Don O'Sullivan

Service Quality, Trust, Commitment and Service Differentiation in Business Relationships

Purpose – While service quality, trust and commitment are frequently cited as critical to achieving important firm outcomes, the role of service differentiation in this framework is largely unknown. Yet, differentiation is important because a firms distinctiveness is linked to client‐perceived value, competitive advantage, and a target market focus. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of service differentiation in business‐to‐business relationships.Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were tested using a sample of business clients from a large European financial services firm. The senior primary contact in each client firm was contacted by phone/e‐mail to arrange for completion of the survey. Using the survey instrument, respondents provided information on their relationship with the provider organization.Findings – Results indicated that service quality had an impact on trust, differentiation and relationship outcomes. Trust was found to drive service differentiation. Differentiat...

Marketing Performance Measurement and Firm Performance: Evidence from the European High-Technology Sector

Purpose – The research aims to test whether the ability to measure marketing performance affects the actual performance of firms, in the context of the European high‐tech sector. It also aims to test whether performance‐reporting frequency and size of marketing budget mediate the relationship between measurement ability and performance.Design/methodology/approach – Survey responses collected from 157 marketers were supplemented with firm performance data.Findings – Results show that marketing performance measurement ability positively impacts firm performance and that reporting frequency mediates this relationship.Research limitations/implications – More attention should be given to the activities that are measured rather than the metrics in use – which receive much attention in the literature. Current interest in marketing dashboards may be overstated.Practical implications – Enhanced ability to account for marketing leads not only to improved firm performance, but also to greater regard for marketing at...

Customer satisfaction, earnings and firm value

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction, earnings and firm value.Design/methodology/approach – A model borrowed from the accounting literature – the Ohlson model – is used to consider the impact of customer satisfaction on Tobins q – a capital market‐based measure of firm performance widely used in marketing research. Data on firm performance is drawn from COMPUSTAT and integrated with data on customer satisfaction from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).Findings – Results show that customer satisfaction has a positive impact on firm value. Critically, the authors find that this impact is over and above the impact that earnings has on firm value. They also find that customer satisfaction positively and significantly moderates the earnings‐firm value relationship.Research limitations/implications – Findings are limited to firms covered by the American Customer Satisfaction Index and subject to the assumptions underpinning the Ohlson model.P...

Market orientation and enterprise policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the merit of enterprise policies that seek to enhance market orientation as a driver of firm performance.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of empirical research utilising the MKTOR survey instrument, administered to senior marketing managers in high‐value‐added sectors in Ireland; and both subjective and lagged objective measures of firm performance.Findings – Findings support international context‐specific research. Market orientation is not found to be directly associated with firm performance in high‐value‐added firms in the Irish economy.Research limitations/implications – Research directions should include the evolving understanding of market orientation, and the exploration of what alternative orientations lead to improved performance in different contexts.Practical implications – For public policy, a re‐examination of the conceptualisation of, and support for, market orientation is warranted.Originality/value – The paper pres...