Strategically employing natural channels in an emerging market

In an era in which the cost efficiencies associated with standardization tend to be the dynamic force that drives international strategy, the growing movement toward understanding and adapting to natural channels of distribution appears to be an anomaly. The authors explore the natural channel phenomena—i.e., the local or national channel that has evolved within a market—within the context of U.S. multinational operations in the emerging market of India. Twenty‐two in‐depth interviews conducted with U.S. multinational international marketing managers engaged in distribution operations in India guide the exploration of the internal and external factors influencing channel strategy. The interviews provide validity for the natural channel model put forth by Griffith and Ryans (1995) while substantially advancing theoretical and managerial insights into the importance of factors influencing distribution. Finally, strategic distribution approaches employed by U.S. multinationals to effectively operate in India are presented. Insights for academics and practitioners are addressed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Supporting Technologies and Organizational Practices for the Transfer of Knowledge in Virtual Environments

A field study of a global science/technology company provides evidence of the value of both organizational practices and technology tools for supporting knowledge attainment (the combined tacit and explicit knowledge gained in a focal area – in this study we focus on product knowledge attainment) in virtual environments. We present a three-dimensional typology of knowledge management systems. Method of input, form of content, and how the users accrue the benefit of the knowledge help us to argue that organizational practices and technological tools will have independent positive effects on user knowledge attainment. We find attendance at face-to-face community of practice meetings, use of searchable archives, video-on-demand, and full-text search of video-on-demand all positively predict knowledge attainment. We suggest that organizations develop both organizational practices and technical supports for knowledge transfer. An interview with the video-on-demand vendor gives us the context to discuss issues for the support of tacit knowledge in more virtual environments as well as issues of expertise as it relates to support for formal and informal learning.     

Effectiveness of some simple pricing strategies under varying expectations of competitor behavior

A firm needs to tailor its pricing strategy to the particular competitive setting it faces. We show how a firm can select a pricing strategy that yields higher expected profit than other simple pricing strategies for the competitive conditions encountered. We show that no one strategy yields the highest expected profit for all competitive settings. In particular, we find that a more aggressive pricing strategy is needed for those markets that are either very cooperative or very competitive, while a more cooperative pricing strategy is preferred for markets which have a moderate degree of competition. We also find that a more aggressive pricing strategy is needed as the number of competitors increases. Our results suggest how to choose the pricing strategy that yields the highest expected profit given the likely behavior of a firm's competitors.The authors thank Terry Elrod and Robert Lusch for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Drivers of local merchant loyalty: Understanding the influence of gender and shopping motives

The aim of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of local merchant loyalty. Gender theories and shopping motivation literature were used to hypothesize drivers of consumer local merchant loyalty. Survey data from a nationwide random sample of consumers was employed to test the hypotheses. Results indicate gender significantly influences shopping motives and shopping motivation differences influence local merchant loyalty. Academic and managerial implications are discussed.     

Attributions of noncooperative incidents and response strategies: The role of national character

Economic and relational equity in global inter-organizational relationships can be enhanced if partners correctly attribute the cause of noncooperative incidents and employ appropriate response strategies. Integrating attribution theory, national character theory and elements of the inter-organizational management literature, we construct a conceptual framework of global inter-organizational managers’ responses to incidents of noncooperation aimed at maximizing relationship economic and relational equity. A managerial assessment process, emphasizing the importance of inpatriation, is provided to assist firms engaged in global inter-organizational relationships in minimizing attribution error in assessing and responding to noncooperative incidents.     

Technology,Productivity and Public Policy*

The poor productivity performance of the UK and the EU when compared with the US has been a major driver of policy reforms over the past decade. This paper considers what the evidence suggests about why we have lagged behind the US, considering among other factors the importance of globalisation and outsourcing, the role for public policy intervention and what the key drivers of growth are likely to be for the future.     

Probability distributions for economic surplus changes: the case of technical change in the Australian wool industry

Mullen, Alston and Wohlgenant (1989) (MAW) examined the distribution of the benefits of technical change in the Australian wool industry. Their conclusions are revisited by examining the probability distributions of changes in the welfare measures, given uncertainty about their model parameters. Subjective probability distributions are specified for the parameters and correlations among some of the parameters are imposed. Hierarchical distributions are also used to model diverse views about the specification of the subjective distributions. A sensitivity elasticity is defined through the estimation of a response surface to measure the sensitivity of the estimated research benefits to individual parameters. MAW's conclusions are found to be robust under the stochastic approach to sensitivity analysis demonstrated in this article.     

MAXIMIZING THE HUMAN CAPITAL EQUATION IN LOGISTICS: EDUCATION,EXPERIENCE, AND SKILLS

Hiring and retaining the best employees ‐ human capital ‐ is a challenge. This recent study addressed the long‐standing problem of finding sufficient numbers of quality logistics managers to fill logistics jobs. The research examined how education, experience, and job skills influence performance of these managers, and how performance in turn influences the worth of the manager to the firm. As hypothesized, job skills were found to be good predictors of both logistics manager performance and worth. However, neither experience nor education was found to significantly affect performance. Managerial implications are also provided.     

Participation of nurse executives in product decisions

This national survey of 30 chief nurse executives documented the significant product purchase power of these administrators. While nurse executives in small organizations tended to be involved in almost all product decisions, nurse executives in larger institutions focused on major hospital equipment purchases.     

The role of communication competencies in international business relationship development

Effective communication between international business partners is critical for global success. Underlying national and organizational cultural differences in international business relationships creates hurdles to effective communication, hindering performance. To assist managers in understanding this issue, a model of communication effectiveness for international relationship development, derived from industry examples, theory, and a dataset consisting of 123 qualitative interviews conducted with American, Canadian, Chinese, and Japanese managers is presented. Further, in order to assist managers in the task of developing more effective communications, a six-step process aimed in directing managerial action is presented. By proactively managing its communications, a firm can develop stronger international business relationships facilitating the rapid response to market opportunities and challenges.