Search results

Many managers wrongly think of business process reengineering only in terms of automating paperwork to cut costs and headcount. But the methodology can also be used to create sets of superior business processes that together produce unique goods and services their customers value highly. In the following cases the companies have achieved important competitive advantage because their customer‐serving processes—and all the business processes sub‐routines—are seen as the means

The purpose of this paper is to understand the growing phenomenon of brand placements in the Indian movie industry. The study goes further to compare the incidence and the nature of brands placed within movies for the same time period.

A content analysis of 106 successful Bollywood movies between 1997 and 1999 was conducted and the incidence of brand placements within them and the execution style adopted were documented. Analysis of the brand appearances in 110 Hollywood movies was carried out and the volume of placements, kind of brands placed and the movie genre in which they were found was noted.

In‐film placements of entertainment and automobile brands were found to be highly prevalent in Indian movies. Showing the usage of the brand was the most common style of execution. The volume of in‐film placements in Hollywood movies was found to be far higher than that in Indian movies.

This study being exploratory in nature has the inherent limitation of generalizability of the results.

This paper provides implications for marketing managers and movie producers employing this form of communication.

This study is one of the first to systematically record, analyse and compare the occurrence and the execution of brand placements in Indian movies in a non‐US context and compare and contrast the placement practices of these two movie industries.

Digital solutions (DS) that build on recurring revenue models (RRMs) offer new opportunities to continuously create and capture superior value. However, many firms fail to engage their sales force in digital solution selling (DS selling), leading to agency problems that receive little attention in literature. This study aims to examine the drivers of agency problems that surface in the transition toward DS selling and the sales control systems that resolve these problems.

The authors conducted a qualitative, inductive study. Data were collected from interviews with 72 marketing and sales managers representing 53 industrial firms transitioning toward DS selling.

DS selling is subject to adverse selection and moral hazard caused by motivation-related, opportunity-related and ability-related drivers. Input, capability, activity and outcome controls – detailed in this study – can resolve these agency problems.

The limitations of this study’s methodology and scope suggest several directions for future research. Methodology-wise, the authors mainly relied on cross-sectional interview data from informants in Central and Northern Europe. Scope-wise, more research is needed on the capabilities, processes and steering instruments supporting DS sales. Finally, only now do the authors begin to understand which compensation plans motivate DS selling.

The controls identified in this study help managers to steer their sales force in DS sales.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate DS sales control systems. Thereby, the authors enhance prior understandings of solution selling, agency problems and sales control systems.