Idea posted: August 2014

Institutions: University of St. Gallen   

It is hard to resist the pull of emerging markets, such as India and China. Given the immense population in such countries, even the small percentage of the total population…

Idea posted: July 2014

Institutions: Vlerick Business School   

Around 20 years ago, academics and consultants Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema identified three ‘value disciplines’ or models followed by top-performing companies: operational excellence, customer-intimacy and product leadership. The second,…

Idea posted: April 2014

Institutions: Imperial College Business School    Thunderbird School of Global Management   

Customer word-of-mouth is a hot topic in marketing today. Positive customer-to-customer reviews, whether verbal or written, are powerful marketing tools because they have more credibility with customers than company-generated marketing.…

Idea posted: March 2014

Institutions: Henley Business School   

Customer effort research has been around since the 1940s but the debate gained momentum following a 2010 article, ‘Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers’, in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). In…

Idea posted: January 2014

Institutions: Cranfield University School of Management   

There has been a growing trend in recent years for suppliers to differentiate their products through services, rather than solely through products. Consider the case of Apple, whose market share…

Idea posted: November 2013

Institutions: Henley Business School   

Businesses need to adopt a multichannel mindset when interacting with their customers, because customers use multiple channels and expect relevant, consistent experiences across all of them. This research seeks to…

Idea posted: October 2013

Institutions: University of Chicago Booth School of Business    University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School   

What happens when a business has more orders that it can fill? While the situation may seem to be a happy one, resolving the dilemma effectively is key to maintaining…

Idea posted: September 2013

Institutions: London Business School    University of Michigan Ross School of Business   

Plummeting advertising revenues have led many online content providers to experiment with additional sources of revenue. Most often, firms aim to compensate for a loss in advertising revenues by charging…

Idea posted: June 2013

Institutions: Cranfield University School of Management   

Despite being well-managed and well-resourced, a large number of companies have failed to see adequate return on CRM investments. This is a definite concern as many invested heavily prior to…