When and why do customer solutions pay off in business markets?

Manufacturers invest in customer solutions to differentiate their offerings and sustain profitability despite declining margins from goods sales. Notwithstanding strong managerial and academic interest, an examination of whether and explanations for when and why solutions translate into superior performance are lacking. We test hypotheses developed from the resource-based theory and transaction cost economics, supplemented with in-depth theory-in-use interviews, on primary and secondary data collected from 175 manufacturers. From a model that corrects for endogeneity, the findings suggest that, compared with other service offerings, solutions are associated with increased return on sales. This positive profitability effect is enhanced in firms with greater sales capabilities; it is stronger in industries with greater buyer power but weaker in technology-intensive industries. These results caution against the simplistic view of solutions as a universal route to gaining competitive advantage and aid in better identifying the role of solutions in a manufacturer’s offering portfolio.     

Does marketing and sales integration always pay off? Evidence from a social capital perspective

Building on social capital theory, we view the marketing and sales interface as a set of inter-group ties and investigate how cross-functional relationships may facilitate the development of social capital associated with value creation. Our findings suggest that social capital embedded in marketing and sales relationships can inhibit a firm’s performance depending on the characteristics of its customers. Our results also demonstrate that managing the marketing and sales interface at different levels of customer concentration is critical to the success of a firm’s performance.     

Why and how do creative thinking techniques work?: Trading off originality and appropriateness to make more creative advertising

The research examines the effects of divergent and convergent creative thinking techniques on creative ideation processes. To analyze these effects an experiment is undertaken on advertising creatives, account executives, and students. Results demonstrate that divergent thinking techniques improve the idea originality of account executives, but not creatives. Alternatively, creatives produce more appropriate ideas by using convergent thinking techniques, yet account executive performance is clearly harmed by them. Few effects are seen on the student control group, who lack both knowledge of techniques and the domain. The findings suggest that creativity techniques are not a one-size-fits-all proposition but need to be tailored to the person and the situation in which they are applied. Implications for researchers and marketing managers are discussed.     

Market-based capabilities and financial performance of firms: insights into marketing’s contribution to firm value

While there is recognition that market-based capabilities contribute to a firm’s financial performance, the exposition is largely conceptual (Srivastava et al. Journal of Marketing 62:2–18, 1998; Journal of Marketing 63:168–179, 1999). Using a resource based view of the firm, the present study proposes that (1) market-based assets and capabilities of a firm impacts (2) performance in three market-facing business processes (new product development, supply-chain and customer management), which in turn, influence (3) the firm’s financial performance. It develops related hypotheses and tests the framework empirically. The study also examines for the first time the interrelationship among the three business processes and their impact on the market value of firms. Further, the study examines the moderating influence of two organizational variables—size and age of the firm. Overall, the major contribution of the study is that it offers a process linkage between capabilities, process performance and financial performance. The results of this research will provide strategic insights to managers on optimal customer management, product development and supply chain strategies.

Where is the opportunity without the customer? An integration of marketing activities, the entrepreneurship process, and institutional theory

Marketing and entrepreneurship have long been recognized as two key responsibilities of the firm. Despite their tight integration in practice, marketing and entrepreneurship as domains of scholarly inquiry have largely progressed within their respective disciplinary boundaries with minimal cross-disciplinary fertilization. Furthermore, although firms increasingly undertake their marketing and entrepreneurial activities across diverse settings, academe has provided little insight into how changes in the institutional environment may substantially alter the processes and outcomes of these undertakings. Herein, we integrate research on marketing activities, the entrepreneurship process, and institutional theory in an effort to address this gap. We first discuss market orientation as enhancing a firm??s opportunity recognition and innovation, whereas marketing mix decisions enhance opportunity exploitation. We then examine how entrepreneurship leads to innovation directed toward market orientation and marketing mix activities. Based on this foundation, we examine differences in marketing and entrepreneurship activities across institutional contexts.     

Nonlinear and asymmetric returns on customer satisfaction: do they vary across situations and consumers?

Customer satisfaction is generally acknowledged as a key determinant of the value a customer contributes to a firm. Following the widespread recognition that the relationship is nonlinear and possibly even asymmetric, the authors develop a framework for understanding and predicting functional differences across consumers and situations. The resultant conceptualization proposes two general categories of moderating factors: Type I moderators, which induce functional changes by impacting the underlying comparison standards employed in the CS formation process, and Type II moderators, which cause the function to change by altering the interplay of cognitive and affective modes of the satisfaction experience. The authors employ firm reputation as an example of a Type I moderation and customer involvement as an example of a Type II moderation to illustrate differences between these types of moderation and to highlight how exactly each type of moderation changes the functional nature of the focal relationship. Specifically, a firm with a strong reputation benefits from a broader zone of tolerance than a firm of minor reputation, and highly involved customers react more intensively to extreme changes in satisfaction than do low involvement consumers.     

How do the success factors driving repurchase intent differ between male and female customers?

As customers’ repurchase behavior leads to long-term corporate profitability, managers should know the success factors influencing repurchase intent. Knowledge of gender differences in these success factors would enable managers to separately optimize repurchase intent for men and women. This research thus develops original hypotheses on gender differences in the formation of repurchase intent. Based on hierarchical linear modeling of data from five countries and ten industries, this research finds that public brand image more strongly influences customer satisfaction and repurchase intent for women than for men. Perceived value has a weaker effect on repurchase intent for women than for men. The analyses do not detect any gender difference in the influence of customer satisfaction on repurchase intent. Contrary to conventional wisdom, relational switching costs more strongly influence repurchase intent for men than for women. Further analyses illustrate moderating effects of country differences in gender egalitarianism and of contextual differences between products and services.     

Understanding the co-creation effect: when does collaborating with customers provide a lift to service recovery?

Because co-creation allows customers to help shape or personalize the content of their experience, it can affect customer satisfaction with recovery efforts, as well as offer a more cost-effective alternative to compensation. This article identifies specific situations in which co-creation is and is not useful. Study 1 tests the impact of co-creation in comparison with compensation for enhancing satisfaction with the recovery process and demonstrates that co-creation offers a cost-efficient strategy for companies when customers must deal with severe delays. Study 2 extends these results by showing that the impact extends to repurchase intentions. Study 3 details conditions in which co-creation harms evaluations. Finally, Study 4 explores whether it is necessary for the company to meet the customer??s requests when co-creating a recovery, as well as what happens when the company exceeds a customer??s requests. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and research directions that emerge from the studies.     

The invisible backhand or the “New marketing concept” must be turning Adam Smith in his grave

The drive to enlarge the marketing concept to embrance non-profit organizations has drawn attention to the tools and techniques of marketing at the expense of an appreciation for marketing’s function in the business world. This paper calls for a renewed awareness of the central role of profits, particularly with respect to social responsibility concerns. Many actions by business labelled as socially responsible are merely the result of enlightened profit motivation. Those actions which sacrifice long run profit for social action are seen as being beyond the purview of the business enterprise.     

收费公路政策:“功臣”还是“罪人”?

通过对我国公路相关费用的估算,发现我国公路总投资相对于我们的估算来说,远低于我国公路相关费用。另外,贷款修路,收费还贷的方式已经成为我国高昂社会成本的推动力,中国高速公路的畸形发展恰恰是目前道路收费政策直接结果。此外,由于收费政策中的政府寻租,中国道路已经丧失了公共物品的属性,而沦为政府敛财的手段。     

Creating commitment and loyalty behavior among retailers: what are the roles of service quality and satisfaction?

As a result of weakening brand image/loyalty, little differentiation, and intense price competition, manufacturers are now increasingly pressed to ensure retailers’ shelf space and/or salesperson attention. This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining an underrepresented body of literature in the B2B context—retailer loyalty. Specifically, this study fills a gap by investigating retailer evaluations of the technical and relational dimensions of a manufacturer’s order fulfillment service quality as predictors of retailer satisfaction, affective versus calculative commitment, and ultimately loyalty behavior. Results suggest that both technical and relational order fulfillment service quality influence satisfaction, which in turn positively affects both affective and calculative commitment. By separating the affective and calculative dimensions, loyalty behavior is associated directly only with affective commitment. Further examination reveals that relational order fulfillment service quality has a direct impact on affective commitment. When the sample was split based on “share of wallet,” results suggest that satisfaction impacts both affective and calculative commitment, regardless of “share of wallet.” For “high share” retailers, the positive relationship of calculative to affective commitment creates an indirect route (through affective commitment) by which calculative commitment affects behavioral loyalty.     

Corporate brand name changes and business restructuring: is the relationship complementary or substitutive?

Corporate brands are strategic assets for organizations, but it is difficult to understand the value added by corporate brand name changes because they often occur simultaneously with business restructuring initiatives. The authors test a framework that delineates the informational relationship between corporate name changes and business restructuring initiatives. The hypothesis is tested on a sample of jointly announced corporate name changes and business restructuring initiatives. The results show that jointly announced corporate name changes and business restructuring are significantly more informative than the sum of their individual effects. The results further suggest that the information complementarity arises because corporate brand name changes resolve uncertainty and help in coordinating business restructuring initiatives. The results do not support the view that corporate brand name changes are cosmetic and/or primarily signals for business restructuring. The study offers a promising research foundation for understanding the value of marketing actions announced jointly with other corporate events.     

“互联网一代”:因技术而不同?

<正>年轻人、技术、网络、社交、黑客文化,且听一位人类学家娓娓道来。年轻人是由于技术的影响变得与众不同吗?微软公司的高级研究员黛娜·波伊德(Danah Boyd)说,不尽然。成年人担心年轻人会在互联网上做什么坏事情,但是波伊德说,互联网上发生的事情也不过是有关社交、性和试验的普通的成长故事——只不过现在这些故事挂在了网页上。她还说,对青少     

儿童用品市场:“洋风”劲吹为哪般?

近年来,伴随着我国儿童用品市场流通领域的不断扩大,外国品牌的儿童用品已从我国沿海地区逐步渗透到内地,国货不是俯首称臣,就是被其“收编”,成为其进军中国市场的铺路石:有些国产儿童用品则披上了洋外衣,使得儿童用品市场充斥着“假洋鬼子”。面对日趋洋化的儿童用品市场,人们不禁要问——     

公司的慈善性捐赠:“烧钱”,还是“吸钱”?

基于2008-2014年我国沪深A股市场的数据,研究了公司的慈善性行为是否得到证券投资基金的认可,同时考虑了企业的产权性质和公司的治理水平的差异对二者关系的影响。研究发现:公司的慈善性捐赠行为会导致基金的增持,而该效应在民营企业显著,而且公司的慈善性捐赠行为能够增加公司未来的业绩,进一步发现基金的持股行为能够增强该效应,并发现只有在代理成本较低组,公司慈善捐赠对公司的未来业绩的影响更加明显。企业产权制度差异和企业的自身公司治理水平也是影响公司的慈善性捐赠及其经济后果的重要因素。因而需要营造公平、公正的经营环境,企业自身也要提高公司治理水平,规范企业的决策和运行程序。     

农村社会养老:政府应该办“保险”还是办“福利”?

我国农村社会养老制度设计思路从老农保的商业保险模式到新农保参照"社会统筹+个人账户"的城保模式是一个飞跃,但新农保主要是依靠财政的大力支持。在新农保对象拿到的养老金中,财政补贴大约占85%,而围绕个人15%左右的缴费,要花费如收费、记账、保管、投资、监管等一系列的引致社会成本,就这一部分而言,社会收益与社会成本是不对称的。而且,在当前的农村地区,不仅东部与中西部地区之间差别很大,同一地区的农户间,由于收入来源的多元化,收入差别也很大。政府应把城保变为"国民社会养老保险",使有条件的农民可以自愿参加城保,没有入城保的农民,再发放基础养老金福利,无需个人缴费。这样,让农民老有所养的制度设计思路转变为"国民社会养老保险+基础养老金福利"模式,既简便易行,又节省社会成本,不仅减少了我国已"碎片化"社会保障体系的一块补丁,也有利于平滑地向城乡一体化的社会过渡。     

The link between attractiveness of “Extrabrand” attributes and the adoption of innovations

While innovators may rush to purchase many new products, most consumers are more conservative and do not want to buy into fads but purchase only those new products that are viable. How do the majority of consumers make judgments about whether they will adopt an innovation? This article examines the evaluative aspects of adoption as a means for better understanding consumer adoption and the market factors that may influence the success of an innovation. This research introduces a conceptual model that shows how consumers’ evaluation of product category attractiveness affects the adoption decision for really new products. These consumer evaluations are based on the attributes of the product category (“extrabrand” attributes) rather than brand attributes. Results from a test of the model indicate that consumers do use extrabrand attributes to assess the attractiveness of innovative new products.     

欧盟能源新政:真能开启全球“后工业革命”时代?

1月10日,欧盟委员会推出一份内容庞杂的新能源政策动议,以图摆脱欧盟对传统能源及进口的过度依赖。新能源政策主张“开源节流”,从可再生能源开发、提高能效和温室气体减排三个方面分别设定了雄心勃勃的目标。     

绿色能源示范县:“蛋糕”如何做大?——绿色能源示范县建设的国家财政补贴重在落实

面对国家几十亿元补贴砸向首批108个绿色能源示范县,质疑声不断涌现:在规模不断扩大、企业参与积极性不足、后续资金难以维系的现实之下,这一新能源项目补贴政策会不会只是带来又一轮盲目扩建潮?这到底是中国农村新能源利用的里程碑,还会是又一大批新能源烂尾楼项目?