Exploring the characteristics of the market-driven firms and antecedents to sustained competitive advantage

During the last few decades, identifying and examining the characteristics of market-driven firms have been a dominant theme in strategic marketing research. It has been argued that market-driven firms are superior in their market sensing and customer linking capabilities, enabling market-driven firms to outperform their competitors. This paper reports the findings of a study that examines the role market-focused learning capability and marketing capability in innovation-based competitive strategy on sustainable competitive advantage. The findings indicate that entrepreneurship is an important factor in sustained competitive advantage (SCA) and while market-focused learning capability leads to higher degrees of innovation, marketing capability enables SCA.     

Organizational antecedents of environmental responsiveness in industrial new product development

The greening of new product development process has been under scrutiny by researchers, but the attention has been limited to consumer products. Based on a survey, this paper investigates the environmental responsiveness in industrial new product development in 82 industrial firms. In comparison to traditional NPD process in the extant literature, the findings revealed additional activities in the greening of industrial NPD. These activities fall under the broader scope of life cycle assessment (LCA) for environmental impact including supplier evaluation and design for environment issues. The paper also investigates the relative impact of organizational antecedents on greening of industrial NPD activities. Organizational antecedents include functional interface of environmental specialists with design and product managers, environmental product policy, and top management support.     

Moving beyond intuition—Managing allocation decisions in relationship marketing in business-to-business markets

Developing and estimating structural models is becoming a routine practice in marketing. In this study, the possibilities of applying such models in managerial decision making under uncertainty are investigated. In particular the feasibility of exploiting the inherent probabilistic nature of structural models to buttress decision making is demonstrated. The approach is based on making heavy use of standard simulation routines. The model that is under scrutiny describes the relationships between firms' efforts in three areas (the offer, customer relationships, and market positions) on the success of a new product introduction. Special attention is given to the aspect of risk aversion. Accounting for the risk attitude implies different allocation decisions for risk-averse compared to risk-prone managers, in line with common sense.     

A quantitative exploration of communication's role in determining the governance of manufacturer-retailer relationships

Today's managers are organising and managing a portfolio of interorganizational relationships (IORs); hence, the governance of exchange relationships has gained strategic consequence. Prior interorganizational research by the authors has indicated that communication may be central to IOR governance. One test of communication's potential in this area would be to examine if communication could delineate differing IOR types. To study this, we decided to utilize a type of test-retest statistical application. We first classified manufacturer-retailer relationship structures by using Donaldson and O'Toole [J. Bus. Ind. Mark. 15 (2000) 491] original relationship strength framework (RSF) and discriminant analysis. Next, employing the same statistical technique, we classified the respondents after adding communication measures to the RSF. Results were limited. Only the inclusion of communication quality, one of the elements of communication behavior, in the RSF enhances its power to delineate relationship structures. However, we believe that it is in the ongoing management of relationships that the communication dynamic holds most promise.     

The ADVIAN classification — A new classification approach for the rating of impact factors

A new classification scheme for the impact analysis based on an impact matrix is presented. In contrast to the state-of-the-art methods the impact factors of a social system are not grouped into 4 or 5 groups but ranked according to different criteria. The criteria include for instance the driving impact factors as keys for improvements to the system and the driven impact factors that may be indicators for the improvement success. The ranking for each criterion is on a scale from 0 to 100, independent of the number of impact factors.     

Are experts better than potential users in predicting the uptake of an innovation? Extending the use of the Juster Scale

Are experts or potential users better at predicting the success of a new product? To explore this question we used an eleven-point probability scale, the Juster Scale, to ask various groups of people about their probability of taking up a new product and also their assessment of its chance of its success in the marketplace. Although this type of scale generally performs better than intention scales it tends to over-predict when used in a repertoire market and we examine its performance for a boundary condition of such a market. We also explored the use of the scale as a projective research tool which is a novel application. In this study the product was a new type of charity lottery. The study was undertaken in the month prior to the lottery closing and we subsequently knew the actual outcome. The Juster Scale generally performed poorly as a predictor in this context. The predictions from the experts were no more accurate than those of the general public but none had direct knowledge of an equivalent lottery. This exploratory study concluded that the actual behaviour of a sample of relevant consumers, where the product is available, is better for forecasting than asking for estimates of their potential behaviour, that is, behaviour predicts behaviour better than probabilities of behaviour.     

The bumpy road of biomass gasification in the Netherlands: Explaining the rise and fall of an emerging innovation system

In this paper, the concept of System Functions of Innovation Systems is applied to provide an explanation of the success or failure of an emerging technology, i.e. biomass gasification, with empirical data on the evolution of this technology in the Netherlands during 1980-2004. A new list of System Functions has been developed lately and is used to identify the most relevant events in the evolution of the Biomass Gasification Innovation System. We show that a structural misalignment occurred between the institutional framework within which the technology could have been developed and the technical requirements of the technology. Finally, the absence of System Functions such as the guidance of the search, resource allocation and advocacy coalition explains the failure of this technology over time.     

Geospatial analysis of barrier island beach availability to tourists

This study geospatially analyzes beach availability for global recreational tourism management with focus on a case study of Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia, USA. Aerial digital imagery in combination with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and geographic information system (GIS) mapping and analysis are employed to delineate accurate shorelines with regard to accessible and available beach area. This analysis demonstrates geospatial techniques for the identification, delineation, qualification and geovisualization of dry beaches, a popular tourist destination worldwide that is subjected to diurnal flooding by tides. The accurate depiction of shorelines using remotely sensed differences in Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) and Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) levels is required to identify dry beach areas available for coastal tourism and management. Such information allows tourists to choose beach areas suitable for recreational or ecological activities. Dry beach availability also assists coastal restoration managers to plan and implement beach conservation measures. Results predict shoreline changes and dry beach access while promoting minimal impacts by tourists on fragile coastal dune ecosystems.     

Cultural systems and the wine tourism product

Regionally distinct cultural systems are manifest in the landscapes of all cultures. Geographers have begun to explore such cultural systems in an attempt to better understand a range of cultural geographical phenomena, but such an approach has yet to be applied to our understanding of tourism. Using Bonnemaison’s cultural systems approach, this paper explores the relationship between rural cultural systems and the production and consumption of wine tourism in two culturally distinct wine regions: Champagne, France, and Margaret River, Western Australia. In so doing, it highlights the importance of situating wine tourism within the wider system of rural land tenure, local mythologies of rurality and the regional wine cultural complex.