Patrick Barwise

How Much do CEOs and Top Managers Matter in Strategic Decision-Making?

This research note explores the influence of both CEO and top-management team (TMT) characteristics on the process of making strategic decisions (SDs). Empirical testing is based on a sample of 70 SDs in industrial enterprises operating in Greece, using a combination of interviews, questionnaires and archival data. The results suggest that (a) the characteristics of both the TMT and the CEO influenced the strategic decision-making process, but the former had more influence, (b) the TMT and CEO influenced different dimensions of the process, and (c) the broader context of SDs is more influential than either the CEO or the TMT. Among the most important factors was the TMT’s ‘aggressiveness’ (commitment to beating the competition, attitude to innovation, willingness to take risks). The results lend support to the ‘upper echelons’ perspective, but suggest that in studying strategic decision-making processes both CEO and TMT characteristics should be considered, in conjunction with the broader context. Such an approach should provide a more reliable view of strategic processes and their evolving dynamics.

Brand equity: Snark or boojum?

Abstract The concept of brand equity is barely ten years old and has only recently become the subject of much academic research. This has largely focused on the short-term responses of US consumers to hypothetical brand extensions, with many findings of great potential interest to practitioners. These results need to be replicated, quantified, and developed, and the research needs to expand into other aspects of brand equity: defining and measuring it; building and managing it, especially over the long term; analysing the links between customer-based “brand strength” and financial “brand equity”; and leveraging brand equity geographically as well as through brand extensions. The paper argues that progress may have been hindered by attempts to find a single all-embracing measure of brand equity, partly because the value of a brand is not in practice separable from the value of the product and the rest of the firm. Its overall conclusion is that researchers should now focus more effort on the strategic, financial, managerial, and international aspects of brand equity.

Has the time finally come for the medium of the future? Research on mobile advertising

ABSTRACT Mobile advertising is a young, fast-growing part of marketing communications. Initially over-hyped, it is now starting to take off for real. What can we learn about it from the early academic research? Initial studies on the medium focused on “push” advertising using SMS—an issue complicated by issues of the constraints of consumer permission, acceptance and trust. Results have been mixed but suggest acceptance, especially by younger consumers, of well-executed SMS-based push advertising if the source is trusted, permission has been given, and the messages are relevant and/or entertaining. Researchers have started to broaden the agenda to cover push mobile advertising beyond SMS (e.g., using still or moving pictures and sound) and mobile as a “pull” or response medium (e.g., in combination with traditional media and promotions). For future research, emerging topics include device-readable printed codes in print ads and packaging; mobile search; location-based mobile communications and promotions; branded mobile entertainment, especially games; and user-generated mobile content and social networking. Many of these reflect the growth of the mobile Internet since the 2007 launch of Apples iPhone. Finally—perhaps uniquely within academic research in marketing—most mobile advertising research has been conducted in Asia and Europe, not the United States. The rapid growth of the mobile Internet will, the authors hope, lead to more U.S. research in this increasingly important area.

TV, PC, or Mobile? Future Media for Consumer e‐Commerce

Many believe that within three or four years the wireless Internet will overtake the fixed-line Internet in consumer penetration and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Some believe that distinctions between media will soon disappear because of digital convergence: that it will soon be meaningless to ask whether the device used for home shopping is a PC or a TV. This article argues that the various new media will continue to be distinguishable from each other despite convergence and that the dominant device, even in B2C markets, will continue to be something like todays PC.

New interactive media: experts’ perceptions of opportunities and threats for existing businesses

The research reported here takes a complementary approach to the direct user/consumer studies, by measuring experts’ perceptions of the likely impact of new interactive media (NIM) on different product markets. This has two benefits. First, it provides a different (and, arguably, better‐informed) perspective on consumers’ likely future response to NIM from the perspective obtained by direct consumer research. Second, the perceptions of these and other experts will strongly influence firms’ investment in NIM and their applications, which will in turn strongly influence the impact on consumers.

Research on Strategic Decisions: Where Do We Go from Here?

This chapter gives our personal view of the way forward for research on SDs. To do so it draws on a number of recent reviews of the field and synthesizes the views of many other researchers. We conclude that future research should focus on outcomes (both performance and other outcomes such as learning, innovation and commitment), be integrative (taking into account the context and content of SDM as well as the process and outcomes), and use more rigorous and consistent methods (type of research method, terminology, and measurement).

What Can We Tell Managers about Making Strategic Decisions

After 35 years of research on strategic decision making (SDM), what can we tell managers about SDM processes which is both valid and useful? After briefly reviewing the relevant literature we discuss the prescriptive results of such research under six headings (rationality, politics, conflict, techniques to improve strategic debate, participation, and overall SDM tactics). We also review some other insights from SDM research, such as the impact of context and content, for which we are not (yet) able to make clear normative statements. We then discuss how future research can develop more results which are both rigorous and managerially relevant. The final section lists some brief guidelines for managers and discusses how they seem to fit together into a consistent picture of effective SDM.

PVRS and advertising exposure: a video ethnographic study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the use of the personal video recorder (PVR) in the home and the impact on TV advertising exposure.Design/methodology/approach – A video ethnographic study of 22 participants in eight homes with PVRs.Findings – Use of the PVR differed widely between and within homes but of the 22 individuals, 21 used the PVR – if at all, as a backup when there was nothing on that they wanted to watch live. Consequently, of 3,480 individual opportunities to see commercials during the study, Only 30 per cent were time‐shifted and 70 per cent viewed live. Even for the 30 per cent of commercials that were time‐shifted, there was variable but significant ad exposure. This paper suggests that in combination with other, complementary studies, the impact of PVRs on advertising exposure will be limited.Research limitations/implications – Many respondents perceived themselves as using the PVR much more than they actually did and claimed to have zero exposure to commercials when t...

Strategic Decisions: An Introduction

Strategic decision making (SDM) is of great and growing importance because of five characteristics of strategic decisions (SDs): (a) they are usually big, risky, and hard-to-reverse, with significant long-term effects, (b) they are the bridge between deliberate and emergent strategy, (c) they can be a major source of organizational learning, (d) they play an important role in the development of individual managers, and (e) they cut across functions and academic disciplines. Research on SDM processes started as long ago as the early 1960s but has grown especially fast over the last ten years. This book aims to pull this wide-ranging research together into a single volume which summarizes the current state of the art. It is in five parts. Part One is introductory. Parts Two to Four include the substantive chapters on the process, context, and outcomes of SDs and how these interact. The final part consists of commentaries and our view of the implications for managers and researchers.

Customer Insights that Matter

ABSTRACT In this article, Barwise and Meehan offer a practical framework to help companies achieve long-term organic profit growth. The focus is on actionable customer insights flowing freely through the business and ultimately leading to consistently great customer solutions and experiences and a strong brand.