Pierre Berthon

Service quality and satisfaction – the moderating role of value

The constructs of service quality, satisfaction and value are discussed. Instruments are identified and exploratory research is undertaken among customers of an audit firm to determine whether value plays a moderating role between service quality and satisfaction. Results from a moderated regression confirming such a role for value are reported. Implications are drawn and opportunities for further research are highlighted.

Market orientation and business performance: some European evidence

While market orientation has almost been taken for granted by both academics and some practitioners, attempts to define and operationalize the construct have been very limited. Moreover, efforts to link market orientation to business performance have been few and far between. Recent work in the USA has led to the development of a scale to measure market orientation in organizations, and this measure has also been positively linked to performance. Describes efforts to measure the level of market orientation in samples of British and Maltese firms. Confirms the reliability of the measure, and tests some aspects of its validity. While the link between market orientation and firm performance is not a strong one, it is indeed significant. Discusses implications of the studies, and identifies some avenues for further research.

The World Wide Web As An Advertising Medium

This paper discusses the role of the World Wide Web as an advertising medium and its position in the marketing communication mix. It introduces a conceptual framework for measuring the efficiency of a Web site. Efficiency indexes are defined for five Web advertising communication activities, and an overall measure of Web site efficiency measure is presented.

Excellence-Market Orientation Link: Some Consequences for Service Firms

Abstract The possible interrelationships among four constructs—excellence, market orientation, management of expectations, and service reliability—are considered. Proposals concerning the interrelationships among these constructs are made, and a model of their relationship to business performance specified. The model is tested with data from a sample of larger U.K. service firms, and the relationships are analyzed using LISREL. The research implications for academics, and the ramifications for practitioners are discussed. The results highlight the role that management of expectations plays in moderating the relationship between excellence and business performance.

Entrepreneurial activity in the Third World informal sector

Extensive attention has been given in recent years to the role of entrepreneurship in facilitating global economic development, with research indicating that much employment growth originates from the “entrepreneurial sector” of the economy. In many parts of the world, emphasis has also been placed on the so‐called “informal sector” (comprising all activities that fall outside the formal net of registered, taxed, licensed, statistically documented business enterprises) as a contributor to the economic welfare of society. Aims to explore further the nature of the informal sector, and specifically, to distinguish entrepreneurial from non‐entrepreneurial business activity within this sector. Describes the results of a series of in‐depth interviews with owners from a cross‐section of small businesses located in a black South African township. Identifies a sub‐group of firms that demonstrate relatively strong entrepreneurial orientations and distinguishes this group from the remainder of the sample. Draws implications for theory development, ongoing research, and public policy.

Re-surfing W3: Research Perspectives on Marketing Communication and Buyer Behaviour on the Worldwide Web

The Worldwide Web (W3 or WWW), the multimedia part of the Internet, has recently gained the attention of academic and practising marketers. As firms of all sizes scramble to establish Web sites, there is much speculation as to the Webs role in marketing communication specifically and in marketing generally, and how it will affect buyer (surfer) behaviour. What research has been done so far has been mainly descriptive, perhaps in the absence of a more formal agenda. This study briefly describes the Web in non-technical terms, and then attempts to integrate it into well-established models of buyer behaviour and marketing communication. From this basis, areas for further resurfing (i.e. researching) are identified from three perspectives: the buyers, the sellers and the theorists.

Gaps within the IS department : barriers to service quality

While the external measurement of service quality, and even the measurement of the expectations and perceptions of internal customers, is well established in the services literature, less attention has been given to the assessment of the ‘gaps’ which cause the customer discrepancy. This paper describes a study which ascertained internal gaps (‘1 through 4’) in a large information systems department within a major consulting and accounting firm.

Visits, hits, caching and counting on the World Wide Web: old wine in new bottles?

Explores the problems of “counting” hits and visits to Web sites on the World Wide Web. Nominally, cyberspace offers unrivalled monitoring and tracking potential when compared with other marketing media. However, further inspection reveals some complicating factors. Identifies the phenomenon of cache memory, the use of proxy servers and trawler software and explores their influence on under‐ and over‐counting. Drawing on the hierarchy of effects model developed by Berthon et al. (1996), presents a series of correction factors. Concludes that the problem of accurate counting on the Web is a new manifestation of an old problem: old wine in new bottles.

Communication apprehension and perceptions of salesperson performance: a multinational perspective

While the effect of communication apprehension on a multitude of psychological and performance variables has been studied in many other disciplines, it has not been extensively examined by sales researchers. This article considers communication in the sales transaction from the perspective of communication apprehension, and investigates the role of communication apprehension as an indicator of a salesperson’s performance. Using ordinal logistic regression, an attempt is made to predict a salesperson’s performance based on the four contexts of communication apprehension, in a multicultural sample. The results show a small but significant effect of communication apprehension on the performance of salespersons, and some contexts of communication apprehension are found to be better predictors than others. The findings also indicate that the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension‐24 scale is valid and reliable when used to establish international principles.

Analysing customer defections and their effects on corporate performance: The case of Indco

Each year, organizations spend vast sums of money on promotional efforts, much of which is geared towards acquiring new customers. Most senior marketing executives are acutely aware of the costs of this. Analyses are made of such variables as cost per thousand in advertising budgets, new accounts opened in sales management, and coupons redeemed in new product launches. Fewer executives seem to realize the substantially higher cost of losing existing customers. Perhaps this is because advertising, selling and sales promotion are much more pleasurable, exciting, and seemingly challenging, activities. Customer service — including the activity of keeping customers once the firm has them — can often be regarded as somewhat boring, dreary and tiresome. This paper presents a simple model for evaluating graphically the effects of customer defections on corporate financial performance, using data from a real‐world firm operating in the business‐to‐business sphere to illustrate the applicability of the approach. Th...