Customer Relationship Management in Electronic Markets

Abstract

Customer relationship management, or CRM, has found increased attention in both the academic and managerial worlds of marketing in recent years. While the Internet has greatly enabled the application of CRM in fostering loyal customers, the preliminary results on the effectiveness and efficiency of technology-based CRM has been far from discouraging. The authors identify various contentious issues behind the various key concepts of relationship management and identify several areas that deserve closer academic scrutiny and managerial inspection. The paper also comments on the extent to which Internet technology can bring about closer relationships with a firm's customers.     

Customer Value Assessment in Business Markets:

The state-of-practice with respect to customer value assessment in business markets was studied. Familiarity with and usage of nine methods were investigated for a sample of 80 informants from the largest U.S. industrial firms and 20 informants from the largest U.S. market research firms that conduct studies in business markets. Focus group value assessments and importance ratings are the most widely-used methods, while conjoint analysis, though used less frequently, has the highest percentage of judged successful applications. Implications of the results for marketing practice are discussed and some worthwhile areas where academic research might advance the present state-of-practice are suggested.     

The Effect of Perceived Value and Switching Barriers on Customer Price Tolerance in Industrial Energy Markets

Purpose: This article analyzes the effects of perceived value, satisfaction, and switching barriers on price tolerance. It also examines the moderating effect of switching barriers.

Methodology/Approach: Empirical research was conducted by collecting information from a sample of 326 major gas and electricity consumers in a newly liberalized industrial market with a high concentration of suppliers.

Findings: Switching barriers are the main antecedent to price tolerance. Price tolerance of industrial customers depends directly on switching barriers more than on satisfaction. The customer satisfaction construct is a necessary but not sufficient predictor of price tolerance. While satisfaction has an effect on price tolerance, the effect of perceived value on price tolerance is only indirect through satisfaction, even though it may produce positive direct effects when there are high switching barriers.

Originality/Value/Contribution: For the first time in a B2B framework, the moderating effects of switching barriers on the relationship between perceived value, satisfaction, and price tolerance have been analyzed.     

我国光伏企业在国内市场的客户关系管理

目前,我国光伏企业在国内市场的客户关系管理方面尚存在着客户关系管理的理念落后、缺乏适应我国本土化的客户关系管理软件、信息化水平低、业务和技术的运作关系不协调、CRM运行成本高、风险大等问题。我国应树立以"客户为本之道与CRM之术"有机结合的理念;与IT企业联手,通过共赢提高信息化水平;建立以客户为中心的企业文化,强化个性化服务;优化客户关系管理的实施步骤,促进业务和技术运作关系协调发展,从而促进光伏企业发展生态链的形成,为光伏企业尽快建立良好的国内市场客户关系,早日走出发展困境。     

Opening Markets and Industrial Restructuring

Abstract

Industries are responding to the challenge of increasing globalization of production by restructuring into leaner and more flexible production processes in order to cut costs and gain global competitiveness. The auto industry, which is one of the most globally oriented industries has been especially involved in this movement. Since 1990 the market environment of the Argentine auto industry has changed rapidly from that of a closed, highly protected environment to an open one that includes economic integration with the world’s 9th largest auto producer, Brazil. The need to be globally competitive has forced firms to adopt Just-in-Time/Total-Quality-Control (JIT/TQC) systems of production. This paper presents micro, plant level research on the response of Argentine autopart manufacturers to this radical change in its market environment. The analysis is based on a case study of 10 well-established autopart firms which were interviewed in depth to get some idea of the measures being taken by them to survive in this new global climate. The extent to which the “world class manufacturing techniques” of JIT/TQC are being adopted in these firms is examined. The survey finds a wide variety of adaptations of these techniques.     

Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets: Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters

This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers’ satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers’ encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer’s service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets.     

外贸企业新兴市场客户风险评价指标体系构建研究

近年来,中国对新兴经济体进出口总体保持较快增长。由于新兴经济体自身存在的政治、经济结构等问题,决定了这是一个机遇和风险并存的市场。通过梳理我国外贸企业在新兴市场面临的主要风险,初步设计了外贸企业新兴市场客户风险评价指标体系,旨在帮助外贸企业进行客户风险评估,在出口市场多元化的同时,尽量规避风险。总体而言,来自于新兴市场的需求可以减少我国企业对传统市场的依赖,分散经营风险,但是由于新兴市场经济体自身存在的诸多经济结构问题,使其极易受到外部影响,贸易政策表现出重大的不确定性。我国外贸企业必须对此有充分的认识,并且努力设法规避这些风险,从建立内部风险管理机制着手,这样才能在分享新兴市场盛宴的同时,保护好自身利益。     

顾客忠诚研究述评

国内外学者对顾客忠诚的认识与理解存在着很宽泛的观点与争论。然而,众多学者的研究结果表明,顾客忠诚对企业的底线收益比市场份额、单位成本以及企业赢利能力相关的其它因素具有更强的效应。为此,全面深入了解顾客忠诚的内涵以及与其相关概念的关系对企业的顾客关系管理乃至企业的长久发展意义极大。     

论农村市场的前景

随着“拉动内需”政策的实施,开拓农村市场就一直是热门话题。农村由于20年来的快速发展而使其成为可能的潜在市场,然而,还有很多因素阻碍着农村市场的发展,这需要政府和企业两方面采取措施,而重要的又是企业的努力。     

Customer Involvement in Product Development: An Industrial Network Perspective

Purpose: In business markets, working with customers and users has become increasingly important to get knowledge about customer needs and to develop new products. The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to develop a framework for analyzing customer involvement in product development in a business market context, and (2) to apply this framework to a particular company to describe and analyze how it practices customer involvement.

Methodology/approach: The article takes its main theoretical starting point in the industrial network approach, but also uses other literature from the innovation and product development field. The empirical study applies a qualitative case study approach and focuses on one company in the truck business.

Findings: The suggested framework deals with four key aspects of customer involvement: Why, when, how, and who. The observed pattern of the truck manufacturer shows how dealers, hauliers, and truck drivers are all part of the overall understanding of the customer. These actors are involved for different, typically very clear, purposes at different points in time through surveys, product clinics, and field testing. The pattern, referred to as mixed facilitative, is not one of close collaboration with individual customers, but one of broad involvement of several customers through business intelligence and direct involvement.

Research implications: First, the article provides researchers with a framework and method for studying customer involvement in product development. Second, the case study provides an illustrative example of the customer involvement pattern pursued by a leading company in a major industry. This enhances the understanding of the focal phenomenon, leads to managerial implications, and gives ideas for future research.

Practical implications: There are several managerial implications related to the why, when, how, and who questions. For example, it is pointed out that managers should consider involving customers more extensively than what seems to be common today—for example, by using customers as codevelopers, working with them throughout the entire development process (i.e., not only early and late), and including different types of users (with different requirements and wishes).

Originality/value/contribution of the article: The contribution lies in the development of a framework centered on the four key questions of customer involvement in

product development and using this framework for observing a pattern, and finding explanations and relating this pattern to how other firms are doing.     

Customer Orientation in Chinese Industrial Firms and Global Marketing Implications

Abstract

The study focuses on the moderating role of environmental context (demand unpredictability and technological turbulence) and technological context (production technology routineness and product complexity) on the relationship of customer orientation with market performance relative to the industry in Chinese state-owned industrial firms. The results show significant moderating effects of technological turbulence and production technology routineness: the greater the technological turbulence and the more routine the production technology, the stronger the customer orientation-market performance relative to the industry relationship. The results also show that market performance relative to the industry is positively affected by customer orientation, but inversely affected by demand unpredictability. The findings have implications for global marketing as well as for theory development.     

浅谈客户关系管理系统

客户关系管理是市场经济条件下企业为不断提高客户满意度而采取的一种新型管理机制,也是企业整合外部资源的一种新型竞争手段.本文侧重于探讨客户关系管理系统在我国企业的应用前景.     

传统产业集群与专业化市场发展

本文认为,传统产业集群与现代流通业特别是专业化市场之间具有明显的互动效应,传统产业集群催育专业化市场,专业化市场推进传统产业集群。在地方经济发展过程中,要注意产业发展与贸易发展的相互协调和相互配合,形成传统产业集群与专业化市场发展的协调机制。集群与企业方面,要进一步采取措施加快产品和技术创新,通过等级市场、商务网络等不断获取外部市场的信息,加强革新,改进产业和产品结构;专业化市场在建设方面,要稳步推进体制改革,走市场化道路;政府和商会方面,要转变管理职能,增强服务职能,大力营造有利于集群与流通业协调发展的环境和条件,推进市场、集群和企业的改革与创新,通过专业化市场形成基于集群的区位品牌。     

The Determinants of Pricing Strategies for Industrial Products in International Markets

ABSTRACT

The global marketplace is becoming increasingly complex in which to conduct business. Firms marketing consumer goods have a somewhat easier time than those selling industrial products, since more has been written about them and the international consumer goods have been analyzed for a longer period of time. In addition, the international marketing literature, has looked more at the elements of product, promotion and place than price. This literature gap has created a void in the understanding of marketers as to how to effectively price industrial products in international markets.

The paper identifies the important industrial pricing strategies in international marketing and examines the underlying determinants that affect their outcome. In addition, the specific causal relationships between the determinants and pricing strategies are examined through a logistic regression analysis.     

Customer Markets,Inflation and Unemployment in a Dynamic Model with a Range of Equilibria

The paper presents a dynamic model incorporating a range of non‐accelerating‐inflation rates of unemployment (NAIRU) obtained according to the theoretical framework proposed by the customer markets literature. The analysis of the dynamic adjustments of unemployment and inflation emphasizes the real effects of demand shocks. Changes in the fiscal and monetary policy can exert permanent effects on output and unemployment, both determining persistence in the unemployment rate and selecting the actual steady‐state equilibrium within the NAIRU range.