Robert F. Lusch

Power and relationship commitment: their impact on marketing channel member performance

Abstract In marketing channels for farm equipment, we investigate the impact of the suppliers use of power on two key outcomes: (1) the retailers commitment to the channel relationship and (2) both supplier and retailer performance within the channel. We also investigate how retailer commitment affects performance in the channel. We argue that key linkages are moderated by the symmetry of power within the channel (i.e., whether the retailer is more powerful, power is somewhat balanced between the two channel members, or the supplier is more powerful). The results partially support both the primary construct linkages studied here as well as the moderating effects of power symmetry upon them

The evolving marketing concept, competitive intensity and organizational performance

Marketing educators generally assume in their teaching that there is little inconsistency between adherence to the marketing concept and the stakeholder concept. Some assume that the latter is a logical extension of the former but there has been no empirical analysis of this issue. In this paper, research based on the perceptions of Fortune 500 executives is presented which focuses on this issue. Of particular concern are their views concerning the future business environment, organizational conduct and expected performance in 1995. This data is used to empirically examine the inseparability of the marketing concept and stakeholder concept. In addition, the relationship of the competitive environment upon these philosophies as well as upon perceived organizational performance is empirically investigated and discussed.

A General Framework for Explaining Internal vs. External Exchange

There is an often overlooked substitute for exchange in the marketplace. Organizational units in the form of house-holds and businesses can create, consume and/or use goods and services internally and thus avoid markets. This article offers a unified discussion of why organizations engage in internal as well as external exchange activity, with the objective of encouraging marketing theorists to integrate internal exchange into the discipline. By addressing internal exchange activity, scholars should be able to construct more comprehensive theories of macromarketing, competitive strategy, and perhaps even a general theory of marketing.

Conflict and satisfaction in an industrial channel of distribution

A conceptual model was developed of distribution channel members′ manifest conflicts and their satisfaction. From this model, hypotheses are generated, aimed at untangling the causal relationship between these two constructs. Both a meta‐analysis of previous research and this first longitudinal study of distribution channel behaviour in the aircraft industry in North America of distribution channel behaviour uncovered a negative, contemporaneous relationship between satisfaction and conflict. Empirical study in the channel for an industrial product found the effect of channel member satisfaction over time to be mediated by the extent of manifest conflict. The impact of manifest conflict was found to be mediated by the degree of channel member satisfaction. In other words, channel member satisfaction and manifest conflict within the channel were both antecedents and consequences of each other.

Consumer Acquisition Patterns for Durable Goods

Durable goods will be the fastest growing sector of the consumer market in the 1980s. Through Guttman scalogram analysis, consumer acquisition patterns for twelve heterogeneous durables are examined. Ownership patterns are compared through split-half analyses, across data collected in two consecutive years, and between types of dwelling units.

Ethical Marketing: Perceptions of Economic Goods and Social Problems

A methodology associated with experimental social psychology was used to ascertain whether there are different ethical overtones perceived in the marketing of different products despite all other aspects of the marketing situation being comparable. The methodology consisted of using four vignettes of marketing strategy with the product utilized being the only element varied across the scenarios. Results indicate that ethical evaluations are product dependent and are more severe for social goods than for traditional economic goods.

Validating the retail store image concept

The perceived images of seven retail firms encompassing several lines of trade are presented in this paper. To determine these images, data on store attributes and the importance of these attributes were collected from a random sample within selected census tracts of a Southwestern city. The linear compensatory multi-attribute model approach of product attitudes was extended to that of store patronage. The ability of these image models to predict attitudes towards the retail outlets as well as patronage behavior is investigated. In addition, the power of importance weights in these models is statistically examined.

Consumer Acquisition Priorities for Home Appliances: A Replication and Re-evaluation

This paper reports on research that replicates and extends the previous Guttman scaling studies. The Guttman-scaled priorities are compared to average years of ownership for 12 appliances. Some limitations of the technique are revealed, and the role of a new innovation that disturbs an otherwise stable acquisition priority is discussed.

Employees as customers: The role of social controls and employee socialization in developing patronage

Abstract Employees can be an important source of patronage. This article examines the role of social controls in fostering employee socialization and the role of socialization in influencing the preferences of employees to patronize their employer for goods and services. It is found that social controls lead to higher employee socialization, which results in higher patronage preferences for the goods and services of the organization that employs them.

Similarities between conflict and cooperation in the marketing channel

Abstract This article examines the relationship between two causes of conflict: domain dissensus and perceptual incongruity, and the levels of conflict and cooperation within a marketing channel dyad. Utilizing a national sample of food broker-food wholesaler dyads, four hypotheses were tested—two relating domain dissensus and two relating perceptual incongruity to conflict/cooperation. Results indicated no significant relationship between either perceptual incongruities or domain dissensus and the level of conflict found in the dyad, while a significant negative relationship was found between both perceptual incongruities and domain dissensus and the level of cooperation in the dyad.