When does alliance proactiveness matter to market performance? A Comparative Case Analysis

Relationships with external partners can provide several benefits for firms. To obtain such benefits, firms must develop competencies and capabilities that enhance their ability to create and capture value in inter-organizational collaborations. In this article, we focus on one of these capabilities: alliance proactiveness. Drawing on configuration theory, we examine the performance effects of alliance proactiveness within the broader context of the firm and its market environment. Using a sample of 68 firms involved in technology transfer, we examine the interplay between alliance proactiveness and two major sets of factors—organizational factors and environmental factors—to identify configurations sufficient for market performance. The findings of a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis indicate the co-existence of alternative configurations for market performance that differ in their particular composition but are consistently sufficient pathways to market performance. Knowledge of these configurations yields novel insights into the complex pattern of causal factors and helps develop factor constellations in which alliance proactiveness is indeed effective and enhances market performance

Relational norms in customer–company relationships: Net and configurational effects

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Relational norms in customer–company relationships: Net and configurational effects journaltitle: Journal of Business Research articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.101 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Relational norms in customer–company relationships: Net and configurational effects journaltitle: Journal of Business Research articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.101 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Relational norms in customer–company relationships: Net and configurational effects journaltitle: Journal of Business Research articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.101 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc

Who approves fraudulence? Configurational causes of consumers' unethical judgments

Corrupt behavior presents major challenges for organizations in a wide range of settings. This article embraces a complexity theoretical perspective to elucidate the causal patterns of factors underlying consumers’ unethical judgments. This study examines how causal conditions of four distinct domains combine into configurational causes of unethical judgments of two frequent forms of corrupt consumer behavior: shoplifting and fare dodging. The findings of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analyses indicate alternative, consistently sufficient ‘‘recipes’’ for the outcomes of interest. This study extends prior work on the topic by offering new insights into the interplay and the interconnected structures of multiple causal factors and by describing configurational causes of consumers’ ethical evaluations of corrupt behaviors. This knowledge may support practitioners and policy makers to develop education and control approaches to thwart corrupt consumer behaviors

Endogeneity Bias in Marketing Research: Problem, Causes and Remedies

Endogeneity bias represents a critical issue for the analysis of cause and effect relationships. Although the existence of endogeneity can produce severely biased results, it has hitherto received only limited attention from researchers in marketing and related disciplines. Thus, this article aims to sensitize researchers intending to publish in the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal to the topic of endogeneity. It outlines the problem of endogeneity bias, and provides an overview of potential sources, i.e. omission of variables, errors-in-variables, and simultaneous causality. Furthermore, the article shows ways to deal with endogeneity, including techniques based on instrumental variables as well as instrument-free approaches. Our methodological contribution relates to providing researchers aiming to publish in IMM with an initial overview of the causes of and remedies for endogeneity bias, which should be considered in designing research projects as well as when analysing data to obtain insights into cause and effect relationships (causal models)

Touch-flavor transference: Assessing the effect of packaging weight on gustatory evaluations, desire for food and beverages, and willingness to pay

Product packaging serves a number of distinct functions and influences the way in which consumers respond to various product offerings. The research reported here examines whether the haptic characteristics of a non-diagnostic product packaging cue, namely its weight, affects the response of consumers. This article reviews existing research on haptic transference and proposes a conceptual framework to explore how the weight of product packaging affects the flavor of the food or beverages, and, in turn, consumers' desire for consumption and willingness to pay. Two studies demonstrate that an increase in packaging weight affects both desire and willingness to pay for the product. These effects are serially mediated by perceived flavor intensity and overall flavor evaluation. Based on these insights, implications for the design of food and beverages packaging are discussed

Dark side effect contagion in business relationships

Business relationships are often a source of benefits for firms, but they can tip and unleash detrimental effects that diminish or even destroy relationship performance. Although prior studies on dark-side effects in business relationships have advanced the understanding of the phenomenon, they mainly relied on a dyadic perspective exploring single buyer–seller relationships. Yet business relationships are often parts of wider relationship portfolios and networks, and the characteristics of one relationship may have implications for other relationships. This article advances knowledge on the dark side of business relationships by introducing the concept of dark-side-effect contagion, which relies on the idea that dark-side effects can spread between business relationships. We develop a multi-level framework that accounts for inter-organizational, inter-personal, and intra-personal aspects of dark-side-effect contagion. This article contributes to the literature by extending the concept of dark-side effects in business relationships, thereby opening new lines of inquiry