This paper aims to improve marketing managers’ use of information from sales. The authors propose and empirically test the link between cross-functional trust and marketing’s use…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to improve marketing managers’ use of information from sales. The authors propose and empirically test the link between cross-functional trust and marketing’s use of information from sales, and whether this effect is contingent on marketing’s power within the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 338 large-scale Hungarian firms. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap procedures were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The effect of cross-functional trust on marketing managers’ use of sales information is fully mediated by sales–marketing integration and marketing’s perception of information quality. However, the power of marketing within the firm moderates this mediating relationship.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides empirical evidence concerning the mediating mechanisms of transferring cross-functional trust to marketing’s successful use of information from sales. The findings imply that cross-functional trust can improve marketing managers’ use of sales information of firms with powerful marketing units by facilitating integration, whereas it can improve the use of sales information of firms with low marketing power by improving marketing managers’ perception of information quality from sales.
Originality/value
This is the first study that models and empirically investigates marketing managers’ use of information collected by sales. The current study conceptually links and advances extant knowledge on the literatures on the sales–marketing interface and utilization of market information at the individual level and increases the understanding of how cross-functional trust contributes to information use under different contingencies of marketing power.
Details
Keywords
Arch G. Woodside and Wim G. Biemans
Seeks to advocate adopting the comparative case study method and system dynamics modeling to inform theory and to prescribe executive actions for successfully managing new…
Abstract
Purpose
Seeks to advocate adopting the comparative case study method and system dynamics modeling to inform theory and to prescribe executive actions for successfully managing new products built using radically new technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Reviews NPD theory and research on the dynamic processes including feedback loops and the hidden demons (hard to identify weak linkages that have large downstream impacts) in radically new innovation, manufacturing, diffusion and adoption/rejection processes; examines the IMDAR process model (innovation‐manufacturing‐diffusion‐adoption/rejection) of new products.
Findings
Several alternative routes of tacit and explicit interorganizational behaviors and decisions lead to NPD successes and failures; while executives believe surveys identifying specific factors are important particularly for NPD success, none of these factors is necessary or sufficient by itself for explaining success – specific cases of NPD success occur in the absence of any one of the identified success factors – embracing a system dynamics rather than a main effects view of NPD success and failure provides solid grounding for useful theory and practice in NPD.
Research limitations/implications
Does not provide an empirical comparison between cross‐sectional data‐based modelling versus system dynamics analysis. Business and industrial marketing research that embraces complexity and examines decision and actions over multiple time periods is still in its infancy.
Practical implications
Most successful companies suffer from their success: they fail to remain watchful, mindful, and active with regard to new technological developments that seemingly have minor relationships to their industries.
Originality/value
This paper offers a theory‐of‐the‐firm system dynamics approach to inform new product executives to think beyond check‐lists and embrace multiple‐path thinking.
Details
Keywords
Arch G. Woodside and Wim Biemans
Seeks to introduce a JBIM special issue of articles that moves the innovation‐diffusion‐adoption (IDA) literature beyond identifying key success factors to thick descriptions of…
Abstract
Purpose
Seeks to introduce a JBIM special issue of articles that moves the innovation‐diffusion‐adoption (IDA) literature beyond identifying key success factors to thick descriptions of the dynamics of human interactions and the enactment of decisions‐events‐outcomes using multiple rounds of informant‐researcher interpretations.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopts the view that informants' views as to what is happening, why it is happening, and the consequences of what is happening often go through a series of revisions depending on when the informant data are collected.
Findings
Individuals successful in guiding IDA processes exhibit great adaptability in going around and through road‐blocks that they encounter over the months and years from innovation to market success. Informants in second and third interviews provide critical information on process nuances that go unreported in single‐meeting interviews.
Research limitations/implications
Specific case studies are absent of how executives might use such process data to revise their sense‐making and improve decisions based on insights that become available only through such explicit retrospection. The implication is that this special issue is a stepping‐stone from cross‐sectional survey research to system dynamics research with hands‐on participation by executives.
Practical implications
Now one should get real, describe, understand, and play inside IDA processes in real‐time with executives and researchers working together via multiple meetings using system dynamics research tools.
Originality/value
For IDA research this special issue calls for embracing a revolution ending the dominance of closed‐end self‐completed survey data to using multiple‐rounds of face‐to‐face interviews and direct observations with informant revisions of findings.
Details
Keywords
Examines the central proposition that the marketing‐purchasing ofnew industrial manufacturing technologies involves the development (notnecessarily a planned design) of a new…
Abstract
Examines the central proposition that the marketing‐purchasing of new industrial manufacturing technologies involves the development (not necessarily a planned design) of a new network of relationships within and across enterprises. Presents the results of a detailed case study on the adoption by manufacturers of a new technology, electric motor drives, to illustrate research on new‐technology network anatomy. The results include additional evidence to the work of Wim G. Biemans on the importance of research on lateral relationships in testing and gaining approval for transforming an enterprise from an old to a proven, better, new manufacturing technology.
Details
Keywords
Christopher Lettl and Hans Georg Gemünden
To provide first insights into under which conditions innovative users start entrepreneurial activities and finally become manufacturers themselves.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide first insights into under which conditions innovative users start entrepreneurial activities and finally become manufacturers themselves.
Design/methodology/approach
Concrete innovation projects were chosen as the unit of analysis and a multi‐case comparison methodology was applied. In‐depth interviews on the basis of a semi‐structured interview guideline were conducted. Furthermore, archival data were used. A rigorous content analysis framework was applied to analyse the collected data.
Findings
Those users that were the original investors in the innovations established and organized the required innovation networks. A high problem pressure, an active role of users in the idea generation phase, a high degree of innovativeness of the prospective product, and missing competencies as well as missing resources explain the entrepreneurial role of users.
Research limitations/implications
For the empirical study the focus was on the industry of medical equipment technology. This raises questions with respect to the generalizability of the results. Further research in other industries is needed to cross‐validate the results.
Practical implications
One important implication for corporate practice is to systematically identify and leverage entrepreneurial users for their innovation work. Thus, parts of the R&D and marketing function can be outsourced.
Originality/value
A new role for users in the innovation process is identified and an explanatory framework provided to better understand antecedents of this phenomenon.
Details
Keywords
Research into new product development (NPD) has grown steadily over the last couple of decades. The current body of NPD research displays a distinct methodological bias and…
Abstract
Research into new product development (NPD) has grown steadily over the last couple of decades. The current body of NPD research displays a distinct methodological bias and consists mostly of either large‐scale quantitative questionnaires or small qualitative investigations that are often anecdotal. But a closer look at NPD practice reveals that NPD research needs to re‐invent itself by using more complex research designs and addressing new research questions that look at complex NPD issues in a broad organizational context. This paper argues that the reality of NPD practice requires a methodological make‐over of NPD research, with more emphasis on interpretive research methods and complex multi‐informant/multi‐organization research designs. Such improved NPD research leads to richer results that significantly advance our understanding of NPD and close the gap between NPD research and practice.
Details
Keywords
Wim G. Biemans and Maja Makovec Brenčič
This paper explores the marketing‐sales interface in Dutch and Slovenian B2B firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the marketing‐sales interface in Dutch and Slovenian B2B firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included 11 Dutch firms and ten Slovenian firms, with both samples as closely matched as possible. The firms were all manufacturers of physical products that operate internationally, but varied in terms of size and industry. Personal interviews with respondents from both marketing and sales were conducted, followed by interviews of a semi‐structured format.
Findings
In some firms it was difficult to identify the marketing‐sales interface. For instance, in small firms marketing and sales would frequently be combined in one individual.
Research limitations/implications
Since the paper is based on an exploratory investigation of 11 Dutch firms and ten Slovenian firms, the findings are only indicative. Follow‐up research might investigate a larger sample, different industries or different economic contexts. In addition, future research might study the relationship between marketing as an organisational capability and marketing as an organisational function or the development of scales to measure various aspects of the marketing‐sales interface.
Practical implications
The findings emphasize the role of developing an effective marketing‐sales interface in becoming a truly market‐oriented organisation. Thus, they can help managers to evaluate their own marketing‐sales interface and look for improvements as part of becoming more market oriented.
Originality/value
The findings describe how the marketing‐sales interface is organised and managed in B2B firms operating in different contexts. It positions the marketing‐sales interface as just part of a market‐oriented organisation. The findings help academics to understand the functioning of a marketing‐sales interface and assist managers in evaluating their own marketing‐sales interface and develop ways to improve it.
Details
Keywords
Wim G. Biemans and Hanne Harmsen
Discusses the concept of market‐oriented product development anddescribes the extent to which a number of Danish food companies andDutch manufacturers of medical equipment were…
Abstract
Discusses the concept of market‐oriented product development and describes the extent to which a number of Danish food companies and Dutch manufacturers of medical equipment were market oriented in developing new products. The results are combined with the current product development literature to identify the major barriers that prevent managers from capitalizing on existing normative results regarding market‐oriented product development. Concludes with major implications for both researchers and practitioners.
Details
Keywords
Arch G. Woodside, Hugh M. Pattinson and Kenneth E. Miller
The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how participants…
Abstract
Purpose
The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how participants interpret outcomes of what happened and the dynamics of emic (executive) and etic (researcher) sense‐making.
Design/methodology/approach
This article uses a mixed research design including decision systems analysis, cognitive mapping, computer software‐based text analysis, and the long interview method for mapping the mental models of the participants in specific decision‐making processes as well as mapping the immediate, feedback, and downstream influences of decisions‐actions‐outcomes.
Findings
The findings in the empirical study support the view that decision processes are prospective, introspective, and retrospective, sporadically rational, ultimately affective, and altogether imaginatively unbounded.
Research limitations/implications
Not using outside auditors to evaluate post‐etic interpretations is recognized as a method limitation to the extended case study; such outside auditor reports represent an etic‐4 level of interpretation. Incorporating such etic‐4 interpretation is one suggestion for further research.
Practical implications
Asking executives for in‐depth stories about what happened and why helps them reflect and uncover very subtle nuances of what went right and what went wrong.
Originality/value
A series advanced hermeneutic B2B research reports of a specific issue (e.g., new product innovation processes) provides an advance for developing a grounded theory of what happened and why it happened. Such a large‐scale research effort enables more rigorous, accurate and useful generalizations of decision making on a specific issue than is found in literature reviews of models of complex systems.
Details
Keywords
Alex R. Zablah, Wesley J. Johnston and Danny N. Bellenger
To develop and propose a conceptual model that explains why downstream channel members (e.g. retailers) are likely to adopt or resist the implementation of emerging partner…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop and propose a conceptual model that explains why downstream channel members (e.g. retailers) are likely to adopt or resist the implementation of emerging partner relationship management (PRM) technologies by their channel counterparts (i.e. suppliers).
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is grounded in organizational innovation theory and utilizes select case examples to support posited relationships.
Findings
Resellers' level of commitment to new PRM tools deployed by suppliers is likely to be driven by their perception of the technology's impact on the equity (i.e. fairness) and efficiency (i.e. cost) of existing channel relationships. In turn, resellers' perceptions about the equity and efficiency implications of PRM technology adoption are expected to be influenced by several factors, including: environmental factors, suppliers' choice of influence strategies and the characteristics of the exchange relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Aside from offering several testable propositions, the paper also raises various questions that are worthy of investigation, such as: To what extent (if at all) do boundary‐spanning technologies alter the basic nature of channel relationships? Can the deployment of PRM tools simultaneously lead to both greater channel conflict and coordination? Do differences in reseller commitment result when different implementation partners (i.e. third‐party software firms) handle the deployment of the technology across geographic regions?
Originality/value
The paper builds on the inter‐organizational concepts of equity and efficiency to offer a new perspective on the adoption of boundary‐spanning technologies in a channel setting.