Marketing Dissertations Copyright (c) 2013 Georgia State University All rights reserved. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss Recent documents in Marketing Dissertations en-us Fri, 10 May 2013 01:40:59 PDT 3600 EFFECT OF RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND COST TO SERVE ON CUSTOMER VALUE IN BUSINESS MARKET http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/25 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/25 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:10:25 PDT Traditionally, marketers have assumed that investing in the quality of relationships with customers would generate superior profitability to the selling firm. The assumption is that coordination and collaboration between buyer and seller create value for both firms by reducing costs and expanding revenue opportunities. However, such value creation mechanism does not work every time. Closer relationships require customer specific investments and a higher level of service that may create more cost to the seller than the potential gain in revenue, negatively impacting profitability of the selling firm. This research explores the effect of buyer-seller relationship quality on value creation for the selling firm, emphasizing the understanding of costs associated with serving the relationship. Two studies were conducted: Study 1 qualitatively examines the cost associated with serving customers and estimates actual cost-to-serve for individual customers. Study 2 measures the quality of customer relationships, past customer profitability and customer lifetime value for each customer relationship in the proposed sample. Finally, the effect of RQ on customer lifetime value is evaluated. Results suggest that investing in customer relationships have an effect on the drivers of customer cost and profitability. However, the net effect on customer value is not as clear as it depends on the trade offs of the different drivers of cost and profit.

]]> Maria G. Piscopo Perceived Brand Age and Its Influence on Choice http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/24 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/24 Tue, 14 Aug 2012 06:00:49 PDT Understanding brand age is potentially critical to a brand management program. When a brand begins to be perceived as older, even with the positive attributes aligned with the idea of traditional and established brands, consumers may begin to move away from the brand. This study defines the concepts of both perceived and preferred brand age. We look at how perceived brand age fits in with our current perspective on branding and can enrich our understanding of consumers’ personal preferences.

As there is very little published work in the area of brand age three distinct set of studies were conducted in order to fully understand the meaning of brand age, explicate the construct and understand the antecedents and consequences. The first study involved a group of exploratory studies. The purpose of this initial group of conceptual studies was to explore current consumer understanding and interpretation of the concept of perceived brand age. These studies were used to inform and direct our subsequent research. Our second set of studies explicated the brand age concept. In the first project, we used a Likert scale designed to understand what cues consumers use to understand the age of a brand. The second project was a semantic differential research study to examine what specific characteristics are associated with younger brands, older brands or are neutral between the two. We also develop and test a model of consumer choice through the exploration of the relationship between perceived brand age and preferred brand age.

]]> Monica D. Guillory Joint Resolution of Supply Chain Risks: The Role of Risk Characteristics and Problem Solving Approach http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/23 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/23 Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:40:13 PDT The purpose of this study is to examine the disruption risk resolution process in supply chains; specifically, to assess how risk attributes impact the approach firms select to resolve risks and the associated final outcomes.

We propose that high magnitude risks are positively associated with mutually beneficial problem resolution; on the other hand, low likelihood risks have the opposite effect, they are negatively associated with mutually beneficial resolution. Our conceptual contribution lies in our articulation of the mechanisms though which risk magnitude and risk likelihood impact mutual problem resolution. We posit that high magnitude risks and low likelihood (uncommon) risks mobilize the social network of actors, triggering vigilant monitoring for risks, communication among actors and across firm boundaries, and resource sharing and coordination which facilitate collaborative problem solving and mutual resolutions. These mobilization mechanisms help supply chain partners to overcome the challenges of complexity and allow for information and resource flows among actors and between firms.

Our statistical analysis demonstrates that the impact of risk attributes on mutual problem solutions is fully mediated by timely problem identification and collaborative problem solving.

]]> Leah J. Bovell Connected Consumers: Cognizance of Provision Networks in Mundane Consumption http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/22 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/22 Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:33:13 PST Many types of product meanings have been investigated in the consumer behavior literature, and these layers of meaning have been shown to influence consumer behavior. However, very little research has attempted to investigate product meanings having to do with provision networks, that is, the people, places, resources and processes involved in creating products and delivering them to the consumer. In addition, researchers in several fields have argued that consumers have lost an awareness of provision networks due to their increasing size and complexity in the modern economy. This research indicates that some consumers are indeed cognizant of the systems of provision for the products they consume. The results of this study indicate that some consumers expend effort to create and ascribe provision meanings for some products, and that these meanings in turn affect the consumer’s consumption decisions and experiences. In spite of the commodifying effects of modern market systems, these consumers exhibit an appreciation for products as the outcome of a complex system of relationships among people, places, resources and processes and have thus become reconnected to the provision of what they consume.

]]> Stephen T. Weaver Risk and Visibility in Global Supply Chains: An Empirical Study http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/21 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/21 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:49:33 PST Working with international suppliers in global supply chains, manufacturing firms now are faced with substantial supplier risks which could be triggered by disruptions in either their suppliers or the supplier’s market. Reactive actions to the risks, however, have usually been shown to be inefficient and sometimes ineffective. In this dissertation, therefore, I develop a theoretical framework linking some key relationship-specific capabilities to supplier risk. My contention is that the capabilities, when developed, can help proactively mitigate the risk. Thus, the model in this study is grounded in the resource-based and the relational views.

In this study, the survey method has been employed to collect data from 66 manufacturing firms in the United State who are sourcing from international suppliers. Procedural and statistical methods have been employed to guard against typical empirical issues including non-response bias, common method bias, and problems in validity and reliability of measurement instruments.

Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was employed to test the model with bootstrapping to estimate t-values for the paths. The analysis results showed support for the model.

A conclusion from the study is that visibility is the critical relationship-specific capability that needs to develop for buying firms to mitigate supplier risk proactively. This is because it may not be substitutable by other mechanisms like goodwill trust, and other capabilities, including absorptive capacity and IT integration, will only operate via visibility to influence risk performance. Moreover, visibility is a significant capability that helps mitigate risk regardless of the relationship duration between the buyer and the supplier and of the market conditions under which the supplier is working.

This study thus adds to the risk literature with discussions of supplier risks. Nuances have also been added to the resource-based and relational views by developing the theoretical relationships among the identified capabilities and by examining the contextual conditions under which the relationships are working to mitigate supplier risk. Managers from both sides of a dyadic relationship may benefit from the study by utilizing the tools and the study results to monitor and mitigate supplier risk.

]]> Hung V. Nguyen The Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Outsourcing Sales and Marketing Functions: A Resource-Advantage Perspective in the Context of Consumer Packaged Goods http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/20 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/20 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:36:06 PDT Outsourcing refers to contracting out the functions to a third party instead of conducting them in-house. The main contribution of this dissertation is to develop and test a model of successful outsourcing in the accomplishment of headquarters selling task. Specifically, it intends to (a) provide a theoretical framework for outsourcing partnership performance, (b) explore the potential complementarities construct in the context of a dyadic outsourcing relationship, (c) examine the role of learning dynamic capabilities in turning potential complementarities into outsourcing success, and (d) explicate the role of structural social capital as an antecedent to learning dynamic capability construct . The conceptual framework of the model is based on the resource-advantage theory which posits that resources, potential complementarities and dynamic capabilities are explicated as sub-constructs. The pool of respondents who are the practicing managers of outsourcing in the consumer packaged goods industry was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings showed that the learning dynamic capabilities construct is the most important factor affecting in the outsourcing partnership performance in the context of headquarters selling task. The task-related resources of the outsourcer had a significant positive effect on potential complementarities. However, the positive effect of the outsourcee’s task-related resources on potential complementarities was not significant. Likewise, the positive effect of the potential complementarities on the outsourcing partnership performance did not emerge as significant. The effect of structural social capital of the outsourcer had a significant but negative influence on learning dynamic capabilities. The positive effect of structural social capital of the outsourcee on learning dynamic capabilities and the moderating role of learning dynamic capabilities were found to be insignificant.

]]> belgin unal How Does Buzz Build Brands? Investigating the Link between Word of Mouth and Brand Performance http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/19 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/19 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:36:04 PDT To aid in resolving some of the ambiguity in the literature about the impact of different forms of WOM on brand performance, this dissertation investigates how WOM influences three consumer responses to WOM: purchase, WOM retransmission, and additional information search. The author investigates these questions by analyzing a database comprising more than three years of detailed WOM data from a unique, nationally representative panel merged with other secondary sources that provide various measures of brand strength (the American Consumer Satisfaction Index and Harris Interactive’s Equitrend). Using a series of hierarchical regression models, the results from this study reveal numerous insights into the contextual factors that moderate the impact of a WOM episode. For example, negative WOM about a brand has a larger absolute effect on consumer purchase intentions than positive WOM, but positive WOM has a larger positive effect on WOM retransmission than the positive effect of negative WOM. Offline WOM tends to exacerbate the effect of positive and negative brand sentiment on purchase intentions. WOM between stronger social ties tends to have greater impact on brand-related responses than WOM between weak ties, except in the case of motivating additional information search. The results also indicate that strong brands (those with higher levels of brand equity) tend to reap greater benefits from WOM. For example, negative, mixed, or neutral WOM has greater influence on purchase, and WOM from weak social ties about strong brands motivates higher levels of information search than when WOM from weak ties is about weaker brands.

]]> Andrew M. Baker Mr. Understanding the Barriers to the Assimilation of Interorganizational Technologies in Channel Relationships http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/18 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/18 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:34:40 PDT Organizations are increasingly focusing on their value chain activities in an effort to improve their performance, especially in the recent economic times. Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their channel activities has become a focal point for many organizations. Interorganizational systems (IOS’s) have played an important part in this effort. While in theory, IOS’s have the ability to enhance the degree of cooperation and coordination between two channel partners, often the results obtained are not what is expected. Hence, it becomes very important to understand the barriers to the assimilation of these technologies. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives of governance, including transaction cost analysis (TCA), control theory and agency theory, we develop an integrative model that examines the factors that influence an organizations assimilation process. The model identifies and examines three stages of assimilation: technological, exploitive and explorative assimilation that add value to an organization. The model features asset specificity, technological uncertainty, performance documentation, agent orientation and bilateral governance mechanisms as antecedents to assimilation. It also examines the moderating effects of bilateral mechanisms.

Our results suggest that theories of governance provide an additional lens to examine assimilation phenomena. In specific, our empirical analysis leads to several key findings: (1) channel partners who are locked in to the relationship with high levels of asset specificity are more likely to assimilate the technology; (2) bilateral governance mechanisms are a key force in the assimilation process, with both direct and moderated effects; (3) organizations that view the channel partner as an agent of the firm are less likely to adopt the technology, especially when the relationship exhibits low levels of bilateral governance mechanisms. Together these findings provide new insights into barriers to the assimilation of IOS’s in channel relationships.

]]> Jennifer L. Fries The Drivers of a Successful Corporate Sponsorship and the Quantified Financial Impact: Applying the Attitudinal Triad of Cognition, Affect, and Conation and Customer Lifetime Value to Corporate Sponsorships http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/17 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/17 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:34:39 PDT While the volume of research on corporate event sponsorships as a marketing tool has increased markedly over the past decade, the results have done little to help marketers to justify sponsorship spending. Not only do marketers have little knowledge of a sponsored event’s financial return, they also struggle to demonstrate any impact on consumer behavior at all.

Using multi-wave survey data, we quantified the financial impact of a sponsorship. We predicted the number of new buyers based upon changed brand attitudes, consistent with a hierarchy of effects model. We then established the financial return on the sponsorship spending by estimating the customer lifetime value (CLV) of these new buyers.

We collected the data around a major college football bowl game. Six phases of data collection were used to determine purchasing behavior and brand attitudes of attendees before and after the sponsored event, in comparison to television viewers of the event and the general public. We applied Lavidge and Elrick’s (1961) attitudinal constructs as the independent variables in a logistic regression to predict future purchase. The final data collection was used to validate the model’s prediction.

The findings show that the model accurately predicted the number of new customers after one buying cycle for the sponsor’s products. We also quantified the positive impact of the sponsorship on the CLV of existing customers within the same time frame.

The managerial implications of this study are significant. Sponsorships are highly risky, with fixed outlays up front, and unclear benefits to be realized in the future. We provide a methodology that not only allows sponsors to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorship, but to determine the return on their sponsorship investment. We have taken consumer behavior theory from marketing communications research and combined it with CLV tools, thus allowing marketers to determine the number of new customers that a sponsorship generates, as well as how it influences the buying patterns that drive customer lifetime value.

]]> David Nickell Why Are You Really Winning and Losing Deals: A Customer Perspective on Determinants of Sales Failure http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/16 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/16 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:11:59 PDT Understanding the determinants of sales success and sales failure has organization wide implications, ranging from an improved salesforce to improved corporate performance. However, a paucity of research on sales failure has resulted in an under-conceptualized field largely built on assumptions. This research proposes to overcome salesforce failure attribution biases by collecting data from the industrial buyer’s perspective. Thirty five post-mortem interviews with procurement decision makers from buying organizations were collected following a failed sales proposal. The context of these failed sales proposals was for multi-year industrial service key account contracts (>$5 Million). The result of this naturalistic inquiry is a model which outlines the determinant attributes of sales failure: price, adaptability and relationship-potential. An experimental design was conducted following this exploratory research in order to test the derived drivers of sales failure and success, as well as provide a trade-off analysis of the three emergent sales proposal themes. Results indicate that a lack of adaptability has the strongest impact on the sales failure outcome variable, as well as buyer characteristics have a potentially moderating impact on the relative trade-off weights between price/adaptability and price/relationship-potential.

]]> Scott B. Friend The Mediating Role of Ethical Decision Making in the Relationship between Job Characteristics and Job Outcomes: An Examination of Business-to-Business Salespeople http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/15 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/15 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:15 PST The purpose of this research is to examine how the ethical decision making of a salesperson is influenced by job characteristics, and how ethical decision making then influences job outcomes. This research is important because the field of ethics draws from diverse disciplines that have minimal agreement with each other. While calls have been made for a uniform standard of ethics, a better decision may be for each discipline to look internally to determine both what ethics is and how it functions in relation to other variables on in each disciplines unique field. This study examines first how the exogenous job characteristic variables of perceived organizational support, sales force control system and ethical values of the salesperson affect ethical decision making. Perceived organizational support and the behavioral-based sales force control system are hypothesized to positively influence ethical decision making. The link between perceived organizational support and ethical decision making has been observed in the field of accounting, and sales research has found that perceived organizational support leads to organizational citizenship behavior, which contains ethical decision making under its umbrella. Behavior-based sales force control systems are predicted to lead to ethical decision making because this type of control system has been shown to both lead to increased affective organizational commitment and reduce the benefits of acting unethically. The ethical values of the salesperson are predicted to moderate the relationships between the independent variables and ethical decision making. Ethical values and the independent variables in the study are influenced by similar antecedent constructs. The study also examines how ethical decision making influences the endogenous job outcomes variables of affective organizational commitment and salesperson performance. Ethical decision making is hypothesized to positively influence both performance and commitment. Ethical climates have been found to increase commitment, and performance is considered a key outcome of ethical decision making. Azjen’s (1985) theory of planned behavior ties the hypotheses together.

]]> G. Alexander Hamwi 'Check the Rhyme': A Study of Brand References in Music Videos http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/14 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/14 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:14 PST In this study we will explore impact exposure to brands references in music videos may have on the development of consumers’ brand knowledge. We assert that an understanding of this relationship is a function of both executional elements of the message and the intervening effects of select individual-difference factors. This dissertation applies social cognitive theories, the cultivation hypothesis, attribution theory and the elaboration likelihood model to develop the set of hypotheses. This dissertation seeks to provide initial evidence regarding the key factors brand managers and music executives must be aware of when implementing music video brand placements. A conceptual model of music video brand placement is presented and evaluated utilizing qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative methodology employs real music fans as informants and music videos as stimuli in developing an understanding of the relationship consumers have with music as well as their reactions to music videos. The quantitative methodology uses an original music video as the stimulus, real music fans as respondents and a real-time on-line survey to measure the relationship among the variables. Study findings support the ability of music videos to impact extra-musical consumption and provide early evidence regarding factors important to understanding consumers’ responses to music video brand placements.

]]> Janee N. Burkhalter Fair or Foul? Determining the Rules of the Fair Pricing Game http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/13 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/13 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:14 PST Past research on perceived price fairness has examined outcome fairness, or the fairness of an offered price in respect to other prices (e.g., Campbell 1999a; b). In this research consumers’ perceived fairness of the process used by the retailer to set the price, as well as outcome perceived price fairness (PPF), were examined. In the first of two studies, twelve price-setting practices were evaluated on procedural fairness, pervasiveness (i.e., commonness of price-setting practice in the marketplace), and social acceptability within six contexts. Social acceptability was found to be highest when the price-setting practice was both procedurally fair and perceived to be highly pervasive for a given context. An experiment bridged the two concepts of price fairness by detecting the negative effect of using a socially unacceptable price-setting practice on outcome PPF. Also, evidence of multidimensionality (i.e., a cognitive and an affective dimension) of the PPF construct was confirmed in the second study. Cognitive and affective assessments of PPF were found to bring about greater consumer intention to partake in self-protection behaviors such as complaining, and revenge-seeking behaviors such as posting negative online reviews.

]]> Jodie Lynne Ferguson The Performance Implications of Planning, Implementation, and Evolution of Market-oriented Strategy by Top Management http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/12 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/12 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:13 PST Participating in the growing research stream involving the market orientation-performance relationship, this investigation explores the impact of firms’ planning, implementation, and evolution of market orientation on financial performance. A longitudinal approach is used to capture the formation and evolution of market orientation. Evidence of market orientation as depicted in top management’s stated strategy is assessed through content analysis of 150 SEC filings (S-1s and 10-Ks) of seventy-five initial public offering (IPO) firms. The sample covers companies that went public in the years 2001-2003, and the study spans a six-year period from 2001-2007. Customer and competitor orientation are independent variables tested to predict stock return. Moderator variables of firm size, top-management-team (TMT) heterogeneity, services or manufacturing industry, and industry competitive intensity are tested in a series of regression analyses. The study involves a unique combination of features in that: 1) the market orientation of top management is captured; 2) the market orientation formation and evolution is captured; 3) secondary archival data is used in the analysis; 4) objective performance measures are utilized; 5) data from multiple industries is analyzed; 6) factors that moderate the market orientation performance relationship are studied. Contributions of this study are that it: 1) builds on the work of Gebhardt, Carpenter and Sherry (2006) using longitudinal analysis to capture the dynamic nature of the market orientation; 2) establishes evidence of variation of the market orientation across time; 3) examines the division of market orientation as separate constructs of customer and competition; 4) provides insight about important moderators of the relationship; 5) moves literature towards a foundation for a more general theory of market orientation by providing some further evidence of the construct’s relation to financial performance. Results of regression analysis provide support for customer orientation leading to superior financial performance. Significant moderator variables in this relationship include manufacturing vs. service firms, top-management-team (TMT) heterogeneity, and firm size. Unexpected results are found for competitor orientation and some moderator results are not significant.

]]> Jeffrey R. Foreman Impact of Customer Crowding on Frontline Service Employees: Theoretical and Empirical Implications http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/10 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/10 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:12 PST This study investigates the impact of crowding on frontline service employees. In particular, this study examines how customer crowding affects frontline service employees’ stress, emotions, job performance, and displayed emotions. This study pioneers a new avenue by investigating employee (as opposed to consumer) reactions to customer crowding and addressing the gap in the literature on employees’ interaction with the physical environment. The underlying theoretical framework of the study is rooted in Lazarus’s (1966; 1991) model that links appraisal, emotional response, and coping in a sequential process. Applying theory to the context issue of customer crowding, the major constructs for this study are determined as: 1)the stressor (customer crowding), (2)appraisal,(3) emotions, (4)coping, and (5)service quality outcomes. The four major areas investigated in this study are: (1)stress levels of FSE due to customer crowding, (2)their emotions in the crowded service environment, (3)coping strategies they use under these circumstances, and(4)effects of such coping strategies on job performance and displayed emotions. A laboratory experiment is conducted with 200 frontline service employees where human density (a precursor to crowding)is manipulated via scenarios and videos. Analyzing the data via ANOVA, simple regression, and multiple regression, the results showed: (1)a positive relationship between crowding and stress, (2)an inverse relationship between positive emotions and stress, (3)a positive relationship between stress and negative emotions, (4) a negative impact of escape and confrontive coping strategies on service quality outcomes, and (5) a positive impact of distancing and social support on service quality outcomes. The contributions of the study are that: (1)it pioneers a new research avenue which opens avenues for future research, (2)it goes beyond the traditional Stimulus-Organism-Response approach to person-environment interaction and expands the domain of inquiry by incorporating the Lazarus transactional theory in the study of person-environment interaction, and (3)it provides a number of managerial implications regarding design of servicescapes to reduce the experience of crowding and training of frontline service employees on successful coping strategies.

]]> Anita H. Whiting A Communication Based Perspective on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Success http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/11 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/11 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:12 PST Although little empirical evidence exists to support this contention, the extant literature suggests that firms can potentially achieve two types of benefits from developing a CRM orientation: (1) increased efficiency in the allocation of resources destined for relationship building and maintenance activities, and (2) enhanced exchange relationship outcomes through the provision of superior customer value (Zablah, Bellenger, and Johnston 2004). This effort focused on the latter of these purported benefits and sought to answer the following two fundamental questions: (1) does a CRM orientation influence the outcome of customer-provider relationships and, if so, how; and (2) does CRM technology have an effect on the relative success of CRM initiatives? In an attempt to address these questions, a conceptual model of "CRM success" was advanced and tested utilizing data from, both, customers and their providers. The conceptual model, which is based on interactive communications theory, posits that a CRM orientation has a positive effect on the quality of the product, service and planned interaction messages providers convey to their customers. The model also suggests that the quality of these messages directly influences customer-perceived relationship value which, in turn, drives other relationship attitudes, perceptions and, ultimately, customers’ behavioral intentions. Finally, the model proposes a moderating role for CRM technology: the association between CRM orientation and message quality is expected to increase (decrease) as the assimilation of CRM technology within firms increases (decreases). The model was tested utilizing (multi-level) SEM techniques. The results provide partial support for the proposed model and suggest the following: 1. As firms’ level of CRM orientation increases, customer-perceived message quality decreases. This inverse relationship between CRM orientation and message quality does not hold true across accounts of different sizes. For large accounts, message quality tends to increase as firms’ level of CRM orientation increases while the opposite holds true for small and medium-sized accounts. 2. The relationship between CRM orientation and message quality is not contingent upon the extent to which firms have assimilated CRM technology. Rather, firms’ level of CRM technology assimilation appears to exert a direct effect upon message quality. 3. Customer-perceived relationship value (CPRV) mediates the effect that product, planned and service messages exert upon customers’ relationship attitudes, perceptions and, ultimately, behavioral intentions.

]]> Alex Ricardo Zablah Salesperson Behavioral Determinants of Customer Equity Drivers: Mediational Role of Trust http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/8 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/8 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:11 PST This dissertation examines the role of different types of salesperson behaviors on building and managing customer equity drivers. It is proposed that customers develop positive attitudes towards different value drivers through developed trust by different salesperson behaviors. Specifically, it is hypothesized that customer trust effects customers’ perceptions of brand value, product value and relationship value; the customer trust in turn is affected by different salesperson behaviors, namely, adaptive selling, customer oriented, selling oriented and un/ethical behaviors. Thus, this dissertation integrates selling behaviors literature with customer equity literature. This dissertation builds on past literature and proposes a conceptual model using nine different constructs representing three broader constructs, Selling behaviors, Customer trust and Customer equity drivers: Adaptive selling behavior, Selling orientation – Customer orientation (SOCO) behaviors and Un/ethical selling behavior, Customer trust with salesperson and selling firm, Value equity, Relationship equity and Brand equity. Descriptive research design is used for investigating the role of customer trust as a mediator in the relationships between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. The research design uses a dyadic sampling design where data for independent variables, selling behaviors and customer trust, is collected from insurance customers in St.Louis metropolitan area and the data for dependent variables, customer equity drivers, is collected from insurance salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data. The results support the mediational role of trust in the relationship between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. They also support the hypothesis that different selling behaviors have different effects on customer equity drivers. This research provides significant theoretical and managerial implications. It provides the existing body of literature with a different perspective on customer equity management. Managerially, it provides newer insights to sales managers of the effects of relational selling behaviors. This research also introduces a newer way to investigate selling behaviors by using a second order construct, relational selling behavior.

]]> Ramana K. Madupalli Structure and Process of Channel Program Selections: Retailers Choice among Parity Trade Promotions http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/9 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/9 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:11 PST This research tried to explain the role of calculative commitment, loyalty commitment and power asymmetry on behavioral commitment in a business to business scenario. We specifically looked at the trade promotion scenario since retailers face more trade promotions than they can accept and extant research suggests that retailers always choose trade promotions that offer the greatest immediate benefit. This dissertation addressed the following managerial question, “How does a firm select a program (trade deal) when all its vendors offer the same short term economic incentives”. We proposed that other aspects of retailer’s relationship with its vendors determine / influence the program selection decision. First, incentives imbedded in channel relationships namely economic incentives (e.g., access to new products) and social incentives (e.g., affect toward vendor / salesperson) lead to a selection decision. Second, the power asymmetry the retailer has with the various vendors directly impacts decision making and also moderates the impact of the embedded economic / social incentives. We used commitment theory and an experimental design to test our model. We find that calculative commitment has the greatest impact on decision making followed by power asymmetry. We also find that loyalty commitment has the least impact. We also found that under high power asymmetry, calculative commitment has a bigger impact than loyalty commitment on behavioral commitment than under low power asymmetry when loyalty commitment has a bigger impact.

]]> Amit Poddar Determinants of Brand Sensitivity in Organizational Buying Contexts http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/7 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/7 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:10 PST Business-to-business (B2B) marketing practitioners are increasingly relying on branding strategies though academic researchers have been slow to study branding in organizational contexts. By integrating existing conceptual models and research findings, this study examines the noteworthy differences between the B2B and the consumer market contexts and the implications of those differences on the formulation of B2B brand strategies. We introduce a conceptual model that suggests the conditions that are likely to increase or decrease organizations’ propensity to select branded products versus lesser-known or generic products when selecting suppliers, otherwise referred to as brand sensitivity. The proposed model is grounded in risk theory and posits that buying center, purchase situation, and product/relationship variables influence an organization’s brand sensitivity. Finally, we present the findings and implications of the multi-method research approach that was utilized to test the model of the determinants of brand sensitivity in organizational buying contexts. Results suggest that the level of intangibility is the key determinant of brand sensitivity in such settings.

]]> Brian Paul Brown Online Product Information Load: Impact on Maximizers and Satisficers within a Choice Context http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/6 http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/marketing_diss/6 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:07:09 PST Information load at various thresholds has been asserted to cause a decline in decision quality across several domains, including marketing (Eppler and Mengis 2004). The influence of each information load dimension may vary by study and context (Malhotra 1982; Lurie 2002; Lee and Lee 2004). Given the explosion of information available on the internet, attracting an estimated 144 million U.S. users (Burns 2006a), this experimental research examined how three dimensions of online product information load influenced consumers’ perceived cognitive effort. To the researcher’s knowledge, online product breadth, depth, and density have not been empirically tested together, in a multi-page within website context. A nationwide panel of 268 adult consumers participated in the web-based consumer electronics online search and selection task. Results suggest that a consumer’s perceived cognitive effort with the search and selection task negatively influences choice quality and decision satisfaction. Although product breadth directly influenced both choice quality and cognitive effort negatively, cognitive effort mediated product depth’s influence on choice quality and decision satisfaction. The perception of informational crowding also negatively influenced cognitive effort. Additionally, a choice involvement scale was adapted and developed based upon Schwartz’s (2004) Maximizer and Satisficer scale. Results suggest that the higher one’s choice involvement (tendency toward being a Maximizer), the lower one’s perceived cognitive effort with the search and selection task. Both product and choice involvement demonstrated a direct negative influence on cognitive effort, lending further empirical support for the information processing theory of consumer choice (Bettman 1979). A stimulus-organism-response framework, adapted from environmental psychology, was employed to model the relationships among the constructs tested. Results suggest that this framework may be helpful for guiding future online consumer research.

]]> Jill Renee Mosteller