Ricky Wilke

Managing consumer complaints: differences and similarities among heterogeneous retailers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold: to examine complaint management among retailers in order to develop a typology of their strategic complaint management system; to develop a profile of each retailer group included in the typology using a set of key relevant variables (e.g. company size, perceived customer dissatisfaction); and to investigate the state of complaint management across different types of retailers.Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected from an online survey of Danish and Swedish grocery retailers, electronic stores, car‐dealers, and furniture stores (n=260) using self‐administered questionnaires.Findings – Cluster analysis identifies two clusters of retailers: non‐active complaint handlers and medium‐active complaint handlers. Medium‐active complaint handlers regard complaint handling as having higher strategic relevance than non‐active complaint handlers and also, medium‐active complaint handlers were more inclined to compensate the complaining customers for the los...

Levels of Analysis in Business-to-Business Marketing

ABSTRACT Over the last 50 plus years, many authors have contributed to our understanding of business markets. As this research area is complex, researchers have addressed issues from different levels of analysis hereby also using a variety of theories (e.g., economics, sociology, psychology). In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of those contributions and to shed light on research in business-to-business marketing as a discipline, it is important to define the different levels of analysis so that the different studies can be viewed in relation to each other. Therefore, this paper develops such framework for business-to-business marketing. The framework also sensitizes researchers to the relationship between the level of analysis and the level at which data is collected. Furthermore, the framework can be applied to map the research areas within the business-to-business marketing field and to define areas of further investigation.

Sustainability in business from a marketing perspective

Why have the majority of companies not yet begun to integrate sustainability on a larger scale into their business strategies? In dealing with this question, we have developed and tested a theoretical model that combines a cognitive frame view with a capability perspective on company behaviour. Our analyses show that top management plays a conclusive role, provided they practise a transformational leadership style. Furthermore, the analyses show that marketing can act as a driver for the companys engagement in product responsibility and social issues. The potential for marketing to further strengthen its role in driving corporate sustainability is made apparent. The following courses are suggested: encompassing ideas and values that express a transformational perspective on leadership; integrating corporate brand management into marketings portfolio of core capabilities; becoming further engaged in accomplishing an ambidextrous innovation strategy; and ensuring that marketing is practised on the basis of a compound marketing logic.

Corporate communication in the emerging network economy

This paper draws on ideas in economics and game theory to develop a new theory of marketing in the emerging network economy. The paper argues that in a network economy, firms and consumers will confront “coordination problems”. With the emerging network economy all this becomes urgent because the availability and cost of information decreases. Also, timing issues become urgent as millions of people get access to the same information simultaneously. That explains why events where masses of viewers simultaneously participate in the same events become so important. The paper introduces a simple game theoretic model and discusses marketing applications and possible strategies. These strategies imply considerable use of communication resources in order to fulfil the common knowledge requirements.

Is Good Design Good Business

IBM CEO Tom Watson made the claim, that ‘Good design is Good Business’ at one of the first Aspen conferences on design in the 1950s (Watson and Petre, 1991). It seems generally accepted, that companies such as Apple, Alessi and SONY have gained competitive advantages from design (Dumas and Mintzberg, 1989; Kotler and Rath, 1988). Books like ‘Winning by Design’ (Walsh et al. 1992) and magazines like Business Week and newspapers such as the Financial Times have promoted the claim that investment in design as well as simply using good design enhances the competitiveness of firms. With a few notable exceptions (Blaich and Blaich, 1993; Gemser and Leenders 2001; Hertenstein, Platt and Veryzer, 2005), however, there is very limited evidence for such claims. In addition the concept of design is not well-defined and is often regarded as a superficial and superfluous fashion.

Forbrugerens syn på virksomheders kundeklagehåndtering

Denne rapport er udarbejdet pa foranledning af Forbrugerstyrelsen i Danmark og er finansieret af Nordisk Ministerrad. Baggrunden for rapporten er det stigende antal forbrugerklager over erhvervsdri ...