Suchergebnisse

PurposeManagers working within organizations that are part of public–private collaborations comment on their "diabolical" nature and seek guidance as to their administration. Set in an organization involved in a public–private "service delivery contract", the purpose of this paper is to report research into the collaboration and challenges experienced within the organization. It also seeks to consider to the significance of narrative and story‐telling in understanding these complexities.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using depth interviews and observation. The emerging discourse was analyzed using a machine‐based, lexigraphic tool to provide a framework for interpretive story analysis. The significance and value of each approach are illustrated as are the effective synergies between them.FindingsThe paper identifies a number of different competing interests, including the needs of the clients vs the governmentally imposed goals and performance metrics of the organization. The limitations of this network form are highlighted; through contrasting of manager and consultant stories it becomes plain that collaborative networking only occurs at the management levels.Research limitations/implicationsThe role of the story‐teller and the story context emerge as significant. Further research that pays greater attention to the stories' context, subtext, roles of narrator and others in the story is recommended.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates the value of extending machine‐based analysis with more interpretive approaches. The significance of story analysis in understanding the embeddedness of narrative is highlighted as the range of synergies that can arise from multiple analytical techniques.

PurposeThe objective is to review theories of the impact of network relations and present empirical evidence on their nature and impacts. Among the questions addressed are: Who initiates network relations? Which ones are important and why? and What is the nature of the affects in important relationships?Design/methodology/approachAnalysis is based on the IMP2 omnibus survey of international B2B business relations, specifically Swedish, German and Chinese firms.FindingsWhile there are some differences between countries, contrary to conventional wisdom, no evidence can be found that Chinese firms differ from European firms on the above questions.Research limitations/implicationsChina is rapidly evolving a market‐based economy and its firms increasingly interact with foreign customers and suppliers. It is to be expected in particular that Chinese responses to the questions regarding network relations will evolve. An implication is that studies of this sort should be periodically repeated over the next decade.Practical implicationsThe results imply that Chinese and European firms characterize their relationships with important customers using largely the same factors and that the perceived importance of these factors largely is the same.Originality/valueThe survey reflects the conceptual structure of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group. The IMP2 database is one of the largest omnibus, cross‐national surveys that collects information of B2B relationships.

We show how different approaches to developing marketing strategies depend on the type of environment a firm faces, where environments are distinguished in terms of their systems properties rather than their content. Particular emphasis is given to turbulent environments in which outcomes are not a priori predictable and are not traceable to individual firm actions and we show that, in these conditions, the relevant unit of competitive response and understanding is no longer the individual firm but the network of relations comprising interdependent, interacting firms. Networks of relations are complex adaptive systems that are more 'intelligent' than the individual firms that comprise them and are capable of comprehending and responding to more complex and turbulent environments. Yet they are co-produced by the patterns of actions and interactions of the firms involved. The creation and accessing of such distributed intelligence cannot be centrally directed, as this necessarily limits it. Instead managers and firms are involved in a kind of participatory planning and adaptation process through which the network self-organizes and adapts. Drawing on research in systems theory, complexity, biology and cognitive science, extensions to the resource-based theory of the firm are proposed that include how resources are linked across relations and networks in a dynamic and evolutionary way. The concepts of an extended firm and soft-assembled strategies are introduced to describe the nature of the strategy development process. This results in a more theoretically grounded basis for understanding the nature and role of relationship and network strategies in marketing and management. We finish by considering the research implications of our analysis and the role of agent-based models as a means of sensitizing and informing management action.

Background: Medical schools may select students for their attitudes towards rural medical practice, yet the rural–urban disparity in availability of medical practitioners and services has not diminished in recent times despite government initiatives and increasing numbers being trained for a career in medicine. One medical school, with a focus on rural and remote medicine, aims to select students with positive perceptions for rural medical practice. A research project collected data on the perceptions of these medical students in the first week of their medical studies. Methods: Students completed a low stakes essay on the life and work of a rural doctor. Initially, this formed part of a literacy assessment to determine any students requiring remediation. All students were asked if they would consent to their essay being reviewed for a research project. Data was obtained from those students who consented and handed their essays in for review. The 103 student essays underwent thematic analysis and sentences were coded into three main themes of rural lifestyle, doctor role and rural practice. Second level themes were further elicited and results were quantified according to whether they were positive or negative. Positive themes included rural lifestyle, doctor role, views of doctor, impact on community, broader work and skills knowledge, and better relationships with community and patients. Negative themes included doctor's health, pressure on doctor, family problems, greater workload, privacy and confidentiality issues, cultural issues, isolation, limited resources and financial impacts. Quantitisation of this data was used to transform essay sentences into a numerical form which allowed statistical analysis and comparison of perceptions using Z tests. Results: No significant differences on the number of positive and negative responses for rural lifestyle and rural practice were found. The rural doctor role had a significantly more positive than negative views. Significant differences were found for positive ...

Purpose– This paper aims to consider the nature and role of commitment in delivering value in customer–supplier relationships by developing and testing a model of relationship cooperativeness.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected using an extended version of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP2) Group's instrument. Pre-qualified managers largely self-completed the survey. Model associations were tested via regression and causal path analysis.Findings– Various aspects of commitment play differing roles in relationship development. The role of commitment was less than expected; the exception is value-based commitment which is strongly associated with value creation, conflict management, trust and cooperation.Research limitations/implications– Findings provide explanations for some inconsistencies in previous findings including reported relationships between trust, cooperation and commitment. The composition of the commitment construct(s) strongly influences relationship processes.Practical implications– There are various kinds of commitment to build and multiple pathways to levering this into more effective relationships. In addition, an important part of these findings is strong indications that illustrate what the nature of ineffective commitment-building paths is likely to be. This is extremely important for managers in guiding deployment of relationship management resources and developing relationship management practice.Social implications– The regulation of close business-to-business relationships remains an important issue, and the ways in which commitment can be appropriately extended are an important part of this.Originality/value– This work focuses on the components of commitment in ways that previous work has not. The centrality of commitment in relationship value creation – beyond increased sales and revenue and predictability – is highlighted, and there is considerable extension to the understanding of the nature of this process.

We report the results of an analysis of the research impact of marketing academics using citation metrics for 2263 academics in the top 500 research universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities based in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA. The metrics are computed for publications from 2001 to 2013, which were collected in 2014 and 2015. We also report the same metrics for all universities in Australia and New Zealand that employ more than 4 marketing academics. The results provide an objective measure of research impact and provide benchmarks that can be used by governments, universities and individual academics to compare research impact. In an appendix we rank the top 100 university marketing departments in the top 500.

Export grouping schemes are a commonly used vehicle for promoting international competitiveness, but their success rate is patchy. A perennial problem is the value of continuing the formal group structure itself. In this paper we examine the nature and role of export groups using the results from two in‐depth Australian case studies. The focus of analysis is on export groups as structuring devices rather than structures. They are viewed as action learning exercises in which knowledge and resource creating and self‐organizing processes are nurtured, these processes in turn shaping the evolution of interfirm relations and networks. Building on earlier work by Wilkinson and Young the dance metaphor is extended to depict and analyze export groups as dance parties. Dance themes are used to illustrate and dramatize issues arising in the design, development and evaluation of export grouping schemes and are related to the real experience of the two case studies examined.

We discuss the use of Agent-based Modelling for the development and testing of theories about emergent social phenomena in marketing and the social sciences in general. We address both theoretical aspects about the types of phenomena that are suitably addressed with this approach and practical guidelines to help plan and structure the development of a theory about the causes of such a phenomenon in conjunction with a matching ABM. We argue that research about complex social phenomena is still largely fundamental research and therefore an iterative and cyclical development process of both theory and model is to be expected. To better anticipate and manage this process, we provide theoretical and practical guidelines. These may help to identify and structure the domain of candidate explanations for a social phenomenon, and furthermore assist the process of model implementation and subsequent development. The main goal of this paper was to make research on complex social systems more accessible and help anticipate and structure the research process.

"Bibliography of suggested readings": p. 177-180. ; Mode of access: Internet.