Buyer Loyalty in Business Markets: Can the Firm and Salesperson Get What They Truly Desire?

Purpose: Prior literature has acknowledged multi-foci customer loyalties (loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty) and argued that both entities (selling firms and salespersons) foster customer loyalty through respective loyalty-capturing efforts (relationship investments). However, scholars have not investigated the influences of different types of interfirm relationship-specific investment (RSI) activities and salesperson behaviors (brand-building and guanxi behavior) on customer loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, especially their simultaneous (interaction) effects. The current research attempts to address this issue and examines the impacts that RSIs and salesperson behaviors have on customer loyalties.

Methodology/approach: A survey of seller–buyer dyads was conducted to test the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Using 192 dyadic data from customers and salespersons in the Chinese business-to-business contexts, this study specifies the direct and interactive effects of sellers’ RSIs and salespersons’ behaviors on customer loyalties.

Findings: Results indicate that selling firms’ loyalty-capturing efforts—property-based and knowledge-based RSIs—have different influences on two types of customer loyalty. Salespersons’ relationship investments—brand-building and guanxi behaviors—also have asymmetric impacts on customer loyalty. Counterintuitively, salespersons’ loyalty-capturing efforts weaken the relationships between firms’ RSIs and customer loyalties.

Originality/value/contribution: This study specifies different types of relationship investments and examines their respective and interactive impacts on two types of customer loyalty—loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty. The findings indicate that firms’ and salespersons’ efforts may lead to unexpected and unintended effects on multi-foci loyalties. Therefore, the current study enriches our knowledge about multi-foci loyalty management and relationship marketing.

Practical implications: Because firms’ and salespersons’ loyalty-capturing strategies exert positive direct influences on loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, both entities may actively leverage relationship investments’ impact on customer loyalty. However, as the interactive effects derived from concurrent loyalty-enhancing activities are negative, firms need to clearly assess the nature and

characteristics of their relationship with buyers and properly design relationship investments and guide salesperson behaviors. Managers should use property-based RSIs as a primary safeguard of customer loyalty to the selling firm. Meanwhile, internal branding and training programs can help salespersons develop brand building behaviors and better understand the potential unintended outcomes that different behaviors may induce. Aligning a branding goal between the firm and salespersons can benefit both parties while avoiding counter-productive outcomes.     

Revenue implication of auction value in <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-price sealed-bid auctions: An experimental study

In this paper, we show that in a heterogeneous bidding community with predominantly risk-seeking bidders, third-price sealed-bid auctions yield higher revenue for the seller than first-price sealed-bid auctions when the auction value is low. Conversely, when the value of the auction is high, first-price sealed-bid auctions yield higher revenue for the seller than third-price sealed-bid auctions. Existing theoretical findings for a homogeneous group of risk-seeking individuals imply that third-price sealed-bid auctions should generate higher revenues for the seller than first-price sealed-bid auctions. Our results for low-value auctions agree but our results for high-value auctions do not agree with the existing findings. We discuss the implications of this discrepancy as a function of the shift in goal orientation from a win-focus to a value-focus as the value of the auction increases.

How does earnings management influence investor’s perceptions of firm value? Survey evidence from financial analysts

Survey evidence shows CFOs to believe that earnings management can enhance investor valuation of their firms. This evidence raises the question of correspondence between the beliefs of CFOs and investors. Surveying financial analysts to gain insight into how earnings management influences investor perception of firm value, we find analysts’ and CFOs’ beliefs to be generally consistent. We find that analysts perceive meeting earnings benchmarks and smoothing earnings to enhance investor perception of firm value and all earnings management actions to reach a benchmark, save share repurchases, to be value destroying. CFOs, however, are reluctant to repurchase shares, preferring to use techniques viewed by analysts as value destroying (e.g., reductions in discretionary spending). Analysts’ inability to unravel such techniques perhaps explains CFOs’ preferences.     

A Jump-diffusion Model for Exchange Rates in a Target Zone

We propose a simple jump-diffusion model for an exchange rate target zone. The model captures most stylized facts from the existing target zone models while remaining analytically tractable. The model is based on a modified two-limit version of the C OX , I NGERSOLL and R OSS (1985) model. In the model the exchange rate is kept within the band because the variance decreases as the exchange rate approaches the upper or lower limits of the band. We also consider an extension of the model with parity adjustments, which are modeled as Poisson jumps. Estimation of the model is by GMM based on conditional moments. We derive prices of currency options in our model, assuming that realignment jump risk is idiosyncratic. Throughout, we apply the theory to EMS exchange rate data. We show that, after the EMS crisis of 1993, currencies remain in an implicit target zone which is narrower than the officially announced target zones.     

Classification of ownership patterns in Korean conglomerates

This study classifies the ownership structure of conglomerates considering the conglomerates' choices of pyramidal vs. horizontal structures and the magnitude of equity held by the controlling shareholders, namely the owner family. It proposes four patterns of ownership structure: (1) horizontal ownership with a high family stake, (2) horizontal ownership with a low family stake, (3) pyramidal ownership with a high family stake, and (4) pyramidal ownership with low family stake. Further, an attempt has been made to identify the series of economic variables contributing to the varying patterns of ownership structure in the 30 largest Korean conglomerates.     

ROBUST ASSET ALLOCATION WITH BENCHMARKED OBJECTIVES

In this paper, we introduce a new approach for finding robust portfolios when there is model uncertainty. It differs from the usual worst‐case approach in that a (dynamic) portfolio is evaluated not only by its performance when there is an adversarial opponent (“nature”), but also by its performance relative to a stochastic benchmark. The benchmark corresponds to the wealth of a fictitious benchmark investor who invests optimally given knowledge of the model chosen by nature, so in this regard, our objective has the flavor of min–max regret. This relative performance approach has several important properties: (i) optimal portfolios seek to perform well over the entire range of models and not just the worst case, and hence are less pessimistic than those obtained from the usual worst‐case approach; (ii) the dynamic problem reduces to a convex static optimization problem under reasonable choices of the benchmark portfolio for important classes of models including ambiguous jump‐diffusions; and (iii) this static problem is dual to a Bayesian version of a single period asset allocation problem where the prior on the unknown parameters (for the dual problem) correspond to the Lagrange multipliers in this duality relationship. This dual static problem can be interpreted as a less pessimistic alternative to the single period worst‐case Markowitz problem. More generally, this duality suggests that learning and robustness are closely related when benchmarked objectives are used.     

Tendency to Infer Bribery and Corrupt Intent in Social and Business Situations: Comparing Chinese and Singaporean Employees

The present paper investigates the differences in ethicalperceptions between Chinese and Singaporean employees. Twocontrasting predictions based on socialization theory are testedusing 142 Chinese and 141 Singaporean employees as subjects. Results show that Chinese employees tend to infer a greaterdegree of unethical (bribery and corrupt) intent than Singaporeanemployees in 17 of the 25 ethical vignettes. The converse isfound in only two and no significant differences are found in therest of the vignettes. Implications for international managersand assignees and researchers in international business workingon or in China are discussed.     

Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies

Various theories have been proposed to explain momentum in stock returns. We test the gradual-information-diffusion model of Hong and Stein (1999) and establish three key results. First, once one moves past the very smallest stocks, the profitability of momentum strategies declines sharply with firm size. Second, holding size fixed, momentum strategies work better among stocks with low analyst coverage. Finally, the effect of analyst coverage is greater for stocks that are past losers than for past winners. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that firm-specific information, especially negative information, diffuses only gradually across the investing public.     

Do Eco‐friendly VMD and Store Reputation Increase Satisfaction of Retail Customers?

This study builds on previous research to investigate the effect of the benefits of eco‐friendly VMD (visual merchandising) on satisfaction as well as the effect of satisfaction on store attitude. This also testifies the moderating effects how the benefits of eco‐friendly VMD affect customer satisfaction by store reputation. A total of 363 responses were used to examine the process through which core benefits and relational benefits of retailers with eco‐friendly VMD affect psychological satisfaction and social satisfaction. This is a unique study offering empirical evidence that psychological and social satisfactions are the mechanisms through which benefits of eco‐friendly VMD lead to store attitude. Results indicate that information benefit and psychological benefit result in positive psychological satisfaction and social satisfaction, which in turn leads to positive store attitude in retail customers.