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Examines the impact of manager and salesforce antecedents on sales organization effectiveness, using a sample of 146 Australian sales units. Indicates that sales manager monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding activities distinguish between high and low sales unit profitability and managers’ satisfaction with their units. Suggests that sales territory design displays significant differences between high and low sales/market share and unit satisfaction. Discovers that several salesperson characteristics and performance were significantly different between high and low customer satisfaction effectiveness and managers’ satisfaction with sales units. Highlights significant antecedent roles for sales manager and salesforce antecedents of sales organization effectiveness.

The purpose of this study is to determine the direct effect of a loyalty program on program loyalty and store loyalty and to determine the role of communication effectiveness as a mediating variable in moving customers from program loyalty to store loyalty in the context of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Respondents of this study were 100 customers of the MSMEs that sell Batik products in Cirebon, Indonesia who were selected by the purposive sampling method. This study focuses on primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0 to determine the causality relationship between variables and to test the communication effectiveness as a mediating variable.

The results of this study indicate that the loyalty program has a significant effect on program loyalty; program loyalty has a significant effect on store loyalty and communication effectiveness, and communication effectiveness has a significant effect on store loyalty. Other results indicate that communication effectiveness partially mediates the relationship between program loyalty and store loyalty.

Despite the significant implications, this study has four limitations. First, the research results cannot conclude the store in general because the sampling of this study is limited to MSMEs only. Future research is needed to explore more deeply to compare store loyalty to MSMEs and non-MSMEs. Second, this research is only aimed at MSMEs that have loyalty programs. Future research can be carried out by comparing MSMEs that have loyalty programs and MSMEs without loyalty programs. Third, this study only uses two independent variables and one mediating variable. As is well known, there are many other variables that are antecedents of store loyalty. Future research needs to be done to explore the effect of other variables (mediating and moderating) on store loyalty, such as service quality, company image and customer satisfaction. Fourth, the research sample is only 100 respondents. Future research should use a larger sample as this research is customer-based.

This study has a significant impact on MSMEs management by providing strategies that can increase and retain customers who have high store loyalty. MSMEs need to design loyalty programs to influence customer perceptions of status, buying habits and relationships with companies. If a customer associates a high value with loyalty program membership, the customer is more likely to find the communication relevant and credible, leading to effective communication that can increase store loyalty.

This study provides real strategies and opportunities for MSMEs to develop so that they can survive or compete with similar companies. It is hoped that MSMEs will be able to absorb more labor so that it can increase the contribution of MSMEs to the national economy.

This study addresses the inconsistency of various results from previous studies regarding the relationship between program loyalty, loyalty programs, communication effectiveness and store loyalty, both directly and indirectly. In addition, several studies have been carried out in large corporate contexts. However, according to the authors’ knowledge, this research is for the first time being conducted in the context of MSMEs.

Multichannel (MC) service providers have been adopting a wide diversity of front-office service delivery models, i.e. different ways of employing channels to support the delivery of the service activities that involve customer interaction. Despite this, we are still faced with a paucity of concepts to understand the myriad of possible choices. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework and basic design architectures to provide a structured understanding of the diversity of operational design choices for MC front-office service delivery models, their efficacy implications, and how they fit with the provider’s service strategy.

The study employs the analytical conceptual approach. The authors logically develop the architectures based on the operations management theory and provide corresponding empirical illustrations based on secondary sources, direct observation, and case studies.

The authors propose two theoretically meaningful dimensions to characterize and distinguish between delivery models (channel redundancy and channel span) and put forward four anchor architectures for such models: generalist, parallel, constricted, and centralized. The authors identify the operational efficacy implications (effectiveness and efficiency) of the different architectures, and develop a set of propositions and design principles for selecting appropriate architectures.

Future research should develop empirical measures for the dimensions underlying the architectures.

The study extends existing service process classifications by capturing the MC traits of front-office processes. The authors offer design principles to assist firms in selecting architectures that are aligned with their service strategy. The framework and architectures provide seminal concepts to support a wealth of future empirical studies.

This study aims to explore the influence of health-care service quality on customers’ perceived value, satisfaction, effectiveness and behavioural intention concerning district health centres (DHCs) in Hong Kong. This research also intends to assess customers’ perception of the subsidy scheme and its influence on the relationships amongst the aforementioned constructs.

The convenience and snowball sampling approaches were adopted, and the self-administered questionnaire was sent to 309 customers of DHCs.

Service quality attributes in terms of staffing and procedures positively increased customers’ perceived value and staffing, procedures and operations. Physical facilities positively promoted customers’ satisfaction, consequently improving DHCs’ effectiveness and behavioural intention. However, core treatments and services of DHCs did not impact customers’ perceived value and satisfaction. Furthermore, customers receiving subsidies exhibited a more positive perception than those without subsidies.

Health-care organisations are advised to strategically allocate resources (staffing, facilities and procedures and operations management) to optimise overall performance outcomes. DHC operators could reinforce the core services of DHCs and health-care voucher subsidies to local citizens so as to enhance the effectiveness of DHCs and behavioural intention of customers.

This study integrates the input–process–output approach in measuring the effectiveness of and customers’ behavioural intention towards newly established DHCs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology utilization in manufacturing firms on manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness.

Using systems theory as a basis, a RFID utilization and outcome(s) performance model was developed from the literature. Data from a sample of 155 manufacturers were collected and the model was assessed using a structural equation methodology.

Findings indicate that utilization of RFID technology leads to improved manufacturing efficiency and manufacturing effectiveness. Improvements in efficiency lead directly to improved organizational performance, and improvements in effectiveness lead directly to improved supply chain performance.

Data were collected during the growth stage of RFID technology adoption and were only collected from firms in the manufacturing sector. Results should be interpreted with these limitations in mind.

The implementation of RFID technology can result in improved manufacturing efficiency and effectiveness. Practitioners considering adoption of the technology should fully account for these potential efficiency and effectiveness related benefits when determining the justification for adoption of this technology.

The paper describes one of the first empirically‐based studies investigating the impact of RFID technology implementation on supply chain and organizational performance in manufacturing organizations.

This paper aims to examine small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) strategic capabilities in terms of their marketing and management capabilities, their sources of environmental uncertainty and their organizational capabilities. Additionally, to what extent the effect differs across two sectors (manufacturing and service).

Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to conduct multigroup analysis for the two sectors. Data was collected from a sample of 315 Omani SMEs, 166 from manufacturing and 149 from services.

The results show that strategic capabilities have a significant positive effect on customer satisfaction. However, the effect differs between manufacturing and service SMEs; the effect is greater in service than in manufacturing SMEs. Furthermore, the effect of organizational capabilities on customer satisfaction was found to be positive. However, the effect is higher in manufacturing as the difference is statistically significant.

Due to the growing importance of the service and manufacturing SMEs in developing countries and their considerable involvement in economic development, it is important to understand the characteristics of the strategic capabilities in both sectors. Thus, according to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first to propose a comprehensive framework that measures collectively the direct impact of strategic capabilities, organizational capabilities and environmental uncertainties on SMEs customer satisfaction and effectiveness.

Review articles on B2B salespersons' performance in the recent past have been limited. This paper seeks to provide a review, focusing on the conceptualizations of the salespersons' performance construct, and its determinants, in a B2B context. A synthesis of the relevant predictors is presented, and new customer‐centric measures of performance in industrial selling are also proposed.

The paper provides an exhaustive review and synthesis of the conceptual and empirical studies on salespersons' performance and effectiveness. It also posits a set of propositions from a customer‐centric perspective.

Far too many individual‐level variables are used as predictors of a B2B salesperson's performance and effectiveness. Future research must focus on context‐specific selling situations to identify the contextual skills required to perform the critical customer‐centric activities, rather than by using generic models that fail to apply to all situations.

The review paper provides a conceptual synthesis of studies carried out in the past. Future researchers can carry out a meta‐analysis of empirical studies to provide more pointed results.

The study highlights the heterogeneity in B2B salespersons' performance, which makes unraveling its determinants more difficult. The paper makes a call for adopting measures that are customer‐centric, such that predictors are anchored in the activities of salespeople rather than their individual‐level characteristics.

The paper disentangles the inconsistencies in the conceptualization and measurement of the two key focal constructs, and highlights the conceptual overlap between these constructs. The paper also proposes performance measures based on customer‐centric activities, rather than being either firm‐centric or based on individual characteristics.

The current work seeks to analyze the different effects of three alternative strategic marketing orientations – market orientation, sales orientation, and product orientation – on non‐profit organizations' effectiveness, specifically their economic and social effectiveness.

In order to test the hypotheses proposed, an empirical analysis of 182 Spanish museums was conducted.

The study reveals that social effectiveness relates highly to product and customer orientation, whereas economic effectiveness mainly depends on sales orientation and inter‐functional coordination.

The results suggest that applying a marketing orientation centered on the product and knowing the visitor is critical for successfully fulfilling the objectives of conservation and diffusion of culture. Moreover, the organization needs to focus on sales, on the internal customer, and on the coordination between the managing institutions, to be able to achieve satisfactory economic results.

This work makes an empirical contribution to the analysis of market orientation on cultural organizations. Although previous research has underlined the relevance of a market orientation for museums and cultural organizations, few empirical analyses have been developed until now.

This paper proposes a framework that describes the boundary spanning supply chain management (SCM) initiatives taken by leading companies. Supported by existing literature and interviews with managers from large companies reflecting a cross section of businesses, the framework suggests four motivating domains or factors that could support SCM initiatives. They are supply chain understanding, design, improvement, and coordination. Based on the sand cone model, the framework also suggests four levels of SCM integration over which these motivating factors are relevant to the firm and/or supply chain. They range from no integration outside the functional silos of a single firm to a fully integrated multi‐tier supply chain. Unlike existing frameworks that are based upon the flow of material and information through the supply chain, our framework is derived by combining the concept of integration with the motivating domains that characterize SCM initiatives. It captures the combined and overlapping impact of supply chain initiatives from a more strategic perspective and is a useful additional resource for practitioners who seek to chart potential improvements to their supply chain from a competitive standpoint.

The purpose of this paper is to create a new understanding of industrial business-to-business (B2B) relationships by connecting the theoretical streams of marketing communications and relationship marketing. This study tests how various marketing communication channels and communication quality increase the transformation of customer-perceived value into customer loyalty.

The theoretical framework consists of links between customer-perceived value, marketing communication quality, channel effectiveness, and customer loyalty. The age of the business relationship is also taken into consideration. Empirical testing is based on global survey data (n=121) collected from customers of Finnish manufacturing companies operating in the paper, mineral, and metal-processing industries.

The effects of customer-perceived value on customer loyalty are both direct and indirect, as marketing communications partially mediate this relationship. The customer-perceived effectiveness of various marketing communication channels adds more to loyalty formation than the perceived quality of marketing communications.

Of special interest for marketing practitioners is the channel-specific approach to the effectiveness of marketing communications. Results suggest that personalized channels would be the most important mediators of the effects of perceived value on loyalty and also bring up the possibility of combining personalized direct communication with new cost-effective digital channels.

Relatively little research has examined the mediating role of marketing communications in the relationship between perceived value and loyalty in the B2B context.