Raj Echambadi

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER THROUGH INHERITANCE: SPIN- OUT GENERATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND SURVIVAL

We investigated how the knowledge capabilities of industry incumbents affected the generation, development, and performance of “spin-outs” (entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees). Analyses of 1977–97 data from the disk drive industry supported our hypothesis that incumbents with both strong technological and market pioneering know-how generate fewer spin-outs than firms with strength in only one of these areas. Also, an incumbent’s capabilities at the time of a spin-out’s founding positively affect the spin-out’s knowledge capabilities and its probability of survival.

The Influence of Complementarity, Compatibility, and Relationship Capital on Alliance Performance:

Value creation through alliances requires the simultaneous pursuit of partners with similar characteristics on certain dimensions and different characteristics on other dimensions. Partnering firms need to have different resource and capability profiles yet share similarities in their social institutions. In this article, the authors empirically examine the impact of partner characteristics on the performance of alliances. In particular, they test hypotheses related to both direct impact of partner characteristics on alliance performance and indirect effects through relational capital aspects of the alliance. Empirical results based on a sample of alliances in the global construction contracting industry suggest that complementarity in partner resources and compatibility in cultural and operational norms have different direct and indirect effects on alliance performance. Accordingly, organizational routines aimed at partner selection need to be complemented by relationship management routines to maximize the potential benefits from an alliance.

The Conditioning Effect of Time on Firm Survival: An Industry Life Cycle Approach

In an effort to reconcile theoretical “blind spots,” we integrated research in technology management, organizational ecology, and evolutionary economics. The central premise underlying the resultan...

Encouraging Best Practice in Quantitative Management Research: An Incomplete List of Opportunities*

The paper identifies some common problems encountered in quantitative methodology and provides information on current best practice to resolve these problems. We first discuss issues pertaining to variable measurement and concerns regarding the underlying relationships among variables. We then highlight several advances in estimation methodology that may circumvent issues encountered in common practice. Finally, we discuss approaches that move beyond existing research designs, including the development and use of datasets that embody linkages across levels of analysis, or combine qualitative and quantitative methods.

Cross-National Diffusion Research: What Do We Know and How Certain Are We?

Abstract To compete effectively in the global marketplace, marketing managers require insight into how a product gets adopted in different countries. For example, can international marketers identify specific cultural traits that may help them to forecast how quickly a new product will be adopted in a particular country or in a group of somehow related countries? Similarly, can they identify factors that suggest why the adoption process differs among countries? Although these diffusion-related questions address critical issues for international marketing managers, only a few studies have explored cross-national diffusion. To help fill this gap, V. Kumar, Jaishankar Ganesh, and Raj Echambadi present the results of a study that replicates and extends the findings of three previously published studies of cross-national diffusion. Their research aims to replicate four findings from the previous studies: the role of country-specific effects in explaining differences in diffusion parameters, the presence of a lead-lag effect, the use of cultural variables to explain systematically the diffusion patterns across countries, and the merit of country segmentation schemes based on diffusion parameters. They extend the previous research by integrating cross-sectional and time lag variables into a single framework, and they demonstrate how managers can apply this integrated framework for forecasting the diffusion of new products. They replicate the findings from the previous studies by using annual sales data for five product categories (VCRs, microwave ovens, cellular phones, home computers, and CD players) in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The product categories and time periods covered differ from the ones in the previous studies; some overlap exists among the countries in this study and the ones in the previous studies. The findings in this study suggest that country-specific characteristics (for example, cosmopolitanism, mobility, percentage of women in the labor force) are useful for identifying the differences in diffusion patterns across countries and innovations. This study also suggests that the lead-lag effect helps to explain differences in diffusion across countries. Factors that this study identifies as possibly influencing the clustering of countries with similar diffusion patterns include timing of entry, geographical proximity, and cultural or economic similarity.

Marketing strategy development styles, implementation capability, and firm performance: Investigating the curvilinear impact of multiple strategy-making styles

There is growing interest in the process by which marketing strategy is developed. This article reports on a study in which we investigate the performance implications of using multiple organizational approaches to the development of marketing strategy. Specifically, we test a model in which implementation capability mediates the relationship between number of marketing strategy development (MSD) styles used and firm performance. Based on data collected from manufacturers, the results indicate that: (1) the relationship between the number of MSD styles used and implementation capability is curvilinear (an inverse U-shaped relationship), (2) implementation capability positively impacts firm performance, and (3) implementation capability mediates the relationship between number of MSD styles used and firm performance.

The Effect of Interpersonal Trust, Need for Cognition, and Social Loneliness on Shopping, Information Seeking and Surfing on the Web

This study contends that certain personality traits of e-consumers have an affect on their shopping, surfing and information seeking behaviors on the Web. Specifically, it is proposed that e-consumers who are low on interpersonal trust are less likely to shop on the Web due to their heightened concerns with Web security. Similarly, an argument is made that e-consumers who enjoy cognitively demanding processing tasks are more likely to use the Web for information search. Finally, it is posited that social loners will be selectively drawn to Web surfing. Findings from an empirical study are presented which support these assertions. Implications of this study for marketers and future researchers are discussed.

Generating Non-normal Data for Simulation of Structural Equation Models Using Mattson's Method

SEM researchers use Monte-Carlo simulations to ascertain the robustness of statistical estimators and the performance of various fit indices under varying conditions of non-normality. The efficacy of these Monte-Carlo simulations is closely related to the generation of non-normal data. Traditionally, SEM researchers have used approaches proposed by Fleishman (1978) and Vale and Maurelli (1983) to generate multivariate non-normal random numbers. However, both approaches do not provide a method to determine univariate skewness and kurtosis of the observed variables when a non-normal distribution is specified for some or all of the latent variables. Mattson (1997) proposed a method for generating data on the latent variables with controlled skewness and kurtosis of the observed variables. We empirically test the applicability of Mattsons theoretical method in a Monte-Carlo simulation. Specifically, we assess the impact of data generation, selection of transformation method, sample size and degree of skewness/kurtosis on the performance of the method. Our results suggest that Mattsons method seems to be a good approach to generate data with defined levels of skewness and kurtosis. In addition, based on the results of our analysis, we provide practicing researchers recommendations regarding their empirical implementation schemes.

Why Brands Grow

ABSTRACT What causes brands to grow over time? The article addresses this important question. Measures of market share, market penetration, customer loyalty, and price were gathered in two time periods, five years apart, for 353 brands in 21 categories of fast-moving consumer goods. We used these data to study share growth over time. Key findings include: (1) growth must be earned, even for brands that have been successful in the past; (2) increased penetration is the key to share growth, and especially dramatic share growth, for all types of brands; and (3) customer loyalty strongly leverages the effects of penetration. This paper extends upon work by Baldinger and Rubinson (1997) in demonstrating that the way to grow brands is via a combination of penetration and loyalty growth.