Management and Marketing - Research Publications

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 45
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    Interfirm monitoring, social contracts, and relationship outcomes
    Heide, JB ; Wathne, KH ; Rokkan, AI (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2007-08)
    This article examines the effects of monitoring on interfirm relationships. Whereas some research suggests that monitoring can serve as a control mechanism that reduces exchange partner opportunism, there is also evidence showing that monitoring can actually promote such behavior. The authors propose that the actual effect of monitoring depends on (1) the form of monitoring used (output versus behavior) and (2) the context in which monitoring takes place. With regard to the form of monitoring, the results from a longitudinal field study of buyer–supplier relationships show that output monitoring decreases partner opportunism, as transaction cost and agency theory predict, whereas behavior monitoring, which is a more obtrusive form of control, increases partner opportunism. With regard to the context, the authors find that informal relationship elements in the form of microlevel social contracts serve as buffers that both enhance the effects of output monitoring and permit behavior monitoring to suppress opportunism in the first place.
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    Satisfaction, complaint, and the stock value gap
    Luo, X ; Homburg, C (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2008-07)
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    Customer prioritization: Does it pay off, and how should it be implemented?
    Homburg, C ; Droll, M ; Totzek, D (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2008-09)
    It seems to be common sense that to increase profits, firms should prioritize customers (i.e., focus their efforts on the most important customers). However, such a strategy might have substantial negative effects on firms’ relationships with customers treated at a low priority level. Prior research does not indicate satisfactorily whether and how customer prioritization pays off. Moreover, although customer prioritization may be strongly present in firms’ marketing strategies, firms frequently fail to implement such a strategy. Therefore, it is also important to investigate empirically by which means firms can facilitate implementation. The authors address both issues and conduct a cross-industry study with 310 firms from business-to-consumer and business-to-business contexts together with two independent validation samples. The results show that customer prioritization ultimately leads to higher average customer profitability and a higher return on sales because it (1) affects relationships with top-tier customers positively but does not affect relationships with bottom-tier customers and (2) reduces marketing and sales costs. Furthermore, the ability to assess customer profitability, the quality of customer information, selective organizational alignment, selective senior-level involvement, and selective elaboration of planning and control all positively moderate the link between a firm's prioritization strategy and actual customer prioritization.
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    Consumer Responses to Vertical Service Line Extensions
    Lei, J ; de Ruyter, K ; Wetzels, M (Elsevier BV, 2008-09-01)
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    Negative spillover in brand portfolios: Exploring the antecedents of asymmetric effects
    Lei, J ; Dawar, N ; Lemmink, J (SAGE Publications, 2008-05-01)
    Marketers cultivate brand relatedness in their brand portfolios to increase marketing efficiency through positive spillover of brand equity. However, creating linkages between brands may also make them vulnerable to negative spillover. This research investigates the structure of relatedness in a brand portfolio to understand the nature of spillover effects. The results of two experiments show that the magnitude of spillover between brands is a function of not only the strength of brand associations but also their directionality. The results also show that the directional strength of association is influenced by the number and salience of associations linked to each brand. The authors draw implications for a theoretical understanding of spillover effects in marketing, as well as for the management of brand portfolios.
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    Managing Dynamics in a Customer Portfolio
    Homburg, C ; Steiner, VV ; Totzek, D (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2009-09)
    Although highly relevant for marketing practice, few studies provide conceptual and empirical insights into customer portfolio management. Furthermore, most approaches to analyzing customer portfolios are static. This article discusses three neglected key issues relevant for a dynamic customer portfolio analysis: (1) Does a static versus a dynamic valuation lead to a different prioritization of customer segments in a portfolio? (2) How does offensive or defensive management of segment dynamics affect portfolio value? and (3) Do reliable predictors for dynamics of a customer's position in the portfolio exist? As a tool for customer portfolio analysis, the authors develop a segment-based customer-lifetime-value model. They capture customer dynamics by analyzing how customers switch between segments of different values across time. The authors apply their tool with longitudinal data from four firms with up to 300,000 customers. The results from the empirical analysis and a simulation study provide answers to the three key issues raised. First, compared with a dynamic analysis, a static approach overestimates the value of some customer segments but underestimates others. Second, a defensive versus offensive management of value dynamics is relatively more appropriate for middle-tier segments, whereas the opposite holds true for bottom-tier segments. Third, general customer characteristics and aggregated transaction characteristics indicate future segment dynamics, whereas specific product usage data differentiate customers according to current value.
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    Implementing the Marketing Concept at the Employee-Customer Interface: The Role of Customer Need Knowledge
    Homburg, C ; Wieseke, J ; Bornemann, T (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2009-07)