Pamela Kiecker

Market Orientation and Organizational Performance in Not-for-Profit Hospitals

Abstract This study explores market orientation in the not-for-profit hospital setting. The authors hypothesize a positive relationship between market orientation and four organizational factors, including professional commitment, professional education, and professional ethics of the senior management team, and organizational entrepreneurship, and three environmental factors, including perceptions of two states of competition and the state of demand. The study also examines the relationship between market orientation and hospital performance. Data from 237 top hospital administrators are used to empirically test the hypothesized relationships. Results provide evidence of a positive association between market orientation and both the professional commitment of the senior management team and organizational entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the study provides strong support for the relationship between market orientation and hospital performance.

Point-of-purchase displays, product organization, and brand purchase likelihoods

Can point-of-purchase (POP) displays cause a decrease in sales of the featured brand? In an actual test-market promotion, the use of special POP displays led to a decrease in sales of featured wines from a specific U.S. region. Moreover, sales of regularly shelved wines from competitive regions actually increased. The results of a laboratory experiment supported the explanation that the POP displays essentially reorganized the wines into region categories within the stores, making it easier for consumers to compare alternatives by region. As a result, sales of wines from preferred regions increased and sales of wines from disliked regions decreased relative to when the wines were displayed by variety categories on regular shelf space. Further evidence indicated that reorganizing products by levels of a given attribute influences purchase likelihoods mainly when the attribute is otherwise low rather than high in salience and when brands have normally high rather than low purchase likelihoods.

Is it better to give than to receive? Exploring gender differences in the meaning of memorable gifts

Research on gift-exchange behavior has generally found that women are more concerned and involved with giving gifts than are men. Moreover, the consumer behavior literature has focused almost exclusively on gift-giving behavior, offering few insights regarding gift-receiving roles. As an initial step toward understanding gift receiving, 89 men and 85 women from the United States (n = 124) and Europe n = 50) completed written narratives regarding their most memorable gift experiences. An interpretive analysis of the texts uncovered several themes associated with giving and/or receiving gifts, and correspondence analyses generated distinct gift-receiving and gift-giving profiles for men and women. Surprisingly, given the more prominent role of women in gift giving, four of the five female profiles involved memories of receiving rather than giving gifts. It was the men that tended to report gift-giving experiences; two of the three male profiles that emerged involved giving gifts. The texts then were reexamined and further interpreted to acquire a deeper understanding of each profile and how giving and receiving profiles of both men and women might be related to one another.

Using key informant insights as a foundation for e-retailing theory development

Abstract Retailers are experiencing varying degrees of success as they strive to incorporate Internet technology into traditional retail formats. Although a variety of explanations for uncertainty surrounding electronic retailing (e-retailing) have been offered, the lack of a sound theoretical framework driving e-retailing decisions is at the heart of challenges facing Internet retailers. We argue that the Internet represents a sufficiently unique retail environment that practitioners and academicians alike should approach the development of knowledge and understanding in this arena in a mode of “discovery.” As such, qualitative and exploratory research methods can contribute significantly to e-retailing theory and decision-making frameworks. We present results of a key informant study of e-retailers, and provide the theoretical foundation for a model for effective integration of the Internet into the retail mix.

A Model for Controlling Social Desirability Bias by Direct and Indirect Questioning

This study develops a model for controlling social desirability bias in self-report measures. The model incorporates both direct and indirect questioning for a sensitive construct and takes into account method variance of direct and indirect questioning via method factors. The study tests the model with data containing a socially sensitive construct, and finds that the model effectively controls social desirability bias. The rationale for employing both direct and indirect questioning and implications of the findings are discussed.

Different Ways of 'Seeing': How Gender Differences in Information Processing Influence the Content Analysis of Narrative Texts

This manuscript examines the potential of bias in qualitative research due to coder gender. It reports a study of gender differences in coding by males and females based on a coding assignment involving written narratives completed by 18 males and 17 females. The study found gender differences in their coding the presence/absence of 10 themes related to gift exchanges and three gender role concepts, as well as differences in intercoder reliabilities based on gender composition of coder pairs. For several hypotheses, differences were opposite those predicted. The surprising findings suggest the complexity of qualitative data and emphasize the need for greater care in its analysis. Specific recommendations are made for researchers using qualitative data, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Do interviewers follow telephone survey instructions

Researchers have identified a diverse set of actions and three categories of possible causes of misbehaviour by interviewers in survey research. Interviewers themselves must be recognised as the most immediate and ultimate cause of many actions classified as misbehaviour. Some activities represent interviewer actions that are dishonest or less than completely honest (Hunt, Chonk & Wilcox 1985). Others represent the product of either low morale (Crespi 1945-46) or a ‘hired hand’ mentality an interviewer’s belief that interviewing is not a scientific search for truth, but instead an assembly-line process where output quotas must be met (Roth 1966). Still others represent an interviewer’s desire to improve research quality as, for example, when an interviewer rephrases an awkwardly-worded question in hopes of clarifying part of an interview.