How organisations generate and use customer insight

Abstract

The generation and use of customer insight in marketing decisions is poorly understood, partly due to difficulties in obtaining research access and partly because market-based learning theory views knowledge as a fixed asset. However, customer insight takes many forms, arrives at the organisation from increasingly diverse sources and requires more than mere dissemination if it is to be useful. A multiple case study approach is used to explore managerial practices for insight generation and use. Multiple informants from each of four organisations in diverse sectors were interviewed. Findings reveal the importance of value alignment and value monitoring across the insight demand chain, to complement the information processing emphasis of extant research. Within the firm, the study suggests the importance of customer insight conduct practices including insight format, the role of automation and insight shepherding, to complement the much-researched process perspective. The study provides a basis for assessing the effectiveness of insight processes by both practitioners and scholars.     

The Shortage in Market-Inalienable Human Organs: A Consideration of "Nonmarket" Failures

A bstract . It is widely believed that if only we allowed a market in organs, supply would increase and shortages would disappear. However, there is considerable evidence that we have not wrung all the supply we can out of the donative system. This essay argues that shortages in organs are due to inadequate procurement effort rather than the inefficiency of appeals to donor altruism. The insufficiency of effort is ascribed to (1) ignorance of the regulatory authorities and the participants with respect to the nature of the production system in which they are engaged, (2) problems inherent in a production system that relies on exhorting donors, and (3) the well-known limitations of the nonprofit organizations that are the key actors in this production system.     

The value relevance of brand valuation

The reports published by independent parties are often used to provide an estimation of brands due to the lack of literature and best practices regarding which brand valuation method is more value relevant and reliable than another. Over the last several years, brand valuation debate is growing in importance because of the need to provide a value of intangibles for different purposes. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we aim to understand whether brand valuation related to listed companies provided by three independent agencies is value relevant and therefore whether these brand valuations are taken into consideration by investors in their decision-making process. Second, we assess which of the three methods reflects the stock markets in a better way. We analyse a sample of 71 brands valuated by Interbrand, Brand Finance and BrandZ from 2013 to 2015. The results show that brand valuation provided by the independent agencies is value relevant; in addition, they reveal that the Brand Finance method, based on the royalty relief approach, is more value relevant than the others. This study contributes to the extant literature on value relevance by providing evidence on the impact of stock prices of brand agencies’ valuation.     

THE VALUATION OF NEW ZEALAND UNDERWRITING AGREEMENTS

Almost all cash issues by New Zealand listed public companies are by way of a rights issue. This paper examines the terms of 143 issues between 1976 and 1984. Of those issues 86 were underwritten and 57 were not. The paper is concerned with two questions. The first question examines whether there are fundamental differences in the terms of the issues that explain why some issues were underwritten and some were not. The second question examines the extent to which the underwriters' fee corresponds to the value of a put option, where that value is given by an adaptation of the Black Scholes formula. The conclusions are that there are differences in the terms of issues that are underwritten, compared with those that are not, and that the underwriters' fee is substantially in excess of the Black Scholes put value.     

Trade creating free trade areas and the undermining of multilateralism

This paper indicates that the consequences of regional trade agreements for the world trade system may be deceiving—an arrangement's apparent virtue may constitute the source of its drawback. In a model where governments have political, as well as economic, motivations, I show that a free trade area induces its members to reduce protection against the non-members, and to do so sufficiently deeply to generate overall trade creation. Trade creation amplifies the excluded countries’ access to the integrating markets, but also reduces their extra gains from multilateral liberalization. Thus, trade creation can reverse the support of the excluded countries to liberalization on a multilateral basis. This is more likely to happen when governments outside the free trade area are more responsive to special interests.     

A Bayesian Efficiency Analysis of Angolan Banks

This article studied the technical efficiency of Angolan banks from 2005 to 2012 using a Bayesian stochastic frontier model. The intermediation approach to banking was adopted. The results revealed that Angolan banks were very efficient and that efficiency varies little among the banks analysed. Furthermore, the differences in efficiency between foreign banks, public banks, large‐sized banks and banks that belong to a local conglomerate were examined. It was concluded that the greatest efficiency was to be found in the case of foreign banks. Since size and conglomerate membership do not seem to lead to greater bank efficiency, it was proposed that Angolan policymakers should promote competition in the banking sector.     

Non-audit fees, long-term auditor–client relationships and earnings management

We examine whether auditor independence is affected by the amount spent on non‐audit services. Faster growth in non‐audit fees and longer time periods over which non‐audit services are purchased might reduce the auditor's independence from that client. Our results do not provide any support for a relationship between non‐audit fee growth rates or the length of time of the non‐audit fee relationship with the client and discretionary accruals, our measure of earnings management. We do find some evidence that the interaction of the non‐audit fee time‐period measures and client importance is positive and significantly related to discretionary accruals.     

Compensation committee governance quality,chief executive officer stock option grants,and future firm performance

This paper examines whether the relationship between future firm performance and chief executive officer (CEO) stock option grants is affected by the quality of the compensation committee. Compensation committee quality is measured using six committee characteristics – the proportion of directors appointed during the tenure of the incumbent CEO, the proportion of directors with at least ten years’ board service, the proportion of directors who are CEOs at other companies, the aggregate shareholding of directors on the compensation committee, the proportion of directors with three or more additional board seats, and compensation committee size. We find that future firm performance is more positively associated with stock option grants as compensation committee quality increases.