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The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospection on the importance, origins and development of the research programs in the author’s career.

The study uses an autobiographical approach.

Most of the articles, research monographs and books that constitute this research and publishing efforts can be categorized into seven distinct, but related, research programs: channels of distribution; marketing theory; marketing’s philosophy debates; macromarketing and ethics; relationship marketing; resource-advantage theory; and marketing management and strategy. The value system that has guided these research programs has been shaped by specific events that took place in the author’s formative years. This essay chronicles these events and the origins and development of the seven research programs.

Chronicling the importance, origins and development of the seven research programs will hopefully motivate and assist other scholars in developing their own research programs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal retrospective on six of the key events/experiences that influenced the development of the structure, foundational premises, and models of the resource‐advantage theory of competition.

The paper uses a personal retrospective approach.

The paper finds that six key events influenced the development of resource‐advantage theory: B.J. “Bud” LaLonde emphasizes the works of Alderson; Rob Morgan suggests an article on the resource‐based theory of the firm; Roy Howell suggests a presentation on R‐A theory; Randy Sparks shows a “socialist calculation” article; Kim Boal suggests the Journal of Management Inquiry as a publication outlet; and Bob Phillips discusses his work on “firm effects vs industry effects”. The paper then relates each of the six events to the paths, routes, or procedures that are often proposed as (or reported to be) likely to lead to the development of theories.

By providing the evolutionary history of resource‐advantage theory, the paper provides implications for developing marketing theories.

The purpose of this article is to explore linkages between committed customers and their willingness to serve as advocates and investigate the moderating influence of B2B loyalty programs toward supporting customer advocacy behaviors.

A model was developed to assess linkages between customer commitment and an assortment of customer advocacy behaviors, including sharing information, marketing research support, word‐of‐mouth referrals, and increasing repatronage. The model was tested on 248 agricultural business clients of a chemical manufacturer using confirmatory factor analysis. Multi‐group analysis was conducted to assess hypothesized B2B loyalty program membership effects.

The findings suggest that customers with stronger levels of commitment are indeed more willing to contribute as customer advocates. Surprisingly, B2B loyalty program membership shows no significant moderating effects on the tested model.

The tested model provides an expanded view of customer advocacy. Researchers are advised to regard this work as a starting‐point for expanded hypotheses development of future customer advocacy models.

The study considers the potential for how business customers can be further engaged to serve as advocates and thereby help improve the firm's marketing performance. However, when loyalty program membership is firm‐determined, marketers should not expect that the program will enhance customer advocacy behaviors toward the sponsoring firm.

Since much of the previous work on customer advocacy has been based on anecdotal evidence, the study advances the relationship marketing literature by providing empirical evidence for the multi‐dimensional view of customer advocacy behaviors and further argues that customer lifetime value (CLV) encapsulates customer advocacy.

This study aims to present a taxonomic framework that categorizes hotel loyalty program members on the basis of involvement and a mix of behavioral outcome variables.

The taxonomy is derived through mixture modeling from a sample of 1,395 loyalty program members of two global hotel chains.

Study results suggest the presence of four classes of program members across both hotels. Class members differ with respect to the attitudes they hold, the behaviors they exhibit, and the motivations they have for maintaining membership in the program.

First, the study enhances understanding of member differences that exist within loyalty programs. Second, the study advances understanding of the ways through which loyalty programs can best be managed. Third, the study illustrates the usefulness of mixture modeling as a classificatory tool.

Study results are not generalizable beyond the sample used in deriving them. Further, decisions pertaining to what variables to include in developing a taxonomic framework are critical to its usefulness. The choice to include certain variables as well as their related measures, to the exclusion of others, represents a second limitation.

The study is but the second to empirically categorize loyalty program members, and the first to do so in a services context. Two classes of high‐involvement customers emerge, each with contrasting attitudes and behaviors. Thus, our findings suggest that high levels of involvement invoke the most extreme of customer attitudes and behaviors.

China has become a driving force in the world economy, yet East‐West cultural differences remain a problem area for many managers. This paper examines the importance of Confucianism in shaping societal values in China and how these values have affected the Chinese style of management. Confucian principles are extracted from the extant literature and used to explain the cultural underpinnings of Chinese leadership patterns, interpersonal behaviors and individual values. The longevity of Confucian influences throughout Chinese culture is a major factor in China’s resistance to Western management practices. There is also evidence that mainstream Confucian principles emphasizing teamwork, relationships and strong corporate cultures are gaining traction in the West. Future Western researchers should pay increased attention to East Asian philosophies and Asian‐based religions in their attempts to understand non‐Christian lifestyles and management methods.

Efficient consumer response (ECR) is arguably the most complex managerial innovation in distribution to be introduced in the US. As such, ECR holds great potential for retailing. Despite praise by some, however, ECR faces criticism and even rejection by others. What influence will ECR ultimately have on retail operations? In this paper, the authors assess the future of ECR within the US by examining its place in a long line of advances made in distribution over the past century. Building on managerial innovation adoption and diffusion theory, the authors assess the reasons why certain previous innovations in distribution flourished, appraise the likelihood of wide diffusion for ECR, and discuss the contributions of ECR to the distribution function.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the existence and strength of the relationship between proactive environmental policies and brand equity for the winery. Results of this study suggest that consumer perceptions about product quality, consumer trust, consumer perceptions about pricing, and positive expectations for the consequences of the winery's actions undertaking the pro‐environmental policies, all have strong, positive relationships with the winery's brand equity. Trust in the winery and brand equity for the winery increased significantly when the winery in this study adopted proactive environmental business policies.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge about joint ventures (JV) by modeling the interactional strength of fit between JV partners. The paper integrates different constructs from three theoretical perspectives most widely used in JV studies – trust and commitment from the relational perspective; opportunism and specific investments from the transaction cost perspective; and assesses the moderating role of fit from the contingency perspective.

Quantitative data from JVs were collected using the survey method. Relationships in the moderated mediation model were tested using complex sets of hierarchical regression steps.

Relational intentions of partners influence specific investments between the partners. The two together drive JV performance and their impact is moderated by the extent of fit between the partners. Thus, it is concluded that the strength of fit, as perceived by partners, influences the role of other constructs from the relational, transactional and contingency perspectives, which together can help us understand performance of JVs better.

An assessment of longitudinal view of the relational variables and subsequent performance can be captured in future. This research assesses fit based on compatibility, which assesses similarity as well as complementarity, primarily by way of harmony in different aspects. Future research could differentiate complementarity from similarity to further assess the impact of fit.

The relational behavior of JV partners, or their rational approaches to resource seeking, will be optimally effective only when the fit between partner characteristics is high. While the relational or transactional approaches can evolve in JVs, the partners should assess the extent of fit before getting into a JV relationship.

The research presents a holistic framework that draws from various theoretical perspectives. The results establish that contrary to its peripheral treatment in the literature, fit plays an important role and can modify the influence relational variables and specific investments can have on the performance of JVs.

This study aims to examine the role of market orientation as a relationship property. This property, labeled “alliance market orientation”, is at the inter‐firm level and is related to the new product development (NPD) activities of alliances. The main objectives of this article are: to define the alliance market orientation; to argue that it is a major factor in NPD alliance success; and to argue that the resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory of competition can provide a theoretical foundation for this concept and explain its contribution to alliances' NPD success.

The paper is conceptual in approach.

In their efforts to strengthen relationships, alliances may tend to focus so much time on the relationship factors that they miss market opportunities. As a spanning process, NPD should be informed by both external and internal activities. alliance market orientation assists alliances in guiding NPD activities from outside to inside and vice versa. As a dynamic and disequilibrium provoking process, the R‐A theory of competition can theoretically ground the concept of alliance market orientation and explain its role in NPD alliance success.

This study contributes to business marketing theory in three ways: it extends the concept of intra‐organizational market orientation to an inter‐organizational context; the alliance market orientation concept contributes to understanding the role of idiosyncratic resources in alliances; and the R‐A theory of competition can theoretically ground the concept of alliance market orientation and provide insights to develop it further.

This study is the first to extend the concept of market orientation into inter‐organizational NPD framework and to examine the role of alliance market orientation in NPD alliance success.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that conceptual frameworks developed from a general theory of competition, i.e. resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory, can facilitate managerial action.

After a brief overview of resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory, five conceptual frameworks are developed and offered for the purposes of managerial action.

This paper identifies several conceptual frameworks and after noting that conceptual frameworks that do not have positive theoretical foundations may not be as useful as those that do, develops five conceptual frameworks that are based on R‐A theory.

The conceptual frameworks developed in this paper have great potential for facilitating managerial action.

Conceptual frameworks that have positive theoretical foundations can be very useful for practitioners. In fact, the frameworks proposed in this paper can replace frameworks that are currently in use for managerial action.