Given the increasingly competitive environment characterizing many industries, customer service, specifically, post-sales technical support, has evolved as a key source of differentiation and profits. Against this backdrop, firms are looking to cross-sell products during customer service provision to generate revenue and transition their customer service operations from cost centers to profit centers. However, in the context of customer service, customers are contacting the firm about a product failure and not a purchase need, making cross-selling during customer service provision a challenging task. Essays 1 and 2 investigate which factors affect cross-sell outcomes in the customer service context. Essay 1 addresses the following questions: Do characteristics of the customer, customer service agent, and cross-sell offer influence cross-sell revenues? Cross-sell revenues are defined as the sales generated per customer in the customer service context. Using data on the cross-sell transactions of 6782 customers of a computer systems firm who contacted the firm for technical support, Essay 1 demonstrates that for risk-averse customers and customers who accept cross-sell goods (versus services) as the cross-sell offer, cross-sell revenues increase. However, when risk-averse customers accept a good (versus service) as the cross-sell offer, cross-sell revenues decrease. Surprisingly, for customers who own focal products with high functionality, cross-sell revenues decrease, and this effect becomes more negative as the customer service agent’s resolution ability increases. Essay 2 investigates cross-selling during customer service in an intercultural context and addressees the following question: What influences the likelihood of a cross-sell purchase during customer service by a customer in country X[subscript s] from a customer service agent in Country Y[subscript j]? Multinational firms offshore their customer service operations to a set of low-cost countries to reduce costs and gain access to specialized skills. Customer service agents in these countries provide technical problem resolution services to customers in a different set of countries, creating a cultural dyad between customers and customer service agents. Currently, such firms are asking their offshored customer service agents to cross-sell during customer service provision. Using data from a computer systems firm of 117,721 customer service encounters during which a cross-sell product was pitched, of which 3.6% resulted in a purchase, Essay 2 demonstrates both positive and negative effects of cultural distance on the likelihood of a customer making a cross-sell purchase during customer service. Specifically, Essay 2 shows that cultural distance (1) weakens the negative effect of agent resolution ability, (2) strengthens the positive effect of risk aversion, and (3) weakens the positive effect of failure severity on cross-sell purchase likelihood. I use the findings from both Essays 1 and 2 to generate implications for managers on how to improve cross-selling outcomes in their customer service operations. / text

Intercultural marketing is a constant process of marketing programs adaptation to the national or international target markets. Intercultural differences play an important role in the process of implementing marketing strategies, hence while doing marketing research, market segmentation and selection of suitable target groups, developing brand positioning and implementing marketing mix -- product, price, distribution and communication. The dissertation work of David Hrbek provides a reader with a complex of characteristics of cultural divergences in selected countries of European Union and Eastern Europe -- Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus -- with a goal to define manners of behavior of industrial (B2B) subjects in these countries, to analyze business environment and to synthesize the main findings about the ways of leading business negotiations. Based on numerous practical examples the author comes to the conclusion that in spite of the fact business negotiations in B2B markets have been determined mostly by rational data - product description, services, price, terms of delivery, payment conditions, etc. - it more and more appears, that knowledge of cultural disparities of particular countries, selection of appropriate methods of business negotiation with a foreigner, and ability to adjust business habits and ethics in foreign environment, significantly influence results of the business transactions. Without knowledge of local environment, language, hierarchy of values, historical and cultural heritage, and at last but not least careful selection of strategy and tactics of business negotiation, it would be very difficult to realize large and organizationally complex business contracts. The work has a highly practical use due to extended collection and synoptic comparison of business environments in seven selected European countries. The author offers broad analysis of political, legislative and economic factors, and describes specific conditions for selling Czech goods into the above mentioned markets. These data, collected in close cooperation with the Czech embassies and commercial representation abroad, are universally applicable for Czech exporters and establish a frame for further analyses in the area of social-cultural environments and leading business negotiations with foreign partners.

The goal of this study was to better understand the needs of the Mexican American community in relation to the services offered and what their perception was of the American Automobile Association (AAA). At the time of the study, the AAA membership rate for the Hispanic/Latino community was 5% (American Automobile Association, 2014) while this same population in the United States was approximately 17.8% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). White/Caucasian members in the AAA accounted for 87% of total memberships yet was estimated at 77% of the U.S. population. With a steady population growth of the Latino community, the AAA seeks to increase membership from this population to better reflect the corresponding makeup of the United States. For the purposes of this study I focused on the Mexican American community, knowing that it was exclusive of other Latin American populations. The 2010 U.S. Census (2011) revealed 59.87% of Hispanic/Latinos identified as Mexican American. Historically, new immigrants immersed themselves in their new country and stepped away from not only their culture, but also their language. Ensuing generations of Mexican Americans are reconnecting with their roots and redefining their social identity, however, they have created new, fluid identities: Mexican American, American, and a blend of the two. To which identity does the American Automobile Association need to market to? This study suggests that AAA, a predominantly white corporation with low Hispanic/Latino membership rates, is not getting it right. Whites and Hispanics believe different advertising elements would be more relevant to the Mexican American population. Further study that includes face-to-face meetings or focus groups with the community is needed. However, there are clear messages that using the internet would better reach the Hispanic population, and to reach the most underserved group in the AAA, millennials, marketing apps for mobiles would be crucial.

This thesis deals with cultural differences and creation of marketing campaign according to the nationality of the consumer. The theoretical part discusses the principles of marketing campaign, intercultural marketing and cultural diversity. Two researches will be carried out in this work: the first research aims to determine whether advertising enters into a stylish and cultural conflict with the social environment, the second research aims to make recommendations for creating marketing campaigns for selected countries based on secondary data.

Tato diplomová práce pojednává o politických, ekonomických a především sociálně-kulturních aspektech, které mají vliv na mezinárodní obchod, organizace a marketing týkající se Ruské federace, jež jsou dány do kontextu zejména s Českou republikou (eventuálně jinými relevantními státy). Cílem mé práce je nalézt překážky v obchodu s Ruskou federací a způsob jakým je možné je překonat. Důraz primárního výzkumu mé práce bude kladen na interkulturní složku, konkrétně na rozdíly v organizačním chování a chování spotřebitele. Zaměřím se na specifický profil potenciálních účastníků v oblastech marketingu a obchodu. Zohledním také znalosti z nashromážděných dat o politicko-ekonomickém prostředí zemí. Použitím vybrané metodologie rozšířím teoretické podklady a sekundární výzkum o nové poznatky a v širším kontextu vyvodím závěry a návrhy pro optimalizaci bariér, kterým firmy jsou rozšiřující pole působnosti do Ruska vystaveny a jimž mohou čelit.

Welche Bedeutung hat Kultur für das Konsumverhalten? Die hier vorgelegte Auseinandersetzung mit dieser Frage im Kontext der Mischkultur Indonesiens zeichnet sich aus, dass sie über die Binnenräume der jeweiligen Wissenschaftsfächer, wie der Südostasienkunde und der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, weit hinausragt und für die Beantwortung der Fragestellung ein neu entwickeltes analytisches Diagramm zur strukturierten Analyse kultureller Einflüsse auf das Konsumverhalten aufweist, das die Möglichkeit, Märkte interkulturell zu erschließen, eröffnet. Die Untersuchung der den indonesischen Konsumenten beeinflussenden Kulturelemente ist ein Indizienbeweis gegen die so häufig postulierte Vorstellung eines global, homogen denkenden und universalistisch handelnden Konsumenten, die mit der Fallstudie eines für das Nischensegment der verschleierten Musliminnen in Indonesien geschaffenen Shampoos eines Weltkonzerns abschließt. / What impact does culture have on consumer behavior? The discussion of the above question in the multicultural context (Mischkultur) of Indonesia is characterized by the fact that it goes far beyond the limits of the respective scientific fields like Southeast Asian studies or business studies. It provides a new analytical diagram for structural analysis of cultural influences on consumer behavior which offers the possibility to develop new markets in an intercultural manner. Investigation of cultural factors influencing Indonesian consumers has indicated that the often postulated globally homogenous thinking and universally acting consumer is merely a myth. This investigation concludes with a case-study dealing with a shampoo developed by a multinational for the niche segment, Indonesian veiled Muslim women.