Integrating service and design: the influences of organizational and communication factors on relative product and service characteristics

The aim of this study is to identify the organizational and communication antecedents, and evaluate the consequences on relative product and service characteristics, of the use of service-sourced information by product designers during new product development. An empirical study of 121 product design managers demonstrates that a firm’s market orientation is improved by a healthy working relationship between product designers and service employees. Such a relationship motivates designers to use service-sourced information disseminated to them, enhancing both product and service characteristics of the new offering. The authors discuss how communication channels and information content affect the information use of product designers. Product designers value written information most. Information use does not relate to the frequency of receiving verbal or electronic information. Information about product ergonomics positively influences product designers’ perceptions of the information, whereas information on product aesthetics negatively influences their perceptions.

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How do enhanced and unique features affect new product preference? The moderating role of product familiarity

Companies often introduce products with enhanced or unique features to compete with the dominant brands in the market. This paper examines the moderating role of product familiarity in consumer preferences of products with enhanced or unique features in two experimental studies. Study 1 (208 participants) operationalizes product familiarity at the product category level and Study 2 (168 participants) measures it at the individual level as one’s prior experience with the product. The findings of two experiments show that when consumers are unfamiliar with a product category, they prefer a product with enhanced features to one with unique features. In contrast, when consumers are experienced, they perceive a product with unique features more favorably than an enhanced one. Furthermore, this effect is due to consumer perceived differentiation of and performance uncertainty about new products with enhanced or unique features.

Innovativeness and new product success: insights from the cumulative evidence

The field of product innovation has expanded rapidly and clear insights regarding the relationship between product innovativeness and new product performance have become more elusive and difficult to discern through qualitative reviews of the literature. To offer much needed clarity, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of 95 correlations on product innovativeness and new product performance that were recorded from 32 studies on the topic. The findings reveal that although the average correlation of 0.24 for innovativeness with performance is small to moderate in size, the relationship is more substantial when various measurement and contextual elements are considered. For example, innovativeness measures that include a meaningfulness dimension yield stronger estimates of relationship strength. The findings also reveal that innovativeness today may not represent the same competitive advantage as in previous years unless the focus is on products rather than services, and specifically, new-to-the-market rather than new-to-the-firm products. Thus, innovativeness can be particularly relevant to new product success but only under certain conditions.

Preannouncing pioneering versus follower products: what should the message be?

Despite the high practical relevance, prior research does not provide a clear picture whether the effectiveness of new product preannouncements is contingent upon order of entry and whether the message content of preannouncements for pioneering products should be different from those for followers. Drawing on diffusion research, the authors examine how preannouncements that focus on risk reduction and the product’s relative advantage influence the relationship between preannouncement intensity and new product success, taking into account order of entry. A cross-industry study investigating 151 new product launches shows that for pioneers, a message focus aimed at reducing perceived product risk positively influences preannouncement effectiveness. Furthermore, a relative advantage focus negatively affects preannouncement effectiveness and thus is rather counterproductive for pioneers. With regard to early followers, results indicate a positive influence of a risk reduction focus on preannouncement effectiveness. A relative advantage focus, however, is only effective if the product category is already established when the early follower product is launched. Finally, for late followers, only preannouncements which strongly emphasize the relative product advantage lead to a positive effect of preannouncements on new product success.

Spontaneous visualization and concept evaluation

This paper proposes that customers often respond to brand extension concepts by visualizing the product. We call this process spontaneous visualization and suggest that it precedes concept evaluations. In two studies, we show that spontaneous visualization is enhanced by the fit between the parent brand and the extension category and by the ease with which the product category can be imagined. The appeal of the visualized image in turn determines whether visualization enhances or decreases concept evaluations. In addition, we find a stronger link between product evaluations and delayed choice when evaluations are based on visualization; evaluations based on visualization hence appear to be more “valid” in the sense of predicting subsequent behavior. Implications of these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.

The market value impact of indirect ties within technology alliances

Researchers have typically studied the relationship between technology alliances and market value from a direct tie or dyadic perspective. Yet any given technology alliance is typically embedded in a network of indirect ties created by the alliance partners’ relationships with other firms. We argue that whether an indirect tie enhances or detracts from the market value a firm creates in a technology alliance depends upon factors related to inter-firm competencies at both an alliance- and partner-level of analysis. Empirical analysis of abnormal stock returns reveals support for the hypothesized contingent relationship between indirect ties and value creation within technology alliances. Theoretically, the paper clarifies opposing perspectives in the literature regarding the performance implications of indirect ties and identifies market value as a hitherto unrecognized effect associated with this type of tie. Managerially, the findings improve marketers’ ability to leverage the complex interactions that occur between technology alliances in a value-creating manner.

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Harmonizing conflict in husband–wife purchase decision making: perceived fairness and spousal influence dynamics

To market important products to families successfully, salespeople must understand how couples behave in concert to resolve conflict across major decisions. The authors develop a model of spousal fairness and test it with a study of multi-period family purchase decision making. The results show that a spousal sense of fairness serves as a mechanism for contemporary couples to harmonize conflict over time in family decisions. Specifically, spouses’ perceived fairness mediates the relationship between spousal prior influence and spousal decision behavior in subsequent decisions. Spouses also consider their partner’s perceptions of fairness when taking action to restore fairness. Moreover, the effects of perceived fairness are moderated by spousal traits of empathy, egalitarianism, and empowerment in a gendered pattern.

Managerial,organizational, and external drivers of sales effectiveness in export market ventures

The authors extend sales management theory by considering the role of export sales management in small- and medium-sized firms, and they develop an integrated model of export sales organization effectiveness. Specifically, the authors test 16 hypotheses that examine the relationships among export sales management control, export territory, psychic distance, export sales performance, and export sales organization effectiveness. Using a mail-survey approach, data were collected from U.K.-based export sales managers in 146 direct exporters of industrial products. Though certain anomalies are observed, the research findings support many of the hypothesized associations, confirming the robustness of existing sales management concepts and theories in an export-marketing context.

Organizational antecedents to and consequences of service business orientations in manufacturing companies

Although various manufacturing companies have developed into total solution providers, no research addresses their service orientations. Building on the literature on organizational service climate, this study explores the organizational parameters and service business orientations that explain relative product sales and service volume of manufacturing companies. Following an exploratory study involving in-depth interviews, the authors conducted an empirical survey of 137 companies in The Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. The study assesses the effects of organizational parameters on the implementation of service business orientations and validates the important distinction between services in support of the client’s actions (SSC) and services in the support of the product (SSP). The findings demonstrate that services in support of the client’s action leverage relative product sales, while services in support of the product generate service volume. In addition to the main effects, the moderating effects of the organizational parameters are discussed.

The effect of superstitious beliefs on performance expectations

We explore superstitious beliefs as a basis of product performance expectations and their impact on initial purchase likelihood and subsequent satisfaction. In doing so, we demonstrate instances when superstition-driven expectations cause consumers to make purchase decisions that run counter to economic rationality. In the first set of studies we find that Taiwanese consumers are relatively more likely to purchase a product with positive superstitious associations based on its “lucky” color, and are more likely to purchase and are willing to pay more money for a product with a smaller but “lucky” number of units contained in the package (e.g., eight tennis balls compared to ten). In contrast, consumers who do not hold such superstitious beliefs adhere to the more rational choice paradigm. Next, we show that the differences in purchase likelihood are driven by superstition-based performance expectations. We further generalize these findings to product satisfaction, and find support for expectation disconfirmation sensitivity as a moderator of the effect.

Influence of customer participation on creating and sharing of new product value

This research applies an institutional arrangement perspective to develop an end-to-end model for the interaction between customers and upstream suppliers to develop a new product to understand how new product value is created and shared. The model is empirically tested by collecting primary data from 188 manufacturers across different industries. The research demonstrates that customer participation affects new product value creation by improving the effectiveness of the new product development process by enhancing information sharing and customer–supplier coordination and by increasing the level of customer and supplier specific investments in the product development effort. In addition, increasing the formalization of the customer participation process enhances both customer and supplier relationship-specific investments in the new product development process. The impact of customer participation on the customer's share of the new product value pie is more complex then is first apparent. Based on the dependence and equity perspectives the results suggest that exchange partners' power (relative dependence) positively influences a partner's ability to capture new product value, but this power is offset by a desire of exchange partners to ensure the distribution of value is “fair” and reflects each party's contribution to the value creation.

Institutional changes, wars and stock market risk in an emerging economy: evidence from the Israeli stock exchange, 1945–1960

In an effort to understand the determinants of economic growth in an emerging economy, we analyze the effects of institutional reforms, wars and political events on the risk level of the Israeli stock market between 1945 and 1960. We find that the anticipation of wars did not have any effect but the end of skirmishes actually raised the risk on the stock market. Domestic political instability also increased the stock market risk. Finally we find that most legal reforms did not matter much.

The quest for a fiscal rule: Italy, 1861–1998

The Italian fiscal history is characterised by a number of fiscal consolidations. In this study, we characterise fiscal policy in terms of non-linear deterministic processes. We find that government spending and taxes can be described as being non-linear trend stationary processes instead of unit roots. A long run equilibrium relationship—a non-linear co-trend—does exist between the two series, fulfilling the intertemporal government budget constraint. We interpret this result as evidence of a long run fiscal rule that different policy makers have adopted, putting public finance in balance.

Prototypicality advantages for pioneers over me-too brands: the role of evolving product designs

Prior empirical research suggests that consumers perceive pioneers as more prototypical (i.e., representative) of their product categories than me-too followers. This prototypicality advantage is believed to contribute to an enduring marketplace advantage for the pioneer. We extend research into pioneering prototypicality advantages by considering the ramifications of simultaneous product design (i.e., product attribute) evolutions. We hypothesize that the simultaneous evolution of product designs of both the pioneer and me-too will diminish the pioneer’s prototypicality advantage over the me-too, even though the me-too does not initiate the change. To test our hypotheses, we create an experimental environment consisting of four cells, each corresponding to a different marketplace scenario: a no-change condition; a simultaneous-evolution condition; a pioneer-updates-first condition; and a leapfrogging (i.e., me-too updates first) condition. The results suggest that simultaneous design evolutions can diminish the pioneer’s prototypicality advantage. As a result, me-too entry may be a more attractive strategy in the long-run than currently believed in product categories characterized by substantial design evolution.

Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s

We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the postwar shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than neoclassical convergence and structural change in explaining the rapid growth of the West German economy in the 1950s. We find little support for the hypothesis of institutional shakeup. This suggests a different interpretation of post-World War II German economic growth than features in much of the literature.

The moderating role of institutional networking in the customer orientation–trust/commitment–performance causal chain in China

This study uncovers the ignored role of institutional environment for marketing strategy and customer relationship management. Hypothesis tests in a sample of Chinese firms find support that channel networking strengthens the customer orientation–customer trust/commitment–firm performance (CTP) causal chain. In addition, the results show that government networking moderates this chain in a non-linear fashion. The CTP linkages are most salient when the firm develops a moderate level, rather than a high or low level of networking ties with government agencies.

A meta-analytic review of opportunism in exchange relationships

The potential to engage in opportunism is a central theme in institutional economics, yet prior research has not quantitatively reviewed the role of opportunism in marketing research. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to synthesize research on opportunism conducted over the last quarter century. The analysis of 183 effect sizes extracted from 54 publications from the period 1982 to 2005 offers some support to extant channel theory. The research also indicates that the informant’s frame of reference and the research design significantly influence the observed effects. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Marketing with integrity: ethics and the service-dominant logic for marketing

This paper examines a tendency within existing marketing scholarship to compartmentalize ethical issues. It also shows how this tendency can cause ethical tensions and conflicts in marketing practice. The emerging service-dominant (S-D) logic for marketing, as proposed by Vargo and Lusch, is explored as an example of an approach to marketing that overcomes this tendency. The S-D logic is found to be a positive development for marketing ethics because it facilitates the seamless integration of ethical accountability into marketing decision-making. Specific recommendations are made for improving the ethical climate in marketing using marketing performance measurement theory and practice.

Individual differences in perceptions of service failure and recovery: the role of race and discriminatory bias

This article investigates the role of contextual cues in the evaluation of a service failure. Empirical data demonstrates that although discrimination is a factor in the evaluation of a service failure for black (vs. white) customers, contextual cues also play a role in the evaluation of the encounter. When a black customer experiences a service failure, the failure will be evaluated more severely when no other black customers are present. In addition, the context of the event differentially affects the negative emotions generated by the service failure and results in racially driven differences in the amount of remuneration perceived as necessary to successfully recover from the failure. The implication is that when serving customers, the race of both the customer and other customers can provide service providers with information relative to the appropriate service recovery effort to implement.

Marketing and innovation in the Drucker Management System

Peter F. Drucker is well known for stating that there is only one valid purpose of a business: to create a customer. And that there are only two basic business functions: marketing and innovation. The body of material on management that he produced contains frequent references to this purpose and these functions, but Drucker never distilled the specific tasks within his management approach that result in implementing this purpose and these functions. This paper distills the executive practices and tasks that are necessary to implement this purpose and these functions and it does so using a systems framework.