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Top management attention to trade shows and firm performance: A relationship marketing perspective
Abstract
B2B marketers allocate significant resources to trade shows, but often struggle to make a strong business case for these activities. Responding to calls to justify such investments, this research examines the effect that top management attention to trade shows has on firm value. Based on attention theory, this study suggests that top management's focus on trade show relationship marketing efforts results in better trade show performance. This helps develop market-based assets that in turn augment firm value. Using an event study to extrapolate the contingent effect that top management attention to trade shows has on firm value, the basic hypothesis is supported. Additionally, this research tests three top management orientations that are key to performing trade show relationship marketing activities. The findings address the absence of top management from extant trade show research and provide marketers with new insights related to maximizing their trade show investments.
... Many questions, however, still remain: which staff members in particular are related to exactly what functions and why from the motives of the exhibitor firms? Other studies concentrated more on job-specific training recommendations, for example for managers and sales personnel vis-à-vis exporting success (Bellow and Barksdale, 1986), 'staff' related to image building, relationship development, information gathering, and product placement (Lee and Kim, 2008), and implications for upper management participation (Brown, Mohan and Boyd, 2017;Tanner, 2002). Again, however, the recommendations were often generalized or inferred, and they did not readily cross-fertilize pre-existing job descriptions (e.g., Lee and Kim, 2008). ...
... This geographic proximity, for example, helps to provide the right environment to foster trust, which is key to not only building new relationships, but also to improving existing bonds between sellers, buyers, and other actors . Accordingly, management has begun to see the value of these events in terms of their relationship marketing potential (Brown et al., 2017). Thus, an important element of relationship marketing at ITFs would be the selection and placement of the right staff at these events, preferably seasoned and trained to take advantage of the universe of activities and opportunities unfolding at them (Pitta, Weisgal and Lynagh, 2006). ...
... Moreover, the importance of these networks underscores how critical it is for firms to be strategic about ITF staffing decisions visà-vis internationalization. Tanner (2002), for example, found that more successful firms placed more emphasis on the use of ITFs for the purpose of entering new markets. In other research, a management presence at an ITF increased firm-level capacity to develop network relationships (Brown et al., 2017). The present research examines these possibilities with an eye toward unpacking the activity of specific personnel to include those outside of traditional sales and management roles. ...
There is a dearth of literature on international trade fair (ITF) staffing functions from the perspective of the exhibitor, and on firm-level internationalization and innovation-related activity within the ITF environment. This research explores specific ITF staffing considerations and their linkages with a number of measures related to firm-level internationalization strategies, relationship building, and innovative activity. A relationship marketing perspective and two research questions are deployed. Results are based on quantitative analyses of firm-level data on smalland-medium-sized (SME) Korean advanced machine tool manufacturers. Results indicate that firms staffed with senior management place more emphasis on meetings with overseas agents and on market information gathering. Firms staffed with technicians emphasize benchmarking activity. The presence of engineers emerges as vital to the setting of clear goals for ITF attendance. Engineers fill even more pivotal roles in the use of ITFs for establishing relationships with potential buyers, for information gathering on them, and for innovative activity. SMEs in technologically advanced sectors and those seeking to expand their export horizons should diversify and enhance their ITF staffing, namely by including more engineers and technicians in conjunction with upper management. They should also move beyond a sales-only motivation and make sure that cross-training helps to better prepare all staff for functions outside of their general job descriptions. Findings may have a direct bearing on Korean firms given the context surrounding the industry, and on (East) Asian firms in particular given an organizational preference to staff with lower-level management and sales personnel.
... For example, getting in contact with potential clients is a key function of trade shows (Shereni et al., 2021). The interaction not only helps gain the first batch of customers but also supports reputation building, the obtainment of information, and the acquisition and maintenance of valuable customer relationships, which aids in relationship marketing (Brown et al., 2017;Cortez et al., 2022). In this case, interpersonal interaction in trade shows enables exhibitors to better achieve extraordinary trade show performance. ...
... Yen et al. (2020) found that customer participation through interaction can stimulate value co-creation behaviour. The trade show environment fosters interaction, networking, engagement, and the formation of relationships (Gopalakrishna et al., 2019), which helps build long-term value (Brown et al., 2017). Deeper customer involvement can be triggered through novel, engaging, and interactive activities at the booth, which can help strengthen trade show performance such as brand image building (Tafesse, 2016). ...
... B2B marketers allocate significant resources to trade shows, but often struggle to create a strong business case for such activities (Brown, Mohan, & Boyd, 2017). Companies invest heavily to participate in trade shows, and they have a clear goal in achieving sales results, with fairs being an extension of the company's sales force. ...
O objetivo é investigar as motivações que levam as empresas a participar de feiras de negócios. Com base na literatura, três hipóteses foram formuladas. Os procedimentos metodológicos tiveram abordagem qualitativa, foram realizadas entrevistas. A população eram empresas do setor metalúrgico que participam como expositores de feiras internacionais de negócios e de renome em seus segmentos. Após o tratamento dos dados, foi realizada uma análise de conteúdo utilizando a Interface de Software para Análise Multidimensional de Textos e Questionários (IRAMUTEQ). Esta foi estruturada em três etapas: análise da frequência de termos relevantes, análise da associação de termos relevantes e estruturação diferenciada de discursos. H2 e H3 foram aprovadas e H1 foi refutada.
... .]" (Schneider et al., 2005(Schneider et al., , p. 1019, to the author's knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically address how TMCI contributes directly to customer satisfaction. This study answers calls for more research to understand additional avenues through which senior executives influence firms' outcomes (Priem et al., 1999;Guesalaga, 2014) and is one in a stream of recent studies (Li et al., 2013;Guesalaga, 2014;Brown et al., 2017;Ridge et al., 2017) that examine how the direct actions of the upper echelons of a firm, rather than their characteristics or values, influence firm performance. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effect of top management’s customer interactions (TMCI) on customer satisfaction. This study argues that TMCI’s overall relationship with customer satisfaction follows an inverted-U shape due to its positive and disruptive effects on the customer relationship efforts of frontline service/sales employees (FSEs). This paper further investigates the frontline competence of both FSEs and the top management team (TMT) as moderators of the impact of TMCI on customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model was tested empirically using data from managers, frontline employees and customers of microfinance firms. A multilevel structural equation modeling approach was used to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The results show that TMCI has a curvilinear relationship with customer satisfaction. The results also show that frontline employees’ collective efficacy attenuates this relationship by shifting the turning point of the curvilinear effect to the right. Furthermore, TMT frontline competence amplifies both the positive and negative effects of TMCI on customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
This study advances knowledge on the effects of TMCI on customer satisfaction and highlights the nuanced relationship between top management involvement and indicators of firm performance.
Practical implications
The findings show the importance of considering the frontline competence of both top management and frontline employees when encouraging TMCI in organizations.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is one of the first to examine TMCI’s direct impact on customer satisfaction and propose the frontline competence of both top management and frontline employees as boundary conditions on this relationship.
... The theoretical basis of this paper is the basic theory of attention in the field of management research [13][14][15]. This means that, under the hypothesis of bounded rationality, managers should scientifically allocate their limited attention to make correct decisions, and any decisions made by managers depend on where their attention is focused. ...
Dealing with relationships on farmland is one of the most important issues in China. Since its reform and opening up, the policies of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” have been embodied in the Central No. 1 document. The documents, which represent the purpose of China, reveal the strategic direction and development ideas of the state. Based on Central No. 1 documents published by the Central Committee of the CPC, and using the attention theory from psychology, we proposed PAI and PAD indicators to express the Central Committee of the CPC’s concern and direction on agriculture, and then measured the change in attention allocation of the Central Committee of the CPC’s land policy, as well as what is “new” in the land policy system. Results showed that: First, the attention allocation of the Central Committee of the CPC’s land policy (PAI) shows a wave-like upward trend from 3.9% to 5%, and has gone through the stage of contracting management to benefit people’s livelihoods and liberate productivity, the stage of allocating land resource elements under scientific use control, and the stage of expanding power and enabling capacity to promote the modernization of land management. Second, the policy attention direction (PAD) has experienced a process from the early focus on the release of land factor productivity to the optimal allocation of land factor resources and then to the modernization of land management. Third, the scope of attention allocation is gradually expanding, especially for the construction of ecological civilization and promotion of the modernization of land management. To be specific, it is necessary to reasonably arrange the overall planning of China’s land policy system based on the actual situation, and to clarify and optimize the development direction and the proportion of attention allocation in its subdivision fields. The intention to be the first to push forward the implementation of the relevant policies and pilot issues of land governance modernization will become the new trend of the future research. Based on the actual situation, we should continue to emancipate prevailing perceptions and combine the focus of rural land reform to inject vitality into rural development and into the development of the whole economy and society.
... From a relationship marketing point of view, public sector shows offer favourable conditions and platforms for interactions that can positively impact the business relationship. The public sector shows play a business role by creating a learning process between individuals and entities (Brown et al., 2017). Information gathering and knowledge sharing at public sector shows are agents of business learning and innovation. ...
Public relations (PR) and brand communication are integral aspects of marketing communications that strategically disseminate information about an institution’s nature, values, and offerings. With a more empowered audience, increasingly demanding social environment, and globalisation, public sector institutions in Africa are continuously faced with the need to project a positive brand image. Effective PR can help build a positive brand image for the public sector through communication of government agenda, programmes, and offerings that meet citizens’ needs and deliver value. The contributing authors of this book have recommended PR and brand communication practices that will enhance the public image of public institutions in Africa. Particularly, improved citizen engagement, positioning of public institutions’ brands, creating awareness of governments’ products and services, and technology-driven public relations, amongst others, will help change the narrative of public institutions in Africa. Finally, the incorporation of African philosophies that will enhance communications, improve public relations and promote the interests of multiple stakeholders is recommended as we reimagine the future of public relations in the African continent.KeywordsPublic sector institutionBrand communicationAfricaPublic relationsGovernment
... From a relationship marketing point of view, public sector shows offer favourable conditions and platforms for interactions that can positively impact the business relationship. The public sector shows play a business role by creating a learning process between individuals and entities (Brown et al., 2017). Information gathering and knowledge sharing at public sector shows are agents of business learning and innovation. ...
This chapter examines public relations (PR) in sub-Saharan Africa’s public sector. It discusses the theoretical perspectives of public relations and their application to the public sectors in Africa. We reviewed existing literature on public relations in sub-Saharan Africa’s public sector and the findings suggest that offline and digital media have played significant roles in Africa’s public relations over the past decades, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. These tools have been deployed by the public sector for reputation management, crisis communication, information sharing, and feedback. However, the prevalent PR models and strategies practised in Africa may not be too effective in building public trust and resolving a crisis. We recommend that the public sector, in its quest to build public trust and resolve crises, should understand and adopt appropriate theories/models such as the situational theory of publics, the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), and the systems theory, for effective PR and crisis management in Africa.
The aim of this chapter is to analysis how stakeholders' network can affect business models, and more precisely, how relationship marketing through trust and commitment intervenes in this relationship. In fact, a firm is perceived to be embedded in a network of relationships within which value is jointly created and shared in stakeholders' interactions. The relationship between a company and its stakeholders in a network provides different values and resources that can influence a business model. The strength of the ties in a network can be achieved through relationship marketing which aims the creation, development, and maintaining of a sustainable exchange relation. Indeed, relationship marketing acts through the establishment of a climate of trust and commitment between the company and the various stakeholders. This study wraps up with a proposal of a conceptual model, linking the different components of our research. The chapter has theoretical contributions, particularly in terms of the creation and development of relational value in a network .
Customer references represent a popular marketing strategy, in which customers of a particular supplier share their prior experiences with other potential buyers. The number of customers featured in a customer reference (i.e., reference breadth) and the richness of information it provides (i.e., reference depth), as design decisions, in turn might influence the financial impact of customer references. Drawing from signaling theory, the authors develop a conceptual framework to understand the impact of customer reference design and the moderating role of trade receivables, which represents a finance-based signal of quality often used in business-to-business markets. Two studies test the model, one focused on investors’ reactions to the design of customer references and another that addresses buyers’ reactions. The results affirm the importance of reference design factors for both investors and buyers and reveal important insights at the marketing–finance interface.
Despite the relevance of trade fairs in the public sector, scanty literature exists in the Ghanaian context. This chapter seeks to establish the meaning, forms, relevance of public sector trade fairs, and requirements for these trade shows. The chapter establishes that public sector trade fairs should be solution-oriented, which requires the coming together of decision-makers, commercial leaders, and innovators from different units in the public sector to showcase how public organisations are improving service delivery, efficiency, and value for money. In terms of form, public sector trade fairs could be vertical/horizontal exhibitions, industrial-based/consumer-based, or regional/national/international. Furthermore, in terms of relevance, public sector trade shows have become promising avenues for creating awareness among geographically distant prospective customers, and present an opportunity for information and social exchange in both formal and informal settings. In the case of requirements, attention needs to be given to specifics like planning, cost factors, duties of organisers and exhibitors, organisational assessment, participation, and registration checklist. It is, therefore, recommended that public sector trade fairs should be well positioned to serve as strategic assets for innovation and policy formulation.KeywordsTrade fairsExhibitionsPublic showsGhanaian public sector
Organizational attention is an underdeveloped construct that can account for a variety of organizational phenomena. Attention is the means by which individuals select and process a limited amount of input from the enormous amount of internal and environmental inputs bombarding the senses, memories and other cognitive processes. This article develops a coherent theory of organizational attention, drawing on Cornelissenșs domain-interactive metaphor model. Topics that form the building blocks of individual attention research, including selective and divided attention, automatic versus controlled processes, attention and memory, attention and learning, are examined in terms of their applicability to the organizational context.
Defective products are often recalled to limit harm to consumers and damage to the firm. However, little is known about why the timing of product recalls varies across firms after an investigation is opened. Likewise, there is little evidence on how the timing of product recalls impacts firm performance. This study tests the effect of problem severity on time to recall and the contingent role of brand characteristics in moderating this relationship. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 381 recall investigations conducted in the automobile industry between 1999 and 2012. The results show that while problem severity increases time to recall, this relationship is weaker when the brand under investigation has a) a strong reputation for reliability and b) experienced severe recalls in the recent past. However, the positive effect of problem severity on time to recall is stronger when brands are diverse. Importantly, the findings reveal that on average higher times to recall are punished by stock markets. The study suggests that time to recall has significant consequences for managers and policy makers.
Manuscript available under https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2873138
Purpose
The purpose of the this paper is to correct a deficiency in the published literature by examining the share price performance of firms that own high-value brands in uptrending, downtrending and sideways markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examined stock price performance for an index of firms that owned brands in the Interbrand list of the “Best Global Brands” from 2001 through 2009 using the Fama-French method.
Findings
The authors’ index outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 when the market was up or downtrending, but not when it moved sideways.
Research limitations/implications
The authors find that an index of firms that own the produced better returns than the Standard & Poor’s 500 market index. Owning highly valued brands may be a marketplace signal to the investing community regarding the firm’s management acumen.
Practical implications
Owning high-value brands seems to influence share price performance, a metric used to judge chief executive officers. Thus, brand investments align with the shareholders’ interest. The authors help alleviate the perception (Challagalla et al. , 2014) that marketing managers make investments on an ad hoc basis.
Originality/value
For the first time, the authors evaluate the effect of owning one or more of the world’s most valuable brands on the market value of common stock using data from downtrending, uptrending and no-trend periods. This research is also among the first to introduce volatility into the Fama-French method and it is an important explanatory variable. This paper’s approach has interesting comparisons to other papers taking a similar analytical approach.
The increasing importance of advanced manufacturing technology, total quality management, and just‐in‐time to manufacturing firms raises some basic questions as to the strategic use of these techniques in manufacturing. Does strategic use of these techniques influence performance? How is the impact of these techniques influenced by the competitive environment? Are the techniques actually being used strategically? A study in a large sample of manufacturing organizations confirms that the use of integrated manufacturing techniques—particularly total quality—influences performance, and that these effects are magnified or diminished by both the competitive environment and manufacturing strategy. It also shows that, in some cases, firms are missing opportunities to combine integrated manufacturing and strategy in ways that would substantially impact their performance.
Relationship marketing (RM) has emerged as one of the dominant mantras in business strategy circles, though RM investigations often yield mixed results. To help managers and researchers improve the effectiveness of their efforts, the authors synthesize RM empirical research in a meta-analytic framework. Although the fundamental premise that RM positively affects performance is well supported, many of the authors’ findings have significant implications for research and practice. Relationship investment has a large, direct effect on seller objective performance, which implies that additional meditated pathways may explain the impact of RM on performance. Objective performance is influenced most by relationship quality (a composite measure of relationship strength) and least by commitment. The results also suggest that RM is more effective when relationships are more critical to customers (e.g., service offerings, channel exchanges, business markets) and when relationships are built with an individual person rather than a selling firm (which partially explains the mixed effects between RM and performance reported in previous studies).
Marketing actions must create value for two key stakeholders: customers and investors. Nevertheless, these two stakeholders differ in their evaluations of firm actions in critical ways. As a result, most managers believe that there is a critical trade-off between serving customers and shareholders. Drawing upon the marketing–finance interface, the authors investigate how this trade-off unfolds to impact customer satisfaction and firm value in the context of innovation. Specifically, the present study demonstrates that creating value for customers and shareholders are not two completely distinct goals, as the business press and managers fear; innovation can create value for shareholders by satisfying customers. However, results also indicate that a crucial trade-off between satisfying consumers and creating value for investors is indeed present, as those same factors (i.e., firm’s branding strategy and level of market dominance, industry-level competitive intensity) that enhance the effects of innovation on customer satisfaction depress the effects of innovation on firm value, and vice versa. The authors discuss the implications of these important findings for research and practice.
The trade show marketing literature has been growing over the past decades, attracting a steady stream of research and journal publications. However, this body of research has not been subject to a systematic literature review. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of the trade show marketing literature with the aim of delineating its current state, trends, gaps and inconsistencies. To this end, multiple electronic databases were searched and 91 trade show articles published in 24 marketing journals were extracted. The extracted articles were carefully analyzed with the help of a comprehensive classification framework consisting of broad thematic, theoretical and methodological dimensions. The findings revealed that: (a) trade show research is marked by inconsistencies that concern core thematic issues, such as trade show participation modes, trade show activity stages and trade show performance; (b) trade show research is atheoretical for the most part, but has become increasingly theory oriented in recent years; and (c) trade show research is heavily dependent on a combination of cross-sectional designs and surveys, with limited application of other designs and data collection approaches. Building on these findings, the review proposes an extensive research agenda to help move the trade show marketing literature forward.
In this paper, we critically review literature on trade shows developed in industrial marketing (IM) and economic geography (EG), aiming to contribute to the ongoing conversation between these disciplines and showing that they can learn from each other. In IM, trade shows are conceived as promotional instruments, whereas in EG these events are seen as temporary clusters through which firms can escape the liabilities of embeddedness and interact with, and learn from, distant actors. EG literature has integrated insights from IM that have provided a means to go beyond earlier formulations that downplayed market-based learning processes at these events. IM has in fact far under-theorized space and conceived exhibitors as individual agents, neglecting the fact that many of these events are collective marketing platforms that industry agglomerations or geographical clusters can use to affirm their presence in international markets. Based on our analysis, we propose research directions that can benefit individual exhibitors as well as geographically-based business networks. The analysis addresses the boundaries and limitations of disciplinary analyses and strongly suggests transdisciplinary encounters and engagements in IM and EG research.