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The concept of consumer ethnocentrism is introduced and a corresponding measure, the CETSCALE, is formulated and validated. Four separate studies provide support for the CETSCALE's reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. A series of nomological validity tests show consumer ethnocentrism to be moderately predictive of theoretically related constructs.

Drawing on the relationship marketing and market information processing literature streams, the authors conceptualize and measure relational information processes, or organizational routines that are critical for customer relationship management (CRM). The authors examine the key drivers and outcome of relational information processes and the role of technology in implementing CRM using data collected from a diverse sample of firms. The results show that relational information processes play a vital role in enhancing an organization's customer relationship performance. By moderating the influence of relational information processes on customer relationship performance, technology used for CRM performs an important and supportive role. The study provides insights into why the use of CRM technology might not always deliver the expected customer relationship performance outcome.Satish Jayachandran is an associate professor (e-mail: Satish@moore.sc. edu), and Subhash Sharma is James F. Kane Professor of Business (e-mail: sharma@moore.sc.edu), Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. Peter Kaufman is an assistant professor, College of Business, Illinois State University (e-mail: pkaufma@ilstu.edu). Pushkala Raman is Assistant Professor of Marketing, Texas Women's University (e-mail: dr_p_raman@yahoo.com). The authors thank the Teradata Center for Customer Relationship Management at Duke University and the Center for International Business Research at the University of South Carolina for financial support. They also thank the consulting editors, Richard Staelin and William Boulding, and the two anonymous JM reviewers for their helpful suggestions. R elationship marketing scholars have long advocated that pursuing long-tem relationships with customers instead of a transaction-oriented approach is more profitable for firms (e.g., Morgan and Hunt 1994). Customer relationship management (CRM) is a core organizational process that focuses on establishing, maintaining, and enhancing long-term associations with customers (Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey 1999). The rapid advance in information technology (IT) has presented firms with new technology-based solutions-namely, CRM technology-to manage customer relationships. Such technology is a suite of IT solutions designed to support the CRM process (Rigby, Reichheld, and Schefter 2002). Many firms have invested in CRM technology (Day 2000), hoping to discriminate between profitable and unprofitable customers, provide customized service, and obtain greater customer retention (Peppers, Rogers, and Dorf 1999). However, the results of using CRM technology have been mixed (e.g., Reinartz, Krafft, and Hoyer 2004), and this has created substantial concern about its viability and effectiveness (Rigby, Reichheld, and Schefter 2002). The business press also gives conflicting accounts about the efficacy of CRM technology (e.g., Whiting 2001), and research on this issue has been limited (Winer 2001).The unease with CRM technology use is similar to the disillusionment that f...

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An ever-growing literature has reported consumer bias toward national origins of products, and has explored factors that moderate such bias. Researchers have assumed, if only tacitly, that consumers are knowledgeable of brand origins, and that this knowledge is a significant influence that drives judgments of product quality, brand attitudes, and choice behavior in the marketplace. Using categorization theory and attribute diagnosticity as the theoretical foundation, our research reveals that consumers actually have only modest knowledge of the national origins of brands, and that American consumers’ proficiency at recognizing foreign brand origins is predicted by variables such as socioeconomic status, past international travel, foreign language skills, and gender. In the second of two studies, we determined that brand origin recognition is based largely on consumers’ associations of brand names with languages that suggest country origins. These studies ultimately lead us to conclude that past research has inflated the influence that country of origin information has on consumers’ product judgments and behavior and its importance in managerial and public policy decisions. Journal of International Business Studies (2005) 36, 379–397. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400145