Melvin Prince

Advertising Agency Compensation, Client Evaluation and Switching Costs: An Extension of Agency Theory

Abstract We develop a theory of advertising agency compensation, client evaluation and switching costs, with extensions to agency theory. When clients are exposed to high switching costs, they become more vulnerable to the risk of agency costs. In response, clients can select compensation and evaluation decisions that convey fairness, signal their commitment, and invite agency reciprocity. With high switching costs, outcome-based compensation and formal evaluation procedures are likely. High switching costs are associated with significant relationship investments, mature relationships, large clients, formal evaluation, and with clients that use their agencies as strategic partners. Clients surveyed in North America support the theory.

Life Satisfaction Crossover Among Couples

There is lettle research available on the ways relations between marital partners affect each other’s well-being and quality of life. What is known, however, suggests that happiness or unhappiness is contagious among couples. For example, happy people have traits, such as compassion and trustworthiness that promote happiness in others (Veenhoven, 1988). Unhappy people have traits such as egocentricity and disagreeableness that lead to unhappiness for their associates (Gotlib, 1992; Segrin and Dillard, 1992). Emotional sustenance works to generate well-being of both married men and married women. Although women receive less emotional sustenance compared with men, they benefit more than men from the marriage’s emotional make-up (Williams, 1988). Thus, it may be inferred that spousal relations contribute quite importantly to subjectively experienced quality of life. The concept of crossover applies to interpersonal relations and the mutual consequences of the flow of feeling states between individuals. Among couples, crossover occurs when one spouse’s personal disposition affects his or her spouse’s dispositions in similar ways (Sears and Galambos, 1992). Furthermore, crossover effects are conditional on work satisfaction or dissatisfaction experienced by working spouses (Hammer et al., 2005). Crossover effects between spouses have been found in research on expatriate cross-cultural adjustment (Takeuchi et al., 2002) and marital dissatisfaction (Westman et al., 2004). More specifically, life satisfaction crossover—the interpersonal contagion of happiness or unhappiness between marital partners—remains a neglected area of study. In the present research, we investigate the within-household crossover in life satisfaction among dual career parents. This kind of crossover effect has not been directly examined in previous research, and requires theoretical scrutiny. Crossover of happiness between spouses may be explained by the extended self theory (Belk, 1988, 1989; Morgan, 1993; Sivadas and Venkatesh, 1995). Based on this theory, one spouse may to some degree be psychologically incorporated as part of the other spouse’s self. Extended self implies (1) personal and social aspects (i.e., the degree the spouse is a definition of the self), (2) symbolic and functional aspects (i.e., one spouse enables the other spouse to be and do what is desired), and (3) control and Life Satisfaction Crossover Among Couples

Knowledge and skills transfer between MBA and workplace

Purpose – This paper aims to use goal-setting theory to explain the transfer of knowledge and skills between master of business administration (MBA) and the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained by an online survey of MBA students enrolled in at four US graduate business schools. These were a public and private institution in the Northeast region, a private sectarian institution in the Midwest region and a private institution in the Pacific region. All students worked while attending the university. The sampling frame consisted of each school’s MBA enrollees. Questionnaires were distributed to a random cross-section of part-time students at each graduate school of business representative of returned by 144 students. The profiles of responders were consistent with parameters for the entire MBA student population. Findings – The research shows that multiple goals of reciprocal knowledge and skills transfer may be in harmony and mutually reinforcing. In principle, each goal is more like...

Switching Costs and Ad Agency-Client Relationship Longevity: An Exploratory Study

A model of switching costs is applied to ad agency–client relationships using agency theory. Switching costs are comprised of set-up costs that create barriers to switching to new agencies and exit costs that are barriers to severing relationships with current agencies. Switching cost theory offers insights into why large clients can maintain agency relationships. A survey of American clients shows how client size is associated with set-up and exit costs. These relationships are explained through diversity and scope of services, the creative risk associated with major brands, and the need for more sophisticated monitoring, each acting as switching barriers, extending longevity.

A latent class analysis of brand prestige

Core constructs are necessary as a basis for scale development in brand prestige research. This study examines the theoretical rationale for two such concepts – brand excellence and status conferral – and uses latent class scaling in an empirical test as to whether they are both important independent dimensions of prestige brands. Based on the analysis, these concepts are shown to be consistently present for two brands in two diverse product categories. The research calls into question earlier work on the measurement of brand prestige that was premised on a one-dimensional concept of prestige. Further studies are needed to explore the dimensionality and substantive structure of the brand prestige concept, to confirm or disconfirm findings from this research.

Here, there and everywhere: a study of consumer centrism

Purpose A first objective is to add insight into how constructs of ethnocentrism, xenocentrism and cosmopolitanism relate to each other. Knowledge of how these constructs overlap or work together in affecting consumer preferences will offer global marketers insights for designing appropriate marketing strategies. The second objective is to extend this knowledge by examining the correspondence of these three constructs to a nomological network of dispositional concepts pertinent for product positioning and market segmentation. The third objective is to empirically examine the extent to which the measures, construct structure and associative relationships are robust in different national research settings. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Surveying British and American consumers, this study examines and analyzes the correspondence of these identity-relevant constructs within a nomological net of pertinent concepts: consciousness-of-kind, global consumption orientation, materialism and natural environment concern. Findings The hypothesized negative links between CET-XEN and CET-COS, and the predicted positive connection between XEN-COS were all confirmed on the latent factor results for the combined data set. The negative correlation between CET-XEN was of a considerably lower magnitude than that for CET-COS. Originality/value To date, no research has used an identity theory framework and simultaneously examined in a cross-cultural context the interrelationships of consumer ethnocentrism consumer xenocentrism and cosmopolitanism – and their differentiating linkages to a multiplicity of consumer dispositions.

The Effects of Part-Time MBA Programs on Students: The Relationships Between Students and Their Employers

The authors explore how the relationship between part-time master of business administration (MBA) students and their employers changes as students proceed through their MBA program by examining the degree to which students are integrated into their employer organizations. Significant positive relationships observed between students’ progress through their MBA program and the integration factors of coworker support and future prospects with their employers suggest that an MBA education can have a positive effect on employee–employer integration levels. Consequently, in addition to increasing business knowledge and skills, an MBA degree appears to assist with integrating employees and employers.