Margit Enke

Conflict between engineers and marketers: the experience of German engineers

Abstract An effective interface between engineering and marketing is considered to be vital for the successful development and commercialization of new products. Studies in the US, Japan and the UK have, however, identified that conflict between engineers and marketers can act as a barrier to effective cooperation. This study aims to further our understanding in this important area by studying conflict between engineers and marketers, from the engineers perspective, in German companies. This study has found that German engineers recognize the importance of trust, good understanding, common knowledge, integration and teamwork in building a good relationship with marketers. Although the levels of integration between the two functions and the quality of the relationship were found to be relatively low, so too was the level of perceived conflict. The main sources of conflict between German engineers and their marketing colleagues are differences in education and training and different goals and priorities. Both managers and educators of engineers and marketers need to understand how the differences in education and training influence the relationship, and to develop courses, which will help the two functions to become more sensitive to each others needs.

Relationships between engineers and marketers within new product development

This paper presents a comparative study of the views of British and German engineers on the relationship between engineers and marketers and the conflict between them. Data have been collected from 151 British and 84 German engineers in 25 companies. Engineers who work in a variety of functions and at a number of different levels within an organisation are included. It has been found that the relationship is seen as being reasonable, with teamwork and increased knowledge of marketing by engineers both needed to make it function effectively. The engineers in both countries do not seek to dominate marketing, but they do feel that they need to obtain an understanding of management and of marketing. Conflict is not seen as being high in either country but German engineers perceive there to be lower levels of conflict between them and their marketing colleagues. German engineers see education and training differences as being the main reasons for conflict, whereas British engineers cite a lack of understanding between the two functions as the main reason. Engineers in both countries agree that better communications, more teamwork and more training are needed to improve the interface between the two functions. From this study, modifications to current theoretical frameworks can be seen and these are discussed.

Brands You Can Rely On!: An Empirical Investigation of Brand Credibility in Services

AbstracThe present study investigates the influence of brand credibility on customers’ repurchase intentions in services. Based on information economics theories, the authors develop and empirically test a model of brand credibility and its effects using structural equation modeling. the results provide strong empirical evidence for the role of brand credibility in services. they reveal significant support for the effects of brand credibility on brand functions (i.e., information efficiency and risk reduction) and in turn on customers’ repurchase intentions. implications of the study are discussed for both researchers and managers. in addition, the article illustrates limitations and directions for further research.

Customer Experience als Ansatzpunkt zur Differenzierung im Einzelhandel

Kennzeichnend fur den deutschen Einzelhandel ist eine Umbruchsituation, die masgeblich auf sich verandernde Markt- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen sowie Anderungen im Konsumentenverhalten zuruckgefuhrt werden kann. Betrachtet man derzeitige Entwicklungen im Einzelhandel, so lasst sich feststellen, dass dieser zunehmend als gesattigter Markt angesehen wird und Einzelhandelsumsatze weitgehend stagnieren (Eggert 2006, S. 35f.; EHI 2009, S. 173). Hinzu kommt eine stetige Intensivierung des Wettbewerbs, die sich nicht nur im Inter- und Intrabetriebsformenwettbewerb (Liebmann et al. 2008, S. 149), sondern auch im Wettbewerb zwischen verschiedenen Vertriebsformen (z.B. stationarer Handel versus Versandhandel) und im Wettbewerb zwischen verschiedenen Institutionen (z.B. Hersteller versus Einzelhandel) ausert (Haller 2008, S. 83f.).

Einkaufserlebnis durch Kundenevents im Einzelhandel

Eine erfolgreiche Differenzierung vom Wettbewerb und Profilierung gegenuber Kunden stellt Einzelhandelsunternehmen in zunehmendem Mase vor grose Herausforderungen. Ein wichtiger Ansatz zur Bewaltigung dieser Problematik wird in der Generierung von Einkaufserlebnissen gesehen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird insbesondere dem Kommunikationsinstrument Kundenevents eine grose Bedeutung zur Schaffung von Einkaufserlebnissen und damit zur Differenzierung von Wettbewerbern zugesprochen. Der vorliegende Beitrag thematisiert Kundenevents im Einzelhandel und zeigt im Rahmen einer empirischen Untersuchung die Relevanz dieses Instruments zur Erzeugung positiver Einkaufserlebnisse auf.

Relevanz und Wirkung der Medien bei der Vermittlung von Berufsimages

Angesichts der unumstrittenen Bedeutung talentierter und motivierter Mitarbeiter fur die Zielerreichung von Organisationen gilt der Gewinnung qualifizierter Nachwuchskrafte eine wachsende Aufmerksamkeit. Sowohl Unternehmen als auch Institutionen, staatliche Einrichtungen, Verbande und Universitaten engagieren sich in der Aufgabe, junge Menschen zu einer Berufswahl — und damit verbunden — zu einer entsprechenden Studienwahl zu motivieren. Dies trifft in besonderem Mase auf die Ingenieurwissenschaften zu. Nach Schatzungen des Instituts der Deutschen Wirtschaft konnten allein in 2006 etwa 48.000 Stellen in Ingenieurberufen nicht besetzt werden. Damit entging der Bundesrepublik eine Wertschopfung von ca. 3,5 Mrd. Euro (IWD 2007). Eine stagnierende bzw. rucklaufige Zahl von Studienanfangern in technischen bzw. ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Studiengangen verstarkt diesen Ingenieurmangel erheblich (Heine, Spangenberg und Sommer 2005).

Viewing Organizational Commitment Through the Lens of Customization: An Abstract

Committed employees lead to a better long-term organizational performance. Therefore, organizations make substantive investments in the development and implementation of commitment-enhancing measures. Nevertheless, enhancing organizational commitment remains a challenging task because such measures show mixed effects on employees’ organizational commitment. We argue that these mixed effects result from individual differences in the perception and evaluation of commitment-enhancing measures. Thus, enhancing organizational commitment requires the explicit consideration of individual differences in employees’ perceptions. Long ago, customer-oriented marketing faced a similar challenge, resulting in the development of customized marketing activities. Against the background of internal marketing, which treats employees as “internal customers,” we call for extending the strategy of customization from the customer-oriented to an employee-oriented perspective.

Commoditization as a driver for service transformation

The differentiation of goods and service in the marketplace is one of the core tasks of marketing. Levitt (1980, p.83) notes that “[t]here is no such thing as a commodity. All goods and service are differentiable”. Regardless of firms’ efforts to promote the unique selling propositions of offering and differentiate them from competing offerings, however, goods and services with an initially high degree of differentiation might still get caught in the commoditization trap (Enke/Leischnig 2014). Today, buyers have access to different kinds of information can choose from many options and, as a result, have higher expectation than ever before (McQuiston 2004). At the same time, buyers are over-whelmed by the multitude of very similar goods and services. Despite several objectively differentiating features, buyers perceive offerings from different suppliers as interchangeable. This holds for typical commodities such as agricultural products as well as for a growing number of industrial and consumer goods. Companies in the latter industries do not deliberately position their goods as commodities but rather experience a commoditization pull(Rangan/Bowman 1992).

Who Cares About a Fair Trade Label? on The Impact of Consumer Attitudes on Brand Relevance of Fair Trade Products

Today, Fair Trade issues are to an increasing degree placed on consumers’ agenda. Buying Fair Trade products, customers can express their feelings of responsibility toward society as well as their appreciation of socially and often ecologically responsible firms and products. Consequently, companies switch to Fair Trade products, and thus, address customers’ shift in values. Further, they indicate the environmentally and socially responsible production and delivery of goods and services using brands and labels, such as the Fair Trade label, and thus, differentiate from competitors. Against this background, the question arises to what extent such a label has an impact on consumers’ buying decisions, i.e. how relevant the label really is? This question seems particular important with regard to the already existing and still increasing number of social, bio-, and eco-brands and labels. Further, considering the amount of money companies have to invest in order to switch to environmentally and socially responsible procurement and production processes, and thus, to obtain the Fair Trade label, the question of brand relevance gains substance not only from a consumer’s but also from a managerial perspective. Although academicians agree that brands are not equally relevant to buying decisions in every market there is no common definition of the term brand relevance and opinion about the dimensionality of the construct. Literature review reveals that the number of studies investigating brand relevance still remains limited.

How to Enrich the Service Encounter? Empirical Insights into the Relationships between Customer Performance, Interaction Quality, and Customer Satisfaction

As co-producers of value, customers actively contribute to service production and delivery. In contrast to the production of tangible goods, services are produced while being consumed. Consequently, representing a part of the service delivery system, customers are involved in the production of the services they receive. Referring to that, it is widely accepted that customer participation affects the service production process, and hence, customers’ satisfaction with the service outcome. Particularly in human services, customer performance tremendously affects quality and effectiveness of service processes.