Marjorie J. Cooper

Customer Relationship Management: A Comparative Analysis of Family and Nonfamily Business Practices*

It has been reported that family businesses perceive excellent customer service as critical to the future of their businesses. However, little research into the customer relationship management (CRM) practices of family businesses has been performed. In this study, we examine CRM implementation among 82 family and 370 nonfamily firms. Family and nonfamily businesses report similar attitudes toward the importance of CRM, their knowledge of CRM, and their success when they do implement it. However, using a logit regression model, we find that the actual implementation strategies of family businesses are significantly different from those of nonfamily businesses. These results remain constant when controlling for size and industry sector.

Managing Internal Markets: A Conceptual Framework Adapted from SERVQUAL

Framework Adapted from SERVQUAL The link between internal marketing and services marketing goes beyond the traditionally stated objective of improving the quality of service to external customers. The job experience itself is a service that is designed and delivered to internal customers -all employees of an organisation -and the internal customer satisfaction derived is a function of the quality of the internal marketing efforts of that organisation. SERVQUAL, a wellestablished theoretical model of service management, is adapted and examined as a tool for assessing the process and effectiveness of internal marketing to employees. Each of the adapted SERVQUAL gaps is considered, and attention is given to effective management of each as it relates to internal marketing.

Using the Theory of Constraints’ Thinking Processes to Improve Problem-Solving Skills in Marketing

Businesses actively seek college graduates who have problemsolving skills, and universities must equip their students with such skills. One of the greatest difficulties when solving problems is correctly identifying the core issue. This article offers instructors tools that instill problem identification and situation analysis skills in students. Eli Goldratt’s theory of constraints’ thinking processes are provided as a model along with guidelines for implementing these tools in marketing.

Effects of Narcissism and Religiosity on Church Ministers with Respect to Ethical Judgment, Confidence, and Forgiveness

Narcissism has been negatively correlated with better ethical judgment. Intrinsic (I)—but not extrinsic—religiosity has been positively associated with better ethical judgment. We hypothesize that these relationships also hold for Christian church ministers. Therefore, this study of church ministers was undertaken to determine the effects of religiosity and narcissism on the ethical judgment of ministers confronted with 10 different ethical scenarios. To test our hypotheses, we surveyed 2,490 Protestant church ministers and received 488 usable surveys. Results indicated that intrinsic religiosity—but not extrinsic personal (Ep) or extrinsic social (Es) religiosity—had significant positive effects on ethical judgment, participants’ confidence in their ethical judgment, and participants’ willingness to forgive. Ep, in contrast, had significant negative effects on ethical judgment and willingness to forgive, while Es had a significant negative effect on confidence. Narcissism overall had a negative effect on ethical judgment and was found to interact with intrinsic religiosity such that the effects of narcissism were mitigated in the presence of high levels of intrinsic religiosity.

Employee Perceptions of Award and Incentive Programs

Abstract Employee award and incentive programs have become standard practice in the business world and in many nonprofit organizations. A study was conducted to measure employee beliefs about meeting managements objectives and employee satisfaction with award/incentive programs. It was found that employee motivation-in terms of liking awards, willingness to encourage others, and willingness to work hard for awards-was the most important factor contributing to employee satisfaction with the programs and employee perception that managements objectives were satisfied by these programs.

Competitive Positioning of Promotional Products Sources Based on Client Perceptions and Experience

Respondents evaluated four different sources of promotional products—promotional products distributors, manufacturer/ imprinters, catalogs, and advertising/promotion agencies—in terms of 18 source selection criteria and 10 services. Using importance-performance analysis, client rankings of importance were compared with client ratings of performance on each of these 28 items to determine where discrepancies occur. Out of 18 criteria that clients use to select their promotional products vendors, the top criteria were negatively disconfirmed (i.e., importance was significantly higher than performance). It was found that no one source has a distinctive competitive advantage over the others on the most important source criteria.