Diana L. Haytko

Firm-to-Firm and Interpersonal Relationships: Perspectives from Advertising Agency Account Managers

We do things for people we like, our friends. However, in firm-to-firm exchange relationships, boundary spanners are economic agents representing their firms contractually to achieve specific goals. Thus, questions arise as to whether close interpersonal relationships exist in business settings, how they are defined, and whether they influence the nature and functioning of interfirm exchange. A qualitative study with advertising agency account managers finds that analyzing interpersonal relationships across groups from both sides defines firm-to-firm relationships. Participants define these relationships based on the extent to which the agency is involved in the client’s business across categories including vendor, partner, and surrogate manager. Interpersonal relationship exist across categories including strictly business, business friends, and highly personal. The relationships are distinguished based on the knowledge base developed about the brand manager. Overwhelmingly, the participants claim that devoloping close, interpersonal relationships is beneficial to both their professional and personal lives.

Traditional versus Hybrid Course Delivery Systems: A Case Study of Undergraduate Marketing Planning Courses

This article examines the implementation of an Internet-enhanced marketing planning course as compared to a traditional course. The hybrid course was designed to combine the best aspects of traditional and Internet teaching. The same instructor taught both courses in the same semester. Teaching evaluations and written comments were used to explore why the traditional course was unexpectedly still preferred. The findings suggest that universities carefully consider their goals, target markets and competitive differentiation before deciding how the Internet can best be integrated into the curriculum.

Overcoming Apathy and Classroom Disconnect in Marketing Courses: Employing Karaoke Jeopardy as a Content Retention Tool

Instructors cope with lack of content retention due to apathy and disinterest displayed by students toward their courses. Short attention spans coupled with a lack of active involvement on the part of students can lead to poor performance on exams. We introduce an in-class exam review game that couples karaoke with the popular trivia game show Jeopardy. Results suggest that the implementation of Karaoke Jeopardy as a review tool for exams improves student retention of course content leading to improved student performance.

The Price Is Right: An Experiential Pricing Concepts Game

Generation Y has taken over college campuses, bringing with it a unique set of challenges. This generation grew up with the Internet, video games, cell phones, etc. They expect entertainment. The Principles of Marketing class is filled with different business (and non-business) majors. As such, many of the Gen Y students are apathetic to the course. Students view pricing as one of the most boring topics of the semester, with most textbooks focusing on lists of concepts. Playing the Price is Right game makes these concepts easier to understand. Students enjoy the game and claim that it helps them learn much better than rote memorization of terms.

Cross‐border supply chain relationships: interpretive research of maquiladora realized strategies

Maquiladora plants are foreign‐owned plants operating in Mexico and represent a pre‐North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) mechanism to reduce tariffs on the assembly of component parts and finished products for re‐export. Maquilas first opened along the Mexican‐US border in the mid‐1960s to provide employment for Mexican workers as well as cheap labor for low‐skilled US manufacturers. Beginning in 1999 the industry started experiencing a sharp decline, which cost jobs and closed factories on both sides of the border. This study applies grounded theory to develop an initial understanding of the factors contributing to the success (and failure) of maquiladora realized strategies, that is, performed operating behaviors and the role of culture in the results these operations achieve. Broadly, these factors include internal relationships (with both management and line employees) and external relationships (both organizational and governmental). The study culminates in a series of suggestions for increasing the likelihood of success of maquiladoras and proposes the applicability of these factors in other multinational operations in labor‐intensive industries.

Mexican maquiladoras: helping or hurting the US/Mexico cross‐border supply chain?

Purpose – This study aims to report on the current issues facing the maquiladora industry in Mexico and the cross‐border supply chain and to present suggestions for improving the situation in the future.Design/methodology/approach – Phenomenological interviews were conducted with managers overseeing various aspects of the cross‐border supply chain. The resulting data were analyzed using a grounded theory methodology to uncover theoretical linkages.Findings – The results of this study show that maquiladoras experience many of the same problems as other companies in terms of managing the cross‐border supply chain. Key factors such as distance, comparative advantage, and integration of the workforce cause problems everyday for the managers involved.Research limitations/implications – This was an exploratory investigation of the issues with a small number of informants and future research needs to be done to gain additional insights. As North American Free Trade Agreement enters its second decade, and the foc...

Examining Key Factors of Supply Chain Optimization: The Maquiladora Example

The faltering Mexican manufacturing sector, specifically the Maquiladora industry, is critically important for U.S. interests for a variety of reasons. From an economic standpoint, Maquiladoras are important because they transform primarily U.S. made components and raw materials into finished goods (Whalen, 2001). Perhaps more importantly, Maquiladoras manufacture products for domestic consumption to a burgeoning middle class in Mexico and act as a bridge to markets in Latin America (Bowersox and Calantone, 1998; pg. 90). From a governmental standpoint, the Maquiladoras promote stabilization of the U.S. southern border and economic growth along both sides of that border.

Changing the Name of a Major University: A Case Study and How-To Guide

ABSTRACT There is nothing more exciting for a school than taking on a new name that is more reflective of what the institution has become. Many schools have changed names from “College” to “University” or have been renamed for prominent individuals. On August 28, 2005, Southwest Missouri State University officially became Missouri State University. This change was 20 years in the making and did not happen without a tremendous amount of effort on the part of administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and many elected officials at all levels of government. Though seemingly a simple thing, implementing the name change was anything but. This case study explains the steps taken to complete the transition, including the important branding decisions made along the way. It also provides a detailed guideline for other schools facing similar challenges.

Cause-Brand Alliances: Consumers Purchase Cause-Related Products to Feel Good!

With the increase in not-for-profit and cause-related marketing activities, researchers have turned their focus to identifying reasons why people might support charitable causes and under what circumstances consumers might be more likely to buy a product partnered with a particular cause (e.g., Barone, Miyazaki, and Taylor, 2000; Cunningham and Cushing, 1993; Lafferty, Goldsmith, and Hult, 2004).

Word of Mouse: Exploring Cross-National Opinion Leadership on the Web

Past literature has identified opinion leaders as “individuals who acted as information brokers intervening between mass media sources and the opinions and choices of the population” (Feick & Price, 1987). Opinion leaders are considered important to marketers for the body of knowledge they possess (Asseal, 1984), for the information they transmit to others (Hawkins, 1983), and for their ability to influence transactions (Rogers, 1983). Cafferky (1996) suggests the primary influencer in word-of-mouth communications is the opinion leader. Opinion leaders include such people as market mavens (Cafferky 1996). However, while market mavens have a general marketplace knowledge or expertise, the influence of opinion leaders derives from product specific knowledge or expertise (Feick and Price (1987). Therefore, we would expect that Internet opinion leaders would report high levels of knowledge related to buying products on the Internet. In fact, Kwak, Fox and Zinkhan (2002) suggest opinion leadership is the most important personality variable for predicting Internet purchasing behavior.