Manoj K. Agarwal

How Is Manifest Branding Strategy Related to the Intangible Value of a Corporation

Firms exhibit or “manifest” three types of branding strategies: corporate branding, house of brands, or mixed branding. These strategies differ in their essential structure and in their potential costs and benefits to the firm. Prior research has failed to understand how these branding strategies are related to the intangible value of the firm. The authors investigate this relationship using five-year data for a sample of 113 U.S. firms. They find that corporate branding strategy is associated with higher values of Tobins q, and mixed branding strategy is associated with lower values of Tobins q, after controlling for the effects of several important and relevant factors. The relationships of the control variables are consistent with prior expectations. In addition, most of the firms would have been able to improve their Tobins q had they adopted a branding strategy different from the one their brand portfolios revealed. The authors also discuss implications and future research directions.

An Empirical Comparison of Consumer-Based Measures of Brand Equity

This article compares eleven different consumer-based brand equity measures and evaluates their convergence. Predictive validity at the individual and aggregate levels is also investigated. Measures based on the dollar metric method and discrete choice methodology predict choices extremely well in a simulated shopping environment, as well as purchase-intention and brand-quality scales.

Adaptive conjoint analysis versus selfexplicated models: Some empirical results

Abstract Adaptive Conjoint Analysis ( aca ) from Sawtooth Software is a very popular software package for collecting and analyzing conjoint data. This paper compares aca to the more traditional (pencil-and-paper), self-explicated model in terms of internal validity. Internal validity (on holdout profiles) is measured by product moment correlations, first-choice hit incidence, and correct rank position incidence. Surprisingly, we found that the self-explicated model outperformed aca in terms of internal validity.

A cross validation test of four models for quantifying multiattribute preferences

This paper examines the internal predictive validity of four multiattribute preference models: (a) a self-explicated model with equal importance weights; (b) a self-explicated model with unequal weights; (c) Sawtooth Softwares Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA); and (d) full profile conjoint analysis. We also discuss the problem of choosing criterion measures for comparing cross validations across models.

Complexity, uniqueness, and similarity in between‐bundle choice

When offering product/service bundles to customers, marketers must decide how best to configure the bundles such that consumers do not find the bundle‐choice particularly difficult. This paper examines perceived decision difficulty in selecting from a menu of bundles, where the bundles vary on the number of component services, the number of unique services between competing bundles, and their perceived similarity. It is found that larger bundles make decisions more difficult, more unique services between the competing bundles increases decision difficulty for small, but not large, bundles and similar bundles pose greater choice difficulty than dissimilar bundles. Implications of the results are discussed.

From Finance to Marketing: The Impact of Financial Leverage on Customer Satisfaction

The authors examine how a firms financial leverage affects marketing outcomes and consequent firm value. They find that leverage has a dual effect: it reduces customer satisfaction and moderates the relationship between satisfaction and firm value. The burden of making regular interest payments to debt holders pressures managers to generate adequate cash flows. The authors theorize that this may lead marketers to adopt short-term actions such as cutting advertising and research-and-development spending, which can hurt customer satisfaction by lowering perceived quality and perceived value. Furthermore, higher leverage reduces financial flexibility by constraining marketers from exploiting growth opportunities resulting from higher customer satisfaction. The authors empirically show that leverage leads to lower customer satisfaction, with advertising intensity mediating this effect. The negative impact of leverage on satisfaction is more pronounced for service firms and firms in competitive markets. Finally, leverage negatively moderates the customer satisfaction–firm value link. Increases in customer satisfaction are value enhancing at modest levels of leverage, but at very high levels of leverage, increases in satisfaction are value reducing.

Gaining competitive advantage in the U.S. wireless telephony market: the marketing challenge

Abstract Wireless telephony in the U.S. is undergoing a major change due to Federal Communications Commission regulations and the new telecommunications bill. This paper identifies some of the major strategic and environmental factors associated with this change. Some strategies for gaining sustainable competitive advantage are discussed along with their marketing implications.

Salesmen-customer interaction: An experimental approach

The interaction between customers and salesmen often determines the final outcome of a retail transaction. Salesmen often use various cues about potential customers byuing intentions in designing their sales presentation strategies. This study examines nonprice aspects of salesmen-customer interaction utilizing an experimental design. The results of the study show that salesmen respond differently to prospects with different characteristics.

Industrial Consumer Behavior: Toward an Improved Model

This paper reports the findings of an extensive literature search and significant number of open ended interviews regarding how industrial equipment purchases are made. The authors find that a paradigm for the process can be constructed which will help researchers design empirical tests. The authors discuss key concepts of the interpersonal interactions which constitute industrial buying behavior. The process paradigm developed tends to confirm previous authors in that a two stage process seems to be quite general.

A Stochastic Model of Organizational DMU’s Response to Changing Service Prices

This paper reports an unusual use of a model and survey data to find the impact of proposed price changes for an industrial service. A sample of 992 users of a service were surveyed. A model of their price behavior was constructed and solved using a Monte Carlo procedure. The results showed that price was inelastic and provided insight as to the reason.