Modes of Response to Marketing Communications Failures in the Computer Services Industry

Chief executives of 186 computer services companies participated in a survey designed to establish (i) how firms in this sector were likely to respond to serious failures in their marketing communications programmes, and (ii) the factors affecting the mode of response. Businesses can react to a failure radically or conservatively. Radical responses might involve the dismissal of marketing managers, extensive reorganization of the marketing department and the implementation of radical changes in current programmes. Alternatively, a company could intensify the continuation of existing programmes; support, develop and mentor employees; and slightly modify rather than fundamentally alter its current marketing‐communications activities. A number of variables identified from academic literature concerning general organization decline and innovation were applied to the examination of corporate responses to marketing communications failures. In particular, hypotheses were developed and tested regarding the possible influences of managerial rigidity, internal power diffusion, organizational complexity and degree of formality, resource slack and decision‐making style.     

System dynamics: Portraying bounded rationality

This paper examines the linkages between system dynamics and the Carnegie School in their treatment of human decision making. It is argued that the structure of system dynamics models implicitly assumes bounded rationality in decision making and that recognition of this assumption would aid system dynamicists in model construction and in communication with other social science disciplines. The paper begins by examining Simon's ‘principle of bounded rationality’ which draws attention to the cognitive limitations on the information gathering and processing powers of human decision makers. Forrester's ‘Market Growth Model’ is used to illustrate the central theme that system dynamics models are portrayals of bounded rationality. Close examination of the model formulation reveals decision functions involving simple rules of thumb and limited information content. Finally, there is a discussion of the implications of Carnegie philosophy for system dynamics as it affects communication, model structuring, model analysis and future research.     

R&D portfolio selection by using qualitative pairwise comparisons

A new multicriteria decision aid, QualScal, is applied to the problem of selecting an extramural Fisheries R&D portfolio in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. QualScal has been developed for the situation where the characteristics of the decision alternatives cannot be readily quantified. The decision-maker is only required to state either indifference or preference for each pair of the alternatives. A map representing the preference structure of the decision maker is produced with the aid of an enhanced version of the traditional nonmetric multidimensional scaling procedure, capable of scaling disjoint subsets of alternatives. Averaged results for the group of decision-makers facilitate a discussion to determine a mutually acceptable portfolio.     

The role of self-determination theory in marketing science: An integrative review and agenda for research

The marketing literature is replete with the repeated use of traditional theories of behaviour, such as ‘the consumer decision model,’ the ‘theory of buyer behaviour,’ the ‘theory of reasoned action,’ the ‘theory of planned behaviour,’ and ‘the model of goal-directed behaviour.’ The conclusions and criticisms that are drawn from these theories stem from the many ways in which these theories are applied, which reduces the efficiency of these approaches in the sense of predictability and generalizability across different cultures. Moreover, these theories have minimal influence on autonomously motivated behaviours. Despite these limitations, marketing scientists have overwhelmingly applied these theories to predict consumer intention and behaviour. However, theories that are actually capable of explaining consumers' motivations have been surprisingly ignored in the marketing literature; for instance, ‘self-determination theory’ (SDT) is a leading theory of human motivation that has been proven effective at identifying the contingencies that affect motivation and behaviour. Therefore, the goal is to review the marketing research in which SDT is used. To this end, we review all empirical studies published on the subject over a 20-year period. Several clusters of research are identified in which SDT appears to be more promising in addressing marketing problems. Finally, we provide directions for future research in greater detail.     

Corporate planning at Rolls-Royce Motors Limited

In this article the authors describe the introduction to date of a formal planning process at a British manufacturing company which, according to its recent performance, had no pressing need to implement radical change. Is Rolls-Royce Motors' decision the symptom of a new trend in industry to overhaul planning techniques while the going is good? How was company morale used to justify a new planning style? Why did an evidently capable organization choose to engage consultancy assistance? While the company's intentions are not yet fully achieved, its experience may be of benefit to others contemplating a similar decision.     

Decision support flexible manufacturing systems

The justification of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) is a topic that has gained a lot of attention due to the strategic effect it has on the competitive stature of industrial firms. The decision to convert to FMS should follow a pattern of feasibility assessments, cost/benefit analysis where consideration of issues such as increased quality, productivity and capability as well as tangible benefits takes place. Difficulties, however, arise in the modeling of the behavior of the proposed FMS. This paper introduces the design of a decision support framework that aids the strategic planner in simulating the performance of proposed FMS and in determining the parameters that affect the costs and benefits, tangible and intangible, of such a system. The decision support system (DSS) allows the user to use subjective evaluations of benefits accruing from intangible considerations of new product design, faster turnaround on design-to-market cycles and new marketing strategies in fragmented markets. The DSS enhances the examination of issues such as changing demand, varied tasks and routings, job and machine flexibility, etc. which affect costs and benefits. It performs these important functions by allowing for the development of scenarios that aid in the evaluation of the effect of the conversion from non-flexible to flexible manufacturing on the organization's financial position.     

Role of Cognitive Styles in Business and Management: Reviewing 40 Years of Research

In line with increased attention on the application of cognitive approaches to industrial, work and organizational psychology, the last 40 years have witnessed a growing interest in application of the cognitive style construct to the field of business and management. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we wish to advance understanding of cognitive styles research by elucidating trends and perspectives related to business and management. Second, we identify gaps in the literature and promising areas of research that can be further developed. This is accomplished by means of a review of papers published between 1969 and 2009. Eight themes emerged from our analysis: (a) vocational and occupational issues; (b) national culture; (c) teamwork and interpersonal relationships; (d) learning; (e) decision making; (f) creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; (g) sales and marketing; and (h) management information systems, information management and use. Third, we identify valid and reliable methods of assessment of cognitive style for use in business and management settings. Finally we draw a number of conclusions regarding the current state of cognitive styles research and promising directions for future research.     

Branch‐and‐Price Methods for Prescribing Profitable Upgrades of High‐Technology Products with Stochastic Demands*

This paper develops a model that can be used as a decision support aid, helping manufacturers make profitable decisions in upgrading the features of a family of high‐technology products over its life cycle. The model integrates various organizations in the enterprise: product design, marketing, manufacturing, production planning, and supply chain management. Customer demand is assumed random and this uncertainty is addressed using scenario analysis. A branch‐and‐price (B&P) solution approach is devised to optimize the stochastic problem effectively. Sets of random instances are generated to evaluate the effectiveness of our solution approach in comparison with that of commercial software on the basis of run time. Computational results indicate that our approach outperforms commercial software on all of our test problems and is capable of solving practical problems in reasonable run time. We present several examples to demonstrate how managers can use our models to answer “what if” questions.     

基于网络的企业营销活动实证分析

网络的应用对企业传统的营销方式产生了冲击。本文利用对近百家企业问卷调查获得的数据,运用实证的方法,证明了我国企业由于使用网络改善了其营销活动并有利于提高了营销绩效,并进一步分析了客户关系管理与信息管理在网络环境下职能的变化。     

Coordinating Production and Marketing with Dynamic Transfer Prices

Decentralized decision making is a fact in the modern business world accompanied by extensive research that looks into its consequences for overall firm profits. We study the interactions of decentralized marketing and operations divisions in a corporation and explore their impact on overall firm profits in the case with and without coordination of the two decentralized units. We assume that the marketing department is responsible for the price that influences the demand (sales), and the operations department is responsible for the production rate. We allow for backlogging over time. We model the interdependence involving marketing and operations decisions as a non‐cooperative differential game, with the two divisions as strategically interacting players. We find that, without coordination, strategic interactions of marketing and production result in inefficiencies that can quantitatively be substantial. Next, we introduce a dynamic transfer pricing scheme as a coordination device and evaluate if it establishes efficient (first best and fully coordinated) outcomes. We show that if production and marketing play a game with pre‐commitment strategies, there exists a dynamic transfer price that efficiently (fully) coordinates decentralized decision making and hence results in Pareto‐efficient company profits. If the two decentralized divisions play a game without pre‐commitment, dynamic transfer prices can partially coordinate decentralized decision making but fail to fully eliminate overall inefficiencies arising from strategic interactions among decentralized divisions.     

面向定性模拟的企业市场营销决策知识描述、学习及处理方法

为了将定性模拟技术用于管理决策领域,研究了基于定性因果关系图的市场营销决策过程的知识描述方法、以及知识学习方法,设计了学习算法步骤。然后,基于这种知识描述方法,以产品的市场占有率为目标,设计了企业市场营销策略选择过程的定性模拟步骤。最后,提出并设计了在市场竞争对抗过程中,企业与竞争者的营销策略选择过程的定性模拟方法和模拟步骤。本文用计算机模拟语言Arena5.0实现了上述算法及模拟步骤,实验表明,本文所提出的面向定性模拟的企业市场营销决策知识描述、学习及处理方法、以及所设计的学习算法和模拟步骤是可行的。     

The Effect of Misclassification Costs on Neural Network Classifiers

The potential of neural networks for classification problems has been established by numerous successful applications reported in the literature. One of the major assumptions used in almost all studies is the equal cost consequence of misclassification. With this assumption, minimizing the total number of misclassification errors is the sole objective in developing a neural network classifier. Often this is done simply to ease model development and the selection of classification decision points. However, it is not appropriate for many real situations such as quality assurance, direct marketing, bankruptcy prediction, and medical diagnosis where misclassification costs have unequal consequences for different categories. In this paper, we investigate the issue of unequal misclassification costs in neural network classifiers. Through an application in thyroid disease diagnosis, we find that different cost considerations have significant effects on the classification performance and that appropriate use of cost information can aid in optimal decision making. A cross-validation technique is employed to alleviate the problem of bias in the training set and to examine the robustness of neural network classifiers with regard to sampling variations and cost differences.     

参数互补性目标函数构造方法研究

在业务流程重组中,通过对业务流程价值模型的分析发现,价值模型的决策参数间往往 存在互补性. 文章探讨表征参数互补相关性函数的性质及方法,对于构造业务流程的价值模型 具有重要价值. 根据互补理论和超模函数特性,分析超模函数表征参数互补相关性的特性,讨 论复合超模函数存在的条件,给出参数互补性目标函数的构造方法和步骤,为决策者分析价值 模型提供了一种定量化的工具.     

COGNITIVE STYLE AND THE USEFULNESS OF INFORMATION*

The desirability of a merger/acquisition alternative depends in part on the perceptions of the decision maker. What sources of information are “useful” to the decision maker & Does the set of useful information remain constant for all decision makers; if not, do individuals using similar information sets have similar information processing characteristics? Do these sets vary as feedback is obtained during the decision process? To answer these questions, graduate students participated in a modified Delphi experiment, and the resulting data were analyzed by the two-way aligned-ranks nonparametric test. These test results affirm that in a merger/acquisition scenario, decision makers with different cognitive styles prefer different sets of information and these sets vary dynamically as feedback is incorporated in the decision-making process. Furthermore, information that contains worker and community welfare considerations is identified as “useful” five times more frequently by decision makers with a “feeling” cognitive style than those with a “thinking” style.     

A Two-Decade Test of Product Life Cycle Theory

The product life cycle (PLC) has represented a central element of marketing theory for four decades. Following its development in the 1950s, and its subsequent popularization in the 1960s, it has remained a stable feature of marketing teaching; despite evidence of its limited applicability and the growing awareness, amongst leading academics at least, of its flawed nature. This paper critically re-examines its practical value in the light of the 20-year history of 929 brands spread across 150 fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets in the UK. The main conclusion is that the ‘life cycle’ of the brand leaders is indeed more stable, and much longer, than some of the previous work might have suggested; and that the PLC would have predicted. As a credible aid to marketing decisions the brand life cycle is, therefore, of little value in the majority of FMCG markets - and cannot justify its long-held position as a theory that has general practical applicability across the whole field of marketing.     

A LOGIT-MARKOVIAN MODEL OF CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR BASED ON EXPLANATORY VARIABLES: EMPIRICAL EVALUATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DECISION MAKING*

This study describes and empirically evaluates an approach to modeling purchase behavior that integrates a Logit-Markov-based multivariate brand-choice model structure with stochastic components. Using actual market data for a frequently purchased consumer product obtained from a consumer purchase panel survey, the paper highlights some marketing applications of the model. Given its general structure, the model can aid marketing managers in defining and evaluating target market segments and in assessing the impact of alternative marketing strategies.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Decision Aids on Problem-Solving Processes*

Despite the growing number of investigations examining decision support systems (DSS), relatively few empirical studies have evaluated the effects of DSS on problem-solving processes. This study uses protocol analysis to investigate the impact of a specific decision aid on problem-solving processes in a semi-structured problem. Results indicate that decision aids influence the problem-solving processes of decision makers. The effect of a decision aid is found to be contingent on familiarity with the decision aid, task familiarity, and the interaction of these two factors. Suggestions for incorporating interaction effects and problem-solving processes into future examinations are proposed.     

An empirical analysis of innovation strategies of biotechnology firms in the U.S.

The paper explores the strategies of biotechnology firms in the U.S. through a mail questionnaire study. Based on the responses of 89 companies we have developed strategy archetypes of these firms in R&D, marketing, and technology acquisition. In R&D, we found the firms to follow either incremental or radical strategy. In marketing, the firms use either a defender or an innovator strategy. In technology acquisition, firms differ in terms of their emphasis on licensing or developing new technology. The interrelationship among the strategy groups is weak. The R&D and technology acquisition strategies are related in the sense that aggressive technology strategy dictates radical R&D behavior with emphasis on development of new technology. We have found that firms following aggressive technology strategy tend to follow conservative marketing strategy. This is consistent with an earlier study by of German firms where it was found that firms tend to balance their technical and marketing risks. The paper also provides additional information about the factors considered to be important in product decisions for various strategies.