A Grounded Exploration of Sales and Distribution Channel Structures in Thirteen Industries in India Leading to a Classification Scheme

Innovation is a fundamental virtue of marketing. In this paper, a case is made to promote the use of innovative and novel combinations of research methodologies to derive new insights of business phenomena. This study is an attempt to understand and explain the sales and distribution channel structures in thirteen different industries in India. The investigation adopted a mix of case research and grounded theoretic research methodologies in exploring the subject under scrutiny. The study offers a classification scheme for grouping marketing channels into homogenous clusters based on similarity/dissimilarity using multivariate multidimensional mapping techniques. This scheme offers to explain the variety found in structures and suggests alternative channel possibilities. Such a scheme can be used in formulating marketing strategies and in deciding upon operational issues as well. While the main setting of the reported findings is Indian, the findings may prove to be useful beyond the national setting. Usual disclaimers associated with qualitative research methodology (Gummesson 1988) apply in this case concerning the generalisability and validity of the findings. This paper’s contribution is not as much in offering a schema as it is in suggesting an analytical plan/process that helps in visualising structures and associated strategies de novo.

An exploration of customer-supplier alliances and partnerships: A synthesis of literature review and empirical investigation leading to 3Rs framework

The marketing discipline is evolving and so is its agenda with the advent of relationship marketing, networks and other related sub-fields. Till recently, business literature focused largely on competition, and cooperation, its counter part, has received insufficient attention. With a view to redress the situation, this research article investigates the phenomenon of customer supplier alliances and partnerships and aims to make fundamental theoretical contributions in the sub-field of business-to-business relations and cooperation. Eclectic and wide-ranging enquiry is a main research tool employed and hence the character of this research is interdisciplinary. An extensive literature review of a number of related disciplines is undertaken in order to capture the essence of relationship strategies and their implications. The ideas and alternative research processes were exposed to critical scrutiny by a few marketing scholars to increase feedback and validity of ideas. In addition, a qualitative exploratory survey was carried out in order to understand the strategic issues concerning alliances and partnerships. The research findings were combined with theoretical ideas to derive a Routines-Relationships-Resources (3Rs) model. This 3Rs model is made up of three cores that underlie all business strategies including those designed to generate competitive advantage through the route of cooperative alliances and partnerships.

Strategic Marketing Alliances, Partnerships and Networks – The Logic of Cooperation, Roots, Evolution and Advantage

The marketing discipline is evolving and so is its agenda with the advent of relationship marketing, networks and other related sub-fields. Till recently, business literature focused largely on competition, and cooperation, its counter part, has received insufficient attention. With a view to redress the situation, this research article investigates the phenomenon of strategic marketing alliances, partnerships and networks, and aims to make fundamental theoretical contributions in the sub-field of business-to-business relations and cooperation. Eclectic and wide-ranging enquiry is a main research tool employed and hence the character of this research is interdisciplinary. An extensive literature review of a number of related disciplines is undertaken in order to capture the essence of cooperative strategies and implications for competitive advantage. In this paper, we examine the phenomenon of cooperation and its evolution over time, and highlight the advantages of cooperative strategies in the workplace and in economic organisation. Following an introductory section, we discuss in the second and third sections the evolution of cooperation and need for adaptation on the part entities in order to obtain favourable outcomes. Fourth section continues the discussion along the biological evolutionary lines and adds the crucial dimension of social organisation. Consequent changes that altered the ways in which societies and economies developed are captured in the fifth section. The final and concluding section is devoted to exploring avenues for building of theories that explain cooperative forms of organisation.

Corporate Brand Image: Antecedents, Mediating Role and Impact on Stakeholder Expectations

Corporate identity and image are shaped by the entirety of perceptions of a variety of stakeholders, both existing and potential ones, such as customers, suppliers, employees, general public, opinion makers, and government officials. Our study is an empirical investigation of corporate brand image and impact on one such stakeholder group made up of prospective employees. A large multinational, a technical and scientific research firm, a major recruiter of graduates from campuses of reputable universities across the nation was chosen as the subject. This paper develops and tests a path model of the antecedent factors affecting corporate brand image and specific expectations that stakeholders may have of a corporate brand. Based on a thorough literature review, a corporate brand image model that treated as antecedents the four constructs, awareness of organisation’s products, perceptions about culture, personality of the focal firm, and general expectations was proposed. Specific expectations that respondents may have about working with the firm was modeled to be influenced by the corporate brand image of the firm surveyed and also by the mentioned four antecedent constructs. The model is fitted to empirical data obtained from a national sample of 368 respondents using LISREL 8.5 methodology, and strong support was found for five, partial support for two of the nine hypotheses tested. Substantial evidence can be seen for the mediating role of corporate brand image in shaping specific expectations that stakeholders have from the corporate brand. Practical significance and managerial implications for marketing investments and organisational performance are detailed.

Two-Party Threshold Key Agreement Protocol for MANETs using Pairings

In MANET environment, the nodes are mobile i.e., nodes move in and out dynamically. This causes difficulty in maintaining a central trusted authority say Certification Authority CA or Key Generation Centre KCG. In addition most of cryptographic techniques need a key to be shared between the two communicating entities. So to introduce security in MANET environment, there is a basic need of sharing a key between the two communicating entities without the use of central trusted authority. So we present a decentralized two-party key agreement protocol using pairings and threshold cryptography ideas. Our model is based on Joux2019;s three-party key agreement protocol which does not authenticate the users and hence is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attack. This model protects from man-in-the-middle attack using threshold cryptography

Two-Fluid Mixed Magnetoconvection Flow in a Vertical Enclosure

The problem of steady, laminar flow and heat transfer of an electrically conducting fluid through vertical channel in the presence of uniform transverse magnetic field is formulated using a two-fluid continuum model. Combined free and forced convection inside the channel is considered. The effects of viscous and ohmic dissipations are included in the energy equation. Both walls are kept either at the same or different temperatures such as isoflux-isothermal and isothermal-isoflux conditions. Governing equations in cartesian co-ordinates are solved analytically using regular perturbation technique to develop the expression for velocity and temperature. Velocity, temperature and Nusselt number are presented graphically. Effects of pertinent parameters, such as Hartmann number, electric field load parameter, viscosity ratio, width ratio and conductivity ratio are determined

(2R*,3R*,4aS*,6aR*,11aS*,11bS*)-Methyl 2-acet­oxy-11b-hydr­oxy-3,7-dimethyl-1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,6a,7,11,11a,11b-dodeca­hydro­phenanthro[3,2-b]furan-3-carboxyl­ate

In the title compound, C22H30O6, the conformation of the mol­ecule is dictated by an intra­molecular C—H⋯O contact. The crystal structure is stabilized via inter­molecular C—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and C—H⋯π contacts

Impacts of Hurricane Maria on Land and Convection Modification Over Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria drastically altered the landscape across the island of Puerto Rico. This article investigates modifications to surface-atmospheric interactions due to Hurricane Maria induced land damage and the associated impacts on local convective dynamics. Herein, we employed LANDSAT-8 image mosaics to quantify the hurricane induced land modification. Results of the analysis indicate that the island suffered significant forest damage—much of which registered as a 28.35% increase in barren land and a 10.85% increase in pasture. Smaller changes included a decrease in cultivated agricultural land cover by 0.76%, along with wetland and water increases of 0.62% and 0.25%, respectively. Pre and post-Maria land classifications were then assimilated into the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System cloud resolving model for the simulation of the June 23 to July 2, 2018 period under two land conditions. Results of the numerical experiments indicate that surface to atmosphere interactions were significantly modified when the land cover was altered, and that the highest deviations between pre- and post-Maria convection occurred over elevated areas with extreme hurricane induced land changes, such as the Cordillera Central mountain range and the El Yunque rainforest