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Multinational corporations (MNCs) use their overseas subsidiaries to access tacit knowledge about host countries. It is generally assumed that subsidiary tacit knowledge contributes directly to greater product innovativeness; however, little empirical evidence supports this assumption. In this research, the authors propose a negative direct relationship between subsidiary tacit-knowledge level and MNCs product innovation ability. The authors then examine the role of social cognitive capability as an attenuator of this negative relationship between subsidiary tacit-knowledge level and MNCs product innovation ability. The results reveal that each of the MNCs' social cognitive capability components (i.e., task efficacy, organic structure, and affective trust) independently weakens this negative relationship. Moreover, combining social cognitive capabilities exerts synergetic influences to further excavate the effect of tacit knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional forces influence the formation of international joint ventures (IJVs) in emerging economies and shape both their parents' behaviors and their marketing strategies. Whereas previous research has centered on governance mechanisms that deter opportunism, this study investigates the influence of institutional forces (i.e., rule of law, government intervention, and dysfunctional competition) on the IJV's foreign parent's opportunism. The authors find that rule of law and dysfunctional competition curtail opportunism, whereas government intervention drives opportunism. In addition, relationships between institutional forces in local markets and the IJV's foreign parent's opportunism depend on the IJV's marketing capability. The authors further examine the influence of the foreign parent's opportunism on IJV relationship extendedness and find support for a negative relationship between opportunism and the IJV's continuity. This study enriches institutional theory and identifies the boundary of the influence of institutional forces on opportunism. Because opportunism is a critical relationship hazard, the findings of this study have important implications for IJVs' partnership management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cross-selling offers significant benefits for both vendors and customers, three-quarters of all cross-selling initiatives fail, typically for sales force–related reasons. Prior research examining the antecedents of salespeople’s product adoption has not yet shown whether or under which conditions such adoption behavior leads to better salesperson cross-selling performance. The authors develop a model of the role of supervisory behavior, compensation-based controls, and their interactions in enhancing the effect of salespeople’s adoption behavior on cross-selling performance in a complex selling context. To test the model, the authors use a matched, multilevel data set from company records and surveys of salespeople and sales managers working in a biotech firm. The analysis shows that transformational leadership enhances the effect of salespeople’s product portfolio adoption on cross-selling performance, whereas transactional leadership diminishes the effect. Furthermore, the effect of leadership type depends on whether cross-selling incentives are provided: the positive performance effect of transformational leadership is crowded out when monetary incentives are provided, and the negative effect of transactional leadership becomes even more negative. These results have significant theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To manage marketing channels, subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) must balance mandates from headquarters (HQ) with the local realities of the foreign markets. The performance implications of subsidiary-distributor relationship efforts thus are contingent on the HQ-subsidiary relationship. Drawing on marketing channels, economics, and organization theory literature streams, the authors (1) describe the complex performance properties of output and process control mechanisms that MNC subsidiaries deploy to manage foreign distributors and (2) conceptualize the HQ-subsidiary nexus along three attributes that should moderate the performance effects of control mechanisms: task coordination, or HQ's central coordination of processes across subsidiaries; subsidiary decision involvement, or two-way communications and consensual decision making between HQ and the subsidiary; and relational disharmony, or the extent of the HQ-subsidiary conflict. The authors test the hypotheses using field data from German and Japanese MNCs in the United States and Bayesian models that account for measurement error, endogeneity in the control mechanisms, heterogeneity in country of origin, and nonlinear and interactive terms for the latent constructs. The results demonstrate the importance of the HQ- subsidiary relationship for managing the subsidiary-distributor relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how sales professionals use emotions in marketing exchanges to facilitate positive outcomes for their firms, themselves, and their customers. The authors conduct three field studies to examine the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) in marketing exchanges on sales performance and customer relationships. They find that EI is positively related to performance of real estate and insurance agents, even when controlling for the effects of domain-general EI, self-report EI, cognitive ability, and several control variables. Sales professionals with higher EI are not only superior revenue generators but also better at retaining customers. In addition, the authors demonstrate that EI interacts with key marketing exchange variables-customer orientation and manifest influence-to heighten performance such that high-EI salespeople more effectively employ customer-oriented selling and influence customer decisions. Finally, the results indicate a complementary relationship between EI and cognitive ability in that EI positively influences performance at higher levels of cognitive ability. These findings have implications for improving interactions between buyers and sellers and for employee selection and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values are an essential element explaining a person's attitudes and behavior. Therefore, it is surprising that despite the number of studies that have examined the organizational and managerial factors affecting export performance, little research has investigated the possible impact of a manager's individual values on strategic choice and the export performance of the firm. To address this gap in the literature, the authors examine the impact of managers' values on the firm's customer responsiveness and export performance. In addition, they examine the mediating role of customer responsiveness in the values–export performance linkage. The authors explore the empirical usefulness of the psychic distance construct by examining its direct link with export performance and the extent to which it moderates the relationship between individual values and export performance. Overall, the results suggest that managers' values significantly influence strategic decisions and the export performance of the firm, highlighting the need for more research attention in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing practitioners are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their contribution to firm performance. It has been widely argued that an inability to account for marketing's contribution has undermined its standing within the firm. To respond to this pressure, marketers are investing in the development of performance measurement abilities, but to date, there have been no empirical studies of whether the ability to measure marketing performance has any actual effect on either firm performance or marketing's stature. In this study of senior marketing managers in high-technology firms, the authors examine the effect of ability to measure marketing performance on firm performance, using both primary data collected from senior marketers and secondary data on firm profitability and stock returns. They also explore the effect of ability to measure marketing on marketing's stature within the firm, which is operationalized as chief executive officer satisfaction with marketing. The empirical results indicate that the ability to measure marketing performance has a significant impact on firm performance, profitability, stock returns, and marketing's stature within the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensiveness has long been recognized as a key feature of marketing strategy decision making. However, few studies have examined its antecedents and the conditions under which it influences performance. This study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of marketing strategy by investigating project-level antecedents and outcomes of marketing strategy comprehensiveness (MSC). Drawing on contingency and institutional theories perspectives, the authors develop and test the effects of output and process rewards, task conflict, and project members' intra- and extra-industry relationships on MSC. They find that whereas process reward and extra-industry relationships are positively related to MSC, task conflict (when combined with conflict avoidance) hinders its development. Furthermore, the results indicate that MSC has a more positive effect on performance when implementation speed is higher. Finally, the authors discover that technology and market uncertainties differentially moderate the relationship between MSC and performance; the former has a positive effect, and the latter has a negative effect. The authors also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of their findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research in relationship management has tended to take a snapshot of a relationship at a given time and attempt to project its trajectory, despite agreement among researchers that a longitudinal perspective focused on process models advances the implications for practice. The authors use a field investigative approach to study, over time, the evolution of three industrial buyer-seller relationships in mature industrial markets. The relationships are characterized by various degrees of initial asymmetry and have evolved in dramatically different ways over time. Their findings suggest that weaker firms can structure and thrive in long-term relationships with powerful partners because initial asymmetries are subsequently redressed through the development of high levels of interpersonal trust across the dyad, which in turn leads to increased levels of interorganizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of "goods," which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and transactions. Over the past several decades, new perspectives have emerged that have a revised logic focused on intangible resources, the cocreation of value, and relationships. The authors believe that the new perspectives are converging to form a new dominant logic for marketing, one in which service provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic exchange. The authors explore this evolving logic and the corresponding shift in perspective for marketing scholars, marketing practitioners, and marketing educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine how a firm's strategy in a (downstream) customer relationship is contingent on how a related relationship outside of the focal dyad is organized. Drawing on emerging perspectives on interfirm governance and networks, the authors propose that the ability to show flexibility toward a (downstream) customer under uncertain market conditions depends on the governance mechanisms that have been deployed in an (upstream) supplier relationship. The governance mechanisms take the form of (1) supplier qualification programs and (2) incentive structures based on hostages. The authors develop a set of contingency predictions and test them empirically in the context of vertical supply chain networks in the apparel industry. The tests show good support for the hypotheses. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for marketing theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of consistency of the marketing mix is widely regarded as a key marketing principle. Consistency is commonly understood to apply among marketing mix elements, but it also involves a temporal dimension: Marketing messages and, more generally, marketing mix strategies should achieve some degree of consistency over time. In this article, the authors focus on a particular aspect of marketing mix consistency over time in the context of frequently purchased packaged consumer goods: They investigate the impact of temporal consistency on store promotions, as well as the availability of the product on the shelf, on consumer product evaluations (utilities) and choices. In this specific context, temporal (in)consistency captures the degree of variability of prices, displays, and features, as well as availability over time, for a stockkeeping unit. The authors find that sales promotion mix consistency over time affects both consumer utility mean and scale and thus consumers' choices and brand shares. Lack of sales promotion mix consistency is generally deleterious to consumer brand evaluations through (1) decreases to average valuations and (2) decreases in scale, both of which can lead to decreases in market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this unique point in time, it is appropriate to step back and deliberate on the scope of the marketing field and the contributions it offers to society. The authors adopt several perspectives to do this, looking across time, across societies, and into the operations and structure of the aggregate marketing system itself, which emerges as a huge and complex human institution. A large number of contributions to society are illustrated, ranging from aggregate inputs to the nation's economic health to individual benefits felt by some consumers. However, the system is not perfect; a range of criticisms and system problems also is summarized. The article closes with a look at lessons learned and future challenges in the century ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors develop a framework for understanding the integration of marketing with business processes and shareholder value. The framework redefines marketing phenomena as embedded in three core business processes that generate value for customers--product development management, supply chain management, and customer relationship management--which in turn creates shareholder value. Such a conceptualization of marketing has the potential to introduce dramatic shifts in the scope, content, and influence of marketing in the organization. The authors highlight the implications of an organizationally embedded view of marketing for the future of marketing theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors show how institutional arrangements, which consist of contracting, ownership, and social elements, tie together the joint profits, or efficiency, of the marketing system. They use a criterion of remediable efficiency to develop a design framework for institutional arrangements and illustrate the process by designing a recycling system for newspapers. The authors close with an empirical research agenda and extract five institutional design principles for managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets in which technology assumes a central role are becoming driving forces of the economy. The authors label these "technology-intensive" (TI) markets. Despite their importance, however, there is not a clear understanding of the features of a TI market. Using scientific know-how as the foundational concept, the authors explore the nuances of know-how creation, dissemination, and use to identify eight features of TI markets. With a series of reputable empirical propositions, they also study four marketing decisions, beginning with the most fundamental, that is, the vertical positioning decision (the firm's decision about what it sells). Product design decisions (both platform and modularity), transfer rights decisions (incorporating both price formats and licensing restrictions), and migration decisions (whether and how to move customers through an ongoing stream of technological innovations) round out the set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive academic research on how to identify competitors objectively, marketers know relatively little about how managers identify competitors in practice. The authors bring together diffuse literature in this area and propose a cognitive framework for managerial identification of competitors. They report the results of two studies that examine the attributes managers use in deciding who their competitors are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discount retailers and 'category killers' are believed to be so detrimental to the existing retail environment that many communities have fought their entry through zoning and other regulations. However, the authors suggest that the patterns of competition among different types of retailers are more complex than previously believed. To understand this complexity better, they explore the cross-sectional relationship of competition and retail structure for different types of retailers. Contrary to popular opinion, the findings suggest a positive association between the number of larger stores and the number and size of smaller stores. This implies a mutually beneficial relationship among different types of retailers rather than an overwhelming competitive advantage for larger stores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine whether reputation concerns affect how manufacturers structure their sales organization. Using reputation theory, they examine whether reputation-related perceptions and beliefs affect whether a manufacturer that currently uses an outside selling organization (i.e., a 'rep') intends to vertically integrate the selling function or switch to a new rep. In particular, they propose that a manufacturer's intentions to replace its current manufacturers' rep with a company sales force, or a different rep is a function of its perceptions of the reputation of itself and the rep and its beliefs about how high-reputation manufacturers in the industry typically organize their selling function. Survey data support the plausibility of these reputation-based arguments as factors that influence sales organization structure decisions. These results provide some important extensions to reputation theory. The authors discuss the study's implications for both managerial behavior and the literature on channels and organizational governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author summarizes 11 hypotheses from agency theory, transaction cost analysis, and Ouchi's theoretical approach about the impact of environmental, company, and salesperson characteristics on the design of sales force control systems (outcome- versus behavior-based) and tests them on a data set of 270 German sales organizations. Many of the hypotheses receive empirical support. Sales force size, the only construct for which the author derives two opposing hypotheses, is related negatively to the use of behavior-based control in sales forces. Thus, the hypothesis derived from Ouchi's approach is supported, whereas the contradictory hypothesis from transaction cost analysis is rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between marketing actions with a social dimension and marketing actions with an economic orientation is at the heart of this study. The authors introduce institutional theory as the theoretical lens used to inform this research. Results from an experiment in a retail context show that there is a minimum acceptable level of marketing actions with a social dimension, below which the effectiveness of a firm's economic-oriented actions is hindered significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigate pricing strategies based on yield management systems (YMS), such as early discounting, overbooking, and limiting early sales, for capacity-constrained services. They find that YMS work best when price-insensitive customers prefer to buy later than price-sensitive consumers. The authors also identify other conditions favoring the use of YMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors extend previous research by examining antecedents and consequence of the market intelligence dissemination process across functional boundaries. Their study, involving 788 nonmarketing managers in high equipment manufacturing companies, suggests that both dissemination frequency and formality have nonlinear effects on perceived intelligence quality. In addition, they find evidence of a mere formality effect; that is, intelligence received through formal channels appears to be used more than that obtained through informal channels. The authors also find that the frequency with which market intelligence is disseminated is related to interfunctional distance, joint customer visits, senders' positional power, a receiver's organizational commitment, and trust in a sender. Additionally they find the formality of the dissemination process is shaped by interfunctional distance, receivers' trust in senders, and structural flux. Interestingly, the effects of internal environmental volatility (i.e. structural flux) appear to be different from those of external environmental volatility (i.e., market dynamism). For example, structural flux is found to affect dissemination formality, but not frequency whereas the opposite is true for market dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Channels research has consistently argued that asymmetric channel relationships are more dysfunctional than those characterized by symmetric interdependence. The authors propose that the degree of both interdependence asymmetry and total interdependence affect the level of interfirm conflict, trust, and commitment. Using survey data from automobile dealers, they demonstrate that, with increasing inter-dependence asymmetry, the dealer's trust in and commitment to the supplier decline while interfirm conflict increases. In addition, they demonstrate that relationships with greater total interdependence exhibit higher trust, stronger commitment, and lower conflict than relationships with lower interdependence. The effects on conflict are consistent with those predicted by bilateral deterrence theory, and the effects on trust and commitment are in accord with the authors' bilateral convergence predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author argues that weak signals related to various management practices are responsible for many of the dilemmas being faced in strategic marketing. He provides examples of weak signals such as the difficult distinction between market share and brand share. These weak signals are often related to market influence, a firm's ability to create and manage market influence and a firm's evaluation of market influence.

In current approaches to normative market segmentation, development of segments and allocation of resources to these segments are considered as two independent steps. The result may be infeasible or suboptimal segmentation schemes which contribute to inefficient use of resources. The authors propose a conceptual framework wherein the market segments are developed within the managerial, institutional, and resource constraints. Mathematical formulations and illustrative examples are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigate methods of evaluating marketing experiments in which the experimental territories have been determined a priori. Various matching and prediction schemes are offered to predict what sales in an experimental unit would have been if no experiment had been run. These schemes are developed for predictions of both single territory sales and total sales of groups of territories. A testing method for alternative schemes is described and applied to data for one specific firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An industrial goods manufacturer, The Hansen Manufacturing Company, has successfully measured the sales performance of its industrial distributors by a method based on the determination of territory sales potentials. This note illustrates why and how the method was developed and applied for Hansen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several authors have suggested evaluation of marketing research information by Bayesian analysis. This suggestion is based on two assumptions: (1) the marketing manager is able to supply valid inputs for the analysis and (2) the essence of the evaluation problem can be captured in the Bayesian analysis framework. This note is a review of recent studies into behavioral decisionmaking that challenge these two assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salesforce decisions consist of a series of interrelated processes including (1) determining the role of personal selling in the organization, (2) allocating selling effort to customers, geographic areas, or products, (3) setting salesforce size, (4) designing sales territories, and (5) managing the salesforce. Efforts to develop quantitative models for these decision areas have been hindered by the complex interactions among the areas. Attempts to isolate these decision areas for model simplification have resulted in considerable suboptimization. A multistage decision model is presented which treats the salesforce decision areas as an aggregate decision process consisting of a series of interrelated stages. Model decisions are based on a response function which relates sales in a control unit to the many determinants of performance including potential, workload, company effort, salesman quality and experience, and prior soles history. The use of an extremely fast dynamic programming algorithm for the allocation of selling time to control units is demonstrated and the interaction between model and manager is emphasized. Model output indicates the optimum salesforce size and provides a basis for designing soles territories. Use of the model in forecasting and performance evaluation also is discussed. The model is general in that it can be applied to most companies employing a field salesforce. The results of a promising application are presented. Reaction of sales management in the test firm indicates that made I output is very useful in identifying problem areas, evaluating salesmen, and modifying territorial design to achieve the optimal allocation of selling effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively little information has been published to date about three important aspects of marketing research management: authorization, control, and evaluation of marketing research projects. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to undertake a survey of current practices in these areas, and (2) to suggest eclectic procedures that may be useful to research practitioners. It is somewhat surprising that this sampling of marketing research departments (particularly with its marked skew toward larger companies) indicates relatively small reliance on systematic methods of internal communication, control, and information retrieval. A minority of respondents regularly circulates lists of current project titles to management. Less than half regularly prepare summaries or abstracts of research projects (see Table 3). And the majority have no formal system for evaluating the worth of marketing research projects (see Table 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses methods for effective marketing channel control. Efficient channel administration is recognized as a significant prerequisite for the successful performance of marketing plans. Traditionally manufacturers and distributors have relied on price and related mechanisms to obtain cooperation from other channel members. Differences in goals, expectations, and perceptions among channel members have resulted in the poor execution of channel-wide policies. Experts have identified an alternate model employing five types of control potential. They include economic rewards, coercion, expertness, reference, and legitimization.

The article discusses the practice of strategic market planning. It is defined as the management of any business unit in relation to anticipating and responding to changes which affect the marketplace for their respective products. Frequently market changes are so far reaching that the competence of a business enterprise to continue to compete effectively is questioned. Experts refer to the window of time when a firm can compete within the key requirements of a market as a "strategic window." Analysts contend that investment in a product line or market area should coincide with the periods in which those windows are open or viable.

The article discusses a programmed management approach as a useful framework for the coordination of international advertising campaigns. The rules of an effective campaign include an ongoing collection of marketing data from each foreign market, a relationship with foreign affiliates, operating divisions, or independent distributorships, extensive travel to foreign markets, and the utilization of a network agency. The Goodyear International Inc.'s 1976 campaign is given as a successful example of a programmed approach.

Marketing decision makers often do not consider an important internal or "second audience" for their advertisements: employees. Yet employees do notice their employer's advertisements, evaluate them, and are affected by them. The authors report on a qualitative study of the effects of advertising on employees. Data collected from employees and advertising decision makers in four companies reveal that employees evaluate their organizations' advertisements on the dimensions of accuracy, value congruence, and effectiveness. Furthermore, this research suggests specific ways in which employee values and views of advertising differ from those of advertising decision makers. The authors offer a conceptual model of employee evaluation of advertising and explore managerial implications of the gaps found between employees and decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors examine the roles that price, performance, and expectations play in determining satisfaction in a discrete service exchange. The authors maintain that the price fluctuations common to the many service industries that implement demand-oriented pricing, combined with the inherent heterogeneity of service performance, likely result in price-performance combinations that vary widely. Furthermore, the authors propose that the level of price-performance consistency in a service exchange moderates the relationship between performance expectations and subsequent performance and satisfaction judgments. When price and performance are consistent, expectations have an assimilation effect on performance and satisfaction judgments; when price and performance are inconsistent, expectations have no effect on performance and satisfaction judgments. To examine these issues, the authors develop a contingency model that they estimate using data from a multimedia experimental design. The results generally support the contingency framework and provide empirical support for normative guidelines that call for creating realistic performance expectations and offering money-back service guarantees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a market-oriented corporate culture increasingly has been considered a key element of superior corporate performance. Although organizational innovativeness is believed to be a potential mediator of this market orientation-corporate performance relationship, much of the evidence to date remains anecdotal or speculative. In this context, the authors present a systematic framework to test the postulated 'market orientation-innovation-performance' chain. To this end, the direct causality assumption of market orientation on organizational performance is examined with Narver and Slater's (1990) market orientation framework. Moreover, the authors take a componentwise approach and examine how the three core components of market orientation (customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination) affect the two core components of organizational innovativeness (technical versus administrative) en route to affecting corporate performance. Using banking industry data, the authors empirically test and substantiate innovation's mediating role in the market orientation-corporate performance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the role of market knowledge competence in enhancing new product advantage is assumed widely in the literature, empirical studies are lacking because of an absence of the concept definition. In this study, the authors conceptualize market knowledge competence as the processes that generate and integrate market knowledge. The authors test the conceptual model using data collected from the software industry. The findings show that each of the three processes of market knowledge competence exerts a positive influence on new product advantage. The results also reveal a positive association between new product advantage and product market performance. The findings regarding the antecedents indicate that the perceived importance of market knowledge by top management has the largest impact on the processes of market knowledge competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strategy for easing the tensions facing suppliers and distributors in their channel relationships may be the adoption of market-oriented behaviors. The authors develop a model of likely effects and empirically examine the consequences of a supplier's market orientation on the distributor's market orientation and other channel relationship factors. Results indicate that a supplier's market-oriented behaviors directly or indirectly affect all the channel relationship factors examined from the distributor's perspective, specifically the distributor's market orientation, trust, cooperative norms, commitment, and satisfaction with financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors focus on emergent buying center networks in firms that recently have purchased an expensive, complex, technological product. The authors examine how a person's information control and influence vary within such networks. The purpose of this study is to assess the relative contribution of information control, individual attributes, and organization structure variables on influence. The authors find that factors related to the person are the most important in explaining a buying center member's influence for this type of purchasing decision. Although less important, the variables of information control, decentralization, and formalization also affect influence. Overall, the authors find strong empirical support for their model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on market orientation and organizational learning addresses how organizations adapt to their environments and develop competitive advantage. A significant void exists in current models of market orientation because none of the frameworks incorporates constructs related to innovation. The authors present a conceptual framework for incorporating constructs that pertain to innovation in market orientation research. Some of the critical relationships in this conceptual framework are tested among a sample of 9648 employees from 56 organizations in a large agency of the U.S. federal government. The results indicate that higher levels of innovativeness in the firms' culture are associated with a greater capacity for adaptation and innovation (number of innovations successfully implemented). In addition, higher levels of innovativeness are associated with cultures that emphasize learning, development, and participative decision making. The authors make recommendations for incorporating constructs related to innovation into research on market orientation and organizational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

hough there is increasing interest in topics related to the organization of the marketing function, there is relatively little research that relates marketing organization to a business unit's environment. This article, based on interviews in U.S. and German firms, explores how the organization and role of marketing vary across business contexts. After reviewing prior research and describing their methodology, the authors present a conceptual framework that relates aspects of marketing organization to the business environment. The authors then draw on field observations and prior research to describe variations and develop illustrative propositions for three organization at dimensions: (1) the structural location of marketing and sales groups, (2) the cross-functional dispersion of marketing activities, and (3) the relative power of the marketing subunit. The authors conclude with theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of marketing strategy often makes the important assumption that marketing strategy should occur by first composing a plan on the basis of a careful review of environmental and firm information and then executing that plan. However, there are cases when the composition and execution of an action converge in time so that, in the limit, they occur simultaneously. The authors define such a convergence as improvisation and develop hypotheses to investigate the conditions in which improvisation is likely to occur and be effective. The authors test these hypotheses in a longitudinal study of new product development activities. Results show that organizational improvisation occurs moderately in organizations and that organizational memory level decreases and environmental turbulence level increases the incidence of improvisation. Results support traditional concerns that improvisation can reduce new product effectiveness but also indicate that environmental and organizational factors can reduce negative effects and sometimes create a positive effect for improvisation. These results suggest that, in some contexts, improvisation may be not only what organizations actually practice but also what they should practice to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical models of marketing ethics propose that people first must perceive the presence of an ethical issue before the process of ethical decision making can begin. Through the concept of ethical sensitivity, the authors explore why some marketing researchers and not others recognize and ascribe importance to the ethical content in their decision situations. The authors examine two rival definitions of ethical sensitivity and develop a measurement procedure capable of discriminating between them. The procedure then is tested on two populations (marketing students and marketing research practitioners), and several determinants of ethical sensitivity are investigated. Results indicate that the two definitions of ethical sensitivity are empirically equivalent. Furthermore, results show that the ethical sensitivity of marketing researchers is a positive function of organizational socialization and perspective taking, but a negative function of relativism and formal training in ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the histories of four business-to-business relationships in the United States: advertising agencies and clients, textile agents and mills, the Pullman Car Company and railroads, and independent department stores and their resident buying offices. The authors' goals are to gain perspective on how marketing relationships evolve over time and identify those factors that foster closer relationships and those that attenuate relationships. The results show that economic growth, information asymmetry partially prompted by geographic dispersion, entry barriers in one or both industries, dependence asymmetry, and economies of scale are important environmental forces that impinge on relationship development in all four cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors develop guidelines to assist managers in selecting or modifying logos to achieve their corporate image goals. An empirical analysis of 195 logos, calibrated on 13 design characteristics, identified logos that meet high-recognition, low-investment, and high-image communication objectives. High-recognition logos (accurate recognition created by high investment) should be very natural, very harmonious, and moderately elaborate. Low-investment logos (false sense of knowing and positive affect) should be less natural and very harmonious. High image logos (professional look and strong positive image) must be moderately elaborate and natural. The authors illustrate the guidelines with real logos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective organizations are configurations of management practices that facilitate the development of the knowledge that becomes the basis for competitive advantage. A market orientation, complemented by an entrepreneurial drive, provides the cultural foundation for organizational learning. However, as important as market orientation and entrepreneurship are, they must be complemented by an appropriate climate to produce a "learning organization." The authors describe the processes through which organizations develop and use new knowledge to improve performance. They propose a set of organizational elements that comprise the learning organization and conclude with recommendations for research to contribute to the understanding of learning organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-technology markets represent unique problems for organizational buyers and, in turn, for their existing and potential vendors. These problems are due to high levels of uncertainty and the presence of switching costs tied to existing technologies or vendors. The authors focus on two aspects of buyer decision making in such markets: (1) whether buyers include new vendors at the consideration stage of the process and (2) whether they switch to new vendors at the choice stage. Using survey data from organizational buyers' purchases of computer workstation equipment, the authors present a joint test of the antecedent conditions that influence the two processes. Based on a sequential logit model, they show that individual antecedents have different effects on consideration and switching behavior. The authors then discuss the implications of their study for the literatures on high-technology markets and organizational buyer behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable progress has been made in identifying market-driven businesses, understanding what they do, and measuring the bottom-line consequences of their orientation to their markets. The next challenge is to understand how this organizational orientation can be achieved and sustained. The emerging capabilities approach to strategic management, when coupled with total quality management, offers a rich array of ways to design change programs that will enhance a market orientation. The most distinctive features of market-driven organizations are their mastery of the market sensing and customer linking capabilities. A comprehensive change program aimed at enhancing these capabilities includes: (1) the diagnosis of current capabilities, (2) anticipation of future needs for capabilities, (3) bottom-up redesign of underlying processes, (4) top-down direction and commitment, (5) creative use of information technology, and (6) continuous monitoring of progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors develop a conceptual model depicting relationships between salesforce control systems, characteristics, performance and sales organization effectiveness as a framework for testing the propositions formulated by Anderson and Oliver (1987). The results from a study of 144 diverse sales organizations provide support for the relationship between behavior-based salesforce control systems and specific salesforce characteristics, different salesforce performance dimensions, and sales organization effectiveness. The results imply a limited role for incentive compensation in salesforce control systems. They also suggest the need for a proper blend between field sales management and compensation control and identify important avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]