The quality and effectiveness of marketing strategy: Effects of functional and dysfunctional conflict in intraorganizational relationships

By examining only dysfunctional conflict and ignoring functional conflict, empirical research in marketing has presented only part of the story. This research offers the first systematic look at the antecedents and consequences of both functionaland dysfunctional conflict in intraorganiational relationships. The authors develop and empirically test a causal model for key organizational antecedents of new product strategy quality and market performance. They find that dysfunctional conflict in the decision-making process has deleterious consequences for quality of strategy and market performance, whereas functional conflict improves both quality of strategy and performance. Specifically, organizational design characteristics such as formalization, interdepartmental interconnectedness, low communication barriers, and team spirit improve new product performance by enhancing functional conflict, whereas centralization and high communication barriers lower new product performance by increasing dysfunctional conflict. A post hoc test for common method bias or variance suggests that bias or variance alone cannot explain these findings. His general research interests focus on strategic issues relating to internal relationships, market learning, and organizational context of marketing strategy. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Advertising, andJournal of Services Marketing, among others. His general research interests focus on strategic issues relating to relationship marketing, firm performance, sustainable competitive advantage, timing of market entry, and information technology. His past research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Services Marketing, andMarketing Education Review, among others. His research interests are in the areas of marketing research methods, structural equations modeling, cellular automata theories and methods, and Taoist methodologies for marketing strategy. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, andJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others.     

EMNEs venturing into advanced economies: Findings from comparative cases of two Indian MNEs

Indian firms are challenged by the latecomer disadvantages faced by emerging‐market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) in general. These challenges notwithstanding, Indian firms are doing cross‐border acquisitions (CBAs) in developed regions. Analyzing firm‐level secondary data of two Indian MNEs—namely, Motherson Sumi Systems Limited and Rain Industries Limited—that show significant developed region–based revenues and assets, we link extant and emerging theoretical perspectives on EMNEs’ internationalization with the observed firm motives and behaviors of our case firms. We propose a framework of multiple contextual settings to understand the context‐driven internationalization of the case firms. Finally, our article offers a set of propositions emphasizing firm‐level entrepreneurial orientation and international orientation, when EMNEs internationalize via CBAs in developed regions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Toward Further Understanding the Market‐sensing Capability–Value Creation Relationship

Earlier writings have speculated that the components of customer focus may have differential effects on customer value. This research is responsive to this call as it identifies the behavioral and cultural components that underlie a market‐sensing capability (i.e., customer focus), and undertakes a finer‐grained examination of the impact of the routines through which customer focus is manifested. Specifically, this research investigates the market learning activities (ML) that can affect the depth of the understanding achieved regarding the buyer's requirements and usage context, and the customer‐oriented practices (CO) that can affect the breadth of potential solutions generated to address those requirements. Given the possibility that some buyers may have more sophisticated needs, the role of a customer's performance standards is also considered as a moderating variable. Based on data collected from computer and electronics manufacturers via two separate surveys, the results support that a supplier's ML and CO, respectively, affect perceived customer value. The results also show that a customer's performance standards do not moderate the ML–customer value relationship. Regardless of whether the customer's performance standards (along the lines of product quality, defect rates, and on‐time delivery) are high or low, the seller must be adept at discerning changes in the buying firm's requirements and operational realities. Thus, market learning practices are needed across all customers in order for the supplier to remain synchronized with market changes and deliver superior value to them. Additionally, the results support that the positive association between a seller's CO and perceived customer value is stronger when buyers have more demanding performance standards. The generation of a broader array of potential solutions that is commensurate with a more outward focus is likely to be needed to satisfy customers with more stringent requirements. The disaggregated approach taken in this research contributes to theory by (1) providing greater insight into the domain of the customer focus construct, (2) tracing the mechanisms through which customer focus is reified, and (3) evaluating the possibility that the components of customer focus may have differential effects on customer value. The main practical implication stems from the proposal that market sensing can serve as a core competence and thereby provide the foundation for differential advantage.     

E-Commerce Usage and Perception of E-Commerce Issues among Small Firms: Results and Implications from an Empirical Study*

This paper details the results of an empirical study conducted to study the scope and effectiveness of e-commerce deployment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as perceived by small business owners in the state. The methodology and results of this study may be applicable to several other states. In addition to a comprehensive survey of small businesses, a dozen businesses successful in deploying e-commerce were interviewed at great length. The results showed that main parts of an e-commerce infrastructure included (1) flow of information; (2) organizational image; (3) reaction to customer needs; (4) increased sales; and (5) access to new markets. The major reason for businesses to not engage in e-commerce is their perception that it is not strategically important for their business. Results pertaining to regional parameters, sales tax considerations, human resources infrastructure, and Internet security issues as well as policy recommendations are discussed in the paper.     

Getting bank financing: A study of Vietnamese private firms

Private firms in transition economies are operating in an extremely uncertain environment, with underdeveloped market institutions, poorly defined property rights, and absence of reliable business data. This raises a very basic question of how owners of these firms persuade bankers to make much needed loans. This study employs an institutional perspective and argues that firms' legitimacy positively influences their accessibility to bank financing. Specifically, this study develops a model that links networking, professional management practices, and growth stage with bank financing and tests that model using a sample of Vietnamese private firms. The results support the hypotheses that growth stage and networking greatly influence firms' accessibility to bank financing, and that the impact of networking on financing is contingent on the growth stage.     

Making innovation happen in organizations: individual creativity mechanisms,organizational creativity mechanisms or both?

Marketing managers increasingly face a product innovation dilemma. Managers will have to sell more with fewer new products in an environment where new products are providing lower revenue yields. Therefore, understanding what drives successful innovation is of paramount importance. This paper examines the organizational innovation hypothesis that innovation is a function of individual efforts and organizational systems to facilitate creativity. Our model formulates creativity as a property of thought process that can be acquired and improved through instruction and practice. In this context, individual creativity mechanisms refer to activities undertaken by individual employees within an organization to enhance their capability for developing something, which is meaningful and novel within their work environment. Organizational creativity mechanisms refer to the extent to which the organization has instituted formal approaches and tools, and provided resources to encourage meaningfully novel behaviors within the organization. Using data collected from 634 organizations, we find support for this hypothesis. The results suggest that the presence of both individual and organizational creativity mechanisms led to the highest level of innovation performance. The results also suggest that high levels of organizational creativity mechanisms (even in the presence of low levels of individual creativity) led to significantly superior innovation performance than low levels of organizational and individual creativity mechanisms. The paper also presents managerial and academic implications. This study suggests that it is not enough for organizations to hire creative people and expect the innovation performance of the firm to be superior. Similarly, it is not enough for firms to emphasize management practices to enhance creativity and ignore individual mechanisms. Although it is true that doing either will improve innovation performance, doing both should lead to higher innovation levels. Our understanding of what and how creativity influences innovation performance can be greatly enhanced by additional research that integrates the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of creativity. Research that examines the role of team creativity efforts in enhancing innovation performance is also vital to an overall improved understanding of creativity, learning, and innovation within organizations.     

The Influence of Repetitive Health Messages and Sensitivity to Fluency on the Truth Effect in Advertising

Although merely repeating a product claim does not influence the objective validity of the claim, it often increases the subjective validity of the claim (the truth effect). Research notes that the truth effect plays an important role in health advertising. The present research investigates the moderating role of sensitivity to feelings of fluency (or processing ease) on the truth effect. The truth effect was more pronounced when the need for affect was high rather than low (Study 1) and when consumers were primed to trust their feelings (Study 2). Finally, Study 3 and Study 4 replicate these findings using advertising appeals. Advertisements that encourage consumers to focus on their feelings increase susceptibility to the truth effect.     

APX: An Integrated Knowledge-Based System to Support Audit Planning

Auditors who must express an opinion on the financial statements of publicly held enterprises must perform a series of risk assessments as the basis for selecting appropriate audit procedures to be performed. Although many auditing expert systems have been developed for individual components of the audit risk assessment process such as inherent and control risk assessment, none integrate these assessments to arrive at the ultimate objective of assessing the allowable level of detection risk which drives audit procedure selection. This paper discusses critical design concerns for audit planning expert systems in light of the integrated nature of the steps involved in the audit planning process. The design and development of an integrated audit planning expert system called APX (Audit Planning eXpert) is also discussed. A distinguishing feature of APX is that it not only performs the individual types of risk assessments but it also integrates the resulting assessments to arrive at allowable detection risk. The knowledge acquisition and system development process are described to illustrate some of the mechanics of developing such a system.