The antecedents and consequences of customer-centric marketing

As we enter the twenty-first century, the marketing function remains concerned with serving customers and consumers effectively. The authors propose that just as the marketing function gradually shifted from mass marketing to segmented marketing in the twentieth century, it will increasingly move toward customer-centric marketing in the next century. In the practice of customer-centric marketing, the marketing function seeks to fulfill the needs and wants of each individual customer. The antecedents of customer-centric marketing are the increasing pressure on firms to improve marketing productivity, increasing market diversity in household and business markets, and technology applicability. On the basis of the shift toward customer-centric marketing, the authors expect increased importance of marketing as a “supply management” function, customer outsourcing, cocreation marketing, fixedcost marketing, and customer-centric organizations. This article highlights the implications of customer-centric marketing as well as the boundary conditions that will affect its adoption. Jagdish N. Sheth is the Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Gouizeta Business School at Emory University. He has published 26 books and more than 200 articles in marketing and other business disciplines. His book,The Theory of Buyer Behavior (with John A. Howard), is a classic in the field of consumer behavior and is one of the most cited works in marketing. His other books includeMarketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation (with David Gardner and Dennis Garrett) andConsumption Values and Market Choices: Theory and Applications (with Bruce Newman and Barbara Gross). Rajendra S. Sisodia is Trustee Professor of Marketing at Bentley College. Previously, he was an associate professor of marketing and director of executive programs at George Mason University and an assistant professor of marketing at Boston University. He has a Ph.D. in marketing from Columbia University. He has published more than 40 articles in journals such asHarvard Business Review, Journal of Business Strategy, Marketing Letters, andMarketing Management. He has also authored about two dozen cases, primarily on strategic and marketing issues in the telecommunications industry, as well as a number of telecommunications industry and company analyses. Arun Sharma is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Miami. He has published more than 30 articles in marketing and his interests are in the area of market and marketing evolution.     

What drives customers toward proximity payment services? An integrated theory of planned behavior perspective

Proximity mobile payment (PMP) services facilitate mobile payments between payer and payee who are at same location thorough a proximity technology such as QR codes, Bluetooth, and near-field communication. It has potential to drastically change consumers' payment methods in developing countries where traditional finance infrastructure is lacking. However, there are various challenges to adopting PMP in such countries. This study aims to explore users' opinions on and motivations for using PMP by proposing an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model. It also seeks to resolve inconsistencies in PMP adoption studies regarding the role of user's trust in PMP services. A survey instrument was used to collect data from PMP users in a developing country. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. This study highlights trust as a mitigator of the negative effect induced by the perceived risk of using PMP services. It also validates that the TPB, coupled with other contextual factors, explains the adoption of PMP services in developing countries.     

Meaning-oriented consumption: A systematic review and research agenda

The quest for finding meaning in life is central to human existence. Evidence supporting consumption as a source of meaning in life is scant and lies in discrete studies across multiple disciplines. We call consumption that engenders a sense of meaning in life ‘meaning-oriented consumption’. In this paper we conduct a systematic literature review of 102 papers, using the Scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) (Paul et al. (2021). International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4)). We draw on the theory of meaning in life to arrive at a theoretically grounded conceptualization of meaning-oriented consumption. We discuss the antecedents and consequences of meaning-oriented consumption, categories and processes that make consumption meaningful. We gather insights into the relationship between hedonic and meaning-oriented consumption. Finally, we identify knowledge gaps in theory, context, constructs and methodology. This review identifies several consumption contexts and situations that offer potential for marketers to design meaningful offerings.     

A systematic literature review to integrate lean,agile, resilient,green and sustainable paradigms in the supply chain management

The main focus of this study is to conduct a systematic literature review to integrate lean, agile, resilient, green and sustainable (LARGS) paradigms in the supply chain (SC) domain. To achieve this aim, several research questions were designed: First, how to locate LARGS research in context of SC domain? For this, it is important to understand which types of research articles should be selected for the study? Further, where such studies were conducted (geographical location)? Second, what is the focus of research in LARGS paradigm in SCs? For this, it is important to study, which types of industries or sectors have been targeted in literature? In addition, which tools and techniques have been used mostly? Third, what are the current trends in the relationships of LARGS paradigms, among themselves, and with SC performance measures? Fourth, what are the emerging issues, unexplored areas in this field, based on these what could be future research avenues in this subject domain have been proposed? A total of 160 relevant articles published during 1999–2019 were used for analysis. Based on analysis, findings are summarised, and main research issues and possible future research directions in LARGS paradigms in SCs are highlighted.     

The economic profitability of pre-IPO earnings management and IPO underperformance

The purpose of this paper is to test the market performance of a zero-investment trading strategy based on the knowledge of IPO underperformance and estimates of pre-IPO earnings management. This trading strategy is implemented by forming two-firm portfolios that take short positions in the IPOs and long positions in control firms matched by industry and market capitalization. The first test shows that significant positive abnormal returns can be earned trading on the knowledge of IPO underperformance. However, the relationship between the level of abnormal returns and the level of pre-IPO earnings management is not found to be significant. Overall, our results suggest that existent pre-IPO earnings management plays important roles although investors may not sophisticated enough to measure the level of earnings management.     

Impact of Market Concentration on Employment and Wages: a Look at the Insurance Industry

Atlantic Economic Journal - The falling share of labor in national income is a global concern. This study examined the impact of changes in market concentration ratios in the insurance industry on...     

FDI and Innovation: An Investigation into Intra- and Inter-industry Effects

It is often believed that transfer of technology and know-how resulting from foreign direct investment (FDI) goes beyond the actual projects undertaken by foreign investors and, spills over to domestic firms affecting their knowledge base and productivity. This paper is an endeavour to investigate the existence of spillovers and their impact on the innovative performance of domestic firms active in the manufacturing sector of India. By employing data on FDI by industry and merging it with information on time-variant buyer–supplier linkages obtained from a series of national input–outputs tables, the study develops intra-industry and inter-industry measures to capture the effects of FDI on innovation performance of the incumbent firms’ active in the same sector as the MNC and in upstream and downstream sectors. The econometric analysis after accounting for endogeneity issues reveals that FDI has a moderate impact on innovative performance of firms residing in identical industries. However, impact on the innovative performance of firms in supplying sectors appears to be statistically strong.     

Motivating high‐impact innovation: Evidence from managerial compensation contracts

We investigate the relationship between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation and firm innovation and find that long‐term incentives in the form of options, especially unvested options, and protection from managerial termination in the form of golden parachutes are positively related to corporate innovation, and particularly to high‐impact, exploratory (new knowledge creation) invention. Conversely, non‐equity pay has a detrimental effect on the input, output and impact of innovation. Tests using the passage of an option expensing regulation (FAS 123R) as an exogenous shock to option compensation suggest a causal interpretation for the link between long‐term pay incentives, patents and citations. Furthermore, we find that the decline in option pay following the implementation of FAS 123R has led to a significant reduction in exploratory innovation and therefore had a detrimental effect on innovation output. Overall, our findings support the idea that compensation contracts that protect from early project failure and incentivize long‐term commitment are more suitable for inducing high‐impact corporate innovation.