DOCTORAL RESEARCH IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND/OR LOGISTICS‐RELATED AREAS: 1999–2004

A total of 410 entries from Dissertation Abstracts have been identified and annotated in this fourth compendium of supply chain management (SCM) and logistics‐related dissertations. Findings relating to this latest study period (1999–2004) are presented and comparisons made to previous compendiums covering 1970–1986, 1987–1991, and 1992–1998. A larger number of colleges and universities are granting degrees in SCM and logistics‐related areas and some “new players” have entered the marketplace, resulting in an upward growth trend in the absolute number of dissertations being published since the early‐1990's. Some traditionally strong institutions have maintained their position in terms of the number of SCM and logistics‐related dissertations published, while others have reduced their outputs. Areas of SCM, decision support systems, inventory management and miscellaneous transportation (models, networks, policy issues, routing & scheduling) topics are the most popular dissertation areas, while traditional transportation, warehousing and storage, DRP, JIT, Kanban, and MRP topics are being researched to a much lesser degree. Engineering logistics, human resources, location analysis, order processing and information systems, packaging, and TQM remain areas with low research interest at the doctoral level.     

The link between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context: A dyadic analysis

Although it has frequently been argued that the job satisfaction of a company’s employees is an important driver of customer satisfaction, systematic research exploring this link is scarce. The present study investigates this relationship for salespeople in a business-to-business context. The theoretical justification for a positive impact of salespeople’s job satisfaction on customer satisfaction is based on the concept of emotional contagion. The analysis is based on a dyadic data set that involves judgments provided by salespeople and their customers collected across multiple manufacturing and services industries. Results indicate the presence of a positive relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction is found to be particularly strong in the case of high frequency of customer interaction, high intensity of customer integration into the value-creating process, and high product/service innovativeness.     

An attitude-behavior model of salespeople’s customer orientation

The goal of this article is to provide deeper insights into the construct of customer orientation at the individual level. The article has three main objectives: First, this study provides a two-dimensional conceptualization of customer orientation that distinguishes between attitudes and behaviors. Second, it explores direct and indirect effects of customer-oriented attitudes on customer satisfaction. Third, the authors propose and examine a positive moderating effect of empathy, reliability, and expertise on the link between customer-oriented attitude and customer-oriented behavior and a negative moderating effect of salespeople’s restriction in job autonomy. The analysis is based on dyadic data that involve judgments provided by salespeople and their customers across multiple manufacturing and services industries in a business-to-business context. Results support the authors’ two-dimensional conceptualization of customer orientation. The authors also find that customer-oriented attitudes have a direct effect on customer satisfaction. The four proposed moderating effects are also in evidence. Ruth Maria Stock (ruth.stock@gmx.net) is a professor of business administration and management at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. She holds a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Hagen, Germany, a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and a ha-bilitation degree from the University der Bundeswehr in Hamburg, Germany. She has published in various forums including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Psychology & Marketing, and theJournal of Business-to-Business Marketing. Her main research areas include market-oriented management and business-to-business marketing. Wayne D. Hoyer (wayne.hoyer@mccombs.utexas.edu) is the James L. Bayless/William S. Farish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise, the chair of the Department of Marketing, and the director of the Center for Customer Insight in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. from Purdue University in the area of consumer psychology. He has published more than 60 articles in various forums including theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Advertising Research, and theJournal of Retailing. His research interests include customer insight and relationship management, consumer information processing and decision making (especially low-involvement decision making), and advertising effects (most particularly, miscomprehension and the impact of humor).     

Exploring the conditions under which salesperson work satisfaction can lead to customer satisfaction

A number of recent research studies have demonstrated the presence of a positive link between customer‐contact employees' work satisfaction and customer satisfaction. However, existing studies have largely neglected describing conditions under which the link between these two constructs is stronger or weaker. The authors of this study argue that certain customer characteristics (such as customer trust, customer price consciousness, and the importance of product/service to the customer) and salesperson characteristics (such as empathy, expertise, and reliability) moderate the relationship between salespeople's work satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Balance theory is used to justify the hypotheses of the study. Tests of the hypotheses are based on a dyadic data set collected across manufacturing and services industries in a business‐to‐business context. Results reveal that the link between work satisfaction and customer satisfaction is systematically moderated by the salesperson and customer characteristics under consideration. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Reflections on 40 Years of the Journal of Business Logistics: From the Editors

This editorial embodies a series of essays from the current and past editors of the Journal of Business Logistics in marking the 40th anniversary of the journal. The compendium is intended to illustrate the evolution in logistics thought and practice as well as the journal's role in documenting and advancing the field. Key trends are identified in each era. Further, each editor expresses opinions of the current and future state of the discipline. This review reflects on the evolution of the Journal of Business Logistics and envisions the futures of the logistics field and supply chain discipline.     

免费的午餐:分级基金溢价的案例研究

本文简单回顾了分级基金的发展历程,并系统梳理了其类型和条款设计。通过对分级基金市场表现的研究,发现在扣除交易成本等因素后,具有配对转换功能的指数型分级基金存在溢价,即子基金价格之和大于母基金净值。而主动管理型分级基金则不存在溢价。进一步研究发现,指数型分级基金溢价来自于其B份额,且标的指数越容易做空,溢价越大。这说明缺乏对冲策略并非是分级基金溢价的来源。相反,有对冲策略的指数型分级基金B份额为市场提供了一个类似于指数期权性质的新产品,由于市场的不完备性,市场愿意为新产品支付溢价。其次,我们对影响价差的因素进行分析,发现子基金溢价随时间的变动与市场情绪指数和交易量相关,而与母基金的业绩表现无关。     

Leadership Style as Driver of Salespeoples' Customer Orientation

The topic of customer orientation has increasingly attracted interest in both academic marketing research and practice. One factor which has been increasingly discussed as an important driver of a sales person's customer orientation is that of leadership style. If a sales person's supervisor expresses a strong customer orientation this should have a strong impact on the behavior of his or her subordinates. However, this aspect has not received much research attention. In this study, we propose a theoretical framework of leadership style which identifies three key dimensions: initiation of structure, consideration, and initiation of customer orientation. Hypotheses which relate these dimensions to customer oriented attitudes and behaviors are then developed and empirically examined. Results support the presence of three dimensions of customer oriented leadership style. Findings also indicate differential effects of the three dimensions on customer oriented attitudes. The academic and managerial implications of these findings are then discussed.     

YIELD VOLATILITY OF DISCOUNT COUPON BONDS

In this research, the yield volatility of coupon-taxable discount bonds is analyzed. The relationship of before-tax yield changes on discounts as compared with changes in new, par issue (market) yields is developed in the form of a net yield factor (NYF). Also, the behavior of the NYF as dependent upon parameters such as maturity, coupon, market yield, and tax rates is examined. Then, the incorporation and impact of the NYF on price volatility are shown. Finally, results of empirical tests are reported, which validate the usefulness of NYFs in the measurement of yield volatility for discount bonds.