current research interests include investigation of territorial loyalty issues, management of innovations, and estimation issues pertaining to structural equation modeling and Partial Least Squares. His research has been published in theStrategic Management Journal, Multivariate Behavioral Research, and theJournal of Product Innovation Management. S. Tamer Cavusgil (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is University Distinguished Faculty and serves as the John William Byington Endowed Chair in global marketing at Michigan State University (MSU). He is also the executive director of MSU's Center for International Business Education and Research, a national resource center. His teaching, research, and administrative activities have focused on international business and marketing. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of International Business Studies, among others. His specific interests include the internationalization of the firm, global marketing strategy, and internationalization of business education. He was the founding editor of theJournal of International Marketing, now published by the American Marketing Association. Preet S. Aulakh (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an associate professor of strategy and international business at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University. His research focuses on international technology licensing, cross-border joint ventures and strategic alliances and strategies of firms from developing economies. His research has been published in theAcademy of Management Journal, theJournal of Marketing, and theJournal of International Business Studies.     

A refinement and validation of the MARKOR scale

In this article, the authors attempt to develop an improved market orientation scale built on Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar’s market orientation scale (MARKOR). The modified scale is then compared with the MARKOR scale in a validation study. The authors argue that the scale improves operationalization of the market orientation construct, and the results indicate that the psychometric properties of the new scale are superior to those of the MARKOR scale. Implications of the results are discussed, and a future research agenda is offered. Ken Matsuno is assistant professor of marketing at Babson College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. His research interests include marketing strategy formulation process and its outcomes and business-to-business marketing issues. His work can be found in theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, and several academic conference proceedings. John T. Mentzer is the Harry J. and Vivienne B. Bruce Excellence Chair of Business Policy in the Department of Marketing, Logistics, and Transportation at the University of Tennessee. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State. He has published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Transportation Journal, Columbia Journal of World Business, Industrial Marketing Management, Research in Marketing, and other journals. Joseph O. Rentz is associate professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His research interests include cohort analysis, measurement issues in marketing, generalizability studies, and itnerfunctional effectiveness. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, andJournal of Marketing Research among others.     

An empirical test of trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships

This study examines three trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships. This study, based on a sample of more than 400 business-to-business salespeoples from a variety of industries, shows two trust-building processes (predictive and identification) to be significantly related to salesperson trust in the sales manager. Interpersonal trust was found to be most strongly related to shared values and respect. Trust was directly related to job satisfaction and relationalism, and indirectly related to organizational commitment and turnover intention. Thomas G. Brashear (brashear@mktg.umass.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. James S. Boles (jboles@gsu.edu) (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His areas of research interest include personal selling, sales management, key and strategic account management, and business relationships. Danny N. Bellenger (mktdnb@langate.gsu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is currently chairman of the Marketing Department in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a number of academic journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Advertising Research, theCalifornia Management Review, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Business Research. He has authored four monographs and four textbooks on marketing research, sales, and retailing. Charles M. Brooks (brooks@quinnipiac.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and Advertising at Quinnipiac University. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, Marketing Theory, and theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice.     

A cross-national model of job-related outcomes of work role and family role variables: A retail sales context

This article proposes a model of job-related outcomes of four role variables in a retail sales context: work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work role conflict (RC), and work role ambiguity (RA). We tested the applicability of the model with three cross-national samples, that is, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Romania, and the results revealed that the model's measures and effects are mostly similar across samples. It was also posited and mostly supported that the effects that WFC and FWC have on the job-related outcomes are greater than the effects of RC and RA. Implications concerning the effects of role variables for international retail managers are offered. Richard G. Netemeyer (rgn3p@forbes2.comm.virginia.edu) is a professor of marketing in the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of South Carolina in 1986. His research interests are primarily consumer behavior and organizationbehavior issues. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and others. Thomas Brashear-Alejandro (brashear@mktg.umass.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of academic journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing. James S. Boles (JBoles@gsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Georgia State University (GSU). He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His areas of research interest include personal selling, sales management, key and strategic account management, and business relationships.     

Psychological climate, empowerment, leadership style, and customer-oriented selling: An analysis of the sales manager-salesperson dyad

This study examined antecedents and performancerelated consequences of customer-oriented selling. The antecedents include sales managers’ leadership styles, psychological empowerment, and the psychological climates of organizations. Data were gathered on two separate performance outcome measures. Responses from 106 sales managers and 313 sales representatives were analyzed. The results indicate that transformational leadership, empowerment, and specific components of the psychological climate are important predictors of customer-oriented selling. Craig A. Martin (craig.martin@wku.edu), PhD, is an assistant professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing at Western Kentucky University. He received his PhD from the University of Memphis. He specializes in sales and sales management, the consumer socialization of adolescents, sports marketing, and advertising to adolescents. He has had research accepted for publication in theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, theMarketing Management Journal, theInternational Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, theInternational Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, and multiple national and regional conferences. Alan J. Bush (alanbush@memphis.edu), PhD, is a professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at the University of Memphis. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His current research interests are primarily sales force research and sports marketing. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and others.     

Price levels and price dispersion within and across multiple retailer types: Further evidence and extension

In this article, the authors develop hypotheses on how prices and price dispersion compare among pure-play Internet, bricks-and-mortar (traditional), and bricks-and-clicks (multichannel) retailers and test them through an empirical analysis of data on the book and compact disc categories in Italy during 2002. Their results, based on an analysis of 13,720 prkce quotes, show that when posted prices are considered, traditional retailers have the highest prices, followed by multichannel retailers, and pure-play e-tailers, in that order. However, when shipping costs are included, multichannel retailers have the highest prices, followed by pure-play e-tailers and traditional retailers, in that order. With regard to price dispersion, pure-play e-tailers have the highest range of prices, but the lowest standard deviation. Multichannel retailers have the highest standard deviation in prices with or without shipping costs. These findings suggest that online markets offer opportunities for retailers to differentiate within and across the retailer types. SDA Bocconi Graduate School of Management Fabio Ancarani (fabio.ancarani@sdabocconi.it) is an assistant professor of marketing at SDA Bocconi University’s School of Management, Milan, Italy. He has been a visiting scholar at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park. His teaching and research interests are related to marketing strategies in the digital economy. His research has been published in journals such as the theJournal of Interactive Marketing and theEuropean Management Journal. Venkatesh Shankar (vshankar@rhsmith.umd.edu) is a Ralph J. Tyser Fellow and an associate professor of marketing in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland at College Park. His areas of reseach are e-business, competitive strategy, international marketing, pricing, new product management, and supply chain management. His research has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, Strategic Management Journal, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, andMarketing Letters. He is co-editor of theJournal of Interactive Marketing; associate editor ofManagement Science; and serves on the editorial boards ofMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is a three-time winner of the Krowe Award for Outstanding Teaching and teaches Marketing Management, Digital Business Strategy, Competitive Marketing Strategy, and International Marketing (http://www.venkyshankar.com).     

Contracts, norms, and plural form governance

The organization of interfirm exchanges has become of critical importance in today’s business environment. Many scholars have criticized the inadequacies of legal contracts as mechanisms for governing exchange, especially in the face of uncertainty and dependence. Other scholars argue that it is not the contracts per se but the social contexts in which they are embedded that determine their effectiveness. This study investigates the performance implications of governance structures involving contractual agreements and relational social norms, individually and in combination (plural form) under varying conditions and forms of transactional uncertainty and relationship-specific adaptation. Hypotheses are developed and tested on a sample of 396 buyer-seller relationships. The results provide support for the plural form thesis—increasing the relational content of a governance structure containing contractual agreements enhances performance when transactional uncertainty is high, but not when it is low. Implications for theory and future research are discussed. Joseph P. Cannon (Ph.D., University of North Carolina) is an assistant professor of marketing at Colorado State University. His areas of research interest include the effective management of business-to-business buyer-seller relationships in domestic and international markets. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theAcademy of Management Review, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, and other publications. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board of theJournal of Marketing. Ravi S. Achrol (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is a professor of marketing and global management research professor in the School of Business and Public Administration at George Washington University. Prior to joining George Washington University in 1991, he served for 10 years on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. His areas of research interests include interorganization theory and marketing strategy. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Social Science Research, theJournal of Business Strategy, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, and various other publications. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board of theJournal of Marketing. Gregory T. Gundlach (Ph.D. J.D. University of Tennessee) is an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame. His areas of research interest include theories of exchange governance, industrial organization, and antitrust policy. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, Antitrust Bulletin, and other publications. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board of theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, and theJournal of Retailing.     

Exploring the brand value-shareholder value nexus for consumer goods companies

It is generally claimed that brand names are a corporate asset with an economic value that creates wealth for a firm’s shareholders. However, the scholarly literature has neither provided a comprehensive theoretical basis for this claim nor documented an empirical relationship between brand value and shareholder value. This exploratory study describes a rationale for, and documents, the statistical strength and functional form of a brand value-shareholder value relationship for publicly held consumer goods companies in the United States. A theoretical argument supportive of a positive relationship between a firm’s accumulated brand value and market-to-book (M/B) ratio was empirically validated. However, even though firms with higher accumulated brand values have higher M/B ratios, the functional form of the relationship was found to be concave with decreasing returns to scale. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are outlined, as well as study limitations and directions for future research. Roger A. Kerin (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is the Harold C. Simmons distinguished professor of marketing at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. His research focuses on marketing strategy and product management issues. He has published more than 50 articles appearing in such journals as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Strategic Management Journal, andManagement Science, in addition to authoring four books. He presently serves on numerous editorial review boards and is a former editor of theJournal of Marketing. Raj Sethuraman obtained his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and is an assistant professor at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. His research focuses on competitive marketing strategies, especially price and advertising strategies. He has published in several journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Letters, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Consumer Psychology.     

Why don’t some people complain? A cognitive-emotive process model of consumer complaint behavior

This article reports the development of a theoretical model of consumer complaint behavior by using cognitive appraisal theory as its foundation. Because of its importance to management and lack of attention in the marketing literature, specific emphasis is placed on the phenomenon of noncomplaining and the role of consumer emotion in dissatisfying marketplace experiences. The model presents cognitive appraisal as the key element in the evaluation of consumer threat and harm, which subsequently may result in psychological stress. Stressful appraisal outcomes are suggested to elicit emotive reactions that, in conjunction with cognitive appraisal, influence the type of coping strategy used by the consumer. Three coping strategies (problem focused, emotion focused, and avoidance) are identified and discussed. Key propositions are illustrated by using in-depth interview data from a sample of older female consumers. Nancy Stephens is an associate professor of marketing at Arizona State University. She has published a variety of studies on consumer behavior, services marketing, and marketing communications issues in such publications as theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Services Marketing, as well as many conference proceedings. Kevin P. Gwinner is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business at East Carolina University, North Carolina. His research interests include performance issues of customer-contact service employees, consumer complaint behaviors, and corporate sponsorship issues. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, International Marketing Review, and theJournal of Marketing Education.     

A three-component model of customer commitment to service providers

Although research into the determinants of service provider switching has grown in recent years, the focus has been predominantly on transactional, not relational, variables. In this research, the authors address the role of consumer commitment on consumers’ intentions to switch. Drawing from the organizational behavior literature, they build on previous service switching research by developing a switching model that includes a three-component conceptualization of customer commitment. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model based on data from a survey of 356 auto repair service customers. The authors’ results support the notion that customer commitment affects intentions to switch service providers and that the psychological states underlying that commitment may differ. As such, future marketing research should consider these different forms of commitment in understanding customer retention. The implications of this model for theory and practice are discussed. Havir S. Bansal (hbansal@wlu.ca) is an associate professor of marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University. He earned his Ph.D. from Queen’s University in 1997. His research interests are focused in the area of services marketing with emphasis on cuctomer switching behavior, word-of-mouth processes in services, and tourism. His research has been published in theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Quality Management, andPsychology and Marketing and has publications forthcoming in theJournal of Services Marketing andTouris Management. He has also presented at and published articles in the proceedings of various national and international conferences. P. Gregory Irving (girving@wlu.ca) is an associate professor of organizational behavior at Wilfrid Laurier University. He received his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Western Ontario. His research interests included commitment and work-related attitudes, psychological contracts, and organizational recruitment and socialization. His research has appeared in a variety of journal including theJournal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, theJournal of Organizational Behavior, theJournal of Management, Human Performance, andBasic and Applied Social Psychology. Shirley F. Taylor (Ph.D., University of British Columbia) (staylor@business.queensu.ca) is an associate professor in the School of Business at Queen’s University, where she teaches and conducts research in the area of services marketing. Her research interests include service provider loyalty and switching, customer commitment, and perceptions management of service delays. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, theJournal of Service Research, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, and theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing. She currently serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, and theCanadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.     

Beyond first impressions: The effects of repeated exposure on consumer liking of visually complex and simple product designs

This article presents an experiment examining the effects of stimulus complexity on consumers' aesthetic preferences. The results suggest that preferences for visually complex product designs tend to increase with repeated exposure, while preferences for visually simple product designs tend to decrease with repeated exposure. In addition, the results suggest thatperceived complexity partially mediates the exposure-preference relationship. The authors discuss implications of these findings for market researchers conducting aesthetic product design concept tests, as well as more basic research on the affective impact of repeated exposure. Dena Cox is an associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Houston. She publishes research primarily on aspects of consumer behavior and promotion effects and marketing research. She has published her research in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Retailing. Anthony D. Cox is an associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research focus is on forecasting demand and consumer behavior and advertising effects. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Consumer Research.