Department of Marketing

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A study of relationship repair in a business-to-business context
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Dalela, Vivek; Morgan, Robert M.; Richey, Robert Glenn; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This research concerns rebuilding/repairing those buyer-seller relationships that were once strong, but have been damaged. A framework of relationship repair is proposed and empirically tested using fairness theory as foundation. Qualitative research and the literature were used to identify the most common causes of relationship damage. The most common relationship repairing/rebuilding efforts of suppliers are also identified. Specifically, the impact of three causes of relationship damage - seller firm's opportunistic behavior, service failures, and availability of better alternative suppliers - were explored. Additionally, the impact of five repair efforts - providing compensation, making relationship specific investments, showing accountability, giving assurance, and making organizational changes - on justice perceptions and subsequently on change in relationship quality was examined. A fractional factorial, mixed-design experiment was conducted to test the main effects and the second order interaction effects of the repair efforts. Scenarios were used to operationalize the causes of relationship damage as well as the repair efforts. The results show that supplier's opportunistic behaviors have the most damaging effect on relationship quality, followed by service failures and availability of better alternatives, in that order. Moreover, as proposed, the repair efforts have differential positive effects on distributive and procedural justice perceptions, which in turn are positively related to the change in relationship quality. Overall, the proposed model is well supported by the data. The study contributes to research in the domains of fairness theory, service failure and recovery, trust repair, and business-to-business relationship marketing. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
A scale of consumer engagement
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Vivek, Shiri Dalela; Beatty, Sharon E.; Morgan, Robert M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The practitioner literature is replete with examples of firm efforts to engage consumers. However, the existing relationship marketing constructs focus primarily on customer retention. This research examines those offerings or activities of firms that aim to engage prospects, potentials, customers and their extended relationships, together addressed as consumers in this research. Contributing to the recent efforts to expand the domain of relationship marketing, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, which is the intensity of the consumer's participation and connection with the organization's offerings and/ or its organized activities. Using several qualitative methods, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, differentiating it from existing constructs, such as involvement and customer communities. The qualitative studies in this research show that consumers may be engaged with offerings (e.g. iPod), activities (e.g. Beauty workshops), institutions (Ikea), or brands (e.g. Apple). These offerings/ activities might come from profit-making or non-profit organizations. Engagement might be in the presence or absence of other consumers, and might happen online or offline. Consumers may also be engaged through activities organized by the businesses or by consumers themselves. Using established quantitative scale development procedures, the consumer engagement scale is developed, refined and validated. Consumer Engagement is a three-dimensional, second-order construct, composed of enthusiasm, conscious participation and social interaction. These dimensions are verified using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and validated on three different data sets, representing product usage, retail service and activity. The exploration of consumer engagement helps us understand the participation and connection of consumers, independent of their commercial transactions with the company. This research shows that even routine products and brands can engage a consumer, which, in turn, positively influences their connection with the firm, and feelings of goodwill towards and intent to do business with the firm.
A two-essay examination of the retail world of adolescent girls
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Givan, Alexa Martinez; Beatty, Sharon E.; Reynolds, Kristy E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Throughout this dissertation, I focus on the two primary influences in an adolescent girl's shopping experience: her mother and her friends. The adolescent phase of mental development involves a gradual detachment from parents and gravitation towards peers, which results in the formation of an individual, emancipated identity. This dissertation utilizes two essays to demonstrate the different ways in which mothers and friends influence the retail experience for adolescent girls. The first essay investigates how adolescent girls process store image information and how they choose the stores in which they shop. I conduct both qualitative and quantitative studies to develop and test a model of adolescent store choice and shopping behavior. Qualitative interviews reveal the process of store stereotyping, in which adolescents apply the expectations and associations of different peer groups to stores that are associated with each group. Adolescents seem to choose stores the same way they choose friends. They gravitate toward those that appear to be part of their in-group and avoid those in out-groups. There are some variations between individuals in this process. Therefore, I test consumer need for uniqueness and identification with friends as potential moderating variables. The second essay explores mother-daughter shopping as daughters struggle to gain independence during this phase of development. In-depth interviews with adolescent girls, their mothers, and retail employees reveal the factors that influence individual shopping situations, general shopping habits, benefits experienced by mothers and daughters, and resulting retail outcomes. While there is much variety found in the way mother-daughter pairs shop, emotions experienced during the trip seem to be the key drivers of shopping outcomes. Furthermore, from a balance theory perspective, the mother-daughter dyad can often be nonsymmetrical. Adolescent girls may be content when parents do not like their chosen style, but it is difficult for moms to be satisfied when their daughters' views conflict with their own. This presents an interesting situation for marketers who must attract adolescents to the store while also enticing parents to purchase the merchandise.
Hailers: retail salespeople near the entrance of the store and shoppers' approach-avoidance reactions
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Musgrove, Carolyn Findley; Franke, George; Reynolds, Kristy E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This research examines a retail salesperson behavior that has been largely overlooked in the literature: retail salespeople standing and waiting for customers near the entrance of the store in retail centers, such as in traditional shopping malls, as well as a variety of other retail shopping contexts. These salespeople are referred to as "hailers." The small amount of previous work in the area and theory suggest that this practice is a positive influence. However, qualitative interviews and quantitative results suggest the opposite. Many consumers feel uncomfortable with a salesperson near the entrance of a retail store because they think that the hailer is going to use high-pressure sales tactics. The main study, which is grounded in approach-avoidance theory and emotional contagion theory, consists of two experiments that examine the effects of retail salespeople near the entrance of stores, as well as other environmental factors and salesperson characteristics. The first study manipulates store familiarity and retail density in addition to the presence of a retail salesperson. The second study focuses on particular characteristics of a salesperson present near the entrance and manipulates the salesperson's demeanor and their level of activity. Each of the stimuli consists of a photograph and scenario combination. The results of experiment one show that the presence of a hailer has a negative influence on consumers' feelings of pleasure and arousal. Feelings of pleasure (and dominance) have a positive influence on approach attitudes and store patronage intentions, while arousal has an inverted-U shaped relationship with store patronage intentions. The results from experiment two show that when a hailer must be present near the entrance of the retail store, a salesperson's positive demeanor has a positive influence on feelings of pleasure. In turn, pleasure has a positive relationship with approach attitudes and store patronage intentions. An unexpected interaction between salesperson demeanor and level of activity has a disordinal relationship with dominance. Further, dominance has a positive influence on store patronage intentions. This research contributes to the domains of retail sales, atmospherics, approach-avoidance theory, and emotional contagion theory. The findings, managerial and academic implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.
Exploring penalties in services following a customer mistake
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Harrison, Mary Pritchett; Beatty, Sharon E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation focuses on two under-researched areas in services: customer mistakes and customer penalties. The mistakes that customers make often lead to penalties imposed by the service provider. Examples of penalties are airline change fees, late payment fees, retail restocking fees, and no-show charges. The current trend among service firms is to add or increase penalties and fines (Lovelock and Wirtz 2007) as a means of not only changing customer behavior, but also as a source of revenue for the firm. Customers are frequently error-prone (Chase and Stewart 1994) and cause one-third of all service problems (Tax, Colgate, and Bowen 2006). As common as customer mistakes are, no research exists that explores these mistakes. In addition, no research examines the penalties assessed by service firms after a mistake, or the effect of these penalties on the customer-firm relationship. Many questions exist about customer mistakes and the resulting penalties. The major research questions of this dissertation are the following: (1) What are the underlying causes of customer mistakes in services? (2) What are customers' emotional reactions to penalties, penalty waivers, and waiver refusals? (3) What are the consequences of these emotional reactions on the service relationship? (4) What is the role of attribution of firm responsibility and the disconfirmation of expectations in explaining customers' perceptions of fairness?
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.
Satisfaction and shopping for others: revisiting expectancy disconfirmation theory
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Gillison, Stephanie Traylor; Reynolds, Kristy E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Most individuals engage in shopping for others, whether in the search for a special gift for someone else or simply during routine household shopping. While many of the purchases most of us make are for other peoples' use, existing shopping research generally assumes that the person purchasing the product and the person using the product are the same person. This research looks at shopping situations in which the purchaser of a product and the user of this product are different people. I specifically look at how satisfaction may be different for those shopping for themselves versus someone else. The primary question of interest for this research is: Overall, what are the differences in expectations and outcomes when one is shopping for him/herself versus when one is shopping for someone else? Does role shopping motivation have an impact, or make a difference? This research attempts to answer this question using two studies. The first study is a scenario-based experiment investigating how the purchaser's satisfaction with the shopping trip may be impacted by how the user reacts to the product purchased for him/her. In this experiment, both the purchaser's shopping experience and the user's reaction to the product are manipulated at three levels (positive disconfirmation, simple confirmation, and negative disconfirmation) in order to understand how the purchaser's satisfaction might change in response to the user's product evaluation. The second study is a survey of actual shoppers investigating differences among those shopping for themselves and those shopping for someone else. Here, differences in satisfaction and the subsequent effect on behaviors between these two groups are investigated. The effect of role shopping motivation on these relationships is also examined.
The danger of feast or famine: managing customer participation in value co-production
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Chang, Woojung; Morgan, Robert M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Customer participation in the new product development (NPD) process is becoming more common. Involving customers in the NPD process has been widely considered to enhance market adoption of co-created products and speed up time to market. However, several potential risks relevant to coordination among co-production activities have been raised in recent studies. Drawing on coordination theory, this dissertation examines the conditions under which customer participation in the NPD process improves or deteriorates new product success. The specific focus is on non-linear relationships between customer participation and market adoption and time to market. Furthermore, this dissertation investigates the differential effects on market adoption and time to market of when customers are engaged, the breadth of customer participation, NPD teams' capability to leverage customer insights, product individuality, and price positioning strategy of co-produced products. In Study 1, the hypotheses were tested using data from 647 NPD projects from SourceForge.net, a leading open source software development repository in which end users are involved in developing new software. To test generalizability of the results, Study 2 investigated the same hypotheses based on survey data from 159 NPD managers who have worked on NPD projects in which customers have been involved to some extent to co-create new products. The results of Study 1 show that customer participation enhances market adoption up to a certain point but degrades it beyond that point. Furthermore, the inverted U-shaped relationship between customer participation and market adoption is moderated by breadth of customer participation and the NPD team's co-production capability. With regard to time to market, the findings of Study 1 demonstrate that customer participation continuously slows time to market, confirming serious risks of customer participation. Although the curvilinear relationship found in Study 1 is not extended to various industries of Study 2, the results of Study 2 still indicate that the relationship between customer participation and market adoption is moderated by the timing and breadth of customer participation, and product individuality. The findings highlight a close analysis of benefits and costs of customer participation and provide insights into how and when customers should be engaged in the NPD process.
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.
The role of firm resource demand in shoppers' service experiences
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Landers, Vincent Myles; Davis, Lenita M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Firms are using more customer resources to increase the economic value of the service exchange. However, positive outcomes for a firm are not solely based on demanding more resource inputs from customers. In order to achieve a satisfactory service encounter for the firm and the customer, a firm must understand how a customer views the resource demands placed on them. This dissertation examines the conditions under which differing levels of firm resource demand improve or diminish the customer value through the customer's perceived effort, the equitability of the service exchange, and the overall satisfaction with the service experience. A number of boundary conditions built around customers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are expected to influence these relationships, including the customers' shopping enjoyment, the customers' value shopping orientation, and the firm provided rewards. In order to better understand how customers react to the demands firms place upon them, two studies are conducted. The first study uses a critical incident technique survey to explore the different demands placed on customers during a service encounter and the customers' reactions to those demands. The results from study one indicates that firms demand the use of a number of customer resources to complete a service encounter. Three main resource categories (financial, time, and knowledge) and a number of subcategories emerged from the data. The second study, a scenario-based experiment, examines the hypotheses developed from previous literature and the first study. The findings from study two provide managers' actionable insights into the costs and benefits of increasing the input demand placed on customers. Theoretically, the findings provide scholars with information about the psychological and behavioral reactions of customers to differing input demand levels.
CSR and facets of value creation: the role of key moderators
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Alhouti, Sarah; D'Souza, Giles; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The value corporate social responsibility (CSR) creates for consumers still remains unexplored although its importance has been demonstrated in several contexts including pricing (Chang and Wildt 1994), retailing (Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, and Voss 2002), and across cultures (Xiao and Kim 2009). Monroe (2003) argues that consumers would be willing to pay a higher price when they perceive a substantial value associated with making a purchase. In order to resolve many of the inconsistent findings in the CSR literature, such as the inconsistencies of CSR's ability to influence attitude (Sen, Bhattacharya, and Korschun 2006; Webb and Mohr 1998) and purchase intent (Mohr and Webb 2005; Trudel and Cotte 2009), it is necessary to explore which facets of perceived value consumers derive from CSR. However, without knowing what type of perceived value consumers gain from CSR, researchers and managers lack the information they need to understand why consumers are willing (or not willing) to pay a higher price in the context of CSR. The value created by CSR depends on the type of CSR activity that the company engages in (Peloza and Shang 2011). This study utilized cause-related marketing (CrM) as a type of CSR and proposed that it will influence consumers' values. Specifically, the value consumers derive from CrM will be moderated by perceptual and attitudinal factors. The perceptual factors examined in this study include the company's reputation, the authenticity of the CSR action, and the consumer's perceived personal role. The attitudinal factors included in the study are cynicism, moral disengagement, and consumer alienation. Two experiments were conducted, and the results show that an authentic CSR image accompanied with CrM influences consumers' esteem and spiritual values. This study also finds that consumer values of esteem and spirituality create favorable consumer responses. Finally, the consumer's perception that he or she has a personal role in impacting a cause enhances the value derived from CrM.
An examination of proactive relationship approach with retail customers
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Shin, Hyunju; Ellinger, Alexander E.; Mothersbaugh, David L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
In the current era of intense competition, retailers are increasingly leveraging relationship marketing to attract, retain, and strengthen relationships with customers. Better understanding of the influence and efficacy of relationship investment strategies has therefore become critical to both marketers and retailers. While there are multiple studies of firms' interactions with customers, most of this research is on firms' reactions in retail contexts with relatively few studies evaluating the potential benefits of proactively interacting with customers. This study examines the age-old issue of whether it is better to "get to customers before they get to you" by assessing the relative efficacy of proactive and reactive relationship approaches in retail settings. Reciprocal reaction theory serves as the foundation for the dissertation that proactive interaction more favorably influences customers' emotions and behavioral intentions toward the firm than reactive interactions. Given that a proactive relationship approach may not be an optimal strategy in every situation, firm and customer-related moderators that may influence the effectiveness of proactive relationship approach are also assessed. The study hypotheses are tested with data from two scenario-based experiments. The study findings are expected to extend the relationship investment strategy literature and provide actionable guidance for retail organizations about effectively conducting interactions with customers.
Why did that happen: understanding the impact of witnessing employee-customer directed helping behavior
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Northington, William Magnus; Beatty, Sharon E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The involvement of other customers in a retail store or service setting has always been a unique component of the service experience. Interestingly, a missing component of the literature is an understanding of how the service experience changes for the customer who witnesses an encounter between another customer and an employee of the retail store or service establishment, particularly with regards to positive service encounters that are witnessed. In this dissertation, understanding these customer bystanders, those customers who witness an external event in which they are not the primary actor, was an important step in understanding the true ramifications of a service encounter or a service strategy on customers. In order to better understand how witnessed external events influence customer bystanders, two studies were conducted. The first study used a critical incident technique survey to explore the types of employee-customer interactions customer bystanders witness. The results of study one indicated that employee customer-directed helping behavior was the major positive witnessed type of event and serves as the primary focal employee-customer interaction for this dissertation. The second study in this dissertation, a scenario-based experimental survey, examined the evaluative judgments, emotions, and behavioral intentions of customer bystanders when witnessing an employee engaged in helping another customer when this action has no direct impact on the customer bystander his or herself. The employee customer-directed helping behavior was evaluated through customer bystanders' perceived views of the effort given by an employee in helping the other customer. The findings from study two provide firms with insights into the potential pros and cons of employee helping behavior and the impact of the overall service environment on customer bystanders by showing that customer bystanders are influenced by witnessed perceived employee effort. Theoretically, the findings provide researchers with information about the psychological evaluations, emotional reactions, and behavioral intentions of customer bystanders to witnessing different employee effort levels with regards to helping other customers, and the findings extend understanding of the impact of the overall service or retail environment on evaluations by customers.
Applying network theory to the technology to performance profit chain: a social media application
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Andzulis, James Mitchell; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
It is beyond question that social media has altered the day-to-day lives of individuals in their social interactions. However, less is known about the quantifiable impact of social media on business, especially in the sales domain. As sales has progressed from a transactional, to relational, to co-creation of value endeavor, marked by substantial engagement between customer and salesperson, technology has been a regular facilitator of change, enabling information collection, use and transfer in ways once thought unimaginable. In a similar way, the use of social media technology has that same potential, as the gap between buyer and seller closes around an increasingly important salesperson or boundary spanner, with access to information and the customer like never before. However, little is known about the strategic outcomes and facilitating conditions of such social media technology usage. This research advances deeper understanding by exploring the role of salesperson social media technology usage as an antecedent to three increasingly important strategic outcomes in the sales domain. Using social exchange theory as its primary foundation, this dissertation explores the links between frequency and intensity of social media technology usage and 1) competitive intelligence, 2) communication reciprocity, and 3) value co-creation, finding positive support for each of the three hypothesized primary linear relationships in the conceptual framework. Through network theory, this work also investigates the moderating impact of important salesperson network characteristics, including size, density, heterogeneity, and quality in an effort to identify which organizations and salespeople, specifically, are most likely to benefit from such technology investment and use. Findings support two of the moderating hypotheses, demonstrating that the size of the salesperson's network has a detrimental impact on both communication reciprocity, and value co-creation perhaps as the relationship with each and every individual customer begins to suffer at the expense of servicing the mass. Results also suggest fertile ground for future work potentially exploring the impact of three additional moderating relationships found on the cusp of partial support.
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.
Awareness and action: implications and dimensions of salesperson emotional intelligence
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Johnson, Catherine M.; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Recently, sales literature has begun to recognize that emotional intelligence (EI), which is a distinct form of intelligence entailing the perception, understanding, facilitation, and management of emotions, is a salesperson characteristic that has the potential to substantively impact interpersonal success and, ultimately, performance. This research explores specific outcomes and boundary conditions of EI in a sales context with a field study including a salesperson sample. Further, it stands to contribute to the considerable debate surrounding emotional intelligence by first empirically comparing competing conceptualizations in the same sample. Second, this research proposes and provides empirical support for a new conceptualization of emotional intelligence as consisting of cognitive and behavioral components which are not only distinct from each other but also are progressive in nature. Finally, moderators are found which impact a salesperson’s ability to translate cognitive EI into behavioral EI.
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.
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.
Three essays on cultural intelligence, innovation, and institutional distance
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Lorenz, Melanie Petra; Franke, George; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
While cultural differences and related formal and informal distances are often described as creating difficulties and complexity, the ability to understand and to adapt to differences or to leverage those for positive outcomes is an important imperative for individuals and firms operating in an international arena. Innovation, the positive outcome in this study, has particularly shown to be vital for success and long-term survivability of organizations. This dissertation investigates both the impact of cultural abilities, and in particular cultural intelligence (CQ), as well as the impact of cultural distance, as part of the larger institutional distance (ID) framework, on innovation on a micro- and macro level of analysis. The first essay is based on a review of the CQ literature and a reanalysis of past studies. Although research on CQ has increased since the introduction of the concept, the measurement has raised theoretical and empirical concerns. Using a meta-analytic process, we reanalyzed past CQ studies in order to make inferences and generalizations of the antecedents and outcomes of cultural intelligence. In the second essay we use the insights gained from Essay 1 regarding the application of the CQ scale and apply it to the context of innovation on a micro-level of analysis. Examining a sample of 220 expatriates in the U.S. we demonstrate the importance of CQ for international opportunity recognition and innovation. Specifically, we find that expatriates high in metacognitive CQ are better able to recognize international opportunities and to exploit marketable innovations. Finally, in the third essay we turn away from micro-level drivers of innovation to examine the determinants of innovation on a macro-level. Hereby, we reconcile controversial findings from the ID and diversity literature and suggest that sometimes, ID (composed of formal and informal distances) may positively affect innovation. The findings from the analysis of 371 offshoring implementations provide empirical support for the positive effect of certain formal and informal distances on innovation. Taken together, the dissertation demonstrates the importance of possessing cross-cultural skills and the ability of appraising differences for micro- and macro level innovativeness while offering suggestions for future research and applications.
Social capital influences on sales team processes: a generational perspective
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Ogilvie, Jessica Lynn; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation explores the impact of organizational faultlines and their influence on sales team resources, activities, processes, and performance. A review of extant team literature builds a foundation for understanding the role of sales teams within organizations and the implications of team processes on performance outcomes. Characteristics of the generation currently entering the workforce – Millennials – and the diversity implications of this cohort’s presence in the workplace are explored. Applying a social capital perspective, this research advances an input-process-outcome (IPO) model of sales team performance which investigates the implications of (1) faultlines within teams and (2) the effects of generational differences across teams. Specifically, three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) serve as to three facets of team processes (transition, action, and interpersonal). The results indicate that positive relationships exist between each of the input and process components, as well as between the three dimensions of team process and relational and objective measures of sales performance. Finally, faultline strength and generation differences moderate the relationships of the IPO model. These findings suggest that sales team performance is a function not only to the management of the team and its individual components, but to the hypothetical self-identifying groups that form therein, therefore requiring additional attention from the organization and its stakeholders. This work extends application of a social capital theoretical lens to the sales team context, and sets the stage for future work as millennials assume organizational control, and seek to build better relationships with both inter-organizational partners and external buying centers.

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