RESEARCH CAMP 2014
Location:
Maurice Keyworth Building,
Leeds University Business School,
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Leeds
Schedule
Day 1: Thursday, June 19th
1.00pm – 2.00pm: Lunch buffet
2.00pm – 3.15pm: Presentation 1 and Q&A discussion on “Managing Customer Profits: The
Power of Habits” by Professor V. Kumar
3.15pm – 3.45pm: Coffee break
3.45pm – 5.00pm: Presentation 2 and Q&A discussion on “Managing the Sales Force during
a Period of Disruptive Organizational Change: Two Longitudinal Studies” by Professor
Michael Ahearne
7.00pm – 9.00pm: Dinner at a Thai Edge, 7 Calverley Street, Leeds city centre.
Day 2: Friday, June 20th
9.00am – 10.00am: Presentation 3 and Q&A discussion on “Aspiration-Driven Influences on
Strategic Decision Making” by Professor Tomas Hult
10.00am – 10.30am: Coffee break
10.30am – 11.30am: Presentation 4 and Q&A discussion on “Challenges and Opportunities
in Survey Research in Marketing” by Professor Neil Morgan
11.30am – 11.45am: Coffee break
11.45am – 12.45pm: “Meet the Editors” and Q&A discussion on publishing in marketing
Chair: Professor Michael Ahearne
Panellists:
Professor V. Kumar, Journal of Marketing
Professor Tomas Hult, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Professor Constantine Katsikeas, Journal of International Marketing
12.45pm – 1.45pm: Lunch buffet with the speakers
Presentations
Professor V. Kumar
“Managing Customer Profits: The Power of Habits”
Abstract: Do customers exhibit recurring behavior besides repeat purchases? If so, what are those
behaviors, how are they formed, and why should marketers care? The authors apply the theory of
habit to customer behavior observed in the context of a large customer dataset of a national retailer.
The study finds that: (1) besides repeat purchases, customers’ recurring behavior with respect to
returning products, purchasing on promotion, and purchasing low-margin items can be quantified
along a continuum of habit strength, (2) marketing has a temporal impact on the formation of different
customers’ habits, and (3) firm performance can be significantly impacted (positively or negatively)
through the onset of different customers’ habits. The findings underscore the need for managers to
think of customer habits beyond repeat purchases, take stock of their customers’ habit measures
before implementing any policy changes, and leverage the habit measures (as compared to using only
the traditional behavioral measures) to strategically reallocate resources at the customer level to
maximize customer and firm profits.
Professor Mike Ahearne
“Managing the Sales Force during a Period of Disruptive Organizational Change: Two
Longitudinal Studies”
Abstract:
Given that organizational change efforts are often won or lost in the front-lines,
salespeople are constantly called upon to perform in the face of change. While the purpose of
introducing change is to obtain some performance benefit, there is often some combination of
performance gain and performance loss that unfolds over time. So far, researchers have not examined
this time-varying performance pattern during a period of organizational change, leaving managers
with very little guidance when they attempt to gauge the success or their change efforts. This
presentation
covers
two
longitudinal
studies
of
salespeople during a period of
disruptive
organizational change. The first study examines that performance of 400 salespeople over the course
of a year before, during, and after the introduction of a disruptive new customer relationship
management system. Using two-level longitudinal growth models, salespeople’s goal orientations are
shown to predict differences in individual performance trajectories over time. The second study
examines the effort (call productivity) and performance of salespeople over the course of a year
before, during, and after a major territory realignment of 640 salespeople. Using three-level
longitudinal growth models, salesperson skills and characteristics are identified that predict
differences in individual performance trajectories over time. More importantly, manager attributes
that promote successful adaptation are identified.
Professor Tomas Hult
“Aspiration-Driven Influences on Strategic Decision Making”
Abstract: Allocating scarce resources to competing strategic investment opportunities may be one of
the most critical choices that managers make and a major determinant of firm performance. For
example, the allocation of capital to potential uses has been described as the core attribute of modern
firms, in which internal decision makers use their better access to information to direct capital toward
investments with the best return prospects while denying capital to investments with lesser potential
for future returns. Aspiration-driven influences are critical to better understand these choices. One
way to examine aspiration-driven influences is to study the influence of backward-looking, referencedependent decisions on forward-looking capital allocation investment choices across business units
within a firm. Here the focus is on predicting how aspirations for business unit performance affect the
efficiency of the internal capital allocation process. Another way to examine aspiration-driven
influences is to study capital allocation competency as a dynamic managerial capability. Here the
focus is on understanding how the corporate office influences business unit performance through its
role in allocating capital across business units. A third way to examine aspiration-driven influences is
to study the impact and likelihood of location of Foreign Direct investment (FDI) entry. Here the
focus is on understanding what motivates multinational enterprises to expand internationally by FDI
and their choices on which countries to enter and invest in.
Professor Neil Morgan
“Challenges and Opportunities in Survey Research in Marketing”
Abstract. There are many theoretically and managerially important marketing phenomena that
cannot be investigated using secondary data, manipulated experimentally, or effectively studied
analytically. Yet, while not impossible, empirical observation suggests that it is clearly not easy to
publish survey data-based studies in top marketing journals. There are a number of key challenges
involved in designing and executing primary survey data-based studies in ways that meet the
requirements for publication in top journals. These include: sample selection; generalizability;
response rates; respondent knowledge; measurement reliability and validity; key informant and
common method bias; endogeneity; and analysis method selection. The solutions to these problems
range from research design-related decisions all the way through to data analysis choices and dealing
with reviewers. This session will review the key challenges and suggest approaches to for dealing
with them (including examples from published papers and work in progress projects) in ways that will
enhance the contribution to marketing knowledge of survey-based studies and maximize the chances
of publication success.
Speaker Bios:
V. Kumar
V. Kumar (VK) is the Editor-in-Chief Designate of Journal of Marketing, Regents Professor,
Chang Jiang Scholar, Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair & Professor in
Marketing, Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Brand and Customer
Management, and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Marketing at J. Mack Robinson College
of Business, Georgia State University. VK has been recognized with seven lifetime
achievement awards in Marketing Strategy, Inter-Organizational Issues, Retailing, Business
to Business Marketing, and Marketing Research from the AMA and other professional
organizations. VK has also received the Paul D. Converse Award, the Sheth
Foundation/Journal of Marketing Long term Impact Award, the Robert Buzzell Award, the
Davidson Award, the Paul H. Root Award, the Don Lehmann Award, and the Gary L. Lilien
ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Award. He has published over 200 articles in many scholarly
journals in marketing including the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review,
Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management
Science and Operations Research. His books include Managing Customers for Profit,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Lifetime Value, Marketing Research,
Profitable Customer Engagement, Statistical Methods in CRM, and International Marketing
Research. He has won several awards for his teaching excellence from many institutions. VK
also serves as the Editor and Associate Editor for many journals including the Journal of
Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, and the International Journal
of Forecasting. VK lead the marketing science to marketing practice initiative at the ISMS and
has worked with Global Fortune 1000 firms including IBM, P&G, Prudential, ING, HSBC,
ICICI and Polo Ralph Lauren to maximize their profits. VK spends his “free” time visiting
business leaders to identify challenging problems to solve. He plays Tennis and Basketball to
relieve his stress arising out of being in academics. Finally, VK is chosen as Legend in
Marketing where Dr. Kumar’s work is published in a 10 volume encyclopaedia with
commentaries from scholars worldwide.
Mike Ahearne
Michael Ahearne is Professor of Marketing and C.T. Bauer Chair in Marketing at the
University of Houston. He is also Executive Director of the Sales Excellence Institute. Mike's
research has primarily focused on improving the performance of salespeople and sales
organizations. He has published over 40 articles in leading journals such as Journal of
Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Strategic Management
Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes. He was recently recognized by the American Marketing Association as one of the
10 most research productive scholars in the field of marketing. His research has been profiled
in the Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, Business Investors Daily, Fox News, INC Magazine
and many other news outlets. Mike's textbook Selling Today: Partnering to Create Customer
Value is the highest grossing professional selling textbook in the world, with copies being
distributed in over forty countries. Paired with the many teaching awards he has won at the
MBA and undergraduate levels in Sales, Sales Management, and Key Account Management,
Mike has also had a significant impact outside of the classroom based on the reach of the
Sales Excellence Institute, which is widely regarded as the worldwide leader in sales
education and research. Mike was recently honored as the inaugural winner of the Neil
Rackham Research Dissemination Award for the impact of his research on business practice.
Before entering academia, Mike played professional baseball for the Montreal Expos and
worked in marketing research and sales operations for Eli Lilly and PCS Healthcare. He
actively consults in many industries including insurance, health care, consumer packaged
goods, technology and transportation.
Tomas Hult
Tomas Hult is the Byington Endowed Chair, Professor of Marketing and International
Business, and Director of the International Business Center in the Eli Broad College of
Business at Michigan State University. He is Executive Director of the Academy of
International Business, President of the AIB Foundation, and an elected Fellow of the
Academy of International Business. He is also President of the Sheth Foundation, Editor of
the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and serves on the U.S. District Export
Council. In research, Tomas was ranked the 75th "most cited scientist in economics and
business" in by Thomson Reuters in their Essential Science Indicators covering a period from
1997 to 2007. In a 2012 study (Aguinis et al., Academy of Management Perspectives), Tomas
was 6th among influential scholars who received their degrees in the last two decades. His
research has appeared in scholarly journals including Journal of Marketing, Academy of
Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of
Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal
of Management. A native of Sweden, Tomas is a visiting professor at his hometown Uppsala
University as well as a visiting professor in the Leeds University Business School.
Neil Morgan
Neil A. Morgan is a Professor and PetSmart Distinguished Chair of Marketing at Indiana
University’s Kelley School of Business. He has previously held faculty positions at UNC’s
Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, and
Cardiff University’s Cardiff Business School. Neil has also been a visiting professor at the
University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and is an international professorial
research fellow at Leeds University Business School. He received his Ph.D. in Business
Administration from the University of Wales. His research interests span marketing and
strategic management issues but mainly focus on marketing strategy implementation, and
linkages between marketing-related resources and capabilities and firm performance. Neil’s
work has been published in numerous journals including: Journal of Marketing, Marketing
Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Operations Management, Decision
Sciences, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. His current research projects focus on marketing performance outcome
assessment, marketing department power, brand management and CRM capabilities, strategic
goal accomplishment, the role of the CMO, and customer feedback systems. Neil has
consulted for a large number of firms in a variety of industries and in different parts of the
world including the US, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Russia, and South Africa. He is also a
multi-award winning MBA teacher and a frequent speaker in management development and
executive education programs around the world.