Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2009. / "Publication number: AAT 3385854."

<p> Community leaders of nonprofit animal rescue organizations have options in determining if investing donated dollars in digital marketing or social networking services are profitable communication strategies for advertising adoptive companion animals. The alternative is to continue with traditional marketing tactics. Pet adopters may seek gratification of marketing mediums differently based on generational differences. Providing the leaders generational preferences of marketing mediums could present the proper tools for adopting out companion animals before euthanasia. This correlational study addressed the marketing preferences of advertising homeless animals from adoptive parents for generational cohorts Matures, Baby Boomers, Xers, and Millennials. A self-designed survey was distributed to 249 adoptive parents at the premises of the two participating nonprofit animal rescue organizations for a three-month period. The survey questions were designed to assist in providing information to the problem. The specific problem is homeless companion animals may not be marketed properly satisfying the gratifications based on generational differences of potential adoptive parents. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a relationship exists between the generational cohort of the adoptive parent and the marketing medium preferences regarding homeless animals temporarily residing in Monmouth County, New Jersey. A Spearman&rsquo;s rho correlation coefficient was calculated for marketing medium tactics used to advertise homeless pets. The study revealed a relationship between a generational cohort and it&rsquo;s marketing medium preferences radio, mobile applications, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, blog, and Instagram. The results suggested advertising on these marketing mediums is preferred by the younger generations, Millennials and Xers.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the synergistic effects of market orientation implementation and internalization on firm performance, specifically financial performance and customer service performance. Market orientation implementation component enables firms to sense and respond to customer needs effectively while market orientation internalization component allows the firm to internalize a shared set of market oriented norms and values at the cultural level. Another objective of the study is to analyze if various forms of market orientation exist based on implementation and internalization levels exhibited by firms. Market orientation practices of firms in a direct mail service provider industry are analyzed. Market orientation internalization is introduced as a mediator between market orientation implementation and firm performance relationship. In addition, the effect of learning orientation is also considered as a moderator that strengthens the relationship between market orientation implementation and market orientation internalization. </p><p> Theoretical predictions of Kirca, Bearden, and Hult (2011) conceptual model are empirically tested. The firms are clustered into one of the four forms of market orientation based on varying levels of implementation and internalization. The inter-relationships between forms of market orientation and its differential effects on various performance measures are analyzed. Overall, the results suggest that firms that practice high levels of implementation and internalization perform better in both financial performance and customer service performance. Results also suggest that performance metrics vary depending on the form of market orientation.</p><p>

Strategic Alliances, defined as long term relationships undertaken with strategic intent for the joint accomplishment of individual objectives, have become prominent in recent years. Many alliances do not achieve their objectives, yet there is no consensus opinion regarding why. In this dissertation, I introduce and evaluate a framework to examine the outcome of alliances. In the framework, strategic fit, relationship quality, expectation confirmation, and alliance structure are conceptualized as antecedents of alliance outcomes. I draw support for the framework from empirical literature on alliances, and four theoretical perspectives. The theory bases I draw on are transaction cost analysis, the resource based view of the firm, channels management and satisfaction. I evaluated the framework empirically using a pharmaceutical context. Interviews with experts were used to establish the face validity of the framework. A survey methodology was used to gather quantitative data from firms involved in alliances. Measures and composite indices of the constructs in the alliance outcome framework were developed. The relationships in the framework were tested with OLS regression. The interviews supported the contention that each of the constructs in the framework influences alliance outcomes. The quantitative study suggested that strategic fit does help explain alliance outcomes, but in a different way than was anticipated. Specifically, it appears from this study that more resources lead to better alliance outcomes even if the resources of the partners are redundant. The key contributions of this research are threefold. First, it compares the relative contribution of structural, behavioral (relationship quality), economic (strategic fit) and perceptual (expectation confirmation) explanations of alliance outcomes, suggesting that relationship quality may be relatively less important than previous research reports. Second, it highlights the role of partner compatibility in alliance outcomes and introduces three different compatibility measures. Third, it introduces a measure of alliance outcomes that is more consistent with managerial conceptualizations of this construct than previous research.

With a growing focus on the knowledge economy, the Professional Service Firm (PSF) is becoming an integral part of the business landscape. PSFs deal in the business of providing knowledge services. The uniqueness of these services creates the need to explore how those services are delivered and how PSFs use their service successes to create organic growth through retaining and attracting clients. This study explores how transactional and relational contract/governance structures may impact clients' assessments of the professional service transaction. Organizational justice variables (distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice) are used to determine what elements of the professional service are most salient to clients in their assessment of the professional service transaction. The study was conducted using a web-based survey instrument sent to clients of an international PSF. Responses were received from 142 clients in a variety of industries and government agencies. The study found that the type of contract between a client and the PSF impacts what elements of the transaction are salient to the client in relation to client outcomes like satisfaction, trust and commitment and client behaviors like intent to repurchase services from the PSF and willingness to provide word-of-mouth (WOM)/referrals. Distributive justice, which has more of an economic/exchange basis, was found to be more relevant to client-PSF exchanges involving transactional contracts. The study also found that interpersonal and informational justice factors are more relevant to client-PSF exchanges involving relational contracts. However both distributive justice and informational justice were significantly related to client outcomes in both contract types. The findings have implications for how PSFs deliver their services and the impact that the delivery has on a PSF's organic growth through client retention and acquisition.

Channel relationships, market knowledge, strategic partnerships and brand equity are examples of marketing resources which firms can possess. Marketing resources are especially valuable when they are properly leveraged by agents of the firm (Srivastava, Fahey, and Christensen 2001). This dissertation examines how one marketing resource—corporate sponsorships—can be leveraged by companies to enhance financial performance. Based on the tenets of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1985), two conceptual models are developed which propose corporate sponsorship can develop the attractiveness of a company's identity and thus enhance levels of company identification among salespeople (Study 1) and customers (Study 2). It is further proposed that through this strengthening of company identification, these stakeholders will become motivated to perform supportive behaviors on behalf of the company which will lead to the firm's enhanced performance. To empirically test the conceptual models, data were collected from the sales force and a sample of customers of a Fortune 1000 company which actively engages in a single national corporate sponsorship. The data set used in Study 1 includes survey responses from 490 sales representatives (21.7% response rate) which are combined with objective sales data gathered from company records. The data were analyzed utilizing linear regression and Hierarchical Linear Modeling. The conceptual model developed in Study 2 was tested utilizing structural equation modeling of survey data collected from 246 active customers. The two studies contained in this dissertation make several important theoretical and substantive contributions to both marketing theory and practice. First, evidence is provided that company identity can be influenced by a company and its marketers. By affiliating with a prestigious entity through a corporate sponsorship, a firm can enhance the attractiveness of its identity which in turn, influences levels of identification among salespeople and customers. The studies also provide additional evidence highlighting the power of identification in terms of predicting firm-directed supportive behaviors. The analysis in Study 1 shows that company identification influences salesperson sales growth and Study 2 confirms that customer-company identification leads to customer sales and positive word-of-mouth communications. Implications of these findings are provided.

Sales force compensation presents an important strategic decision to many firms. It has been widely acknowledged that the compensation of the sales force may be used to enhance sales, control sales force activities, and improve customer relationships (Coletti and Cichelli 1991, Stanton and Buskirk 1987, and Gomez-Mejia and Balkin 1992). Despite the acknowledged importance of sales force compensation, the marketing literature on the topic is rather limited. Of the existing sales compensation studies, most simply pit the two main types of compensation systems (i.e., behavior/salary and output/incentive) against each other (Oliver and Anderson 1994 and Cravens et al. 1993). The literature to date has neglected to consider the idea that the effectiveness of the compensation system may be contingent on other factors. This study serves to expand current knowledge concerning the effectiveness of sales force compensation by examining possible moderators. Based on contingency theory, it is proposed that the effectiveness of type of compensation cannot be adequately assessed without consideration of these factors. It is hypothesized that the fit between the chosen type of compensation and other variables will determine the overall effectiveness of the compensation program. Thus, this study addresses the following key research question: Does a good fit between the type of compensation and other variables impact employee satisfaction, stress, turnover intentions, and/or performance? To test the proposed hypotheses, two empirical studies were conducted. Study 1 employed a survey methodology. Questionnaires were mailed to approximately 1,000 salespeople from public firms within the service industry. Approximately, 21% of salespeople completed and returned the questionnaire. Questionnaires included multi-item scales for the dependent measures and some of the independent measures. The remaining measures were obtained from secondary company information. Multivariate analysis of covariance and planned comparisons were used to test for moderator effects. Study 2 proposed a conjoint methodology. In total, 500 additional service salespeople were mailed a questionnaire of which 20% responded. This questionnaire asked participants to report their preferences for certain job situations offering different manipulations of the independent variables. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study examines the perspectives of retail and service managers and workers to determine what managerial actions should result in superior service quality. The study extends the primary model of service quality in marketing, the Gap Model, using Agency Theory and Transaction Cost Analysis as well as concepts from the Salesforce Management Literature. Workers and managers were surveyed by mail in over 100 industries in the continental U.S. This survey yielded sixty-six manager-employee dyads for analysis. While the results were generally inconclusive, it appears that a variety of environmental variables do moderate the use of different types of control systems in these types of organizations, and that the management of retail and service employees is no simple matter. Some of the results are contrary to theoretical perspectives, while some support them. The strongest result in the study is that the use of clan-based control systems increases the degree of perceived autonomy on the part of the employees ($\beta$ =.611). However, this does not in turn necessarily lead to superior service quality. In addition, different methods of control and compensation do vary in their effectiveness under certain condition, notably when the employees and organization have a long-term perspective toward customer service, and when employees are difficult or costly to replace. These two effects suggest that a relationship approach to the employee management aspect of internal marketing may be an effective paradigm for long-term service effectiveness.

This report constitutes an exploratory study into the concept of accountable marketing in order to investigate the extent to which it is understood and has been implemented by members of a local business association. Accountable Marketing is a further natural development in the total marketingnconcept beginning with the traditional marketing concept and then developing through the addition of tested assumptions over time. The societal marketing concept is based on three implicit assumptions namely: - consumers' wishes do not always coincide with their long term interests or those of society. - consumers prefer organisations that show real concern for their satisfaction and well-being as well as the collective well-being. - the most important task of the organisation is to adapt itself to the target market in such a way as to generate not only satisfaction, but also individual and collective well-being, in order to attract and keep customers. Two key issues distinguish the societal marketing concept from the classical marketing concept and these are: - marketing must be concerned with the well-being of customers and not simply with the satisfaction of their short-term needs and; - a firm must consider the side-effects of its economic and industrial activity to ensure the long term well-being of society as a whole. Accountable marketing is a natural development from the concept of societal marketing. It can be viewed as the marketing concept practised in such a way that it enhances the total well being of society. The consumerist and environmentalist movements have forced some marketing theoreticians to widen their classical marketing concept, putting the emphasis on the necessity to develop increased consciousness of the socio-cultural side-effects of the economic and marketing activities. Broadly speaking, accountable marketing differs from societal marketing through the addition of the following two elements: Corporate ethical behaviour. o Consideration of the environment and related issues. The research consists of surveys done amongst the members of a local business association. It was found that whilst members of the association stated that they had implemented the accountable marketing concept, they had in effect implemented societal marketing. The increasing effects of globalisation continue to put pressure on South African companies to conduct business or produce products to the same high standards (including health and safety) as that of the rest of the world. South African businesses are faced with the dilemma of whether to be pro-active with regard to these latest developments in marketing or whether to become reactive and only move forward as and when any pressure is applied. It is felt that the benefits of being pro-active far out-weight any negative aspects and can eventually result in a firm becoming the acknowledged leader in its field and being recognized accordingly. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Marketing. / SMMEs are known to be a key driver of employment creation and economic growth on both developing and developed countries. In South Africa, SMMEs failure rate is very high; resulting in low economic growth as SMMEs are key engines for economic growth. Thus, SMMEs are well known to be the backbone of many economies around the world and they contribute greatly to a nation's wealth as they create jobs. Therefore, the sound performance of the SMME sector in a country relates to the performance of the Nation's economic performance. The SMME sector has a significant role to play in developing economies like South Africa; and poverty reduction and employment creation are some of the issues that SMMEs addresses in a country. This study was aimed at examining how product innovation, entrepreneurial orientation, risk-taking and resource leveraging can influence business growth of SMMEs. Research indicated that in South Africa, SMMEs make up to 91% of formalized businesses and provide employment to approximately 60% of the labour force and its total economic output accounts for 34% of the Gross Domestic Product. In South Africa, the failure rate of SMMEs is estimated to be between 70%. There are numerous challenges hindering SMMEs from growing and these include, but not limited to, insufficient management skills and lack of expertise in functional areas like marketing and finance. Subsequently, South Africa faces some unique challenges when it comes to building an entrepreneurial society, as it is a relatively young democratic country. South Africa has an extremely low rate of entrepreneurship compared to the rest of Africa and the world, combined with high rates of failure for a small business. This study took a constructive outlook on the use of entrepreneurial marketing strategies as a driving force for business growth. The implications of the findings were discussed; limitations and future directions were suggested as well. / PH2020