Gordon E. Greenley

The performance impact of marketing resources

Recently, there has been much interest in the role of marketing resources in contributing to the creation of competitive advantage and subsequently firm performance. Most of this work to date, however, has been conceptual or theoretical in nature, and there has been little empirical research into the nature and impact of marketing resources. Drawing on literature from both the marketing and strategic management disciplines, the authors develop and empirically test scales for measuring marketing resources and assess their impact on performance outcomes. The findings indicate that marketing resources impact on financial performance indirectly through creating customer satisfaction and loyalty and building superior market performance.

Measuring Internal Market Orientation

Internal marketing has been discussed in the management and academic literature for more than three decades, yet it remains ill defined and poorly operationalized. This article responds to calls to develop a single, clear understanding of the construct, to develop an instrument to measure it, and for empirical evidence of its impact. Existing conceptualization of internal marketing are explored, and a new, multidimensional construct, internal market orientation (IMO), is developed. IMO represents the adaptation of market orientation to the context of employer-employee exchanges in the internal market. The article describes the development of a measure of IMO in a retail services context. Five dimensions of IMO are identified and confirmed. These describe different managerial behaviors associated with internal marketing. The impact of IMO on important organizational factors is also explored. Results indicate positive consequences for customer satisfaction, relative competitive position, staff attitudes, staff retention and staff compliance.

Multiple Stakeholder Orientation in UK Companies and the Implications for Company Performance

Orientation to the diverse interests of stakeholder groups is central to strategic planning, and failure to address the interests of multiple stakeholder groups may be detrimental to company performance. However, some companies may be unable to address all these interests, owing to a scarcity of resources, and the impact of multiple stakeholder orientation may be influenced by the environment. Despite calls by leading writers in the literature, there is no empirical evidence about the potential association of orientation to multiple stakeholders with company performance. The results of a study of UK companies designed to elucidate this association are reported in this paper. Although the results give some support to the proposition that orientation to multiple stakeholders is positively associated with performance, such associations are contingent on the external environment, as they are moderated by competitive hostility, after controlling for the intervening effects of market growth.

External moderation of associations among stakeholder orientations and company performance

Abstract A recent survey of the treatment accorded to the stakeholder concept across the business administration literature [Donaldson, T., Preston, L.E., 1995. The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence and implications. Academy of Management Review 20, 65–91.], concluded that there is an implicit assumption that stakeholder orientation is positively associated with company performance, but that this assumption has not been empirically tested. In the marketing literature studies [Kohli, A.K., Jaworski, B.J., Kumar, A., 1993. MARKOR: A measure of market orientation. Journal of Marketing Research 30, 467–477; and Slater, S.F., Narver, J.C., 1995. Market orientation and the learning organization. Journal of Marketing 59, 63–74.], of the association of the market orientation with performance, also concluded that empirical evidence is needed about wider stakeholder orientation and performance, to expand our understanding of market orientation. The study reported in this article provides such evidence from a sample of UK companies. The theory tested addresses stakeholder orientation to consumers, competitors, employees, and shareholders, the potential association of these orientations with company performance, and potential moderation of these associations from the external environment. The results indicate that stakeholder orientation per se is not associated with performance per se, but that different types of stakeholder orientation are associated with different measures of performance, and that these associations are moderated by the external environment.

Consumers' Emotional Responses to Service Environments

Abstract Mehrabian and Russells (1974) approach to environmental psychology describes emotional responses to environments by measures of pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Research on consumer environments has generated mixed results, because it has lacked a theory-based classification of consumer environments; thus, test situations have been selected on an ad hoc basis. The paper employs the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) as an appropriate theoretical classification. Consumers ( N = 142) responding to eight service environments based on the application of this model yielded data for emotional reactions and approach/avoidance in 1,136 consumer situations. The results support the adoption of this theoretical framework for the contextual analysis of consumer behavior and substantiate the predictive validity of the BPM.

A Comparison of Slack Resources in High and Low Performing British Companies

Theory predicts that slack resources provide the means for achieving flexibility in developing strategy options. The outcome of generating and investing slack resources to achieve flexibility should be improved company performance. There is also a prediction that low performing companies are likely to have lower levels of slack than high performing companies, and therefore are likely to have less potential for achieving flexibility to impact on performance. However, as the literature features several inadequacies a comparative study of high and low performing British companies was carried out to address these inadequacies. While multiple measures of slack were found to be predictors of company performance in high performing companies, they seemingly have negligible impact on performance in low performing companies. Also, only certain types of slack resources are seemingly more prominent in high performers than in low performers. The results provide a development and refinement of the previous limited knowledge about slack resources.

Does Strategic Planning Improve Company Performance

This article is concerned with the effectiveness of strategic planning in manufacturing companies. As a function of the overall management of an organization, the literature describes planning as being effective relative to its contribution to the performance, or end results, that the planning system was initially designed to achieve. […] The first area of attention in this article is published reports of empirical data, which have examined such a relationship between strategic planning and company performance. However […] it cannot be concluded that strategic planning is an effective, or indeed ineffective, tool for the overall management of organizations.

The impact of internal and external market orientations on firm performance

The role of internal marketing in developing organisational competencies is identified as a key area for continued research (Rafiq & Ahmed, 2003). One competence of particular interest to marketers is market orientation. This paper examines the impact of internal marketing, operationalised as a set of internal market‐oriented behaviours (IMO), on market orientation (MO) and consequently organisational performance. It provides the first quantitative evidence to support the long held assumption that internal marketing has an impact on marketing success. Data from UK retail managers were analysed using structural equation modelling employing LISREL software. These data indicate significant relationships between internal market orientation, employee motivation and external marketing success (market orientation, financial performance and customer satisfaction). Our results also support previous findings indicating a positive impact of external market orientation on customer satisfaction and financial performance. For marketing practitioners, the role of internal market orientation in developing marketing strategies is discussed.

The resource underpinnings of competitive positions

Competitive positioning is central to market‐focussed management, comprising the choice of target market the firm will operate in, and how it will compete in that market. Positioning decisions are complex and require the firm to find a profitable match between market requirements and firm ability to satisfy them. Equally important, however, is the longer term sustainability of any position created in the market place. Drawing on theory from the strategic management and marketing domains the authors argue that the competitive position achieved is a key marketing resource with the potential to generate sustainable competitive advantage. The paper examines alternative competitive positions, the marketing resources necessary to underpin them, and how they are defended against competitor imitation or encroachment. Some positions are found to be inherently more defensible than others.

Market orientation in the service sector of the transition economies of central Europe

The Narver and Slater market orientation scale is tested in the context of service firms in the transition economies of central Europe and found to be both valid and reliable. The survey examined levels of market orientation in 205 business to business services companies and 141 consumer services companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. As predicted by the predominantly western marketing literature, those service firms with higher levels of market orientation; were more often found in turbulent, rapidly changing markets; were more likely to pursue longer term market building goals rather than short term efficiency objectives; more likely to pursue differentiated positioning through offering superior levels of service compared to competitors; and also performed better on both financial and market based criteria. A number of different business approaches, however, are evident in the transition economies suggesting that other business orientations may co‐exist with a market orientation creating a richer and more complex set of organizational drivers.