Customer equity drivers and future sales

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

Indigenous and foreign innovation efforts and drivers of technological upgrading:evidence from China

This paper explores the drivers of technology upgrading in emerging economies using a recent Chinese firm-level panel dataset over the 2001-2005 period. It extends the Directed Technical Change theory by considering differences in technology intensities across industries within a country; examines the drivers of technical change, efficiency improvement and TFP growth in Chinese manufacturing firms; and explores the roles of indigenous innovations and foreign technology. It finds that FDI contributes to static industry capabilities by advanced technologies embedded in imported machineries, but not to dynamic technological capabilities of indigenous firms in developing countries. Collective indigenous R&D activities at industry level are the major driver of technology upgrading of indigenous firms that push up the technology frontier. Policy implications are discussed.

Perception of risk, feelings of vulnerability and effects on driving behaviour in women drivers across the lifespan.

Sustained driving in older age has implications for quality of life and mental health. Studies have shown that despite the recognised importance of driving in maintaining health and social engagement, many women give up driving prematurely or adopt self-imposed restrictive driving practices. Emotional responses to driving have been implicated in these decisions. This research examined the effect of risk perception and feelings of vulnerability on women’s driving behaviour across the lifespan. It also developed and tested a modified theory of planned behaviour intervention to positively affect driving habits. The first two studies (N=395) used quantitative analysis to model driving behaviours affected by risk perception and feelings of vulnerability, and established that feelings of vulnerability do indeed affect women’s driving behaviour, specifically resulting in increases in driving avoidance and the adoption of maladaptive driving styles. Further, that self-regulation, conceptualised as avoidance, is used by drivers across the lifespan. Qualitative analysis of focus group data (N=48) in the third study provided a deeper understanding of the variations in coping behaviours adopted by sub-groups of drivers and extended the definition of self-regulation to incorporate adaptive coping strategies. The next study (N=64) reported the construction and preliminary validation of the novel self-regulation index (SRI) to measure wider self-regulation behaviours using an objective measure of driving behaviour, a simulated driving task. The understanding gained from the formative research was used in the final study, an extended theory of planned behaviour intervention to promote wider self-regulation behaviour, measured using the previously validated self-regulation index. The intervention achieved moderate success with changes in affective attitude and normative beliefs as well as self-reported behaviour. The results offer promise for self-regulation, incorporating a spectrum of planning and coping behaviours, to be used as a mechanism to assist drivers in achieving their personal mobility goals whilst promoting safe driving.

Drivers of peak sales for pharmaceutical brands

Peak sales are an important metric in the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, managers are focused on the height-of-peak-sales and the time required achieving peak sales. We analyze how order of entry and quality affect the level of peak sales and the time-to-peak-sales of pharmaceutical brands. We develop a growth model that includes these two variables as well as control variables for own and competitive marketing activities. We find that early entrants achieve peak sales later, and they have higher peak-sales levels. High-quality brands achieve peak sales earlier, and their peak-sales levels are higher. In addition, quality has a moderating effect on the order of entry effect on time-to-peak-sales. Our results indicate that late entrants have longer expected time-to-peak-sales when they introduce a brand with high quality.

Getting marketing back in the boardroom:understanding the drivers of marketing's influence within the firm

As many strategically important aspects of marketing are addressed by other functions in the organization, the decreased influence of the marketing department within companies is a topic of growing debate. In this study, the authors investigate this diminished influence and assess its determinants and consequences. They interviewed 25 marketing and finance executives from leading Dutch firms. They also conducted a large-scale Internet-based survey of several hundred marketing, finance, and general managers. Their results show that accountability and the innovativeness of the marketing department are the major drivers of the marketing department’s influence. They also demonstrate that a firm’s short-term orientation is negatively related to the influence of the marketing department. Marketing influence is positively related to market orientation, which is positively related to firm performance. Their results do not support prior findings of a direct positive link between marketing influence and firm performance, which might suggest that there is no need for a strong marketing department. The study suggests that an influential marketing department is relevant primarily when the firm is not market oriented. When firms are market oriented, a less influential marketing department does not lower their performance. Hence, it appears that they can choose to have an influential or noninfluential marketing department without any repercussions for their performance. Marketing activities could move to other functions. The authors suggest that marketing departments should aim to retain their influence. Dispersing marketing decision making among many functions can cause a lack of coordination; customers also lose their advocate within the firm. How can marketing departments regain their influence? The authors suggest two general solutions. First, marketing departments should become more accountable by linking marketing actions and policies with financial results. Marketers should become capable in analytics and finance. Second, they should become more innovative by increasing their share in new product or service concepts. They can do so by using their knowledge of the market and customers to contribute to new product or service development.

Servitization transformation:drivers, benefit and barriers

The study described in this paper has set out to build the evidence base underpinning servitization transformation. We applied a Delphi research methodology from 33 senior executives, in 28 different sized organisations, from a cross section of British industry. Our findings focus on servitization: (1) drivers, (2) benefit (3) barriers. The four findings are presented to contribute to our understanding of the transformation processes that manufacturers to compete through servitization.

B2B e-marketplaces in the airline industry:process drivers and performance indicators

Competitive pressures are increasing within and between different strategically oriented groups of airlines. This paper focuses on the level of efficiency improvements gained by using e-Marketplaces in the procurement process. Findings from a survey among 88 international airlines reveal that the use of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Marketplaces does play different roles across the various airline groupings. Airlines that are involved in strategic alliances show higher joint procurement activities than airlines that are not involved in strategic alliances. However, alliances are probably viewed as loose arrangements and thus airlines may be reluctant to share information on procurement prices and processes with another airline that could also be acting as a competitor. The financial involvement in or initiation of e-Marketplaces by airlines is very low. Low cost airlines show high use of e-Marketplaces, but demonstrate little financial involvement in contrast. Overall, the categories of spares and repairs, office supplies, tools and ground support equipment (GSE) show the greatest potential for reducing costs and increasing procurement process efficiencies. The intense competitive pressures facing carriers will make their search for tools to realise even incremental savings and efficiency gains ever more urgent. There is evidence that e-Marketplaces are one tool to improve such performance indicators.

Managers' personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility

In this theoretical paper, motives for CSR are considered. An underlying assumption is that the commercial imperative is not the sole driver of CSR decision-making in private sector companies, but that the formal adoption and implementation of CSR by corporations could be associated with the changing personal values of individual managers. These values may find expression through the opportunity to exercise discretion, which may arise in various ways. It is suggested that in so far as CSR initiatives represent individuals' values, so the “responsibility” in evidence is less obviously “corporate.” Our emphasis on personal initiative is intended to counter a tendency to view the corporation as the agent, and may serve to remind us that individuals can, indeed, make a difference.

Set-up and maintenance of syringe drivers for subcutaneous drug administration in palliative care

Focal points: Details of syringe driver use were collected from 11 inpatient hospice units in the West Midlands and compared with predetermined standards set by a multidisciplinary group We recorded 294 syringe driver events which complied with standards for the choice of administration site, protection of the syringe driver from light and the reason for initiation of the infusion Issues of nurse training, variability in prescribing practices, provision of written information for patients, labelling and documentation of the diluent used were all identified as areas in which compliance with standards could be improved

Social media and related technology:drivers of change in managing the contemporary sales force

The selling environment has undergone tremendous transformation over the past 2 decades. Perhaps the greatest change has centered on changes and advancements in technology. The latest dramatic change has been the rapidly increasing use of social media and other related technologies in the business-to-business realm. The sales world began the use of technology through the use of Web 1.0, which was primarily webpage oriented; now we see the world of social media as the paradigm of how firms should implement technology. Although there has been some recent emphasis on how marketing might implement social media into their strategies and how the individual salesperson might implement social media into his or her daily selling routine, no substantive discussion on how social media is affecting the role of the sales manager has appeared in the literature. This article systematically examines how social media is impacting the sales management function and, in fact, may be dramatically revolutionizing the position. To help the marketing and sales organization better understand the changing sales world, we present eight lessons that every sales manager needs to embrace.

Long-term drivers of broadband traffic in next-generation networks

This paper is concerned with long-term (20+ years) forecasting of broadband traffic in next-generation networks. Such long-term approach requires going beyond extrapolations of past traffic data while facing high uncertainty in predicting the future developments and facing the fact that, in 20 years, the current network technologies and architectures will be obsolete. Thus, "order of magnitude" upper bounds of upstream and downstream traffic are deemed to be good enough to facilitate such long-term forecasting. These bounds can be obtained by evaluating the limits of human sighting and assuming that these limits will be achieved by future services or, alternatively, by considering the contents transferred by bandwidth-demanding applications such as those using embedded interactive 3D video streaming. The traffic upper bounds are a good indication of the peak values and, subsequently, also of the future network capacity demands. Furthermore, the main drivers of traffic growth including multimedia as well as non-multimedia applications are identified. New disruptive applications and services are explored that can make good use of the large bandwidth provided by next-generation networks. The results can be used to identify monetization opportunities of future services and to map potential revenues for network operators. © 2014 The Author(s).