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Although marketing activities are vital for new ventures (NVs) to ensure growth and survival, previous research is silent on how to organize them in firms' infancy. The entrepreneurship literature focuses on which marketing activities to perform in NVs but not on how to organize these activities, whereas the marketing literature concentrates on how to organize marketing activities in established firms but not in NVs, which face specific opportunities and challenges in their early stage of development. This article aims to tackle this research gap by examining marketing's role within NVs' organization. Drawing on in-depth interviews with managers, we identify two key organizational dimensions: marketing's dispersion (related to the proliferation and, thus, wide anchoring of marketing responsibilities) and marketing's structuration (related to the manifestation and, thus, deep anchoring of marketing responsibilities). Through a field survey and archival data, we show that marketing's dispersion enhances NV profitability, while marketing's structuration decreases it, and that with increasing marketing influence (i.e., power of marketing actors) in NVs and NV maturity (i.e., age and size), this diametrical pattern of effects becomes less pronounced. Overall, the findings provide novel theoretical and practical insights into the organizational design of marketing in firms' infancy., Author(s): Andreas Fürst [sup.1] , Mika Gabrielsson [sup.2] , Peter Gabrielsson [sup.3] , Jana-Kristin Prigge [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.9668.1, 0000 0001 0726 2490, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Nürnberg, Germany, [...]

Corporate social performance (CSP) is increasingly becoming an important firm performance dimension in its own right. Since the CEO plays a pivotal role in setting the firm's strategic actions, the examination of CSP's antecedents has often focused on how CEO characteristics may impact CSP. According to upper echelons theory, one such key characteristic is the CEO's functional background. As CEO experience in marketing may instill a CSP-supportive mindset in line with stakeholder theory, we examine how such CEO marketing experience may promote CSP and how situational factors may moderate this. Analyses of 3,569 CEOs from 1,999 firms from 2001 to 2016 reveal that CEO prior experience in marketing positively relates to CSP. This finding is robust to multiple analytical methods and endogeneity checks. Further, marketing experience's effect is stronger than that of other functional experiences. Moderation results indicate this effect is associated more with executive discretion than job demands., Author(s): Saeed Janani [sup.1] , Ranjit M. Christopher [sup.2] , Atanas Nik Nikolov [sup.3] , Michael A. Wiles [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.462948.5, 0000 0000 9341 8350, University of Houston, [...]

This paper examines probabilistic selling (PS) as an inventory-management mechanism, paying special attention to the impact of the timing of product assignment to buyers of probabilistic goods. In practice, sellers tend to offer probabilistic products only after major demand uncertainty has been resolved. By deferring product assignments, a firm is able to obtain more information about demand for each specific product before deciding which product to assign to consumers. However, our analysis demonstrates that PS can be an effective inventory-management mechanism even if the firm allocates products before knowing which product will be more popular and, thus, scarcer. Interestingly, we show that it can be more profitable for the firm to allocate products to consumers before, rather than after, learning the true demand for a product because, although early allocation imposes higher inventory costs (as a result of larger required inventory levels), it also enables the firm to charge higher prices. Our results also reveal that, when introducing probabilistic goods, the firm should order less inventory (relative to the case where probabilistic goods are not offered) if costs are very low but more inventory otherwise. Finally, we show that PS, as an inventory-management mechanism, can create a win-win situation, both improving profit and increasing social welfare. Keywords: inventory production; uncertainty; marketing; retailing and wholesaling; pricing History: Received May 11, 2012; accepted February 19, 2014, by J. Miguel Villas-Boas, marketing. Published online in Articles in Advance July 17, 2014., 1. Introduction Probabilistic selling (PS) is a marketing strategy that is becoming more commonplace. In today's travel industry, in addition to 'opaque' travel services offered by Priceline and Hotwire (the [...]

Sometimes a little subterfuge is necessary to get patrons to think outside the box of what they normally expect from a library. By using different lures, sometimes in disguise, libraries [...]

Using customer level data, prior marketing research has developed a micro or bottom up approach to link marketing activities with shareholder value. This study develops a macro or top down approach using longitudinal firm level data from publicly available financial statements. Test results show that the earnings component supported by sales has higher pricing multiples than other components of earnings in firm specific time-series data. We also test hypotheses of five marketing-related drivers of sales capitalization rate (the rate at which sales increases are converted into increased shareholder value). From the research effort, we develop three managerially useful tools. First, we suggest enterprises develop alpha or sales margin strategies and beta or margin capitalization strategies, and we show that one can map these strategies into a planning matrix. Second, using financial statements of publicly traded firms, we develop an alternative method of estimating customer equity. Third, we show how a company may use our macro approach and compare its performance with its industry competitors to develop insights into competitive dynamics. Keywords Marketing strategy * Marketing management * Customer value * Accounting and finance, Introduction Many reports indicate that marketing has been losing influence in the firm (Homburg et al. 1999; Moorman and Rust 1999; Nath and Mahajan 2008; O'Sullivan and Abela 2007; Webster [...]

CASE DESCRIPTION The primary purpose of this case concerns the transformation of an interest and skill into a successful entrepreneurial enterprise in a competitive marketplace through effective use of the four Ps of the marketing mix. Secondary issues examined include effective use of essential business-building concepts such as product quality, differentiation, market research on a shoestring, premium pricing strategies, relationship selling, dual channels of distribution, and cost controls. This case has a difficulty level appropriate for college juniors. The case is designed to be taught in one class period and is expected to require two hours of outside preparation by students. CASE SYNOPSIS All too many people with particular skills or talents decide to start their own businesses only to fail because they focus on using those skills in their business rather than on building and developing the business itself. This case traces the transition of one person's leisure interest in tropical fish to the development of a successful business in direct competition with large established domestic producers and international importers. Since many students have had aquariums or known friends that have had them, the case is easy for them to relate to on a personal level. As the case unfolds, the hobbyist expands and progresses through a series of expansion phases that soon involves several retail and wholesale buyers. The decision presented to the students is whether to expand into a major player within the region and, if so, which of three expansion alternatives should be pursued., THE TROPICAL FISH FARM Diane Henderson enjoyed animals and shared that enjoyment with her family. Two years ago, she purchased a 30 gallon fish aquarium and some young gold fish, [...]

A study on how managers can ensure that their products and services stay relevant to customers is presented. Managers have to make sure everyone on the organization really understands and supports the brand's promise. Insights on five questions that managers must pose to diagnose and determine where the weaknesses lie are also given.

Building the House "We're not taking this lying down ... It's a war," warns Ken Barker, director of apparel at Adidas America (Salter, 2005, p. 70). Baker's statement is in [...]

Prior research provides only weak and controversial evidence that people overestimate the likelihood of desirable events (wishful thinking), but strong evidence that people bet more heavily on those events (wishful betting). Two experiments show that wishful betting contaminates beliefs in laboratory financial markets because wishful betters appear to possess more favorable information than they actually do. As a consequence, market interaction exacerbates rather than mitigates wishful thinking. This phenomenon, 'contagion of wishful thinking,' could be problematic in many settings where people infer others' beliefs from their behavior. Key words: wishful thinking; betting; desirability bias; unrealistic optimism; motivated reasoning; contagion; markets; investors; investing; gambling; information aggregation History: Received April 9, 2007; accepted November 19, 2008, by George Wu, decision analysis. Published online in Articles in Advance February 12, 2009., 1. Introduction A staple of experimental economics research is to identify a robust individual decision-making bias and show how competitive pressures can keep the bias from having effects on prices [...]

The author examines the relevance of the long tail, or the sustainability of sales after a given product's launch. It is posited that niche sales are not as sustainable as those for products with broader appeal.

We introduce the concept of marketing avoidance--consumer efforts to conceal themselves and to deflect marketing. The setting is one in which sellers market some item through solicitations to potential consumers, [...]

The article examines the role of customer equity in successful, efficient marketing management. A model for marketing spending is generated, and the bank Wachovia Corp. is used as an illustration.

CASE DESCRIPTION This case has a difficulty level of two (appropriate for sophomore-level students) and is designed to be taught in approximately 1-1/2 hours. It would be most appropriate for [...]

A fictitious marketing scenario is presented, with contributors offering recommendations. The issue involves maintaining a brand's identity based on customer perceptions of authenticity. Advice ranges from promoting a corporate vision to encouraging employee passion for the products and services their company provides.

We study a firm which serves customers that are sensitive to quoted price and leadtime, with pricing and leadtime decisions being made by the marketing and production departments, respectively. We analyze the inefficiencies created by the decentralization of the price and leadtime decisions. In the decentralized setting, the total demand generated is larger, leadtimes are longer, quoted prices are lower, and the firm's profits are lower as compared to the centralized setting. We show that coordination can be achieved using a transfer price contract with bonus payments. We also provide insights on the sensitivity of the optimal decisions with respect to market characteristics, sequence of decisions and the firm's capacity level. Keywords: Leadtime, pricing, marketing/production coordination, 1. Introduction In many firms, manufacturing is evaluated as a cost center that seeks lower costs and operational efficiency, while marketing is evaluated as a revenue center with control over [...]

Promoting services is a conundrum for any organization. This is especially true for an academic library promoting distance library services. Systems thinking, process mapping, team learning, and diffusion of information [...]