Marketing Faculty Research and Publications
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Item Open Access An Examination of Student Loans, Partisanship and Complaining Behavior: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(2022-10-18) Cho, Jihoon; Krush, Michael T.; Walker, Doug; Nowlin, Edward L.This research examines consumer complaints within a government-to-consumer context. The study is focused on two highly discussed topics, student loans and partisanship. While student loans are widely promoted to college students, outstanding U.S. student loan debt trails only consumer debt. Similarly, a stark contrast exists between the views of the two major political parties within the U.S. Our examination provides a nuanced view of partisanship and its effect on complaining behaviors within the student loan realm. Specifically, our study investigates whether partisanship affects the level of student loan complaints submitted to a federal agency initiated during partisan division. Our contributions include the use of a diverse, integrated database that enables insights into complaining behaviors within an understudied area, the government-to-consumer context.Item Open Access Tensions within the sales ecosystem: a multi-level examination of the sales-marketing interface(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020-10-28) Malshe, Avinash; Krush, Michael T.; mikekrushPurpose The purpose of this study is to understand one portion of the sales ecological system. This paper focuses on the mesolevel or intra-organizational system that includes the sales and marketing functions. This paper examines distinct tensions at three levels of the firm’s hierarchy and the mechanisms used to manage the tensions. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a qualitative data collection. A discovery-oriented process is used to understand the interconnections that exist among marketing-sales dyads at three organizational levels across several firms. Findings This paper uncovers distinct tensions and defenses exhibited by managers at each hierarchical level and this paper presents mechanisms that can are used to reduce the tensions. Research limitations/implications The multi-level perspective demonstrates the value of examining the intra-organizational aspect of the sales ecosystem. This paper uses a qualitative approach to highlight that sales-marketing tensions are unique to each of the hierarchical levels. This paper demonstrates that the tensions are a function of the unique roles each sales and marketing executive has within the organization. Practical implications To make the sales and marketing interface more effective, managers need to view tensions across the sales-marketing interface as complementary versus opposing forces. Managers must balance these tensions, rather than fight them and/or select one of the alternatives over the other. This paper suggests that paradoxical thinking may be a valued skillset for managers at each level of the organization. Originality/value The study uses a unique qualitative data set that examines the sales-marketing interface across three levels of an organizational hierarchy. Through this approach, this paper delineates specific tensions between marketing and sales within each level of the firm. This paper also describes mechanisms to manage the tensions common within the sales-marketing interface.Item Open Access From firm-controlled to consumer-contributed: consumer co-production of personal media marketing communication(2014-09-19) Bacile, Todd J.; Ye, Christine; Swilley, Esther L.; esthersFueled by the sociocultural shift from firm-controlled to consumer-contributed media, the researchers explore the idea of adapting a co-production strategy from service marketing to marketing communication sent to personal media. Eleven field experiments with firms, along with a structural model tested on survey data, provide empirical evidence supporting a co-production approach applied as a communication strategy in the context of a text message mobile coupon marketing campaign. The results demonstrate a co-produced direct marketing communication strategy that increases attitude toward the communication, purchase intent, and purchase activity, while also acting as a risk-reducing mechanism. Furthermore, perceived customization of the communication interacts strongly with risk perception and marginally with coupon proneness as related to attitude toward the communication when marketers enter the world of consumers' personal media. A push versus pull framework and a co-produced communication framework are put forth to suggest various areas marketers can make available for consumers to co-produce in a marketing communication exchange.Item Open Access Big Brother or big bother? E-monitoring the salesforce(2013-11-07) DelVecchio, Susan K.; Deeter-Schmelz, Dawn R.; Anselmi, Kenneth; ddeeterAdvances in communication and information technology have fundamentally changed managerial monitoring. No longer is the field sales manager cut off from his geographically dispersed sales personnel as e-monitoring allows continual rather than intermittent views of a wide range of indicators with copious detail. Given this change in monitoring, we examined the possible effect it may have on customer orientation. Conceptually, customer orientation levels should be enhanced when e-monitoring purposes serve informational purposes and be impeded with controlling purposes. We gathered responses from field salespeople employed in the manufacturing sector and found some support for these expected effects. Customer orientation levels are higher when the predominant purpose of e-monitoring is to provide information. Thus efforts on the part of the manager to clarify the fact that e-monitoring is predominantly serving informational purposes will be worthwhile. Contrary to expectations our HLM moderator analyses indicate the reaction to either control or inform purposes in a very bureaucratic culture is less dramatic than that expressed in a less bureaucratic one. In low –rather than high -bureaucratic cultural contexts, informing attributions help and controlling hurt customer orientation. A firm which is not highly bureaucratic but uses e-monitoring as a control mechanism, then it may be giving mixed messages to the salesperson with a resultant level of confusion and lack of customer-orientation. A firm which is not highly bureaucratic and uses e-monitoring to empower or inform may be more focused and effective in gaining higher levels of customer orientation from their field salespeople.Item Open Access Black Friday and Cyber Monday: understanding consumer intentions on two major shopping days(2013-01-16) Swilley, Esther L.; Goldsmith, Ronald E.; esthersU.S. Retailers consider two major holiday shopping days as their most profitable—the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Monday after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday. Understanding consumer attitudes and intentions toward shopping in the mall or online at these times may aid retailers in their holiday marketing activities. This study uses data from a survey of 225 U.S. consumers to examine attitudes and behaviors of shoppers for these two shopping occasions. The results indicate that consumers enjoy shopping on Black Friday, yet were more likely to shop on Cyber Monday owing to its greater convenience. Retail managers will have a better opportunity to market on these two days with an understanding of consumer intentions for these major shopping occasions based on these findings.
