Rajiv Kashyap

Corporate environmentalism : antecedents and influence of industry type

How does a business firm manage its relationship with the natural environment? What are the factors that influence the choice of such strategies? Does industry type matter? The authors introduce and operationalize the concept of corporate environmentalism in an effort to answer these questions. Using stakeholder theory, the authors identify four important antecedents to corporate environmentalism, namely, public concern, regulatory forces, competitive advantage, and top management commitment. The authors then use a political–economic framework to develop testable hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, the authors perform multigroup path analysis on data gathered from more than 240 firms. They find that corporate environmentalism is related to all hypothesized antecedents and that industry type moderates several of those relationships. In the high environmental impact sector, public concern has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. In the moderate environmental impact sector, competitive advantage has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. There are strong direct and mediating influences from top management commitment, which is the antecedent with the greatest impact on both industry groups. The influences of regulatory forces, public concern, and competitive advantage are all significantly mediated by top management commitment and moderated by industry type. The empirical findings and the ensuing discussion will be of interest to managers and public policy officials.

Bringing “Social” Into Sales: The Impact of Salespeople’S Social Media Use on Service Behaviors and Value Creation

The explosive growth in the use of social media has evoked a “gold rush”–like response from organizations. However, firms in general, and salespeople in particular, are uncertain about the fit between social media tools and their overall sales strategy. To address this issue, we advance a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which salespeople’s use of social media operates to create value, and propose a strategic approach to social media use to achieve competitive goals. We draw on the existing literature on relationship marketing, task–technology fit theory, and sales service behavior to sketch a social media strategy for business-to-business sales organizations with relational selling objectives. The proposed framework describes how social media tools can help salespeople perform service behaviors leading to value creation.

Brand trust as a second-order factor. An alternative measurement model

ion relative to its various dimensions. In previous research, brand trust has been treated exclusively as a first-order factor. This practice can lead to serious problems in scale development and model specification. We propose and test a reflective-formative model of brand trust. In our model, brand trust is specified as a second-order factor that is determined by first-order factors of competence and benevolence. A series of empirical studies were conducted to develop a multidimensional scale and test this alternative model. The results of confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modelling lend support to our conceptualisation and the proposed measurement model.

Sales Role-Plays and Mock Interviews: An Investigation of Student Performance in Sales Competitions

Sales competitions provide students with opportunities to apply their understanding of sales. Despite a long tradition of scholarship on sales role-plays, the answer to what drives student performance in sales competitions remains elusive. In this research, we examine how motivation (work engagement) and ability (cognitive aptitude and selling-related knowledge) affect student performance in sales role-play competitions. We also examine how success in sales role-plays engenders job attainment for the students. Using data from a sales competition held at a large public university in the United States, we provide empirical evidence that both motivation and ability affect sales performance. But, contrary to expectation, they have a substitution effect and not a complementary one. We also find evidence that success in sales role-plays translates into improved success in job interviews and that this effect is stronger for students with greater cognitive aptitude, that is, sales role-play performance complements the cognitive aptitude of the student to improve their mock interview performance.

Sales Professionals’ Use of Social Media to Create and Deploy Social Capital in US and Indian Companies

The purpose of this research is to explore differences in social media use for the creation and deployment of social capital by salespeople in US and Indian sales organizations. A conceptual framework was developed that posits salespersons’ use of social media as an antecedent to the creation of social capital. Drawing upon theories of cross-cultural differences, we postulate different paths to social capital creation and deployment by sales professionals in the USA and India. The goal of the research is to provide a foundation for subsequent empirical investigation. The research is aimed at helping managers appreciate the use of social media in multinational organizations. The research project has enormous significance for both academics and practitioners. First, what is an appropriate use of social media by sales professionals is an urgent and immediate dilemma for managers. Second, illuminating the pathways from social media to social capital will help increase the accountability of the marketing function. Third, an appreciation of the differences between social media use by salespeople in US and Indian organizations can provide managers with a finer-grained understanding of the transformative potential of social technologies in global organizations. This conceptual framework can provide a strong foundation for a cross-cultural study.

Stock Market and Network Influence on Alliance Formation: Evidence from the Biopharmaceutical Industry

In this article we posit that firms signal resource availability (stock returns and risk) and favorable reputation (network of ties) to attract alliance partners. We use stock market and network characteristics to predict a firms’ propensity to engage in product alliances. Using 1,877 observations of 302 biopharmaceutical firms over a twenty-year period, we find that increase in stock returns and a decrease in stock risk is associated with an increase in firms’ product alliances. The position of the firm in its network improves product alliance formation, whereas the structure of the overall network (density) has no such effect.

Dynamics of Value Creation, Capture, and Erosion: Towards a Theory of Firm Sustainability

Wikipedia defines sustainability as “the capacity to endure.” In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to provide a basis for a theory of firm sustainability. Our framework is premised on three fundamental assumptions: 1) Firm sustainability is a function of value creation (+), value capture (+), and value erosion (−) in served markets, 2) Value creation, value capture, and value erosion are dynamic, related, and interdependent processes 3) a theory of firm sustainability is interdisciplinary. Value is the cornerstone of modern market analysis. Hence our framework is rooted in three interrelated, yet distinct processes that comprise the foundation of all business activity: value creation, value capture, and value erosion. A firm’s capacity to sustain is determined by its ability to create value, capture value, and counter value erosion in its served markets. In this paper, we meld research streams from marketing, organizational theory, and strategic management to forge an understanding of value and initiate a broader discussion and research on firm sustainability.

Does the Presentation of Comparative Prices Matter? An Extended Abstract

Recently Biswas et al. (2013) showed that comparative price promotions could be affected by the spatial location (left vs. right) of a sale price vis-a-vis its regular price. The location of a sale price in reference to its regular price assumes importance as it influences consumers’ ability to compute the depth of a discount when performing calculations (Alba et al. 1999; Biswas et al. 2013; Lichtenstein et al. 1991). Generally, in a comparative price offer (RP − SP), the regular price (RP) will be the minuend, while sale price (SP) the subtrahend. However, in addition to determining the arithmetic difference between prices, the perceived difference between prices will also depend on the ease or difficulty with which consumers could compute price information (Thomas and Morwitz 2009). When a comparative price conforms to a normative presentation that people expect to see when performing mathematical computations (RP − SP and not SP − RP; Biswas et al. 2013), it tends to make computations easier, and influences consumers’ assessment of the discounted offer (Thomas and Morwitz 2009). However, several retailers often offer comparative prices where a regular price is presented vertically above or below its sale price (e.g., macys.com; Amazon). So far research does not inform us if consumers will evaluate a comparative price promotion that is presented horizontally differently than if it was presented vertically. Hence, the research issue is whether a spatial difference in presentation of comparative prices (vertical vs. horizontal) affects consumers’ perception of discounts and if so when?

Microfoundations of a Dynamic Market Knowledge Capability, Empirical Explorations Under Conditions of Environmental Uncertainty: An Abstract

Knowledge is a firm’s most valuable and fundamental resource (Grant 1996; Wiklund and Shepherd 2003; Vargo and Lusch 2004). However, little attention has been given to its strategic antecedents. In the marketing domain, we are specifically concerned with the following: How do differences in strategy influence a firm’s ability to develop market knowledge capabilities? How does environmental uncertainty interact with strategy to affect the development of market knowledge capabilities? The potential for market knowledge to confer competitive advantages is only realized when such knowledge is effectively applied to business processes such as new product development or technology deployment to generate cost and differentiation advantages. We conceive market knowledge as consisting of three interrelated dimensions: market knowledge routines, market knowledge culture, and market knowledge stores. In this study we develop the logic to tease apart the effects of various strategic firm orientations (customer, competitor, and technology) upon market knowledge under varying conditions of environmental uncertainty (customer, competitor, and technological). We conducted a key-informant cross-sectional survey of executives drawn from a variety of industries to test our hypotheses. Employing a hierarchical regression approach, we found support for many of our hypotheses, suggesting that strategic orientations provide a good starting point for the study of market knowledge capabilities. We also found that both customer and competitor orientations were positively associated with all dimensions of market knowledge capabilities but technology orientation was only associated with market knowledge culture. This study makes a unique contribution by elucidating the effects of various strategic orientations on the development of a market knowledge capability. Understanding how environmental factors shift managerial priorities for utilizing market knowledge capabilities is extremely insightful as we begin our quest for ways to effectively identify and appropriate value in constantly evolving markets.

Attitudes and Behaviors of College Students in Regards to the Environment and Recycling

Recycling is a well-researched topic in various disciplines such as waste management, environment, psychology, consumer behavior and marketing. Past studies seem to suggest that demographic characteristics, gender in particular, influence recycling behaviors. Others cite the role of work environment in promoting favorable attitudes toward recycling and encouraging recycling behaviors. School and college students represent a critical population that can be influenced to adopt recycling behaviors. In this study we report a field experiment conducted in a large university. We found the origin of individual recycling behavior and the amount of accumulated experience to significantly impact current attitudes and behaviors. We cautiously conclude that early intervention is likely to have a lasting impact on future attitudes and behaviors.