Robert E. Widing

The Antecedents and Consequences of Market Orientation in Australia

The subject of market orientation has been of interest to both researchers and practitioners for several years. The work of Jaworski and Kohli (1993) inspired a substantial body of literature that empirically examined the antecedents and consequences of a market orientation. This article contributes to that body of literature by investigating the antecedents and consequences of market orientation in Australia. The results successfully replicate the Jaworski and Kohli findings, within an Australian environment. Results illustrate that understanding the culture, activities and processes associated with market‐oriented activity have significant implications for organisations in Australia.

Marketing Planning, Market Orientation and Business Performance

This study examines the relationships between marketing planning, market orientation and business performance. We explore conceptually how linking the behaviours of marketing planning with the values of market orientation might be expected impact on business performance. Our findings suggest that high quality marketing planning can lead to performance benefits, but as antecedent to a market orientation, rather than as an independent activity.

Exploring the sales manager’s feedback to a failed sales effort

Observes that previous research on the value and effect of supervisory feedback has focused on the recipient of the feedback (the salesperson). The research reported in this article examines the feedback construct from the provider’s perspective (the sales manager). Explores the relationship between Sujan’s failed sales effort attribution model and the feedback provided typology developed by Jaworski and Kohli. The results confirm a direct relationship between failed sales effort attributed to poor strategy and positive feedback directed to salesperson behavior. A direct relationship is reported between the failed sales effort attributed to lack of effort (or intensity) and negative feedback provided by the sales manager that is directed to the salesperson’s output.

Internal and External Organisational Orientations: Comparing the Resource Based View and Market Orientation

Two methods for attaining organisational success include the exploitation of firm resources by adopting the resource based view (RBV) and the development of a market orientation (MO). The ultimate objective of the RBV is to create superior value for the firm by deploying unique and costly to imitate resource bundles for the purpose of exploiting environmental opportunities and neutralising threats (Barney 1991). The MO of a firm differs from the RBV as its objective to create superior value for customers relative to competition (Narver & Slater 1990).

Disclosure of Contextually Hidden Sexual Images Embedded in an Advertisement

The discovery of sexual images embedded in an advertisement significantly affected responses to the advertisement by 147 female and 159 male undergraduates.

The Effects of Salespersons’ Perceptions of Customer Trust on Selling Behaviors

This paper examines the role of salespersons’ perceptions of the level of customer trust on selling behaviors. Recent empirical studies have confirmed the importance of trust in developing buyer-seller relationships (Morgan and Hunt 1994). This study examines the degree to which customer oriented selling, adaptive selling, and bargaining behaviors of salespersons vary with customer trust. Given that selling behaviors directly affect salesperson performance, the effects of salespersons’ perceptions of customer trust on selling behaviors are likely to have significant managerial implications.

The Sales Manager’s Attributional Process for a Failed Sales Effort: an Exploratory Study of the Influence on Feedback Provided to the Salesperson

Previous research on the value and effect of supervisory feedback has focused on the recipient of the feedback (the salesperson). The research reported in this manuscript examines the feedback construct from the provider’s perspective (the sales manager). The authors explore the relationship between the failed sales effort attribution model (Sujan 1986) and the feedback provided typology developed by Jaworski and Kohli (1991). The results confirm a direct relationship between failed sales effort attributed to a poor strategy and positive feedback directed to salesperson behavior. A direct relationship exists between the failed sales effort attributed to lack of effort (or intensity) and negative feedback directed to salesperson output. The supervisor’s years of sales management experience influence the type and direction of the feedback provided. Sales management experience does influence the failures attributed to effort but not the failures attributed to the salesperson’s poor selling strategy.

The Ethical Judgment of an Advertisement and its Effects

Occasionally marketers develop advertisements that many consumers find unethical. For example, some ads contain nudity, suggestive poses, and even embedded figures and words, all of which some consumers find unethical (Widing, et al. 1991). Despite the use of such questionable ad content, the relationship of the ethical judgment of an ad and consumer responses to the ad has received relatively little attention. The purpose of the current research is to fill this void by examining the relationship of ethical judgment of an advertisement and selected advertising effectiveness response variables.

Level and Quota Cutoffs in Choice

Huber and Fineberg’s proposition that level cutoffs are used in multiple iterations to approximate a quota cutoff was tested with a computer assisted cutoff model. The proposition was supported as decision makers who observed many or few brands during the choice process ended up with an identical small number of brands in the final choice set.