Positive management of marketing-operations relationships: the case of an internet retail SME

The Internet has become one of the most competitive retail marketplaces. Companies operating in this area face demanding customers intolerant of any service failure and a large number of competitors. A key issue in how companies can serve this market is the way in which they internally manage the relationship between the marketing and operations departments of the business. These two areas represent the "value adding" core of all organisations. Co-operation and collaboration between these functions is vital for success in a highly competitive marketplace such as internet retail. However, the reality for many organisations is a legacy of functional division, hostility and even hatred. This paper presents case evidence from an internet retailer that has achieved positive working relationships between marketing and operations functions, leveraging this to deliver award winning customer service, growing the business and maintaining profitability.     

Having,Being and Consumption

Marketing needs to recognise the changing priority of consumption. The belief that markets are secure because consumers will continue to be motivated to have an ever-greater array and quantity of goods and services is a shortsighted and erroneous assumption. Consumers are increasingly looking to the market to provide resources and technologies that will enable them to achieve rewarding and sustainable states of 'being'. Drawing on the humanist philosophy of Erich Fromm, this paper advances the case for a 'Marketing of Being', based on a detailed discussion of the changing nature of consumer identity and identification behaviour.     

The Exporter - Import Agent Contract and the Influence of Cultural Dimensions

This paper examines the relationship between an exporter and an import agent in an international marketing channel using agency theory and cultural dimension frameworks, and proposes a research agenda with five testable propositions from this literature. Agency theory provides a way of forming an efficient exporter-agent contract and suggests that efficient contractual conditions are likely to provide the basis of a successful negotiated outcome. Cultural dimensions are elements that are likely to create obstacles to an efficient contractual outcome. This paper presents the concept of the dimensional gap that exporters may need to bridge in order to form an efficient contractual relationship. We suggest that in a cross cultural encounter, a divergence of cultural dimensions between the parties to the contract will impact adversely on agency costs and lead to contractual inefficiencies. By identifying gaps in the cultural dimensions between contractual parties, and taking steps towards reducing these gaps, the potential for such inefficiencies can be reduced, improving the chances of successful contractual outcomes. The dimensional gap considers the influence of four cultural dimensions on contractual efficiency. This paper presents five testable propositions suggesting that cultural gaps within power distance, individualism and masculinity, can be bridged through greater flexibility and adaptability in management decisions acquired through experience and learning, whereas gaps in long term orientation and uncertainty avoidance are less likely to be influenced by such behaviour. Where the latter condition exists, it is proposed that the potential of high transaction costs will result in exporters by-passing intermediaries and using more integrated forms of entry.     

Market orientation and design orientation: a management model

Market orientation and design orientation as strategic concepts have a proven impact on business results, but the direct relationship between these concepts has not yet been analysed. This research attempts to prove the relationship by studying the managerial implication of design orientation as it relates to market orientation. After analysing 28 case studies of Spanish companies well-known for their business excellence and their design orientation, a management model is proposed. The model is a management tool that offers companies a scheme for auto-diagnosis and a review of best-in-class design practices that have shown to improve business results.     

Assessing Marketing Performance: Reasons for Metrics Selection

In recent years both practitioners and academics have shown an increasing interest in the assessment of marketing performance. This paper explores the metrics that firms select and some reasons for those choices. Our data are drawn from two UK studies. The first reports practitioner usage by the main metrics categories (consumer behaviour and intermediate, trade customer, competitor, accounting and innovativeness). The second considers which individual metrics are seen as the most important and whether that differs by sector. The role of brand equity in performance assessment and top management orientations are key considerations. We found consistency between orientation and metrics. Within these categories we identified 19 metrics that could be regarded as primary and could therefore serve as a short-list for initial selection. However, the sector importantly moderates that selection, not least because competitive benchmarking requires similar metrics to be available. Control, orientation and institutional theories appeared to influence metrics selection and the absence of agency theory is probably due to the research method of this paper. We concluded with some propositions formally to test the basis of metrics selection.     

Maximising performance gains from cooperative marketing: understanding the role of environmental contexts

Understanding the situational relevance of strategy is vital given that strategies have varying utilities under different environmental settings which result in performance variations. Research remains silent regarding the situational relevance of cooperative marketing strategy implementation whereby performance outcomes are maximised. Through quantitative survey results, we explore the relationship between cooperative marketing and performance outcomes across varying environmental contexts (internal and external environments). While past studies acknowledge the importance of an open systems' perspective and the influence of the environment on strategic outcomes, they fall prey to key shortcomings such as a reductionist perspective and inadequate measurement. We provide an insight into the environment-strategy-performance relationship by using a holistic environmental approach and detailing the environments conducive to co-marketing strategy implementation. Managerial implications and future directions for research are also provided in the paper.     

Critical approaches in undergraduate marketing teaching: investigating students' perceptions

For some years now, marketing educators have been exhorted to adopt more critical approaches in teaching and learning. Such approaches are purported to bring numerous benefits to students, including improved appraisal skills, self-awareness, and enhanced abilities to deal with the uncertainties and ambiguities of marketing practice. To date however, there has been very little empirical study of how students respond to critical approaches, and whether they perceive any of the proposed benefits themselves. This study addresses the gap by investigating the perceptions and experiences of students on two modules, both of which take similarly designed critical approaches. In practice, students were found to perceive the modules as more labour intensive and intellectually challenging than others, due primarily to the volume and depth of required reading. The task of being critical was itself perceived as difficult, due to the need for a different mindset, and for students to have confidence in their own ideas. However, overall evaluations of the modules were positive, and students identified a number of benefits and personal rewards from their experiences, at least some of which matched with those proposed in the literature. The paper discusses factors influencing students' perceptions and concludes with some practical recommendations.     

The meaning of commitment in professional service relationships: a study of the meaning of commitment used by lawyers and their clients

Several authors have identified the importance of commitment in successful business relationships. However, few studies have considered the meaning of commitment, especially within the context of customer-supplier relationships.

Most studies of commitment within the marketing literature use existing conceptualisations developed within the psychology and organisational behaviour literatures. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of commitment in a customer-supplier relationship context, and to compare this with traditional conceptualisation of commitment.

This study investigates the meaning of commitment used by both lawyers and their clients, within the context of their relationship. The findings show that the meaning of commitment used in professional relationships may be more complex than its traditional conceptualisation and should be extended to include at least three additional components including: 'partnership commitment', 'impression management commitment' and 'personal commitment'. It is argued that it is inappropriate to 'borrow' the conceptualisation of the construct of commitment from other disciplines, without considering the market-based context in which it is used. Implications for professional service relationships include that professionals and clients would benefit from sharing a similar meaning of commitment and this meaning may be influenced by the culture, systems and processes of their organisation.     

Book Reviews

In a world of limited resources, marketing managers tasked to deliver shareholder value face decisions about how to maximise the returns on their marketing portfolio. Risk is less often considered. In finance the picture is very different; financial portfolio management is concerned with both risk and returns. The central innovation in this paper is the application of modern portfolio theory (MPT) to the management of marketing portfolios in food retailing and in drinks manufacturing. The authors develop a model that calculates an efficient frontier of marketing portfolios that maximise overall return within certain risk constraints, first for a simple two-segment marketing world and then for a more realistic multi-segment portfolio. However, marketing portfolios differ from financial ones in the sense that the allocation of marketing spend affects the returns from the portfolio. Therefore, a second innovation, an extension of MPT to take account of marketing spend allocation decisions, has been developed. Using this model, marketers can determine the risk and the returns of marketing investments, helping them select an optimal portfolio. This would go some way to ensuring that marketing contributes to shareholder value creation, currently one of its major challenges.