W. Benoy Joseph

Assessing competitive advantage of emerging markets in knowledge intensive business services

Purpose – The dramatic growth and international scope of knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS) are evident in emerging markets such as China and India. Nations, like firms, seek to capitalize on their available resources and capabilities (e.g. people, technology, skills) in order to build and maintain core competencies in certain industry sectors. This paper has the following objectives: to discuss the classification of KIBS, to marshal conceptual and statistical evidence on KIBS in major emerging markets, to compare and contrast selected major emerging markets in regard to their KIBS activities, and to discuss policy implications.Design/methodology/approach – In this conceptual paper, extant literature is reviewed and discussed pertaining to the KIBS sectors. Several existing data sources are used to assess the comparative performance of major emerging markets in the KIBS sectors.Findings – The emphasis is on finding comparative longitudinal statistics that are useful for comparison and contrast a...

Antecedents, Outcomes, and Moderating Influences on Industrial Distributors’ Satisfaction with Supplier Relationships

A nationwide survey of U.S. industrial distributors showed that expectations of benefits from a relationship with a core supplier and the outcomes of that relationship are important antecedents of distributor satisfaction with a relationship. The underlying outcome dimensions -- tangible and intangible benefits -- affect satisfaction levels. However, among the expectation dimensions, only price benefits influence satisfaction. The impact of expectations and outcomes on relationship satisfaction are moderated by relationship style and distributor size.

Positioning your service to target key buying influences: the case of referring physicians and hospitals

Positioning analysis is based traditionally on customer perceptions. However, when a service depends on referrals to attract customers, positioning analysis should recognize the perceptions of the key buying influences who make referrals. Specialized or “tertiary care” hospitals depend on physician referrals to win patients. Focusses on the mapping of referring physicians′ perceptions of leading regional medical centers. Correspondence analysis is employed with data from a survey of more than 1,000 physicians to develop a positioning map from which various hospital positioning strategies and physician marketing implications are drawn.

Strategic Market Planning in Hospitals: Results of a Nationwide Survey

U.S. hospitals are still in the developmental stages of adopting modern strategic market planning concepts and tools. However, results show a growing awareness of planning models, and a high sensitivity to market- and patient-oriented criteria in evaluating hospital or program performance. A general finding is the lack of formalized planning that systematically involves middle managers in the hospital: There is a strong tendency to centralize planning functions at the administrator’s level. The relationship between hospital bed size and planning practices are also reported in this paper.

Measuring Internet Marketing Productivity: A Study of Fortune 1,000 Companies

How productive is Internet marketing? Results of a nationwide survey show that only 52 percent of Internet marketing users have specific, measurable objectives with the most popular being mechanical or communication measures. Even though multiple criteria are common, fewer than one in six firms use financial productivity measures.

Effect of sponsor advocacy on message perception and attitude change

This study consisted of an experimental investigation of the effect of certain aspects of the sponsorship of a message on how the audience perceives that message and the degree of attitude change produced. A film on the dangers of nuclear waste was shown to a sample of 67 students. A questionnaire containing one of six identified sponsors or a control (no sponsor) was administered following the film. The effects of perceived sponsor advocacy or opposition to nuclear energy was evaluated along credibility and emotional impact dimensions. The effect on overall attitude change was also evaluated. Major findings of the study were: (1) Subjects found the film to be less believable, consistent, and convincing when its sponsors were perceived to have a vested interest in opposing nuclear energy. (2) Some suggestion that the films emotional impact or attention value was greater when a sponsor was identified than when no sponsor was mentioned. A discussion of the findings and implications for future research are presented.