Studies in the marketing strategy of a U.K. producer of conveyor belts

Research was undertaken in the field of marketing strategy, its formulation and implementation in Dunlop Belting Division. Emphasis was placed on marketing channel strategy, but other strategies including product strategy were studied. The research has resulted in changes in management practice in the client organisation. The relevance of theories of company organisation, planning and strategy, and marketing channels was examined in the light of the research evidence. The technique of action-research was used to gain admittance to and effect change within the client organisation. Case study material was collected for subsequent analysis. The factors affecting marketing strategy formulation in the client organisation were studied. Both the external and the internal business environments were considered. The operation of the observed marketing channels was compared with channel theory. Market segmentation and penetration, and the selling and technical resources of the channels were analysed. Recommendations were made to (a) enlarge and resite the client's distribution unit to locate it centrally in England (b) use the resited unit to secure local advantage (c) obtain greater integration of field sales activities with and from the centre. A new ex-stock distribution unit was established. Improvements to the client's ex-stock marketing in Scotland were also recommended, including improvements to the Scottish distributor's stock control procedure, as well as to Dunlop-Distributor relationships at all levels. The influence of company organisation structure and formalised procedures and systems on the formulation of strategy were considered with respect to channel and product strategy, and other aspects of marketing. Conclusions were drawn that the action research resulted in successful implementation of .agreed changes in the client organisation; that theories of strategy formulation and planning, of the operation of decentralised companies, and of industrial market segmentation required modification; that the theory of marketing channels was found relevant and useful.

Marketing resources of actively involved exporters

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of the market orientation and market based resources of actively involved exporters and their distributors on export venture performance. Previous literature in marketing channels has examined the effect of the market orientation of suppliers and their distributors on supplier-distributor relationships, mainly in a domestic context, as well as the impact of the quality of their relationship on business performance in domestic and international contexts. Little or no research focuses on the interplay between the relevant marketing resources, such as market orientation, proactive market orientation, selling, pricing reputation, and market innovation, of an export venture and their distributor, and consequently on export venture performance. This dissertation is mainly a quantitative study using a mail survey among Greek exporting firms in various industries. The final sample comprised 190 exporting ventures. The survey was enhanced through open interviews with export venture managers and their respective distributors and was pre-tested with a small-scale dyadic survey. Survey data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The main research objective was to assess the impact of marketing support resources, namely market orientation and proactive market orientation, and market-based resources of an export venture and its distributor on export performance. In addition, the relationship of marketing support resources of the export venture and those of the distributor was examined. Some of the relationships examined are a migration of traditional domestic theory (Hooley et al. 2005), to an exporting context, testing whether there are differences in the relationships in a different context. This study contributes to the resource-based view, marketing, and export business literature, as findings indicate that high levels of export venture proactive market orientation lead to distributors with high levels of market orientation. In line with findings of domestic context research, the proactive market orientation of the venture renders its market orientation statistically not significant.

e-Business technological innovations

Modern distribution is being shifted from paper-based, people-intensive marketing systems toward electronic-based procedures that rely on Internet communications and web-enhanced software tools. This article develops a typology of e-business technological innovations that have come to characterize cutting-edge distribution management. e-Business tools relevant to marketing channels are organized by the channel process flows that yield communication and transaction enhancements to distribution systems. Further, a model of the impact of e-business on channel performance is developed. The mediating role of channel structure on technology's impact on channel outcomes in terms of efficiency and effectiveness is also analyzed. Finally, implications of the e-business revolution for managers and researchers are discussed.

Channel incentives as unilateral and bilateral governance processes

The authors investigate channel incentives as extra-contractual governance processes that maintain and extend marketing channel relationships. More specifically, instrumental incentives are monetary-based payments made by a manufacturer in a unilateral channel arrangement to motivate distributor compliance, while equity incentives are bilateral expectations of fair treatment that motivate both parties to continue to cooperate with one another. A model of the antecedents and performance consequences of channel incentives is conceptualized and tested on 314 marketing channel relationships using a structural equation modeling methodology. The findings support the conceptual model and suggest that unique facets of the channel relationship explain the type of incentive mechanism in use.

A stakeholder perspective on buyer-supplier conflict

This study seeks to investigate how stakeholder power and an organization's pursuit of legitimacy influence its reaction to conflict with a supplier. We conducted an empirical study among travel agents and tour operators to test the relationship between conflict and stakeholder power and legitimacy derived from three different stakeholders. Our findings imply that power has a dual role. Whereas supplier power reduces buyer–supplier conflict, stakeholder power increases it. Moreover, this study shows that the quest to achieve greater legitimacy from the firm's competitive arena increases conflict. This study is one of the few that test stakeholder theory empirically. We demonstrate that stakeholder theory provides additional explanations above the hitherto taken dyadic approach toward understanding conflict. This study also shows that power can simultaneously reduce and increase conflict depending on which party possesses power. Greater supplier power decreases conflict, while greater stakeholder power and stakeholder-derived legitimacy increases it. Therefore, organizations have to balance their stakeholder and supplier interests.

Impact of online channel use on customer revenues and costs to serve:considering product portfolios and self-selection

Developing a strategy for online channels requires knowledge of the effects of customers' online use on their revenue and cost to serve, which ultimately influence customer profitability. The authors theoretically discuss and empirically examine these effects. An empirical study of retail banking customers reveals that online use improves customer profitability by increasing customer revenue and decreasing cost to serve. Moreover, the revenue effects of online use are substantially larger than the cost-to-serve effects, although the effects of online use on customer revenue and cost to serve vary by product portfolio. Self-selection effects also emerge and can be even greater than online use effects. Ignoring self-selection effects thus can lead to poor managerial decision-making.

Writing online:a guide to effective digital communication at work

Online writing plays a complex and increasingly prominent role in the life of organizations. From newsletters to press releases, social media marketing and advertising, to virtual presentations and interactions via e-mail and instant messaging, digital writing intertwines and affects the day-to-day running of the company - yet we rarely pay enough attention to it. Typing on the screen can become particularly problematic because digital text-based communication increases the opportunities for misunderstanding: it lacks the direct audio-visual contact and the norms and conventions that would normally help people to understand each other. Providing a clear, convincing and approachable discussion, this book addresses arenas of online writing: virtual teamwork, instant messaging, emails, corporate communication channels, and social media. Instead of offering do and don’t lists, however, it teaches the reader to develop a practice that is observant, reflective, and grounded in the understanding of the basic principles of language and communication. Through real-life examples and case studies, it helps the reader to notice previously unnoticed small details, question previously unchallenged assumptions and practices, and become a competent digital communicator in a wide range of professional contexts.

Two sides to attitudinal commitment:the effect of calculative and loyalty commitment on enforcement mechanism in distribution channels

Previous conceptualizations of attitudinal commitment are extended by considering two very different components of a manufacturer’s attachment to an independent channel intermediary. Relying on commitment theory, a model is developed that describes how attitudinal commitment may reside in either the instrumental or the social strain of a manufacturer’s relationship with its distributor. For each strain, the developmental role played by key facets of the channel setting—relative dependence, pledges, and trust—are shown. Furthermore, the nature of the attachment bond is posited to motivate very different governance mechanisms as the distribution agreement is enforced by either social or contractual means. Empirical support for the model demonstrates that an expanded view of attitudinal commitment is important in understanding the complex nature of attachment in channel relationships.

The feasibility of neuroimaging methods in marketing research

On July 17, 1990, President George Bush ssued “Proclamation #6158" which boldly declared the following ten years would be called the “Decade of the Brain” (Bush, 1990). Accordingly, the research mandates of all US federal biomedical institutions worldwide were redirected towards the study of the brain in general and cognitive neuroscience specifically. In 2008, one of the greatest legacies of this “Decade of the Brain” is the impressive array of techniques that can be used to study cortical activity. We now stand at a juncture where cognitive function can be mapped in the time, space and frequency domains, as and when such activity occurs. These advanced techniques have led to discoveries in many fields of research and clinical science, including psychology and psychiatry. Unfortunately, neuroscientific techniques have yet to be enthusiastically adopted by the social sciences. Market researchers, as specialized social scientists, have an unparalleled opportunity to adopt cognitive neuroscientific techniques and significantly redefine the field and possibly even cause substantial dislocations in business models. Following from this is a significant opportunity for more commercially-oriented researchers to employ such techniques in their own offerings. This report examines the feasibility of these techniques.

Word of mouth communication within online communities:conceptualizing the online social network

Word of mouth (WOM) communication is a major part of online consumer interactions, particularly within the environment of online communities. Nevertheless, existing (offline) theory may be inappropriate to describe online WOM and its influence on evaluation and purchase.The authors report the results of a two-stage study aimed at investigating online WOM: a set of in-depth qualitative interviews followed by a social network analysis of a single online community. Combined, the results provide strong evidence that individuals behave as if Web sites themselves are primary "actors" in online social networks and that online communities can act as a social proxy for individual identification. The authors offer a conceptualization of online social networks which takes the Web site into account as an actor, an initial exploration of the concept of a consumer-Web site relationship, and a conceptual model of the online interaction and information evaluation process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc.

Online social capital:understanding e-impulse buying in practice

Socially constructed marketing imageries (e.g. e-atmospherics) help consumers while making choices and decisions. Still, human and retailing technology interactions are rarely evaluated from a social practice perspective. This article explores the potential impact of socially constructed e-atmospherics on impulse buying. A framework with three interrelated factors, namely social acoustic, co-construction and mundane language enactment is analysed. The way these allow for e-social norms to organically emerge is elaborated through a set of propositions. Retailing implications are subsequently discussed.

Perceptual differences of marketing journals:a worldwide perspective

The practice of evaluating faculty and business schools based on their journal publications has increased the emphasis on research output in peer reviewed journals. Since journal standings are a frequently debated issue, this study seeks to examine the perceptual differences of journals between different segments of marketing academics. Based on a worldwide online survey, journals are assessed in terms of four subjective quality metrics: journal familiarity, average rank position, percent of respondents who classify a journal as top tier, and readership. It is demonstrated that an individual's geographic origin, research interests or journal affiliation can have a significant impact on journal rankings.