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on Marketing |
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Issue of 2008‒01‒12
thirteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Ehab M. Abou Aish (Faculty of Management Technology, The German University in Cairo); Wael A. Kortam (Cairo University, Cairo - Egypt); Salah S. Hassan (George Washington University, USA) |
| Abstract: | Understanding switching behavior is a cornerstone in sustaining customer led marketing efforts especially in services which depend on long-term relationships with the customers and where the switching process is compound and costly for both the customer and the service provider. The issue of understanding the motives and barriers behind agency-brand switching behavior still needs further conceptual support and empirical investigation in service industries context, where the emphasis placed on investigating the actual switching motives without trying to conceptualize the issue, which if done will result in better understanding for the whole switching process. In this paper, the authors attempt to bridge this gap in the literature by examining the criterion validity of the switching behavior model using the agency theory, as the relation between the business company (principle) and an Advertising agency (the agent) could be described as agency relationship. Furthermore, this approach helps in supporting the efforts for retaining the business-to-business customers, strengthening the relationship with them, developing and adopting globally integrated customer led strategies in different countries, a trend which is expected to dominate the marketing field in the future due to the increasing role of the agency brand selection and switching in today’s world markets. |
| Keywords: | Brand switching, agency theory, business to business marketing, service marketing, international advertising research |
| JEL: | M31 M37 L82 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:guc:wpaper:6&r=mkt |
| By: | Sergio Marchesini (Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna); Huliyeti Hasimu (Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna); Maurizio Canavari (Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna); Alessandro Farneti (Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | China’s economy has grown at an impressive rate after the integration into the global trading system (WTO) in 2001, a major turning point in the Chinese economic history. The opening policy has increased business opportunities for both local and foreign operators; however, in spite of the great appeal of such cooperation, many obstacles yet exist: language, culture, education, business practices, and industrial development. Food products supply and access to the market are mastered by a relatively small group of businessmen: international buyers, purchasing agents, retailers and representatives of large-scale distribution chains. The perception they have of a potential source country is a key factor for a successful market approach. The present study aims at understanding the attitudes of distribution practitioners in the Chinese market towards imported Italian quality wine, as well as the current communication, marketing, strategic and organizational advantages or deficiencies of Italian producers, compared to other European counterparts. The primary data were collected through personal interviews with key informants in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Such information has been completed with an analysis of the existing literature, meetings with sector operators as well as with talks and presentations of experts attending the “International Workshop on Chinese Wine Market”, held in Beijing on August 8-10, 2007. The interviews have been administered as conversation-like dialogues, on the base of a semi-structured interview outline, providing also the framework for a qualitative content analysis. This paper is aimed at giving an insight on import and distribution of Italian wine in China, highlighting both positive and negative feedbacks on the effectiveness of marketing strategies of Italian wine trading companies. |
| Keywords: | wine, international trade, distribution, China, "Made in Italy" |
| JEL: | Q13 Q17 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bag:deiawp:7003&r=mkt |
| By: | Dirk Engelmann (Royal Holloway, University of London); Dorothea Kübler (Technical University Berlin and IZA) |
| Abstract: | In order to address the impact of regulation on ethical concerns of consumers, we study the effect of a minimum wage. In our experimental market, consumers have monopsony power, firms engage in Bertrand competition, and workers are passive recipients of a wage payment. Two treatments are employed, one with no minimum wage in the first part but with a minimum wage in the second part, and one treatment with a minimum wage at the outset that is abolished in the second part. In both treatments, wages decrease over time in the first part even though some consumers show an interest in fair wages. If a minimum wage is in place, wages decline even faster. Introducing a minimum wage in a mature market raises average wages, while abolishing it lowers them. We discuss the implications of our results, such as the crowding out of ethical behavior through legal regulation. |
| Keywords: | fairness, crowding out, consumer behavior, minimum wage, experimental economics |
| JEL: | C91 J88 K31 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3266&r=mkt |
| By: | Bernardita Vial (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze a reputation-based mechanism that sustains the provision of high quality in a market for an experience good. In contrast to existing models of reputation, however, we consider a competitive market: there is a continuum of firms, each serving at most one consumer each period. We assume a perpetual probability of type replacement and imperfect public monitoring, and we analyze the evolution of firms' reputations in the high quality equilibrium. We find that there is an invariant long run distribution of firms' reputations: each firm's reputation changes every period even in the long run, but the population distribution of reputations remains constant. We consider the long run distribution of firms' reputations to further characterize the steady-state high quality equilibrium. In the equilibrium of the stage game firms with a higher reputation charge a higher price. Furthermore, we show that if the cost of high quality is decreasing in some consumer's characteristic, then buyers pay personalized prices in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | reputation, incomplete information, perfect competition, general equilibrium |
| JEL: | C70 D80 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:327&r=mkt |
| By: | Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (University of Groningen and CESifo); Zsolt Sandor (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Matthijs R. Wildenbeest (Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University Kelley School of Business) |
| Abstract: | We study a consumer non-sequential search oligopoly model with search cost heterogeneity. We first prove that an equilibrium in mixed strategies always exists. We then examine the nonparametric identification and estimation of the costs of search. We find that the sequence of points on the support of the search cost distribution that can be identified is convergent to zero as the number of firms increases. As a result, when the econometrician has price data from only one market, the search cost distribution cannot be identified accurately at quantiles other than the lowest. To solve this pitfall, we propose to consider a richer framework where the researcher has price data from many markets with the same underlying search cost distribution. We provide conditions under which pooling the data allows for the identification of the search cost distribution at all the points of its support. We estimate the search cost density function directly by a semi-nonparametric density estimator whose parameters are chosen to maximize the joint likelihood corresponding to all the markets. A Monte Carlo study shows the advantages of the new approach and an application using a data set of online prices for memory chips is presented. |
| Keywords: | consumer search, oligopoly, search costs, semi-nonparametric estimation |
| JEL: | C14 D43 D83 L13 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iuk:wpaper:2007-20&r=mkt |
| By: | Gerardo Marletto |
| Abstract: | In recent years crossing the Alps has become a central issue in transport policy. The constant increase in global transport flow has contributed to bringing two distinct objectives to the centre of attention: making transalpine transportation of goods easier and reducing the negative impact of this on the alpine environment. The debates and disagreements on the subject are often bad-tempered, and are evidence of the lack of communication between the interested parties. This is also due to the existence of three distinct transport policy options: territiorial competition, sustainable development and de-growth. The different positions taken by the various parties are more understandable when one is aware of these options, and this awareness could assist the parties in making the necessary decisions, which all those involved recognise are important. |
| Keywords: | Transport policy; Alps; Territorial marketing; Sustainibility; De-growth |
| JEL: | R49 Q01 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200712&r=mkt |
| By: | Higgins, David; Toms, Steven; Filatotchev, Igor |
| Abstract: | The paper reinterprets Keynes’s analysis of the crisis in the Lancashire cotton industry in the 1920s. It presents empirical evidence showing that syndicates of local shareholders, but not the banks, were an important brake on firms exiting, at a time when exit barriers were otherwise unproblematic in this competitive industry. Moreover, syndicates milked firms of any profits through dividends, thereby limiting reinvestment and re-equipment possibilities. The case shows that where laissez-faire fails in response to a crisis, the associated response may need to assess both ownership structure and its relationship to competitive industry structure. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrc:ymswp1:29&r=mkt |
| By: | Haynes, Kathryn; Fearful, Anne |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the gendered identities of women academics in accounting and management academia. Drawing upon autoethnographical detail, we reflect upon the complexities of identities as they are constructed, developed, experienced and understood both by ourselves and others. By presenting several short autobiographical vignettes, we examine perceptions of the gendered identity of women in academia as caring, ‘motherly’ and nurturing, and we demonstrate attempts to exploit so-called ‘natural’ feminine, mothering traits as a means of fulfilling the pastoral and administrative components of universities. In considering such stereotypes, we address examples of their selffulfilment, whilst considering how academic structures and practices also impose such distinctions. We consider negative implications for the career success of women academics in the ‘real business’ of academia, typified by research, publications and academic networking, arguing that until these stereotypes are challenged, women academics will continue to be disadvantaged within academic institutions. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrc:ymswp1:31&r=mkt |
| By: | Antcliff, V.; Higgins, David; Toms, Steven; Wilson, J.F. |
| Abstract: | There has been considerable and ongoing debate about the performance of the British economy since 1945. Empirical studies have concentrated on aggregate or industry level indicators. Few have examined individual firms’ financial performance. This study takes a sample of c.3000 firms in 19 industries and identifies Britain’s best performing companies over a period of 35 years. Successful companies are defined as a) those that survive as independent entities, b) that outperform peer group average return to capital for that industry, and c) that outperform other firms in the economy according to return on capital relative to industry average. Results are presented as league tables of success and some tentative explanations offered concerning the common strategies of successful firms. A broader research agenda for British business history is suggested. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrc:ymswp1:36&r=mkt |
| By: | Moschini, GianCarlo; Menapace, Luisa; Pick, Daniel |
| Abstract: | The economics of geographical indications (GIs) is assessed within a vertical product differentiation framework that is consistent with the competitive structure of the agricultural sector with free entry/exit. It is assumed that certification costs are needed for GIs to serve as (collective) credible quality certification devices, and production of high-quality product is endogenously determined. We find that GIs can support a competitive provision of quality that partly overcomes the market failure and leads to clear welfare gains, although they fall short of delivering the (constrained) first-best level of the high-quality good. The main beneficiaries of the welfare gains are consumers. Producers may also accrue some benefit if the production of high-quality products draws on scarce factors that they own. |
| Keywords: | competitive industry; free entry/exit; geographical indications; Marshallian stability; quality certification; trademarks; welfare. |
| Date: | 2008–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12858&r=mkt |
| By: | Wood, Martin; Ladkin, Donna |
| Abstract: | Theory purporting to identify leadership remains over-determined by one of two underlying fallacies. Traditionally, it hypostatizes leadership in psychological terms so that it appears as the collection of attributes belonging to an independent, discrete person. By contrast, contemporary perspectives approach leadership by focusing on the intermediary relations between leaders and followers. We retreat from both of these conceptions. Our approach perceives these terms as continuous within each other and not merely as adjacent individuals. The upshot is that leadership should be understood as a more fundamental type of relatedness, one that is glimpsed in the active process we are here calling events. We suggest further work consistent with these ideas offers an innovative and useful line of inquiry, both by extending our theoretical understanding of leadership, but also because of the empirical challenges such a study invites. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrc:ymswp1:37&r=mkt |
| By: | Hasan, Lubna Hasan |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the concept of city ranking as a way to measure dynamics and complexities of urban life. These rankings have various dimensions and uses. Both the context in which these rankings are done, and their nature has changed considerably overtime. These rankings are also afflicted with many methodological and measurement problems. A review of major city rankings and related literature is carried out to suggest a framework for measuring Pakistani cities. |
| Keywords: | Quality of Life; Cities; Urbanization |
| JEL: | R1 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6619&r=mkt |
| By: | Lau, Evan; Puah, Chin-Hong; Oh, Swee-Ling; Lo, Yan-Ching |
| Abstract: | The study of various spatial price relationships is indeed crucial and has been greatly sought after. Likewise, this study is rather a debatable topic these days especially towards the pricing activity and competitiveness within the pepper industry. Evidence from six markets within Sarawak had found that a long run relationship between the pepper markets does actually exist. And using the MWALD test though, findings revealed that the white pepper prices do Granger cause the black pepper prices in all divisions. However, there is no indication of causality that runs from the black pepper towards the white pepper. In other words, white pepper does affect the black pepper, but not the other way around. Due to the integration within the pepper industry, thus, excess profit making opportunity will not be made beneficial as the pepper markets are efficient. |
| Keywords: | Pepper markets; Granger Causality; Spatial Price; Sarawak |
| JEL: | Q1 Q13 Q0 |
| Date: | 2008–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6552&r=mkt |