What Makes a Good Export Channel Relationship?

Within international business, distribution channel management is a key concern. Relationships between exporting firms and other members of the international distribution channel can significantly impede or enhance performance in export markets. This study adopts an inductive research approach to examine what makes a good relationship in distribution channels in Southeast Asian markets (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia). An extensive range of relationship elements are identified. The relationship between the two key elements of trust and mutual benefit is found to be reciprocal in nature and dynamic. Necessary conditions for, and influences on, development of trust and mutual benefit are identified.     

Investment with Uncertain Tax Policy: Does Random Tax Policy Discourage Investment

We consider the impact of tax policy uncertainty on firm level and aggregate investment, comparing investment behaviour when uncertainty is due to a shock following Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) versus when random discrete jumps in tax policy occur. Expectations of the likelihood of a tax policy switch have an important negative impact on the gain to delaying investment in the latter model and time to investment can fall with increasing tax policy uncertainty. Aggregate investment simulations indicate that capital formation is adversely affected by increases in uncertainty in the traditional GBM model but can be enhanced in the jump process model.     

The impact of protein increments on blending revenues in the Canadian wheat industry

Since 1994, progressively more protein grade increments have been added to existing standards for Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat. This paper simulates the impact of additional protein increments on the farm value of grain and on revenues from optimal blending by using a linear programming model that maximizes blending revenues, given the protein distribution of No. 1 CWRS wheat for 1990–91 to 1992–93. Both analytical and empirical results show that the outcome depends on the pricing schedule, the protein distribution, and the placement of the new protein grade.     

Relational benefits in services industries: The customer’s perspective

This research examines the benefits customers receive as a result of engaging in long-term relational exchanges with service firms. Findings from two studies indicate that consumer relational benefits can be categorized into three distinct benefit types: confidence, social, and special treatment benefits. Confidence benefits are received more and rated as more important than the other relational benefits by consumers, followed by social and special treatment benefits, respectively. Responses segmented by type of service business show a consistent pattern with respect to customer rankings of benefit importance. Management implications for relational strategies and future research implications of the findings are discussed. Kevin P. Gwinner is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business at East Carolina University, North Carolina. His primary research interest centers on improving and managing the performance of frontline, customer-contact employees. His research has been published in theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, International Marketing Review, and theJournal of Marketing Education. Dwayne D. Gremler is an assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Idaho. His current research interests are in services marketing, particularly customer loyalty and retention, relationship marketing, service encounters, and word-of-mouth communication. His work has been published in theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, theJournal of Professional Services Marketing, andAdvances in Services Marketing and Management. Mary Jo Bitner is a professor of marketing and the research director for the Center for Services Marketing and Management at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on customer evaluations of service, service quality, and service delivery issues. She has published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, and theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management. She is coauthor of the textServices Marketing (McGraw-Hill, 1996).     

Toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services

The marketing discipline’s knowledge about the drivers of service customers’ repeat purchase behavior is highly fragmented. This research attempts to overcome that fragmented state of knowledge by making major advances toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services. Drawing on means–end theory, the authors develop a hierarchical classification scheme that organizes repeat purchase drivers into an integrative and comprehensive framework. They then identify drivers on the basis of 188 face-to-face laddering interviews in two countries (USA and Germany) and assess the drivers’ importance and interrelations through a national probability sample survey of 618 service customers. In addition to presenting an exhaustive and coherent set of hierarchical repeat-purchase drivers, the authors provide theoretical explanations for how and why drivers relate to one another and to repeat purchase behavior. This research also tests the boundary conditions of the proposed framework by accounting for different service types. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the framework provides companies with specific information about how to manage long-term customer relationships successfully.

The research design used to develop a high performance management system construct for US restaurant managers

Studies suggest that when organizations place a higher value on their employees, through the implementation of high performance management systems (HPMSs), their business performance improves. Those that have conceptualized the HPMS construct in the service sector have limited validity for the restaurant industry. To fill this gap this paper presents the research methods used to develop a construct for a HPMS within the casual restaurant sector of the US hospitality industry. The exploratory qualitative methodology that combines a variety of data collection techniques including interviews for the pilot study, the Delphi method and secondary data collection to establish the most salient dimensions of a HPMS in the casual restaurant industry, are discussed. Thirteen key HPMS dimensions are identified; training and skill development, employer of choice, information sharing, selectivity in recruiting, measurement of HR practices, promotion from within, quality of work/life, diversity, incentive pay based on performance appraisal, participation and empowerment, employee ownership, self-managed teams and high wages. In addition, an overarching HPMS construct is developed as a first step in identifying the link between HR practices and restaurant performance.     

A Comparison of Conjoint Analysis Response Formats

A split-sample design is used to evaluate the convergent validity of three response formats used in conjoint analysis experiments. We investigate whether recoding rating data to rankings and choose-one formats, and recoding ranking data to choose one, result in structural models and welfare estimates that are statistically indistinguishable from estimates based on ranking or choose-one questions. Our results indicate that convergent validity of ratings, ranks, and choose one is not established. In addition, we find that people frequently use "ties" in responses to rating questions, and that the option not to choose any of the alternatives ("opt-out") affects some preference estimates.     

When boards use related parties: outsourcing and superannuation fund performance

Superannuation funds heavily outsource key fund functions to service providers who play a crucial role in superannuation fund operations and affecting Australians’ retirement savings. We examine the impact of related party service provider usage and trustee‐director affiliation on investment performance. We find that for‐profit funds significantly underperform when using related party service providers. The underperformance is more severe when the board is controlled by more affiliated trustee‐directors and belongs to a vertically integrated conglomerate group. Our results raise concerns about whether recent regulatory reforms increasing trustee‐directors’ duties effectively address the conflicts of interest inherent in related party service provider arrangements.     

Post-truth or agnogenesis? Theorizing risk and uncertainty in a neoliberal nature

In the aftermath of the great recession, many have investigated the characteristics of life in a ‘neoliberal nature’. In more recent months, we have also seen an apparent erosion of truth, the ‘post-truth’ moment. This paper argues that there are important and undertheorized links between the risk centrality of life in neoliberal nature and the post-truth moment. We begin by reviewing some treatments of risk from different fields, coming to the general conclusion that neoliberal nature is a place characterized primarily by its heightened risk(s). We then undertake a Foucauldian interpretation of neoliberal governmentality to demonstrate that the strategy of recasting society as atomized agents of risk is the source of a great deal of alienation and discontent, manifesting in an apparently post-truth citizen/society relationship. Next, we relate each of these concepts to the study of culturally induced ignorance, or ‘agnotology,’ to demonstrate that neoliberal governmentality in fact requires the systemic production of ignorance. We then propose an extension of agnotology to argue that a seemingly innocuous post-truth moment is better understood as an outgrowth of the deliberate production of targeted ignorance, especially in the context of environmental injustices. Finally, to provide an illustration of the trends described in this paper, we conclude with a section on the historic use of leaded gasoline in the U.S.