Organizational capabilities in e-commerce: An empirical investigation of e-brokerage service providers

E-commerce not only has tremendous potential for growth but also poses unique challenges for both incumbents and new entrants. By examining drivers of firm performance in e-commerce from a capabilities perspective, the authors conceptualize three firm capabilities that are critical for superior firm performance in e-commerce: information technology capability, strategic flexibility, and trust-building capability. The extent and nature of market orientation is conceptualized as a platform for leveraging e-commerce capabilities. The authors test the effects of e-commerce capabilities on performance (e.g., relative profits, sales, return on investment) using data from 122 e-brokerage service providers. The results indicate that information technology capability and strategic flexibility affect performance given the right market orientation. Amit Saini (asaini2@unl.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He conducts research in the area of marketing strategy, technology-marketing interface, e-commerce strategy, and customer relationship management. He has presented papers at major conferences, and his research appears in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and American Marketing Association—Marketing Educator’s Conference Proceedings. His industry experience includes sales management and quantitative market research. Jean L. Johnson (Johnsonjl@wsu.edu) is a professor of marketing at Washington State University. Her research includes partnering capabilities development in, and management of, interfirm relationships and management of international strategic alliances. Her research appears in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. She serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and reviews for others. She spent several years in the advertising industry and has lived, taught, and conducted research in France and Japan. She has been selected to cochair the 2006 winter American Marketing Association (AMA) conference.     

The role of a firm's strategic orientation dimensions in determining market orientation

Little is known about how various strategic orientation dimensions determine market orientation. The authors identify four key dimensions of a firm's strategic orientation as critical antecedents to market orientation: the firm's aggressiveness, its future orientation, the extent of marketing formalization, and risk proclivity. Moderating effects of two environmental forces, competitive intensity and technology turbulence, are also considered in light of their relationship with various dimensions of strategic orientation and market orientation. Using a survey with firms spanning multiple industries, the proposed effects are tested with latent class analysis with multiple regimes. The results, based on an optimal two-regime solution, show that that although market orientation is significantly impacted by these strategic orientation dimensions, the pattern of influence differs based on a firm's membership in one of two regimes.     

THE GROWTH OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY: 1860–1960

This paper is concerned with an examination of growth trends of the Indian economy between 1860 and 1960. This examination commences with the numerous studies bearing on the more recent part of this period, from about 1900 to 1960. These studies are shown to vary greatly in coverage and comprehensiveness, and their differences and individual shortcomings are assessed. Nevertheless, these studies conclude, without exception, that the Indian economy remained virtually stationary in this period, especially in terms of negligible growth in per capita real income. In contrast to periods since 1900, the study of economic growth during the earlier period has suffered academic neglect. There are only two major studies which make an attempt to examine economic trends in this period. Both these studies are found wanting with respect to concepts and procedures. The period from 1860 to 1913 presents serious problems in any study since there is a paucity of statistics which are at all reliable and useful. The most promising approach for overcoming this deficiency is to develop better sectoral statistics rather than to rely on aggregative data even when available. In order to gain a better understanding of the growth trends of the Indian economy over this period, the author constructed indices of major economic activities. These indices demonstrate that relatively high rate of economic growth prevailed in India before 1890. Subsequent developments in the Indian economy seem to consist of minor changes in the magnitudes of economic variables rather than fundamental structural changes. Thus, the Indian economy is shown to have enjoyed relatively high rates of growth only in the initial three decades of the hundred-year period, 1860–1960.     

The monetarist explanation of inflation: The experience of six Asian countries

Studies on inflation, employing the Harberger-type monetarist model, have focused almost entirely on the hogh inflation experiences, usually those of Latin American countries. This model is applied here to the six Asian countries, which contain low and moderate inflation cases. The empirical results show that the growth of money stock was not the primary source of inflation in these countries. The failure of the monetarist model to explain the behavior of prices in Asian countries may be due (1) partly to the monetization of these economies which makes the growth of money stock endogenous, and (2) partly to its rigid specification which excludes the impact of the various domestic and external cost pressures. To test the validity of the latter proposition, the monetarist model is augmented by the inclusion of import prices which are widely alleged to have intensified inflationary pressures. The empirical results do indeed provide support for this view. As regards monetary policy the findings of this paper suggest that monetary discipline may be, by and large, ineffective in controlling inflation in moderate inflation countries.     

Managing the human resource in Indian SMEs: The role of indigenous realities

This paper discusses how issues of people management are addressed in Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also highlights the indigenous approaches to human resource management (HRM) that have surfaced in the Indian SME context. The research formulation has been built on the mapping of people-management practices in two SME case studies, one of which is also a family-based organization. The analysis shows that indigenous realities in HRM in Indian SMEs relate mainly to the provision of financial, emotional and social support to the workforce; employee involvement (EI) practices; recruitment; skill development; managing employee relations; and managing vis-à-vis labor law framework. The paper argues that in the sphere of people management in SMEs, the willingness to innovate and formalize the HR systems is constrained by a kind of bounded rationality, i.e., the owners of SMEs mostly believe that they are already doing what is humanly possible in this regard. The analysis has an important message for concerned practitioners—in order to realize their full potential and to progress towards fulfilling their vision; SMEs eventually have to intertwine indigenization and formalization for their people management approaches.     

Anomie and the Marketing Function: The Role of Control Mechanisms

The authors use the theoretical notion of anomie to examine the impact of top management’s control mechanisms on the environment of the marketing function. Based on a literature review and in-depth field interviews with marketing managers in diverse industries, a conceptual model is proposed that incorporates the two managerial control mechanisms, viz. output and process control, and relates their distinctive influence to anomie in the marketing function. Three contingency variables, i.e., resource scarcity, power, and ethics codification, are proposed to moderate the relationship between control mechanisms and anomie. The authors also argue for the link between anomic environments and the propensity of unethical marketing practices to occur. Theoretical and managerial implications of the proposed conceptual model are discussed. An erratum to this article can be found at     

A survey of the quantitative approaches to country risk analysis

The growth of lending to LDCs has been accompanied by attempts to measure risks in such lending. These attempts have concentrated on devising systems which would give an early indication of potential debt servicing difficulties. They are now more commonly called country risk analyses. This paper outlines the development of the study of country risk, concentrating on the contribution of statistical studies. A review of the major studies shows them to contain serious shortcomings with respect to their definition of the dependent variable, the quality and availability of data, specification of models, appropriateness of statistical procedures, and the ability to adequately forecast debt servicing difficulties based on the analysis of past experience.     

Market-focused strategic flexibility: Conceptual advances and an integrative model

This article develops the concept of market-focused strategic flexibility. It begins with a review of the historical perspectives of strategic flexibility. To support the conceptualization, the authors offer a theoretical schema that considers market-focused strategic flexibility as conceptually rooted in capabilities theory, resource-based views of the firm, and options. With the conceptualization in place, the authors propose an integrative model that explicates the mediating role of market-focused strategic flexibility in marketing strategy frameworks. Propositions are developed relating market-driven and driving orientations to market-focused strategic flexibility with consideration for how turbulent macro environments modify the relationship. In addition, the authors offer propositions regarding outcomes of market-focused strategic flexibility under conditions of macro environmental turbulence. Jean L. Johnson is an associate professor of marketing at Washington State University. Her research includes partnering capabilities development in, and management of, interfirm relationships and management of international strategic alliances. Her research appears in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. She serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and reviews for others. She spent several years in the advertising industry and has lived, taught, and conducted research in France and Japan. Ruby Pui-Wan Lee is a doctoral candidate in the marketing department at Washington State University. Her areas of research include interfirm relationships marketing strategy, and international marketing. She has presented papers at major conferences. In addition, her research has appeared in the theJournal of Advertising Research and theJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Amit Saini is a doctoral candidate in marketing at Washington State University. He conducts research in the area of marketing strategy implementation, technology-marketing interface, e-commerce strategy, and customer relationship management. He has presented papers at major conferences, and his research appears in theAmerican Marketing Association—Marketing Educator's Conference Proceedings. His industry experience includes sales management and quantitative market research. Bianca Grohmann is an assistant professor in the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. She received her Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2002. Her research focuses on consumer behavior issues such as gift giving, selfprophecy, and consumer response to sensory stimuli in purchase situations. She has made numerous presentations at major conferences such as those of the Association for Consumer Research and the Society for Consumer Psychology.     

Suckers in the morning,skeptics in the evening: Time-of-Day effects on consumers’ vigilance against manipulation

Persuasion knowledge is defined as a consumer’s vigilance against manipulative persuasion. In this paper, we explore the relationship between persuasion knowledge and consumer’s diurnal preference. It is proposed that evening-type consumers display enhanced persuasion knowledge relative to morning types. Also, heightened persuasion knowledge is exhibited during their respective optimal times of day for both morning-type and evening-type consumers. We propose cognitive resource availability as the key underlying mechanism for this relationship. Finally, we also demonstrate an analogous relationship between consumer skepticism and diurnal preferences. Over three studies we find supportive evidence for our claims.