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The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the Hierarchy of Effects – a model that has been widely applied in the study of persuasion in traditional communications media – to evaluate Website effectiveness. In particular, this contribution seeks to consider a more complete model in order to evaluate the responses of the individuals to the Websites, incorporating new variables to the traditional sequence; and to study the moderating effect of the specific characteristics of the audience – the individual user's motivations in terms of Internet access in the basic structure of this model.

The multi‐equations methodology is used to test the sequence of responses that produce the visit to an experimental Website: the perceived informative value and the perceived entertainment value of a Website, the attitude toward the Website, the attitude toward the brand and the intention to buy the brand for two different individual groups: the “information seekers” and “entertainment seekers”.

The results reveal two well differentiated positive models of behavior in the online context.

In their Website strategies, the organizations should not neglect those aspects which may arouse emotional reactions in the Internet users, but they should pay more attention to generated informative value to obtain more favorable users' responses.

Previous studies had not tested empirically the moderating effects of the users' motivations in terms of Internet access (search for information versus entertainment) over this original and more complete structure of individuals' responses to the Website.

While a vast number of studies have pointed out the keys of relationship marketing practices in consumer markets, little attention has been paid to the value the organization can get from such strategies. The literature provides relatively little support for the effectiveness of relationship marketing programs. The purpose of this research is to produce some evidence of the association between customer relationship marketing strategies and the market and economic performance of the firm.

The proposed hypotheses are tested in the case of car repair and maintenance services, as a case where long‐term relationships are frequent. The hypotheses were evaluated using a path analysis, which associates relationship marketing activities with market performance (customers' perceptions, market position and loyalty) and market performance with economic performance.

The findings suggest that the effect of attraction and loyalty programs is greater on market performance than on economic performance. Furthermore, the results show that attracting customers through a good service quality and reaching a good position in the market have greater impact on economic results than loyalty.

As a managerial implication, the authors suggest that service providers should put their efforts on improving quality rather than on promotion, advertising or economic bonus to customers.

This article realizes the importance of product and service quality rather than promotions, advertising or economic bonuses in retaining customer loyalty.

This paper aims to examine whether order and scale of market entry influence a new product's market and financial performance, and how marketing and R&D resources strengthen or weaken these effects.

Through a mail survey, data were collected on a sample of 136 product launches by Spanish manufacturing firms. A moderated hierarchical regression analysis enabled the assessment of the relevance of order and scale as well as their interactions with marketing and R&D resources to explain a product's competitive position. Moreover, a mediation analysis allowed us to determine whether market entry strategy (indirectly) affects financial performance.

The analyses show that pioneering firms and those entering the market with a full‐scale launch achieve advantages in terms of competitive position, and that this variable mediates the relationship of order and scale with profitability. The empirical results also reveal that such advantages are conditioned by the availability of marketing and R&D resources.

The decisions regarding order and scale of market entry are contingent. Managers involved in the planning of a new product launch should be knowledgeable about their firm's resources and capabilities before determining when and how to enter the market.

Many papers study the effects of order‐of‐entry on market share, but other dimensions of a new product launch strategy, such as scale, have largely been ignored. The research examines the effects of both variables on competitive position and profitability. This is also one of the first studies that explores the moderating effect exerted by resources and capabilities in the launch strategy‐performance relationship.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the behavioral and affective loyalty of retailer customers in order to establish the role played by loyalty programs in the development of these variables.

Research data were taken from a survey carried out on 750 customers from a Spanish supermarket chain. Several ANOVAs are employed to compare the two loyalty dimensions among participants and non participants in loyalty programs.

The results show that participants in loyalty programs are more behavioral and affectively loyal than non participants. Nevertheless, most customers do not change purchase behavior after joining a loyalty program. The strategy is therefore to retain loyal customers and to achieve the reinforcement of affective bonds linking the customer to the retailer.

Companies should focus their efforts on developing a reward plan as adapted as possible to concrete needs of each participant in the program to achieve true loyalty.

The main contribution of this paper is the completion of an exhaustive analysis of customer loyalty. On the one hand, it is a pioneer in the study of the influence of loyalty programs on affective loyalty and, on the other hand, it confirms results from other researches on behavioral loyalty of program participants. In addition, this is one of the few papers developed in this field using the survey as a source of information.

The goal of this paper is to analyze industrial buying behavior. First, the paper reviews the previous work on the relation between the participation, influence, characteristics of the purchase situation, individuals and organizational structure. Among purchase situation conditions frequently mentioned are: novelty, product complexity, buying situation complexity, buying importance, time pressure and perceived risk associated with the purchase. With respect to individual characteristics, the paper includes personal stake and level of experience. Finally, the paper considers the set of variables which characterizes the company's organizational structure and try to determine if the influence of the different functional areas of the firm in the buying center, and the participation of individuals and the composition of it, vary significantly according to the stage of the buying decision‐making process. The paper subsequently tests the explanatory power of these variables for a sample of Spanish industrial firms.

It has been noted in the literature on inter‐organisational relationships that long‐term cooperation is more effective in a business environment characterised by interdependence, commitment and trust. However, there is not enough knowledge about the effect of interdependence in different trust contexts. This paper draws on several theoretical contributions to examine the interaction of economic and social factors as determinants of industrial buyer‐seller relationships. In order to test the proposed hypotheses information was collected relating to supplier‐manufacturer relationships in the automotive industry. As expected, the empirical results indicate that trust moderates the effect of interdependence on the relational orientation of the exchange in that it enhances the relational orientation perceived by both manufacturer and supplier. A discrepancy was also found between suppliers’ and manufacturers’ relationship perceptions. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are also discussed.

The purpose of this article is to present a model that compares the switching costs that consumers face when they buy pioneering and follower products.

A study of 255 new products indicates that switching costs are actually higher when switching from an existing product to a pioneering product.

The study shows that people who buy a pioneering product may also face switching costs, if the pioneering product is launched in an existing category where consumers are already familiar with similar products.

The results help to reinforce the view that first movers have advantages and demonstrate that switching costs do not lead to a higher level of consumer retention.

This study provides interesting managerial implications on how to launch new products more effectively when they suffer from switching costs..

Researchers commonly view switching costs as a barrier to market entry that protects enterprises that launch pioneering products and gives them a competitive advantage over those that launch follower products. The underlying idea is that people only experience switching costs when they change to a different follower product, rather than when they purchase a pioneering product instead of the product that they usually purchase.

This paper investigates if and how entrepreneurs' social capital influences their individual entrepreneurial orientation attributes (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking).

The research method adopted is an exploratory multiple case study. The case chosen is that of an emerging and under-examined entrepreneur, the religious entrepreneur. The study investigates 20 pastors responsible for small enterprise-churches in Brazil.

Social capital influences individual entrepreneurial orientation, being characterized by a relative paradox. The networks must be dense enough to stimulate entrepreneurs' individual entrepreneurial orientation but not be so dense as to harm innovativeness, proactivity and risk-taking. Further, data show that individual entrepreneurial orientation influences social capital.

One limitation relates to the semi-structured interviews' restricted use. A second limitation is associated with the recognition of churches only as productive enterprises.

This article suggests the significance of incorporating both themes in entrepreneurial education and training programs. It also stresses the appropriateness of religious entrepreneurship as an empirical research field for business scholars.

The contributions are fivefold. First, the authors build exploratory theoretical propositions on the influence of social capital on individual entrepreneurial orientation. Second, they highlight the significance of dense networks for individual entrepreneurial orientation, expanding the literature that supports the relevance of cohesive networks solely to the construct's organizational dimension. Third, the authors suggest that a relative paradox may characterize individual entrepreneurial orientation. Fourth, the authors suggest the existence of recursion between both constructs. Finally, this study is one of the first to examine social capital and individual entrepreneurial orientation, considering innovativeness, proactivity, and risk-taking, which represents a neglected field in benchmarking studies.