Positive and Negative Affectivity as Mediators of Volunteerism and Service‐Oriented Citizenship Behavior and Customer Loyalty

This study sought to examine the impact of volunteerism (motivation to help) on service‐oriented organizational citizenship behavior (S‐OCB) of salespeople as mediated by the positive and negative affectivity, and further how the involvement of salespeople in S‐OCB would affect the customer loyalty toward the company. The context chosen for empirical investigation was the Indian pharmaceutical sector and the sample consists of 125 medical sales representatives from four companies that are well‐established players, including three multinational firms and one Indian company, as well as their supervisors (n = 48) and doctors (n = 150). The data are analyzed through partial least squares approach to path modeling to estimate the measurement and structural parameters. All of the hypotheses are confirmed. The results of this study indicate that volunteerism exhibits a significant positive impact on S‐OCB and customer loyalty. In addition, this positive impact is partially mediated by positive and negative affectivity. In sum, the proposed model explains a large amount of variance in S‐OCB and customer loyalty, suggesting that it will serve as a useful tool for analyzing service‐oriented organizational sale persons’ behavior and customers’ reactions. The implications of these results include improving service OCB by promoting volunteerism in the service industry and emphasizing the important roles of service staff in enhancing the customer loyalty.     

Mindfulness: Nurturing Global Mind‐set and Leadership

In this article, we attempt to explore global leadership and global mind‐set from the perspective of mindfulness. Through a synthesis of the literature on mindfulness and scholarship on global mind‐set and global leadership, this article explicates the importance of mindfulness in developing a global mind‐set and, thereby, acquiring global leadership competencies. Taking a task‐analytic approach to global leadership, we attempt to elaborate on how mindfulness can act as an important antecedent for global mind‐set and hence for global leadership. Implications for future research and managerial practice are highlighted. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mass prestige value and competition between American versus Asian laptop brands in an emerging market—Theory and evidence

In recent years, competition between brands have been linked to mass prestige associated with the brands. Mass Prestige (Masstige) is very important to study, and yet it is a relatively less investigated construct in the literature. This study is an attempt to contribute to the literature grounded in masstige theoretical approach by examining the prestige associated with the four best-selling laptop brands: 1) two American brands (HP, Dell); and 2) two Asian brands (Lenovo and Acer). We analyzed the competition between these brands in the second fastest growing emerging market, India. In order to measure masstige value, we used the Masstige Mean scale (Paul, 2015). The results show that American brands have the potential to be seen as prestige brands while Asian brands are trailing behind in masstige value and competition. Finally, but not less important, this paper discusses the potential reasons for different masstige value of four laptop brands.     

Explaining the Rate Spread on Corporate Bonds

The purpose of this article is to explain the spread between rates on corporate and government bonds. We show that expected default accounts for a surprisingly small fraction of the premium in corporate rates over treasuries. While state taxes explain a substantial portion of the difference, the remaining portion of the spread is closely related to the factors that we commonly accept as explaining risk premiums for common stocks. Both our time series and cross-sectional tests support the existence of a risk premium on corporate bonds.     

Generating Competitive Intelligence in Organizations

Marketing strategy begins with customer and competitive intelligence. However, in sharp contrast to customer intelligence, there is little research on how competitive intelligence (CI) is actually generated within an organization. The absence of this knowledge makes it difficult to identify ways to improve the CI generation process. Drawing on both depth interviews with full-time personnel who conduct competitive intelligence and academic literature in related fields, the authors derive a novel conceptual framework that describes three interdependent phases of the competitive intelligence generation process: (1) organizing for competitive intelligence, (2) searching for information, and (3) sense-making. Dimensions of efficacy at each phase are also identified, and they are posited to be influenced by factors pertaining to: (1) the intelligence network, (2) the business environment, (3) the information environment, and (4) analyst characteristics. This framework departs from the existing literature by identifying core components of the competitive intelligence generation process, highlighting its iterative nature, and identifying variables germane to its success. The emergent framework's implications for managing the competitive intelligence generation process are discussed and future research directions are suggested.     

The Keys to Success in Spinoffs

Corporate restructurings accomplished through spinoffs have long been a key tool for management to unlock shareholder value. In 2016, global spinoff volume reached $117 billion, and spinoff activity continues to unfold at a similar pace in 2017, with Hilton, Xerox, Alcoa, Johnson Controls, and Danaher all recently completing major transactions. Spinoffs are often designed to increase strategic focus and discipline in the allocation of capital, enabling companies to respond more effectively to opportunities that create shareholder value, including transformational M&A. And intensifying shareholder activist pressure, along with favorable debt market conditions, has provided significant momentum to spinoff activity. In fact, almost 20% of the companies that announced spinoffs in the past five years were subject to some form of prior activist engagement. Moreover, part of the impetus for such activism can be traced to the record M&A volume of the past few years, which has added to investor demand for many acquisitive companies to consider shedding businesses that are no longer a strategic fit. But even with all this M&A activity, opportunities for unlocking value through spinoffs have not been as abundant or readily identified as in the past owing to the general reduction in corporate business diversification that has taken place during the last decade or so. And perhaps reflecting this development, the average longer‐run shareholder returns from spinoffs have actually turned negative during the past five years, while the dispersion of spinoff returns has increased, representing greater downside risk for restructurings undertaken without an effective strategy and rationale for increasing efficiency and value. Nonetheless, more than half of all spinoffs over the past five years have generated share price outperformance despite the overall decline in spinoff performance. The authors devote the second half of the article to identifying several key characteristics of the post‐separation entities that indicate the potential for such a restructuring to deliver share price outperformance. The main attributes of value‐increasing spinoffs are size and organic growth, and increases in business focus and capital efficiency; but such transactions have also produced companies that maintain the financial flexibility to pursue M&A along with a dividend policy that is both attractive and sustainable.     

Reducing marketing’s conflict with other functions: The differential effects of integrating mechanisms

To operate effectively, marketing must work in harmony with other functional departments in a firm. This study focuses on marketing’s interactions with three functions that play a key role in the achievement of marketing goals—finance, manufacturing, and R&D. The authors combine insights from previous studies and interviews with practicing managers to identify six integrating mechanisms proposed to mitigate manifest interfunctional conflict (behavior that frustrates marketing initiatives). In addition, they investigate the role of internal volatility (turbulence within an organization) in shaping manifest conflict. Based on a large-scale, multi-informant empirical study, the authors identify the more effective of these six integrating mechanisms. Furthermore, they argue and demonstrate these mechanisms are differentially effective across the marketing-finance, marketing-manufacturing, and marketing-R&D interfaces. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Elliot Maltz received his MBA from the University of California at Davis and his Ph.D in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to the Atkinson School, he taught at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Dr. Maltz’s research focuses on how market information can be effectively transmitted from marketing to other functions within a firm (e.g., R&D, manufacturing) or across firms (e.g., in distribution channels, strategic alliances) to facilitate new product development or marketing initiatives designed to respond to changes in market conditions. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Product Innovation Management and Long Range Planning Ajay K. Kohli is the Isaac Stiles Hopkins Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. His undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering, and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees are in business administration. He has also taught at the Harvard Business School, the University of Texas at Austin, Koblenz School of Corporate Management in Germany, and at the Norwegian School of Management, Norway. His published work focuses on market orientation, sales management, and B2B Marketing. He has received several research and teaching awards including the Jagdish N. Sheth Award for the best article published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science in 1997, the Alpha Kappa Psi award for best practice-oriented article published in theJournal of Marketing (1990), and the Jack Taylor award for excellence in teaching at the University of Texas at Austin.     

Market-driven versus driving markets

The purpose of this article is to discuss two approaches to being market oriented—a market-driven approach and a driving-markets approach.Market driven refers to a business orientation that is based on understanding and reacting to the preferences and behaviors of players within a given market structure.Driving markets, on the other hand, implies influencing the structure of the market and/or the behavior(s) of market players in a direction that enhances the competitive position of the business. There are three generic ways of changing the structure of a market: (1) eliminating players in a market (deconstruction approach), (2) building a new or modified set of players in a market (construction approach), and (3) changing the functions performed by players (functional modification approach). Market behavior can be modified directly or, alternatively, indirectly by changing the mind-set of market players (e.g., customers, competitors, and other stakeholders). The Monitor Company Bernard Jaworski is the Markets Chair at the Monitor Company. He has researched and taught extensively in the areas of brand management, marketing control, market orientation, and marketing strategy. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught at Arizona and the University of Southern California. Ajay K. Kohli is the Isaac Hopkins Chair of Marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. A widely cited scholar, his areas of interest include market orientation, sales force management, and marketing strategy. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and taught at the University of Texas before moving to Emory. Arvind Sahay is an assistant professor of marketing and international business at the London Business School. He has published in the areas of technology marketing, international marketing, E-commerce, and marketing strategy. He obtained his Ph.D. form the University of Texas.