Timothy M. Smith

A three-stage model of integrated marketing communications at the marketing-sales interface

The marketing and sales functions in many firms are often at odds despite their common goal of increasing revenue and profit. The finger pointing goes both ways: Marketing complains of poor lead follow-up by sales, and in turn, sales grumbles about the quality of leads generated by marketing. This disconnect can be damaging; high lead volumes generated through effective marketing campaigns could actually hurt downstream sales because of wasted effort on poorly qualified leads and/or delays in sales follow-up resulting from limited sales force capacity. To examine the revenue and profit implications of coordinated communications efforts at the marketing-sales interface, the authors develop a three-stage model that captures the effects of sequential marketing/sales communications on lead generation, appointment conversion, and sales closure. The results, which are based on a collaborative effort with a large home improvement retailer, suggest a complex interplay among marketing efforts (multiple media that generate leads), delays in follow-up (time lag between inquiry and sales force contact), and sales efficiencies (appointment and sales conversion). The findings underscore the impact of multimedia spending on the timing and effectiveness of subsequent communications, implying that improved internal collaboration between marketing and sales can offer significant upside potential for the firm. Finally, the authors develop a managerial decision support tool to simulate the impact of varying communications budgets, timing, and allocation on the marketing and sales planning system.

The effect of successful trade show attendance on future show interest: exploring Japanese attendee perspectives of domestic and offshore international events

Examines the attendance objectives of Japanese visitors for both a domestic (Japanese) and offshore (US) trade show, and explores the relationship between a successful trade show visit and future attendance intentions. Results suggest that attendees maintain very similar goals for international show attendance regardless of the show’s geographical location, but conceptualize successful trade show participation differently. Also demonstrates that successfully achieving different types of attendee objectives significantly increases attendees’ interest levels in future attendance at each of the two shows examined. Success in seeing products and trends at the domestic show was found to affect future show interest significantly. Whereas at the offshore US show, successful supplier interaction only affects interest when combined with seeing products and trends and gathering buying process information. These findings have strong implications for researchers investigating the relatively under‐studied issues of international buyer behavior at trade shows and practitioners involved in the organization of and exhibition at international events.

A case study of distributor-supplier business relationships

Abstract This case study examines business relationships of a large window and door distributor in the northeastern United States with two suppliers; a “special” partnership and a “typical” transactional vendor. The partnership supplier has played a dominant role in supplying products to the distributor for many decades. This unique relationship with a company much larger than the distributor has recently evolved further through an exclusive territory arrangement and is now generally considered a strategic alliance. Dependence, relationship investment, and switching costs are viewed as important relationship attributes by the distributor in this relationship. Information exchange and trust have been increasing in this alliance although the distributor feels threatened by the leverage of this very large supplier. The typical business relationship of the supplier discussed in this case can be characterized as having low strategic importance to the distributor. Dependence, relationship investment, and switching costs for the distributor are viewed as low and information exchange is virtually non-existent. These two types of supplier relationships are examined in terms of the steps leading to relationship development, the shared activities, and the implementation and evaluation of these processes.

Climate change: Corporate sustainability in the supply chain

Traditionally, corporate sustainability efforts have focused on the direct impacts of a company’s waste or the emissions associated with its operations, buildings, and vehicles. However, the majority of the US economy’s climate, water, and pollution impacts are the result of complex supply chains, strung together to deliver value-added products and services. To mitigate these indirect impacts (by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for example) and adapt to new risks, leading companies must engage with upstream suppliers and embed sustainability as a joint objective. Companies failing to do so may suffer damage to their reputations and operations. In a changing climate, increasingly frequent and severe weather events are making supply networks more vulnerable to disruptions and unanticipated costs. Investors and other stakeholders are responding by pressuring companies to disclose and quantify emissions and other supply chain environmental impacts. Despite significant progress made by some corporations in reducing their emissions and their exposure to potential hazards hidden in upstream operations, sustainability must be a society-wide effort.

Subnational mobility and consumption-based environmental accounting of US corn in animal protein and ethanol supply chains

Significance Companies and society alike are increasingly concerned with environmental impacts across complex supply chains. Suppliers engaged in upstream intermediate transactions commonly contribute over 75% of the carbon and water impacts of products ultimately consumed by users. These impacts pose risks to downstream customer-facing companies in the form of firm image, supply disruptions, and regulatory action. Policymakers and nonprofit advocacy organizations are increasingly looking to engage actors across supply chains to encourage conservation and environmental impact reduction. Unfortunately, traceability across complex, heterogeneous supply hinders these efforts. We provide a method for estimating mobility of corn from farms through feed and fuel supply chains, making it possible to characterize the variable environmental impacts of US corn inputs into animal protein and ethanol production. Corn production, and its associated inputs, is a relatively large source of greenhouse gas emissions and uses significant amounts of water and land, thus contributing to climate change, fossil fuel depletion, local air pollutants, and local water scarcity. As large consumers of this corn, corporations in the ethanol and animal protein industries are increasingly assessing and reporting sustainability impacts across their supply chains to identify, prioritize, and communicate sustainability risks and opportunities material to their operations. In doing so, many have discovered that the direct impacts of their owned operations are dwarfed by those upstream in the supply chain, requiring transparency and knowledge about environmental impacts along the supply chains. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been used to identify hotspots of environmental impacts at national levels, yet these provide little subnational information necessary for guiding firms’ specific supply networks. In this paper, our Food System Supply-Chain Sustainability (FoodS3) model connects spatial, firm-specific demand of corn purchasers with upstream corn production in the United States through a cost minimization transport model. This provides a means to link county-level corn production in the United States to firm-specific demand locations associated with downstream processing facilities. Our model substantially improves current LCA assessment efforts that are confined to broad national or state level impacts. In drilling down to subnational levels of environmental impacts that occur over heterogeneous areas and aggregating these landscape impacts by specific supply networks, targeted opportunities for improvements to the sustainability performance of supply chains are identified.

Demand response for industrial-scale energy users in Midwest ISO: A dynamic programming approach for curtailing energy use

This paper investigates demand response implementation in Midwest ISO from the perspective of large energy consumers. Acknowledging uncertain electricity prices, we develop a dynamic programming-based model using real-options theory to identify a profitability threshold for demand response (DR) schemes. Our model is tailored to energy-intensive industries, and the cement industry is used as illustrative example in the case study. Simulation results demonstrate season-dependent profitability threshold for a representative cement manufacturing plant.

Marginal Emission Factors Considering Renewables: A Case Study of the U.S. Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) System

Estimates of marginal emission factors (MEFs) for the electricity sector have focused on emitting sources only, assuming nonemitting renewables rarely contribute to marginal generation. However, with increased penetration and improved dispatch of renewables, this assumption may be outdated. Here, we improve the methodology to incorporate renewables in MEF estimates and demonstrate a case study for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) system where wind has been commonly dispatched on the margin. We also illustrate spatiotemporal variations of MEFs and explore implications for energy storage technologies. Results show that because the share of renewables in MISO is still relatively low (6.34%), conventional MEFs focused on emitting sources can provide a good estimate in MISO overall, as well as in the Central and South subregions. However, in the MISO North subregion where wind provides 22.5% of grid generation, neglecting nonemitting sources can overestimate MEFs for CO2, SO2, and NOx by about 30%. The application of expanded MEFs in this case also reveals heightened emission increases associated with load shifting of storage technologies. Our study highlights the importance of expanded MEFs in regions with high and growing renewables penetration, particularly as renewable energy policy seeks to incorporate demand-side technologies.

Implications of corn prices on water footprints of bioethanol

Previously reported water footprints (WFPs) of corn ethanol have been estimated based on the assumption that corn ethanol feedstock could be supplied by the same states where the corn is grown. However, ethanol conversion facilities may choose out-of-state feedstock suppliers depending on the total price of feedstock they have to pay including both the corn price and transportation costs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the WFPs and total water use (TWU) of corn ethanol considering an optimal allocation of corn with heterogeneous corn feedstock prices across states. The results show that the WFPs of corn ethanol are less than 100 l of water per liter of ethanol (Lw/Le) for all ethanol-producing states based on both the 2008 corn price and transportation costs for rail and truck. Results also reveal that WFPs are very sensitive to the market price of corn and that additional greenhouse gas emissions due to corn trade between states are not significant.

A cooperative governance network for crop genome editing: The success of governance networks in other areas could help to find common ground for applying genome editing in agriculture

Emerging biotechnologies, such as genome editing, may revolutionize agricultural development through rapid and precise genetic manipulation of a wide range of crop traits without having to transfer foreign DNA [1]. If so, these new genetic‐engineering (GE) technologies can help to generate crop varieties to address critical challenges in agricultural development, such as climate resilience or nutrient uptake, or diet‐related problems in nutrition and health in poorer countries. However, society must also be protected from potential harmful effects of genetically manipulated crops on the environment, human health, or social welfare. Governance of these crops must therefore balance agricultural developments with risk assessment and prevention of potential harm. > …genome editing is being used to improve the characteristics of major crop plants, but the governance of crop genome editing is poorly defined and developed Presently, genome editing is being used to improve the characteristics of major crop plants, but the governance of crop genome editing is poorly defined and developed. Influential groups concerned with the potential hazards of such crops view this situation with growing alarm, which has created tensions with the academic community and regulatory agencies [2]. Both the USA and the European Commission are currently reviewing the governance of crops produced by genome editing and other new technologies. On the US side, at least, the review process appears unlikely to result in governance approaches that will satisfy parties that are concerned with either over‐ or under‐regulation of such crops, and tension and conflicts about them are likely to heighten. We propose an alternative approach for governance of these crops that may help to defuse tensions and enable exploration of genome editing technologies’ potential while protecting society from harm: a cooperative governance network. Such networks have performed well in …

Yield Improvement and Energy Savings Uing Phosphonates as Additives in Kraft pulping

Project Objective: Develop a commercially viable modification to the Kraft process resulting in energy savings, increased yield and improved bleachability. Evaluate the feasibility of this technology across a spectrum of wood species used in North America. Develop detailed fundamental understanding of the mechanism by which phosphonates improve KAPPA number and yield. Evaluate the North American market potential for the use of phosphonates in the Kraft pulping process. Examine determinants of customer perceived value and explore organizational and operational factors influencing attitudes and behaviors. Provide an economic feasibility assessment for the supply chain, both suppliers (chemical supply companies) and buyers (Kraft mills). Provide background to most effectively transfer this new technology to commercial mills.