Nicholas C. Williamson

Intratype competition among department stores

Prior research on retail patronage patterns has often grouped together heterogeneous competitors and examined them jointly. This present research takes the converse approach and expands on Hirschmans (1979) study. Retail companies that are often viewed as homogeneous are examined here as distinct competitors. The competitive retail companies studied are three types of department stores: Traditional, national chain and discount. Analysis centres upon the development of psychometrically valid constructs of store image resulting in descriptive profiles of customers for each type of store. While the elements of Hirschmans (1979) model are generally upheld as still valid, two new variables concerning the product brand dimension emerged as prime discriminators among regular shoppers of the three store types.

Industrial Salesforce Motivation: A Critique and Test of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need

AbstractHistorically, members of the sales management community have used Maslows Hierarchy of Need to explain motivation. However, a review of the literature shows little empirical support for the theory. Fourteen industrial companies participated in the study. Data were gathered by utilizing mail questionnaires, and responses were received from 266 sales representatives. A single hypothesis associated with Maslows theory was tested. No support was found for the existence of the need hierarchy which underlies Maslows theory. This raises the question as to why we continue to teach Maslows theory in multiple marketing and management courses.

Business coursework and the resource‐based view (RBV)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether one can infer the identities of specific business and management coursework topics that owner/managers of wineries want to have addressed by a wine industry‐specific educational institution by assessing upstream and downstream vertical integration strategies of their respective wineries.Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory empirical research involves the gathering of relevant information by way of telephone interviews and using closed end questions. The theory of the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm is the theoretical framework that was employed in developing relevant hypotheses.Findings – The results demonstrate that one can predict the types of business and management courses that owner/managers of wineries want to have offered by assessing realized upstream and/or downstream vertical integration strategies of their respective wineries.Originality/value – The research creates a bridge between research involving the RBV and the identif...

China: M-Commerce in World's Largest Mobile Market

China is emerging as a global capital of m-commerce applications. China is the worlds biggest mobile market in terms of subscriber base and the fastest growing in the history of telecommunications. Although China currently lacks advanced mobile applications compared to Europe, North America, Japan and Korea, a number of cellular players are rapidly launching sophisticated mobile applications. Unique institutions and the nature of cellular market conditions of China, however, superimpose in a complex interaction that harbors a paradoxical nature. The Chinese m-commerce market is thus drastically different from the Western world. This chapter examines the Chinese m-commerce landscape and analyses its drivers. We also examine the Chinese market from the CLIP perspective.

An Assessment of the Operating Characteristics of Farm Wineries, and Managerial Perspectives of Farm Winery Owners Who Use Distributors

Hypotheses that concern operating characteristics of farm wineries, and managerial perspectives of farm winery owners are developed and tested empirically. Key results focus on the tendency of farm winery owners who use distributors to abdicate key marketing functions, particularly that of brand management. Such abdication appears to debilitate the competitive position of such wineries, and sow the seeds of conflict between the wineries and their distributors.

Enhancing Governmentally Sponsored Export Promotions through Better Segmentation of the Market of a State's Manufacturing Concerns

This article presents methodology for identifying product categories that, if they were made the subjects of a specified states export promotions, would hold promise for satisfying relevant needs of members of three key “stakeholder” groups regarding the outcomes of the governmentally sponsored export promotions: the World Trade Organization (WTO), managements of non-exporting, small- and- medium-sized (SME) manufacturing concerns, and governmental entities who are responsible for raising funds to support such promotions. Methodology is applied in the context of a state in the United States (North Carolina). The methodology is then applied in the context of a state in the United States (North Carolina). The presentations of the results of the application of the methodology at each of the 2-, 4- and 6-digit HS-coded product category levels are in each case followed by discussions of implications of the results.

Wine tourist valuation of information sources: the role of prior travel

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine winery visitors’ use of information sources in making decisions regarding the choice of wineries to visit. Enrichment theory is used as a framework for determining how previous experience influences the decision on how much and what type of information individuals will use when planning a trip using wine tourism as the context for the research. Design/methodology/approach A visitor study was conducted at 23 wineries in the US Southeast. Data were collected from winery visitors using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Findings Results from 832 consumers indicate that an individual’s previous travel systematically influences the number and type of information sources that they will seek out when making future consumer decisions. Findings confirmed the hypothesized expectations about wine tourist information search behavior and help to partially explain the nature of bounded rationality in the case of tourists’ winery visit decisions. Research limitations/implications Because the study focused only on winery visitors in the US Southeast, the research results may lack generalizability. Practical implications These findings can assist winery owners and destinations with wineries in their promotional efforts. Of major importance is the finding that increases in experiential knowledge from prior travel are monotonically associated with increases in the number of information sources marked to be valuable in selecting a winery. The influence of experience is particularly dramatic in that the mean number of information sources marked to be valuable moves from a low of 2.5 to a high of 10.0 out of 16 as travel experience increases. Originality/value The study contributed significant and useful findings that advance the application of enrichment theory to wine tourism. Enrichment theory does not currently differentiate between types of knowledge that enrich a consumer’s ability to more easily encode and use new information. The current study confirms that experiential knowledge is an important knowledge construct in models of bounded rationality.

An Exploratory Study of the Functional Forms of Export Market Identification Variables

Exploratory research demonstrates that the import market potential, import market competitiveness, and “barriers-to-imports” variables can be successfully integrated into a shift-share framework for identifying export markets. The authors present managerial implications for global competitive strategy in exporting.

Cross-national heterogeneity in e-retail spending: a longitudinal analysis of economic, technological and political forces

This paper examines the technological, market, industry and institutional sources associated with the cross-national heterogeneity in e-retail spending. We used the economic theory of complementarities as the theoretical framework and estimated panel data models for 10 year data from 43 countries to test our hypotheses. We identified various activities and resources in the e-retail ecosystems that may produce positive or negative externalities in the development of the e-retail industry. We found that broadband Internet is an important determinant of an economy’s e-readiness in explaining international heterogeneity in e-retail spending. We also found various specific attributes of the traditional retail environment that produce enhancing effects as well as suppressing effects for e-retail spending.

An Exploratory Study of Retailers’ Perceptions of Issues Related to the Viability of the Offer of Cash Discounts

The purpose of this paper was to explore the retailers’ view regarding selected issues related to the cash discount subject. From a directory of retailers located in a medium-sized city, 825 retail establishments were chosen through a stratified random sample by industry group. Responses to issues focusing on the surcharge/cash discount proposition were analyzed using analysis of variance and chi square tech-ques. Type of retail institution and number of years in existence of the retail institution were explored as dimensions which potentially relate to retailers’ perception of problems related to the operationalization of cash discount in a retail marketing environment.