Cross-buying (i.e., the purchase of products from multiple categories) has been associated with higher levels of customer retention, revenue generation, and loyalty. Despite these claims, debate remains as to whether cross-buying is an antecedent to such behaviors or if loyalty behaviors represent the antecedent, with cross-buying as a consequence. This research investigates the direction, strength, and nature of the relationship between customers’ cross-buying behavior and associated behavioral outcomes by using a Granger-type causality modeling and two data sets. The authors determine that cross-buying is a consequence and not an antecedent of behavioral loyalty. Specifically, behavioral loyalty drives both the number of categories from which a person buys and the level of spending dispersion across those categories. These findings have significant implications for cross-selling strategies.
This study defines a framework for understanding the impact of sales force automation (SFA) on customer relationship management (CRM) processes from the perspective of information systems and motivation theories. Investigating the relationship between these processes, with sales activities as the common link, sheds new light on several crucial issues. To enrich this study, two alternative models that distinguish the efficiency and effectiveness of salespersons' activities also are formulated. Data from a longitudinal field study demonstrate that different SFA functionalities generate counterintuitive effects on sales activities. The main outcomes of SFA implementation in CRM processes include a mostly negative effect of SFA reporting and conflicting but complementary and globally positive effects of SFA call planning and product configuration.
Recent years have seen a significant increase in the importance of environmental protection and sustainability to consumers, policy makers, and society in general. Reflecting this, most organizations are at least aware of this new agenda and wish to be seen as taking steps to improve behaviors in this regard. However, there appears to be a gap between this evolving agenda and the comparatively low level of knowledge that marketing managers actually have of the environmental impact of their own functional decisions. We suggest that this low knowledge level may be due, in part, to the marketplace focus of foundational marketing educational programs, and we attempt to show how broadening the horizons of marketing courses can help students (i.e., future managers) more deeply understand the environmental consequences of their actions. We demonstrate the use of a novel business game, based on the Life Cycle Assessment method, as the foundational cornerstone for the development of a broad understanding of the environmental impact of marketing decisions and actions for the entire life cycle of a product-from raw material extraction to ultimate disposal. The results of an empirical study show that this approach increases students' appreciation for, and understanding of, these fundamental environmental sustainability concepts.
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