Marketing Effectiveness and Customer Retention in the Service Sector

Recent years have witnessed a growth in the number of studies relating to service orgrrnisations. This steady stream of literature could be attributed to the continuous expansion of the service sector and its increasing contribution to the advancement of many economies. In this context, issues associated with marketing and performance outcomes which managers can influence directly have received a great deal of attention. This research focuses on an empirical investigation of the relationship between marketing effectiveness and customer retention performance in an attempt to contribute to the growing body of conceptual and empiricul knowledge on the links between marketing and performance among service firms. Drawing on our results which indicate a significant and positive association between marketing effectiveness and customer retention, implications of the findings for service firm managers as well as future research directions are subsequently discussed.     

Market orientation and performance in the biotechnology industry: An exploratory empirical analysis

The purpose ofthis study was to conduct an exploratory investigation into the link between market orientation and business performance in the biotechnology sector. Based on the nature and character of the biotechnology industry, a multi-faceted scale of market orientation was derived from a preuiously tested and refined measure of the construct. Data were generated from 62 biotechnolog firms and a variety of market orientation-performance relationships were investigated, alongside other potential effects on the different dimensions of business performance. The findings indicate that market orientation is positively and signficanttly associated with three of the four performance measures examined. Implications of our findings for biotechnology industry managers are discussed and limitations of the study as well as future research directions are addressed.     

The Effects of Formal Controls on Supervisee Trust in the Manager in New Product Selling: Evidence from Young and Inexperienced Salespeople in China*

How should sales managers enhance the support and commitment of young, inexperienced salespeople during a new product selling? Some scholars have suggested sales managers should use formal controls (i.e., output and process controls) to develop the salespeople's trust in their benevolence. Drawing on a sample of young, inexperienced salespeople with rather low education selling new products in China's competitive, volatile, and transitional economic environment, the present study investigates the relationship between output and process controls and supervisee trust (i.e., the salesperson's trust in the sales manager). The empirical results of the study suggest that process and output controls have differential effects on supervisee trust. Specifically, the results indicate that process control enhances supervisee trust by itself and also under conditions of intense training for new product selling and when market volatility is perceived as high. However, process control hinders supervisee trust when the manager is long‐term oriented and engages in participative supervision. It was found that output control engenders supervisee trust when the manager is long‐term oriented but hinders supervisee trust when salespeople have undergone intensive training for new product selling. Implications of these results are provided for both researchers and practitioners involved in launching and selling new products.     

Marketing's lateral influence strategies and new product team comprehension in high-tech companies: A cross-national investigation

In high-tech companies marketing often has to strive for gaining influence in the new product development (NPD) process, and uses political strategies to supplement its low formal power. This study examined the antecedents and outcomes of marketing's use of upward appeal and coalition building influence strategies in NPD, in Chinese and Australian high-tech companies. We proposed that marketing's use of both strategies is related to power sources (i.e., R&D department's power, marketing's information power and personal stake in the NPD outcomes) and NPD context characteristics (i.e., formalization of NPD activity, and R&D-marketing interaction). Results show that both power sources and NPD context are related to the use of lateral influence strategies by marketing participants in NPD, with notable differences in potency and direction between China and Australia. For example, higher R&D-marketing interaction increases the use of lateral influence strategies in Australia but decreases it in China. On the contrary, lateral influence strategies produce similar effects in the two cultural settings: while coalition building increases NPD team comprehension of marketing issues in high-tech firms, upward appeal appears to hinder it, especially in the Chinese collectivistic context. We conclude with implications for future research and practice.     

Valuation implications of pharmaceutical companies' R&D regulatory approval notifications

This paper examines shareholder wealth effects surrounding applications to, and approvals by, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for firms listed on the New York (NYSE) and London (LSE) stock exchanges. Applications to the FDA for drug approvals significantly increase shareholder wealth for NYSE firms only. The increase is driven by applications for enhancements to existing drugs, with the market anticipating the application, thus suggesting information leakage. FDA approvals also significantly increase shareholder wealth in both markets. However, there is no evidence of information leakage and the significant post-event abnormal returns support the attention-grabbing hypothesis. Enhanced drug approvals are value-relevant for both markets, which highlights the contribution of real-options to firm value.     

Tourists’ views on safety and vulnerability. A study of some selected towns in Ghana

Providing security for tourists has become an imperative and any destination which ignores this responsibility stands to lose out on the keen competition for the tourist dollar. One way to provide security for tourists is to seek their own views on such matters. Studies which seek to do such are relatively underrepresented in the literature. Using the accidental sampling method and questionnaires, this paper sought primarily to understand tourists’ perspectives on issues concerning safety and security in Ghana. It was observed that tourists felt most unsafe at attraction sites as compared to accommodation and in open spaces, and, rather interestingly, it emerged that they do not necessarily equate security to the presence of uniformed personnel but rather conceptualize it within the triple framework of space, order and professionalism. It was also observed that the fear of crime/vulnerability varies significantly across important socio-demographic variables (especially age).     

Executive pay and performance: the moderating effect of CEO power and governance structure

This paper examines the crucial question of whether chief executive officer (CEO) power and corporate governance (CG) structure can moderate the pay-for-performance sensitivity (PPS) using a large up-to-date South African data-set. Our findings are threefold. First, when direct links between executive pay and performance are examined, we find a positive, but relatively small PPS. Second, our results show that in a context of concentrated ownership and weak board structures; the second-tier agency conflict (director monitoring power and opportunism) is stronger than the first-tier agency problem (CEO power and self-interest). Third, additional analysis suggests that CEO power and CG structure have a moderating effect on the PPS. Specifically, we find that the PPS is higher in firms with more reputable, founding and shareholding CEOs, higher ownership by directors and institutions, and independent nomination and remuneration committees, but lower in firms with larger boards, more powerful and long-tenured CEOs. Overall, our evidence sheds new important theoretical and empirical insights on explaining the PPS with specific focus on the predictions of the optimal contracting and managerial power hypotheses. The findings are generally robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneities, pay, and performance proxies.     

Building Capability for Organizational Success: An Emerging Market Perspective

In the world of business, developing the capability to succeed in the marketplace is a sine qua non for most organizations. An examination of studies on firm competitiveness indicates that market orientation, outsourcing, and technology transfer provide firms with the basis for building capability to succeed in the business environment. Nonetheless, in a developing nation context, the comparative influences of market orientation, outsourcing, and technology transfer on organizational success among foreign and local firms when considered together in a combined framework is yet to be investigated empirically. To gain clearer insights, three pathways through which market orientation, outsourcing, and technology transfer improve organizational success in Ghana are postulated. Findings of this study suggest that among foreign and Ghanaian businesses, there are variations in the contributions of market orientation, outsourcing, and technology transfer to developing capability and impacting on organizational success.     

Differential Potency of Factors Affecting Innovation Performance in Manufacturing and Services Firms in Australia

Whether or not industrialized nations are experiencing a fundamental shift from a manufacturing- to a service-based economy may be a matter of debate. However, the service sector is clearly growing at an explosive rate, particularly in comparison with manufacturing. With this in mind, we need to better understand how the successful development of new services differs from that of new products. Such understanding requires identifying the critical success factors for new service development (NSD), as well as contrasting them with the factors underlying successful new product development (NPD). Kwaku Atuahene-Gima describes the results of a study comparing the innovation activities of Australian services firms and manufacturers. The study explores managers' perceptions of the factors necessary for successful NSD and NPD. In addition to comparing the differing perceptions of managers of services firms and manufacturers, the study highlights implications of these differences for managers striving for improved NSD. Services and manufacturing firms focus on similar factors for improving innovation performance. However, the relative importance of those factors depends on the type of firm. The critical factor for services—the importance accorded to innovation activity in the firm's human resource strategy—ranks third in importance for manufacturers. Manufacturers focus primarily on product innovation advantage and quality. In contrast, service innovation advantage and quality ranks third in importance for service firms. Surprisingly, technology synergy is found to have a negative effect on new service performance. If a new service is a close fit with a firm's current technologies, competitors will likely be able to quickly imitate the new service. As a result, NSD efforts based on technology synergy will not provide a competitive advantage. Compared to manufacturers, successful service firms must place greater emphasis on the selection, development, and management of employees who work directly with the customer. Through effective self management, these contact personnel shape the quality of the customer relationship. In addition, their close contact and potentially long-term relationships with customers make such employees an important source of new ideas in the firm's NSD process. Such relationships also cast contact personnel in a make-or-break role in the launching of new services.