Marketing, Technology and Customer Commitment in the New Economy

Rarely in the halls of academia would you ever hear, “I’d take this course even if it had no credits!” That is what students said about our Marketing Apprentice Class (The MAC), an active learning course modeled after the television show, The Apprentice. The class had teams of students compete against each other on various marketing tasks, which were judged by alumni CEOs, expert judges, and faculty advisors. Media students filmed the marketing teams performing tasks and in the board room. The course was an unqualified success in teaching students to apply marketing concepts to real business problems, and strengthening ties with alumni and the business community.

While the early internationalization of business school curricula was essentially in response to corporate needs and expectations, a major instigator of curriculum change was the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Four general questions were addressed by the AACSB (Nehrt 1981):

1.

Why should business schools teach international business and what subject should be taught?

2.

How should the international dimension of business operations be integrated into business school curricula?

3.

How should the international dimension be related to international studies in the rest of the university?

4.

What are the needs for research and instructional material in the field?

The purpose of this article is to assess the value of marketing metrics among the academic community. The authors propose that in order for marketing metrics to gain acceptance in corporate decision making, a focus of the importance of these measures must be made first from within the academic community.

In the online environment, privacy is a growing concern. Technology allows marketers to covertly gather customer information and use it to personalize Web pages, improving customer relationships and increasing purchasing behavior. However, consumers are uncomfortable with information being collected without their knowledge. How can marketers understand this inherent tension?

This study explored Internet users’ attitudes toward government regulation of Internet auction sites. The paper compared Internet users’ perception of perceived potential harm among a list of products widely available on Internet auction sites. Second, the influence of the third person effect on Internet users’ pro-regulatory attitudes was examined. Third, this study also considered whether demographics, Internet usage, and innovative characteristics of individual Internet users, perceived potential harm have effects on Internet users’ attitudes toward government regulation of electronic commerce on the Internet.

This study used the technology acceptance model and corporate credibility concept to investigate consumer reaction to ecommerce and to ecommerce websites. The purpose was to assess the relationship of each construct with self-reported future behavioral intentions. Data analysis from a survey of 70 adult respondents showed that perceptions of trust, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness were indeed positively correlated with willingness to provide the vendor with information, future purchase intentions, and recommendations to other consumers. These findings are consistent with other research. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to explore the mall attitudes and perceptions of adolescent females and their mothers. Data from 110 dyadic pairs of mothers and daughters indicates that they are motivated to consume by different factors, and that they possess significantly different perceptions of mall environmental variables.

Numerous studies have been conducted on the retail plight of poor and inner city consumers (Alwitt and Donley 1997; Ambrose 1979; Caplovitz 1963). Much of the lack of retail services in these communities is often explained away by the inadequate incomes and low collective purchasing power of the consumer. However, in recent years there has been a growing chorus among middle-income African Americans that, despite growing affluence, their neighborhoods also lack the kinds of retail services that add to a community’s ‘quality of life’ (QOL) (Miller 2002; Urban Marketing Research Institute 1998; Towns 1997). These middle-income African Americans perceive some state of disparity in the quality of retail amenities that support their communities compared to those that support majority white middle-income communities. Williams and Qualls (1989) provide the necessary insight into the importance of examining the African American middle class. Specifically, “they represent one of many diverse black consumer segments and it is important to distinguish them from Anglo and non-middle-class black consumers, and they are taking on added importance due to growth in size and purchasing.” Despite their ‘added importance’ there is a dearth of research on QOL retail and middle-income African Americans.

The marriage metaphor represents one of the more popular views of key account management (KAM). Yet this perspective may inadvertently paint an overly simplistic view of the process as well as the challenges associated with the establishment of beneficial, long-term sales relationships. Answers to specific questions such as “Which customers should the supplier seek to marry?”, “How can suppliers refrain from entering into a marriage too quickly?” and “How can marriages be best structured so that mutual goals can be attained?” may be unclear when the marriage metaphor is indiscriminately applied to marketing relationships. In an effort to expand the thinking of both practitioners and academics, we suggest that an additional metaphorical lens for KAM can be found in the new product development (NPD) literature. The notion of treating a key account like a new product brings an intriguing perspective on KAM. Just as seeing an old problem from a different point of view often stimulates fresh new thinking, we believe this alternative KAM perspective provides a promising opportunity to reassess and refocus our understanding of an important marketing phenomenon. There is no doubt that many firms already utilize one or more of the specific NPD-related elements discussed in our framework to some degree, but we believe the real benefit is realized when the individual components integrate into a holistic approach that incorporates appropriate stage-gate controls. After briefly reviewing the major themes of KAM research, we identify a number of striking similarities between KAM and NPD. Included in these similarities is the importance of 1) cross-functional integration, 2) top management support, 3) team leadership, 4) customer knowledge, and 5) risk management. We then introduce a new KAM framework that incorporates elements of the NPD “stage-gate” system. The goal of this framework is to encourage additional research into a new array of potentially relevant antecedents to successful key account programs. We conclude by noting possible implications for KAM research and practice.

In order to understand the

consumer selling team

phenomenon and how teams in the consumer marketplace organize and perform the sales function, it was first necessary to understand why independent salespeople would choose to adopt the team selling arrangement in the first place. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted that focused on the factors responsible for the evolution of the team selling arrangement in one particular consumer market - residential real estate. Indeed, part of what makes the selling teams in this particular context interesting is that they are formed voluntarily. In contrast, selling teams in the business-to-business context have evolved as a strategic response to buying centers (Hutt, Johnston and Ronchetto 1985; Puri and Korgaonkar 1991). Bertrand (1995) has argued for a sales strategy that matches the informational and service needs of the client while also accommodating the buyers’ choice of shopping venue. In fact, the strategy of using a team of sales ‘experts’ to satisfy the multiple influencers and decision makers of the buying center has become so engrained in B2B markets that Downey, Jackson and Holschuh (2000) advocated that, “If a team buys (and uses), then a team must sell (and service) that account” (p.72).

In the last decade, researchers have shown an increasing interest in investigating the determinants of better salesforce performance (Hise and Reid, 1994; Babakus et al., 1994). In some organizations the most critical factor in enhancing performance is possibly a knowledgeable, skilled and competent salesforce (Barney 1991; Lee and Miller 1999). Accordingly, the role of the salesforce is becoming more crucial than ever before. Although much progress has been made (e.g., Baldauf, Cravens and Piercy 2001), to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that have looked at the available support resources that would help to improve the effectiveness of the sales organization by increasing the effectiveness of the salesperson. This study attempts to identify a number of critical resources and approaches that help the sales unit to perform more effectively. For example, Piercy, Cravens and Morgan (1997) suggest that “the underlying questions to be addressed in obtaining a better understanding of the sources of sales organization effectiveness” include salesperson characteristics, sales management control practices, salesperson compensation, and salesforce performance. They specifically highlight the importance of “structural and organizational issues that provide the salesperson with the opportunity to achieve superior performance”. Day and Wensley (1988) recommend that it is beneficial to evaluate the association between potential critical success factors (CSFs) and relevant effectiveness measures. It is suggested that this assessment may involve correlating CSFs with relevant measures of success or, alternatively, comparing CSFs across winning versus losing competitors (Day and Wensley 1988; Keck, Leigh, and Lollar 1995).

Although TCA has been a dominant framework in explaining inter-firm cooperation and control (cf. Rindfleisch and Heide 1997), TCA has been criticized for ignoring social contexts in which exchange parties are deeply embedded (Hagen and Choe 1998; Hill 1990; Granovetter 1985). Since exchange partners are social entities, they are likely to develop social relationships based on such relational factors as trust, commitment, interdependence, etc. (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987; Ring and Van de Ven 1994). Especially, trust has emerged as a central component in the channels literature (Wilson 1995). Trust is defined as a firm’s willingness to rely on an exchange partner whose behavior is not under its control (Mayer, Davis, and Shoorman 1995; Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande 1992; Swan, Trawick and Silva 1985; Zand 1972). Trust involves a firm’s belief that its exchange partner will perform actions that will result in positive outcomes as well as not take actions that will result in negative outcomes for the firm (Anderson and Narus 1990).

Several activities are required for successful management of channels of distribution, including coordination or joint activities that take place between suppliers and distributors. Research indicates that trust and dependence are antecedent to coordination. However, research is scarce about how two levels of analysis (interpersonal and interfirm) of important channel antecedents operate together on the outcome of coordination. The conceptual model tested suggests that an interfirm level construct mediates its related interpersonal construct. Two antecedents of coordination at the interfirm level of analysis were tested: (1) the trust that firm A has in firm B (interfirm trust) and (2) firm A’s dependence on firm B (interfirm dependence). Two interpersonal variables were tested: (1) interpersonal trust and (2) interpersonal dependence. As hypothesized, results show that interfirm trust mediates interpersonal trust and that interfirm dependence mediates interpersonal dependence with the outcome of coordination.

Drawing on relationship and services marketing literature, the authors empirically test a model of business loyalty in a sample of 471 industrial clients of coffee machines experiencing a failure/recovery incident, integrating the concepts of service quality, product quality, service recovery satisfaction, industrial relationship satisfaction, and trust. The study builds on recent advances in services marketing theory assessing the relationships underlying the identified constructs in the b2b environment. The results demonstrated a clear pattern of service and product related quality dimensions, and a number of other important findings including the empirical verification of the mediating role of overall relationship satisfaction in the formation of loyalty attributes. We note that industrial relationship satisfaction is mainly explained by product and service quality, as demonstrated by the variance explained (R

2

= 50%). The results clearly showed the existence of a positive bond between perceived quality of product / services and industrial relationship satisfaction supporting thus H1. A detailed examination of the results reveals the existence of direct and indirect bonds concerning the service quality dimensions. Indeed, the perceived quality of the delivery and sales services exert a positive and direct influence on industrial relationship satisfaction. The technical service aid and installation service behave differently, and product quality fully mediates their impact on industrial relationship satisfaction. The impact of trust is verified as well. The present empirical inquiry begins with an examination of the literature pertaining to each of the concepts involved and the presentation of our conceptual framework. The methodology employed in this research is then explained and the study results presented and discussed. Finally, conclusions and managerial implications of the study are provided and a set of future research directions examined along with study limitations.

77% of the United States population uses coupons and shoppers saved more than $3 billion last year by doing so. Coupon users report an average of 11.5% savings on their grocery bill with coupons, prompting manufacturers to respond by offering more than $250 billion in coupon savings in 2003. No doubt, therefore, that ‘coupons’ have been investigated extensively, and from a very divergent perspective (Chatterjee et. al 2000; Cheema et. al 2002; Heilman 2002).

The survival of a manufacturing firm is dependent upon the consumers’ acceptance and purchase of its products. The reduction of trade barriers between nations has led to an increased exposure of foreign products within these countries. Emerging national economies, such as India, have produced a growing middle class of consumers with more discretionary income for personal consumption (Bandyopadhyay and Banerjee 2002). Within this global marketplace, firms face ever-increasing competition that is aggressively vying for customer attention with substitutable products offerings. It is imperative for marketing managers to accurately assess consumer product perceptions in order to forecast market entry acceptance and to gain or sustain their competitive advantage.

Studying geographical ethnic market places like China towns, Little Italy, or Japan town can give us unique insight into material artifacts, cultural symbols, popular culture, and cultural context within which such retail setting thrive. Such an analysis can provide us an understanding of how ethnic groups maintain their cultural identity within the majority culture. The present study uses ethnography to thickly describe’ (Geertz, 1973), the cultural context unique to the retail settings of Japantown in San Francisco. We hope this investigation into ethnic Japanese culture as manifested in the retail settings of Japan town will help marketers create a framework in which businesses would have a greater understanding of their ethnic customers and, even, in some ways, preserve the culture and traditions of that ethnic group.

This study examines the lifestyles, attitudes and media habits of a sample of the Net Generation students in Bangladesh and identifies four distinct subgroups within the generation. Each subgroup reveals discernible differences with respect to attitudes towards advertising, use of traditional and interactive media and sources of product and service information.

This study explores the role of consumer involvement and product attribute information as possible moderators to the effects of country of origin on product evaluations. In spite of the agreement among researchers that consumers’ evaluations of foreign products are influenced by the country of origin, there have been mixed conclusions as to how the country of origin cue is used to form consumer’s perceptions and evaluations. Major questions about the way consumers acquire, process and use the country of origin cue have been raised. For example, it has not yet been clear to researchers the process by which country of origin information influences evaluations and why this process holds in certain cases and not in others.

This study investigates how consumers from Mexico and U.S. respond to sexual appeals in cross-cultural fashion advertisements. Special emphasis is placed to examine how consumer’s underlying culture values moderate their responses to sexual appeals in advertisements. The study employs a 2 x 2 factorial between-subject, post-test only experiment design to examine these relationships.

Aristotelian philosophy states that the primary goal sought by human beings is the achievement of happiness; that every other goal we set is intended to bring us closer to the ultimate goal of happiness (Conchar and Zinkhan, 1999). Many researchers and scholars have studied happiness, each from a differing perspective. Maslow (1987) views happiness as the ongoing fulfillment of a hierarchy of needs; Diener (1984) measures it as subjective well-being or satisfaction with life; Csikszentmihalyi (1990) coined the construct of flow; marketers describe it alternately in terms such as hedonic consumption experience or consumer satisfaction and delight. The right of individuals to the pursuit of happiness is a core value of the American people, but the implementation of strategic frameworks and systems to support that pursuit is seldom explored in marketing. Here, a meta-view of the potential relevance to marketers of consumers’ search for happiness is presented.

With the increase in not-for-profit and cause-related marketing activities, researchers have turned their focus to identifying reasons why people might support charitable causes and under what circumstances consumers might be more likely to buy a product partnered with a particular cause (e.g., Barone, Miyazaki, and Taylor, 2000; Cunningham and Cushing, 1993; Lafferty, Goldsmith, and Hult, 2004).

In contrast with traditional cognition-based models of brand choice, neuroscience supports the powerful influence of affective components of decision-making. Every decision that consumers make is influenced by affective factors, sometimes moderated by the cognitive knowledge we have (Damasio, 2000). We do not think consciously about every nuance of every brand we choose – in most purchase situations, we buy simply because we feel, deep in our implicit memories, a stronger emotional “liking” for one brand than another. This form of response is commonly termed “low attention processing” (Heath and Ryder, 2004). Affective inputs into decision-making represent one form of shortcut, or heuristic, that consumers invoke when making routine purchases of low-involvement products. Damasio (1994) has shown that affective response to sensory input is processed instantaneously and irrespective of how much cognitive attention is paid to the input (e.g., a commercial).

This study compares bank customer perceptions within the United Kingdom and the United States regarding selected bank service delivery technologies (including automated teller machines, automated menu-driven telephone answering services and Internet banking services). In particular, an important-performance analysis identifies service factors that customers consider to be salient and well-performed through current service delivery technologies offered by banking industries in each respective nation. Also discussed are selected service factors that customers indicate may require relatively less attention or more strategic investments by bank organizations.

Zolfagharian (2004) introduced Consumer Perception of Service Innovativeness (CPSI) and related it to Consumer Evaluation of Service Quality (CESQ). This study (1) focuses on behavioral intention rather than perceived service quality as the dependent variable and (2) investigates the simultaneous moderating impacts of service characteristics and consumer innovativeness on the CPSI-CFPI relation.

The competitive landscape has increased the value of knowing what attributes are most important to completely satisfy customers and earn their commitment. Although satisfaction and customer retention have been widely researched in the past, little is known about how individual attributes lead to satisfaction and the role each of these attributes play in establishing loyal relationships. Relational attributes are also instrumental as many companies seek loyal behaviors, including repeat purchases, openness to cross-selling, and referrals to increase market share and profitability. However, the specific roles service and relational attributes play in determining satisfaction and relational behaviors are not clear. This study captures the voice-of-the-customer and develops testable hypotheses regarding the importance of customer-revealed attributes in evaluating satisfaction with products and services. The results of subsequent tests of these hypotheses will have important implications for practitioners in both manufacturing and service industries as they decide when and how to differentiate products with services and relationship marketing.

This research focuses on small businesses (having fewer than 20 employees and generating less than $5M in annual sales) operating in communities with populations of less than 10,000 people. Networks or strategic alliances are anticipated to provide essential links to sources of capital, new employees, partners, and innovation in small or rural businesses across America. The goal of this research is to study the effects of networking on small business owners’ strategic planning, and to determine the effect or outcomes generated by networking on member businesses and on network continuance. Business types included both product and service-based firms predominately ‘homegrown’ in rural or small communities across the four midwest states of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Ohio.

The paper discusses effects of the two types of complementary assets on the incumbents’ market position during technological substitution. Specialized assets for dominant technology (R&D and fixed investments) provide little support to incumbents; however, the generic assets (customer base and customer knowledge) may be used under different technological regimes and provide temporary buffer for incumbents during transition. The model is tested for four incumbents in the office computing machine industry during substitution of electromechanical calculators with electronic ones.

The relationship life cycle has been central to relationship development literature and has largely assumed that relationship development is an evolutionary linear process. There has generally been limited discussion of the fact that over a relationship’s lifespan it may in fact strengthen, weaken, and even become inactive, which is not the same as relationship failure. The paper proposes a dynamic model of relationship development that includes relationship inactivity as a significant phase.

Most consumers buy impulsively at one time or another and impulse purchases contribute a significant proportion of the sales in super-markets (Miller 2002; Mogelonsky 1998). Impulse buying is a hedonically motivated affect-laden behaviour and hence, an attractive and pleasant store environment is likely to encourage consumers to buy impulsively by putting them in a good mood and making their shopping experience more enjoyable (Hawkins et al. 2000). However, existing research in impulse buying seems to have overlooked this aspect by and large and has focused primarily on the socio-psychological aspects of impulse buying. In this paper, we address this gap by exploring the influence of physical and social cues on impulse buying and the mediating role of shopping enjoyment in this process.

Extant literature illustrates that store environment in terms of layout, sound, ambiance, scent etc. has an important role to play in determining consumer behavior. More recently, e-retailing has led many stores to offer an online presence thereby creating dual shopping experiences. This study presents a typology of online atmospherics created from off-line atmospherics existing in the literature.

The authors develop a behavioral model for both virtual stores on the Internet and real stores. Through an empirical analysis, the effects of real and virtual store design are directly compared. A three-dimensional virtual store was specifically designed for this test and is based on the concept of one of the real stores. The behavioral model for both real and virtual stores was confirmed for actual stores in the U.S., Germany and France and for the virtual store by causal analysis. From this data, it can be shown that real and virtual stores have similar effects on consumers.

In-Depth Interviewing, a qualitative research methodology in social sciences is discussed. An underutilized methodology in marketing, the authors contend that under specific conditions, qualitative research may be advantageous, specifically when research involves understanding of consumer motivation. Instruction is presented on planning, structuring, and executing interview based research.

Certain identified cognitive processes explain mechanisms of trust formation during information search. This research provides an integrated conceptual framework for trust formation online during information search by examining belief processing in consumers using data, warrants, and claims. Resulting in the reconciliation of previous findings on the nature of trust formation.

The paper updates and extends Bilkey and Nes’ (1982) country-of-origin research, organizing and clarifying existing research streams, concluding with a set of research propositions appropriate for the global world. The paper argues that significant strategic opportunities, as well as potential pitfalls, exist in relation to country-of-origin bias, and that these must be successfully managed.

There is little research exploring the complex psychological processes underlying individual differences in customer reactions to similar dissatisfaction situations i.e., whether to complain or not, whom to complain to and the methods used for complaining. In this research, we address these gaps by first developing a comprehensive conceptual framework incorporating two important situational variables in the CCB context – customer dissatisfaction and involvement along with two relevant consumer traits – impulsivity and self-monitoring. Based on this framework, several hypotheses are developed about the relationships among these variables. Next, we describe a survey-based study used to test these hypotheses, with a large sample of student subjects (N=489), in two different contexts – one involving dissatisfaction with a product and another with a service. Finally, the results are discussed along with some limitations and directions for future research.

The paper examines different learning profiles and the implications of each profile for firm’s innovation and performance. This view is consistent with the resource based view in that it suggests which learning dimensions organisations should invest in to optimise the benefits of learning orientation. The results indicate that being low on all dimensions is a recipe for poor innovation and performance. Also, the combination of two dimensions low and only one high still results in poor performance and innovation. Finally, the achievement of high levels on all dimensions is beneficial for innovation and performance, however, this profile is not significantly superior to having two dimensions high and one dimension low.

This study examines antecedents of organizational learning (OL) in fast-growth SMEs. Our principal research question is: what are the preconditions conducive to the development of a learning culture? Findings reveal 3 antecedents of OL: leadership think, recruitment, and organizational culture. Recommendations for future research and implications for managers are outlined.

Miscalibration may substitute for strategy in high velocity environments. Among the competing views on strategy formation lies the suggestion that there may be substitutes for strategy that produce strategy-like outcomes. Improvisation would be an example (Wieck 1987). Structured around the notion that execution

is

analysis and implementation

is

formulation, these ideas combine elements from a linear and adaptive view of strategy with a largely interpretive view. We build on this notion by introducing the idea of

calibration

, which refers to the correspondence between accuracy and confidence in one’s beliefs or knowledge, to examine how miscalibration can substitute for strategy. We describe how miscalibration of knowledge of strategic variables, arising from overconfidence, can lead to strategic action. Social cognitive theory is used to identify the differential effects of miscalibration of knowledge of external, environmental factors and internal, firm-specific factors. Propositions and implications for marketing theory and empirical study are suggested.

Job satisfaction and its possible link to performance have been widely investigated in organizational behavior and sales force research (Bagozzi 1980a, b; Brown and Peterson 1993; 1994; Donavan

et al

. 2004). Because increased selling efforts and higher sales performance are almost universal managerial objectives, the means to these goals are different depending on the way performance is related to job satisfaction. As a result, managers need a thorough understanding of the job satisfaction formation and evolution process as well as the links between salesperson satisfaction/dissatisfaction (SS/D) and sales performance.

This paper examines cross-cultural applicability of dispositional orientations associated with salesperson motivation and performance. Results of a sample survey of Chinese salespeople indicate the presence of common normative framework among salespeople in terms of the importance of some of these orientations and point to the presence of conflicting value differences even within a company and country.

Due to its vital importance to both the firm and to individual salespeople, improving sales performance is of great interest to both managers and researchers. The purpose of this paper is to improve our ability to explain industrial, business-to-business salesperson job performance by more fully explicating the nature and relative effects of a set of specific sales presentation skills that sales managers consider to be highly important.

A qualitative research style was adopted to investigate professional women’s online evaluation of apparel products. Professional women used physical and performance dimensions of apparel in their evaluation of the products. Other factors that played a role in their decision-making processes were store layout, categorization of products and availability of information.

Consumers’ purchase process has changed with the introduction of the Internet as an alternative channel for shopping. Consumers now use retail websites to search for product information and/or make a purchase either from the website or another retail channel. The website interface represents the stimulus that influences consumers’ decision making. Accordingly, it is important to understand the website environment and the important cues that influence consumers’ choice of one website over another. The impact of traditional store environment on consumers’ evaluations of the store and ultimately their patronage intentions has been extensively examined. Studies of traditional stores have drawn important linkages among store environment cues, store choice criteria and patronage intentions on a piecemeal basis, but the Baker et al. (2002) study was the first to empirically examine a comprehensive store patronage model. We used Baker’s et al. (2002) model as a guide to examine the impact of website environmental cues on choice criteria and patronage intentions modifying the model to fit the online retailing context. It was important to use a well founded comprehensive model of traditional retailing, because online retailing is still a relatively new channel of distribution and there are few theoretical models to guide research on online retailing. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of website environmental cues (search/navigation, purchase/checkout and aesthetics) on consumers’ choice criteria (customer service quality, merchandise quality, monetary price, time/effort cost and psychic cost perceptions) and patronage intentions with merchandise value perceptions as a mediating factor. A conceptual framework was developed based on Baker’s et al. (2002) model and a quantitative research method was used to test the proposed conceptual model. Three stimulus websites were selected to represent slightly different website design quality levels. We used scale items from Baker et al. (2002) and other studies to develop the survey instrument. Seven-point Likert-type scale items were used to measure each construct included in the model. A web survey was developed with hot links to the stimulus websites. The survey instrument was pre-tested with 176 students recruited from a major southeastern university. Study participants were selected using a national panel representing typical US online shoppers. Two hundred sixty nine online shoppers participated in this study. The sample was comprised of 53% women. With respect to age distribution, 26% between the age of (19–29), 30% (30–39) and 44% were 40 years of age or more. Respondents’ household annual income distribution was 18% at $25,000 or less, 26% between $26,000 and $45,000, 22% between $46,000 and $65,000 and 34% were at $66,000 or more. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested using maximum likelihood estimations. Testing the proposed model indicated a good fit for the online retailing context, as nineteen of twenty five research hypotheses were supported. Search/navigation perceptions had significant paths with all choice criteria constructs, suggesting that consumers are influenced by choice criteria when searching for a product to purchase. Purchase/Checkout perceptions impacted monetary price perceptions, time/effort cost perceptions and psychic cost perceptions. Insignificant paths between purchase/checkout and (1) customer service quality and (2) merchandise quality perceptions may be a result of the fact that participants were not performing an actual purchase but only completing part of the process for a simulated purchase. Aesthetics (visual appearance of the website) had significant paths with customer service quality perceptions, merchandise quality perceptions, and psychic cost perceptions, suggesting that consumers perceive the aesthetically appealing website to provide good customer service, good merchandise quality and a more pleasurable experience, but did not necessarily relate aesthetics to acceptable prices or less time/effort cost. Choice Criteria Perceptions influenced merchandise value perceptions providing evidence that the choice criteria model fits the online retailing context. Patronage intentions were directly influenced by monetary price perceptions, time/effort cost perceptions, and psychic cost perceptions. The significant path between merchandise value perceptions and patronage intentions shows that patronage intentions were directly influenced by merchandise value perceptions and indirectly by choice criteria through merchandise value. So, even though there was no significant direct path from merchandise quality perceptions to patronage intentions, merchandise quality nevertheless influenced patronage intentions through merchandise value. Online stores, though growing more rapidly than traditional stores, still render a relatively small portion of sales and profits for multichannel retailers (Eroglu et al. 2003). This research provides in-depth information about the specific design features of online stores that influence online shoppers’ behavior towards the site and insights about the impact of environmental cues on consumers’ perceptions of customer service quality, merchandise quality, monetary price acceptability, time/effort cost and psychic cost incurred when interacting with the website.

This research explored college students’ outshopping for apparel products. Results showed that only few of the respondents shopped locally for apparel products. A majority of them shopped in nearby larger cities or hometowns. A significant relationship was found between students’ attitudes toward local shopping and their shopping behaviors.

The legal parameters of 329 administrative decisions reported in the 1990–1999

Federal Trade Commission Decisions

were content analyzed. This analysis revealed that: (1) when faced with FTC litigation, most advertisers enter into consent agreements; (2) implied claims vary by industry and the type of internal evidence presented by the FTC; and (3) the severity of FTC orders varies by industry and the presence of multiple implied claims. Based upon the findings, an updated typology of implied advertising claims is offered. Lastly, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.

Companies such as Pepsico, Nike, and Sun Microsystems are joining a growing group of marketers who find wireless advertising messaging an exciting addition to m-commerce (Charny 2001). Wireless Advertising Messages (WAM) consist of both text and graphic based commercial messages that are sent to consumers’ cellular telephones, pagers, and personal data assistants via marketers’ computers (Petty 2003). In Japan and Europe WAM is quickly gaining acceptance among consumers. Within the United States, WAM has yet to become popular and marketers are beginning to experiment with this form of advertising. Most of the exploratory studies to date suggest that the ubiquitous nature of cell phones makes them an ideal advertising vehicle for reaching adolescents and young adults.

This article directly compares the effects of emotional print advertisements and emotional Internet advertisements on consumers. In particular it analyses whether Internet advertising is able to convey emotions to the same degree as print ads. The study was carried out for two different perfume brands in Germany and France. The study shows that there are hardly any differences between the Internet ad and the print ad with regard to the variables used in the study. Therefore it can be assumed that Internet ads trigger reactions similar to print ads and that the Internet is a suitable medium for conveying emotions through advertising.

This paper presents the results of an empirical study that examines factors driving relationship strength and relationship quality between buyers and suppliers of industrial services. The primary objective of the study is to develop an explanatory model anchored on relationship strength that is comprehensive and globally relevant, while reflecting both the instrumental/economic and relational determinants of strength. The choice of relationship strength and quality is made because of their well documented ties to buyer patronage and relationship profits. Yet despite the attention paid to the subject, little empirical research has been devoted to understanding what drives these outcomes. Of the existing studies, few examine enough variables and their interrelationships to provide marketing practitioners with a useful, predictive model. Moreover, the direction of research is guided by independent theoretical frameworks. One strain of literature suggests that researchers frame their models along economic or instrumental dimensions while another argues for models to be anchored on relational factors. As a result, studies in this area are fragmented across multiple literature domains.

Previous research has identified various service quality factors’ contribution to consumer satisfaction in retail banking. This study reports findings from a survey, which aimed to determine Turkish consumers’ perception of quality and possible effects on satisfaction. Results indicated, “empathy”, “responsiveness”, “trust”, “tangibles”, and “enabling” were determinants of customer satisfaction.

Brand loyalty has been a popular research topic in marketing for decades. It has long been believed that satisfaction and loyalty are somehow related (cf. Bennett and Rundle-Thiele 2004), and researchers have traditionally examined the determinants of satisfaction (e.g., Anderson and Sullivan 1993) in the quest for brand loyalty. A major shift in research has emerged as some studies have pointed out that the linkage between satisfaction and loyalty is rather elusive. Oliver (1999) points out that although loyal consumers are typically satisfied, satisfaction does not universally translate into loyalty. Reichheld (1996) coined the term "satisfaction trap," referring to the evidence that suggests satisfied customers are not necessarily repeat customers.

This paper compiles dimensions of loyalty following an extensive literature review providing a clear picture of the ideas that should be held under the term loyalty. The ideas that should be held under the term loyalty should include purchase intentions, proportion of purchase, citizenship behavior and resistance to competing offers.

A flailing marketing campaign faces identification of where, when, and how fast to invest funds effectively to improve sales. With the right tools, assessing return on investment is quantifiable, providing numerous choice options to strategic decision makers. The right tool can lead to marketing success and overall company profitability.

Integrating the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Technology Readiness concepts, this research models Internet transaction activities, relating them to attitude, social influences, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, optimism and innovativeness. The study argues for moderation by cultural dimensions and for the need to explore such influences across multi-cultural societies within a particular nation of interest.

This paper is the first in a special session on Store Image. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework for the study of store image. Emphasis is placed on research (1974–2004) in comparison with Lindquist (1974–1975). Recommendations for future research are made.

This paper is the second in the special session on Store Image. This qualitative research focused on identifying those retail store image attributes perceived as important to female apparel consumers. Results indicated that Merchandise, Clientele as well as Service, in rank order, were considered as most important.

This paper is the last in a special session on Store Image and reports a case study illustrating how theory and practice combine in the transformation of PEP, a leading South African apparel retailer. The implementation of the Blue Sky project opened up new opportunities for PEP to satisfy consumer needs.

Marx (1999) reported that 96% of firms rate a favorable company image as either an important or extremely important outcome of their philanthropic investments. The fact that corporate philanthropy offers marketing opportunities has not been lost on firms, which explains why the responsibility for philanthropic initiatives most often resides within Marketing/PR departments (Brammer and Millington 2003). Far from benevolent, it has been suggested that corporate philanthropy should be viewed as a marketing investment. In fact it has been suggested that, “corporate philanthropy is about marketing, not philanthropy” (Welsh 1999, p. 24). And, while some companies have enjoyed benefits such as: increased sales and higher sale prices (e.g., Mohr, Webb and Harris 2001) from their philanthropic efforts, many firms have failed to realize any strategic gain from involvement in philanthropy (Porter and Kramer 2002). In part, the poor and/or negative return on corporate philanthropy can be attributed to the sheer number of companies looking to leverage their philanthropic efforts (Smith 1994), with over 85% of U.S. companies now involved in some form of corporate philanthropy (Higgins 2002).

Gaining informed consent is a legally mandatory requirement for multiple business areas. Reports most prominently from the medical arena indicate the incomprehensible content and ambiguity of written informed consent documents, and the conflict that results in identifying whether or not an individual who gives consent is truly informed. This study explores factors that may influence an individual to acquiesce and give informed consent when they are truly not informed.

Numerous studies have explored the relationship between consumer purchase decisions as a function of the match between the consumer’s self-image and perceived product image. This phenomenon has been termed “image congruence” and essentially implies that people

are

what they

buy

. The abundance of image congruence studies have produced a mixture of findings due, in part, to variations across research designs. This paper provides a meta-analysis of the empirical findings in the image congruence literature to explore the generalizability of the image congruence effect and moderators of the effect. Additionally, because of the idiosyncrasy of the research paradigm used to investigate self-image congruence, particular attention is paid to research design issues, such as type of sample used, types of traits used in image congruence measurement, data collection methods, brand name use, image congruence operationalization, and type of scale used. Combined effects across empirical studies show that the effect of image congruence across consumer outcomes, such as attitude toward the product, product preference, and purchase intention, is robust (effect correlation coefficient=.34). Recommendations for future research are discussed.

This paper discusses and analyzes global airline alliances and mergers and their impact on consumer, regulatory, and competition policy areas in the European Union and the U.S. Based on a literature review of the airline industry, marketing and public policy, and international law, the paper tries to explain those conditions and circumstances that lead to airline alliances and mergers. It is expected that in the coming years, more alliances and mergers will be sought by airlines in the EU and the U.S. These activities may bring opportunities as well as create problems for marketers, policy makers, and regulators. The significance of this work lies in its timeliness and relevance to the ongoing debate of airline alliances and mergers and their impact on consumer and marketing areas.

Illegal duplication of copyrighted materials has become a prevalent form of music distribution and is a form of illicit consumer behavior. Through various free file-sharing services, an untold number of individuals can have ready access to both old and new music (some of which has never even been released) at any time and from any place with a connection to the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that much of the recent loss of revenues within the industry—nearly 25% between 1999 and 2003—is attributable to illegal downloading (Mamudi 2003). That figure amounts to an estimated $300 million in revenues per year (Langenderfer and Cook 2001) and represents a decline of 31% in units shipped since 2000 (Wade 2004). One estimate has the total loss of revenues from illegal downloading rising from $2.4 billion in 2003 to $4.7 billion by 2008 (Morris 2004). Considering the sheer number of downloaders—one estimate places their numbers at 60 million (Taylor 2003)—and illicitly downloaded digital products—2,300,000,000 files each month (108

th

Congress 2004)—it is clear that the illicit download and sharing of copyrighted materials is an extremely important phenomenon both in terms of its detriment to the industry and its disregard for copyright protection.

The paper examines the self-efficacy as an external variable that is expected to provide further insights to increase the explained variance of the theoretical model. Overall, self-efficacy was found to influence cognition perceptions and emotional reactions. Specifically, self-efficacy was found to play a substantive role in shaping individuals’ attitudes via a cognitive route (perceived usefulness and ease of use) and an affective one (pleasure and dominance). However, the absence of a significant effect of self-efficacy on the other dimension (arousal) was interesting. The research made important contributions to scholarly research and have implications for managers.

Past literature has identified opinion leaders as “individuals who acted as information brokers intervening between mass media sources and the opinions and choices of the population” (Feick & Price, 1987). Opinion leaders are considered important to marketers for the body of knowledge they possess (Asseal, 1984), for the information they transmit to others (Hawkins, 1983), and for their ability to influence transactions (Rogers, 1983). Cafferky (1996) suggests the primary influencer in word-of-mouth communications is the opinion leader. Opinion leaders include such people as market mavens (Cafferky 1996). However, while market mavens have a general marketplace knowledge or expertise, the influence of opinion leaders derives from product specific knowledge or expertise (Feick and Price (1987). Therefore, we would expect that Internet opinion leaders would report high levels of knowledge related to buying products on the Internet. In fact, Kwak, Fox and Zinkhan (2002) suggest opinion leadership is the most important personality variable for predicting Internet purchasing behavior.

The use of technology to identify consumers has been discussed extensively in both the popular press (c.f Krim, 2004; Jones, 2004; Vijayan, 2004) and in the general academic literature (c.f. Alterman, 2003; Peyravian et. al., 2000; Rejman-Greene, 2001). However, scant attention has been afforded to these technologies in the marketing literature. This is surprising, since biometric devices such as fingerprint and iris scanners, as well as smart card identification systems, continue to grow in popularity (Channel Business, 2002). Such technologies are finding use not only in settings requiring high security (e.g. airports and nuclear facilities), but are increasingly used for reasons unrelated to security, such as providing convenience to the consumer and information to the marketing entity (Brass, 2003; Capizzi, Ferguson, and Cuthbertson, 2004; Stock, 2004). Biometrics and radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs), in particular, offer a number of benefits over traditional identification methods. For instance, there is no password for the consumer to remember and no identification card to lose. Further, transaction times are generally faster, identification accuracy rates are higher, and it is harder for consumers to disavow legitimate purchases (Rossi, 2004).

Against the background of a sharp increase in the e-mail-marketing spendings over the past years this paper presents a systematisation of instruments in e-mail-marketing. Based on two 2004 replications of empirical studies in the field of email-marketing the author summarizes the main results of these new studies and derives implications for the further development in e-mail-marketing.

Poor Data Quality can have a severe impact on the overall effectiveness of an organisation. Data quality problems often do not become apparent until CRM projects are underway and budgets have been set (English 1999b). This paper uses illustrative case study examples of problems encountered when implementing CRM.

This study examines the success factors of business to business electronic commerce (B2BEC) adoption by Manufacturing SMEs (Small and Medium-size Enterprises) in Singapore. The data suggests that a well-defined market strategy and readiness to allocate resources to support the adoption are the factors for successful adoption and implementation of B2BEC.

The pervasive presence of the Internet, and its interface of the World Wide Web (WWW), is now influencing all facets of our social life including consumer shopping behavior. The capability that the WWW affords to consumers to search for information and/or make purchase transactions is driving an emerging area of research that seeks to understand consumer behavior in relation to online shopping. The Internet enables the consumer to access information about a product category in both depth and breadth and to store this information for future reference in a way that hitherto has not been possible. Thus, the interaction between buyer and seller has been changed and an understanding of consumer online pre-purchase information search is critical to the effective development of marketing mix strategies for the e-marketer today.

Schlinger’s (1979) Viewer Response Profile scale is much used in commercial advertising research, and frequently used and cited in the academic advertising literature. One of the few studies of its psychometric properties however, argued that it lacked reliability and validity. Like Schlinger’s original research however, the research used a very small sample of responses and ads, and did not have access to the statistical tools of today. This paper describes an investigation of the psychometric soundness of the Schlinger scale among a very large sample of independent respondents (N=4800) viewing a large set of ads. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates that the original 32-item VRP has acceptable psychometric properties. An alternative parsimonious version using only 20 items is also investigated and found to exhibit equivalent and in some cases even better psychometric properties. Managerial and research implications are discussed and suggestions for further improvements of the scale are offered.

Brand equity is the ultimate measure of brand success. It has been intensively studied since 1988. An interesting debate started to emerge on whether brand equity should be thought of from a consumer-oriented or a market performance-oriented perspective. Current research recognized the confusion and disagreement in conceptualizing and defining brand equity, and they identified two opposing perspectives or schools of thought: the marketing perspective and the financial accounting perspective. While the two schools of thoughts disagreed on their definition and conceptualization of brand equity, each perspective advocated developing measurement tools that were consistent with their definition and conceptualization. It could be concluded that there is no consensus on the specific components of brand equity. This could be attributed to the subjective nature of certain aspects of brand equity. Yet, a more comprehensive definition and conceptualization of brand equity is urgently needed to satisfy two main objectives: 1) unifying future branding research on brand equity measurement; and 2) guiding practitioners to use one meaningful, comprehensive, valid, and reliable brand equity measure necessary for accurate comparisons between brands. This paper proposes a new conceptualization of brand equity that integrates both perspectives, to be used for measuring brand equity. This new conceptualization consists of two major constructs: brand-market performance and consumer-knowledge-response, whereby combining both constructs will lead to a more comprehensive evaluation of brand equity.

One cannot effectively market without recognizing the importance of globalization. Globalization is not new; having existed since people started communicating outside their community to discover different cultures, people, languages, governments and values. Globalization requires organizations to market to multiple ethnicities. The Cultural Acceptance Meter (CAM) can assist with achieving success.

The aim of this study is to assess the marketing soundness of women- owned small enterprises in India. For the purpose of the study 184 data collected from women entrepreneurs with the help of a questionnaire to measure five dimensions of marketing soundness. These five are a)entrepreneurs response to complaints, b) to brand switching c)quality of products d)to competition and e) knowledge about consumers. The study observed that many women entrepreneurs in the study appeared to have marketing soundness. However, when it comes to taking steps to improve their performance, they are not able to do so. Age of the enterprise and the educational background of the entrepreneurs do have a relation in responding to various dimensions of the marketing soundness.

Academic dishonesty has become endemic in higher education with estimates of up to 95% of U.S. college students engaging in some form of cheating. Early scholarly work on aberrance asked students whether classroom cheating was deemed morally equivalent to stealing money. Half of the students agreed both were equally wrong. However, the current literature suggests students no longer consider cheating to be a serious offense. While student perceptions may have changed, one fact remains constant; students engage in both cheating and theft for the same reason, personal gain that one has not earned.

The Republic Of Ireland (Eire), though a relatively new nation, having been chartered in 1923, reflects a culture more than twenty-five centuries old. This Irish culture has been the source of much uniquely creative fine art, writing, drama, and philosophy. Creativity as a product seems endemic to the Irish mentality. As a result, the Irish look upon creativity differently than most cultures. They have created a tax exemption for many of the financial rewards reaped by creators of “art” in any of the forms just mentioned. This paper examines the marketplace effects of the Irish exemption from taxation of the revenues derived from artistic creativity.

Previous studies show that product sampling is one of the effective marketing strategies to stimulate the real time and future consumption. In order to increase software sales, many software vendors use the online product sampling strategy, i.e., releasing free online samples of their software products to consumers for trial. Consumers can freely download and try the lower version of software without a time limitation or they can freely access and try the full version of the software as Demo edition within a limited time period. Product sampling for information goods like software has some advantages over that for some physical products like pizza. Firstly, unlike pizza sample, which Pizza Hut needs flour, cheese and meat to make, the software vendor incurs nearly zero marginal cost to make a software sample. Secondly, for physical products, the product sampling strategy is usually only applied to non-durable products such as shampoo. As information good, software is durable good. The software vendor needs to supply only one copy of the software to the sampler for whatever length period trial. Since there is a substitution or cannibalization effect between the product and the product sample, non-durable physical product sample attains the whole quality of the product, but has restriction on quantity. For example, shampoo producer gives only 5 bags of shampoo with full quality as product sample to one household. Generally, in order to avoid the substitution or cannibalization effect between the sample software and the original software itself, software sampling is restricted either in its quality (functionality) or in its time length of legitimate usage. Therefore, we have two types of sampling strategies for software: the low-quality sampling strategy and the limited-time-trial sampling strategy.

In a nutshell, AttentionTracking™ measures attention by instructing test participants to use the mouse as a pointing device. After a brief, automated training procedure participants point to whatever sticks out to them – catches their eye - on a series of static or dynamic images. AttentionTracking™ exploits the fact that visuo-spatial attention generalizes across response effectors (eye-, hand-, and head movements). Thus, the result of attentional processing can be inferred by tracking eye movements, as in traditional eye tracking, but it can also be measured by tracking pointing movements with the hand, or the computer mouse.

Generation Y will represent an estimated 41% of the population by 2009 (Welles 1999). These consumers currently range from 11 to 28. They have the purchasing power to have an unprecedented impact on the economy. Despite the potential of this group as a whole, especially those middle members of this generation (ages 16–22) who are in or near entering the highly coveted college-student market, little is known about the motivations behind the consumption behavior and preferences of these individuals. This study attempts to address this gap in the literature by exploring the reasons behind consumption behavior of mid-Generation Y individuals.

Consumers purchase a range of products that we classify as

stigmatized products

, and additional research on the consumption of these products is warranted. This paper hopes to generate discussion on consumption of these products and attendant issues by developing a conceptual model regarding the attitudes toward public purchase of, intentions to purchase publicly, and the public purchase of, stigmatized products. We advance of a series of testable propositions that should be the genesis for discourse, and point out the theoretical and managerial implications, should these propositions be validated.

A variety of different attitude function taxonomies have been proposed, combined, and renamed by attitude researchers (e.g., Shavitt 1989, 1990; Snyder and DeBono 1989). A synthesis of this research suggests four basic attitude functions. The

knowledge-utilitarian

function helps people efficiently organize information and objects in their environments (i.e., rewards vs. punishments). The

social-adjustive

function helps people behave in ways appropriate to the various reference groups that comprise their social networks (Snyder and DeBono 1989). According to Smith et al. (1956) attitudes serving this function mediate “self-other relations.” The formation of these attitudes allows people to fit into important social situations and interact smoothly with their peers. This function corresponds to a public identity goal (e.g., Snyder and DeBono 1985), in which people tailor their behavior to fit a social situation and convey appropriate images to others. The

value-expressive

function allows people to express their "true self," including underlying values, dispositions, and personality (Snyder and DeBono 1989). Smith et al. (1956) noted that attitudes establish one’s identity, and Katz (1960) suggested that attitudes symbolize and express one’s central values and self-concept. The

ego-defensive

function protects people from accepting truths about themselves that are particularly undesirable or threatening (Snyder and DeBono 1989). Also called externalization, this function can maintain self-esteem by projecting one’s own unacceptable impulses onto threatening outgroups (Shavitt 1990). Locander and Spivey (1978) call this an externalization function because attitudes serving this function are held to protect oneself from internal anxieties or dangers from the external environment.

This paper develops a conceptual model within the context of a service provider-customer firm dyadic relationship. The two focal constructs in the model are

innovation capability

– an organization’s ability to implement new processes; and

innovative distance

– the difference between the innovativeness of the culture of two organizations. Propositions are forwarded.

This paper explores the criteria for Investment Bank (IB) selection within Merger and Acquisition (M&A) deals. It examines whether IB’s evaluate and negotiate M&A deals on terms that do not fully appropriate the potential rents, thereby complementing the acquiring firm’s ability to derive value from transactions. Unlike prior research where reputation is proxied by League Table rankings, this paper examines the multidimensionality of IB reputation in the context of multiple M&A deal characteristics.

Offshore outsourcing is a fast-growing aspect of the world economy today with companies striving to reduce cost and improve productivity by shifting parts of their operations to overseas service providers in order to remain competitive (McCartney 2003; Ross 2003). Existing research on offshore outsourcing is primarily focused into the labor and ethical issues of outsourcing or on the effects of strategic outsourcing decisions on organizations (Clott 2004; Razzaque and Sheng 1998). There is little research on the influence of outsourcing on consumers, their perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. However, organizations are already becoming more cautious about moving towards outsourcing because of concerns about dilution of their image, lower customer satisfaction, reduced brand loyalty and an increase in customer complaints due to real or perceived concerns about cultural differences, lower service standards and loss of privacy (Cornell 2004; Data-Monitor 2004; Economist 2001; Kennedy 2002; Reilly 1997; Roy 2003).

A fact of life that many people have noted is that paradigms which underlie social systems such as organizations, markets and economies change over time. For thousands of years, society was based on an agrarian paradigm (Toffler, 1996). In the U.S., this paradigm shifted in the 1800s to one based on industrialization. While elements of the industrial paradigm began during the Renaissance with the advent of the printing press and the concept of a standardized product, it wasn’t until electricity became widely available that a critical mass of organizations switched over to this new paradigm. This shift initiated a change in thinking from individualized knowledge and ways of knowing to a standardized set of knowledge and the emphasis on generating a “common body of knowledge.” It took a critical mass of these new ideals and the advancement of technology to enable a separation of communication from a tangible to an intangible product, and ultimately, to the next paradigmatic shift introduced by technology.

This study explores the role of consumer involvement and product attribute information as possible moderators to the effects of country of origin on product evaluations. In spite of the agreement among researchers that consumers’ evaluations of foreign products are influenced by the country of origin, there have been mixed conclusions as to how the country of origin cue is used to form consumer’s perceptions and evaluations. Major questions about the way consumers acquire, process and use the country of origin cue have been raised. For example, it has not yet been clear to researchers the process by which country of origin information influences evaluations and why this process holds in certain cases and not in others.

Conventional marketing wisdom states that corporate branding will boost consumer awareness of both the corporation and its products. However, though some consumers perceive what is called the "corporate charisma", others might be indifferent. This explains the divergence in scholars’ as well as practitioners’ opinions about the impact of corporate branding on consumers’ product evaluation. In the present study, a literature review is undertaken by examining both Western and Eastern corporate branding thoughts. Based on a sample of 268 East Asian and North American consumers, the research results suggest that the effect of corporate name is relatively consistent across cultures. However, effects of corporate image, reputation and loyalty vary very widely.

Interviews were conducted with members of the general public in London (England) and Budapest (Hungary) who reported that they visited art galleries. The aim was to ascertain (a) respondents’ levels of ethnocentric tendency and (b) possible connections between ethnocentrism in relation to domestic and foreign artwork and certain personal traits. Participants’ attitudes towards particular countries, their socio-demographic backgrounds and the degree of their involvement with the arts (i.e. a proxy of "product necessity" in the arts domain) were explored. Additionally, possible linkages between ethnocentric tendency, perceptions of the artworks of various kinds of country (i.e., culturally similar or dissimilar), and an individual ’s intentions to visit art galleries featuring work by artists from these types of country were examined.

Recent years have seen an unprecedented increase in cross-border brand alliances by firms from both related and seemingly unrelated industries. Firms engage in brand alliances to increase the consumer’s perception of the brand’s value by combining both brand identities and brand equities. They attempt to enhance their brand associations by allying with other brands whose attributes may be leveraged (Cooke and Ryan 2000). This study examines the growing phenomenon of cross-border brand alliances within the global marketplace and the potential factors that influence consumers’ attitudes toward these alliances. Identifying the nature of the relationships among these attitude determinants will assist marketers in determining the conditions under which consumers will favorably evaluate these brand alliances.

A significant amount of research has looked at the effectiveness of social marketing, especially in terms of attempting to curb risky behaviors by teens and young adults. While this research has focused on issues such as the use of different kinds of appeals, the issue of advertising skepticism has not been considered in the context of social advertising. In this study, we review the relevant literature in both the social marketing and advertising arenas, and develop a measure of social advertising skepticism. We test this measure with a sample of teens from a French language school and an English language school, and demonstrate desirable psychometric properties as well as different types of validity.

This paper examines the implications for nonprofits of managing donation exchanges using customer relationships management and service blueprinting. Based on a UK case study it identifies that there are a range of issues that might make managing donation services exchanges more complex than occurs in the for profit setting.

The decades since the first Surgeon General’s warning about the adverse effects of smoking emerged in the early 1960s have been exemplified by significant and sustained efforts geared towards mitigating tobacco consumption in the general population. Despite intense labors by academics and practitioners alike, the psychological processes underlying such behaviors are not fully understood and smoking behaviors remain widespread—the Center for Disease Control (2004) reports that 28.5% of high school students smoked in the year 2001 and classifies approximately 46.2 million adults in the U.S. as smokers. We seek to add to the body of knowledge pertaining to smoking cessation by identifying factors that influence smoking related attitudes and behaviors.

Marketing researchers and managers have recognized the importance of soliciting and resolving customer complaint and developed a good knowledge base about customer complaint. Though their studies suggest that effective communication plays an important role in service recovery, researches focused on communication, especially communication media have been relatively narrow. As a result, a few questions remain unanswered. For example, do customers prefer certain complaint media to others? What factors would influence customer media choices? How different media choices lead to different resolution expectations? In recent years, firms are investing significant resources to expand complaint media, and answering those questions will help firms incorporate media factors to a more effective handling strategy. This study seeks to bridge the gap between communication researches focused on media selection and service complaint researches focused on customer recovery expectations by exploring the determinants and outcomes of media choices. We attempt to find out 1) whether customers prefer rich media to lean media for service complaint; 2) whether past experience influence future selection of specific media; 3) whether the type of media affects customer expectations.

The concept of employee-customer emotional contagion, defined as the flow of emotions from employees to service customers, and its impact on customers’ assessments of their service encounters with employees are examined in this paper. Drawing on interpersonal relationship research, we investigate the influence of service employees’ display of positive emotions on customers’ emotional state and, subsequently, their assessment of a service interaction and their relationship with the service provider. To test the proposed impact, 223 consumers participated in a simulated service encounter with actors playing the role of service employees. In a 2 X 2 factorial design, these “employees” varied the extent of their smiling behavior and the type of emotional labor strategy used by engaging in either surface acting or deep acting. Results provide support for emotional contagion in that service employees’ emotions have a direct impact on the emotional state of customers. Furthermore, an employee’s display of emotions and the emotional contagion process are found to exert an effect on customer outcomes. Implications are discussed.

The paper examines the role of social capital in customer co-production in knowledge intensive business services (KIBS). It proposes a model of antecedents and consequences of social capital in the KIBS context. Antecedents of the three dimensions of social capital – structural, relational, and cognitive - are identified based on a survey of the literature. Location is specified as an antecedent of structural social capital. Among the antecedents of relational social capital are reputation, previous satisfaction, and expertise. Effective conflict resolution and information exchange are specified as antecedents of cognitive social capital. The paper enriches the dialogue on co-production in KIBS environments by its introduction of the notion of social capital, which has attracted considerable research from scholars in several disciplines.

An extensive stream of marketing research has been based on the relationship paradigm, where buyers and sellers develop strategic relationships based on trust and commitment in order to achieve mutual goals (Wilson 1995; Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Morgan and Hunt 1994). Today’s increasingly turbulent and complex environments are bringing about new, leaner, and more specialized organizations (Achrol 1997). To deal with these increasing complexities, supply chain management (SCM) has been widely discussed as a means to strategically reconfigure business in a systematic way to optimize the longterm performance of all entities involved in delivering value to end-customers through collaboration and partnerships between firms (Bowersox, Closs, and Cooper 2002). Firms adopting a collaborative perspective work across organizations in order to achieve collective goals (Stank, Keller, and Daugherty 2001), and as a result, these interfirm partnerships can positively affect corporate profitability by both increasing sales and decreasing costs (Sharma, Grewal, and Levy 1995).

Corporations are facing increasing pressures for environmental responsibility from various regulatory, normative, and social institutions. The mandate is to become more environmentally concerned or find it difficult to achieve long-term sustainable growth and avoid government intervention. This paper investigates what policies a company can follow in vendor selection to pursue improved environmental responsibility. A roadmap is developed for industrial purchasing decision-makers with a discussion of integration of environmental concerns into business routines and implementation of environmental purchasing decisions.

In this study, the authors examine how top management team commitment, communication, and risk aversion influence branding capability- an ability to integrate and deploy resources to build a strong brand position. The role of formalization is also investigated to understand whether it facilitates or impedes the effort of top management teams on branding capability. Empirical results strongly support a positive effect of top management team commitment and communication towards branding capability. Furthermore, formalization positively and negatively moderates the effect of top management team communication and commitment, respectively on branding capability. Implications for branding strategy are discussed.

The authors examine brand awareness, distribution intensity, and their interaction effect on consumer heart share and market share. Data collected from both retailers and consumers in the consumer electronics shopping center are used to test the conceptual framework. Empirical results show that consumer heart share is positively related to brand awareness, and market share is positively related to distribution intensity and brand awareness. The findings also suggest that brand awareness, playing a moderating role in the impact of distribution intensity on marketing outcomes, should deserve more attention.

The current paper presents an innovative approach to examining customer-to-customer interactions. The field experiment design, utilizing a group tour setting, contributes to the relationship marketing literature by adopting a management perspective and investigating the unexplored link between customer-to-customer interactions and important outcomes to consumers and service providers.

This paper presents an exploratory empirical study of the data quality for problem enactment model (DQ4PEM) in CRM settings. The research findings support the reciprocal relationship advocated by the model.

While there is a general belief that top management plays an important role in the formation of a market-oriented culture, little empirical work has been done to examine such effect. The present study investigates the impact of management behavior on market orientation and collaboration between the management and the employees.

Knowledge Management

, which is concerned with how information is collected, processed, and converted into knowledge, is an important stream of research in organizational theory and strategy. A rich body of literature is developing on how knowledge is generated, processed, and managed within organizations. However, there is a lack of research on how knowledge management (KM) interacts with various organizational factors and, in particular, how it relates to the firm’s market orientation. Although knowledge of customers and competitors is at the heart of a firm’s market orientation, little is known on how this knowledge is created and managed. In this paper, we enhance our understanding of elements that lead an organization to create and use knowledge for decision-making. We hypothesize that

analytical capabilities

and

information technology adoption

are important antecedents to the organization’s

knowledge management

. We further hypothesize that their

influences are

partially

mediated by

the

firm’s

market orientation

.

Because “knowing the market” is a continuous process, organizations need a feedback system that monitors market changes. Since market orientation (MO) involves everyone in the organization, we demonstrate how other functional areas (in this case, logistics) interface with marketing in the MO process to provide feedback about changing market dynamics.

The proposed model explicates the Return on Trade Show Information (RTSI) construct, from the perspective of trade show exhibitors compared to trade show visitors. RTSI is a measure of tangible and intangible benefits that accrue to the organization as a result of utilizing market information acquired at, or associated with attendance at trade shows. This trade show information may be gathered formally, as during press reviews, product demonstrations, and technical updates; or informally as in casual “halltalk” conversations. Trade show information includes information that is directly gathered at the trade show event, as well as additional information that is gathered within a certain timeframe afterwards. This post-show information-gathering is a result of ideas and plans that emanate from attending the trade show event. For instance, postshow information includes new information acquired immediately and up to six months after the participants return from the show, prompted by conversations, brochures obtained, or demonstrations watched at the trade show.

The study is focused on identifying the significant demographic characteristics of grocery store customers whose buying behavior is most responsive to coupon-based promotions. The demographic variables considered in this research are: age, employment status, and household size. The underlying managerial implication of this study is that understanding the demographic differences in promotion sensitivities of potential consumers is helpful in making promotion decisions, as well as initial stocking, inventory, and pricing recommendations.

The theoretical frameworks of transaction cost economics and agency theory are widely used to develop appropriate control mechanisms for constraining opportunism within marketing channels. In our research, we supplement these normative theories with alternative frameworks which allow us to move from the usual dyadic-level analysis of transaction cost economics and agency theory to include contextual factors as well as individual-level characteristics. Our goal is to offer an alternative, behavioral perspective that can meaningfully inform us as to how and when opportunistic behaviors actually take place.

Utilizing a triangulated methodology, this thesis examines the influence of market, learning, and entrepreneurial orientation on firm marketing capabilities, and performance in rapidly growing SMEs. These firms invest in maintaining sound relationships with organization stakeholders and developing superior products/services, marketing capabilities that contribute significantly to firm performance.

Brand loyalty and consumers’ attachment to products have been researched extensively in marketing (Oliver 1999, Richins 1997, Shimp and Madden 1988). However, research on consumers’ emotional attachment to brands has been scant. In this paper, we investigate consumers’ emotional attachment to brands by developing a scale to measure this construct. Prominent in the literature are two divergent approaches that investigate loyalty in two different ways: the stochastic approach (purely behavioral), and the deterministic approach (attitudinal). In the current study, we investigate the role of emotional attachment to brands from a deterministic perspective as an important component leading to brand loyalty (a nomological link).

The nature and ethos of cultural minorities are still far from well known (Nwankwo & Lindridge, 1998). Although culture is distinct from race, the terms ‘racial marketing’ and ‘multicultural marketing’ have been used interchangeably to refer to the study of racial minorities (see Nwankwo et al., 1997). This paper queries sociology, anthropology, and marketing literatures to study multiracial population, encompassing consumers born to a pair of parents with distinct racial identities, e.g., Latino father and Caucasian mother.

As an educator, I recognize the impact each of us has on our students. After many years in the classroom, I have learned four major lessons and have developed a teaching philosophy pursuant to these lessons. Regarding the lessons I have learned as a teacher: (1) I have learned that the example we set can be every bit as important as what we say, (2) I have come to realize that students learn in a variety of different ways, (3) I recognize that students (and faculty) have the opportunity to leverage a unique blending of theory and practice via the classroom experience, and (4) I have learned that the teaching environment in our schools of management/business fosters a set of responsibilities among our faculty to ensure a value-added educational experience for our students. Thus, there are four cornerstones upon which I build my courses and conduct my classes: practice-oriented learning, motivation, empathy, and passion.

The existing business environment is both dynamic and complex. The students we are preparing in today’s classroom must be able to face the realities and challenges of the business world and lead organizations into the future. Hence, I view my responsibility as an educator as one that prepares students to face today’s business climate with confidence while equipping them for success in a future that necessitates life-long learning. As such, my goal as an educator is to provide students with knowledge and skills in the areas of critical thinking, interpersonal relationship development, and communication all within the marketing domain. To that end, I have adopted the active learning paradigm that requires students to not only understand what they read but also to put their learning into motion. My success as an educator stems from implementing this paradigm from the standpoint of establishing course expectations, adding relevance to the coursework, and engaging in teaching enhancement activities. These three areas of emphasis are discussed next.

“I’m committed to extending my knowledge and expertise in order to reach and make an impact on my students’ learning experiences and on their future careers.”

I believe that students learn from multiple learning events occurring within and between the class sessions in a course. Learning also progresses across events within a curriculum, as students move from one course to another. Consequently, my teaching philosophy considers student learning within class sessions, between class sessions, and transitions between courses.