The Metrics of Relationships

Abstract

In the last two decades, it has been suggested that the marketing discipline is undergoing a paradigm shift from a transactional perspective to a relational perspective (Sheth & Parvatiyar, 2002). At the same time, there has been a call for the discipline to focus on accurate measurement of the outcome of marketing activities (Rust, Ambler, Carpenter, Kumar, & Srivastava, 2004). Extant research in this area has predominantly examined the sales and profitability of relationships through customer life time analysis or examined attitudinal measures such as satisfaction and loyalty. This paper attempts to combine both streams of research by examining the profitability, satisfaction and probability of switching associated with transactional customers, relationship customers (less than five years of relationship) and deep relationship customers (more than five years of relationship) in three business to business industries. The results demonstrate the transactional customers are most profitable followed by relationship and deep relationship customers. The probability of switching was in the reverse direction of profitability and there were no difference in satisfaction measures. Implications for research and practice and also derived in the paper.     

影响中美关系的因素

美国是最大的发达国家 ,中国是最大的发展中国家 ,保持两国关系的良好发展 ,不仅有利于亚太地区的和平与稳定 ,同时对世界的和平与发展起到重要作用。本文从中美之间基本的战略利益分歧、人权问题、台湾问题、外交政策的不稳定性、中美之间的经济利益以及美国内支持中美关系的政治力量等六个方面分析了影响中美关系的因素     

贵宾客户管理:酒店管理的重要领域

客户关系管理在现代酒店企业的经营管理中,随着竞争的加剧,倍受重视,具有独特的战略意义。本文分析了酒店贵宾客户管理的重要性,总结了国际知名酒店集团的相关做法,提出了从成本控制、优势互补、讲求实效、循序渐进四个方面加强国内酒店贵宾客户管理的建议。     

Improving Customer Service

Abstract

The article presents a framework for implementing a TQM-oriented management process that can enable an organization to achieve continuous quality enhancements at minimal cost while simultaneously increasing the marketability of the service. The modeled framework demonstrates how such quality improvements can be made possible by heightening employees' sensitivity towards details pertaining to the many aspects of the service delivery process. The incidence of customer dissatisfaction resulting from sheer insensitivity towards detail during the delivery of service is established through real-world examples of actual customer experiences with numerous services. The severity of the implications of customer dissatisfaction and defection on a firm's bottom line are highlighted. The role of nonverbal communication and the many relevant forms of such communication are examined. A nonverbal communication feedback-response process model is presented that can help align the service with the expectations of the customer in high-contact services. Finally, a comprehensive set of managerial requisites for the creation of an enabling service quality culture is also identified. The framework presented also shows how performance can be enhanced, and competitive advantage gained, by effectively shaping and servicing the customer satisfaction plane.     

面向社会网络的团队间创业协同关系结构与效应研究

在多团队创业协同构成的开放式创新关系中，团队间依托社会网络衍生出的松散、去中心及非系统合作问题普遍存在，关注该协同关系的结构与效应能为探究少数占据结构洞优势团队的关联结构、能力延展及策略均衡问题提供崭新视角。通过解析少数占优团队在创业过程中的资源边界拓展、学习型改造与竞合优势转换等问题，从社会网络在节点、节点间、节点关系聚合层面形成的协同能力、角色与位势3个维度，归纳剖析团队间创业协同能力、角色与知识位势的网络构成，梳理提炼其呈现的合作网络边界扩张、协同策略结构性变革及部分要素外部效用突破性涌现效应。与快速协作响应、持续冲突协调及共同绩效相关的结论能为认识“开创事业”导向下松散合作关系中的知识/角色/能力差序作用格局提供分析框架，对评价与优化非全要素创新或非全过程创业中优势主体间的交互治理具有参考价值。     

流通领域零供交易关系的平等性研究

随着我国市场经济的发展,商品流通领域中的零售商和供应商双方在交易中的地位也在不断转换,零售商逐渐在交易中占据优势地位,一些大型零售商滥用这种优势地位激化了其与供应商之间的矛盾,零售商的优势地位容易导致拖欠、占用供应商贷款,收取名目繁多的费用,要挟供应商等问题.从法律关系看,零售商与供应商之间的交易关系是民事法律关系,应体现意思自治与平等、合同自由的原则,但在现实中,由于一些零售商滥用市场优势地位,二者的关系与这种原则还有相当大的差距.为此,应建立和完善制止滥用市场优势地位的法律,并借助行业协会的力量建立多种协调和自律机制.     

Business marketing and the ethics of gift giving

This paper focuses on the common though ethically problematic practice of suppliers providing gifts and other benefits to buyers in a business-to-business context. It is argued that contrary to the claim that the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable practices is blurred when there is a focus on developing mutually beneficial, long-term relationships between suppliers and their business customers, there is a straightforward decision making procedure that can be applied. Central to this decision making procedure is the concept of a conflict of interest. While all organisations have very good reasons to address the issue of gifts and benefits, in a relationship marketing context there is even more reason to do so.     

Relationship Marketing and its Synergy with Web-based Technologies

This paper examines the distinctives of relationship marketing, provides a simple taxonomy of the world wide web, and proposes that there is a high level of synergy between the inherent functionality and interactivity provided by the world wide web and the implementation of a relationship marketing perspective. This proposition is tested using data from a national survey of New Zealand organizations known to maintain and operate a web site, and the relationship is found to be significant. It is concluded that the inherent nature of emerging Internet technologies is supportive of the higher levels of customer interaction implicit in relationship marketing.     

The involvement and influence of emotions in problematic business relationships

This paper discusses emotions as mediators in business-to-business relationships which is an understudied topic. Yet within consumer marketing, emotions have been widely studied, and calls have been made for business relationship research to take account of managers' emotions. This study addresses the gap by firstly establishing the relevance of emotions in problematic business relationships and secondly showing how emotions are a major component in determining the outcomes of the problematic relationships. Interview data in the form of narratives describing problematic relationships is analyzed and identifies both the emotions experienced by participants and their role in the future course of the business relationship.     

Resource acquisition strategies in business relationships

Integrating the IMP Group approach with aspects of the resource-based view of the firm, we seek to develop and test a typology of relationship strategies based on different resource acquisition foci. For this purpose, we conducted interviews with thirty CEOs and other senior marketing managers in the UK and the USA. In-depth content analysis identified five main resource acquisition strategies (RAS) behind building business relationships: money bonds, new market bonds, utilization bonds, intellectual bonds, and credibility bonds. We further carried out a quantitative study with 658 senior managers in the USA to test for the generalizability of our findings. Results of a one-way repeated ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression analysis show significant differences between the five RAS for business relationships. However, a pair-wise comparison provides evidence for the existence of hybrid strategies. In addition, an investigation of the association between the RAS of business relationships on the one hand, and business strategy on the other, revealed equifinality of alternative business strategies vis-à-vis the applied relationship strategy. Finally, our analysis revealed no significant differences between the distributions of RAS types for knowledge intensive versus non-knowledge intensive business services. However, we found that RAS distribution is significantly associated with company size.