Purpose The aim of this study is to test whether storelevel transformational leadership influences service employees' customer orientation via two different mechanisms— supervisor support and ...coworker support—and whether customer orientation leads to favorable customerperceived employee service performance. Design/Methodology/Approach Data were collected from multiple sources, comprising 212 service employee-customer dyads in 55 stores within Taiwan. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis (HLM) was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings Our results indicate that transformational leadership not only directly increased employee customer orientation, but also indirectly enhanced employee customer orientation through employee-perceived supervisor support. However, employees' perceived coworker support did not mediate the transformational leadership-customer orientation linkage. Moreover, although employee customer orientation was unrelated to customer-rated service performance, we found that the customer relationship moderated this association. Implications Our results show that (1) transformational leadership can enhance employees' customer orientation, and (2) supervisor support serves as the dominant mediator for the relationship between transformational leadership and employee customer orientation. Originality/Value Previous studies have predominantly examined the main effects of transformational leadership on employee customer orientation. This study extends our understanding of this relationship by highlighting the important mediating role of perceived supervisor support in the transformational leadership-customer orientation linkage.
We assemble a sample of over 10,000 customer-supplier relationships and determine whether the customer owns equity in the supplier. We find that factors related to both contractual incompleteness and ...financial market frictions are important in the decision of a customer firm to take an equity stake in their supplier. Evidence on the variation in the size of observed equity positions suggests that there are limits to the size of optimal ownership stakes in many relationships. Finally, we find that relationships accompanied by equity ownership last significantly longer than other relationships, suggesting that ownership aids in bonding trading parties together.
Empirical studies increasingly reflect the importance of service work in the economy. This article analyses the implications of this evolution for theories of work and employment. It critically ...reviews some key notions that are taken for granted in the research literature on service work and elaborates an alternative conceptual model. A deeper understanding of service work is possible only if the worker-customer interaction is conceived as part of the social structure that shapes it, namely the employment relationship. This article throws light on the interconnections between management control and customer demands and suggests that these have a mutually reinforcing effect which puts pressure on employees. It insists on both the distinctive features of front-line service work and the founding principles of the employment relationship that still apply beyond such categories.
Previous research on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has neglected marketing issues by and large. In this article, the authors examine the effects of postmerger integration in marketing (extent and ...speed of marketing integration) on M&A performance, as mediated by integration outcomes (magnitude of cost savings and market-related performance). Results from a survey of 232 horizontal M&A show that market-related performance after the merger or acquisition has a much stronger impact on financial performance than does cost savings. In addition, the authors find that the extent of integration is beneficial in terms of cost savings but detrimental in terms of market-related performance. Finally, they identify variables that moderate the relationships being considered.
Marketing managers can increase shareholder value by structuring a customer portfolio to reduce the vulnerability and volatility of cash flows. This article demonstrates how financial portfolio ...theory provides an organizing framework for (1) diagnosing the variability in a customer portfolio, (2) assessing the complementarity/similarity of market segments, (3) exploring market segment weights in an optimized portfolio, and (4) isolating the reward on variability that individual customers or segments provide. Using a seven-year series of customer data from a large business-to-business firm, the authors demonstrate how market segments can be characterized in terms of risk and return. Next, they identify the firm's efficient portfolio and test it against (1) its current portfolio and (2) a hypothetical profit maximization portfolio. Then, using forward-and back-testing, the authors show that the efficient portfolio has consistently lower variability than the existing customer mix and the profit maximization portfolio. The authors provide guidelines for incorporating a risk overlay into established customer management frameworks. The approach is especially well suited for business-to-business firms that serve market segments drawn from diverse sectors of the economy.
This paper uses the context of online banking to investigate the consequences of using self-service distribution channels to alter customer interactions with the firm. Using a sample of retail ...banking customers observed over a 30-month period at a large U.S. bank, we test whether changes in service consumption, cost to serve, and customer profitability are associated with the adoption of online banking. We find that customer adoption of online banking is associated with (1) substitution , primarily from incrementally more costly self-service delivery channels (automated teller machine and voice response unit); (2) augmentation of service consumption in more costly service delivery channels (branch and call center); (3) a substantial increase in total transaction volume; (4) an increase in estimated average cost to serve resulting from the combination of points (1)–(3); and (5) a reduction in short-term customer profitability. However, we find that use of the online banking channel is associated with higher customer retention rates over one-, two-, and three-year horizons. The documented relationship between the use of online banking and customer retention remains positive even after controlling for self-selection into the online channel. We also find evidence that future market shares for our sample firm are systematically higher in markets with high contemporaneous utilization rates for the online banking channel. This finding holds even after controlling for contemporaneous market share, suggesting it is not simply the result of increased market power leading to the acquisition of online banking customers.
The question of whether customer satisfaction is mispriced by the stock market has been debated over the past decade, yet it remains unintegrated with the broader asset pricing literature. The ...authors critique Fornell, Morgeson, and Hult (2016), focusing on that article's missed opportunities in addressing theoretical lacuna and empirical challenges that might establish the satisfaction mispricing anomaly. In doing so, they distinguish mispricing from value relevance, classify two broad avenues for satisfaction mispricing research, and detail the scope of future research under each avenue. They conclude by summarizing specific research opportunities and presenting implications for managers, investors, and educators that could lead marketing to become a net contributor to the marketing-finance dialogue.
Purpose: The purpose is to define the efficiency and priorities of modernization of Ukraine's trade integration with the EU countries in the implementation of DCFTA and to attempt to assess the ...indirect effects of the tree trade agreement between countries. Design/methodology/approach: To this end, a comparative analysis was carried out to assess the effectiveness of the Association Agreement and to identify the asymmetry of trade and economic integration between Ukraine and the EU. The correlation regression method was used to determine the dependence of Ukraine’s exports to the EU countries on GDP changes and to identity the integration impacts on economic growth. In turn, the extrapolation method was employed to calculate forecasts tor the economic growth rate and GDP per capita. Findings: Determining the effectiveness and priorities of modernization of the trade integration format of Ukraine-EU in the implementation of the DCFTA, as well as evaluation of the intermediate results of the FTA between the countries. At present, it is necessary to modernize the format of Ukraine’s trade integration with the EU in the context of the implementation of the DCFTA. Three main vectors for updating the Agreement have been identified as priorities: deepening sectoral integration; increasing duty-free export to the EU market; eliminating non-tariff measures restricting trade with the EU along with signing a number of agreements tor the above-mentioned purpose. Research limitations/implications: The results of the study will be useful to researchers of relevant issues, students, graduate students, doctoral students and teachers specializing in international relations and other academic disciplines, and the developed initiatives can be used by the government to form a new negotiating position on the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Originality/value: Forecasting and modeling the Ukraine-EU foreign trade turnover based on the use of the gravity model and correlation-regression analysis confirms that the introduction of the DCFTA in 2016-2017 allowed Ukraine to increase exports to the EU and modernization of the trade part of the agreement will positively affect the economic and social development of Ukraine. In this context, it is necessary to take into account the national interests and trade partners, in particular the possibility of Ukraine’s support tor the EU initiative “ European Green Deal” on the path to the formation of Europe as a carbon-neutral continent.
Unlike many other Sub-Saharan African countries, for many years Kenya had comparative advantages in the manufacturing of processed bean products. However, for new competitors intending to join the ...bean processing industry, little is known about marketing strategies for value added bean products. Using data from 90 retailers in the Nairobi and Kiambu counties in Kenya, a two-step econometric procedure-multivariate probit and Poisson regression models were applied to analyse retailers’ marketing strategy decisions. Findings show that information sources, cost of marketing, supply modalities, price of products, and quantities handled significantly influenced retailers’ marketing strategy choice. Surveyed retailers applied varying marketing strategies to market value added bean products. There is need for prospective retailers to choose an appropriate mix of strategies to penetrate the dynamic market with a number of value added bean products, and promote local consumption of value added bean products.
The second part of the article considers the main approaches and functions that characterize a modern sports management in Russia. To do this, we analyze areas of responsibility (area of expertise) ...of sports management entities in Russia, depending on their goals and functions they implement. The three approaches are highlighted in sports management: the one of organizations that implement social goals - mainly under state ownership; commercial approach of private companies seeking to generate revenues or spending of optimal advertising budgets, implemented through the use of marketing strategies; approach, which reflects the general principles of the activities of NGOs. Then the article describes aspirations of commercial companies in their relations with the public sector and its institutions, which are also typical for the field of sport as well as the functions that perform public authority executive agencies in charge in the field of sport in cooperation with sports business organizations. Certain promising opportunities for the development of sports management in Russia are analyzed.