Chickery J. Kasouf

The effects of perceived market and learning orientation on assessed organizational capabilities

Abstract This study extends prior research by exploring the effects of managerial representations of market and learning orientation on perceived industrial firm capabilities. Cognitions that managers use to make sense of their environment impact competitive strategy decisions. Extant research has found market and learning orientation concepts to be empirically distinct and to have independent and synergistic effects on organizational performance. The present study generally supports hypotheses relating to independent effects of market and learning orientation viewpoints on perceptions of specific capability domains. Findings hold implications for managing the development of organizational capability portfolios as well as for future research aimed at understanding cognitions related to competitive advantage dynamics.

A classification of business-to-business buying decisions: risk importance and probability as a framework for e-business benefits

Abstract Business-to-business (B2B) markets have been considered an attractive e-business venue for the realization of cost reduction and exchange creation utilities. However, as marketers have long argued, there are different types of buying situations, and the benefits sought in each may vary substantially. The present work builds on the thinking of previous industrial buying typologies by integrating perceived risk concepts into the business buying decision. Specifically, we develop a classification grid of industrial buying situations and then explicitly link likely e-business benefits to the various situations. The proposed framework holds implications for management and research related to supply chain relationships.

A perspective of partnerships based on interdependence and dialectical theory

Abstract Business partnerships can serve as a significant source of competitive advantage. The present paper extends the business relationship literature by melding interdependence and dialectical theory from the marriage literature with extant buyer–seller partnership concepts in the development of a framework that contributes further insight to understanding interorganizational relationships. We examine the viability of borrowing conceptions from a nonbusiness domain through qualitative field interviews with relationship participants representing multiple functions on both sides of partnership dyads. This work holds important implications for future exploration and management of buyer–seller partnerships.

Interfirm Relationships in the Supply Chain: The Small Supplier’s View

Abstract The need for global market presence, the complexity of new product development, and the emphasis on core competence are making alliances among firms more important, and recent evidence suggests that these issues are affecting small suppliers as well as the large firms that are their customers. This paper studied the relationship orientation (i.e., the perceived importance, of interfirm relations) in a fragmented supplier industry whose single largest customer group is automotive OEMs. The primary objective of the research was the identification of factors that discriminate between firms with high and low relationship orientations. The study found four factors describing benefits and barriers associated with interfirm relationships, and found that firms with a high relationship orientation were smaller and more optimistic about the industry’s ability to support a greater number of firms in the future, and perceived faster technology change than firms with a low relationship orientation.

The influence of organizational market orientation on individual‐level market‐oriented cognitions

This study addresses the psychology of individual-level market-information use by examining aspects of firm market orientation and employee cognitions related to information use. Consistent with expectations, employee perceptions related to firm market orientation influenced employee-perceived capabilities, which, in turn, influenced benefit perceptions related to using customer information. This research holds important implications for the management and future exploration of employee market-oriented behavior.

Knowledge Workers and Organizational Learning Narratives from Biotechnology

There has been much recent interest in organizational learning in the academic management literature and in the business press. This issue is especially salient in firms that operate in rapidly changing environments and that rely on knowledge workers to make decisions in the face of high uncertainty. Much of the organizational learning literature is based on an organization-as-brain metaphor and on characteristics of individual learning. This paper uses an organization-as-culture metaphor to examine how knowledge workers in biotechnology firms talk about organizational learning. Using content analysis of in-depth interviews with 44 managers, scientists and technicians at four biotechnology firms in Massachusetts, we analyze their responses to two questions: how does your organization learn and what interferes with your organizations ability to learn? Key themes that emerged for the first question were piecing together a puzzle, acquiring and absorbing information and expertise, and mixing and communicating. Key themes that emerged for the second question were meeting aggressive deadlines, problems in vertical communication, and growing pains and the desire for structure. We discuss each of these themes in more detail and examine the implications for tensions in the organizational learning narratives between science and survival.

Service dominant logic: Implications at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the implications of service dominant logic (SDL) on the marketing/entrepreneurship interface.Design/methodology/approach – This paper integrates research from co‐creation and service dominant logic with entrepreneurship to explore the value of SDL for entrepreneurial marketing organizations.Findings – This paper offers insights on: the implications of SDL for entrepreneurship; the value of co‐creation in an entrepreneurial context; and an exploration of risk and co‐creation, mass customization, and scale production in an entrepreneurial marketing context.Originality/value – This paper contributes to the work of both academics and executives attempting to better understand the concepts of SDL and co‐creation and how they might be leveraged to create advantage. In addition, a set of research implications is offered pertaining to co‐creation and SDL in an entrepreneurial marketing context.

Market-Oriented Behaviors within Organizations: An Individual-Level Perspective

Prior empirical work aimed at understanding market information use has focused primarily on factors impacting the use of market research (a subset of market information) or organizational perspectives relating to market information use. However, organizational use of information is ultimately driven by individual decisions about information use. This paper extends a conceptual model that integrates relevant variables to explain information use by individuals within organizations. The proposed framework relates information use to factors subject to management control and offers important implications for the exploration and management of market information use in organizations.

The influence of entrepreneurial marketing processes and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on community vulnerability, risk, and resilience

This paper uses the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquake and re-development efforts as an exemplar to explore how entrepreneurial marketing processes combined with entrepreneurial self-efficacy can be leveraged to help a community reduce its vulnerability to natural disasters and enhance its resilience. Manyenas (Manyena, S. B. (2006). The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters, 30, 433–450; Manyena, S. B. (2012). Disaster and development paradigms: Too close for comfort? Development Policy Review, 30, 327–345) vulnerability–resilience theory is used as the conceptual framework to delineate the prophylactic benefits of building a communitys entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and the notion of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as defensive mechanisms to mitigate the effect of disasters. This work has resulted in an augmented disaster risk equation that considers: (1) the risk that a natural disaster poses on a community (as a function of the vulnerability of the communitys tangible assets); (2) the hazard potential of the disaster; and (3) the resilience of its social and economic systems. This paper develops a measure of the symbiotic interrelationship of a communitys entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and community-level entrepreneurial self-efficacy to illustrate how leveraging the entrepreneurial, marketing, social, and engineering educational resources of a community can create a less vulnerable and more resilient community. In doing so, the paper develops a set of research propositions to guide future research and policy.

Entrepreneurship's relevance to marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better define the contribution of entrepreneurship to the advancement of marketing thought.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a literature review that uses examples from the literature to propose new research directions.Findings – The paper proposes research opportunities, and concludes that the contributions of entrepreneurship to normative macro‐marketing are largely absent.Practical implications – The marketing/entrepreneurship interface continues to be a connection that is difficult to define. Yet, it is an area with rich research potential, and it is critical that marketing embraces these opportunities to strengthen its strategic focus as a discipline.Originality/value – The paper integrates literature from a variety of perspectives from marketing and related fields, and maps the marketing/entrepreneurship interface on Hunts classification schema.