The antecedents and consequences of customer-centric marketing

As we enter the twenty-first century, the marketing function remains concerned with serving customers and consumers effectively. The authors propose that just as the marketing function gradually shifted from mass marketing to segmented marketing in the twentieth century, it will increasingly move toward customer-centric marketing in the next century. In the practice of customer-centric marketing, the marketing function seeks to fulfill the needs and wants of each individual customer. The antecedents of customer-centric marketing are the increasing pressure on firms to improve marketing productivity, increasing market diversity in household and business markets, and technology applicability. On the basis of the shift toward customer-centric marketing, the authors expect increased importance of marketing as a “supply management” function, customer outsourcing, cocreation marketing, fixedcost marketing, and customer-centric organizations. This article highlights the implications of customer-centric marketing as well as the boundary conditions that will affect its adoption. Jagdish N. Sheth is the Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Gouizeta Business School at Emory University. He has published 26 books and more than 200 articles in marketing and other business disciplines. His book,The Theory of Buyer Behavior (with John A. Howard), is a classic in the field of consumer behavior and is one of the most cited works in marketing. His other books includeMarketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation (with David Gardner and Dennis Garrett) andConsumption Values and Market Choices: Theory and Applications (with Bruce Newman and Barbara Gross). Rajendra S. Sisodia is Trustee Professor of Marketing at Bentley College. Previously, he was an associate professor of marketing and director of executive programs at George Mason University and an assistant professor of marketing at Boston University. He has a Ph.D. in marketing from Columbia University. He has published more than 40 articles in journals such asHarvard Business Review, Journal of Business Strategy, Marketing Letters, andMarketing Management. He has also authored about two dozen cases, primarily on strategic and marketing issues in the telecommunications industry, as well as a number of telecommunications industry and company analyses. Arun Sharma is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Miami. He has published more than 30 articles in marketing and his interests are in the area of market and marketing evolution.     

转型期中国政府过程中制度与角色非良性互动的表现、成因及对策

在当代中国政府过程的政治输入过程、政治转换过程、政治输出过程和政治反馈过程中,制度与角色的非良性互动是客观存在的,其成因包括社会公共需求快速扩张,中国社会需求结构根本性变革;社会转型期政府越位、缺位并存;制度供求关系失衡,制度供大于求与供小于求并存。克服制度与角色的非良性互动的对策包括构建"社会基础秩序",制度优先与增强制度约束的刚性;增加政治机会,增强政治系统的开放性与透明度;培育公民社会,推动政治国家与公民社会的良性互动。     

The consequences of public and private research and development

We investigated the relationship of research and development to higher productivity and industrial efficiency. After reviewing the economic literature and finding no conclusive evidence on this subject we then proceeded to test the hypothesis that R&D does in fact promote increases in productivity which may be expected to lead to higher earnings. We found that until 1963 output per manhour and R&D expenditures in manufacturing industries were significantly related. However, for the last quinquennium (1963–1968) no statistically significant relationship could be shown. The hypothesis that the lack of correlation in the last period was due to Federally financed projects was deemed incorrect. However, it is possible that the lack of correlation was due to a poor choice of projects by the private sector or to an increase in projects which were designed to raise profits by reducing tax liabilities or simply due to activities which emphasized product development rather than efficiency generating research.     

The effect of market orientation and its components on innovation consequences: a meta-analysis

While there is a rich body of research on market orientation’s effect on business performance, much little attention has been given to its effect on innovation consequences. This is the first meta-analytic effort to study the independent effects of market orientation components (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination) on innovation consequences. Also, it is the first meta-analysis to study the impact of contextual characteristics on the way market orientation affects innovation consequences. The study finds that market orientation components positively affect innovation consequences but that competitor orientation’s effect depends on a minimum level of customer orientation. The study also suggests that the relationship between market orientation and innovation consequences is stronger in highly competitive environments but weaker in technology turbulent ones. Finally, findings suggest that the relationship is stronger in large firms, service companies, and in countries characterized by high individualism and high power distance national cultures.

Service sabotage: A study of antecedents and consequences

Although much of the existing research on employee sabotage and deviance focuses on the manufacturing sector, studies have also found evidence of deliberate employee misbehavior in a variety of service settings. In this study, the authors conceptualize and test a model of service sabotage dynamics that incorporates both the antecedents and the consequences of such behaviors. In doing so, the study contributes contemporary empirical evidence of factors associated with the deliberate sabotage of service by frontline customer-contact personnel. Using a survey-based approach, the authors collected data from 259 respondents from a sample of 1,000 respondents. The findings largely support the hypothesized antecedents of service sabotage and show that a range of individual characteristics, management control efforts, and perceived labor market conditions are linked with service sabotage. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that service sabotage behaviors are associated with individual and group rewards, effects for customers, and other performance measures. Lloyd C. Harris (Harris@Cardiff.ac.uk) (PhD, Wales) holds the Sir Julian Hodge Chair in Strategic Marketing at Cardiff Business School. His main research interests include dysfunction at work, the marketing-organizational behavior interface, market orientation, dysfunctional behavior during consumption, e-loyalty, and organizational culture. His work has been published in theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Management Studies, theInternational Journal of Human Resource Management, and theJournal of Services Marketing. Emmanuel Ogbonna (Ogbonna@Cardiff.ac.uk) (PhD, Wales) is a professor of management and organizational behavior at Cardiff Business School. His major research interests are in the areas of organizational strategy, culture, human resource management, and the U.K. food retail sector. His other research interests cover all aspects of race discrimination on government-sponsored training programs. His work has been published in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Service Research, theJournal of Management Studies, theBritish Journal of Industrial Relations, andWork, Employment and Society. He serves on the review board of several international journals.     

Relationship marketing in consumer markets: Antecedents and consequences

Understanding the motivations of consumers to engage in relationships with marketers is important for both practitioners and marketing scholars. To develop an effective theory of relationship marketing, it is necessary to understand what motivates consumers to reduce their available market choices and engage in a relational market behavior by patronizing the same marketer in subsequent choice situations. This article draws on established consumer behavior literature to suggest that consumers engage in relational market behavior due to personal influences, social influences, and institutional influences. Consumers reduce their available choice and engage in relational market behavior because they want to simplify their buying and consuming tasks, simplify information processing, reduce perceived risks, and maintain cognitive consistency and a state of psychological comfort. They also engage in relational market behavior because of family and social norms, peer group pressures, government mandates, religious tenets, employer influences, and marketer policies. The willingness and ability of both consumers and marketers to engage in relational marketing will lead to greater marketing productivity, unless either consumers or marketers abuse the mutual interdependence and cooperation. He has published more than 200 books and research papers in different areas of marketing. His bookThe Theory of Buyer Behavior (1969) with John A. Howard is a classic in the field. He has recently published two scholarly books:Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation (1988) andConsumption Values and Market Choices (1991). He is on the editorial boards of at least a dozen scholarly journals in marketing, international business, and quantitative methods; he is also series editor ofResearch in Marketing (JAI Press). Prior to joining Emory, he was an associate professor of marketing at XLRI Jamshedpur in India. He received his M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University, India. He has authored a number of articles in the area of international marketing, business alliances, and environmental marketing. He is coeditor ofResearch in Marketing (Annual Series, JAI Press) and serves on the editorial review board ofInternational Marketing Review.     

Geographic mobility and demographic and socioeconomic market segmentation

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

国有企业公司治理结构：问题、原因、对策

目前80%的国有大中型骨干企业已初步建立起公司治理结构，但其中很多尚未形成健全的制度安排和规范的运行，内部人控制现象仍十分严重。对此，必须继续深化改革，抓住国有产权这一关键环节，建立合理的国有产权委托代理结构，建立健全有中国特色的公司法人治理结构，从根本上解决公司治理结构存在的问题。     

The evolution of consumer knowledge and sources of information: Hungary in transition

The authors’ research in Hungary during the period of transition to a market economy provides an opportunity to examine the evolving relationships between consumer product knowledge and its antecedents, including advertising, personal search, interpersonal sources, and brand experience. Their findings, based on survey data collected in Budapest in 1992 and 1998, indicate that the market information variables explain more variance in consumer knowledge later rather than earlier in the transition. Advertising is an important predictor of consumer knowledge later but not earlier in the transition, personal search is important at both times, and interpersonal sources are not important in either time period; brand experience is negatively related to knowledge earlier in the transition and positively related later in the transition. This study allows one to begin to understand the boundary conditions associated with studies conducted in developed economies. Managerial implications for firms investing in transitional economies are presented. Robin A. Coulter (robin.coulter@business.uconn.edu) is Ackerman Scholar and an associate professor of marketing in the School of Business at the University of Connecticut. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include branding, cross-cultural consumer behavior, advertising, and research methods. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Applied Psychology, and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. Linda L. Price (llprice@email.arizona.edu) is Soldwedel Professor of Marketing in the Eller School of Management at the University of Arizona. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine the active, emotional, imaginative aspects of consumers’ decisions and activities, and the social and cultural context of marketplace behaviors. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and other leading marketing, management, and social science journals. Lawrence Feick (feick@katz.pitt.edu) is a professor of business administration in the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. His current research focuses on cross-cultural consumer behavior, consumer word-of-mouth, and referrals. His work has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Bulletin, andPublic Opinion Quarterly. Camelia Micu (camelia.micu@business.uconn.edu) is a marketing doctoral candidate at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include advertising and product trial and cross-cultural consumer behavior.     

The adaptive consequences of pride in personal selling

This study examines the adaptive consequences of pride in personal selling and its self-regulation with colleagues and customers. Study 1 investigates the effects of experiencing pride, where two benefits were found. First, pride increases salespersons’ performance-related motivations. Specifically, it promotes the use of adaptive selling strategies, greater effort, and self-efficacy. Second, pride positively affects organizational citizenship behaviors. Study 2 takes an emotion-process point of view and compares excessive pride (hubris) with positive pride. The results show that salespeople are capable of self-regulating the expression of these emotions differently toward colleagues and customers via anticipated feelings of fear, shame, and regret. Salespeople, in other words, are affected by their emotions, but they also are capable of controlling them to their advantage. Willem Verbeke (verbeke@few.eur.nl) is a chaired professor of sales and account management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His research has appeared in a number of academic journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Management, theJournal of Organizational Behavior, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His area of research interests includes personal selling, sales management, emotions and emotion regulation, social capital, and knowledge management. Frank Belschak (belschak@few.eur.nl) is an assistant professor of marketing and organizational behavior at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Cologne in Germany. His current research interests include emotions and emotion regulation in organizations and across cultures, as well as social capital and networks. Richard P. Bagozzi (bagozzi@rice.edu) is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management in the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and a professor of psychology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He conducts research on human emotions, the theory of action, goal setting and goal striving, and structural equation methods.     

Customer engagement: the construct,antecedents, and consequences

In this study, we highlight the need and develop a framework for customer engagement (CE) by reviewing the marketing literature and analyzing popular press articles. By understanding the evolution of customer management, we develop the theory of engagement, arguing that when a relationship is satisfying and has emotional connectedness, the partners become engaged in their concern for each other. As a result, the components of customer engagement include both the direct and the indirect contributions of CE. Based on the theoretical support, our proposed framework elaborates on the components of CE as well as the antecedents (satisfaction and emotion) and consequences (tangible and intangible outcomes) of CE. We also discuss how convenience, nature of the firm (B2B vs. B2C), type of industry (service vs. product), value of the brand (high vs. low), and level of involvement (high vs. low) moderate the link between satisfaction and direct contribution, and between emotions and indirect contribution of CE, respectively. Further, we show how customer engagement can be gained and how firm performance can be maximized by discussing relevant strategies.     

Consumer switching costs: A typology,antecedents, and consequences

The management of customer switching costs has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive typology for conceptualizing, categorizing, and measuring consumers' perceptions of these costs. This research develops a switching cost typology that identifies three types of switching costs: (1) procedural switching costs, primarily involving the loss of time and effort; (2) financial switching costs, involving the loss of financially quantifiable resources; and (3) relational switching costs, involving psychological or emotional discomfort due to the loss of identity and the breaking of bonds. The research then examines the antecedents and consequences of switching costs. The results suggest that consumers' perceptions of product complexity and provider heterogeneity, their breadth of product use, and their alternative provider and switching experience drive the switching costs they perceive. Furthermore, all three switching cost types significantly influence consumers' intentions to stay with their current service provider, explaining more variance than does satisfaction. In view of the potential importance of switching costs, the impact of all strategic moves on switching costs should be considered Michael Porter (1980:122). Thomas A. Burnham (Tburnham@scu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. His research investigates the strategic management of consumer switching costs and the use of customer suggestions in product improvement. Prior to obtaining his doctorate, he developed strategic reports and budgets for MCI Telecommunications and consulted with the management of a cooperative in Paraguay as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Judy K. Frels (Jfrels@rhsmith.umd.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on the marketing of high-technology products, innovation adoption, and consumer switching costs. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., she spent 10 years developing operating systems and compilers, as well as managing and marketing software and hardware products at IBM and at Tymlabs Corporation. She has consulted with firms including SAIC, Imation, Input-Output, Inc., and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Vijay Mahajan (Vmahajan@mail.utexas.edu) is John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. He is currently serving as dean of the Indian school of Management, Hyderabad, India. He has published extensively on innovation diffusion, new product development, and strategic marketing.     

论高校公共英语教学与商务英语教学的过渡与衔接

随着我国国际商务活动的日渐频繁,对商业人才的专业外语使用提出了更高的要求。如何在高等院校将公共英语基础课和专业英语课结合起来成为外语教学中值得关注的话题。因此针对基础英语和商务英语的特点,从几个方面探讨了实现两者过渡和衔接的方法。     

不可逾越的历史阶段－－“过渡时期”与“初级阶段”比较探讨

马克思恩格斯提出的社会主义社会以及在资本主义社会和社会主义社会之间存在的过渡时期都具有一定的特征和特定的历史任务，而邓小平在新的历史条件下提出的社会主义神经阶段理论是对马克思主义“过渡时期”理论的继承和发展，社会主义初级阶段是为实现社会主义社会准备明条件的历史阶段，它的一般特征和特定的历史任务和“过渡时期”有相同点也有很大不同点，是不可逾越的社会主义历史发展阶段阶段。背信弃义发展起来的跨国公司、网络经济等经济全球化明是实现社会主义社会的物质基础，人类社会只有发展到那个时期，才能携手进入标准社会主义社会，广义的共产主义包括社会主义初级阶段，标准社会主义社会阶段和高级阶段的共产主义社会阶段。     

Institutionalization of ethics and its consequences: a survey of marketing professionals

Because of increasing ethical problems in business, organizations have tried to control these problems by institutionalizing ethics, such as by creating new ethics positions and formulating codes of ethics. In this study, the authors develop a scale for measuring the institutionalization of ethics in organizations and assess it for dimensionality, reliability and validity. Two separate studies are conducted, both using samples drawn from an American Marketing Association practitioner population. In Study 1, using a sample of 126 marketing practitioners, we performed exploratory factor analysis on 44 institutionalization items resulting in two separate dimensions of the institutionalization of ethics construct: implicit and explicit institutionalization. Using a national sample of 306 marketing practitioners in Study 2, we performed confirmatory factor analysis on these two dimensions and investigated the effects of these dimensions on perceived importance of ethics, job satisfaction, esprit de corps and organizational commitment. Implicit institutionalization had a significant direct affect on all four of these constructs. On the other hand, explicit institutionalization significantly influenced only the perceived importance of ethics.     

Bottom-up learning in marketing frontlines: conceptualization, processes, and consequences

This study proposes a frontline learning process by which organizations capture new knowledge generated by frontline employees in addressing productivity-quality tradeoffs during customer interactions and transform it into updated knowledge for frontline use. Updated knowledge, in turn, is posited to influence customer satisfaction and financial outcomes (i.e., revenue, efficiency). Empirical testing with multi-source data reveals that: (1) knowledge articulation mediates the transformation of knowledge generated in the frontlines into updated knowledge, (2) updated frontline knowledge positively impacts customer and financial outcomes, and (3) frontline employee workload inhibits the transformational process unless it is at an intermediate level (inverted U-effect), while employee goal convergence bolsters it linearly.     

企业人才流失的原因与对策

作为现代企业最为关键的核心资源,人力资源是企业核心竞争力形成和培育的载体和关键因素,人才是企业求得生存和实现持续发展的根本保障,是现代企业的第一资本.人才流失对现代企业产生的负面影响不言而喻,企业要重视人才流失问题及全面深入分析导致此种现象的原因,树立先进的人才管理理念、提高人力资源管理水平、强调企业文化建设的重要性、重视企业人才流失管理机制的建设和完善,切实减少企业人才流失现象的发生.     

不稳定态涉农供应链:形成根源与基本对策

首先探析了涉农供应链内生不稳定性的根源 ,然后例示了不确定因素交互作用对涉农供应链的不利影响 ,最后着重分析和提出增强涉农供应链稳定性的基本思路和对策     

企业信用不良的现实、原因及对策--关于嘉兴市企业逃废债情况的调查分析

政府不当干预、贷款行自身内部管理、法律法规不健全等多重原因导致了企业信用不良.为了确实保障金融债权,基层政府部门应积极发挥正面作用,金融机构应努力提高自身管理水平,中央银行应加大对金融债权保全的管理力度.