G. Tomas M. Hult

Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments

Abstract The following study both synthesizes and builds on the efforts to conceptualize the effects of quality, satisfaction, and value on consumers’ behavioral intentions. Specifically, it reports an empirical assessment of a model of service encounters that simultaneously considers the direct effects of these variables on behavioral intentions. The study builds on recent advances in services marketing theory and assesses the relationships between the identified constructs across multiple service industries. Several competing theories are also considered and compared to the research model. A number of notable findings are reported including the empirical verification that service quality, service value, and satisfaction may all be directly related to behavioral intentions when all of these variables are considered collectively. The results further suggest that the indirect effects of the service quality and value constructs enhanced their impact on behavioral intentions.

Corporate Citizenship: Cultural Antecedents and Business Benefits

The article explores the nature of corporate citizenship and its relevance for marketing practitioners and academic researchers. Specifically, a conceptualization and operationalization of corporate citizenship are first proposed. Then, an empirical investigation conducted in two independent samples examines whether components of an organization’s culture affect the level of commitment to corporate citizenship and whether corporate citizenship is conducive to business benefits. Survey results suggest that market-oriented cultures as well as humanistic cultures lead to proactive corporate citizenship, which in turn is associated with improved levels of employee commitment, customer loyalty, and business performance. The results point to corporate citizenship as a potentially fruitful business practice both in terms of internal and external marketing.

The Performance Implications of Fit Among Business Strategy, Marketing Organization Structure, and Strategic Behavior

Adopting a contingency perspective, the authors present and test a fit-as-moderation model that posits that overall firm performance is influenced by how well the marketing organizations structural characteristics (i.e., formalization, centralization, and specialization) and strategic behavioral emphases (i.e., customer, competitor, innovation, and cost control) complement alternative business strategies (i.e., prospector, analyzer, low-cost defender, and differentiated defender). Responses from 228 senior marketing managers provide support for the model and demonstrate that each strategy type requires different combinations of marketing organization structures and strategic behaviors for success.

Logistics service quality as a segment-customized process

Logistics excellence has become a powerful source of competitive differentiation within diverse marketing offerings of world-class firms. Although researchers have suggested that logistics competencies complement marketing efforts, empirical evidence is lacking on what logistics service quality means to customers and whether it has different meanings for separate customer segments. The authors present empirical support for nine related logistics service quality constructs; demonstrate their unidimensionality, validity, and reliability across four customer segments of a large logistics organization; and provide empirical support for a logistics service quality process. Although structural equation modeling offers support for the logistics service quality process across customer segments, the authors find that the relative parameter estimates differ for each segment, which suggests that firms ought to customize their logistics services by customer segments.

Common Beliefs and Reality About PLS Comments on Rönkkö and Evermann (2013)

This article addresses Rönkkö and Evermann’s criticisms of the partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling. We contend that the alleged shortcomings of PLS are not due to problems with the technique, but instead to three problems with Rönkkö and Evermann’s study: (a) the adherence to the common factor model, (b) a very limited simulation designs, and (c) overstretched generalizations of their findings. Whereas Rönkkö and Evermann claim to be dispelling myths about PLS, they have in reality created new myths that we, in turn, debunk. By examining their claims, our article contributes to reestablishing a constructive discussion of the PLS method and its properties. We show that PLS does offer advantages for exploratory research and that it is a viable estimator for composite factor models. This can pose an interesting alternative if the common factor model does not hold. Therefore, we can conclude that PLS should continue to be used as an important statistical tool for management and organizational research, as well as other social science disciplines.

A synthesis of contemporary market orientation perspectives

A great deal of attention has been devoted to the concept of market orientation in marketing academe and practice. Numerous perspectives have been proposed as researchers endeavor to conceptualize the market orientation construct and implement it in practice. Presents a conceptual framework that integrates five recently advanced perspectives on market orientation (Deshpande, Farley, and Webster; Kohli and Jaworski; Narver and Slater; Ruekert; Shapiro). The similarities and differences are reviewed and a synthesized conceptualization of market orientation is offered, followed by a discussion of market orientation as a managerial versus cultural phenomenon to achieving a competitive advantage.

Common Beliefs and Reality About PLS

This article addresses Rönkkö and Evermann’s criticisms of the partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling. We contend that the alleged shortcomings of PLS are not due to problems with the technique, but instead to three problems with Rönkkö and Evermann’s study: (a) the adherence to the common factor model, (b) a very limited simulation designs, and (c) overstretched generalizations of their findings. Whereas Rönkkö and Evermann claim to be dispelling myths about PLS, they have in reality created new myths that we, in turn, debunk. By examining their claims, our article contributes to reestablishing a constructive discussion of the PLS method and its properties. We show that PLS does offer advantages for exploratory research and that it is a viable estimator for composite factor models. This can pose an interesting alternative if the common factor model does not hold. Therefore, we can conclude that PLS should continue to be used as an important statistical tool for management and organizational research, as well as other social science disciplines.

Faculty Perceptions of Marketing Journals

The qualitative assessment of scholarly journals plays an important role in promotion and tenure decisions, recognition, scholarly dialogue, and the contribution to the knowledge base of marketing. To aid marketing faculty and administrators in this assessment, the latest perceptions among marketing faculty regarding the relative hierarchical positioning of scholarly marketing journals are reviewed. Besides the overall ranking, the study segments journals along two dimensions: AACSB- / non-AASCB-accredited institutions (American Assembly of College Schools of Business) and marketing doctorate- / non-doctorate-granting institutions. The results of this study can be used by various marketing faculty constituencies to aid in evaluating publication importance via their selected reference groups.

The Role of Entrepreneurship in Building Cultural Competitiveness in Different Organizational Types

This study examines the role of entrepreneurship in building cultural competitiveness in organizations. Cultural competitiveness is defined as the degree to which organizations are predisposed to detect and fill gaps between what the market desires and what is currently offered. It is examined in this study as the collective result of interactions among four variables: entrepreneurship, innovativeness, market orientation, and organizational learning. Among these variables, entrepreneurship represents the most influential and proactive means of developing a market-based culture. However, the role of entrepreneurship differs depending on organizational type. Based on data from a sample of 764 organizations, superior performance occurs when certain aspects of cultural competitiveness fit each of four organizational types. Specifically, large and young organizations achieve strong performance by focusing directly on entrepreneurship. In the other organizational types, entrepreneurship has an indirect effect o...

Organizational Learning in Global Purchasing: A Model and Test of Internal Users and Corporate Buyers*

This research examines a model centered on organizational learning in purchasing. Two different studies are conducted to test the hypotheses among purchasing users (Study 1) and buyers (Study 2). The user sample consists of users representing 355 strategic business units of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation. The buyer sample consists of corporate buyers of 200 multinational corporations drawn from the membership directory of the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). In each study, the focus is on the learning relationships between corporate buyers and internal users in the purchasing organization. Based on the two studies, the results suggest that organizational learning in the purchasing process is influenced by the organizational culture factors of localness, transformational leadership, and openness. Organizational learning has a positive effect on information processing in the purchasing system, which, in turn, has a positive influence on the cycle time of the purchasing process.