Exploring CRM effectiveness: an institutional theory perspective

This study identifies the potential contribution that institutional theory can make to understanding the success of marketing practices. Based on institutional theory, we argue that the effectiveness of marketing practices decreases when firms are motivated to adopt such practices under the influence of institutional pressures originating in firms' environments. However, alignment between a practice and a firm's marketing strategy may buffer against these negative effects. We apply these insights to the case of customer relationship management (CRM). CRM is considered an important way to enhance customer loyalty and firm performance, but it has also been criticized for being expensive and for not living up to expectations. Empirical data from 107 organizations confirm that, in general, adopting CRM for mimetic motives is likely to result in fewer customer insights as a result of using this practice. Our study suggests that institutional theory has much to offer to the investigation of the effectiveness of marketing practices

CEO succession and the CEO’s commitment to the status quo

Chief executive officer (CEO) commitment to the status quo (CSQ) is expected to play an important role in any firm’s strategic adaptation. CSQ is used often as an explanation for strategic change occurring after CEO succession: new CEOs are expected to reveal a lower CSQ than established CEOs. Although widely accepted in the literature, this relationship remains imputed but unobserved. We address this research gap and analyze whether new CEOs reveal lower CSQ than established CEOs. By analyzing the letters to the shareholders of German HDAX firms, we find empirical support for our hypothesis of a lower CSQ of newly appointed CEOs compared to established CEOs. However, our detailed analyses provide a differentiated picture. We find support for a lower CSQ of successors after a forced CEO turnover compared to successors after a voluntary turnover, which indicates an influence of the mandate for change on the CEO’s CSQ. However, against the widespread assumption, we do not find support for a lower CSQ of outside successors compared to inside successors, which calls for deeper analyses of the insiderness of new CEOs. Further, our supplementary analyses propose a revised tenure effect: the widely assumed relationship of an increase in CSQ when CEO tenure increases might be driven mainly by the event of CEO succession and may not universally and continuously increase over time, pointing to a “window of opportunity” to initiate strategic change shortly after the succession event. By analyzing the relationship between CEO succession and CEO CSQ, our results contribute to the CSQ literature and provide fruitful impulses for the CEO succession literature

Intensity attenuation in the UK

Intensity attenuation is relatively little studied compared with the attenuation of peak ground acceleration, due to the fact that the PGA can be used for engineering design, while intensity cannot. However, intensity has other uses, including the estimation of effects (including damage) of future earthquakes, and hence, at least in a general way, the study of earthquake risk. Knowledge of intensity attenuation is also useful in calibrating hazard models against historical experience. In this study, the attenuation of intensity in the U.K. is thoroughly evaluated from a data set comprising 727 isoseismals from 326 British earthquakes, including both modern and historical events. Best results are obtained by restricting the data set to events contributing at least two isoseismals. The preferred equation is $I = 3.31 + 1.28{\rm ML} - 1.22\ln\!R$I=331+128ML−122lnR where I is intensity (European Macroseismic Scale), ML is local magnitude, and R is hypocentral distance. The sigma (uncertainty) value is 0.46. Some sample applications of this formula are demonstrated