Vorschau 3 | 2011

Vorschau

Vorschau 3 | 2011     

Healthcare Marketing

Literaturhinweise

Healthcare Marketing     

Make-or-buy decisions regarding temporary agency work – an empirical analysis of the decision process and expected effects

Although the use of temporary agency work (TAW) in firms is heavily debated in the literature, the decision processes and motives behind using or not using TAW are often neglected or only analyzed in rough categories. We address these issues using a theoretical framework for HR outsourcing decisions. Specifically, we ask what triggers the decision about usage of TAW, whether firms have internal alternatives to using TAW, and what their expectations were when they made the decision. We focus on detailed expectations about the effects and analyze how users an d non-users of TAW differ in their respective expectations. Our analyses show that TAW is not a personnel service used by the majority of firms. Besides monetary costs, quality, and flexibility effects, stakeholder and transaction cost effects are relevant for the make-or-buy decisions. Users and non-users of TAW differ significantly in their expectations about some of the effect categories.     

The Role of Market Orientation and Entrepreneurial Orientation for New Product Development Performance in Manufacturing Firms

The overall purpose of this article is to examine the relationships between two strategic orientations and performance in new product development. The first orientation considered is market orientation; the second one considered is entrepreneurial orientation, which reflects a firm’s propensity to innovate, to be proactive, as well as its willingness to take risks. Drawing upon a sample of 224 mid-sized manufacturing firms, multiple regressions with and without interaction terms were used for testing seven hypotheses. The results show that a market orientation and innovativeness were positively related to performance in new product development, while proactiveness and risk taking show no such relationship. The results also show that neither product characteristics nor environmental characteristics moderate these relationships. In terms of implications, our results suggest that contradictory and to some extent paradoxical capabilities are needed to increase performance in new product development, and that the different components of an entrepreneurial orientation do not impact new product development performance equally.     

Changing from German GAAP to IFRS or US GAAP: A Survey of German Companies

Since 1993 an increasing number of listed German companies have been publishing their consolidated financial statements in accordance with either IFRS or US GAAP. In 1998 this was approved as a substitute for the consolidated German GAAP financial statements of listed companies (§292a HGB). Our study surveys the motives that led these companies to opt for international reporting systems (IFRS or US GAAP) rather than German GAAP and considers whether these objectives have been achieved. Rather surprisingly, we find that even though companies state that their overall expectations have been met to a satisfactory degree, a detailed analysis shows that several of the ex-ante objectives have not been achieved from an ex-post point of view. Additionally, we use logistic regression analysis to show that companies choosing IFRS rather than US GAAP and vice versa differ distinctly in the objectives they pursue with their choice of international GAAP.     

Work and the accommodation of chronic illness: A re-examination of the health-labour supply relationship

This study uses a data set of over 14000 households from the state of New Jersey in the USA to estimate the impact of specific chronic health conditions on the probability of employment and finds wide variation of employment impacts across chronic conditions. Additionally, the elasticity of the employment response is generally greater for women and lower-skilled workers. Most notable is the role of comorbidity. Individuals with multiple conditions have markedly lower probability of employment, and chronic illness explains virtually all of the large gap in employment probability for those who have multiple conditions. This is shown using a summary index of disease status that correlates closely with employment rates across age groups. In the aggregate, chronic disease striking in adulthood explains about 10% of the total non-employment in the New Jersey among those aged 35–74. Finally, cross-sectional evidence gives little support for health as a primary determinant of the aggregate age-employment profile, though controlling for the age-specific severity of conditions may alter this finding.     

Formation of Reputation in Business Markets

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study adopts a relational perspective on reputation. We investigate how relationship characteristics impact a customer’s judgment of supplier reputation. We include characteristics at both the interfirm and interpersonal levels, and we additionally link these characteristics to interfirm trust in order to explore similarities and differences between reputation and interfirm trust.

Methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among firms in the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry. We assessed the measurement model and tested the hypotheses by applying LISREL.

Findings: The results show that the customer’s dependence on the supplier, common knowledge, and interpersonal trust are positively related to reputation, while opportunism is negatively related to reputation. Reputation is positively linked to interfirm trust, and both reputation and interfirm trust impact the customer’s satisfaction with the supplier.

Research implications: This study sheds light on the role of relational mechanisms in reputation formation. It suggests that reputation primarily consists of cognitive components, while interfirm trust consists of more affective components. Reputation is an important factor in developing interfirm trust.

Practical implications: This study underscores the importance of a firm’s core relationships to customers for developing its reputation. Managers need to carefully develop their relationships to customers in such a way that these relationships are consistent with and confirm the reputation they want to build.

Originality/value: The study supports the view that relational characteristics play important roles in the formation of reputation in business markets.     

The Power of Innovativeness in Manufacturer–Retailer Relationships

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Retailers often challenge manufacturers through aggressive store brand policies and severe listing constraints. This study investigates manufacturer innovativeness as a managerial lever to shift the power balance between manufacturers and retailers.

Methodology/approach: Using data from 277 senior managers of Swiss and German consumer goods manufacturers and analyzing these data with structural equation modelling, the authors test hypotheses about the impact of manufacturer innovativeness on manufacturer–retailer relationship characteristics (i.e., retailer dependency, store brand aggressiveness, and listing constraints).

Findings: The study demonstrates that manufacturer innovativeness enhances retailer dependency, which in turn positively affects overall manufacturer performance. This relationship can be explained further: By increasing retailer dependency, manufacturers suppress retailers’ store brand aggressiveness and attenuate retailers’ listing constraints. Store brand aggressiveness affects overall manufacturer performance through listing constraints.

Research implications: Identifying levers such as innovativeness that assist manufacturers in fostering their power over retailers provides a new mode for understanding how manufacturers can influence the balance of power between manufacturers and retailers. The study provides support for the approach/inhibition theory of power on the inter-organizational level. Organizations with increased power are assumed to have approach-related tendencies and act in goal-consistent manner, whereas organizations with reduced power are assumed to develop the tendency to pursue inhibition-related actions, e.g., attending to threats. Furthermore, this study identifies channel relationship characteristics such as retailer dependency as a mediating path between manufacturer innovativeness and performance.

Practical implications: Managers need to strengthen the firm’s innovative capacity to enhance the performance of their companies. By developing the capability to provide radical innovations, manufacturers are able to enhance their performance not only directly but also indirectly by strengthening the manufacturer’s position with regard to retailers. This study underscores the relevance of innovativeness for strengthening the manufacturer’s position in its relationship with retailers that avoids problems with aggressive store brands and constrained listing conditions.

Originality/value/contribution: This study proposes manufacturer innovativeness as a managerial lever to shift the power balance between manufacturers and retailers.