Information Technology and Customer Orientation: A Study of Direct,Mediated, and Interactive Linkages

This study investigates whether and how information technology (IT) is linked to a firm's ability to understand and fulfil customer needs, i.e. customer orientation. IT alone or in tandem with other strategic resources may enable businesses to process market intelligence and coordinate organisational responses to meet evolving buyer preferences. Based on a survey of senior marketing managers and PLS path model analyses, we learned that greater IT capabilities are associated with higher customer orientation but in mediated and interactive ways with marketing information quality and organisational trust. These and other findings largely supported the conceptual model. An implication is that while IT capabilities can help firms be more customer-focused, other critical resources must also be present.     

Fitting strategic resources with product-market strategy: Performance implications

Resources, strategy, and performance inter-relationships are central to strategic marketing theory. Strategic resources are key inputs to product-market strategy that form the basis of superior firm performance. However, these inter-relationships are subject to ‘fit’ requirements. This article examines the hypothesis that greater fit between the strategic resources of marketing organizations and product-market strategy encourages superior financial and customer-market performance. This fit is most important to marketing organizations exhibiting either a Defender or Analyzer strategic orientation. No significant relationship is found for fit among Prospectors.     

Fitting strategy derived from strategic orientation to international contexts

The search for strategic fit within a market has become a core concept in strategy research. The issue of strategic fit is becoming increasingly important in international strategy as managers and academics explore the uniqueness of international markets. Unfortunately, during a time of open market diversity, many firms are driving toward a singular strategic orientation (i.e., market orientation), thus ignoring the underlying problems and criticisms with a standardized strategy, often resulting in suboptimal performance. A model highlighting the criteria necessary for fitting strategy to international contexts is developed. An empirical illustration is then used to examine the benefits of strategically fitting strategy to context. Finally, a process is provided to assist managers in the formation and implementation of their strategy. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Undergraduate Education: The Implications of Cross-Functional,Relationships in Business Marketing–The Skills of High-Performing Managers

ABSTRACT

Like other specialty areas in the business school curriculum, marketing management classes emphasize an analytical perspective and provide students with a valuable set of strategy tools, but fail to come to grips with other facets of the managerial work of marketing-namely, the relational skills that are required for managing across functions, reconciling diverse interests, and creating integrated strategies and customer solutions. By serving as an advocate for the customer at various levels of the organizational hierarchy and across functions, the business marketer must initiate, develop, nurture, and sustain a rich network of relationships with multiple constituencies within the firm and within customer organizations. To effectively perform this challenging interdisciplinary role, a unique set of relationship management skills are required. This article explores the collaborative skills that high-performing managers have mastered and examines the resulting implications for the business marketing course. Recent research is examined that reveals the characteristics of reputationally effective managers, isolates the factors that define effective cross-functional exchange episodes, and details the specific behavior that top-performing account managers employ. By exploring the relational competencies that are instrumental to the work of marketing managers, the business marketing course can fill an important gap in the marketing curriculum.     

The Effects of Cultural Dimensions on Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: An Exploratory Study

As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along specific, cultural dimensions have not been directly examined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in ethical decision making within Hofstede's cultural framework. The results confirm the utility of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and place ethical decision making within an overall theoretical framework. Sales agents from a high power distance, uncertainty avoidant, Confucian, collectivist culture (i.e., Taiwan) placed more value on company and fellow employee interests (vis-à-vis self interests) than did managers from a masculine, individualistic culture (i.e., the United States). American and Taiwanese managers did not differ in their deontological norms or on the importance that they placed on customer interests. The theoretical and managerial importance of these findings are also discussed.     

I might try it: Marketing actions to reduce consumer disgust toward insect-based food

Despite the potential health- and sustainability-related benefits of insect-based food products, many consumers do not perceive them as an alternative to conventional foods. This research provides a systematic approach to explain consumer reactions to insect-based food products conducting a series of multi-method studies involving implicit, self-reported, and actual behavioral responses to real insect-based food products (provided by a partner company). The authors investigate how product type (i.e., whether the insect-based food is utilitarian or hedonic in nature) and packaging characteristics (i.e., whether the image of a real or stylized insect is present on the front packaging or not) interact with consumer-related characteristics (i.e., health consciousness and food neophobia) to affect feelings of disgust, which in turn influence willingness to try insect-based food products. A distinctive feature of this research is that a partner company used the findings to change its marketing tactics and observed an improvement in its market performance. Our research has clear implications for marketing managers trying to overcome consumer resistance to eating insect-based foods, as well as retail managers considering marketing such food products.     

The Potential of Information Technology in Facilitating Relationship Marketing

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of information technologies in facilitating a relationship-marketing orientation. On the basis of conceptual and empirical contributions, we propose that while the use of IT can improve customer knowledge, it does not facilitate me acquisition of me other elements required to develop long-term relationships with customers and clients (i.e., trust, commitment and personalization). Our survey of top managers supports our contention that the use of IT does not suffice to facilitate marketing orientation.     

“Marketing Managers” in the Context of Global Supply Chains: Functional Versus Multiple IQ Competencies

Managerial scholars have suggested that “g” score (i.e., intelligence) tests are not enough to assess and select the appropriate candidates for some jobs. Other dimensions can play just as important a role in employee performance. Thus, the purpose of this article is to expand our view in terms of criteria that may be used as it relates to global supply chain managers. We present a nine-base typology to assist researchers and managers in assessing the true dynamics of global supply chain manager intelligence. The typology of intelligence includes the dimensions of cognitive, social, political, emotional, structural, intuition, experiential, creative, and network. We build our model by using intelligence dimensions from management, industrial organizational psychology, marketing and organizational behavior, and perspectives that include relational contracting norms, relationship marketing, networking, and communications. We propose that global supply chain managers need all nine bases to perform well in the global business arena.     

Thinking Creatively about Your Market: Crisps, Perfume and Business Strategy

This article starts from the premise that "identifying a market is, in effect, identifying a business". Bringing together economics, marketing and strategy, it seeks to extend the ways that managers can identify and develop existing and new markets – and therefore businesses. It concludes by setting out a three-stage process by which managers can distinguish which business opportunities to select.     

Salesperson CLV orientation's effect on performance

Previous studies show how strategies based on the customer lifetime value (CLV) can lead to an increase of profitability for a firm. In this context, marketing serves the purpose of maximizing CLV and customer equity (the CLV of current and future customers). For most types of service firms, salespeople are direct participants in implementing the CLV concept. However, prior research does not answer the question of whether or how salesperson CLV orientation can enhance profits. Using data on salespeople in a large Chilean retail bank, this study shows that the effect of salesperson CLV orientation on salesperson performance follows an S-shaped function (which is first convex and then concave). Additionally, data does not support the idea that the optimum level of CLV orientation depends on salesperson customer orientation, salesperson adaptive selling behavior, or salesperson experience (i.e., CLV-oriented behaviors could be effective across a wide range of salespeople). As such, this study addresses an important concern among researchers and managers that is related to how to increase the salesperson performance. The findings of this study suggest that firms need to monitor individual salesperson CLV orientation more closely.     

Managing Family Businesses in Small Communities

Small businesses located in communities with populations of less than 10,000 were identified in a national sample of family businesses and examined for differences in their management strategies (n = 384). These businesses were first clustered by level and type of management strategy and then analyzed to ascertain differences and similarities in both personal and business firm characteristics among the family business manager groupings. Problems associated with small business management and sources of assistance were also identified. Findings suggest that managers of small family businesses located in small U.S. communities who practiced strategies focusing on extensive planning and controlling perceived their businesses to be successful; however, these managers noted that their greatest problem involved development of sound marketing strategies.     

Business strategy and the management of digital marketing

The internet brought disruptive change to the business landscape through the creation of a whole host of digital marketing tactics. But with these new tactical options has come the need for marketing managers to (1) prioritize what they wish to accomplish and (2) determine which digital marketing tactics to invest in. We consider these issues from the perspective of four business strategies: prospectors, analyzers, low-cost defenders, and differentiated defenders. In this article, we provide marketing managers with insights into how businesses pursuing various strategies approach these digital marketing issues, with the ultimate goal being to assist managers in the efficient and effective implementation of their firm’s adopted strategy.     

A Taxonomic Analysis of Export Marketing Strategy:

This study focused on a taxonomic analysis of export marketing strategy pursued by U.S. electronics exporters, and identified six distinct strategy types, i.e., innovative differentiation, low price leadership, promotion- and technology-based differentiation, low price leadership with deemphasis on technology, marketing differntiation with product adaptation, and "stuck in the middle." The study also identified the significant impact of export marketing strategy on export performance. Two strategy types, i.e., low price leadership and innovative differentiation, were found to be particularly successful.     

The Impact of Moral Emotions on Cause-Related Marketing Campaigns: A Cross-Cultural Examination

This research was focused on investigating why some consumers might support cause-related marketing campaigns for reasons other than personal benefit by examining the influence of moral emotions and cultural orientation. The authors investigated the extent to which moral emotions operate differently across a cultural variable (US versus Korea) and an individual difference variable (self-construal). A survey method was utilised. Data were collected from a convenience sample of US (n = 180) and Korean (n = 191) undergraduates. Moral emotions significantly influenced purchase intention for a social-cause product. The influence of an ego-focused moral emotion (i.e., pride) on purchase intention was greater for US than Korean participants. The influence of another-focused moral emotion (i.e., guilt) on purchase intention was greater for high-interdependent participants than for low-interdependent participants. The findings of this research provide important and relevant implications to marketers and policy makers in developing persuasive messages and customer relationship programmes.     

Organizational Learning and Market Orientation in International Marketing Education

SUMMARY

This study develops and tests a series of relationships between organizational learning and market orientation as it pertains to international marketing education. The focus is on the activities and relationships between the students, faculty, and staff in the international marketing/business program at three schools in the north, midwest, and south United States. Based on a sample of 193 undergraduate and graduate international marketing students, the results suggest that organizational learning (class and major area-based learning)-team orientation, systems orientation, learning orientation, and memory orientation-positively influences market orientation learning outcomes (i.e., intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness). The major implication of the study is that the education provided to the students in an international marketing course (i.e., upper-division university course) can be enhanced by focusing on organizational learning tools as a means to increase the shared knowledge level among the Students.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and small business performance: a configurational approach

The strategy and entrepreneurship literatures suggest that an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) improves firm performance, but the empirical results are mixed. In this article, we investigate the EO of small businesses and find that a main-effects-only analysis provides an incomplete picture of performance. Access to capital and the dynamism of the environment are important to small businesses, and we find that when combined with EO (a three-way interaction model) the configurational approach explains variance in performance over and above a contingency model (two-way interactions) and a main-effects-only model.     

Embodied Product Perception: Effects of Verticality Cues in Advertising and Packaging Design on Consumer Impressions and Price Expectations

As consumers increasingly turn to luxury brands and associated benefits, brand managers face the question how to convey luxury perceptions via marketing communications such as packaging and advertising design. Inspired by theories addressing embodied cognition and symbolic meaning portrayal, this paper argues that visual cues inspiring verticality perceptions (i.e., camera angle and advertising background orientation) affect luxury perceptions and, consequently, consumer evaluations and price expectations. Across three experiments, verticality cues fostered perceptions of product luxury but differentially affected price expectations and purchase considerations depending on product type. Moreover, findings show that effects of vertical orientation are more pronounced for participants high on sociable dominance. Implications of these findings for visual brand management are discussed.     

Beyond Paternalism: Cross-cultural Perspectives on the Functioning of a Mexican Production Plant

Expatriate managers of international businesses in emerging countries often struggle to mobilize their workforces. They sometimes perceive profound cultural differences as a barrier to the progress of their organizations. Some international businesses may adopt a paternalistic attitude toward their employees; but this questionable strategy brings mixed results. Are there ways out of paternalism for international businesses in emerging areas? This paper examines the diverging views held by foreign managers and local personnel of a foreign-owned production plant in Mexico, which managed to mobilize its workforce by building a strong sense of community, allowing a certain form of collective control to replace the paternalistic model, with its bonds of personal allegiance. Contrasting perspectives between Mexican and foreign employees show that intercultural misunderstandings, rather than the peculiarities of the local culture, are the greatest challenge to cooperation.     

Impact of Traditional Chinese Culture on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing and Service Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This work addresses the mixed findings in relationship marketing studies regarding the importance of traditional culture-level (i.e., interpersonal) relationships on service firm outcomes.

Methodology/approach: This article leverages customer relationship marketing (CRM) theory to advance a framework for understanding the causal relationship between the Chinese cultural worldview and relationship marketing in order to better predict firm performance.

Findings: The author suggests that five major Chinese cultural characteristics—iren-qing, wa-pao, mianzi, chaxu-geju, and collectivism—can qualify the business-to-business (B-to-B) relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on service firm outcomes.

Research implications: The study’s framework suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics, universal concepts manifest in the activities of Chinese society and organizations, have a positive effect on customer relationship marketing. Chinese culture characteristics can be used to generate excellent relationships with customers and thus create a consumer preference for certain companies and drive service marketing repurchase.

Originality/value/contribution: This study’s theoretical framework (a) distinguishes between Chinese cultural characteristic and relationship marketing relationships; (b) suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics and customer relationship marketing have a positive and substantial effect on service firm performance and that Chinese cultural characteristics are related to customer relationship marketing in their effect on service firm performance; and (c) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

Grassroots innovation success: The role of self-determination and leadership style

An increasing number of firms engage in grassroots innovation, i.e., the voluntary generation and development of innovations by any member of an organization, regardless of function or seniority. However, no empirical study to date identifies the determinants of success or failure of grassroots innovation initiatives. We execute a survey study among 3,728 managers in 14 countries, 2,353 of which (63.1%) had already engaged in grassroots innovation. We find that, on average, firms that adopt grassroots innovation outperform firms that do not. We also find that firms that enable (1) employee autonomy, (2) competence development, and (3) relatedness (i.e., helping employees establish mutually beneficial relationships with trusted colleagues) in their grassroots innovation initiatives outperform firms that do not. We document that such effects are contingent on a firm’s institutional environment (i.e., leadership style and market orientation). For instance, the lower the market orientation and the higher the hierarchical leadership of the firm, the higher the performance returns the firm obtains from fostering autonomy and relatedness in grassroots innovation. These findings encourage managers and firms to adopt (or persist in their) grassroots innovation initiatives, to infuse them with sufficient autonomy, competence, and relatedness and match them with the right leadership style.