The influence of psychological climate on conflict resolution strategies in franchise relationships

Certain conflict resolution strategies should prove more useful than others in the management of conflict in franchise channels. A deeper understanding of the nature of manageable channel-conflict conditions that may affect franchisees’ tendency to initiate specific conflict resolution strategies should also prove useful. To that end, the relationship between franchisees’ perceptions of their channel’s psychological climate and the franchisees’ tendency to engage in specific conflict resolution strategies were investigated. Significant overall differences were observed in the psychological climate perceptions held by franchisees who engaged in problem-solving, persuasion, bargaining, and politicking conflict-resolution strategies. Before entering academe, Dr. Strutton was in sales with the Tenneco Corporation and owner/president of a retailing firm in North Carolina. Dr. Strutton’s research has been published in the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Applied Business Research, Journal of Current Issues in Research & Advertising, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Psychological Reports, and other scholarly journals. His current research interests include relationalism and marketing to the elderly consumer. His research has appeared in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Health Marketing Quarterly, among others. Dr. Pelton’s primary research interests include business ethics and channels management. Prior to entering academe, Dr. Pelton was vice president of a marketing consulting firm in Lubbock, Texas. He has a B.S. in chemistry and an MBA in management and received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Arkansas. Before entering academe, Dr. Lumpkin worked in marketing research for Phillips Petroleum Company. His primary research interests include retail patronage theory, market segmentation, and research methodology with recent research focused on the elderly consumer. His research has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, The Gerontologist, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and other scholarly journals.     

Coping with organizational role stress: Intrinsic motivational orientation,perceived role benefits,and psychological withdrawal

Researchers have long recognized that individuals in stressful marketing roles find ways to cope with organizational role stress. This study examines the effects of three psychological coping strategies—intrinsic motivational orientation, perceived role benefits, and psychological withdrawal—in a model of organizational role stress. Results indicate that intrinsic motivational orientations reduce perceptions of role conflict and role ambiguity, and increase job satisfaction; that perceived role benefits positively influence job satisfaction; and that job dissatisfaction is the primary cause of psychological withdrawal. The study supports the importance of coping efforts in models of organizational role stress among marketing personnel. Dr. Keaveney’s research interests focus on retailing issues including retail buyer behavior, retail store image, and retail price promotions. Dr. Keaveney has also published in the areas of marketing organizational behavior, services marketing, and international marketing. She is co-author with Philip R. Cateora ofMarketing: An International Perspective, which has been published both in English and in Japanese. Dr. Keaveney has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Promotion Management, Journal of Marketing Channels, andJournal of Volunteer Administration. Dr. Nelson’s research interests include topics in marketing research, consumer behavior, and advertising. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and serves as occasional reviewer to these publications as well as to theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He teaches courses in marketing management, marketing research, and multivariate statistics.     

Satisfaction with international marketing channels

This article examines factors leading to a firm’s satisfaction with its marketing channels. The authors build on existing studies of consumer satisfaction and the channels literature. They add a transaction cost factor and use the discrepancy model to examine the determinants of satisfaction. Findings from a survey of Canadian exporters show that a firm’s domestic performance, its previous experience, the uncertainty it faces, and its ability to change channels and monitor channel operations all provide significant explanations for management satisfaction. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. His research interests are in the areas of international marketing, channels of distribution, and marketing strategy. Professor Klein has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, andJournal of Marketing Research, andInternational Marketing Review. He received his Ph.d. degree from the University of Toronto. His research interests are in the areas of new product development, satisfaction research, and retailing. Professor Roth has published articles in theJournal of Marketing Research, theServices Industry Journal, andInternational Marketing Review.     

Problem- and emotion-focused coping dimensions and sales presentation effectiveness

The ability to cope effectively with job-related stress may be important if salespeople are to perform effectively. Therefore, the specific nature of the coping tactics used by salespeople to deal with job-related stress and the use of certain coping strategies associated with sales presentation effectiveness of salespeople were investigated. Data provided by salespeople from three organizations were used to assess the degree to which specific coping strategies were related to sales presentation effectiveness. Before entering academe, Dr. Strutton was in sales with the Tenneco Corporation and was president of a retailing firm in North Carolina. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, andJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, among other scholarly journals. Dr. Strutton’s current research interests include issues relating to sales and channels management. He has a B.S. in chemistry and an M.B.A. in management and received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Arkansas. Before entering academe, Dr. Lumpkin worked in marketing research for Phillips Petroleum Company. His primary research interests include retail patronage theory, market segmentation, and research methodology, with recent research focused on the elderly consumer. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, The Gerontologist, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and other scholarly journals.     

Work alienation of marketing employees: Influence of task,supervisory, and organizational structure factors

This study presents an integrated work alienation model that includes a number of relevant exogenous antecedents from the task, supervisory, and organizational structure domains. The study hypothesizes that these antecedents influence work alienation of marketing employees both directly and indirectly because of the effects they have on employees’ role stress and commitment to the organization. Simultaneous inclusion of relevant antecedents enables the study to establish the relative importance of each antecedent for work alienation of employees. The study also includes a comparative evaluation of the applicability of the proposed model for subgroups of employees stratified by gender. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin and has several years of practical experience in sales management. His research interests are in the areas of sales management, marketing strategy, and international marketing. He has previously published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and a number of other marketing/international journals. He obtained his Ph.D. at Ohio State University. His practical experience includes international trade of merchandise and sales and supply of industrial plants and equipment. His research interests are in the areas of international marketing and sales management. He has previously published in Advances in International Marketing, International Trade Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and has contributed to several national and international conference proceedings. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin and has several years of practical experience in advertising management. His research interests are in the areas of advertising, marketing strategy, and international marketing. He has previously published in the Journal of Advertising Research and has contributed to several national conference proceedings.     

Decision-making time in organizational buying behavior: An investigation of its antecedents

This study reports an empirical investigation focusing on the length of time firms take in making major purchase decisions (DMT) and examines antecedents such as buyclass, firm size, decision-making unit (DMU) size, information sources, and size of the consideration set. Data were provided by a national sample of organizations involved in the purchase of telecommunications systems. Findings suggest that firm size, buyclass, DMU size, information sources, and size of consideration set all significantly affect DMT. Antecedent relationships among the independent variables were also largely as expected. This study provides a starting point for a fertile area of research with important implications for organizational buyers and sellers as well as researchers. She holds a B.S. in Marketing and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Marketing from Northwestern University. Her research interests are in the areas of technology diffusion and management as well as consumer behavior, advertising, and macromarketing. She has published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, European Journal of Marketing, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Telematics and Informatics, andJournal of Economic Psychology. She is a member of the Editorial Policy Board of the Journal of Macromarketing and President of the International Society for Marketing and Development. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. Dr. Johnson’s research interests focus on interorganizational relationships in marketing contexts, such as distribution channels or business-to-business marketing with emphasis on cross-culture interorganizational marketing relationships. Dr. Johnson’s research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Research, andCurrent Issues and Research in Advertising, among other journals and conference proceedings. She has also presented her work at a variety of domestic and international conferences. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research interests are in the areas of pricing, consumer behavior, and marketing research. He is coauthor ofConsumer Behavior: Concepts and Applications, currently in its fourth edition, and his research has been published inDecision Sciences, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Retailing, Journalism Quarterly, and other leading journals and publications of professional societies. He holds degrees in engineering and management from India and a Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University. Dr. Dholakia’s research deals with technology, innovation, market processes, globalization, and consumer culture. Dr. Dholakia has published over 70 papers in professional journals and proceedings in management, marketing, and technology. Among his books areEssentials of New Product Management (coauthored, Prentice-Hall, 1987).     

Foreign market entry mode choice of service firms: A contingency perspective

Research on how service firms choose their initial mode of operation in foreign markets appears to have led to two contradictory conclusions. Findings from one group of studies suggest that factors determining entry mode choice by manufacturing firms are generalizable to service firms. Findings from another group of studies contradict that view. The authors reconcile the two views by means of a classification scheme that allows some services to be grouped with manufactured goods in terms of entry mode choice. A conceptual model of factors affecting the entry mode choice of service firms is proposed, research propositions are developed, and managerial implications and future research directions are discussed. Ikechi Ekeledo is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include international marketing, services marketing, and strategic market planning. K. Sivakumar (Ph.D., Syracuse University, 1992) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include pricing, international marketing, and innovation management. His research has been published or is forthcoming inBarron’s, International Marketing Review, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Theory & Practice, theJournal of Product Innovation Management, theJournal of Social Behavior & Personality, Marketing Letters, Marketing Science Institute’s Working Paper Series, and Pricing Strategy & Practice: An International Journal, and summarized as Editors’ Briefings inHarvard Business Review. He has won several awards for research and is on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals.     

The perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility on organizational effectiveness: A survey of marketers

A necessary but insufficient condition for marketers to act ethically and be socially responsible is that they must perceive ethics and social responsibility to be important. However, little is known about marketers’ perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility components of business decisions. The objectives of this study are (1)to assess the marketing practitioners’ perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness, and (2) to analyze the relative influences of selected personal characteristics and organizational factors underlying a marketer’s perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility. The results from a mail survey of American Marketing Association members indicate that the marketers generally believe that ethics and social responsibility are important components of organizational effectiveness. The results partly indicate that there is a positive relationship between a marketer’s corporate ethical values and his or her perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility. The results also indicate that the marketers’ perceptions regarding ethics and social responsibility can be explained by idealism and relativism. He has also served on the marketing faculty at Thammasat University, Thailand. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. His research focusing on marketing ethics and social responsibility has been published inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and elsewhere. He received his D.B.A. in management from the University of Maryland. His work on business ethics, organizational design, and strategic planning has been published inAcademy of Management Review, American Business Review, andJournal of Business Ethics. His current research interest centers on the measurement of moral intensity. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His work has appeared inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Research in Marketing, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mississippi. His research has been published inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management, Journal of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, and elsewhere. His research interests include marketing ethics, health care marketing, international marketing, and direct marketing.     

Explaining the variation in short-term sales response to retail price promotions

This study focuses on the short-term sales response to price promotions in retail grocery stores and attempts to explain its variation using frequency of price promotions and the consecutive scheduling of price promotions. Retail managers’ expectations and tenets from behavioral theories provide the basis for the hypotheses that the frequency of price promotions and consecutive scheduling of price promotions affect short-term response to price promotions. The hypotheses are tested on three frequently purchased product categories, using store-level data from retail chains in three major markets. The analysis is validated with additional data on the same product categories and markets. A variety of managerial implications are drawn from the results and suggestions for future research are offered. He has been recognized with numerous teaching and research excellence awards. Dr. Kumar has published numerous articles in many scholarly journals in marketing and forecasting. He has coauthored a text titledMarketing Research and is currently working on two other textbooks. He is on the editorial review board of many journals. Dr. Kumar has lectured on marketing-related topics in various universities worldwide. His research interests include developing forecasting models, international marketing strategy and international marketing research issues, models for sales promotions, and new methodologies for product positioning and market segmentation. Dr. Kumar received his doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published articles about retailing and marketing strategy in scholarly journals such as theJournal of Retailing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, andJournal of Business Ethics. His current research interest focuses on models for sales promotions and marketing strategy. Dr. Pereira received his doctoral degree from the University of Houston.     

Consumer ethnocentrism offline and online: The mediating role of marketing efforts and personality traits in the United States, South Korea, and India

Consumer ethnocentrism is an important concept that is used to understand international marketing phenomena. In this article, the authors conduct two empirical studies. Using consumer data from the United States, South Korea, and India (three diverse cultural and economic environments), they explore six hypotheses. In Stage 1, the results suggest that across all three countries, consumer ethnocentrism provokes negative attitudes toward both foreign advertisements and foreign products. The authors identify a set of consumer variables (i.e., consumers’ global mind-set) that may mediate consumers’ unfavorable attitudes toward foreign advertisements and products derived by consumer ethnocentrism. In Stage 2, the authors find that consumer ethnocentrism dampens consumers’ online consumption activities on a foreign Web site. Finally, the authors find that marketers’ e-mail communications to foreign consumers mediate consumer ethnocentrism in online environments. Hyokjin Kwak (hkwak@drexel.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Drexel University. His research interests include advertising effects, consumer communications, and strategic marketing. He has publications in theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, and other marketing journals. Anupam Jaju (ajaju@gmu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Management at George Mason University. His main research interests are in marketing strategy, marketing-technology interface, and international marketing. His work has been published in theJournal of International Management, Marketing Theory, andMarketing Education Review. Trina Larsen Andras (published as Trina Larsen, larsent@ drexel.edu) is a professor and the head of the Marketing Department at Drexel University. Her research has been published in many of the major professional journals in her field, includingHarvard Business Review, theColumbia Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, Management International Review, theJournal of Global Marketing, and theJournal of International Marketing, among others. Her research is focused on international marketing, specifically, cross-cultural behavioral and relationship issues in international marketing management.     

Conflict management and innovation performance: An integrated contingency perspective

In recent years, many of the basic assumptions underlying organizational conflict research have changed, drawing into question the validity of some previous research findings. Operating from the perspective that conflict is complex, multidimensional, and context specific, this research takes a fresh look at key conflict antecedents, mediators, and consequences in the context of the innovation process. The study investigates the relationships among five behavioral conflict-handling strategies, destructive and constructive conflict, and innovation performance as perceived by 290 R & D and marketing department managers. Empirical results both support and question some of the previous findings in conflict research. The results indicate that integrating, accommodating, compromising, forcing, and avoiding conflict-handling strategies can have different impacts on constructive and destructive conflict in an innovation context. Kelly Hewett (kelly_hewett@moore.sc.edu) is in the Department of Marketing at the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on the management of relationships between buyers and sellers, as well as between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries in managing the marketing function globally. Her research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of International Business Studies, among others. R. Bruce Money (moneyb@byu.edu) is the Donald Staheli Fellow and an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University. His articles have been published in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of International Business Studies, andSloan Management Review. His research interests include the international aspects of national culture’s measurement and effects, business-to-business marketing, word-of-mouth promo-tion, services marketing, and negotiation. Subhash Sharma (sharma@moore.sc.edu) is the James F. Kane Professor of Business in the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. Professor Sharma’s research interests include marketing strategy, structural equation modeling, data mining, customer relationship management, e-commerce, the marketing-operations interface, and global marketing strategies. He has published numerous articles in these areas in leading academic journals such as theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Operations Management, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, andManagement Science. Professor Sharma has also authored two textbooks:Applied Multivariate Techniques (John Wiley, 1996) andScaling Procedures: Issues and Applications (with Richard G. Netemeyer and William O. Bearden, Sage, 2003). Professor Sharma was a member of the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing Research and theJournal of Marketing and currently serves on the editorial review board of theJournal of Retailing.     

A provider-cost/patron-effort schema for classifying products

Since the commodity-oriented thinkers of marketing’s early history, marketers have sought a valid schema for classifying products. Currently, the marketing literature is dominated by two types of schemata for classifying products: product-based and consumer cost-based. Despite marketing tenets such asexchange is the focal notion of marketing andgood marketing theory integrates the perspectives of firms and consumers, no existing schema embodies either exchange or a dual firm/consumer perspective. After reviewing the existing classificational schemata, one such schema is proposed and evaluated. The two classifying dimensions of this schema are providers’ relative variable costs (PRVC) and patrons’ relative effort (PRE). Crossing high and low levels of PRVC and PRE yields four product categories: low cost/effort, patroneffort heavy, provider-cost heavy, and high cost/effort. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Business Horizons, Business Ethics: A European Review, and other journals. His current research interests include marketing theory, advertising, and ethics. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Purdue University. will soon receive his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of North Texas. His work has appeared inAcademy of Management Journal, as well as the proceedings of the American Marketing Association, the Decision Science Association, and the Society of Franchising. His research interests include building and testing models in international marketing, consumer behavior, and marketing management. His current research interests include self-referent processing of advertisements and consumer satisfaction.     

Fundamental changes in marketing organization: The movement toward a customer-focused organizational structure

There has been growing interest in the future of marketing and changes in marketing’s organization and role within the firm. However, there has not been research that holistically explores key changes in marketing organization. The authors draw on qualitative interviews with 50 managers in the United States and Germany and argue that changes in marketing organization that have been discussed in isolation are part of a more general shift toward customer-focused organizational structures. They initially discuss two specific changes related to the overall shift: changes concerning primary marketing coordinators and increasing dispersion of marketing activities. They then introduce the concept of a customer-focused organizational structure that uses groups of customers as the primary basis for structuring the organization. They identify typical organizational transitions as firms move toward a customer-focused organizational structure and discuss the challenges firms face in making this transition. They conclude with implications for academic research, managerial practice, and business school curriculum. Christian Homburg is a professor of business administration and marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department at the University of Mannheim in Germany. He received his Ph.D. and master’s degrees from the University of Karlsruhe and earned his habilitation at the University of Mainz. His research interests include organizational issues in marketing, customer orientation, industrial marketing, and relationship marketing. Dr. Homburg has consulted and delivered executive education programs for more than one hundred companies, including Daimler-Benz, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Hoechst, RWE, Thyssen, Krupp-Hoesch and Sodexho. John P. Workman, Jr. is an associate professor of marketing at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Workman conducts research on the organization and role of marketing within the firm, on new product development in high-tech firms, and more recently on organizational issues for e-commerce initiatives. His research uses concepts from organization theory, strategy, and sociology to examine the interactions between marketing and other groups in the firm. Dr. Workman has a B.S. from N.C. State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. He has consulted for a number of organizations on the topics of e-commerce and marketing organization. Ove Jensen is a Ph.D. student studying under Professor Homburg at the University of Mannheim. He received his master’s degree from the WHU Koblenz. He conducts research on sales management, organizational issues in marketing, and incentive systems. He has extensive consulting experience in the areas of market-focused management and sales management.     

Learning effect in multinational diffusion of consumer durables: An exploratory investigation

Literature reflects that a product/technological innovation introduced later in a country results in faster diffusion as the consumers in the lag market have an opportunity to learn about the new product from the consumers in the lead market. A systematic understanding of the learning that takes place between consumers in two countries—a pair of lead and lag countries—can provide insights for a firm’s international market entry decisions. To provide a richer understanding of the underlying structure and patterns that govern this process, propositions linking factors (country characteristics, product/innovation characteristics, and time lag) to the learning process are drawn. Subsequently, these propositions are tested through an empirical investigation of the diffusion patterns of four consumer innovations in multiple European countries. The findings help provide some preliminary guidelines for manufacturers regarding selection of foreign markets and the timing and order-of-entry decisions. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 1995. His research interests include global competition and marketing strategy, brand equity and brand extensions, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, and issues pertaining to product development and introduction. He has been recognized with numerous teaching and research excellence awards and has published numerous articles in many scholarly journals in marketing and forecasting. He has coauthored the textbookMarketing Research and is currently working on a book titledInternational Marketing Research, which is based on his marketing research experience across the globe. He is on the editorial review board of many journals and has lectured on marketing-related topics in various universities worldwide. His research interests include developing forecasting models, international marketing strategy and research issues, models for sales promotions, and new methodologies for product positioning and market segmentation. His research interests focus on marketing strategy and international marketing. He has published articles and presented at conferences on research in his area of interest.     

Influencing consumers’ selection of domestic versus imported products: Implications for marketing based on a model of helping behavior

Recent marketing campaigns have urged American consumers to “Buy American.” Marketers can improve the success of their campaigns if they understand the network of influences that lead American consumers to help threatened domestic workers. Consumers’ cooperation in purchasing domestic products may be viewed as a form of help for American workers whose jobs are threatened by the success of imported products. This study presents a model designed to explain consumers’ willingness to help these workers. Survey data were subjected to structural equation analysis to test the model. Results confirmed willingness to help is influenced by the salience of the problem, identification with the workers, inequity of the situation, felt similarity with the workers, empathy with the workers, and the costs of helping. These findings suggest ways to market the Buy American theme. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Her research interests include international marketing and channels of distribution. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, and other marketing journals. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. His research interests include the fitness market, consumer logistics, helping behavior, and marketing channels. His research findings have been reported in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and in various other business and social science journals and proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Dr. Biswas’s work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Psychology and Marketing, andJournalism Quarterly, as well as other refereed journals.     

Source effects in communication and persuasion research: A meta-analysis of effect size

The effect of a message source on the persuasion of a target audience has been a topic of interest to scholars in psychology, consumer behavior, and communications for many years. Narrative reviews of this literature are available; the contribution of this study is that we present a quantitative review of studies of source effects on persuasion. One of our research goals is to determine how strong and consistent source manipulations tend to be. We find that, on average, source manipulations account for nine percent of explained variance among studies reporting significant findings. In particular, expertise tends to have the greatest effect on persuasion with an average of 16 percent of the explained variance being due to the expert versus non-expert manipulation. As well as gaining insight into the pattern of results across a body of literature, our findings may be used as benchmarks by researchers, as advocated by Sawyer and Ball (1981), to evaluate results of future persuasion studies employing a source manipulation. She received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University in 1989. Dr. Wilson’s research interests include persuasion processes, meta-analysis, and issues in business marketing. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Letters, and elsewhere. He received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina in 1980. Dr. Sherrell’s research interests include consumer behavior, retailing, and marketing management. His work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology and Marketing, and elsewhere.     

Leveraged high-variety strategies: From portfolio thinking to platform thinking

Summary Barbara Kahn correctly points out the importance of creating dynamic relationships with customers and adopting high-variety strategies to succeed in today’s fiercely competitive world. However, high variety is also often high cost and high complexity. In this commentary, I propose that platform thinking is a powerful way to manage these contradictions in becoming a high-variety provider. Platform thinking relies on a simple insight—understand the common strands that tie your firm’s offerings, markets, and processes together, and exploit these commonalities to create leveraged growth and variety. Platform thinking should permeate all aspects of the firm’s strategy and should guide all strategic decisions on diversification and growth. Marketers who master platform thinking may find the 21st century to be a somewhat more inviting prospect. Mohanbir S. Sawhney is an assistant professor of marketing in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. His research interests include strategic marketing in technology-based industries, marketing decisions for experiential products, and cross-functional integration in new product development. His research has been published inManagement Science andMarketing Science, and his modeling work in the motion picture industry has been widely cited in the trade press. He is a consultant for several large technology firms as well as small Internet start-up firms. His current research projects include strategic planning for market-driving firms, cross-functional product line management, and strategy formulation for digital opportunity arenas.     

Marketing norms: The influence of personal moral philosophies and organizational ethical culture

This study develops a scale, using the American Marketing Association’s code of ethics, to measure the marketing-related norms of marketing practitioners. The scale has five dimensions: 1) price and distribution, 2) information and contracts, 3) product and promotion, 4) obligation and disclosure, and 5) general honesty and integrity. The relative influence of personal moral philosophies and organizational ethical climate on the norms of marketers was also examined in this study. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Texas Tech University. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, andJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, as well as various other journals and proceedings. His research has been accepted for publication in theJournal of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management and theJournal of Business Ethics, and has been published in various national and regional proceedings. His research interests include marketing ethics, health care marketing, international marketing, and direct marketing. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mississippi. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Business and Professional Ethics Journal, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, andJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, as well as other journals and proceedings.     

Marketing research: A state-of-the-art review and directions for the twenty-first century

This article provides observations on the state of the art in marketing research during 1987–1997. As such, it updates the earlier state-of-the-art review by Malhotra (1988), which won theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) Best Article Award. The primary thrust of articles published in theJournal of Marketing Research during 1987–1997 is reviewed to determine important areas of research. In each of these areas, the authors summarize recent developments, highlight the state of the art, offer some critical observations, and identify directions for future research. They present a cross-classification of various techniques and subject areas, and make some observations on the applications of these techniques to address specific substantive and methodological issues in marketing research. The article concludes with some general directions for marketing research in the twenty-first century. Naresh K. Malhotra is Regents’ Professor in the DuPree College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America. In an article by Wheatley and Wilson (1987 AMA Educators’ Proceedings), he was ranked number one in the country based on articles published in theJournal of Marketing Research during 1980–1985. He also holds the all-time record for the maximum number of publications in theJournal of Health Care Marketing. He is ranked number one based on publications in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) since its inception through Volume 23, 1995. He is also number one based on publications inJAMS during the 10-year period 1986–1995. He has published more than 75 articles in major refereed journals including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, and leading journals in statistics, management science, and psychology. He was chairman of the Academy of Marketing Science Foundation from 1996 to 1998, president of the Academy of Marketing Science from 1994 to 1996, and chairman of the Board of Governors from 1990 to 1992. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Academy and Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. Mark Peterson is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research interests include methods, affect, international marketing, and quality of life. His work has been published in theInternational Marketing Review, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Macromarketing. He is on the editorial review board for theJournal of Macromarketing. Susan Bardi Kleiser is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington. She holds a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include consumer decision making, product management, international marketing, marketing ethics, and marketing research and modeling techniques. Her research has appeared inResearch in Marketing, Advances in Consumer Research, and several proceedings.     

Trademark dilution and the practice of marketing

This article considers the marketing implications of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA) of 1995. The FTDA, an amendment to the Lanham Act, will influence the manner in which marketing is practiced well into the twenty-first century. Although the FTDA is specifically concerned with protecting famous trademarks from being diluted—either by having their distinctiveness diminished or positive associations tarnished—by similar trademarks, its influence will not be limited to trademark or branding issues. Implications range from the allocation of advertising resources to the increased use of marketing research. Robert A. Peterson holds the John T. Stuart III Centennial Chair in Business Administration and the Charles E. Hurwitz Fellowship, both at The University of Texas at Austin. His Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Peterson’s publications have appeared in such journals as theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, andMarketing Science. His research interests range from Internet marketing to research methodology to marketing strategy. He presently serves on the boards of several for-profit and not-for-profit organizations as well as an advisory committee to the Bureau of the Census. Karen H. Smith is an assistant professor at Southwest Texas State University. Her Ph.D. is from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Smith’s research interests include consumer information processing, consumer knowledge structures (schemata), dilution of brand equity, and adolescent smoking. Her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Education, andAdvances in Consumer Research. Philip C. Zerrillo is executive MBA director at The University of Texas at Austin. His Ph.D. is from Northwestern University. Dr. Zerrillo’s research interests have focused on broad-based business innovation, strategic development of distribution channel arrangements, the value of brands in the distribution channel, managing brands as assets, and the legal aspects of branding and channel decisions. His most recent research on antitrust regulation appeared in theJournal of Corporation Law, a University of Iowa law review.