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

Coevolution in Management Fashions

On behalf of

Handling management ideas: Gatekeeping, editors and professional magazines

While business media are important in the transfer of management ideas, there has been little attention to the question how media-internal processes shape the way the media address these ideas. Our study shows how editorial norms and routines at professional magazines interact with external pressures to produce a unique process of gatekeeping management ideas. Our findings show that editors’ perceptions of an idea's newsworthiness are vital in gatekeeping. Nonetheless, the role of the media in the dissemination of management ideas is critically dependent on resource constraints and the related influence of external authors and advertisers. Whereas resource-rich magazines can follow a logic of autonomy and independence, magazines with fewer resources are more inclined to collude with management intellectuals, consulting firms and advertisers to create interest in certain management ideas

Measuring the prevalence of self-managing teams: taking account of defining characteristics

Self-managing teams are considered a hallmark of employee participation and high-performance work practices. However; the results of research into their prevalence are usually incomparable, since sources use varied and divergent oper-ationalisations. Building on recent studies that measure team prevalence, we propose our own operational definition of teams, and suggest suitable items for their measurement. We thereby aim to encourage standardisation in the measurement of team prevalence.management practices; methods; prevalence; self-managing teams; teamwork

Handling management ideas: Gatekeeping, editors and professional magazines

While business media are important in the transfer of management ideas, there has been little attention to the question how media-internal processes shape the way the media address these ideas. Our study shows how editorial norms and routines at professional magazines interact with external pressures to produce a unique process of gatekeeping management ideas. Our findings show that editors’ perceptions of an idea’s newsworthiness are vital in gatekeeping. Nonetheless, the role of the media in the dissemination of management ideas is critically dependent on resource constraints and the related influence of external authors and advertisers. Whereas resource-rich magazines can follow a logic of autonomy and independence, magazines with fewer resources are more inclined to collude with management intellectuals, consulting firms and advertisers to create interest in certain management ideas.status: publishe

Coevolution in management fashions: The case of self-managing teams in the Netherlands

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