A firm's capability to calibrate supply chain knowledge—Antecedents and consequences

This paper proposes a conceptual model for a firm's capability to calibrate supply chain knowledge (CCK). Knowledge calibration is achieved when there is a match between managers’ ex ante confidence in the accuracy of held knowledge and the ex post accuracy of that knowledge. Knowledge calibration is closely related to knowledge utility or willingness to use the available ex ante knowledge: a manager uses the ex ante knowledge if he/she is confident in the accuracy of that knowledge, and does not use it or uses it with reservation, when the confidence is low. Thus, knowledge calibration attained through the firm's CCK enables managers to deal with incomplete and uncertain information and enhances quality of decisions. In the supply chain context, although demand- and supply-related knowledge is available, supply chain inefficiencies, such as the bullwhip effect, remain. These issues may be caused not by a lack of knowledge but by a firm's lack of capability to sense potential disagreement between knowledge accuracy and confidence. Therefore, this paper contributes to the understanding of supply chain knowledge utilization by defining CCK and identifying a set of antecedents and consequences of CCK in the supply chain context.     

What do we know about buyer–seller negotiations in marketing research? A status quo analysis

The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the current status quo of negotiation research in marketing. In this context, we first conduct a quantitative analysis of existing literature on buyer–seller negotiations. Specifically, we undertake a screening of 10 high-ranking marketing journals so as to identify the body of negotiation-related articles within marketing. In a next step, the identified articles are subjected to both content and co-citation analyses. To this end, we modify the interaction model of the IMP Group in order to comprehensibly structure the existing findings. In a last step, these findings are presented to various negotiation experts to verify their practical relevance. From this multi-step procedure, we derive sound implications for research and practice.     

Not-quite-great depressions of Turkey: A quantitative analysis of economic growth over 1968–2004

Following the great depressions methodology suggested by Kehoe and Prescott (2002, 2007), we use growth accounting and perfect foresight dynamic general equilibrium models to study growth performance of Turkey from 1968 to 2004. Our benchmark model without any frictions and taxes accounts for 86% of the observed change in the growth rate of GDP per-working age person and once we extend the model with taxes and capital adjustment costs it accounts for 60% of the observed reduction in hours worked per-working age person and 35% of the change in the growth of capital-output ratio. Also, we identify that the Turkish economy experienced a depression from 1976 to 1984 and the extended model performs remarkably well to account for the depression period. Our findings generally suggest that rigidities affecting capital accumulation and government policies using distortionary taxes have a crucial role in the evolution of various variables of the Turkish economy.     

Product and relationship quality influence on customer commitment and loyalty in B2B manufacturing relationships

The article examines how product and relationship quality influence customer commitment along with their combined effect on customer loyalty. The results show that product quality influences positive and negative calculative commitment. With regard to relationship quality, its “social” dimensions such as cooperation and trust have a much greater influence on commitment than its “technical” dimensions such as knowledge transfers and adaptation. On the “social” side, cooperation and trust positively influence affective and normative commitment, with trust also positively affecting positive calculative commitment, while on the “technical” side the only significant link is between adaptation and normative commitment. As for the consequences of commitment, affective commitment positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, while negative calculative commitment positively influences behavioral loyalty. In addition to indirect effects, product quality also directly positively influences attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. The results imply that customer loyalty depends more on “emotional” (affective commitment) than on “rational” (negative calculative commitment and product quality) motivation to continue the relationship.     

Towards an understanding of attraction in buyer–supplier relationships

This paper explores how firms are attracted to one another within buyer–supplier dyads. It draws attention to ways of managing in a relational mode as an alternative to managing in a controlling mode. This study argues that in order to improve value creation and value transfer in buyer–supplier relationships it is not enough to optimize and coordinate management and control systems. Following Dwyer et al. [Dwyer, R., Schurr, P.H. and Oh, S. (1987). Developing buyer–seller relationships. Journal of Marketing, 51: 11–27.], it argues that mutual attraction is important in developing relationships. It is also argued that this can be achieved through a range of perceptual approaches and actions, which enhance performance between the parties involved. A conceptual model of attraction is developed with theoretical underpinnings in social exchange theory. It proposes three behavioral constraints: expected value, trust, and dependence. These components of attraction interact to draw dyadic parties closer together or push them apart. Finally, implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Constructing and contesting markets through the market object

This paper focuses on the work that market actors undertake in order to stabilize and de-stabilize market objects. We briefly revisit Igor Ansoff's classic product–market strategy matrix to show how marketing management literature typically equates stability in markets with commodification and inertia. To escape this inertia, marketers often ‘warm up’ or destabilize existing market objects by changing the material bases of the object, for instance in incremental product development. But this ‘warming up’ invites other market actors to also question or destabilize the networks that are supposed to hold the market object in its new (market) space. We utilize archival research to trace one case each of market and product development within the pharmaceutical realm, demonstrating: first, the effort market actors put into ‘cooling down’ and ‘warming up’ market objects; second, how contested such efforts can be; and third, how the object's material attachments may limit its symbolic malleability.     

The sites and practices of business models

This paper examines the concept of business models. Drawing on the business model literature, we first identify technology, market offering and network architecture as the three core elements of business models. The theoretical routes of each element are then examined through the associated literatures: technology and innovation studies, industrial marketing, operations strategy, and evolutionary economics. Multiple dimensions of each element are identified and the resultant framework is used to explore developments within the recorded music market across three centuries.Through changes in the recorded music market since the 1870s, we explore how business models emerged, took on multiple sites and evolved through their practice over time. We look at how interlinking business models become spread out across the business network as different network actors play their part. The recorded music market generates important insights into how business models are created, developed and practiced. We suggest that firms, business networks and markets form embedded systems within which multiple overlapping business models can be considered as constituent parts. In this way, the business model is understood as having agency to shape action; but in turn actions (of others in the business network as well as within the firms themselves) also shape the business model.