Howard Forman and James M. Hunt
The purpose of this article is to assess managers' evaluation of risk associated with applicable uncontrollable forces when developing pricing strategies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to assess managers' evaluation of risk associated with applicable uncontrollable forces when developing pricing strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study is based on attribution theory. An experiment using more than 100 business managers was conducted to assess the perceived risk of uncontrollable environmental factors.
Findings
The findings suggest that when uncontrollable environmental factors dominate pricing managers tend to select pricing strategies with external orientations to deflect risk away from themselves personally.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to pricing strategies and not a broader selection of marketing strategies. The present research provides greater insight as to why managers make certain strategic pricing decisions.
Practical implications
This paper suggests management should frame decision‐making contexts so that minimizing personal exposure is consistent with corporate goals and objectives.
Originality/value
This paper is an extension of previous research examining the managers' perception of risk. In particular, this paper focuses on how managers examine/evaluate risk and how that impacts their decision‐making process when selecting pricing strategies.
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James M. Hunt and Howard Forman
The purpose of this research paper is to examine the role corporate and individual risk (from the point of view of the pricing manager) plays in developing pricing strategies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to examine the role corporate and individual risk (from the point of view of the pricing manager) plays in developing pricing strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Managerial professionals in two graduate business programs were used to assess riskiness associated with pricing strategies. Grounded in attribution theory, t‐tests were used to compare the different types of risk associated with the various pricing strategies.
Findings
The findings suggest that pricing managers will view risk from different perspectives (i.e. corporate and individual) and that this “point of view” should have an impact on the pricing strategies selected.
Research limitations/implications
Research limitations include the use of graduate students in lieu of actual pricing managers. However, this research is a first step in examining the different perspectives of risk that may be taken by managers.
Practical implications
Pricing managers and organizations alike should be made aware of how a point‐of‐view perspective regarding risk can have a significant impact on selecting pricing strategies. The results of the study could provide guidance for corporations so that they can make sure pricing managers have the “correct” point of view regarding the riskiness of pricing strategies.
Originality/value
The research is the first to identify and examine the different risk perspectives. This provides value for academic research because it is the first in the area of risk regarding the different perspectives.
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Frederick Hong-kit Yim, Howard Forman and Hyokjin Kwa
Given the importance of technology implementation and usage in managing and leveraging supply chains and the associated difficulties of diffusing information technology (IT…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the importance of technology implementation and usage in managing and leveraging supply chains and the associated difficulties of diffusing information technology (IT) within and across organizations, little research has been conducted to understand the antecedents of technology adoption, particularly in the supply chain context. The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of how organizational factors affect post-adoption behaviors, a process collectively defined as internalization.
Design/methodology/approach
A mail survey of 413 supply chain members of a major US automotive company was conducted to test the model.
Findings
The study finds that relative cost, supply chain orientation, and task-technology fit have a direct effect on extended technology usage or internalization of the technology.
Research limitations/implications
Although the study sample was collected from the supply chain base of the largest automotive manufacturer in the world, its generalizability is limited as it represents a single tier of one supply chain. The sample consists of suppliers from North America, which restricts generalizability to companies in that geographic area.
Practical implications
The research findings suggest that managers can influence post-adoption behaviors through seamlessly fitting the technology to the employee's tasks, communicating the advantages of utilizing the technology to its users, and developing an orientation of supply chain activities.
Originality/value
While previous research focuses more on technology adoption, the present study extends previous research by looking into technology internalization, a process related to the effective and consistent use of a technology over time.
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Susan K. Lippert and Howard Forman
User uncertainty and risk are inherent in any technology adoption due to the perceived long‐term consequences (LTC) associated with the internalization process. This study seeks…
Abstract
Purpose
User uncertainty and risk are inherent in any technology adoption due to the perceived long‐term consequences (LTC) associated with the internalization process. This study seeks to investigate antecedents of technology trust (TT) and perceived LTC associated with using a technology in order to understand the underlying attitudes and beliefs influencing supply chain members' trust in a specific information technology (IT).
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model was tested through a survey of 449 supply chain members using an IT innovation for part‐level visibility along the entire first‐tier of a major US automotive supply chain.
Findings
Empirical results confirm the basic structure of the model, including the role of TT impacting users' perceptions of LTC relative to internalizing the technology. Results also identify several uncertainty reducing antecedents of TT and perceived LTC including satisfaction with the existing system, task‐technology fit, and prior similar experiences.
Research limitations/implications
The study, although significant in terms of its power and the industry from which it is drawn, focuses on one‐tier of a US automotive supply chain. It would be useful for future research in this area to include multi‐tier supply chain members.
Originality/value
This study represents an important first step in examining the relationship between uncertainty reduction relating to incorporating technology in the supply chain context.
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Richard Lancioni, Howard Forman and Michael Smith
The growth of logistics departments in colleges and universities has been unprecedented in the past ten years. In response to this demand, schools expanded their programs to…
Abstract
The growth of logistics departments in colleges and universities has been unprecedented in the past ten years. In response to this demand, schools expanded their programs to accommodate more students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. While schools have typically structured their logistics departments differently, they, for the most part, failed to develop their programs to more accurately reflect the multi‐disciplinary nature of supply‐chain management. The article examines the structures of logistics departments against the backdrop of teaching supply‐chain management. Strengths and weaknesses of the structures are identified with a series of recommendations set forth to help schools cope with the increased enrollments and the dynamics of the logistics field.
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Richard Lancioni, Howard Forman and Michael F. Smith
With student, scholarly, and especially corporate interest in the study of logistics dramatically increasing, it is important for institutions of higher learning to act as quickly…
Abstract
With student, scholarly, and especially corporate interest in the study of logistics dramatically increasing, it is important for institutions of higher learning to act as quickly as possible to help meet this demand. In doing so, these institutions run into many roadblocks and challenges. This paper explores these and offers suggestions to minimize their effects.
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Howard Forman and Susan K. Lippert
Integrating information technologies in supply chains is becoming increasingly more important and challenging. The purpose is to develop a framework for understanding antecedents…
Abstract
Purpose
Integrating information technologies in supply chains is becoming increasingly more important and challenging. The purpose is to develop a framework for understanding antecedents to internalizing technologies in supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review covering over 30 years of interdisciplinary research was used as the theoretical underpinning for developing the supply chain internalization model (SCIM). A series of 93 personal interviews with members of a major automotive supply chain were conducted, and detailed qualitative data collected, to identify a set of significant antecedents to technology internalization.
Findings
The results of the research is an empirically derived framework, the SCIM, including a comprehensive set of 79 directional antecedents useful for academicians and practitioners for understanding factors impacting how information technologies are internalized in organizations and supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
Empirically testing the proposed directional relationships can be used to confirm their validity and measure the relative strengths of individual or interacting antecedents. The relationships outlined in the SCIM should be tested in a diverse array of industries in order to generalize the model. In addition, the relative strength of the factors should be tested since in different contexts. For more robust understandings, moderating and mediating effects amongst the variables should be identified.
Practical implications
Practitioners can use the SCIM as a source for established guidelines for developing strategies for implementing information technologies.
Originality/value
This paper lays the groundwork for facilitating the internalization of information technologies in supply chains and is flexible enough to accommodate future research into technology internalization.
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The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act…
Abstract
The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:
Through an analysis of the leaders of the 1960s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) this paper highlights the importance of individual identity work, and argues for…
Abstract
Through an analysis of the leaders of the 1960s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) this paper highlights the importance of individual identity work, and argues for an expanded theoretical treatment of social movement identity processes that takes account of partial identity correspondence (a partial alignment between an individual identity and the movement identity) to include degrees of identity congruence. Actors can embrace a movement, but remain in a state of conflict regarding some dimensions of its identity. Extending James Jasper's ((1997). The art of moral protest: Culture, biography, and creativity in social movements. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press) identity classifications, the data suggest that participants engage in identity justification work when incongruence among personal identity (biographical), collective identity (ascribed, i.e. race, gender), and movement identities exist. This work may not reflect the organization's efforts to frame or reframe the movement identity. This study finds that individuals manage incongruence with organizational and tactical movement identities by employing three identity justification mechanisms: (1) personal identity modification of the movement's identity; (2) individual amplification of the common cause dimension of collective identity; and (3) individual amplification of the activist identity through pragmatic politics. Rather than dismantling the past, as Snow and McAdam ((2000). In: S. Stryker, T. J. Owens, & R. W. White (Eds), Self, identity, and social movements (pp. 41–67). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) propose, actors incorporate their biographies as a mechanism to achieve feelings of community and belonging. It is not so much an alignment with the organization's proffered movement identity as it is a reordering of the saliency hierarchy of their identities. Unlike Snow and McAdam's conceptualization of identity amplification, the reordering of an identity hierarchy and the amplification of certain identities is precipitated by the actor's, not the organization's, efforts to align her/his personal identity, collective identity, and movement identities.
Michael J. Dorsch, Stephen J. Grove and William R. Darden
Even though service marketers are interested in influencing customer choice at the service provider level (i.e. the service brand level), the decision to patronize a particular…
Abstract
Even though service marketers are interested in influencing customer choice at the service provider level (i.e. the service brand level), the decision to patronize a particular service firm seldom occurs until after the customer decides to use a service provider in the first place. Ultimately, this initial “make‐or‐buy” purchase decision – the decision to use a service category – restrains customer decisions at the service provider (brand) level. To enhance our understanding of customers’ service category decisions, a double cross‐validation approach was employed to investigate the applicability of a service category choice model which we adapted from Howard’s work on consumer decision making. Our model, which was tested with two different service categories, was supported.