L. Jean Harrison-Walker

E‐complaining: a content analysis of an Internet complaint forum

The emergence of the Internet and its communication capabilities has given rise to a number of complaint sites that function as central forums for consumers to share their bad experiences with other consumers. Companies are reacting by adopting anti‐domain sites in an attempt to prevent the creation of such complaint forums. Data from one complaint forum are analyzed to identify the nature of the complaints, whether the complaints were initially voiced to contact personnel, what other attempts were made to resolve the problem, whether the Internet consumer complaint forum was the initial method used for complaining, the responsiveness of the company to non‐Internet complaints as well as Internet complaints, and the demographics of complainers using the Internet complaint forum. The suggestion is made that companies should embrace consumer complaints, and compete with the independent complaint forums (rather than try to block them) on the basis of ease of the complaint process and the likelihood of response. Recommendations are offered that are specific to Internet use and benefits to the company are described.

The measurement of a market orientation and its impact on business performance

Abstract “Market orientation” is conceptualized as consisting of two components (“customer and competitor orientations”), each involving a four-stage process (acquisition of information, organization-wide sharing of information, a shared interpretation of market information, and utilization of market information), and reliable and valid measurement scales are developed. The impact of customer and competitor orientation on business performance is investigated based on multiple-informant data from two US industries. The results suggest that while customer and competitor orientation each have a positive and significant impact on overall market orientation, only customer orientation has a positive and significant effect on business performance. From a managerial perspective, the measurement scales can be used to assess a firms level of market orientation and identify “bottlenecks” in intraorganizational information flows.

If You Build It, Will They Come? Barriers to International e-Marketing

Although Internet technology makes it possible for consumers world-wide to shop on-line, many companies are starting to realize that (1) simply building a web site does not automatically generate international sales and (2) when international consumers do visit a company with the intention purchasing, the transaction often comes to an abrupt halt. The current article reviews existing publications to identify some of the socio-cultural/demographic, financial, technological, political, and legal barriers that thwart international online buying. A series of research proposals are presented that relate specific web site adaptations to various measures of online success.

Customer Relationship Building on the Internet in B2B Marketing: A Proposed Typology

Despite the large number of customer relationship marketing (CRM) applications currently in use on the Internet, there is a lack of an organizing structure. This paper presents a 3X3 typology of e-CRM practices, with particular focus on business-to-business interactions. The typology is based on two dimensions: (1) the stage of the purchase decision process and (2) Berry and Parasuraman’s (1991) levels of relationship marketing. The proposed typology can be used to design and evaluate a finn’s e-CRM strategies relative to its B2B relationship marketing objectives.

Toward an objective-based typology of e-business models

number of Internet users and the growth in ecommerce activity, not all e-businesses are surviving. More than twice as many shut down or declared bankruptcy in 2001 as in the preceding year. The famous Boo.com fashion stores declared bankruptcy after less than one year of operations. Webvan filed Chapter 11 in July 2001. Other well-known failures include Garden.com, Pets.com, and discount retailer Value America. After the downfall of so many dotcoms, people have begun to wonder if e-commerce would ever live up to its expectation of jolting the business world.

The role of cause and affect in service failure

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the role of emotions that consumers experience as a result of assigning causal attributions to service failures. The secondary purpose is to consider the effects of each of these emotions on behavioral outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – This paper extends the work of Wetzer, Zeelenberg, and Pieters regarding emotions and draws upon the existing literature to present a series of research propositions tying attributions to emotions and emotions to behavioral outcomes.Findings – When a service failure occurs, customers experience any of a variety of negative emotions. The particular emotional reaction depends on the customers perception of why the service failure occurred in the first place. Behavioral outcomes associated with service recovery therefore depend directly on the negative emotion and indirectly on the customers perception of the cause.Practical implications – To the extent that marketing managers can frame the cause of the service f...

Building Bridges: The Company-Customer Relationship

ABSTRACT With increasing emphasis on relationship selling, a bond is often formed between the salesperson and each customer. When a salesperson leaves to work for a competitor, customers may follow. Small companies are particularly vulnerable since they lack the resources necessary for many sales force retention strategies. The suggestion is made that such companies can implement “bridging strategies,” company-level relationship strategies designed to supplement the relationship between the sales rep and the customer, with the distinct objective of retaining customers following salesperson defection. Using the three levels of relationship marketing described by Berry and Parasuraman (1991), specific bridging strategies are identified and analyzed. The pharmaceutical industry is discussed as an example.

Customer prioritization in higher education: targeting ‘right’ students for long-term profitability

As competition for students, faculty and financial support has increased, so has the application of marketing in the field of higher education. One critical application of marketing all too often neglected, misunderstood and mismanaged in higher education is targeting customers for profitability. The purpose of this paper is to enrich the marketing practices of academic institutions as they face increasing competition for students, faculty and funding by presenting a discussion of ‘right,’ ‘at-risk right’ and ‘wrong’ customers for higher education. This paper reviews marketing paradigms as they have evolved over time, explains the concepts of right, at-risk right and wrong customers as they apply to higher education and identifies managerial implications critical to todays higher education administrators.

The role of marketing in the valuation of a firm: exploring the underlying mechanism

Marketing plays a significant role in the value of a company, and thus has an impact on the value of the common stock. Yet, the significance of marketing in determining the value of a company and its common stock is not clearly recognized in finance. While financial theory relies heavily on estimates of future revenue streams to predict the firms ability to cover operational costs and generate profits for shareholders, financial theory usually takes marketing as a ‘given’ in financial analysis. The ability of marketing to generate various revenue streams for the firm (depending on strategic objectives) is often over‐simplified. This paper examines the role and significance of marketing in determining the value of the firm, and the price of its common stock.

Viewpoint: A Comprehensive Pedagogy for Dialectic Team-Based Marketing Management Case Analysis

Abstract The case study method, popularly used by top business schools to challenge students with real-world problem analysis and decisionmaking, offers many benefits to marketing management students. This article introduces an innovative and comprehensive method for using case study analyses in a team-based, marketing classroom. All details of the pedagogy are discussed, including preliminary organization, format of the class session, and specific grading criteria. The merits and limitations of the proposed pedagogy are examined.