Informatie technologie in marketing: een inter-organisationed perspectief

In this article we describe three types of applications of information technology in marketing. These are (1) applications that focus on improving the efficiency of marketing processes; (2) applications that focus on improving the effectiveness of marketing management; and (3) applications that improve the strategic position of organizations within a marketing channel. The application of information technology has led to the availability of large amounts of marketing information. Through the use of marketing management support systems, this information can be used effectively. By sharing marketing information with channel partners through inter-organisational information systems, information can be used innovatively as well.

The Added Value of Corporate Brands

This study shows that different types of associations regarding a company have different effects on customers' product evaluations. Associations with a company's ability influenced quality perceptions of products marketed by the company's subsidiaries, but not intentions to actually buy those products. In contrast, corporate social responsibility associations influenced product purchase intentions, but not quality perceptions.corporate image;survey;Corporate branding;brand strategies;product evaluations

Internet mag distributievorm niet bepalen

Internet biedt de mogelijkheid voor andere distributievormen, maar moet deze keuze niet voorschrijven. Ieder bedrijf zal zich moeten beraden op zijn strategische positie. Afhankelijkheidsverhoudingen spelen daarbij een belangrijke rol, meent Gerrit van Bruggen

Building Stronger Channel Relationships Through Information Sharing

Does sharing market information help channel partners to buildstronger mutual relationships? Is low initial trust really animpediment for further relationship development by means ofinformation sharing? How do connections with other competingchannel partners affect the relationship building process? Toaddress these questions, we conducted an experimental study.Our findings show that retailer information sharing helps todevelop higher quality supplier relationships. Interestingly,even if the initial level of trust in the retailer is low, therelationship quality substantially improves. In a morecompetitive situation the suppliers respond more favorably tothe retailer?s information-sharing initiative.experimental design;information-sharing;interfirm collaboration;marketing channels

Informants in Organizational Marketing Research

Organizational research frequently involves seeking judgmental data from multiple informants within organizations. Researchers are often faced with determining how many informants to survey, who those informants should be and (if more than one) how best to aggregate responses when disagreement exists between those responses. Using both recall and forecasting data from a laboratory study involving the MARKSTRAT simulation, we show that when there are multiple respondents who disagree, responses aggregated using confidence-based or competence-based weights outperform those with data-based weights, which in turn provide significant gains in estimation accuracy over simply averaging respondent reports. We then illustrate how these results can be used to determine the best number of respondents for a market research task as well as to provide an effective screening mechanism when seeking a single, best informant.screening;marketing research;aggregation;organizational research;survey research

The Impact of Channel Function Performance on Buyer-Seller Relationships in Marketing Channels

Distributors, across sectors and countries, are faced by the threat of disintermediation. In many industries, horizontal consolidation and advances in information technology have made it easier for manufacturers to bypass distributors and do business directly with consumers. Distributors have responded to this threat or other destructive acts in a number of different ways that can be represented through Hirschman's (1970) Exit-Voice-Loyalty framework. One additional response that distributors frequently adopt is developing countervailing power through dependence-balancing actions. These actions are designed to strengthen bonds with customers and often manifest themselves in the provision of improved channel services to customers. Does this strategy work? We seek to address this in our paper. Specifically, we examine the nature and magnitude of the direct and interactive effects of (a) the performance of marketing functions and services by a distributor and (b) the dependence structure of its relationship with its customers on different dimensions of relationship quality - satisfaction, trust, commitment and conflict. Of particular interest to us is the effect of functional performance on relationship quality in situations characterized by high relative dependence of the distributor on the customer - this closely approximates the situation that many distributors, faced by the threat of disintermediation, find themselves in. Hypotheses from our model are tested using data collected from the paint industry in the Netherlands and Belgium.buyer-seller relationships;channel management;channel services;relationship marketing;empirical

The Powerful Triangle of Marketing Data, Managerial Judgment, and Marketing Management Support Systems

In this paper we conceptualize the impact of information technology on marketing decision-making. We argue that developments in information technology affect the performance of marketing decision-makers through different routes. Advances in information technology enhance the possibilities to collect data and to generate information for supporting marketing decision-making. Potentially, this will have a positive impact on decision-making performance. Managerial expertise will favor the transformation of data into market insights. However, as the cognitive capabilities of marketing managers are limited, increasing amounts of data may also increase the complexity of the decision-making context. In turn, increased complexity enhances the probability of biased decision processes (e.g., the inappropriate use of heuristics) thereby negatively affecting decision-making performance. Marketing management support systems, also being the result of advances in information technology, are tools that can help marketers to benefit from the data explosion. These systems are able to increase the value of data and, at the same time, make decision-makers less vulnerable to biased decision processes. Our analysis leads to the expectation that the combination of marketing data, managerial judgment, and marketing management support systems will be a powerful factor for improving marketing management. Implications of our analysis are discussed.decision making;decision biases;information technology;marketing management support systems

How and Why Decision Models Influence Marketing Resource Allocations

We study how and why model-based Decision Support Systems (DSSs) influence managerial decision making, in the context of marketing budgeting and resource allocation. We consider several questions: (1) What does it mean for a DSS to be "good?"; (2) What is the relationship between an anchor or reference condition, DSS-supported recommendation and decision quality? (3) How does a DSS influence the decision process, and how does the process influence outcomes? (4) Is the effect of the DSS on the decision process and outcome robust, or context specific? We test hypotheses about the effects of DSSs in a controlled experiment with two award winning DSSs and find that, (1) DSSs improve users' objective decision outcomes (an index of likely realized revenue or profit); (2) DSS users often do not report enhanced subjective perceptions of outcomes; (3) DSSs, that provide feedback in the form of specific recommendations and their associated projected benefits had a stronger effect both on the decision making process and on the outcomes.Our results suggest that although managers actually achieve improved outcomes from DSS use, they may not perceive that the DSS has improved the outcomes. Therefore, there may be limited interest in managerial uses of DSSs, unless they are designed to: (1) encourage discussion (e.g., by providing explanations and support for the recommendations), (2) provide feedback to users on likely marketplace results, and (3) help reduce the perceived complexity of the problem so that managers will consider more alternatives and invest more cognitive effort in searching for improved outcomes.marketing models;resource allocation;DSS;decision process;decision quality

Institutional Forecasting: The Performance of Thin Virtual Stock Markets

We study the performance of Virtual Stock Markets (VSMs) in an institutional forecasting environment. We compare VSMs to the Combined Judgmental Forecast (CJF) and the Key Informant (KI) approach. We find that VSMs can be effectively applied in an environment with a small number of knowledgeable informants, i.e., in thin markets. Our results show that none of the three approaches differ in forecasting accuracy in a low knowledge-heterogeneity environment. However, where there is high knowledge-heterogeneity, the VSM approach outperforms the CJF approach, which in turn outperforms the KI approach. Hence, our results provide useful insight into when each of the three approaches might be most effectively applied.Forecasting;Electronic Markets;Information Markets;Virtual Stock Markets

Marketing management support sytemen: Lessen uit de afgelopen vijfentwinig jaar

In dit artikel beschrijven we de ontwikkelingen op het gebied van marketing management support systemen (MMSS). We bespreken eerst de vier componenten van een MMSS: informatie technologie, analytische technieken, marketing data en marketing kennis. Hiema beschrijven we acht specifieke types marketing management support systemen die marketers kunnen gebruiken voor de ondersteuning van hun marketing beslissingen. We starten met een beschrijving van marketing modellen die in de vroege jaren '60 ontwikkeld werden en eindigen met een beschrijving van marketing creativiteit support systemen die van recente oorsprong zijn. Vervolgens presenteren we een overzicht van het gebruik van MMSS in bedrijven in Nederland en van de bijdragen aan het Jaarboek op het gebied van MMSS. We sluiten het artikel af met een model dat de factoren beschrijft die het succes van marketing management support systemen bemvloeden