Paraskevas C. Argouslidis

Consumer characteristics and demand for store brands

Purpose – Store brands represent an important part of the consumer goods market and a prominent research area. The purpose of this paper is to address a well‐defined problem of store brand research and is concerned with individual characteristics that explain heterogeneous preferences for store brands. Understanding how preferences vary with consumer factors is a key element in developing successful marketing strategies.Design/methodology/approach – A survey is designed and implemented to a large random sample of consumers, using computer‐assisted telephone interviewing.Findings – Specific consumer characteristics are associated with interpersonal differences in store brand demand. Store brand preferences derive from a broader evaluation process, in which quality has the most significant role. The results also demonstrate the changing image of store brands, the endorsement of such products by consumers of higher socio‐economic status, and lead to important implications for both retailers and manufacturers...

Industrial export pricing practices in the United Kingdom

Abstract Industrial export pricing is an area that is both conceptually and empirically neglected. That this is so is surprising given that a substantial proportion of industrial products is in fact exported. In an attempt to initiate research interest this article presents the results of a study undertaken among industrial exporters in the United Kingdom with the aim to explore empirically the export pricing practices of industrial firms. The study introduces the concept of industrial export pricing competence and compares the pricing practices in firms with different levels of competence. It offers suggestions for researchers and managers wishing to increase the performance of their export pricing decisions.

Service elimination decision‐making

Despite the importance of the ability of service firms to rationalise their service ranges in todays competitive environment, the area of service elimination decision‐making is one of the least researched in the literature on services marketing. Responding to this knowledge gap, this paper reports part of the findings of a broader exploratory investigation into the service elimination process in the British financial services sector. In detail, the paper presents qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence on the way in which British financial institutions audit their service range in order to identify financial services as candidates for elimination. The evidence showed that the British financial institutions studied follow a periodically conducted service range auditing process, which is often documented and computer‐aided. The audit is operationalised by a set of financial and non‐financial audit criteria (performance dimensions). The evidence also showed that the service range auditing process is not static but dynamic. As such, the relative importance of the audit criteria used varies in relation to service‐specific, organisational and environmental variables, such as type of financial service, business strategy pursued overall, degree of market orientation, intensity of competition, intensity of legislation and rhythm of technological change.

Determinants of the speed of elimination decision making in financial services

Purpose – Drawing upon theory on organizational decision speed, this study aims to take a first step toward an understanding of the temporal aspect of the elimination decision‐making process in financial services (i.e. the process of withdrawing an item from the product line) and in particular of the organizational, product‐specific and environmental determinants of the speed of the elimination decision‐reaching and the elimination implementation processes.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a mail survey to a stratified random sample of 500 UK financial institutions, yielding 167 returns.Findings – The paper finds first, the speed of elimination decision‐reaching is shaped by product line length, market orientation, formalization, technological change, and the austerity of the regulatory context. Second, the speed of the elimination implementation process is influenced by whether the item that is considered for elimination is a typical bank, insurance, or mortgage product, by its de...

The evaluation stage in the service elimination decision‐making process: evidence from the UK financial services sector

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to offer service practitioners evidence about: the factors that financial institutions consider in order to evaluate the impact on the entire company of an eventual decision to eliminate a financial service from the range; the degree of influence that these factors exert on management; and the contextual conditions that shape the above degree of influence.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on 20 in‐depth interviews with higher echelon managers from an equal number of UK financial institutions and a mail survey of 112 specific elimination case histories from an equal number of UK banks, building societies and insurance companies.Findings – The impact of a financial services eventual elimination on the relationships of the company with its customers is rated as the most influential evaluation factor. Other influential evaluation factors are the impact on the public image of the financial institution and the impact on the sales and the profitability of...

Outcomes of decision speed: An empirical study in product elimination decision-making processes

Purpose – This paper aims to consider decision speed’s role in the largely neglected decision area of product elimination. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on an inter-disciplinary theoretical background (e.g. organisational, decision speed and product elimination theories), the authors develop and test a framework for decision speed’s effects on the market and financial outcomes of a stratified random sample of 175 consumer product eliminations. Findings – In contrast to decision speed research that hypothesised (and often failed to confirm) linearity, results show inverted ∪-shaped decision speed-to-decision outcomes relationships, with curvatures moderated by product importance, environmental complexity and turbulence. Research limitations/implications – Findings are suggestive of several implications for the above theories (e.g. contribution to the dialogue about performance-enhancing value of rational vs incremental decision-making; evidence that excessive decision speed may become too much of a...

Problem situations triggering line pruning in financial services: evidence from the UK

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the problem situations leading financial firms to kick off the elimination decision‐making process for financial products in their line, measure the importance of problem situations, and assess the effects of a set of contextual variables on the above importance.Design/methodology/approach – The study took place in the UK; data were collected through 20 in‐depth interviews with managers of financial firms and a mail survey to a stratified random sample of financial firms, which yielded 112 returns.Findings – Eight problem situations are identified and their importance is measured. The results indicate that the importance of problem situations is highly situation‐specific: it varies in relation to the degree of a financial firms market orientation, the intensity of competition, the austerity of the regulatory environment, and the rhythm of technological change.Research limitations/implications – From a theoretical standpoint, future research on the investigation of th...