Ajay Menon

Product Quality: Impact of Interdepartmental Interactions

The authors examine the role of organizational factors affecting interdepartmental interactions and their subsequent effects on product quality. Results from a national study suggest that product quality is affected by interdepartmental conflict and connectedness. Importantly, the linkage between interdepartmental conflict and product quality appears to be robust across varying levels of market turbulence and technological turbulence. In contrast, interdepartmental connectedness appears to be more important for product quality under conditions of high market and technological turbulence. The results also indicate that interdepartmental interactions are influenced by leadership characteristics (risk aversion of top managers), reward system orientation, and organization structure (centralization, departmentalization, and hierarchical levels). Managerial implications and directions for future work are proposed.

Evolving Paradigm for Environmental Sensitivity in Marketing Programs: A Synthesis of Theory and Practice

Concerns related to the environment are evident in the rapid growth of the environmentally conscious marketplace and its increasing impact on corporate strategists. Drawing from the academic literature and case studies of actual corporate experiences, this article discusses the concept of environmentally-based marketing programs within the context of each element of the marketing mix. Additionally, it discusses issues that are of critical importance in the implementation of the concept, from the perspectives of firm performance and business environment. The managerial implications of adopting environmentally-based marketing programs and concerns relevant to future research in this area are also addressed.

Antecedents and outcomes of new product development speed: An interdisciplinary conceptual framework

Abstract Modern marketplaces are characterized by speedy technological breakthroughs, rapid changes in sociopolitical conditions and consumer tastes, and continuously shrinking product life cycles. Consequently, companies must consider strategies that reduce the time required to take a product from concept to market. The authors draw from a diverse body of published research findings and corporate experiences to generate an interdisciplinary inventory of organizational factors associated with short new product development (NPD) cycles. An integrative framework is presented that describes the influence of infrastructural characteristics (structure, culture, and capital investment) and procedural factors (groupwork, controls, and incentives) on NPD speed, and the subsequent effects on organizational outcomes (revenue, profitability, corporate image, and brand image).

Understanding Customer Value in Business-to-Business Relationships

ABSTRACT Although literature emphasizes the importance of creating value for the customer in business-to-business marketing, our understanding of this concept is limited. Against this background, this paper examines the antecedents of customer value within the context of business-to-business relationships. In a departure from previous conceptualizations of value, the paper introduces the concept of core benefits and add-on benefits as well as purchasing price, acquisition costs, and operations costs to the business-to-business marketing literature. The impact of product, relational, and supplier characteristics on the perceived benefits and sacrifices are examined. Results from a survey of 981 purchasing managers across multiple manufacturing product categories in the United States and in Germany provide support for the hypotheses proposed in this paper. Managerial implications and directions for future research are identified following a discussion of the results.

Relationship Characteristics as Moderators of the Satisfaction-Loyalty Link : Findings in a Business-to-Business Context

ABSTRACT The paper presents empirical evidence for conditions under which the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty will be stronger or weaker. Drawing on relational exchange theory the authors suggest that the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty will be weaker in the case of a highly relational exchange. Empirical findings in an international business-to-business context support this reasoning. The paper provides implications for practice and suggests a set of issues for future research.

Determinants of Customer Benefits in Business-to-Business Markets : A Cross-Cultural Comparison

The authors examine the concept of customer benefits in business-to-business markets in an international context. They distinguish between core and add-on benefits, and they discuss product quality, service quality, flexibility, trust, joint action, and commitment of the supplier as determinants of these customer benefits. They base their analysis on 981 respondents in two countries. The results suggest the importance of understanding the determinants in providing customer benefits. Furthermore, the authors observe significant cultural differences with respect to the impact of different determinants on perceived customer benefits. Following a discussion of the results, the authors present managerial implications, research limitations, and directions for further research.

New product quality: intended and unintended consequences of new product development speed

Abstract This paper focuses on the quality of newly developed products. The studys purpose is to determine how the speed of developing a new product affects its quality debut. Formalization, centralization, formal control, and informal control are included as control variables in the research model. An analysis of a random sample of manufacturing organizations demonstrates that new product development (NPD) speed has an inverted U-shaped effect on new product quality. This means that while superior new product quality is less likely to be achieved when NPD is conducted quickly, slowing down NPD is a double-edged sword as a reduction of NPD speed below moderate levels becomes detrimental to new product quality, as well. In addition, the results show that a new products quality debut is affected negatively by centralization and positively by informal control. The paper concludes with managerial implications and directions for future research.

Organizing for new product development speed and the implications for organizational stress

Abstract This study examines the effects of bureaucratic structure and organizational control on new product development (NPD) speed. It also examines the effects of NPD speed on organizational stress. The empirical findings from 130 US manufacturing companies can be summarized as follows. Formalized structures and centralized structures have a negative impact on invention speed. Formal controls have a positive impact on innovation speed. Informal controls have a positive impact on both invention speed and innovation speed. Invention speed has a positive impact on organizational stress and innovation speed has a negative impact on organizational stress.

Antecedents and outcomes of new product development speed

The objective of this paper is to extend the study of new product development speed in the marketing discipline. The article outlines a conceptual framework to organize and guide future theoretical and empirical research. A set of propositions is developed which focus on the antecedents and outcomes of new product development speed germane to the discipline of marketing. The article discusses how both infrastructural factors (bureaucratic structure and adhocratic culture) and procedural factors (organizational control and interfunctional coordination) affect new product development speed. It also discusses the impact of new product development speed on performance factors internal to the organization (organizational learning and organizational stress). Research contributions and research directions are addressed.

The role of behavioral intentions in turnover of salespeople

Abstract Behavioral intentions play an uncertain role in turnover of salespeople. To assess relationships between behavioral intentions and turnover, this study tests three path models derived from Mobleys (1977) turnover model using a longitudinal sample of salespeople. In the best model, thinking of quitting predicts intention to leave; intention to leave predicts intention to search; and intention to search predicts turnover. The findings imply that researchers need to examine separately determinants of searching for another job as opposed to those of intention to leave. Another implication is that a salesperson can intend to quit yet remain in a job indefinitely