Nahezu allen produktpolitischen Aktivitäten liegt die Vorstellung zugrunde, dass Individuen die Evaluation und Selektion eines Erzeugnisses auf Basis klarer und eindeutiger Präferenzen vornehmen, die im Zeitverlauf stabil sind und bezüglich aller «features and functions» existieren. Die deskriptive Entscheidungsforschung zeigt hingegen, dass Präferenzen für bestimmte Produktfacetten gar nicht bestehen und zeitlich instabil sind. Diese Erkenntnis ist für das Mass Customization von zentraler Bedeutung, da der Kunde einen Entscheidungs- bzw. Konfigurationsprozess durchläuft, in dessen Verlauf sich Präferenzen neu bilden oder bestehende Präferenzen verändern. Insofern bedarf es einer Verzahnung der deskriptiven Entscheidungstheorie mit der Gestaltung von Konfiguratoren (als Kern des Mass Customization) um aufzuzeigen, in welchen Phasen des Konfigurationsprozesses einzelne entscheidungstheoretische Effekte wirksam werden können. Hieraus ergeben sich Forschungsfragen, die eine dezidierte Analyse des Entscheidungsverhaltens bei der Produktkonfiguration erlauben und Ansatzpunkte für Unternehmen aufzeigen, um dieses Verhalten zu beeinflussen.
Kundenzufriedenheit wird allgemein verstanden als Konsumzufriedenheit, d.h. die Zufriedenheit mit dem Ge- oder Verbrauch eines Erzeugnisses. Unbeachtet bleibt die Zufriedenheit mit der eigentlichen Produktwahlhandlung, d.h. der Entscheidungsprozesszufriedenheit. Dieser Artikel setzt sich zum Ziel, die zentralen Determinanten der Entscheidungsprozesszufriedenheit zu identifizieren, den Zusammenhang zwischen Entscheidungsprozess- und Konsumzufriedenheit zu erhellen sowie die Auswirkungen des Konstrukts auf Kundenloyalität und Weiterempfehlungsabsicht zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie belegen die Bedeutung der Entscheidungsprozesszufriedenheit für das Marketing.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to take a strategic perspective on how MNEs in the retail sector decide to enter a new market. Drawing on transaction cost theory, the contingency approach and resource-based theory, the implications of the interplay between global strategy, cultural distance and entry mode strategies are examined by means of an analysis of Carrefour’s global expansion. Design/methodology/approach – To account for the shortcomings of prior research, a hypothesis in the relationship between entry modes and cultural distance is tested empirically using a sample of 44 foreign market entries by Carrefour over the 40 last years. The paper uses a quantitative approach, i.e., logistic regressions. To measure cultural distance, the authors rely on the GLOBE dimensions and the Kogut-Singh Index.
Findings – The findings suggest a positive relationship between a resource commitment, entry mode strategy and cultural distance for Carrefour. However, these findings are contrary to the mainstream argument that high cultural distance is related to entry strategies based on relatively low resource commitment. The authors explain these findings by integrating a cultural distance perspective with Carrefour’s overall global expansion strategy.
Research limitations/implications – Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability.
Practical implications – The paper provides insights into why prior research on cultural distance and entry modes has yielded mixed results. From a strategic viewpoint, the paper stresses the particularities of the retail sector and how retailers try to account for cultural distance in their entry mode decisions.
Originality/value – By focussing on a single company instead of a meta-analysis, the analysis demonstrates how the search for strategic consistency and the particularities of the retail sector reverse a well-investigated theoretical assumption. The main originality of the paper is that it shows the implications of the interplay between cultural distance and entry mode as being part of the retail firm’s overall global expansion strategy.
Keywords Cultural distance, Carrefour, Global strategy, GLOBE dimensions, Kogut-Singh index, Retail sector
Paper type Research paper
The dominant social paradigm (DSP) defines the basic belief structures and practices of marketplace actors and is manifested in existing exchange structures. Sustainability – a so-called megatrend – challenges the DSP by questioning its underlying assumptions, resulting in tensions or conflicts for different marketplace actors. This study examines a specific case of an alternative market arrangement that bridges tensions between the DSP and environmental concerns. Ethnography in the context of retail food waste disposition reveals tensions experienced by several marketplace actors – namely consumers, retail firms and regulators – and investigates an alternative market arrangement that alleviates those tensions by connecting the actors and their practices in a creative new way. We identify complementarity as the underlying mechanism of connection and resolution. Compared to previously identified alternative market arrangements that are either oppositional or parallel to the DSP, complementarity opens another path toward greater environmental sustainability through market-level solutions.
By means of an ethnographic approach, this research examines perceptions of fairness and consumer behavior in an emerging nonmonetary sharing system. In contrast to market exchanges, which are defined by clear rules and principles of reciprocity, the redistribution of goods in a “sharing” context is in many cases less institu- tionalized and thus open to contestation. We draw on concepts from institutional theory to map out the interplay of different and partly contradicting fairness perceptions in an emerging nonmonetary sharing system and explain how those are negotiated and synthesized. We explicitly highlight a nonrelational fairness principle, leading to the stabilization of the sharing system under study through processes of “goal sharing” and “hierarchical coupling.” We discuss our findings in terms of their implications on sharing theory and the role of fairness within this literature stream.
Certain practices are excluded from markets, even though they may contribute to more sustainable systems. Other practices are integral to markets despite their highly detrimental impacts. This study investigates how alternative practices in the food sector became integrated into the market through normalization processes. Using a qualitative approach it examines the processes by which practices, including the recovery, distribution and consumption of food waste, went from being excluded from a mainstream food market to becoming normalized within it. Normalization occurs as a result of a community’s efforts and sacrifices in the construction of object biographies, and in the ritual transformation of objects and the meanings associated with them.
Keywords: Alternative practices, Normalization, Food Waste, Qualitative Research
