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This study evaluated the linkages among market tracking, research & development (R&D), international competition and firm profitability. Over six hundred electronic and computer manufacturers were surveyed. Results show a clear linkage between market tracking, R&D and increased profitability. The study found no linkage between international competition and profitability. These findings are useful benchmarks for marketing managers in understanding the contributions these practices and variables make to the financial performance of the firm.

American business enterprise is increasingly seeking export markets for products as a means of expansion, and in some instances to offset loss in domestic business due to declining markets or international competitors. This paper deals with market segmentation and its role in the successful positioning of products in foreign markets. More specifically, the focus here is how consumer political identifications and ideological values can be used as a basis for effectively segmenting markets. To U.S. firms, the potential benefit of gaining this insight is twofold. First, firms may thus have at their disposal a segmentation tool as yet unrecognized by competitors. Second, politics and political ideology have constructs which appear to be common to most election‐based governmental forms; thus the segmentation applications explored here would be transferable to foreign markets, whereas many other more conventional means of segmentation transfer poorly from the U.S. to other countries.

Businesses succeed or fail based on competitive advantage. Over the course of business history a number of innovative business practices have earned the distinction of being “milestones” in competitive advantage. Examples of such groundbreaking competitive developments include portfolio strategies in product management and restructuring companies specifically to gain competitiveness. In the early 1990s “Time‐Based Competition” was proposed by Stalk and Hout to be a new major dimension of competition. The book on this subject by these authors, Competing Against Time, (1990) is regarded as a classic work in competitive strategy. In essence, time‐based competition focuses on gaining advantage by being faster than competitors—faster in responding to market changes, faster with new product development and introductions, faster in integrating new technology into products, and faster in distribution and customer service. Success stories of time‐based competitors are numerous; for example the Japanese used time‐based competition as a fundamental component of their automobile manufacturing strategy that caught U.S. firms off guard. Just as time‐based competition matured as a competitive strategy the Internet, World Wide Web and other “virtual” communications links have emerged, proliferated and profoundly impacted competitive strategy. This paper proposes a new dimension of competitive advantage to be called “virtual marketing.” Virtual marketing could be a new milestone in competitive strategy much like time‐based competition.

Many smaller American companies utilise management consultants for problem‐solving assistance on a project by project basis. Managerial personnel in such companies often have a unique combination of traits including a high dependence on intuition, minimal use of quantitative skills, and a hurried work style. In order to maximise the usefulness of such projects, consultants to these companies may need to make certain accommodations to managerial style and personality throughout the process. There follow some suggested guidelines for effective work in such a situation.

Examines the adoption and strategic use of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) by small manufacturing firms. Three major issues are explored: the differences between exporting and non‐exporting firms with regard to why they adopt AMT; the differences between exporting and non‐exporting firms with regard to how they adopt AMT; and the relationship between adopting AMT and exporting to global markets. Using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), multiple comparison tests, pair‐wise comparisons, regression, correlation, and partial correlation analysis, the authors found that: exporting and non‐exporting firms adopt AMT for different reasons; exporting and non‐exporting firms adopt AMT in different ways; and there is a significant positive relationship between adopting AMT and exporting to global markets.

Drawing on Foa and Foa’s elaboration of social exchange theory, the authors propose that buyers reciprocate perceived commitment on the part of the salesperson and supplier with commitment on their own parts because of strengthening of the relationship’s tacit governance mechanism – cooperative norms.

This study uses data from 155 buyers doing business with a multinational supplier. The buyers were from firms generating less than $100,000 in billings. The salesforce of the supplier firm sponsoring the research is responsible for account management and communicating directly with buyers.

Buyers, who feel that their suppliers are providing a symbolic, long-term, particularistic benefit (commitment), respond with their own strengthened commitment to the relationship; this mutualism is explained entirely by the mediating effect of the relationship’s cooperative norms. Where buyers perceive generally favorable treatment (satisfaction), without these three qualities, their own reciprocal commitment increases directly and cooperative norms play no part. The results also demonstrate the transition of buyer perceptions of the salesperson as they develop into beliefs about the selling firm as a whole.

Drawing on the “reciprocation-in-kind” principle, supplier firms seeking long-term, open-ended commitment from their customers should cultivate it via similarly long-term and open-ended commitments of their own. Attention must be given to the unwritten, often unstated “rules of the road” for business relationships, as these rules represent the mechanism through which investments in long-term, profitable partnerships bear fruit.

The conceptual model draws on and empirically tests Foa and Foa’s framework within social exchange theory to predict what form of buyer reciprocation will result, based on the characteristics of perceived seller-provided benefits. This study illustrates that the tacit governance structure of a B2B relationship – its cooperative norms – plays a critical role in the strength of a buyer’s commitment to its supplier.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of leadership style and employee engagement (EE) as drivers of service orientation (SO). The competing models approach used in this study examines three models of influence on SO. The first model evaluates the influence of leadership on SO, the second focuses on the influence of EE on SO and the third explores the influence of leadership on SO through EE. The study provides evidence to support that the relationship between leadership styles and SO is impacted by EE. The results suggest that organizations need to develop systems and processes that focus on the employee and EE for definitive service outcomes. At a theoretical level, the paper provides a direction for further exploration of an integrated theory of leadership and engagement to drive SO in organizations.

This empirical study uses a cross-sectional descriptive design. Hierarchical regression and mediation analysis were applied to process the data that were collected from more than 400 front-line employees from five service sector organizations in the Delhi-National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) of India using validated instruments.

The results from this study reveal both direct and indirect relationships among the variables. EE emerged as a critical variable that influences SO of employees. EE partially mediates the transformational leadership style-SO relationship and also the passive-avoidant-SO relationship and it fully mediates the transactional leadership-SO relationship. While all relationships of leadership-engagement, leadership-SO and engagement-SO are significant, the mediating effects accentuate the importance of EE in organizations.

Leadership style on its own has a direct bearing on EE and SO of employees, the three associations are significantly impacted under the mediating influence of EE. With EE emerging as a critical factor, organizations need to ensure engaging behaviors are measured and enhanced throughout the employee-life-cycle including hiring, training, rewarding and managing performance. The results of the study suggest that an integrated approach of developing and inculcating leadership styles that drive EE could be the basis for leadership development programs especially in the service sector organizations.

The originality of the paper is derived from the three variables studied in the context of the sample characteristics (front-line employees, young), industry sector (across service sector) and geographical location (Delhi-NCR-India). Not many empirical studies on these variables are available from the region. The empirical evidence on the influence of EE adds weight to the growing strategic importance of EE in organizations. The research also highlights leadership and EE together influence specific employee attitudes and behavior (SO).

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership, employee engagement and service orientation, specific to the private service sector organizations in India. The paper also explores the ability of leadership style and engagement to predict service orientation in the given cross section.

The paper has used a single cross-sectional descriptive design. Purposive sampling has been used to identify respondents who are managers in the private service sector organisations in India. A valid sample size of 106 has been used for the analysis. Instruments used for perceived leadership style are as follows: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X short form); Employee Engagement E3 (DDI) and Service Orientation (Frimpong and Wilson, 2012).

Service orientation is found to be strongly correlated to employee engagement and employee engagement is a strong predictor of service orientation. The other relationships which are significant and moderately correlated are that of transformational leadership and employee engagement and also of transformational leadership and service orientation.

The study highlights the importance and significant role of leadership and employee engagement for higher service orientation in the given cross section. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques.

The research emphasizes that organizations need to focus on employee engagement as much as they focus on customers. The differential advantage to organizations will come through the employees and their behaviors towards customers. Appropriate leadership styles that drive engagement and service-oriented behaviors can be fostered in organizations to drive service performance. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques.

The research is focused in the private service sector organizations in India and data and results support the need to focus on employees for higher scores on customer parameters. The respondents are from a cross section of service organizations and, hence, emphasizing the interplay of the three variables across organizations. The paper supports the critical role of leadership and employees in creating a higher service orientation.

This paper aims to report on the findings of a study into staff perceptions of service climate in New Zealand English language centres (ELCs) offering ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses.

A 71‐item questionnaire based on a Likert scale was used to survey non‐management teaching and administrative staff about their perceptions of the climate quality in their institutions.

The paper finds that staff in New Zealand ELCs demonstrated a positive perception of the service climate quality in their institutions. Service orientation was viewed as the most positive aspect of ELC service climate. Management aspects were not so positively perceived. The least positively‐perceived aspect of the service climate was resourcing. Significant differences in climate perceptions were identified among staff sub‐groups, and between staff in different ELC types.

The limitations of convenience samples are acknowledged. Further research is advocated into management and administrative aspects of ELCs operating in the private sector, as well as into the operation of other educational institutions in a commercial environment.

The paper shows that ELCs are doing well in terms of “soft” service management areas, e.g. service orientation and client focus, but need to pay more attention to the “hard” areas such as resourcing and basic management competencies.

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) administration and management is a highly under‐researched area. This is one of the few pieces of empirical research in this sector, and thus represents a unique contribution to the literature. The findings will be of interest to anyone working and/or researching in the area of ELC/ESOL management, or in the area of private education provision.

Trust is an important facilitator of successful B2B relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate affect-based antecedents of both interpersonal and interorganizational trust, and their impact on the performance of buyer–supplier relationships. The authors ask two research questions: (1) What are affect-based dimensions of interpersonal and interorganizational trust? (2) How do interpersonal and interorganizational trust influence buyers’ operational performance?

The authors use data from an original survey of 156 buyer–supplier relationships between multinational enterprise subsidiaries and local suppliers in the Thai manufacturing sector to develop a structural model in which the authors test the hypotheses.

Consistent with social exchange theory and social psychology, the empirical analysis shows that affect-based dimensions at the individual level, namely, likeability, similarity and frequent social contact, and at the organizational level, namely, supplier firm willingness to customize and institutionalization of cooperation, are important for establishing trust. In addition, interpersonal trust enhances buyers’ operational performance indirectly via interorganizational trust.

Buying and selling firms may develop organizational trust by developing processes that enhance organizational trust. Individuals with purchasing or sales responsibilities may enhance trust in their personal relationship. However, such interpersonal trust needs to be translated to the organizational level to benefit organizational performance.

The findings contribute to the literature on affect-based antecedents and outcomes of trust. Specifically, the authors offer theory and empirical evidence regarding the contribution of salespersons toward affect-based dimensions of trust and its impact on buyer’s operational performance.