Marketing Commons^™

Configuration Of Market Oriented Culture, Organizational Structure And Business Strategy Types And Their Performance Implications In Service Organizations, Omer Gokus

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Understanding how organizations in service sectors create and sustain a competitive advantage in today's highly dynamic environment is of interest to both researchers and managers. It has been suggested that competitive advantages are achieved either by placing a renewed emphasis on delivering superior quality services to customers or by seeking efficiency through standardized practices aiming at the lowest overall cost for superior performance. This dissertation investigates how these strategies are implemented to produce enhanced organizational performance by utilizing both market oriented culture and organizational structure simultaneously. The model and the hypotheses are tested with data collected from 151 service businesses. …

Integration Of Market And Entrepreneurial Orientations; And Their Impact On Export Performance: A Contingency Approach, Ayse Nilgun Kaya

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Globalization has promoted worldwide exporting levels to soar and to account for more than 10% of global activity. Technological advances in information and communication technologies, production methods, transportation, and international logistics have led to the increase in the exporting activity. However, these advances have also resulted in highly competitive and turbulent markets, and sophisticated and demanding customers, which in return has required exporting firms to be both entrepreneurial- and market-oriented.

A review of the market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and exporting literature revealed three gaps that the dissertation sought to fill. First, the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurship was not …

Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Of Predictive Medical Genetic Tests: Assessment Of Current Practices And Policy Recommendations, Yuping Liu, Yvette E. Pearson

Marketing Faculty Publications

This research reviews the current state of affairs in the fast-growing area of direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic tests. The authors identify the unique nature of genetic tests and the ensuing consumer vulnerability. They also present a comprehensive examination of the current legal environment and an empirical analysis of genetic testing companies' online marketing practices. On the basis of the analysis and review, they make a set of policy recommendations that consists of consumer education, physician intervention and education, and direct regulation of marketing activities, especially as they relate to the online medium.

Inter-State Economic Development- Powered By Utilities, John R. Lombard

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

In 2000, a group of state business recruiters from New England joined to promote New England to corporate real estate and site selection consultants at IDRC’s1 World Congress in New York City. At roughly the same time, the two metropolitan areas of Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass., formed the Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership (HSEP). These informal ventures that cross state borders represent coalitions of business, academic, political and policy leaders working together to foster the combined regions’ economic well-being.

Coopetition (Contemporaneous Cooperation And Competition) Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations: The Case Of Symphony Orchestras, Theresa A. Kirchner

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Coopetition was formalized as a strategic management concept in the early 1990s by Ray Noorda, CEO of Novell, who coined the term and proposed that often, in order to achieve growth in an organization or industry, "You have to cooperate and compete at the same time" (Davis 1993). Although the individual ideas of cooperation and competition in the business environment have been well-established for some time, the formal idea of contemporaneous cooperation and competition, or cooperation among competitors, is relatively new in business and academic literature. Why is this hybrid concept important? The literature to date on coopetition and its …

Punking Yoga: Reconstructing Post/Neo/Colonial Fashion And Movement, Tara Brabazon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The branded clothes worn through sporting and fitness activities confirm that any movement, practice or behaviour that seems transgressive of heteronormative masculinity and femininity is also implicated in neo/colonial incorporations and the casualized workforce that is a characteristic of sports clothing manufacture. In an environment washed by the marketing of opposition, resistance is both difficult to define and apply in cultural studies. This paper invokes 'the problem' of resistance while denying the seamless and simple determinations of positive and negative representations. The focus of study is Yogurt Activewear, a company attacking corporatized yoga wear by creating an anti-brand brand. They …

Relational Benefits And Costs In Channel Distribution: A Dyadic Research From Buyers And Sellers Perspective, Dung The Vu

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The benefits from having long–term relationships with customers have become a focal topic and have been widely discussed in the marketing literature (Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Reichheld and Sasser 1990; Reichheld 1993; Morgan and Hunt 1994; Walter, Ritter and Gemuden 2001). However, careful review of the literature indicates that the literature is deficient in several ways: (1) relational benefits are mostly examined in term of economic benefits, especially in b2b and channel distribution contexts, (2) there is limited number of studies examining cost dimensions, (3) there is lack of studies examines both benefits and costs from dyadic perspective (i.e. …

The Effect Of Nutrition Information On Menu Selection When Eating Food Away From Home, Rebecca Foster Hochradel

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

As the number of Americans diagnosed with heart disease, diabetes, and excessive weight continues to increase, providing information to allow consumers to choose healthier foods becomes imperative. The number of consumers eating food away from home (EFAH) is rising. Although nutrition information is required on food products purchased for home use, it is not required when EFAH. How can a consumer know what is healthy if nutrition information is not provided? Policy makers and restaurateurs are in conflict regarding the provision of nutrition information on the menu. Policy makers want this information to be provided while restaurateurs say providing this …

Lagu And Belu: The Semiotics Of Bottled Water Packaging, Daniel Fusch

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

There has been considerable recent criticism of the bottled water industry from professional and popular as well as scholarly sources. This criticism disputes the veracity of a brand's claim to a pure and natural source, as well as the standards for regulation. This paper adds another factor to the criticism of bottled "natural springs" water, emphasizing the magical operation implicit in the rhetoric for the packaging of bottled water. The paper examines the natural and supernatural semiotics of the commercial packaging for bottled "natural springs" water, and identifies a correlation between the semiotic function of the ancient Germanic rune lagu …

The Role Of Interfunctional Market Orientation In New Product Program Success: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis, George Grady Gresham

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A central tenet of the market orientation construct is the need for virtually all departments, not just the marketing department, to participate in gathering, disseminating and responding to market intelligence. Previous academic research provides empirical support for a positive relationship between market orientation and superior business performance. Superior business performance, for many firms, depends upon a continuous stream of new products emerging from their product development programs, yet few studies have demonstrated the link between market orientation and new product development program success. This dissertation conceptualizes market orientation below the strategic business level as interfunctional market orientation (IFMO) for cross-functional …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Link Between Market Orientation And New Product Performance: The Mediating Effects Of Organizational Capabilities, Turkan Dursun-Kilic

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

In today's business world, one of the most important problems that companies encounter is new product failure. The high product failure rate has been a major concern for practitioners for many years. It was reported that almost half of the new products introduced each year will actually fail (e.g., Sivadas and Dwyer 2000; Zirger and Maidique 1990). Given the fact that the increasing level of technological advancement, consumer expectations, and domestic as well as international competitive pressures continue to shorten the product life cycle for new products, it has become extremely important for companies to understand the critical determinants of …

An Experimental Examination Of Equivalence Failures In Multi-Cultural Comparative Research, F. Mark Case

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

As the global economy integrates, there is an increased need to understand international business phenomena. This forces a reliance upon multi-cultural marketing research, which is evidenced by a marked increase in international studies, particularly multi-cultural comparative research (Sin, Cheung & Lee 1999). Central to the usefulness of this research is the question of the validity and comparability of results, which is greatly affected by a property known as equivalence of test instruments; or the degree to which the scales and the items in them are seen to be the same across cultures.

To date, no research exists that approaches the …

Customer Relationship Marketing And Effects Of Demographics And Technology On Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Financial Services, Priscilla Gaudet Aaltonen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

In today's market, financial institutions are adopting Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) as a strategy aimed at collecting and using data to deliver increased customer value (Payne, Holt, Frow 2000) and, in turn, to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, customer loyalty. However, as more studies are being done on the outcome of CRM strategies over time, it is becoming evident that the costs often outweigh the expected benefits and CRM projects have consistently over-promised and under-delivered (Norman and Zafar 2001). Often, customer satisfaction is increased slightly but loyalty rates do not increase at all.

To date, much of what has been …

An Empirical Examination Of The Moderators Of The Service Recovery Paradox, Vincent P. Magnini

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Some researchers (Abrams and Paese, 1993; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault, 1990; Etzel and Silverman. 1981; Feinberg et al., 1990; Folkes and Kotsos, 1986; Gilly and Gelb, 1982; Hart, Heskett, and Sasser, 1990; Hocutt, Chakraborty, and Mowen, 1997; Kelley and Davis, 1994; Kelley, Hoffman and Davis, 1993; McCollough and Bharadwaj, 1992; Michel, 2001; Chrage, 2001; Smith and Bolton, 1998; Spreng, Harrell, and Mackoy, 1995; Tax, Brown, and Chandrashekaran, 1998) support the notion of a ‘recovery paradox’ which states that the occurrence of a failure may, if the recovery is effective, offer an opportunity to acquire higher satisfaction ratings from customers than …

First-Mover Advantage: A Cross-National Comparison Of Mature And Emerging Market Consumers' Attitudes Toward Pioneer And Follower Brands, Tarek T. Mady

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A number of scholars suggest that the ability to accrue any competitive advantage stemming from time of entry is a function of the type of market being entered (e.g., Lieberman and Montgomery 1988; Kerin et al. 1992; Szymanski et al. 1995; VanderWerf and Mahon 1997). This dissertation extended the current behaviorally-based research domain of the field vis-a-vie a survey-based comparative study of mature market (U.S.) and emerging market (Indian) consumers' attitudes toward pioneer and follower brands. Two fundamental questions were asked: (1) Are there significant attitudinal differences between mature market and emerging market consumers based on order of …

An Investigation Of The Antecedents And Consequences Of Individual-Level Customer Orientation: A Comprehensive Approach, Ceyhan Kilic

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Customer orientation has been acknowledged by both practitioners and scholars as a critical element for the success of almost every business.

The primary objective of this research study is to respond to the previous research calls (e.g., Brown et al. 2002; Deshpande, Farley, and Webster 1993; O'Hare, Boles, and Johnston 1991) by investigating the antecedents and consequences of customer orientation at the individual level through a comprehensive structural model. The suggested model captures a comprehensive set of potential antecedents of customer orientation. The antecedents and consequences of customer orientation include organizational factors (i.e., organizational culture and market orientation), j ob-related …

Market Orientation And Export Performance In Thailand: A Moderating Effect Of International Marketing Strategy, Phattarawan Tantong

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A lot of literature provides evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation (MO) and performance (e.g., Narver and Slater 1990; Jaworski and Kohli 1993). Some studies, however, found insignificant results of such a relationship (e.g., Selnes, Jaworski, and Kohli 1996; Pelham 1997), resulting in an open question of MO's predictive power on performance. Moreover, most of the research in this area has been conducted in the U.S. context, and the literature shows that there is a need to study MO in a non-U.S. context (e.g., Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar 1993; Grewal and Tansuhaj 2001). Similarly, the standardization (adaptation) literature …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumer Ethnocentrism Across Russia's Three Sub-Cultures, Shawn Thelen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Shimp and Sharma (1987) extended the concept of ethnocentrism to commercial products with the development of a 17-item Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale [CETSCALE]. Consumer ethnocentrism is the belief that purchasing imported products harms the local economy, increases unemployment, and is morally wrong (Skimp and Sharma 1987). Shimp and Sharma (1987) called for studies to determine antecedents to consumer ethnocentrism and to apply the CETSCALE across geographic and regional segments. This dissertation addresses a void in the literature by examining antecedents; Inglehart's Materialism/Post Materialism (1977) and Holbrook's Nostalgia (1993), and outcome variables; product purchase preference, of consumer ethnocentrism across sub-cultures postulated to …

Deception In Advertising: A Content Analysis Of The Legal Parameters Of Deception, E. Carla Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

One of the primary attributes of a free market economy is the uninhibited flow of truthful information regarding the goods and services available in the marketplace (Azcuenaga 1995). This free flow of information, in the form of advertising, enhances market performance by informing consumers and enabling firms to compete equitably based on the attributes of their offerings. Studies reveal that, for the vast majority of marketing managers, the regulatory environment serves as the primary influence in advertising strategy development and decision-making (Davis 1994). However, in their theory development, behavioral researchers often ignore the legal aspects promulgated by the FTC. Furthermore, …

Strategy Implementation Effectiveness In A Nonprofit Environment: The Case Of Museum Stores, Sandra A. Mottner

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The character of museums in America has changed significantly in this century as museums change how they market themselves to their constituents. One of these changes has been the growth and development of museum stores. First designed to supplement museum income museum stores are now a major source of museum funding (American Association of Museums 1999) and a source of educational enhancement of the museum's educational mission (Theobald 2000). However, despite the growth of the museum store, virtually no academic research has been undertaken.

This research seeks to help fill this void in the literature of not only museum store …

Towards A Strategy-Balanced Measure Of Business Performance: Conceptualization And Empirical Examination With The Market Orientation Construct, David William Lambert

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Although previous research has theoretically asserted and provided partial empirical support for a positive relationship between an organization's market orientation and business performance, few studies have demonstrated this relationship using a broader conceptualization of business performance that extends beyond market-based and financial measures. This dissertation conceptualizes and develops valid measurements of key dimensions of a business performance construct—termed strategy-balanced measure of business performance (SBMBP)—and empirically tests this construct with the market orientation construct. To fully capture the financial and operational domain of business performance, the SBMBP construct is developed through a multidisciplinary literature review, in-depth telephone interviews, and industry and …

Market Orientation: Towards An Understanding In Developing Marketplaces Of South America, Howard Warren Olsen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Theory development is essential for the health and wellbeing of marketing as it provides boundaries and a foundation for the growth of the discipline. Kohli and Jaworski's (1990, 1993) efforts provided the critical first step in the evolution of market orientation theory. However, evidence has not confirmed regularities in various industry circumstances as well as different international marketplaces. The literature is replete with a variety of different scales that have been used. Finally, the concept of market orientation is based upon the premise that such activities enhance business performance, but requisite performance measures have not been properly matched with the …

Understanding The Digital Divide As It Relates To Electronic Commerce, Franklin D. Gaillard

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

There exists an electronic digital divide within the United States. This digital divide concerns access to the Internet and its corresponding technologies. The U.S. government is concerned about the digital divide because it appears that certain ethnic groups and income levels are being excluded from computer technologies and the Internet. These groups include African Americans and Hispanics, who are lagging the Caucasians significantly in gaining access to the Internet. For a while the gap between majority and minority groups appeared to be widening. Since Internet access is a prerequisite to electronic commerce, an understanding of the relationship between the digital …

Sales Training Practices In Malaysia: Comparisons Of Domestic And Multinational Companies, Mohamad Asri Jantan

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation expands the domestic sales training research into international settings by examining and comparing sales training practices of domestic and multinational companies (MNCs) in Malaysia. Fourteen hypotheses were proposed and examined: (1) the two groups' comparative sales training practices; (2) the two groups' sales managers' perceptions toward important sales training tasks; (3) the relationships of the different perceptions toward important sales training tasks to sales 9 managers' performance measures; and (4) the effect of two groups' demographic variables on perceived adequacy of the overall sales training programs.

Cross-sectional data were collected via self-administered questionnaires distributed to sales managers, marketing …

Distinguishing Sales Professionals From Their Marketing Counterparts: An Empirical Inquiry, Patricia Knowles, Anusorn Singhapakdi

Marketing Faculty Publications

Sales and other marketing professionals were compared in terms of some of their demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic characteristics. It was generally expected that sates professionals would be different from the other marketing professionals in the sample. Regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, more sales than other marketing professionals were male and they were less affluent. They also had fewer years of business experience. In terms of their personal values and moral philosophies, sales professionals, despite a general consensus evidenced in many leading sales and sales management texts that they are different from other employees, are generally speaking, very similar.

A Content Analysis Of Advertising In Magazines Directed At United States And United Kingdom Seniors, Ray Markham Smith

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The seniors (55+) market is a growing, attractive market. While this market represents almost one-fourth of the total population in the United States and is slightly higher in the United Kingdom today, this segment is projected to grow to approximately one-third of the population over the next quarter century.

Relative to their proportion of the total population, seniors, and especially women, have historically been underrepresented as general advertising models. When seniors are portrayed, they are often used in supporting roles or in a negatively stereotyped manner. While the aging process is associated with declines in mental and physical capabilities, and …

An Examination Of A Multidimensional Model Of Customer Satisfaction With Internet Purchasing, Kathleen Vanscoyoc

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The World Wide Web and Internet have transformed the competitive business environment and altered the customer-firm relationship by creating a new retailing format and service enterprise. It is rapidly growing as a competitive distribution medium in which customer satisfaction will be a major success factor in the development and maintenance of this new retailing format. Despite its growing importance as a new shopping medium, little empirical research has been conducted that examines the relationship between Internet shopping, customer satisfaction, company image, and future online purchasing. Research is needed to develop theoretical models that will systematically explain and predict behavior related …

Browsers Beware: Avoiding Legal Entanglements On The Internet, Michael Zugelder, Theresa Flaherty, James Johnson

Finance Faculty Publications

When Chicago resident David Loundy ordered a compact disk on the Internet from a British Web site, he received an e-mail confirming his order. Loundy expected to pay the advertised price of £8.99, or about $14. When he was subsequently charged £12.99, Loundy was incensed. He argued that he had accepted the set price of £8.99 and insisted that he pay no more for the disk. But when Loundy filed suit in England under the Consumer Protection Act of 1987, he was told that the Act did not apply to him because, under English common law, the place of the …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Critical Determinants Affecting Commitment And Performance Of The U. S. Firm In The South African Market: Apartheid Versus Post-Apartheid, Sonja Pollard Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the world's Big Emerging Markets (BEMs), South Africa has received vast attention from potential foreign investors (IRRC 1994) and has been recognized by scholars as an excellent base for research (Hofmeyr, Templer and Beaty 1994). Unfortunately, little is known about the export behavior of the foreign firm in South Africa (Calof and Viviers 1995) given the country's history of political, social and economic instability.

This dissertation is an effort to increase the understanding of the factors that contribute to the commitment and overall market performance of U.S. firms in South …

Psychological Influencers Of A Consumer's Innovative Propensity: A Cross-Cultural Examination, Angela D' Auria Stanton

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The purpose of this effort was to focus on measuring the psychological characteristics (specifically perceived risk, dogmatism, fatalism, self esteem, empathy, and cognitive complexity) of the innovative consumer. In order to assess the various relationships and interrelationships that exist in the psychological determinants of innovativeness, a structural modeling approach was employed. The model was also tested in a two country setting in order to determine its robustness cross-culturally. The innovative behavior measure focused on a single domain, the Internet, since innovativeness does not typically overlap across product categories (e.g. Gatignon and Robertson 1985).

Overall, the results of the test of …