CEO Incentives,Takeover Protection and Corporate Innovation

This study examines the effects of CEO equity‐based compensation and anti‐takeover provisions on corporate innovation. Using a large sample of US firms over the period 1996–2014, we find that long‐term incentives have a stronger influence on innovation when combined with takeover threats. We also show that equity‐based compensation is more likely to spur innovation for small firms and firms in industries with high product market competition and innovation pressure. However, this effect is somewhat weaker in the presence of anti‐takeover provisions, suggesting that takeover protection encourages managerial shirking even when external competition is high. Finally, in addition to the existing evidence on the valuation effect of CEO equity‐based compensation, we identify innovation as an important channel through which managerial incentives can enhance firm value. Our results have potential implications for shareholders, managers and policymakers.     

Improving Valuation Under Consumer Search: Implications for Pricing and Profits

There is a growing trend in the retail industry to improve customer experience. In this article, we study retailer‐initiated strategies to increase consumer valuation for a product under duopoly. In such a setting, it is possible that a consumer's valuation may be increased by one retailer; however, the consumer may decide to buy the product from the competitor. We consider a two‐stage game where retailers first decide whether to invest in improvements in customer valuation and then engage in price competition. We computationally explore the Nash equilibria in terms of both investment and pricing. We find that in the majority of cases retailers price in a manner to discourage their local customers to buy from the competitor. Next, we focus on the pricing game and theoretically characterize the pricing Nash equilibrium. We find that a retailer could overcome competitive effects by improving consumer valuation beyond a certain threshold. We also find that a retailer who does not invest could benefit from competition in situations where his competitor increases consumer valuation beyond a threshold. Finally, we explore through a computational study the Nash equilibria of the two‐stage game using an alternate model to establish the robustness of our findings.     

民族品牌跨国并购后的品牌战略研究——弱势品牌视角

2009年,中国民族品牌借全球金融危机之机,为加快其全球化的步伐,花费重金并购国外强势品牌。然而,"蛇吞象"式的跨国并购背后却是消费者的认知失调。同时,国内外现有研究针对改善该认知失调的品牌战略研究十分有限。因此,本文基于认知一致性和顾客品牌资产(CBBE)理论,从弱势品牌视角出发,围绕如何有效减轻"蛇吞象"后消费者的认知失调,运用焦点小组、个人访谈、实验和LME模型,最终得到了一些重要的发现:品牌要素战略(名称变化)、营销支持战略(价格维持或降低)以及次级联想杠杆战略(原产地保留或去除)都对并后品牌绩效产生显著影响。此外,本研究还揭示了消费者认知失调的改善机制,即品牌契合度在减轻消费者失调的并后品牌战略交互效应对品牌绩效的影响中起着重要的中介作用。这些成果既可以丰富现有品牌战略管理理论,也为民族品牌国际化提供实践指导。     

Innovativeness as an Unintended Outcome of Franchising: Insights from Restaurant Chains

A growing trend in improving innovation outcomes is to go outside the firm's boundaries. One mechanism by which firms extend organizational boundaries is through franchising their channels. Yet, the effects of franchising on innovation outcomes have been overlooked in the literature. We propose that a firm's emphasis on franchising will affect its organizational innovativeness, conceptualized as product and process innovativeness, independently and with other firm characteristics—franchising experience, firm size, financial leverage, and slack resources. We find support for our hypotheses using a nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression model estimated using panel data from 38 U.S. restaurant chains between 1992 and 2005. The positive effect of the emphasis on franchising on product innovativeness is stronger for firms with high financial leverage, but weaker for firms with high slack resources. For process innovativeness, the effect is stronger for firms with high financial leverage but weaker for large firms, and for firms with high franchising experience and high slack resources. The findings indicate that a firm's emphasis on franchising has contingent effects on product and process innovation outcomes. Thus, franchising emerges as a competing mechanism (to alliances and joint ventures) that extends organizational boundaries and affects organizational innovativeness.     

供应链中断下顾客缺货反应对牛鞭效应的影响研究

传统的关于供应链牛鞭效应的研究,仅关注供应链上游成员间（供应商、制造商或零售商）的协调运作,而忽略缺货发生后顾客缺货反应对供应链动态性的影响。本文利用高层级Petri-net对包含两个制造商、两个零售商的供应链系统进行建模与仿真,定量地研究不同的缺货强度下顾客缺货反应对两条相互竞争的供应链牛鞭效应的影响。研究结果表明,顾客缺货反应对缺货品牌及其竞争品牌的牛鞭效应均存在显著影响,但各种缺货反应对牛鞭效应的影响程度有所差异,且供应链中断强度（主要体现为发生缺货的品牌市场份额以及缺货持续时间）亦对牛鞭效应产生显著影响。我们建议不同产品类型（对应不同的顾客反应组合）的管理者根据品牌的市场占有率、缺货持续时间等因素对不同类型的顾客进行购买行为的引导,以缓解牛鞭效应并保持市场份额。     

竞争环境下客户服务投入对企业利润影响的均衡分析

客户服务投入是企业吸引新顾客和维持现有顾客的重要手段之一。然而,服务投入究竟是否能给企业带来价值？对于这一问题,业界和学界都没有明确的答案。本文通过建模的方法研究在竞争的市场环境下,固有的市场因素对客户服务投入价值的影响。研究发现,服务竞争的市场均衡结构是两家厂商都投入客户服务。服务投入给企业带来的价值随着产品差异度的提高而提高,随着厂商自身市场份额的增加而增加。即,在产品差异度高的市场,服务投入更容易给企业带来价值。而在集中度高的市场,服务投入更容易给市场份额大的企业带来价值。     

产业集群环境下的企业品牌纵向合作关系研究

揭示集群企业品牌纵向合作关系作用于企业品牌提升的内在机理,对指导集群内企业品牌提升实践具有重要意义。集群企业品牌纵向合作关系表现为基于产品供应、技术创新和营销协同三类合作关系。本文以需求供给模型为基础,构建了集群企业品牌纵向合作关系的数理模型,对集群企业品牌合作关系的形成及对品牌提升的作用机理进行了分析。模型分析表明:在产业集群环境下,上游品牌的行业地位越稳定,集群信任程度越高,纵向合作关系形成的可能性越大;在合作关系发生的情形下,集群信任程度越高,下游品牌产品价格竞争力越强,品牌合作绩效越高。     

品牌质量差异、消费者产品涉入程度对品牌敏感的影响研究

品牌敏感是消费者品牌行为研究方面的一个新课题,它反映了消费者在购买决策过程中对品牌的重视程度.同一产品类别不同品牌之间的质量差异和消费者的产品涉入程度被认为是品牌敏感的两类主要解释变量.本文利用结构方程模型进行的实证分析表明,品牌质量差异和消费者产品涉入程度总体上对品牌敏感起正向影响作用,但该作用因产品类别而异,因产品质量和产品涉入程度的维度而异.     

PRODUCT AND SERVICE QUALITY: THE ANTECEDENTS OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Prior literature has examined product quality and service quality separately as antecedents of customer loyalty. In the context of the automotive industry, we present a framework that examines the simultaneous impact of product and service quality on consumers' purchase intentions. The framework is operationalized as several hypotheses that posit relationships between service quality, service satisfaction, product quality, and customer loyalty. The hypotheses are tested using three sources of data: (i) archival data on product quality and customer purchases, (ii) consumersíresponses to a survey instrument, and (iii) Consumer Reports. Results indicate general support for main hypotheses proposed.     

顾客体验驱动的服务品牌建设

创建强势服务品牌是服务企业实现差别化竞争优势的重要手段。本文在对现有研究成果进行历史性回顾的基础上,从服务的过程属性出发,阐述了服务企业品牌建设的焦点应该是顾客体验的观点,然后探讨了通过塑造顾客体验来创建服务品牌的策略。     

Will More Purchasing Options Benefit Customers?

This paper considers the sale of a seasonal product in the face of strategic customers. At the beginning of the selling season, the retailer announces both the price p_h at which the product will be sold during the selling season and the post‐season clearance price p<p_h for unsold items. We analyze two operating regimes: The “no reservation regime” allows a buyer either to purchase the product at price p_h when he arrives or to enter a lottery to purchase at price p if the product remains unsold. The “reservation regime” offers each buyer one extra option than the no reservation regime: reserve the product for purchase at the clearance price p. If the buyer reserves the product under the reservation regime and if it remains unsold at the end of the selling season, then he is obligated to purchase it at price p. We consider a situation in which heterogeneous customers with probabilistic valuation arrive in accord with a Poisson process. We characterize the rational purchasing behavior wherein each arriving customer is strategic; each customer takes other customers' purchasing behavior into consideration. By considering the Nash equilibrium of this game, we show that strategic customer behavior can render the customer to be worse off and the retailer to be better off under the reservation regime, despite the fact that this regime offers one extra option (reservation) to a customer. Hence, more purchasing options do not necessarily benefit customers.     

CEO Incentives and Customer‐Supplier Relations

This study explores how suppliers adjust their relation‐specific investments (RSI) in response to the different risk‐taking incentives provided by the customer firm to its CEO, during normal and transition periods. We investigate this relation using 17,553 customer–supplier transactions over the 1993–2013 period. We find strong evidence consistent with the risk‐taking argument. Specifically, we find that an increase in the risk‐taking incentives of customer CEOs leads to a decline in suppliers’ RSI in normal periods, but an increase in RSI during transition periods. We employ the FAS‐123R mandate to show that an exogenous reduction in customer CEO's incentive pay increases suppliers’ RSI. We reaffirm the effect with the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act as a secondary quasi‐natural experiment. Finally, we examine several scenarios that either amplify or attenuate the observed relation, based on factors such as financial constraints, distress, growth opportunities, industry competition, and other firm characteristics. Our study contributes to the literature that examines the interplay between corporate policy and product market relationships.     

基于不公平厌恶或地位追求的创新顾客最优合同类型研究

本文首先从创新顾客的公平偏好程度、薪酬合同类型（最优激励系数）与激励机制效果的关系入手,引入公平偏好理论（不公平厌恶和地位追求）、相对绩效评估（RPE）和参与成本要素,构建顾客参与企业新产品开发的激励模型;其次,通过模型求解和分析,探讨分析各类薪酬合同中风险成本、不公平预期损失和激励效果之间的关系;最后,通过仿真实验验证并确定企业采用的创新顾客最优薪酬合同类型。研究发现：在同一薪酬合同下,创新顾客愈不在意其参与成本的投入,该合同的激励效果愈积极;关于创新顾客最优合同类型的选择,意味着求解一个三方面权衡,包括风险成本、不公平预期损失和公平偏好的激励效果;对于公平偏好程度较低的创新顾客,企业可采用相对绩效合同,例如锦标竞争合同;对于公平偏好程度较高的创新顾客,当其风险规避程度较高时,可采用团队报酬合同,当其风险规避程度较低时,可采用完美团队合同。     

Reducing Customer Dissatisfaction: How Important is Learning to Reduce Service Failure?

As service failures are inevitable, firms must be prepared to recover and learn from service failures. Yet, the majority of customers are still dissatisfied with the way firms resolve their complaints. Can learning to reduce service failures reduce customer dissatisfaction, and to what extent are such reductions sustainable? Previous research showed that organizational learning curves for customer dissatisfaction (i) follow a U‐shaped function of operating experience and (ii) are heterogeneous across firms. In this paper, I tease out where the U‐shaped learning‐curve effect and learning‐curve heterogeneity originate: service failure or customers' propensity to complain with a third party given the occurrence of a service failure. Using quarterly data for nine major US airlines over 11 years, I find that the U‐shaped learning‐curve effect and the learning‐curve heterogeneity originate in the propensity to complain. In the long term, reductions in service failure did not translate in sustainable reductions in customer dissatisfaction. Customers' propensity to complain eventually went up. Managing the propensity to complain provides more opportunity for a firm to distinguish itself from competitors.     

Satisfying and Retaining Customers through Independent Service Representatives

The degree of leverage possessed by manufacturers who outsource their customer service function to channel partners over customer satisfaction and loyalty is assessed empirically. Data provided by independent service representatives are linked with data from their customers. Results indicate that a manufacturer's support of its representatives increases their job satisfaction which, in turn, is indirectly linked to the customer satisfaction through shared perceptions of service performance and quality. However, the strength of the effects is modest, suggesting that manufacturers may need to consider direct customer contact strategies or contractual means of assuring customer satisfaction when independent service representatives “own the customer.” Conceptually, the hypothesized shared mindset model is tested against the competing affect transfer model, resulting in support for the former. Job satisfaction moderates the degree of agreement between representatives' and customers' perceptions of service performance and quality such that greater agreement occurs when job satisfaction is high.     

Negative spillover effects in brand cooperation

This research investigates negative spillover effects on brand trust and purchase intentions due to violations of implicit or explicit rules within brand cooperation (transgressions). In particular, this research examines a joint new product launch activity of a focal brand and a partner brand. Study 1, an experimental study with brand community members of the focal brand and different transgression scenarios, reveals fewer spillover effects on the focal brand when the partner brand is responsible for the transgression, and discovers more negative spillover effects on the partner brand when the focal brand causes the transgression. In other words, brand community members transfer the responsibility for the transgression to an external cause. Study 2 explores different forms of crisis communication in the context of a product launch delay and finds that a denial by the focal brand is more effective with respect to image restoration than a denial by the partner brand. However, when both brands deny responsibility at the same time, the denial negatively influences trust in both brands.     

The Influence of Service Orientation on B2B e‐Service Capabilities: An Empirical Investigation

E‐Services, or the company's portfolio of service offerings available to its customers through the Internet, are an emerging area of interest to operations management. Yet little is known about the operations and capabilities needed for provision of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐services. This paper aims to make a contribution toward closing this gap. First, we develop a new construct of B2B e‐service capability, a term that captures a generic set of five interrelated and complementary dimensions: (1) e‐service recovery, (2) e‐customization, (3) ease of navigation, (4) service portfolio comprehensiveness, and (5) information richness. These combined operational abilities are associated with B2B service delivery, including its portal design, technology architecture, and mix of product and service offerings. They are posited to be necessary for delivering effective B2B e‐services. We also argue that, both service orientation (SO) and customer receptivity to technology, influence B2B e‐service capability. We empirically test a path model using structural equation modeling on a sample of 181 businesses that have deployed B2B e‐services. We find that the influence of SO on performance is not direct but rather mediated by the e‐service capability, a finding that holds for both goods producers and service providers. We suggest that a firm's SO may mitigate industrial customers' resistance toward conducting business online.     

Patterns of Information Source Use Across Industrial Purchase Situations*

An empirical taxonomy of industrial customers' information source use is developed based on a survey of 636 industrial customers across a wide range of different purchase situations. The taxonomy reveals five distinct information source mixes. Each mix consists of the combination of individual information sources used in a purchase situation. The five information source mixes are related to select underlying characteristics of purchase situations. The results indicate that the multivariate dimensions of purchase involvement, purchase complexity, and multiple influence are all significantly related to customers' choice of an information source mix. Implications of the taxonomy for marketing management and research are discussed.     

功能性价值和象征性价值对品牌忠诚的影响:性别差异和品牌差异的调节作用

根据品牌资产、品牌关系和目标理论,本文从理论上阐释了价值作为品牌忠诚直接前置变量的作用,功能性、象征性价值对品牌忠诚的影响在实证研究中得到支持,而且这种影响存在非线性的特征.本研究进一步考察了性别差异和品牌差异对上述影响的调节作用,结果表明:(1)象征性价值对品牌忠诚的影响存在性别差异,其作用女性强于男性;(2)随着品牌差异的提高,功能性、象征性价值对品牌忠诚的影响增强.