Market Orientation in the Transition Economies of Central Europe:: Tests of the Narver and Slater Market Orientation Scales

The Narver and Slater (Narver, J.C., and Slater, S.F.: The Effect of Marketing Orientation on Business Profitability. Journal of Marketing 54 (1990): 20–35.) market orientation scale is tested in the context of the transition economies of central Europe and found to be both valid and reliable. Relationships between market orientation and both marketing strategy and performance broadly follow predictions from the Western literature indicating that the adoption of a market orientation is equally applicable in transition as in Western economies. A number of different approaches, however, are evident in the transition economies suggesting that other business orientations may coexist with a market orientation creating a richer and more complex set or organizational drivers.     

Dimensions of customer orientation: An empirical investigation of the UK financial services sector

The UK financial services industry has experienced a number of sharp discontinuities in its marketing environment in recent years. These have ranged from changing demand patterns to wholesale deregulation and market liberalization. International competition and new entrants exploiting technological innovations have also added to the turbulence in what has been a traditionally parochial and stable sector. Under these conditions, it is to be expected that companies would develop a much sharper customer focus and, if they are to survive and prosper, that they would adopt the core principles of the marketing concept. In this paper, the findings of research which tests this assumption amongst merchant banks, retail banks, insurance companies and building societies are presented. Conclusions are drawn which indicate that there is a growing awareness of the need for a marketing orientation and that some sectors appear to be more customer‐orientated than others at this point in time. Despite this, there is also evidence that in some sectors marketing myopia may be masquerading as marketing orientation and that much work needs to be done to more fully realize the ideals of the marketing concept.     

Selection and motivation of distribution intermediaries

This article reviews factors necessitating the application of effective selection and motivation criteria when using independent distributors. It reports findings concerning the criteria utilized by samples of US and UK manufacturing companies. Generally, there appears to be much that is acumenical in the efforts of firms in both countries. However, there also seems to be considerable scope for improvement in selecting and motivating distributors.     

Princing flexibility in British Manufacturing Industry

This article explores pricing flexibility among a sample of 728 manufacturing firms surveyed during a period of severe business adversity. It addresses attention to the nature and prevalence of alternative pricing techniques, the temporal frequency of mark-up adjustments, the application of marginalist principles in pricing and price discount practices. Three general conclusions emerge. Pricing flexibility is widespread and probably more so than hitherto. The degree of flexibility is not influenced significantly by the extent of commitment to cost-plus pricing techniques. Pricing flexibility varies substantially and systematically with firm size but not with numbers of ‘serious’ competitors.     

Motives for and the management of countertrade in domestic markets

The emergence and persistence of modern countertrade (CT) is attributed to many factors including circumventing credit and foreign exchange problems, surmounting barriers to otherwise closed markets, hiding price cuts or simply exporters’ need to remain competitive. Because CT arrangements comprise bundles of buying, selling and financing contracts, explaining why firms conduct CT requires explanation of why a package deal is preferred to a set of component contracts. Examination of domestic CT stripped of “international ramifications” reveals the inherent rationale for CT as a desire to hide price discounts and to overcome cash shortages. Questionnaire data obtained from UK and Canadian firms broadly support this. If CT is worth undertaking, it requires effective management. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of CT for marketing strategy and planning.     

Japanese and British Companies Compared: Contributing Factors to Success and Failure in NPD

The success or failure of a new product is an issue of continuing concern to management in the 1990s. Little research, however, has been conducted on this issue from a British perspective. In this article, Scott Edgett, David Shipley and Giles Forbes report the findings of an investigation into success and failure in Japanese- and British-owned firms that conduct business in the United Kingdom. The results from this comparative study illustrate that new product failure rates are still high, with the Japanese firms only marginally outperforming British owned firms.     

EFFECTS OF COUNTERTRADE-DIVERGENT PERCEPTIONS BETWEEN PRACTITIONERS AND NON-PARTICIPANTS[1]

This article provides a theoretical discussion of countertrade benefits and problems. It then comments on data collected in a 1985 study of large British firms which demonstrate that actual countertrades have perceptions of the effects of this practice which differ markedly from the perceptions of companies that do not countertrade. Throughout, the findings on benefits and problems are compared as between international and domestic cotmtertraders and non-countertraders. It is concluded that many more UK firms could benefit from participation in countertrade.