This is a dissertation (consisting of two volumes) dealing with industrial marketing change processes. The study explores a key theoretical and practical problem in industrial marketing; how to create major organizational marketing change in large and complex industrial companies. The study focuses on the interplay between longitudinal, strategic changes in marketing operations and the moving contexts in which they emerge. On theoretical and empirical grounds a number of perspectives on industrial marketing change processes become apparent. In the analysis of a set of focal marketing change episodes, several structural-contextual and temporal focuses are featured. Marketing change episodes are viewed as embedded in a set of concurrent change processes. They are also part of marketing system transitions, building on, while breaking with, the structures of prior changes, moving towards new states of functioning. Marketing change episodes are also viewed as embedded in more long-term, historical processes of change. Putting in focus the industrial marketing change processes, the study embraces the idea of an inseparable relationship between change and stability. The study of the dynamic interplay between marketing change agency and moving contexts concludes with a set of theoretical and managerial issues. The empirical part of the study describes a set of marketing organization changes in Pharmacia Biotech AB between 1989 and 1993. These reorganization processes are the focus of a historical study of the company covering the period 1959-1995, including a prologue starting in the 1930s. This volume complements a separate case study volume entitled "The Emergence and Change of Pharmacia Biotech 1959-1995 - The Power of the Slow Flow and the Drama of Great Events". / Utgör jämte författarens: The emergence and change of Pharmacia Biotech 1959-1995 diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2002.

This thesis aims to answer the research question of how an industrial retailer’s level of channel integration can be evaluated and improved. A conceptual model is developed and applied in a case study context of the shop channel of a large international industrial distributor of maintenance, repair and operations goods. Marketing channel integration is proven to improve customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer expenditure - despite these benefits, there does not exist any evaluation method that helps researchers or practitioners determine the level of channel integration of an industrial retail channel. The case study follows a mixed method approach and uses qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 11 managers and 24 employees, as well as quantitative data from a management survey with 26 respondents. Using the conceptual model the shop channel of the German parent company was rated at a multi-channel level of integration and the Dutch shop channel at a multiple channel level of integration. Any improvement to the level of channel integration of an industrial retail channel depends on the understanding of and commitment to the integrated channel strategy by the shop management.

Programas de incentivos são um conjunto de benefícios oferecidos por fornecedores a distribuidores conforme distribuidores alcançam objetivos estabelecidos pelos fornecedores. Os incentivos em canais são utilizados para alocar recursos e alinhar interesses. Apesar do seu amplo uso pelas empresas, estes programas carecem de uma análise teórica mais profunda. Esta tese buscou entender como são compostos os programas de incentivo em canais de distribuição e também propor um método para sua construção. São feitas proposições teóricas que combinam diferentes linhas e os colocam como compostos por quatro principais variáveis, sendo o conjunto de metas de desempenho pedidas aos canais, os benefícios oferecidos, a presença de exclusividade no relacionamento entre distribuidor e fornecedor, e finalmente, o nível de formalização alcançado no relacionamento. Além disso, a caracterização dessas variáveis é sugerida como dependente da distribuição de poder entre fabricante e distribuidor. Foi utilizado o método de estudos de casos múltiplos com a inserção do estudo comparativo entre Brasil e EUA. Foram selecionadas três empresas no Brasil e as mesmas três nos EUA no setor de defensivos agrícolas e seus programas de incentivo em canais foram compreendidos e comparados, com o uso de análise documental e entrevistas pessoais. Por fim, a tese faz uso dos conceitos teóricos de diversas linhas em canais de distribuição e dos estudos de caso para propor uma seqüência de etapas para a elaboração de um programa de incentivos em canais. As etapas sugeridas são análise externa e da rede, definição da estratégia de valor, metas de desempenho, benefícios e gestão de canais especiais. / Incentive programs are a set of benefits offered by manufacturers to dealers as dealers achieve the objectives established by manufacturers. Incentives in marketing channels are used by manufacturers to allocate resources and to align channel members objectives. Although marketing channel incentive programs have been widely used by different industries, they lack a deeper theoretical analysis. This thesis aimed at understanding how incentive programs are composed and at proposing a method for building an incentive program from a manufacturer perspective. Several different research lines were combined and theoretical propositions were formed to suggest that incentive programs are composed by four main variables, being the set of performance objectives asked to dealers, the set of benefits offered to them, the exclusivity level and finally the formalization of the agreement. Besides, the variables contents were suggested to be dependent on the distribution of power between the dealer and the manufacturer. The method used was a multiple case study approach with the use of a cross country analysis between Brazil and USA. Documental analysis was used along with personal interviews. Three crop protection manufacturers were selected in Brazil and the same three in USA and their incentive programs were compared and analyzed. Finally a method for building a marketing channel incentive program was suggested composed of a sequence of 5 steps. The steps are the external and the network analysis, the value strategy definition, performance objectives, benefits, and the key channel management.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on basic characteristics and features of industrial markets and on the current development in this area. The methodical plan deals with the marketing strategy process. The practical part is divided into two parts. The former deals with the situational analysis of the company Kopp Elektrotechnika spol. s r.o. The latter links to the situational analysis and results in the marketing strategy proposal for the company.

The goal of this thesis is to develop a marketing plan to achieve the company's sales revenue target and marketing objectives for its Neustile product line in the next five years.

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Commerce, law and Management, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements of the Masters’ in Commerce degree in the School of Economic and Business Science - Marketing / The world is changing at a rapid pace and consumer demands are constantly evolving. Innovation is key for brands that aim to stay relevant in todays’ markets. The brand extension strategy is a key marketing tactic to achieve innovation and it has therefore become crucial to understand how marketers can leverage on the parent brand image to build brand extensions. The primary objective of the study was to investigate how brand extensions can leverage on the parent brand image in order to achieve a positive brand extension perception. This was investigated in accordance with specific brand building constructs. The study focused on a consumers’ perspective of the Clover Tropika brand within emerging economic areas. Various literature relating to the parent brand image, brand extensions, as well as the relationship between the two were explored. Literature shows that newly innovated products have a high failure rate should and in an event where they are successful, it is as a result of a brand extension created from an existing brand, where congruency between the two exists. The research was based on a quantitative approach which adopted convenience sampling at Mall intercepts. A total sample of 238 consumers responded to a self-administered questionnaire at Southgate and Maponya Mall which are located in the south west of Johannesburg. All respondents were above the age of 18 and consented to participate in the research by willingly placing their completed questionnaires in the box provided on the day. The data techniques used included Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) which had a core focus on Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) which assisted in confirming the relationships proposed in the conceptual model. SEM also focused on path modelling to determine the causal relations. Nine out of the ten hypotheses proposed had a significant level of p<0.001 proving support for the proposed hypotheses. The research found that there is a significant relationship between brand awareness and brand attitudes, as this hypothesis had the highest path coefficient score. After the research was conducted. it was noted that high recall and recognition of the parent brand, accompanied by favorable attitudes, are key factors in leveraging on the parent brand image to build brand extensions. Moreover, brand extensions need to have high perceived fit in order to leverage extensively on the parent brand image. / NG (2020)

A research report submitted to the faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing / Since the 1980s, marketing researchers have conceptualised market orientation as an organisational culture that is geared towards delivering supreme customer value. However, one of the shortcomings of the market orientation concept is that it has failed to recognise the potential significance of strong brands, that is, it did not acknowledge brand orientation. A few studies have investigated the conceptualisation of brand orientation in relation to brand loyalty; and the involvement of brand commitment and brand trust in mediating this association in the business-to-business context. Thus, it is the aim of this study to examine the impact of brand orientation on brand loyalty, and the roles played by brand commitment and brand trust in mediating the impact in the South African business-to-business environment. Two hundred and sixty one questionnaires were completed by top and senior managers of a B2B organisation in South Africa. Structural equation modelling and Smart Plus were employed in this study to examine the relationships between the constructs. This study provides empirical evidence that brand orientation has a positive and significant relationship with brand commitment and brand trust, and that brand commitment and brand trust have positive and significant respective relationships with brand loyalty in the South African B2B context. The results indicate that brand orientation (BO), brand commitment (BC) and brand trust (BT) all have a strong influence on Brand Loyalty (BL). Implications and limitations, as well as future research, are discussed in the study. Keywords: Brand Orientation, Brand Commitment, Brand trust, Brand Loyalty, B2B / GR2018

In this thesis, we examine machine learning as a tool for predicting new cus- tomers in a B2B-sales context. Using only publicly available information, we try to solve the problem using two different approaches: 1) a naive clustering based classifier built on K-means and 2) PU-learning with a random forests- adapter. We test these models with different sets of features and evaluate them using statistical measures and a discussion of the business implications. Our main findings conclude that the PU-learning could produce results that are satisfactorily for the purpose of improving the sales process, with the best case of being 4.8 times better than a random baseline classifier. However, the clustering based classifier was not good enough, producing only marginally better results than a random classifier in its best case. We also find that us- ing more variables improved the models, even in high-dimensional spaces with over 60 variables.