Making sense of a market information system for superior performance: The roles of organizational responsiveness and innovation strategy

This article conceptualizes the relationships among strategic resources, strategic actions, and consequent performance by incorporating the strategic sense-making perspective into the resource-based view. Specifically, the study suggests that the firm can use both market-driven strategic actions such as organizational responsiveness and market-driving strategic actions such as innovation strategy to make sense of strategic resources such as a market information system. The firm can then translate the strategic resources into a competitive marketing advantage, which leads in turn to superior financial performance. The study tests this framework by surveying 180 manufacturing firms in China. The empirical results support the theoretical framework.     

Organisational, technical and data quality factors in CRM adoption — SMEs perspective

Like large organisations, many Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have implemented Customer Relationship Management (CRM), so that they can compete effectively in today's highly changeable economic and market climate. However, studies indicate that there are mixed results as to how successful SMEs have been in adopting CRM solutions. It is also reported in the literature that CRM implementation is influenced by issues that relate to organisational, technical and data quality factors. To this end, there is limited research conducted in this area which mainly focuses on including these dimension in the evaluation of factors that influence CRM adoption in the SME sector. In seeking to address this issue, this research uses an investigative study aimed at identifying the organisational, technical and data quality related factors influencing CRM adoption by SMEs. This will enhance the quality of the evaluation process, and help support SME decision makers in exploring the implications surrounding CRM adoption. The findings of this study confirm that factors affecting the adoption of CRM in SMEs are largely similar to the factors affecting CRM adoption in previously studied other types of organisations.     

Global customer team design: Dimensions, determinants, and performance outcomes

Designing and implementing global customer teams (GCTs) represents a key task for suppliers that are expanding the scope of their customer relationships. However, research has not provided an explanation of how these teams function and what determines their performance. Using an interdisciplinary combination of concepts from customer management and organizational behavior research streams, we develop an integrative framework of GCT design and performance. The framework is conceptualized with qualitative interview data and validated with survey data from 273 members of 113 GCTs in six multinational companies. Our results indicate that team performance is influenced directly by three team processes: communication and collaboration, conflict management, and proactiveness. Team design in terms of goal and role definition, customer coverage, empowerment, heterogeneity, skills adequacy, and leadership indirectly influences performance, mediated by team processes. In addition, three factors of the organizational environment—top management support, rewards and incentives, and training—have similar indirect effects.     

Procurement cost reduction for customized non-critical items in an automotive supply chain: An action research project

This paper presents the processes involved in organizing a buyers' fair, a fair where first- and second-tier suppliers of the automotive industry make known their buying requirements for non-critical items to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). The fair allowed the procurement process of LCs (large companies) and the prospecting process of SMEs to be faster and less-expensive. The fair was the result of an action research project performed by the researchers in partnership with the Brazilian Federation of Industries.     

Industrial services, product innovations, and firm profitability: A multiple-group latent growth curve analysis

Manufacturers in many industries seek service-led growth beyond their product core. Yet research on the link between service revenue growth and firm profitability is still at an early stage. To shed further light on this complex relationship, we report the results of a longitudinal study based on panel data of 414 companies in the German mechanical engineering industry collected over a five-year period. Employing latent growth curve modeling and using multiple group analysis, the study provides empirical evidence for the causality between service infusion strategies and manufacturers' profit trajectories. The results also reveal differential effects of service categories and the moderating role of manufacturers' product innovation efforts. For companies with high product innovation activity, services supporting the product (SSPs) directly increase firm profitability, while services supporting the clients' actions (SSCs) do not display any link with long-term profitability. Conversely, for companies with low product innovation activity, SSCs have a significant, positive effect on firm profitability, while SSPs have only an indirect effect. In sum, our findings caution managers that service offerings do not automatically improve company profits. Manufacturers must carefully consider the fit between their service offerings and product innovation activities to grow bottom line results.     

The impact of degenerative episodes on the sponsorship B2B relationship: Implications for brand management

Sponsorship B2B relationships generally are entered into by sponsors seeking brand-related benefits through association with a sport entity brand. Negative incidents involving athletes representing the sport entity may threaten the brands of both the sport and sponsor and can weaken or even dissolve the partnership. The management of these episodes is critical in protecting the sport entity's brand equity, as well as the sponsor's brand, and ultimately the relationship. This study explores multiple stakeholders' perspectives on these degenerative episodes and the potential relational outcomes using a series of depth interviews with major sponsors and sport entities. We identify key constructs such as attribution of blame, societal norms, zone of tolerance and perceived severity which influence whether this behavior acts as a degenerative episode in the relationship. Factors such as existing relationship quality and episode management can affect the impact on the relationship as well as the extent of relational change.     

Customer response to dissatisfaction: A synthesis of literature and conceptual framework

Business-to-business customers who are dissatisfied with services or products may respond by voicing complaints, by exiting the transaction relationships, by spreading negative word-of-mouth (WOM) about their experiences, and/or by continuing the transactional relationships as they are. The authors synthesize extant customer (dis)satisfaction response behaviors in the organizational buyer behavior literature, and discuss within-firm and third-party recipients of voicing and negative WOM. A model of customer response behavior is disclosed featuring possible influences of exit, voice, loyalty, and negative WOM: number of alternative suppliers, past complaint response behavior, number of years in relationship, and type of purchase. Propositions are provided on the effects of influence variables on response behavior relationships.     

Actor network pictures and networking activities in business networks: An experimental study

In recent years, there has been increasing interest among business-to-business marketing scholars in the processes of managerial cognition. In particular, actors' network pictures, defined as the cognitive representations of managers' business surroundings have attracted much attention. However, there has so far been no empirical research on the impact that network pictures have on managerial behavior. The purpose of this paper is therefore to understand if and how specific pertinent network picture characteristics — namely power, dynamics, broadness, and indirectness — are associated with different behavioral choices, i.e. networking strategies. Based on an experiment with 445 Executive MBA students, all international managers across different industries, we find that managers' choices when managing business relationships, their strategic actions, are affected by the way they perceive their surrounding business network. However, amongst the different theoretical models of networking activities tested, only the power dimension showed significant associations with all four network picture characteristics. This study represents the first to empirically study the connection between cognition and behavior in business-to-business markets, as well as one of the few to apply an experimental design to study a business-to-business marketing related phenomenon. Also, it paves the way for future understanding of the association between network picture characteristics and networking strategies in interaction between actors.     

Entrepreneurial orientation, exploitative and explorative capabilities, and performance outcomes in export markets: A resource-based approach

Innovation is critical to the growth and success of a firm. In an attempt to renew themselves and compete effectively in the global marketplace, firms must possess both technical and non-technical capabilities. Yet, the extant literature has mainly focused on technology and product development capabilities, disregarding other possible capability domains. This study investigates the role of market-related exploitative and explorative capabilities, together with product development ones, in the context of exporting. Drawing on the resource-based and organization learning theories, we examine the internal process through which entrepreneurial orientation influences performance in export markets and develop a model of entrepreneurial orientation-exploitative and explorative capabilities-advantage-performance relationships. The results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation is a precursor of exploitative and explorative product development and overseas market-related capabilities. The findings also suggest that product development explorative capabilities and overseas market-related exploitative capabilities have a positive effect on new product differentiation, which in turn enhances market effectiveness. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed along with suggestions for future research.