Don Scott

Why women enter into entrepreneurship: an explanatory model

Develops a model of the factors that motivate women to start their own businesses. Qualitative research involving 25 French women entrepreneurs were used to explore case study situations. The research identified a number of situations that relate to women’s decisions to become entrepreneurs, namely “dynastic compliance”, “no other choice”, “entrepreneurship by chance”, “natural succession”, “forced entrepreneurship”, “informed entrepreneur” and “pure entrepreneur”. The findings do not reinforce the assumption that a majority of women become entrepreneurs for reasons of necessity and identified antecedents to the generalised “push”, “pull” and environmental motives.

The self‐concept and image congruence hypothesis

Evaluates the applicability of self‐concept and product image congruity theory within the new motor vehicle market. By utilising competitive product offerings, and by employing the perceptions of actual owners, the paper provides a true market assessment of the applicability of the theory. Respondents were examined using self‐concept and product value constructs and their responses were used to test a number of hypotheses. Among others, the results of analysis of variance indicated that when different brands of motor vehicles were physically similar, owners perceived no difference between their own self‐concepts and the self‐concepts they attributed to owners of competing product brands. This finding differs from previous research conducted on other products and suggests a different orientation by owners of similar motor vehicles to that suggested by self‐concept theory.

Internal relationships: Linking practitioner literature and relationship marketing theory

Purpose – Practitioners argue that the way they treat their employees has an impact on firm success. However, they frequently do not equate this with relationship building. On the other hand, the academic relationship marketing literature does highlight internal relationships as having an important impact on external customer relationships. However, this relationship suffers from a lack of academic empirical evidence. Neither seems to recognize the knowledge of the other leading to incongruence between marketing theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to bring the two literature streams together demonstrating that the practitioners are talking about, and practising, relationship marketing. Design/methodology/approach – Exploration and comparison of the academic and practitioner literature bases to elaborate on the value of relationship building within organizations. Findings – Competitive advantage can be attained through development of a relationship‐building culture which includes building relationships inside the organization as well as customer relationships. In fact, successful customer relationships rely on successful internal relationships. Research implications/implications – A broad research agenda is outlined for understanding the nature of internal relationships and their impact on a firms success. Practical implications – Organizational success can be gained through building strong internal relationships and the development of a relationship‐building organizational culture. Originality/value – Links practitioner cases and reflections to the concept of relationship marketing, demonstrating further how relationship marketing activities provide a competitive advantage.

An exploratory investigation into e-tail image attributes important to repeat, internet savvy customers

Abstract This paper offers results from an exploratory study investigating e-tail store image attributes important to repeat, internet savvy customers of a major Australian grocery e-tailer. The study was undertaken in response to a perceived need on the part of the e-tailer for a better understanding of how image operated on-line, and a review of extant literature which indicated that while retail store image in traditional bricks-and-mortar environments had been extensively investigated; limited empirical work involving consumers had been undertaken within the e-tail environment. Three components incorporating traditional and e-tail specific attributes were identified; core demands, institutional factors and information.

Choice criteria in the selection of international accounting firms

The six largest international accounting firms in the world offer a variety of business services ranging from the traditional areas of audit and tax to the newer areas of retail consulting, salary surveys, project management for information systems and psychological profiling of staff, managers and prospective employees. Uses factor analysis to examine the dimensions on which local (host country) clients of such firms base their assessments when evaluating and selecting the service provider for these services. The factors identified as being important for selection of a firm differed from those traditionally accepted as being used to assess service quality. In addition, an image‐related factor was identified as being significantly related to some of the clients′ assessments of performance. Clients′ assessments of the different dimensions were also related more to personal, rather than non‐personal sources of information, and the factors were found to be consistent across the range of services offered.

Measuring firm-employee relationship strength

Abstract Vargo and Lusch (2004), in their award-winning Journal of Marketing article, have called for a paradigmatic shift in marketing to a service-dominant logic. This paper discusses research findings of the Marketing Performance Centre (MPC) into service firm marketing practices and performance and reflects on how sources of advantage should be assessed in a service-dominant, relational and co-created value context.

Determinants of organisational climate for academia

Being aware of the factors that develop a positive organisational climate is especially important in universities, where the academic members of staff are, in large measure, self-motivated. To identify the determinants of organisational climate for university academia, the validity and reliability of the first-order constructs of autonomy, cohesion and pressure were examined. These three constructs were found to have inadequate validity in this environment. The remaining five valid constructs indicated a second-order organisational climate construct organisational climate was influenced by support, followed by trust and fairness, and then by recognition and innovation. The findings of our study will assist university managers to identify areas to focus upon when developing their academic staff in the pursuit of improving the organisational climate.

CPA service providers: A profile of client types and their assessment of performance

Abstract Given the central proposition in strategic marketing that business customers differ from one another in important ways, we examine two questions which are relevant to the marketing of professional business services. Firstly, can business clients be meaningfully segmented by the criteria they consider to be important when buying accounting services? Secondly, if the answer to this is yes, do the resulting segments or client types differ in their evaluation of the CPA services they receive? Based on the responses of 128 clients to a national survey of New Zealand firms, the answer is yes. We identify two client types: the Phlegmatic and the Involved Clients. The Involved Clients are concerned about a larger number of CPA-provider attributes than the Phlegmatics. Most client firms are found to be Phlegmatics; however, proportionally more Involved Clients report experiencing high performance by their CPA service-providers. The key strategic implication of this is that clients who are more involved than indifferent in evaluating CPA service-providers may either gain higher levels of CPA performance or perceive that they do.

The Value of Codesign: The Effect of Customer Involvement in Service Design Teams

Codesign allows a design team to combine two sets of knowledge that are key to service design: Customer insights into latent user needs and in-house professionals’ conversion of promising new ideas into viable concepts. While some studies highlight the potential of codesign, others are more skeptical pointing to a lack of clarity over how the involvement of customers affects the design process and outcomes. This article addresses this knowledge gap by reporting on a real-world comparison of design concepts generated by codesign teams with those generated by an in-house professional team and a team solely made up of users in the course of a library service ideation contest. The comparison indicates that codesign teams generate concepts that score significantly higher in user benefit and novelty but lower in feasibility. However, these outcomes are only possible in cohesive teams that develop design concepts collaboratively. In contrast, in teams where individuals dominate, conflict, less collaboration, and diminished innovation outcomes are more likely. The findings add to a better understanding of the value of codesign and shed light on the complex relationship between design team composition, intrateam factors, and innovation outcomes. Service designers obtain recommendations for selecting customers, assembling teams, and managing intrateam dynamics to enhance codesign success.

Team diversity and its management in a co-design team

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions under which a co-design team comprised of in-house professionals and leading-edge service users can generate innovative service design concepts. Design/methodology/approach The investigation used a field-experimental design to conduct two studies. Observations and open-ended questionnaires were used to examine cross-comparison matrices with experts rating the generated outcomes and t-tests being used to compare the outcome ratings between teams of different compositions. Findings The outcomes produced by a co-design team seem to be linked to the team diversity – process facilitation relationship. Bringing a variety of knowledge and skills into the team can lead to original outcomes, while a high disparity between members’ backgrounds can require extensive efforts to facilitate a collaborative process. Separation between users’ objectives can result in a user-driven process and outcomes that are too specific for the broader marketplace. Co-design teams that characterize minimum separation, maximum variety, and moderate disparity are likely to produce the most promising results. Research limitations/implications The research was restricted to a narrowly defined study setting and samples. Future research should replicate the current study in other service contexts using different team compositions. Practical implications Co-design requires the careful selection of users based on their background and motivations, as well as the facilitation of a process that enables the team to collaboratively transform relevant knowledge into innovative outcomes. Originality/value The research contributes to a better understanding of the team composition – process facilitation relationship affecting innovation outcomes. Doing so provides a more fine-grained picture of the co-design team composition and the facilitation requirements for service design.