William Rudelius

University of Minnesota Twin Cities | UMN · Department of Marketing

Increased interest in improving judgmental decisions has resulted in increased research efforts from a very diverse set of disciplines, including marketing. Utilization of the contributions of each area of inquiry requires the integration of the many independent studies. This paper (a) summarizes three areas of research -- psychology, information s...

Market segmentation is one of the basic concepts in marketing. However, the issues of costs and profits have typically been ignored in discussions of segmentation. This paper introduces a straightforward framework to assess these issues. Various revenue and cost interactions are considered, and problems in implementing this process are discussed.

Much of the previous market segmentation research has focused on methods of positioning total markets into segments and rarely on how marketing managers actually use market segmentation in practice. In contrast, this article first discusses the organizational environment in which marketing managers make segmentation decisions. Then it describes res...

Increased interest in two important aspects of marketing education suggests the need for the use of portfolios. First, many business schools support a trend toward “integrated” programs and away from traditional functional approaches. Second, many educators advocate assessment reform as a means to more accurate understanding of students’ competenci...

This study explores the role of the sales force in formulating and executing marketing strategies. Specifically, the relationships between sales force activities such as providing information about customer needs, hiring and training salespeople, and assessing new market segments and four marketing strategies (market penetration, product developmen...

Although much marketing literature exists pertaining to whether products should be marketed differently from services, little attention has focused on whether product selling differs from service selling. This article reports the results of an empirical investigation that examined whether salespeople selling industrial products use different sellin...

The authors designed a self-paced, computer-based module to teach break-even analysis in a Marketing Principles class. This paper assesses the effectiveness of a short lecture plus this computer-based module on student learning compared with (1) lecture only (the control group) and (2) short-lecture-plus-problem-set delivery of the break-even mater...

This study investigates how firms manufacturing medical devices use the new product development (NPD) process. It compares new-to-the world products with product modifications in terms of the perceived importance of 12 NPD stages by R&D, manufacturing, and marketing departments; NPD stages actually performed; and the relation of these activities to...

Effective new product development decisions are often based on information obtained from multiple functional areas in the organization, making effective communications an important part of successful development efforts. Linda Rochford and William Rudelius examine the effects on new product performance of obtaining information from multiple functio...

American colleges and universities must find a way to provide undergraduate students a higher quality education at lower cost. The authors describe a pilot project at the University of Minnesota to try to achieve these twin goals. Central to this pilot project involving an integrated core of courses are committed students and faculty and (1) indivi...

Firms selling projects or jobs to specific customers on a “to order” basis face far different sales forecasting task than firms producing for inventory. The model described here utilizes a bottom-up approach in forecasting new business for a to-order firm using three key factors that can be estimated by a firm's marketing or sales manager. These th...

2. Ed

In this article, the authors argue that innovation is a surefire way for a firm to increase its sales and market share. This, in turn, can stimulate American industries and make American firms more competitive in international markets. Through their study of the cardiac-pacing industry, they draw conclusions about what factors contribute to a succe...

Many commercial survey research organizations weight answers from at-home respondents to reduce callbacks and compensate for not-at-home bias. After identifying conditions necessary for a weighting technique to work, the authors compare weighted and unweighted results from a single call on two criteria: unweighted results from three calls and 1980...

Many commercial survey research organizations weight answers from at-home respondents to reduce callbacks and compensate for not-at-home bias. After identifying conditions necessary for a weighting technique to work, the authors compare weighted and unweighted results from a single call on two criteria: unweighted results from three calls and 1980...

Industrial product and service salespeople encounter certain practices that may be ethically troublesome. Do product and service salespeople have different ethical beliefs about these practices? Answers to this question have not appeared in the marketing literature. This paper poses three potential reasons why these two groups may have different et...

Energy conservation appeals to homeowners stressing patriotism and social responsibility have not worked. The authors believe that more precise information for the homeowner showing the specific dollar costs and savings for various energy actions will stimulate meaningful, beneficial trade-offs for the individual. They further believe that broadly...

A planning model for local government energy conservation programs draws upon the advantage that local governments have in their direct access to homeowners, their capability of tailoring information to fit the needs of their area and giving individualized assistance to homeowners, and the opportunity to integrate energy programs into other neighbo...

The results of this article support the contention that a prenotification telephone call increases the probability of response to a mail survey request. The article also discusses the practical problems associated with the use of a telephone prenotification in an industrial setting and provides a step-by-step procedure to help overcome these proble...

Do premiums attract and hold new customers or merely encourage 'gamesmanship' and turnover of accounts?

Assessing the luncheon meeting between sales representatives and buyers.

Assessing the Luncheon Meeting between sales representatives and buyers.

The staying power of the employment problems of Appalachia or urban ghettos demonstrates that there is no easy solution for spreading economic growth to all parts of the nation. The authors develop a procedure to facilitate effective search for manufacturing jobs. The ideas described will assist regional groups in directing their investment of time...

How do marketers process information to make new product decisions? The computer-controlled experiment described in this article was designed to explore this question. Differences in information preferences between marketing managers and marketing researchers were revealed. The results also indicated ways in which decision making in marketing might...

How do marketers process information to make new product decisions? The computer-controlled experiment described in this article was designed to explore this question. Differences in information preferences between marketing managers and marketing researchers were revealed. The results also indicated ways in which decision making in marketing might...

In the past, state tourism studies have often emphasized interviews of in-state tourists, thereby obtaining no information on weaknesses of the state's vacation offerings as perceived by tourists who chose to vacation elsewhere. A sampling method used in this study, a regional mail panel of families in the twelve Midwestern states, permits an analy...

Innovation is an important way to stimulate the growth of a firm or industry, even when, as in the life insurance industry, the innovation cannot be patented or copyrighted. The study analyzes six important life insurance innovations that have received widespread acceptance throughout the industry and concludes that larger firms have a greater tend...

The increased use of incentive contracts has not eliminated, and may even have increased, the number of changes involved in the procurement of a major aerospace system. One kind of change is the program stretchout that extends the duration of an ongoing program by means of a formal contract change. The principal causes of program stretchouts and th...

Given several important assumptions, this paper suggests that the time phasing of the various skills utilized on a development project result in reasonably stable manpower relationships. The author establishes guidelines intended to sharpen, not replace, management's forecasts of its manpower needs throughout the life of a development program. For...