This study delves into a firm's artificial intelligence (AI) adoption intensity, exploring both its antecedents and consequences. The authors posit that technological opportunism, top management support, and normative pressure are the primary drivers behind a firm's AI adoption intensity. Adopting a dynamic capabilities perspective, they further suggest that high AI adoption intensity enhances a firm's marketing performance by boosting its dynamic marketing capabilities. Drawing on data from 226 valid responses provided by marketing managers, product managers, and brand managers, the research reveals that increased AI adoption intensity significantly improves a firm's marketing performance, empowering it with enhanced marketing capabilities to adapt dynamically to the ever-changing market landscape.

The scale development paradigm was created to improve the measurement of latent constructs. Although several statistical techniques have been successfully integrated into the overall process, identifying factor patterns and validating constructs using smaller datasets with different correlational structures remain a concern. This paper presents heatmapping and bootstrapping cluster analysis (HMBCA), a novel machine-learning based diagnostic workflow, as a new tool to aid in strengthening the process. A substantive example on the overall organizational knowledge acquisition behaviors demonstrates that the bootstrapping cluster simulation approach provided promising results regarding the factor structure as measured by the Approximately Unbiased (AU) p-values under the following conditions: when factor correlations are weaker or moderate, with simulated data containing smaller samples. The study suggests that researchers may leverage bootstrapping cluster simulations to validate constructs through both visual inspection and probability estimates when faced with constraints such as a small sample size.

This paper proposes an initial scale to measure the frugal innovation capabilities within organizations. Our scale comprises three major dimensions: (1) focus on core functionalities, (2) substantial cost reduction, and (3) shared sustainable engagement. We adopted the frugal innovation efficiency-driven perspective based on both the resource-based and the capability-based views. From primary survey data of 1,097 companies in three countries (Brazil, India, and the USA), we developed a reliable and valid scale to measure frugal innovation capabilities comprising ten features with clear psychometric properties. We also contribute to the innovation research literature by revisiting its main texts and proposing a concept of frugal innovation capabilities. In doing so, we introduce an initial measuring instrument. Such an initiative represents an advance in the literature to better understand the development of frugal innovation, guiding the exploration of frugality-based advantages. It enables managers to identify the organizational capabilities that are needed to increase the odds of developing frugal innovations. This is a first attempt to measure the concept of frugal innovation capabilities. There is much room for the exploration of its other dimensions.

PurposeThis study aims to employ conservation of resources (COR) theory to explain how customer support, customer power, customer orientation (CO) and product complexity impact frontline employees (FLEs) work engagement.Design/methodology/approachPartial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data collected from 1,620 South Korean insurance salespeople using an on-line survey.FindingsResults show that customer support, customer power and CO will bring more FLEs work engagement, and product complexity negatively dilutes the work engagement gained from customer support.Practical implicationsThe results of this study suggest that firms should encourage FLEs to share their experiences and tactics in dealing with customer power and stimulate supportive customer behaviors. Since complex products, particularly financial products, require more explanation and information exchange for customers to understand them, managers might include simulations, videos and role-playing in training programs to show salespeople how to handle customers when attempting to sell these products.Originality/valueThis study investigates the effects of customer cognitive and emotional support on FLEs work engagement and also empirically demonstrates the positive effects of customer power.

In a world where it is possible to collect data from credit card purchases, facebook sentiments, and customer returns on a minute to minute basis, marketing managers are inundated with data that may or may not have significant effects on their sales. To deal with this volume and velocity of data, companies are beginning to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to help. As the pace of technology change and as the amount of available market and competitor data increases, marketers are faced with the dilemma of managing this data to understand the changing market and competitive landscape. This study explores potential antecedents and consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption as a strategy to deal with this ever-increasing data. Based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and institutional theory, we examine four antecedents: technological opportunism, top management support, customer orientation, and normative pressure as potential influencers to AI adoption. AMOS SEM was employed to analyze responses from a survey of 225 marketing managers, product managers, and brand managers. Our results suggest top management support is critical to adoption of AI along with a culture focusing on customers. These forces seem to get the firm to desire AI to meet customer needs. In addition, firms will likely adopt AI in industries already adopting AI or in environments where governments or suppliers are pushing AI adoption. The pressure from these outside entities seem to make management sensitive to the need to keep up with competition. The technological environment moderates these effects to the degree that possible higher risk from rapid and unpredictable technological change reduces the effect of top management support on AI adoption, while greater technological turbulence increases the effect of normative pressure on a firm’s AI adoption as it tries to keep up with its competitors. Finally, our results suggest that adoption of AI should improve marketing performance.

This research develops and validates a scale to assess products on salient characteristics that influence consumers' decision-making. The product characteristics (PC) scale assesses products on 12 major dimensions using 34-items. Next, the paper demonstrates the scale's validity and value in a study of the effects of PC on the consumer information search effort, impulse buying, and word-of-mouth behavior, representing different stages of the consumer decision-making process. The findings highlight the need for a revitalized examination of the consumer decision-making process with a focus on PC by showing that (1) PC have significant direct effects on a variety of critical marketing outcomes, (2) these effects interact with demographic variables such as age and gender that are currently undergoing major shifts, and (3) these effects vary across offline and online settings. Thus, the findings highlight the value of incorporating PC into models of consumer behavior especially in the current era of shifting demographics and e-commerce. To this end, this study contributes to the literature by offering a multifaceted, reliable, and valid scale to assess products on a wide range of characteristics that can be used in the study of any marketing-related phenomena that can be assumed to be product-contingent.

Purpose The authors test several hypotheses to analyze the influences of community-mindedness, ethical and social responsibility, culture, and gender on performance and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Using PLS-SEM the authors employ data gathered from a survey administered to a panel of 192 small business owners from across the US We compare the findings across ethnic groups, which result in significant path coefficients. Findings Greater community mindedness and corporate social responsibility (CSR) lead to better performance, and that leads to greater satisfaction. Collectivism enhances these relationships, while female owners who are more community minded experience greater performance. Research limitations/implications One limitation of the current study is the self-reporting nature of all the questionnaire items. In an effort to limit the potential negative effects of self-reporting, the authors conduct necessary validation to help ensure that our instrument measures what it is supposed to measure conceptually. Practical implications As hypothesized, the influences are mostly positive relationships. Stronger community-mindedness leads to stronger business performance for Hispanic owners. On the contrary, White owners' performance significantly decreases. Social implications The findings recommend that collectivism is the way to go. Small business owners should have a collective feeling for the community they live in and do business with. This generally leads to better business performance and subsequent satisfaction in life. Originality/value One major contribution of this study is to compare and contrast the findings across the two largest ethnic groups in the US – Whites and Hispanics. Another contribution of the study is to determine how social and ethical responsibilities affect business performance and satisfaction.

As more women make up the professional management workforce in marketing and engineering, they are becoming a larger percentage of many new product development teams. With the generally acknowledged inequality in compensation between males and females, a question then arises as to the best way to reward teams for their efforts. This study surveyed 150 marketing and new product managers to examine the effect of various rewards on team creativity (originality and usefulness), number of ideas, and new product performance with different levels of female participation. Results of the SEM analysis suggest that greater female participation increases the number of ideas, which increases originality, usefulness, and new product performance. Teams with greater female participation perform better with greater focus on financial rewards.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important in both industry and academics. To investigate AI in marketing, we have used bibliometric study, social network analysis (SNA), main path analysis, and content analysis to examine the top 10 authors, top 20 most cited articles, and top 11 milestone papers from our 628 articles sample. Bibliometric study identified leading authors, documents, universities, countries, and sources of these articles. By using SNA, we spotted an academic social network of crucial publications. Moreover, we recognized eleven milestone articles that constitute the main knowledge flow in AI marketing through main path analysis. Finally, we discussed future directions based on our findings. Our study is one among a few studies that have used bibliometric analysis methods to analyze and visualize the citation network of the AI-marketing interface.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the concept of leapfrogging in the mobile phone industry in the Republic of Kenya. Design/Methodology: The study adopted a cross-sectional research design, stratified and simple random sampling techniques in collecting data from 349 respondents picked from a population of 15506 employees of three Cosmopolitan County Governments in Kenya. Findings: Outcome indicates that; perceived product quality and perceived switching cost positively and significantly influence intentions to Leapfrog. However, the urgency to replace does not influence choices to leapfrog. Originality/value: The study findings bring a new understanding of the determinants of consumer leapfrogging and their intentions to leapfrog in the mobile phone industry and highlight the role perceived product quality and switching cost play in determining intention leapfrog.

Having expanded their global operations, many African firms have begun to appear on the radar screens of multinational players. The distinctive nature of the African continent has directed these firms to follow unconventional paths to internationalization. This study explores the strategies employed by Ethiopian Airlines to overcome the challenges of its operating environment and to achieve rapid internationalization. These strategies were shaped by the act of leveraging accumulated capabilities to meet regional and global demands. In this context, the implementation of a special management structure was instrumental for supporting effective decision making, guiding airline operations, building effective customer-oriented service, and quickly expanding a global network. Finally, the implications of this research will be used to define successful routes for other African firms.

PurposeTo reduce costs, many banks have increased customer involvement during the creation and delivery of their products and services. Based on a job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study tests an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived customer participation and employee work engagement. Customer orientation (CO) and service employee perceived fit with customers (PCF) moderate this relationship, which eventually affect both the internal and external benefits of service-employee work engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected survey data from 518 service employees in the South Korean banking and insurance industries and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe results indicate that perceived customer participation (PCP) has a significant inverted U-shape effect on work engagement. Results also suggest that CO and PCF have positive relationships with work engagement. In addition, they moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between service employee PCP and work engagement, while work engagement positively affects organizational citizenship, job satisfaction and commitment.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors empirically identify a curvilinear effect of PCP on work engagement. In doing so, the authors introduce and operationalize the new construct: PCF and suggest PCF and CO as unique job resources for service employees. The authors also examine these constructs as predictors based on a motivational process and as moderators based on a strain (energetic) process.Practical implicationsFrom a managerial perspective, examining the curvilinear relationships of customer participation and work engagement suggests that front-line employees’ (FLEs’) PCP does not necessarily enhance the economic benefits of productivity gains by using customers as substitutes for portions of employee labor. Another finding with managerial relevance indicates that service employees, who have more CO and PCF, showed more tolerant attitudes toward unnecessary and excessive levels of customer participation and regarded it as a job resource.Originality/valueThis study explains that researchers must consider the positive and negative sides of customer participation simultaneously because frontline employee PCP can be changed depending on the level of participation provided by customers. This study also shows that CO can be assumed as a personal resource and PCF as an environmental resource in the work engagement process.

An increasing popularity of Chinese brands around the world suggests that Chinese brands are beginning to overcome unfavorable country-of-origin (COO) effects. However, whether the perception of the functional and/or the social value of Chinese brands has improved remains unclear. Based on the theory of reasoned action, this study develops a theoretical framework to explain how consumers' perceptions of functional and social attributes affect purchase intentions of Chinese brands. Survey data were collected from an individualistic (US) and a collectivistic (Mexico) country. Results show that perceptions of functional value antecede attitudes towards the brand while perceptions of social value antecede social norms. The effect of social norms on purchase intention is stronger in the US than in Mexico. Recommendations for managers of Chinese brands, and brands from other emerging markets, are provided.

ABSTRACT It has been posited that information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion can be explained by national culture since individuals from different cultures think and behave differently toward the development and use of ICT. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of Schwartz’s model of cultural dimensions on ICT diffusion level has not yet been investigated. This study explored the diffusion level using Schwartz’s three national cultural dimensions: autonomy vs. embeddedness, egalitarianism vs. hierarchy, and mastery vs. harmony. Data were obtained for 73 nations on three ICTs: Internet usage, mobile phones, and fixed broadband connections. The correlation results showed that autonomy vs. embeddedness and egalitarianism vs. hierarchy influenced ICT diffusion levels. The regression results showed that autonomy vs. embeddedness had significant impact on diffusion levels. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Firm performance depends on many elements. The standard value chain presents value creation flow from inbound goods through operations to outbound goods, with marketing and servicing as final stages, suggesting that marketing capabilities and implementation strategies make significant contributions to firm performance. This study designs and tests a framework to understand relationships among marketing capabilities, marketing strategy, and marketing implementation. Understanding relationships among these variables may help managers to implement a marketing strategy to maximise performance for small firms. This study employs the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theories to examine relationships among marketing capabilities, marketing strategy implementation, and firm performance. A sample of 296 small firms in Kenya was surveyed using self-administered questionnaires. Regression and bootstrap results of the survey support the proposed model. Key results of the study indicate that marketing strategy implementation effectiveness positively moderates the effect of marketing capability on small firm market performance and financial performance.

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has long been used to identify factors for construct development. EFA mainly relies on factor loadings, average variance extracted, and item-to-total correlations to build constructs. Unidimensionality, or the existence of a single trait, is the main issue for new scale development. However, the evaluation of unidimensionality is not intuitive when the number of items increases. In addition, no validation has been provided to confirm the dimensions of the factors. As the number of items increases, visualizing different factors to further reveal hidden relationship among items and factors gives researchers a better way to develop constructs. By employing cluster heat maps, this study is one of the first to systematically combine this method with EFA. Traditional factor analysis relies on factor loadings, average variance extracted, and item-to-total correlations to build constructs. Unidimensionality, or the existence of a single trait, is the main issue for new scale development (Gerbing & Anderson, 1988). However, the evaluation of unidimensionality is not intuitive when the number of items increases. In addition, no validation has been provided to confirm the dimensions of the factors. Using the heat-mapping technique as a supplementary technique for factor analysis, this study contributes to the measurement and dimensionality for scale development. Specifically, performing cluster heat-mapping is beneficial for researchers to identify the dimensionality of the scales. The cluster heat map is unique for representing data points, items, and scales or constructs in a single picture since the picture shows not only both of the horizontal axes for the items and their corresponding dendrogram plot of the hierarchical cluster tree of the items but also two of the vertical axes for all of the data points and their corresponding dendrogram plot of the hierarchical cluster tree of the data points. The change of the color gives a visual representation of the distribution of data points among items and scales. The context of this study is to investigate the issues that are pertinent to marketing researchers, the big data revolution. Primarily, the following variables are identified to be relevant and coherent to help direct research and practice in the big data and marketing research discipline. The variables are big data analytics (BDA), traditional marketing analytics (TMA), knowledge types, data fusion, and knowledge and information fusion.

The UT TRANSFORM ProjectThe UT TRANSFORM project (Translational Research Advancement Network to Support,Fund, Organize, Roll Out, and Motivate UT Innovations) is a joint project of four University ofTexas (UT) System institutions: UT San Antonio, MD Anderson, UT El Paso, and UT Austin.The project, funded by the UT System, sought to create and maintain a transformational andprogressive entrepreneurial ecosystem within the university environment, essential factors forfostering, supporting, developing, and commercializing new technologies. The project’s goal increating this ecosystem was not only to help change academic mindsets and cultures, but also toresult in higher competiveness in global markets, increased external funding via follow-upresearch dollars, enhanced educational environment for students and faculty, increasedmarketability of UT graduates, and greater financial returns to the university via technologycommercialization.The project comprised two major phases: (1) education in innovation, entrepreneurship, andcommercialization, and (2) identification and funding of promising and competitivetechnologies.The project’s education initiatives included: • An Entrepreneurs Academy™, an online program designed to help faculty learn the fundamental concepts of starting a business and commercializing their innovations. The modules provided in the Academy combine a selection of best-in-class videos and reading materials. • A comprehensive assessment of entrepreneurial orientation, perceptions and activity across UT System campuses.The project’s commercialization initiatives included: • A competition that awarded up to $10,000 each to over 30 projects by UT System faculty and students as seed funding for innovative commercialization projects, ranging from “Roller printed semiconductor nanomembranes for flexible RF electronics” to “Proof-of- principle in vivo efficacy study of dengue antiviral drug candidate.” Project leaders were required to complete the Entrepreneurs Academy™ before their project was funded. The projects, from campuses across the UT System, are expected to complete their work in the summer of 2014, when their results will be showcased. • A start on building the UT System’s ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, through a Web site that provides paths for commercialization at the project’s participating institution, including university and community resources.The project is assessing its outcomes through early, mid-term, and long-term measures, with anadded category called collateral benefits. Early measures include the number of participants,certificates, collaborations, invention disclosures, and seed fund applications. Mid-term measuresinclude the number of seed-funding awards granted, monthly users of online content, downloads,patent applications, new startups, licenses, co-investments into startup companies by thirdparties, and results from a satisfaction survey of project participants. The long-term measures, tobe evaluated after the project’s completion in the summer of 2014, will include the number ofsuccessful product launches into market and funds generated by the projects. The measures ofcollateral benefits assess other activities that have increased the success of UT Systeminstitutions as a result of the project’s entrepreneurial and commercialization activities.Ultimately, the program will be a success if in the long term more entrepreneurially mindedstudents and faculty desire to come to UT and more companies seek UT as their first choice inpublic/private partnerships for developing and commercializing new technologies.

For over two decades, scholars have investigated the link between market orientation, innovation, and performance. However, the market orientation framework including customer-orientation, competitor-orientation, and cross-functional coordination is outdated. It reflects how vertically-integrated firms innovate. Today, only a handful of firms are vertically integrated. Many firms focus on their core capabilities and outsource to suppliers all other resources. Unfortunately, market orientation overlooks this change. This article fills this void. Drawing from the resource based view of the firm, market orientation is expanded by adding two dimensions: supplier orientation and inter-firm coordination. We postulate that this new model can better explain and predict firm innovativeness and performance in the current global network economy. The moderating role of power, communication richness, and communication frequency are also discussed. The article ends by proposing avenues for future research.

Drawing on sociometric traditions, this research examines interfirm relationships using longitudinal goods and services flow data across two value networks between firms and their strategic suppliers in light of the movement toward a service-dominant (S-D) logic-based approach to doing business. The findings suggest that firms adopting this approach are more likely to garner positional advantage (moving to the network’s core), while firms maintaining a goods-dominant (G-D) approach are less likely to win positional advantage. The findings also suggest that both networks are dominated by new S-D logic adopting entrants, who enjoy more positional advantage in the second time period. Core firms are more likely to remain in the value network, although many transitioned to its periphery. In addition, peripheral firms—which are more inclined to maintain a G-D logic-based approach—are more likely to be shaken out of the network. Moreover, while firms in advantageous positions are not assured of continued incumbency, they are more likely to remain entrenched despite having not completely adopted an S-D logic-based approach. Finally, the results demonstrate that networks become multilayered with the emergence of a service-driven economy, as each transitioned into a three-layered value network. The study asserts that firms can optimize their relational strategies by considering the hidden effects of positional advantage, coupled with embracing the S-D logic. The main research questions addressed include: (1) What happens to the structure of interfirm relationships with the advent of changes to the way that firms do business? And, (2) what are the theoretical and managerial implications of these changes to value network structures? By subjecting relational data to a network analysis, the research presented provides strategic insights into how firms can capitalize on network positions while increasing their likelihood of long-term viability. Using core-periphery analysis, the effects of transitioning from a G-D to an S-D logic are expressed as a change in a firm’s positional advantage from t1 to t2. The results from the core-periphery analyses summarize the firms’ change in positional advantage over time. In particular, new entrants to the core in t2 and firms remaining in the core from t1 to t2 have adopted an approach to doing business that resonates with S-D logic and are thus more likely to play a dominant role in the value network. However, firms maintaining a G-D logic or slowly transitioning from G-D to an S-D logic-based approach, but not fully appreciating the value of using open source platforms, for instance, were relegated to the periphery or were forced to join an external network. The results show that interfirm relationships can be conceptualized as containing core-peripheral structures, dominated by more adaptable, service-oriented firms that facilitate discontinuous transformations (Vargo & Lusch, 2008).

New product development is a major strategic activity for many companies; however, it is one of the most complex activities. Peres et al. (2010) investigated the effect of innovation diffusion on new product growth and found that consumer network effects via social network and product network externalities have profound effects on new product diffusion. The study adds to the current research on new product development by exploring the interaction effect of Electronic marketing orientation (EMO), innovation and network externalities effects which most of the companies have not put in their agenda yet due to strategic and technological limitation.