Examining important relationship quality constructs of the focal sponsorship exchange

Few studies have considered sponsorship from a relationship perspective. This is despite evidence that sponsors and sport entities engage in long-term, mutually beneficial, relationships where the role of trust and commitment is likely to be pivotal. This study examines empirically the effects of trust and commitment on two critical relationship outcomes, namely, economic and noneconomic satisfaction. Based on a comprehensive survey of the Australian Football League (AFL) and its protected sponsors, the paper demonstrates that commitment, measured by leverage investments, is a key antecedent of economic satisfaction, while trust is antecedent of both economic and noneconomic satisfaction.     

The influence of formal controls on customer interactivity in new product development

This study examines how formal control mechanisms, specifically output, process, and team reward controls used in new product development (NPD) projects, influence the degree of customer interaction during the project. It is argued that controls can differentially focus the efforts of the project team either internally on the organization's process or externally on the market and its customers. Data from 95 projects across several industries suggest that the use of output control and team rewards leads to higher customer interactivity. However, heavy reliance on process control can lead to reduced customer interactivity if not also accompanied with output controls. This study extends our understanding of using management controls to integrate the voice of the customer into new product development.     

The semiconductor silicon industry roadmap: Epochs driven by the dynamics between disruptive technologies and core competencies

The resource-based perspective has done much to identify idiosyncratic firm attributes that may be a principal source of competitive advantages. Unfortunately, there has been little systematic industry evidence to support the strategic importance of core competence, nor has there been much work on the temporal or cumulative nature of core capabilities within an industrial setting. Further, little or no research has been performed demonstrating how the advent of technological discontinuities or disruptive technologies plays a part in creating epochs in technology competency development and the roadmap of an industry. In this study, we analyze the evolutionary and cumulative nature of core capabilities and their interactions with technological discontinuities from a market-driven perspective. We have studied the evolution of 167 firms through the 50-year history of the semiconductor silicon industry. Over time, there were several structural shifts in the necessary competencies through the advent of disruptive technologies. In the last 30 years, however, the change in the required competencies has been more cumulative in nature. We summarize this in a roadmap detailing the epochs in the semiconductor silicon industry.     

Future of Turkey-EU relations: a civilisational discourse

Should or can Turkey join the European Union (EU)? This paper argues that there are three alternative scenarios of the EU decision to grant membership to Turkey: ‘privileged relationship offer,’ ‘wait and see attitude,’ and ‘start of full membership negotiations.’ It then gauges each alternative path, and argues that the most likely scenario is a decision to start the negotiations, followed by the scenario of ‘wait and see.’ The EU decision will be conditioned by its future vision of global governance and the role foreseen for Turkey inside, outside or at the margin of it. The paper concludes that the EU decision will have significant implications for the future of relations between Europe and Turkey on the one hand, and Europe and the Islamic world on the other.     

Studying scenario planning: Theory, research suggestions, and hypotheses

The scenario planning literature reveals a gap regarding its research and theory development. This article addresses these gaps by beginning the development of a theory of scenario planning and by providing suggestions for research. To do so, this research uses Dubin's (R. Dubin, Theory Building, revised ed., Free Press/MacMillan, New York, 1978) technique for theory building in applied disciplines and then provides suggestions for verifying each aspect of the proposed theory. While this research is preliminary in nature, its intent is to work toward a theoretical understanding and validation of scenario planning practices through sound research. Thus, the core purpose of this article is to provide an approach to studying scenario planning that is based on research, theory, and practice.     

Managing intraorganizational diffusion of innovations: Impact of buying center dynamics and environments

Companies often introduce organizational innovations into their corporate environment with the aim of improving their operational efficiencies. While this practice has become a well-accepted percept among both practitioners and academics over the years for its intuitive appeal, there is an increasing evidence to suggest that companies often fail to fully capitalize on the adopted innovation throughout their organizations. To this end, this study sets out to identify the factors that play a tangible role in facilitating the intraorganizational diffusion of innovations. In this context, we not only examine the roles of buying center dynamics and environments in the intraorganizational diffusion process but also assess the impact on the innovation-adopting firm through the high level of intraorganizational diffusion.     

Applied customer knowledge in a manufacturing environment: Flexibility for industrial firms

Dynamic business markets are forcing B2B marketers to create flexibility in their firms. The present study investigates: (1) made-to-stock (MTS) versus made-to-order (MTO, which is considered more flexible); (2) production technology routineness (with nonroutine considered more flexible); and (3) a marketing-based enabler of flexibility, i.e., applied customer knowledge. SEM analysis shows that applied customer knowledge completely mediates the relationships of both MTO and routineness with financial performance. This delineates two routes to financial performance, beginning with manufacturing-based flexibility constructs and operating through marketing-based applied knowledge. In addition, exploratory analysis of a subsample confirmed empirically that the financial success of mass customization depends on extensive customer knowledge application and low finished goods inventory levels. Managerial implications are discussed, along with ideas for future research.     

Cultural Competitiveness in Global Sourcing

This study integrates thought on entrepreneurship, innovation, and organizational learning and examines a framework of sustainable competitive advantage as it pertains to global sourcing. The study adopts a chain of customer perspective and focuses on entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and learning in an organization's long-linked chain of interrelationships within the global sourcing process. Using sourcing directors of 200 multinational corporations, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and learning were found to function as first-order indicators of the second-order construct of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). SCA, in turn, has a positive effect on cycle time of the global sourcing process and the organization's overall business performance.     

Innovativeness and capacity to innovate in a complexity of firm-level relationships: A response to Woodside (2004)

Woodside [Woodside, A. G. (2004). Firm orientations, innovativeness and business performance: Advancing a systems dynamics view following a comment on Hult, Hurley, and Knight's 2004 study. Industrial Marketing Management, in press.] has crafted a thoughtful paper that makes a number of contributions and raises several important issues regarding firm orientations, innovation constructs, and business performance. In this paper, we attempt to address the issues brought up by his close evaluation of our recent IMM paper [Hult, G. T. M., Hurley, R. F., & Knight, G. A. (2004). Innovativeness: Its antecedents and impact on business performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 33(5), 429-438.] in comparison with our thoughts in an earlier paper in the Journal of Marketing [Hurley, R. F., & Hult, G. T. M. (1998). Innovation, market orientation, and organizational learning: An integration and empirical examination. Journal of Marketing, 62(July), 42-54.].