Improving Industrial Sales Productivity: A Field Experimental Study Of A Telemarketing And Demonstration Centre Application Of Behavioural Influence Strategy

Advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion have been the primary communication approaches used in marketing. However, these tested and proved methods of reaching customers have recently been coming under increasing cost pressures. Of foremost importance to industrial marketers, rising fuel costs and salary costs have increased substantially the cost of the personal sales call.;Managers are increasingly turning to new approaches such as telemarketing and demonstration centres as adjuncts to the more traditional communications approaches. There is little experience in industrial marketing practice that managers can draw upon when designing communication programs incorporating the new adjunct approaches. There is also little in the marketing literature. This study investigates the effective use of telemarketing and demonstration centres in tandem with field sales and direct mail advertising for the purpose of new account development.;The theoretical communications approach taken in this study is a behavioral influence one as opposed to a traditional persuasion approach. Two experiments in an actual industrial marketing field setting were carried out to determine the relative effectiveness of alternative telemarketing program communication strategies. The organization in which the study was carried out markets telecommunications products and the study sample exposed to the communications strategies consisted of potential customers--general managers and marketing managers representing industrial firms in the wholesale trade sector.;The study found that the behavioral influence strategy known as the Foot-in-the-Door (FITD) strategy obtained a higher rate of compliance with a critical request for attendance at a sales seminar with an FITD treatment consisting of a telephoned request to accept sales literature in the mail. The FITD effect was found at the behavioural intentions level (enrollment), as well as at the actual behavioural level (attendance). Mixed evidence was found with regard to the sustainability of the effect into other dependent measures of interest to managers. The FITD effect was not found when the FITD treatment was a request to answer three short market research questions over the telephone.;The thesis is concluded with a discussion of the implications of the findings for both behavioural influence-based marketing research and for industrial marketing managers

Global Business and Economics Review

A través de la elaboración y análisis de cuatro estudios de caso en profundidad de la aparición de industrias de energía eólica en dos industrializados y dos economías emergentes, los autores desarrollan un modelo de desarrollo de la industria de la energía sostenible. El modelo demuestra que los indicadores económicos fundamentales son insuficientes para explicar el desarrollo de la nueva industria. Los factores ambientales, institucionales y culturales idiosincrásicos a las jurisdicciones individuales juegan un papel importante en la aparición de industrias de energía renovable en las economías industrializadas y emergentes. El modelo hace aportaciones a las teorías de cambio institucional y estratégica y tiene implicaciones para los responsables políticos y los gestores.Through the development and analysis of four in-depth case studies of the emergence of wind power industries in two industrialised and two emerging economies, the authors develop a model of sustainable energy industry development. The model demonstrates that fundamental economic indicators are insufficient for explaining new industry development. Environmental, institutional and cultural factors idiosyncratic to individual jurisdictions play important roles in the emergence of renewable energy industries in both industrialised and emerging economies. The model makes contributions to institutional and strategic change theories and has implications for policy makers and managers.Cuencavolumen 12, número

Managing stakeholder ambiguity

In this article, the authors review various streams of research suggesting that although companies are increasingly under pressure to manage conflicting or difficult-to-reconcile stakeholder demands, managers are still largely behind the curve in recognizing, justifying and developing the capabilities to do so. In contrast to primary stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and shareholders, secondary stakeholders are often difficult to identify beforehand, or they may not be willing or able to engage, negotiate, compromise or clearly articulate their positions - a phenomenon the authors refer to as stakeholder ambiguity. Citing examples involving companies such as Monsanto, Conoco-Philips, Texaco and the French oil company Perenco, the authors present research indicating that managers are often ill-prepared to deal with the idiosyncratic and context-specific nature of stakeholder ambiguity and typically revert to formulaic decision-making frameworks, such as discounted cash flow and cost-benefit analysis, which misrepresent the challenges. Some research indicates that stakeholder ambiguity may actually erode the competitive advantage of large multinationals. Although such companies possess significant competencies, technological capabilities and economies of scale, they may be at a disadvantage when trying to determine and align the interests of secondary stakeholders

The challenges of innovating for sustainable development

No description supplie

Sustainable development innovation and competitive advantage: implications for business, policy and management education

This paper discusses some of the trends and emerging issues in corporate sustainable development innovation (SDI). In the last few years sustainable development pressures have been recognized as a serious challenge and major strategic issue by managers. Although pressures vary across industrial and national contexts, they are increasingly changing the rules of competition, making extant competencies obsolete, creating winners, losers and opportunities for niche players. Drawing from cases in the agricultural biotechnology and oil and gas industries, we argue that firms are often ill-prepared to deal with the complex and often ambiguous nature of sustainable development, especially the social dimension. Traditional risk management techniques and innovation strategies are insufficient to deal with these added difficulties. We further argue that business school training that typically promotes simple answers through complicated formulas reinforces these deficiencies. Effective sustainable development innovation involves embedded organizational capabilities and the ability to recognize and respond to often context-specific, conflicting and sometimes ambiguous pressures. Yet it is precisely because SDI is hard — and important — that such capabilities can be the grounds for competitive advantage. We conclude with implications for managers, policy makers, future research and teaching

Collaborating for sustainability: strategic knowledge networks, natural resource management and regional development

Many firms have turned to strategies based on collaborative initiatives with stakeholders to generate the valuable knowledge resources needed to be successful in today's global economy. Firms in natural resource-based industries such as mining, energy and forestry, which typically provide the backbone for regional development in their production locations, have become leaders in establishing innovative sustainability initiatives that integrate a range of stakeholder interests. Using a case-based inductive theory-building approach, this paper presents a model of a strategic knowledge network based on collaboration between firms in Canada's west coast forest products industry and their stakeholders. It presents a three-phase model with the important knowledge creating variables, the knowledge resources accruing from the network, and the performance implications for the firms. The model has value for firms in other resource-based industries that face stakeholder conflicts and are working to incorporate sustainability principles into their strategies.strategic knowledge networks; economic development; regional development; natural resources; resource management; inter-organisational collaboration; regions; collaborative initiatives; stakeholder conflicts; global economy; globalisation; mining; mineral extraction; energy; forestry; innovation; inductive theories; Canada; forest products; timber; performance implications; resource-based industries; British Columbia; lumber; sustainability; sustainable development; sustainable economy.

Towards a model of wind energy industry development in industrial and emerging economies

Through the development and analysis of four in-depth case studies of the emergence of wind power industries in two industrialised and two emerging economies, the authors develop a model of sustainable energy industry development. The model demonstrates that fundamental economic indicators are insufficient for explaining new industry development. Environmental, institutional and cultural factors idiosyncratic to individual jurisdictions play important roles in the emergence of renewable energy industries in both industrialised and emerging economies. The model makes contributions to institutional and strategic change theories and has implications for policy makers and managers.sustainability; wind power industry; renewable energy; institutional factors; legitimacy; climate change; wind energy; sustainable development; industrialised economies; emerging economies; organisational change; strategic change; environmental factors; cultural factors; culture.

Energy Return on Investment of Canadian Oil Sands Extraction from 2009 to 2015

Oil sands, as unconventional oil, are so essential to both Canada and the world that special attention should be paid to their extraction status, especially their energy efficiency. One of the most commonly used methods to evaluate energy efficiency is the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) analysis. This paper focuses on EROI analysis for both in situ oil sands and mining oil sands over the period of 2009 to 2015. This time period represents an extension to periods previously considered by other analyses. An extended Input-Output model is used to quantify indirect energy input, which has been ignored by previous analyses of oil sands extraction. Results of this paper show that EROI of both mining oil sands (range of value: 3.9–8) and in situ oil sands (range of value: 3.2–5.4) display an upward trend over the past 7 years; EROI of mining oil sands is generally higher, but is more fluctuating than the EROI of in situ oil sands. Compared with EROI of other hydrocarbons, the EROI of oil sands is still quite low, despite the fact that it is increasing gradually