How industrial salespeople gain customer trust

This study investigated how industrial salespeople gain the trust of their customers. Results show that trust increases as the customer gains the impression that the salesperson is dependable, honest, competent, customer oriented, and likeable. Based on the results, a general model of trust building is suggested.     

Applying financial portfolio and multiple criteria approaches to product line decisions

This article describes the application of decision rules from financial portfolio theory to the evaluation of product lines. The focus is on the risk/return implications of an “add” decision to the total portfolio versus the individual product. Multiple criteria approaches that aid product line evaluations are also presented.     

Key problems facing industrial distributors

This article reports on a survey of the problems faced by industrial distributors. Five major problem categories are identified and managerial implications are derived from the findings.     

A look at the public policy conflict regarding the discovery of accountants' tax accrual workpapers

This article focuses on the conflict in public policy between the need to provide the investing public with accurate information with regard to corporate financial statements and the need to provide the IRS with the necessary tools in order to assure corporate compliance with the tax laws of the country. The conflict arises because of the contention of the IRS that it is entitled to have access to an independent auditor's tax accrual workpapers on the one hand, and the contention by CPAs that such access will prevent adequate disclosure to the independent auditor. The article examines the policy questions on both sides of the issue and concludes that regardless of any decision by the Supreme Court in a pendingcase, Congress should pass legislation to resolve the conflict and clearly identify the scope of any previlage accorded with regard to tax accrual workpapers.     

Nested model comparison with structural equation approaches

Potential problems with the conventional nested model comparison procedure in the structural equation models context are discussed. It is argued that fixing parameter values might lead to creation of different unobservables in the nested model. A number of alternative ways of conducting model comparisons are reviewed and applied in a marketing example.     

A “Pure” long-term interest rate and the demand for money

This article presents the appropriate rate by which to discount a constant, certain, infinite stream of future payments: that is, the yield on a noncallable perpetuity or consol. The American consol series is a daily risk-free “pure” long term interest rate which is undistorted by tax effects, call premiums, and varying duration and reinvestment assumptions. If Hamburger had used the American consol series instead of the U.S. Government Long Term Bond Rate in his money demand function, he would have found more of the “missing money.” His average error (actual minus predicted money demand) as a percentage of actual money demand would have been reduced from 1.43% to 0.93% a 35% error reduction.     

Similarities between conflict and cooperation in the marketing channel

This article examines the relationship between two causes of conflict: domain dissensus and perceptual incongruity, and the levels of conflict and cooperation within a marketing channel dyad. Utilizing a national sample of food broker-food wholesaler dyads, four hypotheses were tested—two relating domain dissensus and two relating perceptual incongruity to conflict/cooperation. Results indicated no significant relationship between either perceptual incongruities or domain dissensus and the level of conflict found in the dyad, while a significant negative relationship was found between both perceptual incongruities and domain dissensus and the level of cooperation in the dyad.     

British export market selection and pricing

The existing literature favors key market concentration in exporting, but the results of a recent survey of industrial exporters in the north of England show that the key market argument is weak both on logical grounds and in empirical support. There is an alternative strategy—market spreading—supported by various company, product, market, and marketing factors. The need is for situational analysis, not general theories. This article also addresses the key issue of export pricing—the most highly rated marketing variable in exporting. It is seen that whereas many of the popular criticisms of exporters are apparently unfounded, there are some problems of policy consistency, particularly in responding to floating currencies. These are especially serious in view of the high emphasis placed on price competitiveness in exporting.     

An analysis of the role of accounting standards for enhancing corporate governance and social responsibility

Accounting standards have been suggested as a means of requiring reporting by corporations that would enhance managers' concern for their shareholders and/or society. The analysis presented in this paper, however, leads to the conclusion that this role for accounting standards is not likely to be beneficial. The conclusion is based on the fact that the required measurements for useful standards cannot generally be made. This inherent limitation is absolute with respect to social responsibility concerns. With respect to corporate governance, accounting standards might be useful, primarily for reporting potentially fraudulent dealings and similar misuses of shareholder's assets by corporate managers. But even then, the cost of an accounting standard, ex ante, is likely to exceed its benefits to shareholders.