THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF CONTEXTUAL FACTORS ON A BUYER’S TRUST IN E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS AND SELLERS

Drawing on trust transfer theory and signal theory, we investigate how perceived effectiveness of e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM) and perceived website quality of the seller (PWQS) moderate the relationships between trust in platform, trust in seller and purchase intention in the context of Consumer to Consumer (C2C) platforms. To test our proposed model, we surveyed 224 buyers of TaoBao, a major Chinese C2C portal. The results indicate that PEEIM has no effect on the relationship between trust in platform and trust in seller, yet it positively moderates the relationship between trust in seller and purchase intention. In addition, PWQS positively moderates the relationship between trust in platform and trust in seller, but negatively moderates the relationship between trust in seller and purchase intention. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed

The Role of Exporters’ Emotional Intelligence in Building Foreign Customer Relationships

Despite the critical importance of emotional intelligence in effectively interacting with other people, its role has been overlooked in scholarly research on cross-border interorganizational relationships. Drawing on Emotion Regulation Theory, we propose a model that conceptualizes links among exporters’ emotional intelligence, key behavioral dimensions characterizing the atmosphere of the relationship with import buyers, and the resulting relational performance. We test the model with data collected from 262 Greek exporters using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that higher levels of exporter emotional intelligence enhances communication and social bonding with the importer, while diminishing distance and conflict in their working relationship. Relational performance is positively influenced by communication and social bonding, but negatively affected by distance and conflict. The results also reveal the moderating effect of both opportunism and interpartner incompatibility on the association between the exporter’s emotional intelligence and the behavioral atmosphere of the relationship with import buyers

Corporate reputation past and future: a review and integration of existing literature and a framework for future research

The concept of corporate reputation is steadily growing in interest among management researchers and practitioners. In this article, we trace key milestones in the development of reputation literature over the past six decades to suggest important research gaps as well as to provide contextual background for a subsequent integration of approaches and future outlook. In particular we explore the need for better categorised outcomes; a wider range of causes; and a deeper understanding of contingencies and moderators to advance the field beyond its current state while also taking account of developments in the macro business environment. The article concludes by presenting a novel reputation framework that integrates insights from reputation theory and studies, outlines gaps in knowledge and offers directions for future research

The role of social media in driving FLE performance and customer relationship: an internal marketing perspective

The Internal Marketing (IM) discourse has long remain fragmented and is at the verge of becoming further outdated. This is due to the lack of relevance of IM work to recent technological advancements and its use in firm interactions internally (with employees) and externally (with customers). This thesis aims to review the current state of IM discourse as well as explore its value in relation to the use of social media in the workplace. Through the theoretical lens of IM this thesis explores how organisations can effectively manage frontline employees’ (FLEs) use of social media in their communications, and attempts to build relationships, with customers. Furthermore, it aims to show how FLEs social media use, both externally with their customers and simultaneously internally with their colleagues, impacts FLEs performance. This thesis addresses these issues using a three-paper approach. Paper 1 delivers a systematic review of the IM discourse, by analysing 349 published articles, concluding that IM has entered a period of ennui due to the limitations of existing theoretical lenses. It also develops an integrated framework of six IM dimensions and advances a research agenda in light of recent theoretical and market developments. Papers 2 and 3 investigate two of these emerging avenues for future research (i.e. the role of technology-mediated communication and leadership in organisations’ IM capabilities). For papers 2 and 3, empirical evidence was collected from 388 paired responses (i.e., employee self-reported and supervisor-rated surveys) through a survey-based approach within financial service firms in a Chinese context. Paper 2 investigates the role of leadership, in the form of supervisors, in employees’ social media communications and their effect on sales performance. FLEs’ adoption of social media is driven their supervisor’s social media capabilities, enhanced by supervisor enabled empowerment and supervisor-FLE relationships. Paper 2 demonstrates whilst social media communication is effective in increasing sales performance it may also have a dark side leading to employee information overload. Paper 2 updates the underpinning mechanism of IM effects through applying Media Synchronicity Theory showing the effects are contingent on the communication modes of social media (synchronous or asynchronous). Paper 3 investigates the consequences of employees’ social media relationship-building efforts with both their customers and their co-workers. Applying Social Capital Theory as the explanatory mechanism, the results show that through both employee-customer and employee-colleague social media interactions, FLEs directly and indirectly acquire customer needs; enhance both organisational identification and customer identification, leading to greater customer service performance. Furthermore, customer, and not organisational, identification encourages FLEs to break organisational rules for the benefit of customers. This thesis makes some important theoretical contributions. First, this thesis updates IM theory by suggesting the investigation of internal marketing through new theoretical lenses (i.e., Media Synchronicity Theory, Social Capital Theory). Second, social media is demonstrated as a technological tool of IM communication and relationship-building both externally with customers and internally with colleagues. Third, this thesis empirically confirms two new theoretical mechanisms through which social media enhances employee sales and customer service performance but also acknowledges limitations such as information overload and customer deviance that can occur. Fourth, it expands Media Synchronicity Theory by showing that its interplay between different social media communication modes, and in-person communication that affect outcomes. Finally, it contributes to Social Capital Theory by demonstrating the distinct effect of internal and external social capital in one theoretical framework presented in Paper 3

Competencies, capabilities, and relational factors in buyer-supplier Business-to-Business networks

Includes bibliographical references.Most of today's knowledge of Business-to-Business marketing is grounded on studies conducted in so-called western countries. Recently some researchers have started to question the validity of concepts, ideas and measures conceived in developed markets to explain business marketing phenomena in non-western contexts. Moreover research has attributed this gap in the literature on the relative absence of Business-to-Business marketing research from emerging, non-western countries (see, for example, Biggemann and Fam, 2011.) In emerging markets firms also operate in large networks that contains multiple, complex, direct and indirect business relationships among buyers and sellers. The thesis draws on four different empirical studies to integrate key sets of knowledge spawned from the realms of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group (IMP) to observe Business-to-Business relationships in a South African context

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

Three Studies of B2B Salespeople as Collectors of Competitive Intelligence

PhD thesis in Social SciencesB2B salespeople’s ability to collect competitive intelligence from the marketplace affects organizational and individual competitive advantage and, in turn, firm and salesperson performance. The collection, sharing and use of this information are of potential strategic interest, and individual information collection is an important part of market orientation. The complexity and rate of change of industrial markets are increasing due to factors such as rapid technological development, and firms need to adapt to shifting market conditions faster than ever before, heightening the need for CI collection. Boundary spanners like salespeople spend a large part of their time outside their organizations meeting customers and competitors and thus are in a unique position to collect information from the market. The overall objective of this thesis is to increase the understanding of different aspects of salesperson information collection. This is addressed through three subobjectives: one, investigating what motivates salespeople to collect information beyond factors with a direct effect; two, determining how information collection leads to salesperson learning in a digital setting; and three, identifying the types of information collected by salespeople and strategies for motivating salespeople to collect information needed by the organization. The main contribution of subobjective one is the finding that the effects of known drivers of motivation for collecting information may vary with the salesperson’s personality characteristics, which are represented here by the personality trait locus of control. This variation might explain, at least in part, why only a few salespeople consistently collect information, despite attempts to include all salespeople. The main contribution of subobjective two is the development of a theoretical framework for listening in a digital setting before meeting customers physically. A model of how social media affects salesperson learning and knowledge building is presented, thus adding to the growing effort to understand how salespeople can use social media to increase their knowledge from the information they collect. The main contribution of subobjective three is the finding that the information salespeople collect is tactical, for their own interest, and of little value to customers and the sales organization. To increase the value of the type of information salespeople collect, this thesis argues for a stronger focus on the relationship between sales managers and their salespeople. The use of sales managers as a motivational factor for collecting more specific information through the sales force has received scarce treatment in the literature on the motivation of salespeople to collect information

Building Country-Specific Advantages (CSA): Understanding How FTZ Incentives Impact Strategic Plant Location and Buyer-Supplier Relationships

We explore how leading companies manage relationships in supply chains that are not formed by natural market forces. Rather, they were stimulated by exogenous forces, such as the Free Trade Zones that are created by the Government’s policy initiatives for purposes of regional development. We researched electronic industry in Manaus, located in the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest. Multi-methods using qualitative, structured interviews, and quantitative approaches, structural modeling equation, were used. Results indicated that the companies settled for a location that they would not do under normal conditions and, secondly, that there was an expectation of externality as the makers of the strategy, in this case the public entity. Coordination among the members is not enough structured. No strategic supplier was found on the local FTZ, indicating that the local suppliers are only based on the premise of volume vs. logistics cost

Impact of quality management adoption in customer performance – moderation effect analysis in the context of exporting Portuguese firms

The impact of the implementation of ISO norms in the firms’ performance has been evaluated considering indicators which are nor easily quantified such as the organizational efficiency or indicators easily measurable such as the stock value or CEO compensation, but that are not directly linked to the implementation of ISO norms in a firm. This study uses customer orientation, product innovation and leadership as quantifiable items that play an important role in the overall firm’s performance. The study uses data from the Portuguese firms and will attest whether the implementation of ISO norms can be beneficial for the firms’ customer performance. The existing literature has presented different conclusions on the impact of the ISO norms in the firms’ performance also due to the type of adoption that the firms use when implementing the ISO norms