Path Dependence in Personal Selling : A Meso-Analysis of Vertical Integration

We examine an unusual form of path dependence, in which suppliers that take different decision paths end up in the same position: excessive vertical integration of the personal selling function. We argue that this is the case even though outsourcing is more seriously considered than ever, and economic arguments for outsourcing the sales function are compelling. We develop an institutional explanation at the meso level (a combination of individual, organization, and environmental forces, explicitly considering how these levels combine). This meso-analysis focuses on four forces driving firms toward being locked into employee sales forces. We enumerate and classify these mechanisms, illustrating them with a simple simulation of how outsourcing sales becomes rare. We close with testable propositions about which firms are most likely to break their dependence on a vertically integrated path.path dependence; personal selling; outsourcing; sales function

Exploring Alternative Views of Time in Marketing Management: How Temporal Orientation Impacts a Firms’ Strategic Orientations

The field of marketing demonstrates an established and long-standing tradition of incorporating time into its theoretical frameworks. Nonetheless, although marketing has heavily utilized time in its conceptualizations, scholars have suggested that marketing has overly relied upon a single type of time, objective time as measured through a clock, and has underutilized subjective time which refers to time that is differentially perceived and experienced by individuals, organizations, and cultures. In light of this context and need to study alternative forms of time, we explore how a specific type of subjective time – organizational temporal orientation – impacts strategic orientations. This work posits that a specific type of subjective time, organizational temporal orientation, impacts several strategic orientations, including market orientation, production orientation, selling orientation, innovation orientation, and entrepreneurial orientation. Organizational temporal orientation refers to the significance a firm attaches to the past, present, or future (Bluedorn and Denhardt 1988). We follow researchers who have speculated that temporal orientation is an antecedent condition of strategic choice and strategic orientation (Das 1991; West and Meyer 1997). Based on the premise that temporal orientation is an antecedent condition of strategic orientation, this work develops several theoretical propositions, drawing from previous temporal orientation research and strategic orientation research, and discusses the implications of integrating subjective time into theoretical works related to strategic orientations. For instance, we posit that temporal orientation is associated with an innovation orientation (i.e., a willingness to invest in projects with uncertain outcomes), such that: the more future-oriented the firm, the more likely the firm is to pursue an innovation orientation; and the more present-oriented the firm, the less likely the firm is to pursue an innovation orientation. This study makes several key contributions. To our knowledge, this is the first study that specifically connects temporal orientation to a wide-range of strategic orientations (e.g., market orientation, selling orientation), thereby demonstrating the importance of temporal orientation. In addition, this research identifies temporal orientation as a new antecedent of strategic orientations, which complements the extensive work on consequences to strategic orientations (Johnson et al. 2011)

Buyer Monitoring: A Means to Insure Personalized Service

Marketing scholars propose that service employees play a primary role in delivering service quality. However, the question of how to motivate service employees to enhance service production has received little research attention. The authors address this gap by advocating a control mechanism first discussed in the economics literature—buyer monitoring. The authors focus on a pervasive form of buyer monitoring, voluntary tipping, and examine the effectiveness of this control mechanism as a means of improving service in two different contexts: leisure cruises and restaurant dining. Despite a substantial interdisciplinary literature reporting a weak relationship between customer perceptions of service and their tipping behavior, results show that a policy of voluntary tipping has positive effects on the motivation and behavior of service workers and on customers’ perceptions of the service those workers provide. These findings call attention to buyer monitoring as both a topic for academic research and a practical mechanism for motivating service employees. The findings also call into question trends away from tipping in service contexts such as the cruise industry and suggest that many service businesses for which tipping is not viable may benefit from alternative forms of buyer monitoring

Usage-Based versus Measure-Based Unit Pricing: Is There a Better Index of Value?

In many product categories, unit prices facilitate price comparisons across brands and package sizes; this enables consumers to identify those products that provide the greatest value. However in other product categories, unit prices may be confusing. This is because there are two types of unit pricing, measure-based and usage-based. Measure-based unit prices are what the name implies; price is expressed in cents or dollars per unit of measure (e.g. ounce). Usage-based unit prices, on the other hand, are expressed in terms of cents or dollars per use (e.g., wash load or serving). The results of this study show that in two different product categories (i.e., laundry detergent and dry breakfast cereal), measure-based unit prices reduced consumers’ ability to identify higher value products, but when a usage-based unit price was provided, their ability to identify product value was increased. When provided with both a measure-based and a usage-based unit price, respondents did not perform as well as when they were provided only a usage-based unit price, additional evidence that the measure-based unit price hindered consumers’ comparisons. Finally, the presence of two potential moderators, education about the meaning of the two measures and having to rank order the options in the choice set in terms of value before choosing, did not eliminate these effects

Wine and other alcohol consumption and risk of ovarian cancer in the California Teachers Study cohort

OBJECTIVE: Whether alcohol consumption influences ovarian cancer risk is unclear. Therefore, we investigated the association between alcohol intake at various ages and risk of ovarian cancer. METHODS: Among 90,371 eligible members of the California Teachers Study cohort who completed a baseline alcohol assessment in 1995–1996, 253 women were diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer by the end of 2003. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to estimate relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Consumption of total alcohol, beer, or liquor in the year prior to baseline, at ages 30–35 years, or at ages 18–22 years was not associated with risk of ovarian cancer. Consumption of at least one glass per day of wine, compared to no wine, in the year before baseline was associated with increased risk of developing ovarian cancer: RR = 1.57 (95% CI 1.11–2.22), P(trend) = 0.01. The association with wine intake at baseline was particularly strong among peri-/post-menopausal women who used estrogen-only hormone therapy and women of high socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol intake does not appear to affect ovarian cancer risk. Constituents of wine other than alcohol or, more likely, unmeasured determinants of wine drinking were associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer

Evaluating indices of traditional ecological knowledge: a methodological contribution

BACKGROUND: New quantitative methods to collect and analyze data have produced novel findings in ethnobiology. A common application of quantitative methods in ethnobiology is to assess the traditional ecological knowledge of individuals. Few studies have addressed reliability of indices of traditional ecological knowledge constructed with different quantitative methods. METHODS: We assessed the associations among eight indices of traditional ecological knowledge from data collected from 650 native Amazonians. We computed Spearman correlations, Chronbach's alpha, and principal components factor analysis for the eight indices. RESULTS: We found that indices derived from different raw data were weakly correlated (rho<0.5), whereas indices derived from the same raw data were highly correlated (rho>0.5; p < 0.001). We also found a relatively high internal consistency across data from the eight indices (Chronbach's alpha = 0.78). Last, results from a principal components factor analysis of the eight indices suggest that the eight indices were positively related, although the association was low when considering only the first factor. CONCLUSION: A possible explanation for the relatively low correlation between indices derived from different raw data, but relatively high internal consistency of the eight indices is that the methods capture different aspects of an individual's traditional ecological knowledge. To develop a reliable measure of traditional ecological knowledge, researchers should collect raw data using a variety of methods and then generate an aggregated measure that contains data from the various components of traditional ecological knowledge. Failure to do this will hinder cross-cultural comparisons

The Sound Generated by Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smoker Hydrothermal Vents

Hydrothermal flow through seafloor black smoker vents is typically turbulent and vigorous, with speeds often exceeding 1 m/s. Although theory predicts that these flows will generate sound, the prevailing view has been that black smokers are essentially silent. Here we present the first unambiguous field recordings showing that these vents radiate significant acoustic energy. The sounds contain a broadband component and narrowband tones which are indicative of resonance. The amplitude of the broadband component shows tidal modulation which is indicative of discharge rate variations related to the mechanics of tidal loading. Vent sounds will provide researchers with new ways to study flow through sulfide structures, and may provide some local organisms with behavioral or navigational cues

Toll-Like Receptor-2 Mediates Diet and/or Pathogen Associated Atherosclerosis: Proteomic Findings

BACKGROUND. Accumulating evidence implicates a fundamental link between the immune system and atherosclerosis. Toll-like receptors are principal sensors of the innate immune system. Here we report an assessment of the role of the TLR2 pathway in atherosclerosis associated with a high-fat diet and/or bacteria in ApoE+/- mice. METHODS AND RESULTS. To explore the role of TLR2 in inflammation- and infection-associated atherosclerosis, 10 week-old ApoE+/--TLR2+/+, ApoE+/--TLR2+/- and ApoE+/--TLR2-/- mice were fed either a high fat diet or a regular chow diet. All mice were inoculated intravenously, once per week for 24 consecutive weeks, with 50 μl live Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g) (107 CFU) or vehicle (normal saline). Animals were euthanized 24 weeks after the first inoculation. ApoE+/--TLR2+/+ mice showed a significant increase in atheromatous lesions in proximal aorta and aortic tree compared to ApoE+/--TLR2+/- and ApoE+/--TLR2-/- mice for all diet conditions. They also displayed profound changes in plaque composition, as evidenced by increased macrophage infiltration and apoptosis, increased lipid content, and decreased smooth muscle cell mass, all reflecting an unstable plaque phenotype. SAA levels from ApoE+/--TLR2+/+ mice were significantly higher than from ApoE+/--TLR2+/- and ApoE+/--TLR2-/- mice. Serum cytokine analysis revealed increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in ApoE+/--TLR2+/+ mice compared to ApoE+/--TLR2+/- and TLR2-/- mice, irrespective of diet or bacterial challenge. ApoE+/--TLR2+/+ mice injected weekly for 24 weeks with FSL-1 (a TLR2 agonist) also demonstrated significant increases in atherosclerotic lesions, SAA and serum cytokine levels compared to ApoE+/--TLR2-/- mice under same treatment condition. Finally, mass-spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) of aortic samples analyzed by 2-dimentional gel electrophoresis differential display, identified 6 proteins upregulated greater than 2-fold in ApoE+/--TLR2+/+ mice fed the high fat diet and inoculated with P.g compared to any other group. CONCLUSION. Genetic deficiency of TLR2 reduces diet- and/or pathogen-associated atherosclerosis in ApoE+/- mice, along with differences in plaque composition suggesting greater structural stability while TLR-2 ligand-specific activation triggers atherosclerosis. The present data offers new insights into the pathophysiological pathways involved in atherosclerosis and paves the way for new pharmacological interventions aimed at reducing atherosclerosis.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01 HL076801

A Conserved Behavioral State Barrier Impedes Transitions between Anesthetic-Induced Unconsciousness and Wakefulness: Evidence for Neural Inertia

One major unanswered question in neuroscience is how the brain transitions between conscious and unconscious states. General anesthetics offer a controllable means to study these transitions. Induction of anesthesia is commonly attributed to drug-induced global modulation of neuronal function, while emergence from anesthesia has been thought to occur passively, paralleling elimination of the anesthetic from its sites in the central nervous system (CNS). If this were true, then CNS anesthetic concentrations on induction and emergence would be indistinguishable. By generating anesthetic dose-response data in both insects and mammals, we demonstrate that the forward and reverse paths through which anesthetic-induced unconsciousness arises and dissipates are not identical. Instead they exhibit hysteresis that is not fully explained by pharmacokinetics as previously thought. Single gene mutations that affect sleep-wake states are shown to collapse or widen anesthetic hysteresis without obvious confounding effects on volatile anesthetic uptake, distribution, or metabolism. We propose a fundamental and biologically conserved concept of neural inertia, a tendency of the CNS to resist behavioral state transitions between conscious and unconscious states. We demonstrate that such a barrier separates wakeful and anesthetized states for multiple anesthetics in both flies and mice, and argue that it contributes to the hysteresis observed when the brain transitions between conscious and unconscious states