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In order to establish high levels of internal customer orientation, firms will implement internal marketing programs. As with any other program implementation, there will be those individuals who strongly offer their support and are strongly internally customer oriented, while others may have no reaction to the program, and still others may react negatively to the program displaying resistance or frustration with its tenants. Is this variation in ICO among employees due to their personal characteristics? Or are there actions the organization can take in order to help boost ICO in the firm? This study will examine two main sources of ICO implementation motivation: organization-controlled (decision-making centralization, integration of communication across departments, reward structure and upper-management commitment) and individual variables (customer orientation and organizational tenure) to determine the extent to which an employee's ICO can be facilitated by the organization for which they work. Data collected from a 51 employees of a Southeast division of a medical manufacturer exhibit impact these antecedents have on how internally customer oriented employees are capable of being. Results reveal one antecedent path to employee ICO is statistically significant with a t-value >2.0: a positive link from upper-management commitment (3.61) to ICO. Therefore, internal customer orientation is primarily influenced by the commitment displayed by upper-management regarding formalized internal marketing support. Path analysis reveals that the antecedents account for approximately 34% of the variance in employee ICO. Results suggest that an employee's customer orientation, organizational tenure, the degree of organizational decision-making centralization and the supplier's perception of the reward structure do not have a significant impact on the degree to which they are internally customer oriented., INTRODUCTION Internal customer orientation (ICO) is defined as a mindset in which internal providers of services treat current or potential users of those services as customers with whom transactional and [...]

The quality of internal exchange relationships within organizations between internal customers and suppliers is examined under psychological contract theory and analyzed using data collected across two organizations. Path analysis reveals that quality of the internal customer's relationship with their internal supplier is positively related to job satisfaction and both on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness for the customer. Results from Sample 2 suggest that the internal customer's intention to turnover is shown to be significantly reduced by relationship quality. Overall, the study provides a link from internal exchange to job perceptions of job satisfaction, job embeddedness and intentions to turnover., INTRODUCTION Relationship marketing has become a heavily researched topic within the last decade; several studies call for the extension of relationship marketing to an internal or organizational setting (Bendapudi & [...]

Byline: Marla Royne Stafford, Ashley J. Kilburn, Barbara B. Stern The influence of reserve prices on bidder behaviour and bidding activity in online auction exchanges is examined. Risk perception theories provide rationale for considering reserve prices as risk-reducing cues in the uncertain environment of online auctions. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of reserve prices on online bidder strategy, and in this way contribute to understanding online consumer behaviour. To do so, we investigated buyers' bidding responses to items with and without a reserve price. A seller's decision to use a reserve price lowers the buyer's level of perceived risk such that bidding activity is stimulated and higher final bid prices result. Study results suggest a positive relationship between the use of reserve prices and number of bidders, number of bids and final bid prices.

An exploratory study will examine the effect of three variables on student group position rank in an online computer simulation: (1) performance change across a two-phase pre-test, (2) group size, and (3) group average GPA. Data collected across two semesters provides a sample size of 17 student groups ranging in 4-6 members (n=82). Additionally, intercorrelations among each of the 3 variables, as well as a regression analysis of each of the 3 independent variables on the group position rank are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition is good for the soul--and the classroom. In fact, student engagement in the classroom increases when competition is integrated into the learning process (Melendez & Williams, 2007). The Collegiate Creative Competition sponsored by the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) is the focus of the following discussion. An analysis of alternative college-level teaching methods is provided, followed by a description of the YPA Creative Competition, ancillary YPA assignments, as well as YPA grading methods. Finally, statistical results from the Yellow Pages Association Collegiate Creative Competition 2008 Program Evaluation (J. Davis, personal communication, February 19, 2009) are provided wherein 247 students and 60 professors who participated in the 2007-2008 competition provide both qualitative and quantitative feedback. Responses provide strong support for the use of competition in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pricing tactics used by service providers are vital to service marketing strategy. Moreover, the inclusion of those pricing tactics in marketing communications may provide critical information cues to a consumer involved in the service decision process. The current study uses content analysis to examine the use of four different pricing tactics in retail vs. professional service advertisements. In particular, the following four pricing cues were investigated: (1) actual service price, (2) price discounts/savings, (3) reference prices and (4) odd prices. Results indicate that retail services are far more likely to provide pricing information in their advertisements than are professional services. Additionally, retail service providers use other pricing tactics more readily than professional service providers. Implications of our findings are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]