Manfred Krafft

Consumer Cocreation in New Product Development

The area of consumer cocreation is in its infancy and many aspects are not well understood. In this article, we outline and discuss a conceptual framework that focuses on the degree of consumer cocreation in new product development (NPD). The authors examine (a) the major stimulators and impediments to this process, (b) the impact of cocreation at each stage of the NPD process, and (c) the various firm-related and consumer-related outcomes. A number of areas for future research are suggested.

Evaluation of Structural Equation Models using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach

This paper gives a basic comprehension of the partial least squares approach. In this context, the aim of this paper is to develop a guide for the evalu- ation of structural equation models, using the current statistical methods method- ological knowledge by specifically considering the Partial-Least-Squares (PLS) approachs requirements. As an advantage, the PLS method demands significantly fewer requirements compared to that of covariance structure analyses, but never- theless delivers consistent estimation results. This makes PLS a valuable tool for testing theories. Another asset of the PLS approach is its ability to deal with forma- tive as well as reflective indicators, even within one structural equation model. This indicates that the PLS approach is appropriate for explorative analysis of structural equation models, too, thus offering a significant contribution to theory development. However, little knowledge is available regarding the evaluating of PLS structural equation models. To overcome this research gap a broad and detailed guideline for the assessment of reflective and formative measurement models as well as of the structural model had been developed. Moreover, to illustrate the guideline, a detailed application of the evaluation criteria had been conducted to an empirical model explaining repeat purchasing behaviour.

Customer Engagement as a New Perspective in Customer Management

Since 2000, customer management (CM) research has evolved and has had a significant impact on the marketing discipline. In an increasingly networked society where customers can interact easily with other customers and firms through social networks and other new media, the authors propose that customer engagement is an important new development in CM. Customer engagement is considered as a behavioral manifestation toward the brand or firm that goes beyond transactions. The authors propose a conceptual model of the antecedents, impediments, and firm consequences of customer engagement and relate this model to seven articles appearing in the special issue on customer engagement.

Consumer perceptions of service constellations: implications for service innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the service constellation perspective affects innovation strategies and potentially contributes to the innovation literature, proposing a research agenda.Design/methodology/approach – By analyzing the notion of a service constellation, the authors provide an overview of major implications for service innovation research and practice.Findings – Firms and service innovation researchers need to focus on the perceived consumer value of the constellation rather than on individual services. The authors illustrate how service innovation from the constellation perspective requires coordination and synchronization between projects and different approaches to portfolio management and screening.Originality/value – Adoption of the service constellation perspective creates new opportunities.

Ansätze zur Segmentierung von Kunden — Wie geeignet sind herkömmliche Konzepte?

SummaryIn markets with more or less interchangeable products, the design of buyer-seller relationships may become a critical factor to differentiate the firm from competitors. In this paper, we focus on how to optimally allocate scarce resources across customers. We show that there is need to segment customers in order to optimally design marketing and personal selling resources (e.g., budgeting, call planning). We show that an optimal allocation of resources has to consider a customer’s size (sales, marginal profit contribution) and responsiveness to marketing measures (elasticity). Against this background, we discuss all segmentation approaches in detail. It is shown that portfolios and scoring approaches are most helpful in segmenting customers in accordance with their economic value. However, these approaches lead to near-optimal solutions only if they first identify criteria which influence size and responsiveness and then optimally weight these criteria. Optimal weights are derived by determining the elasticity of size or responsiveness with respect to these criteria. These weights must be multiplied by the relative changes of the scores of the influencing criteria, summed for size and responsiveness separately, and then finally multiplied by each other.

Optimizing Rhenania's Mail-Order Business Through Dynamic Multilevel Modeling (DMLM)

Rhenania, a German direct mail-order company, turned its catalog mailing practices around within one year and consequently moved up in market position from number 5 to number 2. A dynamic multilevel modeling (DMLM) approach uses elasticities to determine the optimal frequency of catalog mailings, a customer-segmentation approach allows for optimization of mailings, and a recency, frequency, monetary-value (RFM) segmentation in combination with a chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) algorithm determines when customers should receive a reactivation package--as opposed to a catalog--to optimize mailing efficiency further. The DMLM approach was so effective that Rhenania acquired two competitors (one a subdivision of Springer Verlag).

Price Delegation in Sales Organizations: An Empirical Investigation

The allocation of decision rights is an integral component of designing organizational architecture. Economists have long understood the importance of co-locating decision rights with the knowledge that is valuable to those decisions. Following this prescription, marketing scholars have developed strong theoretical arguments in favor of delegating pricing authority to the sales force. Empirical work, however, reveals a significant number of sales organizations yielding only minimal authority to their salespeople. Given this divergence between theory and practice, we develop and empirically test two mitigating factors that could potentially explain why firms restrict pricing authority. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 222 German sales organizations and find that the data are generally consistent with our conceptualization.

Der Zusammenhang zwischen Kundennähe, Kundenzufriedenheit und Kundenbindung sowie deren Erfolgswirkungen

Die Bedeutung des Beziehungsmarketing hat in den letzten Jahren sowohl in der Praxis als auch in der wissenschaftlichen Forschung stark zugenommen. Insbesondere die jungere Marketing-Literatur ist von zahlreichen Beitragen gepragt, die sich mit Konstrukten und Phanomenen von Kundenbeziehungen, wie Kundennahe, -orientierung, -zufriedenheit und -bindung beschaftigen. Mit dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird eine Systematisierung dieser kundenbezogenen Themen vor dem Hintergrund einer optimalen Gestaltung von Kundenbeziehungen angestrebt. Die derzeitige Literatur zeigt, dass eine Einigkeit weder hinsichtlich der abgedeckten Aspekte der Kundenbeziehung noch bezuglich der theoretischen Fundierung, der Messkonzepte und der Implikationen fur Forschung und Praxis besteht. Es zeigt sich zudem, dass noch Defizite im Hinblick auf die Verknupfung der Kunden-Konstrukte mit zentralen, okonomischen Zielen wie der Unternehmensprofitabilitat zu beobachten sind. Um diese Mangel aufzuheben, sind insbesondere moderne, kundenbezogene Instrumente des Marketing-Controlling zu entwickeln und dauerhaft einzusetzen. Die Marketing-Forschung und -Praxis beschaftigt sich in jungster Vergangenheit immer mehr mit der Frage, ob und in welcher Form der Wert von Kundenbeziehungen gemessen und optimiert werden kann. Als potentielle Pradiktoren der Profitabilitat von Kundenbeziehungen werden in diesem Beitrag die Kundennahe, -zufriedenheit und -bindung diskutiert.

Compensation and Control Systems: A New Application of Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory

Compensation and control systems offer much for study. In this paper, we provide directions for future research by considering the system of influences that operate to shape salesperson behavior in the presence of formal and informal systems attempting to influence behaviors and outcomes. By applying vertical dyad linkage theory to the issue of control, we illustrate how the field remains fertile for continued study to improve the understanding of how incentives influence sales managers, salespeople, and customers. Of particular interest is the interplay between superiors and subordinates across sales force management layers and in the context of compensation/control. Further, the chain of linkages extends to customers, also providing fruitful opportunities for research.

Customer Relationship Management öffentlicher und privater TV-Sender

Offentlich-rechtliche wie private Fernsehsender berichten in der jungsten Vergangenheit nicht nur uber eine geringere Senderloyalitat ihrer Zuschauer, sondern beklagen auch eine nachhaltige Zuruckhaltung der werbetreibenden Unternehmen, Werbezeiten zu buchen. Die derzeitige wirtschaftliche Stagnation hat nach internen Informationen von Sendern dazu gefuhrt, dass einige TV-Anstalten Werbezeiten zu Preisen anbieten, die zum Teil nur 20 bis 30% der regularen Satze ausmachen. Fur den Spartensender n-tv fuhrte diese Zuruckhaltung auf dem TV-Werbemarkt beispielsweise zu einem Erloseinbruch von 35% und einem Bilanzverlust von 14,9 Millionen 6.1 Und Urs Rohner, Chef der ProSiebenSat.l Media AG, verkundete auf den Munchner Medientagen im Oktober 2002, dass den privatwirtschaftlichen TV-Programmanbietern im laufenden Jahr im Vergleich zum Boomjahr 2000 etwa 600 Millionen Euro Werbeeinnahmen weniger zur Verfugung stunden. Die schlechte Buchungssituation kann nicht zuletzt daran abgelesen werden, dass die Sender in zunehmendem Mase in den Werbeblocken Eigenwerbung fur Programminhalte schalten.