Inge Geyskens

The effects of trust and interdependence on relationship commitment: A trans-Atlantic study

A two-stage locking or latching mechanism for releasably connecting an endoscope and a urological instrument. In the first latching stage a body portion of the endoscope is fully received within a socket of the urological instrument and is restrained by a cooperating lug and socket against all movement except limited outward axial movement into the second latching stage. In the second latching stage the parts are secured against further axial separation unless they are first rotated with respect to each other to cam a spring out of latching engagement with the body portion of the endoscope.

Make, Buy, or Ally: A Transaction Cost Theory Meta-Analysis

Since the publication of Williamsons Markets and Hierarchies, many empirical articles have investigated the tenets of transaction cost theory. Using meta-analytic techniques, we quantitatively syn...

The Market Valuation of Internet Channel Additions

The emergence of the Internet has pushed many established companies to explore this radically new distribution channel. Like all market discontinuities, the Internet creates opportunities as well as threats—it can be performance-enhancing as readily as it can be performance-destroying. Making use of event-study methodology, the authors assess the net impact of adding an Internet channel on a firms stock market return, a measure of the change in expected future cash flows. The authors find that, on average, Internet channel investments are positive net-present-value investments. The authors then identify firm, introduction strategy, and marketplace characteristics that influence the direction and magnitude of the stock market reaction. The results indicate that powerful firms with a few direct channels are expected to achieve greater gains in financial performance than are less powerful firms with a broader direct channel offering. In terms of order of entry, early followers have a competitive advantage over both innovators and later followers, even when time of entry is controlled for. The authors also find that Internet channel additions that are supported by more publicity are perceived as having a higher performance potential.

The Formation of Buyer—Supplier Relationships: Detailed Contract Drafting and Close Partner Selection

Firms face two strategic decisions when engaging in a new purchase transaction: the decision whether to draft a detailed contract and the decision whether to select a partner with which they share a close tie. The authors study how organizational culture affects these decisions and the effectiveness of these decisions in curtailing the partners opportunistic behavior. The results suggest that organizational culture exerts an important but different influence on both decisions. Selecting a close partner shows a marked ability to hedge against partner opportunism, but beyond a certain point, it encourages the opportunism it is designed to discourage. Contracting becomes effective only when a nonclose partner is selected and when the focal relationship is embedded in a network of close mutual contacts.

Economic and Social Satisfaction: Measurement and Relevance to Marketing Channel Relationships

We demonstrate the critical need to recognize the presence of two different types of satisfaction for effective channel governance—economic satisfaction, that is, a channel member’s evaluation of the economic outcomes that flow from the relationship with its partner, and social satisfaction, a channel member’s evaluation of the personal contacts and interactions with its exchange partner. Measurement instruments permitting channel researchers to make the distinction between economic and social satisfaction are developed and tested. We provide evidence on the relevance of this distinction by showing that the two types of satisfaction occupy unique positions in a nomological network, as determined by differential relations with partner’s use of power and responses to channel relationship problems. The implications of these differences in effects are discussed and indicate that channel managers should be aware of the kind of satisfaction they are fostering in their channel counterparts.

How Country Characteristics Affect the Perceived Value of Web Sites

The authors examine how country characteristics systematically moderate the effects of individual-level drivers of the perceived value that consumers derive from visiting a brand manufacturers Web site. They test hypotheses on data collected from 8886 consumers from 23 countries on three continents, involving 30 Web sites of the worlds largest consumer packaged goods companies. They find that the effect of privacy/security protection on perceived value is stronger for people from countries with a weak rule of law, whereas people from countries that are high on national identity give more weight to whether there is cultural congruity between the site and themselves. People who live in more individualistic countries give more weight to pleasure, to privacy/security protection, and to customization in their perceived value judgments than people from collectivistic countries. The authors discuss implications for Web site design strategies.

A Review and Evaluation of Meta-Analysis Practices in Management Research

Meta-analysis has become increasingly popular in management research to quantitatively integrate research findings across a large number of studies. In an effort to help shape future applications of meta-analysis in management, this study chronicles and evaluates the decisions that management researchers made in 69 meta-analytic studies published between 1980 and 2007 in 14 management journals. It performs four meta-analyses of relationships that have been studied with varying frequency in management research, to provide empirical evidence that meta-analytical decisions influence results. The implications of the findings are discussed with a focus on the changes that seem appropriate.

What Makes Consumers Willing to Pay a Price Premium for National Brands over Private Labels

The growing sales of private labels (PLs) pose significant challenges for national brands (NBs) around the world. A major question is whether consumers continue to be willing to pay a price premium for NBs over PLs. Using consumer survey data from 22,623 respondents from 23 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas across, on average, 63 consumer packaged goods categories per country, this article studies how marketing and manufacturing factors affect the price premium a consumer is willing to pay for an NB over a PL. These effects are mediated by consumer perceptions of the quality of NBs in relation to PLs. Although the results do not bode well for NBs in the sense that willingness to pay decreases as PLs mature, the authors offer several managerial recommendations to counter this trend. In countries in which PLs are more mature, the route to success is to go back to manufacturing basics. In PL development countries, there is a stronger role for marketing to enhance the willingness to pay for NBs.

Proliferating private label portfolios : How introducing economy and premium private labels influences brand choice

Three-tiered private-label (PL) portfolio strategies (low-quality tier: economy PLs, mid-quality tier: standard PLs, and top-quality tier: premium PLs) are gaining interest around the world. Drawing on the context-effects literature, the authors postulate how the introduction of economy and premium PLs may affect the choice of mainstream-quality and premium-quality national brands (NBs) and the choice of the retailers existing PL offering. The authors use the natural experiment offered by Asdas and Sainsburys introduction of economy and premium PL tiers in the corn flakes and canned soup categories in the United Kingdom to test their framework. Using brand choice models that accommodate context (compromise, similarity, and attraction) effects, the authors find that both economy and premium PLs cannibalize incumbent PLs. Economy PL introductions benefit mainstream-quality NBs because these NBs become a compromise or middle option in terms of quality in the retailers assortment. The effects of premium PL introductions on premium-quality NBs are mixed: Their share improves in two of four cases but decreases in the other two cases.

Retailer Private-Label Margins: The Role of Supplier and Quality-Tier Differentiation

The authors show how new realities in the private-label (PL) landscape, including differential PL-sourcing relationships and differentiated, three-tiered PL portfolios, affect the gross margins that retailers realize on their PLs. In addition, they examine the moderating role of the identity of the PL supplier (dual brander vs. dedicated supplier). Retailer PL margins are lower for stockkeeping units from PL suppliers with whom the retailer shares a more intense relationship, as reflected in their relationship breadth and depth, but this negative effect can be countered through multisourcing. Building prolonged relationships with PL suppliers also results in lower retailer PL margins, but only for more national brand–oriented suppliers. Dedicated PL suppliers have little to gain by building long-term retailer relationships, but they are less vulnerable to the retailers practice of multisourcing than dual branders. Although economy PLs may appeal to conventional supermarkets to keep (hard) discounters at bay, they result in lower margins (percentage-wise and absolute) than the standard PLs they cannibalize. Premium PLs, in turn, offer the retailer a higher margin, but only when produced by suppliers with a sufficient extent of national brand focus. However, the higher promotional support often given to premium PLs tends to mitigate the actual margin advantage.