bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cluster Management Technologies as the Tendency for Development of the Agricultural Industry
Authors: UKIBAYEVA Gulim Kabikenovna , KOCHERBAYEVA Ainura Anatolyevna , TEMIRBAEVA Gulnara Rapikovna , DAUKENOVA Gaukhar Amanzholovna , KURMANOVA Dana Sultankhanovna
Published: January 2019

The relevance of creating clusters is due to the fact that there is a need to switch to an innovative type of development. To increase the competitiveness of products and introduce innovations into production, the cluster is defined as a system of interrelated forms of various agricultural enterprises. In most countries, cluster development policy is an organizational form of industrial integration. Effective functioning of clusters leads to economic growth and increased competitiveness of the region economy.

The main goal of the work is to consider the possibility of introducing a cluster and make a forecast of its effectiveness for the agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic, on the basis of the chosen methodology. To achieve the objectives of the work, the following tasks were set and accomplished: review the theoretical aspects of the issue under research, conducting a SWOT analysis of the Chui oblast from the point of view of developing an agro-industrial cluster in it, calculate the clustering coefficients, choose a model for calculating cluster implementation efficiency, and propose a scheme for forming an agro-industrial cluster.

The ability to create a cluster is calculated using the synergistic effect method. Methods of logical, statistical analysis were also used.

The calculations show that the cumulative effect of factors leads to increased opportunities to create a cluster, and possibly in the future, will contribute to the effective development of the region and its international expansion. It is also confirmed that with the introduction of the cluster, the speed of agricultural development in the region will increase.

The expected results of the cluster work can be different and depend on the interests of the participants: authorities, enterprises, etc. One of the main estimated results of cluster implementation is the improvement of the region's trade business, stable increase in the level of exports, and import substitution. The creation of a cluster, in our opinion, will contribute to the overall growth of the country's economy, improving food security and exporting competitive products.
Problems of Allocation of Production Factors in Enterprises Working the Soil: Application of Cobb-Douglas Production Function
Authors: KOTULIC Rastislav , PAVELKOVA Jana , VOZAROVA Ivana Kravcakova , VAVREK Roman
Published: January 2019

Agriculture is an important industry that is often pursued by government and that is often the subject of many international disputes. Given the importance of this sector it is necessary to measure its performance. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of production inputs in the selected entities working on the land using the production analysis. The presented and very specialized issue fills a gap in the field of research for the period around the turn of the second millennium. This period was specific mainly for transformation and integration processes related with the accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union. We assume that the transformation process of the Slovak economy from a centrally planned to a market economy was not finished during the monitoring period and left its marks in the form of inefficient allocation of productive resources in the agricultural production.
Development of Environmental Health Literature Models in Keeping Sustainable Peatland Ecosystems
Authors: FEBRIA Dessyka , VIRGO Gusman , YENITA Riski Novera , INDRAWATI INDRAWATI
Published: January 2019

This article discusses the development of a model of environmental health literacy to maintain a sustainable ecosystem on peatlands. In maintaining the sustainable peatland ecosystem, an environmental health literacy model is needed so that the community can follow up on the health of the surrounding environment. To make informed decisions, communities must have the ability to obtain, process and understand health and environmental information.

The approaches used in environmental health literacy are 1 - basic, and functional literacy with efforts to evaluate environmental health information, 2 - communicative interactive and awareness literacy in reducing health and environmental risks and 3 - improving quality of life and protecting the environment with provide education so as to change people's behavior. Ultimately, efforts to develop this model of environmental health literacy are intended to prevent the occurrence of peatland ecosystem damage and can empower communities through an increased understanding of health risks and environmental risks that affect health and the environment.
Environmental Responsibility of Enterprise in Tourism and Hotel Business in Russia
Authors: MOROZOV Mikhail А. , MOROZOVA Natalia S.
Published: January 2019

The article discusses the environmental impact of tourism and hotel business on the environment and business responsibility for these negative consequences. It is shown that the ecological responsibility of the tourist and hotel business acts as a key factor determining the level of development of entrepreneurial culture in tourism and hospitality. The state of the Russian regulatory framework regulating the activities of the tourist business is analyzed. It is noted that in connection with the rapid development of hotel infrastructure in Russia, the problems of ensuring the ecological safety of hotels have become topical. It is shown that the growing number of tourists in the formation of the ecological component of tourism is the emergence of a new category of tourists who, in the process of traveling, pay special attention to the issues of ecology, preservation of the environment, development of the planet. It is emphasized that the ecological condition of the tourist destination is an important aspect of the travel motivation. The directions of increasing the environmental responsibility of entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality are proposed, as well as the formation of an ecologically responsible tourist.
Ensuring Food Security in the Context of the Development of Integration Processes
Authors: SAGINOVA Saniya , ABELDINA Rauza , BIRYUKOV Valeriy , SAPAROVA Gulnar , TEMIRBULATOV Alken , YSSUPOVA Saltanat
Published: January 2019

Food security is one of the main objectives of the agrarian and economic policy of the state. In its general form, it forms the vector of movement of any national food system to an ideal state.

Analysis of indicators of the state of the food market and the provision of the population with food, the selection of the most optimal of them for making effective management decisions is an important task in developing a strategy for ensuring the country's food security. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to assess food security in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The article analyses the statistical data of the Republic of Kazakhstan on ensuring food security in the country.
Megamarketing: The Creation of Markets as a Social Process
Authors: Humphreys Ashlee
Published: January 2019

Drawing from institutional theory in sociology, this article theorizes the process of “megamarketing”—defined by Kotler (1986) as the use of strategic efforts by a firm or firms to gain the cooperation of multiple stakeholders—to understand how new industries are created and sustained in a complex social and political context. The author uses an analysis of the casino gambling industry to demonstrate the role of normative and regulatory structures in facilitating the adoption and eventual acceptance of an industry through the social process of legitimation. In a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 7211 newspaper articles from 1980 to 2007, the author finds that frames such as crime, business, and regulation change over time and that these frames are used by multiple stakeholders to structure normative conceptions about the practice of casino gambling. These findings contribute to a theoretical understanding of market creation and development over time and provide marketing managers with the conceptual tools for megamarketing in any industry.
Is Market Orientation a Source of Sustainable Competitive Advantage or Simply the Cost of Competing?
Authors: Kumar V. , Jones Eli , Venkatesan Rajkumar , Leone Robert P.
Published: January 2019

The authors use panel data constructed from the responses of repeatedly surveyed top managers at 261 companies regarding their firm's market orientation, along with objective performance measures, to investigate the influence of market orientation on performance for a nine-year period from 1997 to 2005. The authors measure market orientation in 1997, 2001, and 2005 and estimate it in the interval between these measurement periods. The analyses indicate that market orientation has a positive effect on business performance in both the short and the long run. However, the sustained advantage in business performance from having a market orientation is greater for the firms that are early to develop a market orientation. These firms also gain more in sales and profit than firms that are late in developing a market orientation. Firms that adopt a market orientation may also realize additional benefit in the form of a lift in sales and profit due to a carryover effect. Market orientation should have a more pronounced effect on a firm's profit than sales because a market orientation focuses efforts on customer retention rather than on acquisition. Environmental turbulence and competitive intensity moderate the main effect of market orientation on business performance, but the moderating effects are greater in the 1990s than in the 2000s.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value
Authors: Luo Xueming , Bhattacharya C.B.
Published: January 2019

Although prior research has addressed the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on perceived customer responses, it is not clear whether CSR affects market value of the firm. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between CSR and firm market value (i.e., Tobin's q and stock return), (2) corporate abilities (innovativeness capability and product quality) moderate the financial returns to CSR, and (3) these moderated relationships are mediated by customer satisfaction. Based on a large-scale secondary data set, the results show support for this framework. Notably, the authors find that in firms with low innovativeness capability, CSR actually reduces customer satisfaction levels and, through the lowered satisfaction, harms market value. The uncovered mediated and asymmetrically moderated results offer important implications for marketing theory and practice.
Creating a Market Orientation: A Longitudinal, Multifirm, Grounded Analysis of Cultural Transformation
Authors: Gebhardt Gary F. , Carpenter Gregory S. , Sherry John F.
Published: January 2019

Market orientation is a foundation of marketing and is increasingly important in other fields, such as strategic management. Research in marketing has identified the characteristics of market-oriented organizations. However, how organizations change to become more market oriented has received less attention. In this article, the authors conduct an in-depth, longitudinal, multifirm investigation of firms that have successfully created a market orientation. Grounded by this in-depth understanding, they develop a theoretical model to explain how firms create a market orientation. The model identifies four path-dependent stages of change. In contrast to current conceptualizations, the authors find that creating a market orientation requires dramatic changes to an organization's culture and the creation of organizationally shared market understandings. The findings offer new insights into how organizations develop a greater market orientation, organizational change, and the nature of market orientation, including the role of intraorganizational power and organizational learning in creating and sustaining a market orientation.
Upgrades and New Purchases
Authors: Okada Erica Mina
Published: January 2019

In many industries, firms introduce successive generations of new and enhanced product models to remain competitive. Product enhancements target first-time purchasers and consumers who already own an existing product and are considering upgrading to a new and enhanced product. Upgrade decisions differ from new purchase decisions because they are hindered by the psychological costs associated with the purchase price spent on the existing product. This research examines how the enhanced product can be positioned relative to the existing product to mitigate the psychological costs and facilitate upgrade purchases. A series of studies demonstrate that consumers with existing products are more likely to upgrade when the enhanced product is generally dissimilar to the existing product. Upgraders have stronger preferences than first-time purchasers for enhanced products with new features rather than for improvements on existing features, and they prefer enhancements that focus on a few key features rather than a general enhancement of all features.
How Business Cycles Contribute to Private-Label Success: Evidence from the United States and Europe
Authors: Lamey Lien , Deleersnyder Barbara , Dekimpe Marnik G. , Steenkamp Jan-Benedict E.M.
Published: January 2019

The growth of private labels over the past decades has been attributed to various factors. This article formally addresses the link between private-label success and economic expansions and contractions using recently developed time-series/econometric techniques. The findings confirm conventional wisdom that a country's private-label share increases when the economy is suffering and shrinks when the economy is flourishing. However, asymmetries are found in the extent to and speed with which private-label share changes in cyclical up- versus downturns. Consumers switch more extensively to store brands during bad economic times than they switch back to national brands in a subsequent recovery. In addition, the switch to private-label brands is faster than the opposite movement to national brands after the recession ends. Finally, not only are consumers more prone to buy private labels during economic downturns, but some keep buying them when bad economic times are long over as well, leaving permanent “scars” on national brands’ performance level. The authors argue that national-brand manufacturers can mitigate the effect of an economic downturn on their shares by intensifying their marketingsupport activities in recessions. Such a proactive strategy is not often observed. On the contrary, available evidence suggests that many manufacturers exacerbate their predicament by cutting back on their marketing expenses when the economy turns sour. Most retailers invest more strongly in their private-label program when the economy deteriorates, making it even more difficult for national brands to catch up with the share lost during contractions.
A Longitudinal Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Share of Wallet: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics
Authors: Cooil Bruce , Keiningham Timothy L. , Aksoy Lerzan , Hsu Michael
Published: January 2019

Customer loyalty is an important strategic objective for all managers. Research has investigated the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty in various contexts. However, these predominantly cross-sectional studies have focused on customer retention as the primary measure of loyalty. There has been little investigation into the impact on share of wallet. Using data from the Canadian banking industry, this research aims to (1) provide the first longitudinal examination of the impact of changes in customer satisfaction on changes in share of wallet and (2) determine the moderating effects of customer age, income, education, expertise, and length of relationship. Data from 4319 households using 12,249 observations over a five-year period indicate a positive relationship between changes in satisfaction and share of wallet. In particular, the initial satisfaction level and the conditional percentile of change in satisfaction significantly correspond to changes in share of wallet. Two variables, income and length of the relationship, negatively moderate this relationship. Other demographic and situational characteristics have no impact.
A Penny for Your Thoughts: Referral Reward Programs and Referral Likelihood
Authors: Ryu Gangseog , Feick Lawrence
Published: January 2019

Because referral reward programs reward existing customers and build the customer base, firms use them to encourage customers to make recommendations to others. The authors report on four experiments in which they find that rewards increase referral likelihood. More specifically, they find that rewards are particularly effective in increasing referral to weak ties and for weaker brands. It is also important who receives the reward. Overall, for weak ties and weaker brands, giving a reward to the provider of the recommendation is important. For strong ties and stronger brands, providing at least some of the reward to the receiver of the referral seems to be more effective. The authors discuss the implications of the results for the design of reward programs.
A Theory of Intraperson Games
Authors: Ding Min
Published: January 2019

A wide variety of theories across disciplines posit the existence of multiple inner preferences (selves, drives, or agents) within each person, whose conflicts must be resolved for a person to reach a decision. Despite their strong validity, these theories have not been incorporated into mainstream management science literature because of their qualitative nature. In this article, the author proposes a theory of intraperson games (TIG) to fill this important gap. Building on social welfare literature and standard (multiperson) game theory, the TIG defines two types of intraperson players, and each has a unique strategy set. The first type, the efficiency agent, attempts to maximize the total utility for the entire set of selves that reside in a person's mind. The second type, the equity agent, strives to balance the utilities that each of these selves receives. The TIG states that an individual decision is the outcome of the strategic interaction between the efficiency agent and the equity agent. Thus, standard consumer utility theory is a special case of the TIG if the role of the equity agent is ignored. A mathematical apparatus is provided for the TIG and is defined in a way similar to standard (multiperson) game theory. As a general quantitative theory, the TIG can be applied to many different contexts across disciplines, including, but not limited to, management science. The author demonstrates one such application for variety-seeking behavior and shows that stochastic variety seeking is a mixed-strategy equilibrium in an intraperson game. Key theoretical insights from this applied model are subsequently validated in an empirical study.
Monitoring the Dynamics of Brand Equity Using Store-Level Data
Authors: Sriram S. , Balachander Subramanian , Kalwani Manohar U.
Published: January 2019

Management of brand equity has come to be viewed as critical to a brand's optimal long-term performance. The authors evaluate the usefulness of brand equity estimates obtained from store-level data for monitoring the health of a brand. They use a random coefficients logit demand model calibrated on store-level scanner data to track brand equity estimates over time in two consumer packaged goods categories that experienced several new product introductions during the period of the empirical investigation. Using these tracked measures, the authors also study the impact of marketing actions, such as advertising, sales promotions, and product innovations, on brand equity. They find that the brand equity estimates effectively capture the high equity of strongly positioned popular brands and brands that command a significant price premium in niche markets. Using an example, the authors illustrate how these brand equity estimates can be used to monitor changes in brand equity, which measures such as market share may fail to capture. The substantive results indicate that advertising has a positive effect on brand equity in both the product categories, whereas the effect of sales promotions is not significant in either category. Furthermore, the results reveal that new product innovations have a positive impact on brand equity and can explain a significant proportion of its variation. Overall, the analysis shows that a brand manager can track brand equity using store-level data, gain insights into the drivers of the brand's equity, and manage these drivers to achieve brand equity targets.
Rethinking Customer Solutions: From Product Bundles to Relational Processes
Authors: Tuli Kapil R. , Kohli Ajay K. , Bharadwaj Sundar G.
Published: January 2019

This study draws on depth interviews with 49 managers in customer firms and 55 managers in supplier firms and on discussions with 21 managers in two focus groups to propose a new way of thinking about customer solutions. Extant literature and suppliers interviewed for this study view a solution as a customized and integrated combination of goods and services for meeting a customer's business needs. In contrast, customers view a solution as a set of customer–supplier relational processes comprising (1) customer requirements definition, (2) customization and integration of goods and/or services and (3) their deployment, and (4) postdeployment customer support, all of which are aimed at meeting customers' business needs. The relational process view can help suppliers deliver more effective solutions at profitable prices. In addition, field research suggests that the effectiveness of a solution depends not only on supplier variables but also on several customer variables. Supplier variables include contingent hierarchy, documentation emphasis, incentive externality, customer interactor stability, and process articulation. Customer variables include adaptiveness to supplier offerings and political and operational counseling that a customer provides to a supplier. Several of these variables underscore the importance of suppliers developing social capital with customers. The authors discuss implications for solution suppliers and identify areas for further research.
The Long-Term Impact of Loyalty Programs on Consumer Purchase Behavior and Loyalty
Authors: Liu Yuping
Published: January 2019

Despite the prevalent use of loyalty programs, there is limited evidence on the long-term effects of such programs, and their effectiveness is not well established. The current research examines the long-term impact of a loyalty program on consumers' usage levels and their exclusive loyalty to the firm. Using longitudinal data from a convenience store franchise, the study shows that consumers who were heavy buyers at the beginning of a loyalty program were most likely to claim their qualified rewards, but the program did not prompt them to change their purchase behavior. In contrast, consumers whose initial patronage levels were low or moderate gradually purchased more and became more loyal to the firm. For light buyers, the loyalty program broadened their relationship with the firm into other business areas. The findings suggest a need to consider consumer idiosyncrasies when studying loyalty programs and illustrate consumers' cocreation of value in the marketing process.
Behavioral Consequences of Overbooking Service Capacity
Authors: Wangenheim Florian v. , Bayón Tomás
Published: January 2019

As a consequence of implementing revenue management systems, many service firms (e.g., airlines, hotels, car rentals) systematically overbook capacity, thus striving to maximize the revenue at one particular point in time (i.e., one flight, one night, and one day). The academic literature has not addressed how customers behaviorally respond to overbooking experiences, such as downgrading, denied service, or upgrading. In this article, the authors use the econometric technique of conditional difference-in-differences analysis to study the effect of such incidences on customer usage patterns in an airline context. They find that customers who experience negative consequences of revenue management significantly reduce the amount of their transactions with the airline, whereas upgraded customers exhibit only weak positive responses. The effects of the negative events are stronger for high-value customer groups, whereas significant effects of positive events can be found only for a low-value customer group. The results suggest the need for a stronger focus on customer reactions to revenue management practices. On a more general level, the study contributes to a more interdisciplinary view of service management by demonstrating the need for a closer interaction between management functions (e.g., marketing and operations) in developing and managing concepts of companywide importance.
Interaction Orientation and Firm Performance
Authors: Ramani Girish , Kumar V.
Published: January 2019

Marketing managers are being required to demonstrate the profitability of their marketing actions down to the level of their individual customers and on an ongoing basis. At the same time, customers expect firms to increasingly customize their products and services to meet their demands. Firms still need to produce superior products, sell smarter, and understand the markets as a whole, but the ability of firms to orient themselves to interact successfully with their individual customers will differentiate them in the future. Advances in technology have resulted in increasing opportunities for interactions between firms and customers, between customers, and between firms. An interaction orientation reflects a firm's ability to interact with its individual customers and to take advantage of information obtained from them through successive interactions to achieve profitable customer relationships. First, the authors identify the components of interaction orientation: (1) customer concept, (2) interaction response capacity, (3) customer empowerment, and (4) customer value management. Second, they relate interaction orientation to both customer-level and aggregate-level performance measures. Third, they identify the antecedents of interaction orientation. Fourth, they examine the moderating effects of customer-initiated contacts and competitive intensity on the interaction orientation–performance linkage. The results are based on a survey of top marketing managers. The commonly held view that customer-based relational performance is related to customer-based profit performance is not supported. However, both customer-based relational performance and customer-based profit performance affect aggregate business-level performance positively. Interaction orientation is a phenomenon observed in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms. The extent of customer-initiated contacts moderates the interaction orientation–performance relationship.
Expanding Business-to-Business Customer Relationships: Modeling the Customer's Upgrade Decision
Authors: Bolton Ruth N. , Lemon Katherine N. , Verhoef Peter C.
Published: January 2019

This article develops a model of a business customer's decision to upgrade service contracts conditional on the decision to renew the contract. It proposes that the firm's upgrade decision is influenced by (1) decision-maker perceptions of the relationship with the supplier, (2) contract-level experiences, and (3) interactions between firm- and contract-level variables. The authors model the firm's decision as a binary logit model with random parameters for the contract-level variables and fixed parameters for the firm-level variables. They estimate the model with data describing more than 2000 service contracts and find that decision-maker satisfaction, service quality, and price have a significant effect on the decision to upgrade; price and satisfaction also moderate the effect of service quality on the decision. Simulations indicate that modest improvements in service quality for a focal contract can have a relatively large, positive effect on the likelihood that the firm will upgrade. The results suggest that suppliers need to manage their firm relationships at both the individual contract level and the overall firm level. In addition, the results suggest specific windows of opportunity for suppliers when firms may be more likely to upgrade to higher-level service contracts.
Chief Marketing Officers: A Study of Their Presence in Firms'Top Management Teams
Authors: Nath Pravin , Mahajan Vijay
Published: January 2019

Not all firms choose to have a chief marketing officer (CMO) in their top management teams (TMTs). This research investigates factors associated with this choice and whether CMO presence/absence in the face of these factors affects firm performance. Findings based on a multi-industry sample of 167 firms over a five-year period (2000–2004) show that innovation, differentiation, branding strategy, diversification, TMT functional experience in marketing, and the chief executive officer being an outsider are associated with the likelihood of CMO presence in the TMT. Furthermore, the authors find that CMO presence in the TMT has neither a positive nor a negative impact on firm performance. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.
Moving from Free to Fee: How Online Firms Market to Change Their Business Model Successfully
Authors: Pauwels Koen , Weiss Allen
Published: January 2019

Moving from free to “free and fee” for any product or service represents a challenge to managers, especially when consumers have plenty of free alternatives. For one online content provider, this article examines (1) the sources of long-term revenue loss (through attracting fewer free subscribers) and (2) how the firm's marketing actions affect its revenue gains (through attracting paid subscribers). The authors quantify revenue loss from several sources, including the direct effects of charging for part of the online content and the reduced effectiveness of search-engine referrals and e-mails. The analysis suggests several managerial implications. Managers should focus their price promotions on stimulating new monthly subscriptions, rather than the current promotional focus on stimulating new yearly contracts. In contrast, e-mail and search-engine referrals appear to be effective at generating yearly subscriptions. Meanwhile, free-to-fee conversion e-mail blasts are a double-edged sword; they increase subscription revenue at the expense of advertising revenue. Finally, further analysis shows that the move was preceded by the buildup of momentum in new free subscriptions, which appears to be beneficial for the move's success. The decomposition and comparison of the sources of revenue loss versus gains reveals several trade-offs facing companies moving from free to free and fee.
The Curse of Competitiveness: How Advice from Experienced Colleagues and Training Can Hurt Marketing Profitability
Authors: Kalra Ajay , Soberman David A.
Published: January 2019

The literature suggests that mangers are overly competitive and overemphasize competitors’ payoffs in making decisions. The authors demonstrate how two seemingly innocuous but common decision inputs that mid- and entry-level managers use—(1) advice from colleagues and (2) training—could propagate this bias. The authors conduct an experiment in which one generation of participants plays a noncooperative game and then passes on advice on how to play the same game to the second generation. The authors find that the second generation is more likely to accept decisions that negatively impact the competitor's profits, even when those decisions result in lower payoffs. The results suggest that the advice of the first generation causes the second generation to be more sensitive to relative performance. In a second experiment, the authors show that training films that create negative feelings toward competitors can have adverse effects on managers’ decisions. The training increases the willingness of managers to sacrifice own profits to reduce competitor profitability. These findings have important implications for managers in competitive markets. This research suggests that standard training materials that emphasize beating competitors should be carefully assessed for their unintentional but potentially damaging effects. In particular, training designed to evoke affective responses toward competitors must be used judiciously. Firms that give junior managers more autonomy and responsibility should also be cognizant that the advice these managers get and the information they share may propagate a competitive bias. To mitigate this problem, an option is to devote resources to better understand the content and nature of advice that managers share with one another.
When Does Guanxi Matter? Issues of Capitalization and Its Dark Sides
Authors: Gu Flora F. , Hung Kineta , Tse David K.
Published: January 2019

Guanxi refers to the durable social connections and networks a firm uses to exchange favors for organizational purposes. This study examines how and when guanxi operates as a governance mechanism that influences firm marketing competence and performance in the transitional economy of China. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors propose an integrative framework that unbundles the benefits and risks of guanxi and delineates the organizational processes to internalize guanxi as a corporate core competence. The authors surveyed senior executives in 282 firms in China's consumer products industries. The findings confirm guanxi's direct effects on market performance and its indirect effects mediated through channel capability and responsive capability. The authors also confirm that technological turbulence and competition intensity can be effective structure-loosening forces, thus reducing the governance effects of guanxi. The findings suggest that firms can improve market access and growth through guanxi networks, but managers need to capitalize on them from the personal to the corporate level. In addition, managers should be aware of guanxi's dark sides, which include reciprocal obligations and collective blindness. This study shows that personal networks are popular universally, but in China, they have unique, distinct ways of operation.
Flow Signals: How Patterns over Time Affect the Acceptance of Start-Up Firms
Authors: DeKinder Jade S. , Kohli Ajay K.
Published: January 2019

This study introduces the concept of flow signals—patterns of a firm's attributes over time—and contrasts them with point signals discussed in the literature to date. Three properties of flow signals are delineated: displacement, propensity, and reversals. The authors illustrate these properties using a start-up's research-and-development (R&D) spending and voluntary disclosure flows. The authors argue that the flow signal properties affect prospective customers’ perceptions of a start-up's current and future product quality, thus influencing their purchase likelihood and, ultimately, the start-up's growth in sales. The findings, obtained from panel data comprised of U.S. venture-backed firms that went public in 2001–2005, suggest that sales growth is positively affected by displacement and propensity of both R&D spending and voluntary disclosures and negatively affected by R&D spending reversals. Furthermore, these effects are stronger for the relatively younger start-ups.
Breaking through Fast-Forwarding: Brand Information and Visual Attention
Authors: Brasel S. Adam , Gips James
Published: January 2019

This research explores how fast-forwarding through commercials alters the visual attention of viewers and how marketers can tailor advertisements to retain effectiveness as digital video recorder usage rises. Building on prior work in visual marketing and perceptual psychology, the authors conduct two eye-tracker studies that show how fast-forwarding viewers pay more attention during commercials, but their attention is heavily limited to the center of the screen. Fast-forwarded advertisements containing brand information at screen center still create brand memory even with a 95% reduction in frames and complete loss of audio, whereas advertisements with brand information located elsewhere are of virtually no value. A third study shows that fast-forwarded commercials containing extensive central brand information can positively affect brand attitude, behavioral intent, and even actual choice behavior. These findings show that marketers can counteract the negative effects of digital video recorders by ensuring that their advertisements are heavily branded and that the branding is centrally located.
Financial Value of Brands in Mergers and Acquisitions: Is Value in the Eye of the Beholder?
Authors: Bahadir S. Cem , Bharadwaj Sundar G. , Srivastava Rajendra K.
Published: January 2019

In mergers and acquisitions (M&As), brands account for significant but heterogeneous proportions of overall transaction value. The marketing literature focuses on the drivers of financial value of brands when there is no change in the ownership of brands. However, in M&As, the value of brands also depends on how their new owners leverage them. This study identifies both the target and the acquirer firm characteristics that affect the value of a target firm's brands in M&As. The study uses audited measures of acquired brand value from Securities and Exchange Commission filings (made available as a result of recent statutory reporting requirements) along with data collected from diverse secondary sources. The empirical test of the model is based on 133 M&A transactions in which acquirers attribute value to target firms’ brands. The results indicate that acquirer and target marketing capabilities and brand portfolio diversity have positive effects on a target firm's brand value. The positive impact of acquirer brand portfolio diversity and target marketing capability is lower when the M&A is synergistic than when it is nonsynergistic. The findings are robust to various model specifications, measures, endogeneity, and sample selection.
Customer Equity Drivers and Future Sales
Authors: Vogel Verena , Evanschitzky Heiner , Ramaseshan B.
Published: January 2019

Research on linking operational marketing inputs to customer attitudes and customer behavior has been gaining significance concomitant with the growing recognition that customers are market-based assets. In response to this, researchers and practitioners have proposed several conceptual models. Despite recent advances in research, the results are still inconclusive as to the relationship between customer attitude and future sales. A reason for this could be due to the paucity of studies combining survey-based data with behavioral data to understand better the drivers of customer behavior. With that in mind, the authors investigate the effects of customer perceptions of key marketing actions on customer attitudes and actual customer behavior as reflected by future sales. The authors propose that customer perceptions of value, brand, and relationship—“customer equity drivers”—affect loyalty intentions and future sales. The results of the study, which is based on a sample of 5694 customers of a large European do-it-yourself retailer, suggest that customer equity drivers can significantly predict future sales, even after the authors control for the current sales level.
Product Innovations, Advertising, and Stock Returns
Authors: Srinivasan Shuba , Pauwels Koen , Silva-Risso Jorge , Hanssens Dominique M.
Published: January 2019

Under increased scrutiny from top management and shareholders, marketing managers feel the need to measure and communicate the impact of their actions on shareholder returns. In particular, how do customer value creation (through product innovation) and customer value communication (through marketing investments) affect stock returns? This article examines, conceptually and empirically, how product innovations and marketing investments for such product innovations lift stock returns by improving the outlook on future cash flows. The authors address these questions with a large-scale econometric analysis of product innovation and associated marketing mix in the automobile industry. They find that adding such marketing actions to the established finance benchmark model greatly improves the explained variance in stock returns. In particular, investors react favorably to companies that launch pioneering innovations, that have higher perceived quality, that are backed by substantial advertising support, and that are in large and growing categories. Finally, the authors quantify and compare the stock return benefits of several managerial control variables. The results highlight the stock market benefits of pioneering innovations. Compared with minor updates, pioneering innovations have an impact on stock returns that is seven times greater, and their advertising support is nine times more effective as well. Perceived quality of the new car introduction improves the firm's stock returns, but customer liking does not have a statistically significant effect. Promotional incentives have a negative effect on stock returns, indicating that price promotions may be interpreted as a signal of demand weakness. Managers can combine these return estimates with internal data on project costs to help decide the appropriate mix of product innovation and marketing investment.
Pay what you Want: A New Participative Pricing Mechanism
Authors: Kim Ju-Young , Natter Martin , Spann Martin
Published: January 2019

Pay what you want (PWYW) is a new participative pricing mechanism in which consumers have maximum control over the price they pay. Previous research has suggested that participative pricing increases consumers’ intent to purchase. However, sellers using PWYW face the risk that consumers will exploit their control and pay nothing at all or a price below the seller's costs. In three field studies, the authors find that prices paid are significantly greater than zero. They analyze factors that influence prices paid and show that PWYW can even lead to an increase in seller revenues.
Marketing of the Life Sciences: A New Framework and Research Agenda for a Nascent Field
Authors: Stremersch Stefan , Van Dyck Walter
Published: January 2019

Although marketing scholars often seek to contribute new knowledge that is applicable across industries, some industries have unique characteristics that require industry-specific knowledge development. The authors argue that this requirement applies to the life sciences industry, defined as companies in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and therapeutic medical devices. Marketers in the life sciences industry face novel and unique challenges along eight decision areas in therapy creation, therapy launch, and therapy promotion. In therapy creation, they face therapy pipeline optimization, innovation alliance formation, and therapy positioning decisions. In therapy launch, they face global market entry timing and key opinion leader selection decisions. Therapy promotion mostly revolves around sales force management, communication management, and stimulating patient compliance. The authors qualify these decision areas according to their practical importance and academic potential. The article derives preliminary generalizations and propositions from prior research and practice and steers further research in specific directions. The authors believe that marketing of the life sciences offers a fertile area for further research because, among other things, its potential impact transcends any problems typically investigated by marketing scholars.
What Makes Brands Elastic? The Influence of Brand Concept and Styles of Thinking on Brand Extension Evaluation
Authors: Monga Alokparna Basu , John Deborah Roedder
Published: January 2019

Why are some brands more elastic than others? Prior research shows that consumers are more accepting of extensions into distant product categories for brands with prestige concepts (Rolex) than for brands with functional concepts (Timex). In this article, the authors examine consumers’ style of thinking—analytic versus holistic thinking—to better understand the elasticity of prestige versus functional brands. For functional brands, the authors find that holistic thinkers provide more favorable responses to distant extensions than analytic thinkers; however, for prestige brands, holistic and analytic thinkers respond equally favorably. Thus, analytic thinkers are identified as the roadblocks for functional brands launching distant brand extensions. To meet this challenge, the authors offer several strategies, including (1) using a subbrand (Excer wallets by Toyota) instead of a direct brand (Toyota wallets) to reduce analytic thinking; (2) using elaborational communications, which address potentially problematic features of the extension, to reduce analytic thinking; and (3) matching extension information with the consumer's style of thinking, which increases the persuasiveness of ad messages.
Survival in Markets with Network Effects: Product Compatibility and Order-of-Entry Effects
Authors: Wang Qi , Chen Yubo , Xie Jinhong
Published: January 2019

This article proposes a new conceptual framework in which the impact of network effects (NE) on a pioneer's survival advantage compared with its early followers can be positive or negative depending on two important but previously ignored market characteristics: (1) cross-generation product compatibility and (2) within-generation product compatibility. The authors empirically test the theoretical predictions using data from 45 NE markets. They show that these two types of compatibility affect the pioneer's survival advantage in opposite directions and that such directions are reversed when NE changes from extremely strong to extremely weak. Specifically, in markets with strong NE, cross-generation incompatibility harms but within-generation incompatibility favors the pioneer's survival advantage. Consequently, pioneers are likely to enjoy a survival advantage when their product is cross-generation compatible but within-generation incompatible. However, in markets with weak NE, pioneer survival advantage is likely to occur under opposite conditions (i.e., cross-generation incompatible but within-generation compatible). The policy analysis further suggests that the best survival condition for pioneers often turns out to be the worst for followers in these markets.
Energizing the Reseller's Sales Force: The Power of Brand Identification
Authors: Hughes Douglas E. , Ahearne Michael
Published: January 2019

A manufacturer's success in the marketplace is contingent in part on its ability to energize its downstream channel members in support of its brands. Gaining the focused effort of the reseller's sales personnel is particularly important, and this has become increasingly challenging as resellers broaden their brand portfolios in the wake of industry consolidation. This study reveals a motivating influence that can potentially be harnessed by both manufacturer and channel member: identification. Using a multilevel analysis, the authors explore the sometimes conflicting impact of salesperson brand identification, salesperson organizational identification, and manufacturer–channel member control system alignment on brand and channel member sales performance. The authors also examine favorable extra-role consequences of salesperson brand identification. The results show that while organizational identification strengthens salesperson adherence to controls, brand identification can increase salesperson effort behind a specific brand, and ultimately improved brand performance, even in the face of control systems to the contrary. This suggests that suppliers can exercise influence over the reseller's sales force by strengthening the psychological connection between their brands and reseller sales personnel.