Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing

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Antecedents of the adoption of new consumer packaged goods
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Kim, Kyoungmi; Allaway, Arthur Warren; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Consumer response to a new product is critical to the product’s success, but understanding of customers’ new product adoption is still limited. Most research has focused only on the first trial purchase and ignored repeat purchases. This study investigates the adoption process as a sequence of purchases and examines how behavioral and marketing antecedents have a different influence on each phase. Marketing-mix variables (e.g., marketing communication, price promotion, and assortment) and consumers’ past behavioral responses (e.g., innovativeness, variety-seeking, and loyalty to the firm’s brands) are proposed as potential antecedents of new product trial purchase timing, repeat purchase timing, and dollar amount of monthly repeat purchase over the twelve months after the trial month. Panel data for sixteen new products from six food categories obtained from Information Resources Inc. (IRI) are utilized in this study. To test the relationships among the behavioral and marketing antecedents and the three outcome variables, two types of econometric models are utilized: a discrete-time hazard model is used for trial and repeat purchase timing and a Type I Tobit model is used for repeat purchase amount in dollars. The results are also discussed.
Performance benefits of being a great firm to work for: an investigation from the employee perspective
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Butler, Timothy David; Ellinger, Alexander E.; Armstrong, Craig E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Increased competitive pressure for speed and innovation, global commoditization, and competition for talented workers has provided firms with greater incentives to assess and improve their human resource strategies with respect to attracting, motivating, and retaining employees. Consequently, many firms want to be perceived by employees as a great firm to work for. However, becoming perceived by employees as a great firm to work for requires a significant resource commitment. If firms are going to make this resource commitment, a relationship between being perceived by employees as a great firm to work for and firm performance should be clearly established. Extant academic studies about being a great firm to work for are generally approached from the managerial perspective. Studies that investigate being a great firm to work for from the employee perspective are more scarce. In order to develop a better understanding of the potential performance benefits of being perceived by employees as a great firm to work for, this study compares the performance of great firms to work for (as determined by employees) to their respective industry averages. Further, potential contextual factors that affect the strength of the relationship between being perceived by employees as a great firm to work for and firm performance are examined in order to identify the situations where devoting resources to being perceived by employees as a great firm to work for is more beneficial. Results support the existence of a relationship between being perceived by employees as a great firm to work for and several firm performance outcomes. In addition, some support for the moderating roles of contextual factors is found.
Relational governance forms and firm performance: the role of unilateral and collaborative capabilities
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Adams, Frank G.; Richey, Robert Glenn; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Firms in today's market environment compete as members of business-to-business relationship networks more commonly than as vertically integrated stand-alone entities. The core structure of those networks are the relational governance contracts between firms, which may be explicit (detailed), normative (informal), or a hybrid of both. The theories of how and why firms engage in such collective competition include transaction costs economics, and the resource-based view of the firm. While there are stark distinctions between these views, there are also commonalities. By deconstructing relational governance and supply chain management literature, this research proposes a broader view of the capabilities and structures that firms leverage to compete collectively, identifying a series of unilateral capabilities (internal to each firm), collaborative capabilities (derived from interactions between partnering firms), and relational contextual factors (imposed by the markets partner firms compete in and the characteristics of each relationship). Employing qualitative interviews and structural equation modeling to analyze firms involved in business-to-business relationships, this research finds that unilateral capabilities, collaborative capabilities, and relational contextual factors jointly shape value outcomes that firms experience as a result of business-to-business relationships. Futher, the effect of such capabilities and contextual factors is influenced by the tendency of firms to employ more explicit or more normative relational governance contracts. This research offers another step in integrating the transaction cost and resource-based theories, proposes a new way for scholars to examine the capabilities by which business relationships are built and managed, and provides practitioners means of examining how effectively their practices fit with their capabilities in managing inter-organizational relationships.
Supply chain transparency: an overlooked critical element of supply chain management
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Morgan, Tyler Roy; Richey, Robert Glenn; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Supply chain information has become increasingly accessible to a variety of stakeholders as technology adoption has expanded around the globe. With improved supply chain related information availability and growing interest in tracking products from cradle to grave, the idea of product provenance has been of rising interest to firms in positions all along the supply chain. Industry practices that may have previously gone unreported in developing parts of the world are no longer safe from scrutiny. Thus, it is of critical importance that firms develop transparency regarding resource usage and the sourcing of suppliers. This research looks to develop the construct of transparency as a way to explore the growing importance of product provenance. This dissertation is broken into two publishable essays. In the first essay, we define supply chain transparency and relate it to other strategic supply chain concepts such as visibility and traceability. The definition that is developed describes supply chain transparency as reporting to and communicating with key stakeholders to provide traceability regarding the history of the product and visibility about current activities throughout the supply chain while also incorporating stakeholder feedback for supply chain improvement. A scale refinement is then conducted to further delineate transparency in the context of the supply chain. The second essay examines the nomological network surrounding supply chain transparency through an empirical investigation of antecedents and outcomes. The relationships explored in this essay further establish the validity of the supply chain transparency scale and provide insightful opportunities for future research. As a dissertation, this document achieves three objectives. First, the importance of transparency is established as an emerging part of supply chain management. Second, a scale refinement provides a measurement tool for supply chain transparency. Third, suggestions for future research are made in an effort to foster further exploration of this growing area of supply chain management.
Two essays on environmental orientation
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Gabler, Colin Bauer; Rapp, Adam A.; Richey, Robert Glenn; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Green marketing has become ubiquitous. Generating profits through green marketing, however, has not. While firms continue to adopt environmental practices, they struggle to gain a competitive advantage through these endeavors. While scholars search for underlying theories and motivational factors to explain and change this behavior, managers simply want tangible solutions that improve performance and provide a return on their green investments. Environmental orientation may shed light onto this discrepancy by assessing a firm's ability to provide an authentic, unified image of environmental commitment. This research investigates the construct from both the manager and salesperson perspective. In the first essay, I use the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities literature to construct an eco-capability that leverages the firm's human, business, and technology resources. Using a panel of 246 managers from 14 industries, I estimate a Latent Moderated Structural (LMS) model that provides support for the eco-capability components. I find a positive interaction effect between a firm's environmental orientation and organizational innovativeness on the formation of the eco-capability. This new construct is significantly related to both market and financial performance as well as the perceptions of quality associated with the firm's offering. In the second essay, I measure environmental orientation from the salesperson's point of view. I again implement LMS on a panel of 224 salespeople across nine industries to examine the effects that this firm-level orientation has on individual-level behaviors. Using an Input-Process-Output framework and social identity theory, I demonstrate the importance of a strategic alignment of values in optimizing performance and satisfaction. Specifically, I find that salespeople who work for environmentally-oriented firms put forth more effort and provide more feedback to managers when they identify with the organization. This increased effort and participation has a positive influence on sales performance. Further, salespeople with strong personal environmental identities are also more likely to provide feedback via participation, which ultimately contributes to their job satisfaction. Taken together, the dissertation demonstrates the importance of environmental orientation and its role in sustainable business from both a managerial and salesperson perspective while offering suggestions for future research and applications.

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing by Author "Armstrong, Craig E."

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