Cross-Divisional Orientation: Antecedents and Effects on Cross-Selling Success

Purpose: To determine which company internal prerequisites must be in place and managed to realize a successful cross-selling strategy and to find answers on how to overcome cross-selling obstacles.

Methodology/approach: Qualitative and quantitative data from various industries provide insights into the implementation of a successful cross-selling strategy. Qualitative data serve to derive the hypotheses and constructs and design quantitative measures. Structural equation modeling with data from a management survey of an industrial glass manufacturer tests the proposed effects.

Findings: The cross-divisional orientation of a company affects the realization of cross-selling potential and the number of product divisions a salespersons sells. These factors then influence the salesperson's motivation and readiness to engage in cross-selling activities, which finally affect the company's overall cross-selling success. A salesperson's state of mind has the greatest impact on cross-selling success.

Research implications: Similar results might be expected for various other industries, which need to be tested. The findings could be enhanced by incorporating a wider range of customer characteristics into the analysis, as well as other mediating or moderating variables.

Practical implications: There is a clear need to enable cross-divisional acting and thinking among salespeople. Managers should foster cross-selling motivation and invest in specific training and recruitment to increase the dissemination of knowledge across divisions and reassure salespeople about offering various products.

Originality/value/contribution: This contribution to current practice clarifies why cross-selling often does not work and why it remains so challenging to realize. The combination of three sources of data—qualitative, objective, and quantitative—advances cross-selling research by considering internal obstacles to cross-selling and revealing ways to overcome them.     

Market Orientation Plus: Antecedents and Consequences of Market Orientation and Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico

ABSTRACT

The evolution of the market orientation (MO) concept toward stakeholder-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been recognized recently. Nevertheless, the two variables remain conceptually and operationally different, and very little is known about the relationship between MO and CSR. The current study addresses this question empirically by embedding measures of MO and CSR into a framework of antecedents and consequences in the context of an emerging economy (Mexico). The results show that companies with high levels of MO also attain high levels of CSR. Further, CSR partially mediates the relationship between MO and corporate reputation and fully mediates the relationship between MO and employee commitment. Informal organization has a positive influence on MO and fully mediates the relationship between innovation and MO. The findings may encourage companies in emerging economies to implement CSR initiatives without fearing that their focus on customer and competitor orientation will be negatively affected.     

High‐Growth Women’s Entrepreneurship: Fueling Social and Economic Development

High‐growth firms, often referred to as “gazelles,” are equated with entrepreneurial success and celebrated as the key to growing economies, and women’s entrepreneurship is a vehicle of economic and social development. This special issue publishes papers that address the general lack of research on high‐growth women’s entrepreneurship. In this introduction paper, we offer an adapted framework for the factors driving high growth across multiple levels: individual (entrepreneur and entrepreneurial team characteristics), venture (strategy, organizational structures, and systems), resources, location, and environment. We also introduce the papers in this special issue and present an overview of the contributions to this issue.     

Consumer Cynicism toward Collective Buying: The Interplay of Others’ Outcomes,Social Value Orientation,and Mood

This research examines whether consumer cynicism about collective buying depends on consumers’ observations of fellow buyers being treated unfairly in a cobuying context. Prosocial consumers should differ from proself consumers in their level of cynicism, because they value equality in outcomes. Study 1 reveals that prosocials become cynical if others receive an unfair outcome and therefore do not repatronize the provider. This effect does not occur for proselfs. Study 2 shows that mood mediates this effect. Specifically, when prosocial consumers are in a positive mood, the others’ outcomes no longer influence their cynicism. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumers’ Social Media Brand Behaviors: Uncovering Underlying Motivators and Deriving Meaningful Consumer Segments

The current research identifies the range of social media brand behaviors (i.e., brand touch points) that consumers can exhibit on social media, and subsequently queries a representative sample of consumers with regard to such behaviors. The analysis reveals four underlying motivators for consumers’ social media behaviors, including brand tacit engagement, brand exhibiting, brand patronizing, and brand deal seeking. These motivators are used to derive meaningful consumer segments identified as content seekers, observers, deal hunters, hard‐core fans, posers and, respectively, patronizers, and described through co‐variates including brand loyalty, brand attachment, and social media usage. The findings are critically discussed in the light of literature on the needs that consumers meet through brand consumption and on the types of relationships consumers build with brands. Not least, the managerial implications of the current findings are debated.     

Antecedents of Service Innovation in SMEs: Comparing the Effects of External and Internal Factors

Increasing attention has been paid of late to the importance of effectively developing both exploratory and exploitative innovation in firms. Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the growth of economies and in job creation, yet at the same time they can differ significantly from larger firms with respect to effective management. Recent research has examined the effects of environmental and organizational characteristics on the effective development of exploratory and exploitative innovation. SMEs differ from larger firms in many ways, such as the availability of resources, and it is unclear whether findings based on studies in larger firms will also hold true for SMEs. As such, it is important to explore and understand the extent to which SMEs differ from large firms in this important area. Specifically, this paper empirically examines the extent to which organizational factors (connectedness, centralization, formalization) and business environment (dynamism and hostility) are associated with different types of innovation orientations (exploratory and exploitative) among SMEs.     

Social entrepreneurship and digital platforms: Crowdfunding in the sharing-economy era

Though crowdfunding is no longer an atypical fundraising mechanism, its practical use remains limited, particularly when it comes to social entrepreneurship, owing to the numerous challenges unique to social-entrepreneurial ventures. By combining existing research on social entrepreneurship, value cocreation, the sharing economy, and digital platforms, this work offers practical insights into how existing platforms can be used for crowdfunding financial resources, sourcing creative ideas, collaborating, and gathering an array of nonfinancial resources. Additionally, this article discusses the ideal digital platform solution and explains how a multifaceted, multiuse digital platform can be created and utilized by new social ventures for meeting a multitude of needs. By focusing on a mission of social change and by understanding how digital platforms can avail crowdfunding, social entrepreneurs can overcome legitimacy issues and lack of traditional funding avenues. This taps into many of the typical aspects of the sharing economy: the benevolence of the actors, use of the internet for facilitation, and the motivation to engage in a new way of doing things. Thus, this article adopts a multidisciplinary view in exploring how crowdfunding can be coupled with the remobilization of idling resources using digital platforms to support social-entrepreneurial ventures in a myriad of ways.     

Antecedents of Truck Drivers’ Job Satisfaction and Retention Proneness

The aim of this study was to (1) explore the antecedents of truck drivers’ job satisfaction, (2) identify the impact of financial and nonfinancial job properties on satisfaction with the job and with one's employer, and (3) the drivers’ proneness to retaining their jobs. Based on the extant literature, we develop a conceptual model that is tested using survey data for 164 truck drivers. Multiple linear and ordinal logistic regressions were used to estimate the proposed effects. The results reveal that nonfinancial job properties and satisfaction with one's employer affect job satisfaction is statistically significant. Financial and nonfinancial job properties affect satisfaction with one's employer whereas the former shows a lower impact compared to the latter. Satisfaction with the job and one's employer impacts retention proneness. The contribution of this study was to (1) add to the understanding of the factors that predict retention of truck drivers in relationship to job satisfaction and (2) highlight the different roles of financial and nonfinancial job properties in this specific work context.     

The International Effects of China’s Growth,Trade and Education Booms

China’s international trade flows have increased by 500 per cent since 1992, far outstripping GDP growth. Likewise tertiary education enrolments have increased by 300 per cent. We simulate these changes using a multi‐sector growth model of the Chinese and USA economies. A decade of trade biased growth in China is found to raise USA GDP by approximately 3–4.5 percentage points and has a large impact on the demand for tertiary education in China. Despite these positive effects of growth, the results suggest that the expansion of China’s education sector per se has practically no long‐run impact on the USA economy.     

Mobile Commerce Website Success: Antecedents of Consumer Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

With the rapid development of apparel mobile commerce in the United States, more companies view mobile commerce as a new source of competitive advantage. Despite the importance of apparel mobile website quality and its effect on consumer satisfaction and future purchase stimulus, extant research has paid little attention to these topics. This study proposes a website quality–consumer satisfaction–purchase intention research model based on the self-regulatory process theory. Six dimensions of apparel mobile website quality—website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, brand trust, website information quality, website response time, and website security—were investigated. In all, 293 eligible responses were collected via an online survey. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the proposed relationships. Results reveal that website information quality, website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, and website security positively affect consumer satisfaction toward apparel mobile commerce websites, while website response time and brand trust show insignificant impacts on consumer satisfaction. With higher satisfaction on an apparel mobile commerce website, consumers are more likely to purchase apparel through the website.     

The Effects of Model Size and Race on Chinese Consumers’ Reactions: A Social Comparison Perspective

Previous research on women's reactions to female body images in advertisements has been restricted to same race target women and models, and typically conducted among Western participants. The present research examines the combined effects of model race and size for the first time, and extends inquiry to Chinese consumers. Results across four experiments demonstrate that model race and size are potent informative cues that influence Chinese consumers’ self‐esteem and advertising effectiveness. Studies 1a and 1b suggest that model race is an informative trigger predicting differential social comparison and subsequent self‐esteem judgments for Chinese women, but has no effect on Chinese men's self‐esteem. In addition, model size exerts differential impacts on Chinese women's and men's self‐esteem. Study 2 shows that manipulation of the social comparison mechanism may outweigh that of race as an informative cue. Study 3 examines the relationship between model size and Chinese women's evaluative responses to advertisements. These findings not only contribute to the literature, but also offer practical guidelines for marketers advertising in China.     

Engagement with Social Media and Social Media Advertising: The Differentiating Role of Platform Type

This study examines how consumers’ engagement with social media platforms drives engagement with advertising embedded in these platforms and, subsequently, evaluations of this advertising. Our survey (N = 1,346, aged 13 and older) maps social media users’ engagement experiences with Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat and their experiences with and evaluations of advertising on these platforms. Our findings show that engagement is highly context specific; it comprises various types of experiences on each social media platform such that each is experienced in a unique way. Moreover, on each platform, a different set of experiences is related to advertising evaluations. It is further shown that engagement with social media advertising itself is key in explaining how social media engagement is related to advertising evaluations. The general conclusion is that there is no such thing as “social media.”     

A Second-hand Shoppers’ Motivation Scale: Antecedents, Consequences, and Implications for Retailers

In view of growing interest in alternative consumption channels and critiques of conventional retailing, this study proposes a scale of second-hand shopping motivations. After defining the concept, we present the characteristics of second-hand shopping and explain the importance of a motivation-based approach. Through qualitative and quantitative studies and two data collections carried out in France with 708 subjects, we propose a reliable, valid, eight-factor scale that includes motivations related to products and distribution channels. A second-order hierarchical structure supports the tripartite nature (critical, economic, and recreational) of this form of shopping. Furthermore, the measure reveals, through a typological analysis, four consumer segments: “polymorphous enthusiasts”, “thrifty critics”, “nostalgic hedonists”, and “regular specialist shoppers”. We discuss the applications of this new scale and their implications for both research and retailing strategies.     

Reduced‐fat foods: the shopper’s viewpoint

The inclusion of reduced‐fat foods in the daily diet affords consumers the potential to reduce overall dietary fat. Nevertheless, despite an increased range of these food products throughout the market, there has remained a lack of widespread consumer acceptance. The aim of the study was therefore to understand why consumers choose or reject reduced‐fat foods. Ninety consumers were interviewed by means of a qualitative approach within food retail outlets in the United Kingdom. Thematic content analysis indicated that uptake or rejection of these products is influenced by health concerns, ‘goodness of fit’ with individual dietary health strategies, the preferences of different household members, perceived sensory properties and scepticism towards these products. The results imply a need to explore and innovate ‘natural’ fat substitutes and to improve the sensory quality of reduced‐fat products. Further research is required to determine how these foods are used within the household and incorporated within the overall diet. Policy must seek to restore consumer trust in reduced‐fat food products and the food supply generally.     

The Antecedents of Moral Imagination in the Workplace: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

As corporate scandals proliferate, organizational researchers and practitioners have made calls for research providing guidance for those wishing to influence positive moral decision-making and behavior in the workplace. This study incorporates social cognitive theory and a vignette-based cognitive measure for moral imagination to examine (a) moral attentiveness and employee creativity as important antecedents of moral imagination and (b) creativity as a moderator of the positive relationship between moral attentiveness and moral imagination. Based on the results from supervisor–subordinate dyadic data (N = 162) obtained from employed students, hypotheses were largely supported as expected. Implications are discussed.     

Aggressive Legalism: The Rules of the WTO and Japan’s Emerging Trade Strategy

Over the course of the last decade there has been a significant change in Japan’s trade strategy, one that has remained seriously unappreciated for both its contents and its policy implications. The heart of this unfolding strategy is the active use of the legal rules in the treaties and agreements overseen by the WTO to counter what the Japanese government deems to be the unreasonable acts, requests, and practices of its major trade partners. To wit, the Japanese government is deliberately using both the procedural and substantive rules of the WTO to matter to the results and outcomes of major trade disputes involving Japan. And in a relatively short time, it has shown how these rules can be made to serve as both ‘shield’ and ‘sword’ in high‐profile trade disputes. This is the strategy that Japan has embraced as the principal means of dealing with its major trade partners, and it reveals much about both a new Japan and the power of international law.     

China’s Macroeconomic Imbalances: Causes and Consequences

In recent years, China has experienced two forms of extreme macroeconomic imbalance: an expenditure imbalance in the sense of very high investment and very low consumption, giving rise to rapid capital accumulation; and an imbalance between expenditure and production, producing external imbalance, i.e. a huge surplus on the current account of the balance of payments. Both imbalances imply a low rate of time discount by both government and society: consumption in the present is forgone in favour of consumption in the future. The paper examines how these imbalances came about and goes on to consider whether they can be sustained and how they might be redressed. There is no evidence that the rapid capital accumulation has reduced the rate of profit on capital and thus the incentive to invest. However, persistent external imbalance poses a threat to investment if it generates excess liquidity and asset bubbles. The current account surplus rose remarkably in the years 2004–07. This was associated with exogenous increases in competiveness and in saving, both attributable to the economic reform policies. On current policies, the surplus is likely to rise again once the world economy recovers from its recession. This poses three sorts of problems, each of which is examined in turn: difficulties for macroeconomic stabilisation policies; risk of capital loss on the foreign exchange holdings; and the threat of retaliation by China’s trading partners. A combination of internal and external policies will be required to redress the imbalance.