Effects of Extrinsic Attributes on Perceived Quality,Customer Value,and Behavioral Intentions in B2B Settings: A Comparison Across Goods and Service Industries

ABSTRACT

The traditional formulation of customer value is a trade off of benefits and sacrifices, with intrinsic quality typically being the primary benefit, and price typically being the primary sacrifice. While additional sacrifices have been proposed in the literature (e.g., time and effort), we explore three additional benefits, the extrinsic attributes of industry leadership, innovation, and customer focus and their effects on a hierarchical quality-value-intention system. Data gathered from two distinct business-to-business domains, one goods and one services, showed that extrinsic attributes impacted elements of the quality-value-intention system. It was also found that quality and customer focus (an extrinsic attribute) differed in their effects across goods and services contexts. Managerial implications are discussed for creating customer perceived value in goods and services industries.     

Bridging the B2C and B2B Research Divide: The Domain of Retailing Literature

As the oldest academic journal in marketing, Journal of Retailing publishes research dealing with all sorts of B2B and B2C retailing-related topics. However, there appears to be a perception that Journal of Retailing welcomes only research pertaining to B2C issues. In this article, we debunk that perception through an analysis of the content of Journal of Retailing articles published during the 2002-2008 period. In particular, we find that only 18.7% of Journal of Retailing's content is devoted exclusively to B2C or C2C (consumer-to-consumer) topics. The remainder focuses on B2B research issues. We explore the implications of these findings for researchers who wish to pursue retailing-related B2B research.     

Ethical Customer Value Creation: Drivers and Barriers

There is a long-standing discussion on the positive interactions between enterprise value creation and business competitiveness. The corporate value can be seen as being created from three major sources within the cycle – from employees, from processes, and from customers or investors through reinvestment. To achieve competitive advantages, a firm must create more value than its competitors in the industry. Emphasizing that, firms should explore the positive drivers of customer value creation, allowing for a true value creation that will lead to increments in competitiveness. In reality, however, there are also barriers that hinder customer value creation. Targeting the above issues that have not yet been explored or analyzed, we have collected related literature at the first stage. Based on these presumable assumptions, this paper then conducts an empirical study by surveying and analyzing the relevance given by the investigated leading machinery measuring equipment firms in Taiwan, regarding the concerns as drivers and barriers in relation to customer value creation. This paper especially aims to answer several key questions: What drivers revolving around employees and processes can facilitate the organization to create more value for its customers? Conversely, what barriers block the organization from creating value for customers in examining the same dimensions? Does value creation direct an organization’s profitability and competitiveness? Our questionnaire survey results show that the most recognized and agreed drivers of customer value creation in consideration of employees are “distinctive skills”, “personal experience”, “learning and training”, and “team work”; and, in regard to the firm’s processes, the key drivers are “innovation and evolution”, “R&;D capability”, and “capability for differentiation”. Conversely, the most recognized and agreed barriers to customer value creation in relation to employees are a “distrustful environment” and “inadequate knowledge”; and, in terms of processes, they are “short of core technology”, “poor resource support”, and “bad services and attitudes”. Furthermore, our in-depth interview outcomes reveal that “capital sufficiency” and “mergers and acquisitions” are in practice considered to be other important customer value creation drivers; in contrast, “cultural and structural barriers” and “short of mechanisms to measure customer value creation effectively” are viewed as additional critical barriers to customer value creation.     

Impact of Digital Transformation on Value Creation in Fintech Services: An Innovative Approach

The aim of this article is to indicate economic and financial characteristics of financial technology, or fintech, that contribute to value creation in the financial services industry. This study presents a theory of digital transformations and elements of ecosystems theory and connecting them to fintech issues. Building from the DIPLOM model of corporate diplomacy. Corporate diplomacy. Building reputations and relationships with external stakeholders. Sheffield UK: Greenleaf Publishing Limited, this article proposes the DIPLOMA model with seven elements of fintech best practice, that are, Digital, Innovation, Pricing, Learning, Openness, Modernity, and Agility. This article stresses on practical insights to provide tool to enable stakeholders create value on fintech.     

Determinants and Effects of Cultural Context: A Review,Conceptual Model,and Propositions

Edward Hall's pioneering work on “Silent Languages” of time, space, material possessions, friendship patterns, and agreements and his conceptualization of cultures as low-context and high-context have inspired numerous research studies on international and cross-cultural marketing. Despite these widespread applications, there is no research to date that integrates the theoretical foundations and applications of Hall's work in a single study. In this context, the current research delivers on the following three goals: (a) an extensive literature review of Hall's work on cultural context is done; (b) a conceptual model is developed that depicts the determinants and effects of cultural context; and (c) 12 propositions are developed, contrasting the effect of low- versus high-context cultures on a variety of cultural themes, such as Hofstede's five cultural dimensions, mono-chronic or M-time versus polychronic or P-time orientation, and relationship building etc. International marketing implications of this research and directions for future research are discussed.     

The Role of Retail Equity,Value and Relational Benefits in Building B2B Relationships in Retailing

Abstract

The present paper aims to examine if variables widely studied in B2C contribute to building strong relationships in B2B markets. Moreover, it analyzes the existence of differences across retailers related to percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Through a personal survey to retail store managers regarding their relationships with their main suppliers, a structural equation model is estimated through PLS to test the hypothesized relations between retail equity, value, relational benefits, trust, and commitment. A multi-group analysis is performed to test the moderating role of the percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Three types of relational benefits identified have unequal influence on relationship value. In particular, special treatment benefits and social benefits, together with retail equity, emerge as the main drivers of value in the relationship between retailers and their main suppliers. The percentage of purchases from the main supplier plays a moderating role in some of these relations. This research provides evidence in the sense that, in the relations held by retailers with their main suppliers, retail equity contributes to relationship value creation. Relational benefits are relevant in building B2B relations since special treatment and social benefits have a positive influence on value that is positively related to trust and commitment. To build strong relations with their customers, suppliers of retailers should mainly concentrate their efforts on building brand equity and providing evidence of the existence of special treatment benefits beyond the service delivered, in view of its ultimate influence on customer trust and commitment.     

管理劳动:价值创造及财富分配

目前,非实体性生产要素的作用在现代经济中日益突出。作为一种非实体的生产要素,管理劳动者具有稀缺性的特点。管理劳动不仅改变了传统的以实体性生产要素为特点的生产关系结构,而且改变了传统的财富分配关系。因此,管理者的收入包括两方面:一方面获取工资,另一方面参与剩余价值的分配。     

Understanding Hybrid Channel Conflict: A Conceptual Model and Propositions for Research

ABSTRACT

The use of several distinct channel types by suppliers to serve a given product-market is rapidly becoming the dominant design. Such increasingly complex distribution systems present unique opportunities and problems for marketers, including how to most effectively manage the intrafirm, interchannel conflict resulting from channel coalitions competing with one another for resources, both internal (expenditures, personnel) and external (customers). Moreover, it is unclear whether conflict in a hybrid distribution system is “good” or “bad” for the supplier firm. We develop a theoretically-grounded conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of hybrid channel conflict and offer several empirically testable research propositions, including a contingency framework for determining the functionality of hybrid channel conflict. Perhaps most important in terms of contribution to the marketing literature are the conceptualization of hybrid channel conflict itself and the associated definitions which we present in this paper.     

Blurring B2C and B2B boundaries: corporate brand value co-creation in B2B2C markets

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore how corporate brands co-create value with their multiple stakeholders in a B2B2C marketplace. Main data sources stem from in-depth interviews with top managers of a technology corporation in the financial sector. Findings depict a model that conceptualises the successful value co-creation process as the careful management of six specific drivers, namely: interdependency, direct approach, trust, strategic alignment, adaptive modus operandi, and knowledge sharing. Hence, the study offers new food for thought for scholars and practitioners who wish to improve their knowledge and understanding on brand value co-creation and corporate marketing.     

跨境电商消费者参与价值共创对品牌偏好的影响

跨境电商是全新的贸易和销售方式,直接面对世界各地不同背景和多元化的的消费者。这些消费者具有个性化的消费需求与独特的创造愿望,能够为企业提供丰富的创意资源。通过价值共创提升消费者的品牌偏好成为了跨境电商领域的热点问题。文章从产品设计与产品营销两个阶段、创意共创与创意选择两大体系,建立了跨境电商消费者参与价值共创的四种类型对品牌偏好的影响模型,并展开实证研究。研究结果表明,创意选择体系主要影响品牌识别,创意共创体系主要影响品牌形象,品牌认知和品牌形象都有助于提升消费者对品牌的偏好。     

营销渠道控制:理论、模型与研究命题

营销渠道控制是一个渠道成员对另一个渠道成员的行为与决策变量成功施加影响的过程。渠道控制的本质是对渠道成员(组织)的行为进行控制,同时它也是一种跨组织控制、相互控制(或交叉控制)和结果导向的行为过程。渠道控制根植于相互依赖的渠道关系中,因而它与渠道关系中的诸多变量存在着千丝万缕的联系。本文从西方渠道行为理论的视角出发,构建了一个渠道控制过程模型,并提出了若干研究命题。     

Corporate entrepreneurship,customer-oriented selling,absorptive capacity,and international sales performance in the international B2B setting: Conceptual framework and research propositions

In the international business-to-business (B2B) setting, a firm's salespeople often have more direct, prolonged, and intimate contact with the customer and market environments than any other employees of the firm. In fact, for customers in many B2B markets, the salesperson is the face of the firm. The sales function can be characterized as an inherently entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is founded on knowing or seeing something others do not see, and the sales force has long been recognized as an important source of knowledge about a firm's customers and environment. However, there has been relatively little work linking entrepreneurship to international sales performance, especially in the B2B context.This paper focuses on the intelligence-gathering role of salespeople to firms practicing corporate entrepreneurship in the international B2B setting. More specifically, drawing on the theories of corporate entrepreneurship and the knowledge-based view of the firm, the authors develop a conceptual model that proposes international sales performance for firms practicing corporate entrepreneurship will be enhanced when salespeople practice customer-oriented selling and the firm's absorptive capacity is stronger. Recommended methodology for testing the proposed model is a single-informant survey of sales managers with firms in the domain of interest, using structural equation modeling with moderator tests. The paper concludes with implications and directions for future research.     

我国B2C交易信任问题模型初探

随着电子商务的快速发展和广泛应用,关于电子商务信任问题成为研究重点。基于国内外信任问题现状及模型的分析和研究,结合我国目前在电子商务交易中存在的信任问题,提出了我国B2C交易信任问题的初步模型和四个相关假设。并通过问卷调查收集原始的资料和数据,进行相关和回归分析,以验证该模型是适合我国情况的B2C电子商务交易的信任机制的通用模型,降低交易成本,增加企业信任,进一步扩大企业电子商务的应用范围,提高其使用效率并与国际接轨。     

Value Creation from Intellectual Capital: Convergence of Knowledge Management and Collaboration in the Intellectual Bandwidth Model

Current efforts in managing knowledge have concentrated on creating, sharing and storing knowledge while business problems require the combined use of these intellectual resources to enable organizations to provide innovative and customized services. The Intellectual Bandwidth model posits that an organization's potential to create value is determined by its intellectual assets and collaboration capabilities. While this is a potentially powerful assertion, the model does not explain the relationship between knowledge management and collaboration. This paper argues that knowledge management and collaboration have common, mutually interdependent purposes and practices. It demonstrates this interdependence, by mapping collaboration processes to knowledge management activities. Following an analysis of the relationship between knowledge management activities and collaboration, this paper concludes with implications for the use of collaboration technologies for increasing the potential of an organization to create value.     

Comparing Digital Strategies and Social Media Usage in B2B and B2C Industries in Spain

ABSTRACT

Using 285 responses obtained in a survey of high- and middle-level managers of firms located in Spain and by implementing clustering techniques, we identify differences in the conception and adoption of a digital strategy and the use of social media. A driver for these differences is represented by whether companies are adopting a B2C or a B2B business model. Specifically, B2B companies are slower to generate an overall digital strategy compared to B2C firms. Moreover, B2B firms adopting a digital strategy are prioritizing the use of more professionally oriented platforms (e.g., LinkedIn), while B2C firms are favoring the use of more socially oriented services (e.g., Facebook). Additionally, we find that those B2C companies without a clear digital strategy are nonetheless significantly using social media, particularly social networks, while B2B companies are delaying the use of social media until conceiving a clear digital strategy.     

价值共创对企业营销的影响研究——以林业企业为例

近年来,价值共创成为企业营销领域的研究热点。价值共创强调从消费者体验出发,公司利用移动互联网等技术,在与消费者互动过程中,为消费者创造良好的消费体验,从而实现价值共创,即在满足消费者需求的同时,也为企业带来收益。在网络经济下,商业环境竞争更加激烈、复杂多变,价值共创的理念为国有林区林业企业利用互联网技术发展林下经济产品提供了新的营销思路。本文首先通过文献研究提炼具有代表性的价值共创的研究维度,其次据此设计调查问卷,最后应用回归分析法对问卷数据进行定量分析,研究价值共创各维度对企业效果的影响。研究结果显示,价值共创及其各维度对林业企业的营销效果有显著的正向影响。     

The Transformation of African Smallholders into Customer Value Creating Businesses: A Conceptual Framework

An increasing number of the 600 million African smallholders are becoming integrated into the supply chains of supermarkets, fast food chains, and exporters. This process gradually transforms the smallholders into profit-oriented businesses that can make important contributions to rural development and food security. This article brings this issue to the attention of the readership of the Journal of African Business. It connects distinct lines of literature on smallholders, business training, and customer value creation. More specifically, it argues that to equip smallholders with the understanding of how markets function and what customers value, trainings that address fundamental marketing concepts are required. The arguments are captured in a conceptual framework explaining the livelihood performance of rural African smallholders. Based on these arguments, the article formulates implications for development workers and suggests directions for African business research.     

共享住宿顾客感知价值的概念模型研究和综述

共享住宿作为一种住宿新业态,构建共享住宿顾客感知价值概念模型对于促进其可持续发展具有重要指导意义。本研究利用ROST CM6.0软件对在线短租平台上的顾客点评进行文本分析,择取顾客感知价值的部分高频特征词,结合文献研究对高频特征词进行归类,提出共享住宿可持续性发展的管理启示,进一步丰富共享住宿领域的研究范畴。     

Impact of Organizational Characteristics and Information Technology Maturity on Internet Business Application: A Taiwan Survey

ABSTRACT

The Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) have provided unprecedented opportunities and challenges for conducting business online today. The growing trend of the Internet in Asia will cause companies to go on online quickly and the Internet will reinforce a speedy recovery and drive the globalization of the region. The spread of the Internet with decrease in cost should remove hidden barriers to free commerce and boost the economy in Asia. A cross-sectional survey of the manufacturing industry in Taiwan was conducted. On the basis of concerning value chain, organization and information management, this study examines the impact of organizational characteristics and information technology (IT) maturity on the Internet business application, and on the benefit of improving competitive advantages. It is found that firm type, organizational characteristics and IT maturity influence firms' Internet application in the value chain. Organizational characteristics and IT maturity influence the Internet business application, and the firms' improvement in competitive advantage varies. Overall, the firms with innovation-oriented or high level of IT maturity in Taiwan have higher implementation rate of the Internet and more widespread of application in the value chain. Hence, these firms are usually able to further integrate different value creation activities in the value chain to gain more competitive advantages