Bill Donaldson

Classifying relationship structures: relationship strength in industrial markets

Although many authors examine relationships, few attempt to classify alternative structures. In this research a relationship strength construct is developed to distinguish among alternative relationship structures based on a key mediating variable set derived from an assessment of the dominant behavior process and economic content variables underlying important buyer‐seller relationships. Results using a cluster analysis procedure based on a sample of 200 industrial company respondents from the UK engineering, electronic and telecommunications sectors support the classification. This allows us to discriminate between four relationship structures in main buyer‐supplier relationships, which are labeled: bilateral, recurrent, dominant partner, and discrete. Such a classification can provide managers with a mechanism for analyzing and planning for the development of their inter‐firm relationships.

Marketing theory and practice

Acknowledgements - Preface - List of Tables - List of Figures - Evolution of the Marketing Concept M.J.Baker - The Need for Theory in Marketing M.J.Baker - Sources and Status of Marketing Theory S.Brown - Consumer Behaviour L.McGregor - Organisational Buying Behaviour S.Rajagopa l - Market Segmentation D.Littler - Marketing Research J.Webb - Modelling Markets P.Leeflang - Diffusion Theory & Marketing M.J.Baker - New Product Development S.Hart - Pricing A.Diamantopoulos - Channel Management S.Ennis - Marketing Communications K.Crosier - Analytical Frameworks for Strategic Marketing Planning D.Brownlie - Business to Business Marketing K.Bernard - Retailing S.Carter - Customer Care B.Donaldson - Consumerism D.Tixier - International Marketing M.McDermott & Chan - Marketing and Eastern Europe P.Ghauri - Relationship Marketing Chan & M.McDermott - Marketing, Theory and Practice in a Post-modern Era Cova & Badot - Notes and References - Index

Relationship Governance Structures and Performance

Managing and implementing supplier relationships is an interest shared by both academics and practitioners. A growing focus of attention is on the outcomes of these relationships since they have been shown to deliver enhanced performance. However, variations in performance across different relationship types remains less understood. To rectify this, in our study, buyer-supplier relationship outcomes are measured by a performance metric that includes both financial and non-financial elements. The results are drawn from a survey of UK buyers in the engineering, electronics and telecommunications sectors and show that differences can be found in performance outcomes for a variety of governance structures. The findings are discussed in reference to the relationship management implications of the variation in performance found, and further research avenues are described.

A Relational Communication Strategy for Successful Collaborative Innovation in Business-to-Business Markets

This chapter contributes to our understanding of interorganisational relationships (IORs) through the presentation of a relational communication strategy that incorporates a set of propositions about the features and mechanisms of the communication process in successful collaborative innovation. We propose that relational communication provides the lubrication to the process of collaborative innovation facilitating border-less interaction between parties. We examine the nature of collaborative innovation and the importance of communication to collaborative innovation’s effective functioning in relationships. Features of our relational communication strategy in densely knit partnerships considered to be important in a successful collaborative innovation setting, include (1) high frequency, bidirectionality, informality, and indirect modalities; (2) high communication quality, dense participation, and openness of information sharing of tacit and implicit knowledge; and (3) a shared meaning base and an open communication climate. The mechanisms that we propose that firms can and do use to increase the effectiveness of communication in successful collaborative innovation include (1) interpersonal modes of communication and affiliation; (2) loose teams; (3) electronic virtual communities and open information repositories; and (4) interorganisational communities of practice. A number of examples and case vignettes are presented in order to support the need to focus attention on these issues.

Evaluation and Control

At one level, the evaluation of salespeople is easy — they either make target or they don’t. The problem with the link between sales effort and sales response is that it is neither simple nor direct. Most companies conduct some form of evaluation but few do this in a formal way which evaluates the causes as well as outcomes. Part of the problem with evaluation is that to do it properly is time- consuming, costly and difficult. Evaluation is part of the control element in management. Control implies setting standards, comparing results achieved with these standards and taking any corrective action. It follows that merely collecting the information, no matter how appropriate, is neither evaluation nor control. Evaluation without corrective, appropriate action is not control. The management task and responsibility is control. The danger is that many managers exercise control without appropriate information, with weakly constructed plans and haphazard evaluation. In this chapter, the attention focuses on evaluation since the control element incorporates most of the considerations in this book, including recruitment, training, deployment and motivation. Sales managers must be careful not to link evaluation solely to the salesperson or the sales team. Evaluation is also required of management policies and systems and of the specific tasks that salespeople are expected to perform. The aim in this chapter is: to identify the most appropriate measures which can be used to evaluate salespeople and control salesforce operations to consider how evaluation can best be conducted and by whom to compare the different approaches to the evaluation of sales performance to itemise the components of sales analysis and cost control to review the key determinants of salesforce performance.

Old fashioned or enlightened? Small retailers’ practices in e-procurement

The paper considers how and why SME retailers use the internet in their procurement processes. Examining retailers’ views and reasons, we relate these to existing technology acceptance models, employing a qualitative approach. Although our respondents accepted the pervasion of internet marketing, they believed that a more personalised approach to purchasing was necessary to maintain their competitive advantage. For them, effectiveness in purchasing took priority over efficiency. We argue that this view and the consequent actions were a result of the size of the firm and the nature of the products they sold. Our sample size prevents us from generalising. However, we argue that large scale surveys may miss the nuances of decision-making and that the unique character of SMEs may imply that conventional models of technology acceptance need to be modified to take account of these characteristics. Our findings challenge the assumption that one size theoretically fits all in technology driven procurement.

The relationship between regulatory focus and online shopping – perceived risk, affect, and consumers’ response to online marketing

Regulatory focus theory (RTF) has demonstrated that individuals can be distinguished on the basis of two independent structures of strategic inclination and orientation in the pursuit of goals: promotion focus – which emphasises the presence of positive outcomes while minimising errors of omission, versus prevention focus – which favours the absence of negative outcomes and minimising errors of commission. Yet no research, thus far, has explicitly considered the potential link between consumers’ regulatory focus (RF), perceived risk, affect, and their response to online marketing (ROM) in the various dimensions of online shopping (OS). This paper fills this gap. By linking regulatory focus with online consumer shopping behaviour we empirically test a number of hypotheses to predict how consumers with different foci perceive risk on the internet, the consequence of this perception on their affect, and their overall response behaviour to online marketing. Our findings provide confirmatory evidence that RF is a powerful predictor of behaviour in OS.

Editorial: Academy of Marketing Conference 2008 “Reflective Marketing in a Material World”

The contents of this issue represent a selection of papers from the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference held at Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University in July 2008. The theme of the Conference was “Reflective Marketing in a Material World”. This was chosen to embrace both traditional thinking and new ideas as they relate to our subject. Scholars and others were invited to submit papers reflecting on the relevance of marketing to business and society in todays material world. Throughout, with both the theme and the keynote speakers, the emphasis was on marketing academics or practitioners who had something to say and contribute to teaching, research and scholarship in the marketing discipline.

Types of Selling

The fundamental purpose for which salespeople are employed is to retain existing business and win new customers. This purpose involves more than mere order-taking and salespeople can be described and classified under a variety of job titles, for example technical adviser, sales engineer, marketing representative and consultant. Today, the trend in closer relationships between buyer and seller organisations in industrial, consumer and service firms relies, to a greater extent than hitherto, on the knowledge, skills and abilities of the salesperson to create and sustain these relationships. Therefore, the way in which the selling job is conducted can vary greatly and an evaluation of selling types will be studied in this chapter. The aim in this chapter is: to classify the different types of selling to understand how different skills and activities may be required for different circumstances to examine the differences between service selling and new business selling to monitor recent changes in sales jobs, in particular to appreciate the importance of merchandising, telesales, key account selling and relationship selling.

Sales Forecasting and Budgeting

One activity that all businesses do to some degree is to anticipate future events. From the one-man business to the multinational conglomerate and regardless of whether the business is product-, production- or sales-oriented, enterprises have to operate on the basis of expectations about the future. Particular questions concerning how much capital will be required, what scale of plant, how much product to make and stock, what level of sales support and advertising and how many people to employ require an estimate of revenue from future sales. It is one of the major responsibilities of the marketing function to make sound and careful appraisal of business opportunities and is not the responsibility of the finance or sales departments. For this reason, a detailed appraisal of sales forecasting methods should be part of a marketing or specialist text on the subject. The topic is introduced in this book for four particular reasons. First, most companies use salesforce input in their forecasts. In one survey, 86 per cent of firms used salespeople to submit some form of sales forecast estimate (Wotruba and Thurlow, 1976). This is as it should be, although the extent and method of this input needs careful evaluation. Second, although it is a marketing responsibility, salespeople and sales managers must understand the importance, the process and the methods of sales forecasting. Third, the sales forecast ought to be the major influence on sales targets at both company and individual territory level. Finally, developments in information technology make it necessary for sales management to understand and use modern marketing information systems, of which the sales forecasting process is a major component. In this chapter the aim is to: realise the importance of sales forecasts and understand their use describe the process of forecasting and some of the techniques explain the connection between sales forecasts, sales budgets and sales targets illustrate the components in a sales budget evaluate the role of salespeople as sources of market intelligence and research.