Conference Sessions - Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of ...

and context is unclear. The current study attempts to address the above limitations by
compiling a unique data set on 6405 firms from 52 countries spanning a 27 year
period (1980-2007) and then delineating the different internationalization-profit
relationships across different firms. Across all firms in our data, we find a positive but
insignificant profit impact of internationalization. However, a latent class analysis
reveals several distinct patterns of the profit impact. In particular, some firms have an
increasing convex internationalization-profit relationship while others have an
increasing concave pattern. We argue that those firms that enter international
markets to exploit their current stock of resources obtain quick profits that
subsequently plateau and those that enter international markets to explore new
opportunities obtain low (and sometimes even negative) initial profits which
subsequently increase. We discuss a testable implication of our theory in the context
of the observed sequence of international market entry.
4 - Consumers Un-tethered: A Three-market Study of Consumer
Acceptance of Mobile Marketing
Fareena Sultan, Professor of Marketing/Robert Morrison Fellow,
Northeastern University, College of Business Administration, 202
Hayden Hall, Boston, MA, 02115, United States of America,
f.sultan@neu.edu, Andrew J. Rohm, Tao (Tony) Gao,
Margherita Pagani
This study examines factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of un-tethered, or
mobile, marketing across three influential markets (U.S., China, and Europe).
Considering the highly personal and private nature of the mobile device, we draw
upon the technology acceptance theory and incorporate three individual-level
characteristics, namely attachment, innovativeness, and risk avoidance, as
antecedents to attitudes toward mobile marketing. We also investigate how
permission-based acceptance influences the link between consumers’ attitude and
participation in mobile marketing activities. Our findings show both cross-market
similarities and differences. Perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness, and
personal attachment are found to directly influence attitudes toward mobile
marketing in all three markets. In China and Europe, risk avoidance also negatively
influences attitude toward mobile marketing. Depending on the market,
innovativeness, risk avoidance, and attachment also serve, as moderators, to weaken
the effect of perceived usefulness on mobile marketing attitude. Furthermore,
permission-based acceptance strengthens the relationship between attitude and
mobile marketing activities. The results also confirm the uniformly prominent role of
ease of use in affecting usefulness perceptions. We draw implications from these
findings related to both theory and practice.
■ SC13
Champions Center III
Private Labels III: Effect on Market Shares
Contributed Session
Chair: Hyeong-Tak Lee, PhD Student, University of Iowa, S219 John
Pappajohn Business Building, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA,
52242-1994, United States of America, hyeong-tak-lee@uiowa.edu
1 - The Long Term Impact of a Recession on Brand Shares
Satheeshkumar Seenivasan, PhD Candidate, State University of New
York at Buffalo, School of Management, 232 Jacobs Management
Center, Amherst, NY, 14260, United States of America,
ss383@buffalo.edu, Debabrata Talukdar, K. Sudhir
A unique aspect of store brands is the counter-cyclical movement of their market
shares with business cycles. Besides gaining market shares during downturns, store
brands also manage to retain some of the gained shares post downturns. In this
paper, we undertake an in-depth analysis of consumer choice behavior during the
recent global recession to understand the drivers of increased store brand share as
well as the underlying causes for the persistence in store brand shares post recession.
Employing a brand choice model of consumer learning which accounts for inertia and
allows for differential marketing mix sensitivities, we study the purchase behavior of
890 households in yogurt category over a period of three and half years. Our results
suggest that all three factors – persistence in marketing mix sensitivities, inertia as
well as preference updation due to learning contribute to the rise of store brand
shares. Consumers are more sensitive to prices and promotions during recession and
persist in their sensitivities even after the end of recession. Increased sensitivities
account for 62% of gain in market share of store brands while learning accounts for
21% and the remaining 17% is driven by inertia in consumer choices. Implications of
this recession time consumer behavior and strategies to cope with this behavior are
discussed.
MARKETING SCIENCE CONFERENCE – 2011 SC14
91
2 - The Introduction of a Store Brand in a High-quality Market Segment:
Analysis of a Natural Experiment
Elena Castellari, PhD Student, University of Connecticut, Agriculture
and Resource Economics Department,
1376 Storrs Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, United States of America,
elena.castellari@uconn.edu, Rui Huang
Store brands (SBs) play an increasingly important role in the retail industry. Since the
early 90’s we observe an intense expansion in different segments of the market and
increasing breadth in the SB product portfolio. Most existing research has focused on
SBs that are viewed as lower-quality substitutes for the incumbent national brands
(NBs). However, recently retailers have introduced premium-quality SBs. If consumer
choices are context-dependent, then the launch of a premium-quality SB and that of
a low-quality SB would have drastically different implications. This study examines
the impact of a premium SB introduction on competition. We use quarterly IRI Info-
Scan market-level data from 2004-2008 to analyze effects from the introduction of a
premium-quality private label on market prices and shares of NBs. We exploit a
natural experiment that occurred during our data – the introduction of a Store Brand
in the high-quality milk segment. Different geographic markets saw different SB
introduction schedules in our data, which allows us to use a difference-in-differences
design to examine the impacts of the high-quality SB introductions on the prices and
shares of different incumbent NBs in the high-quality milk segment, as well as on the
standard-quality milk segment. Specifically, we compare the prices and shares of the
incumbent NBs in markets with and without SB introduction, before and after the
introduction. Our findings could shed light on SB introduction and positioning
strategies.
3 - Investigation of Determinants of Private Label Success in an
Integrated Framework
Hyeong-Tak Lee, PhD Student, University of Iowa, S219 John
Pappajohn Business Building, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA,
52242-1994, United States of America, hyeong-tak-lee@uiowa.edu,
Thomas Gruca
Private label products often benefit retailers and can adversely affect consumer
packaged goods manufacturers. Due to their strategic importance, private labels have
been the subject of a great deal of academic research, much of it fragmented. In this
study, we integrate previous research on category determinants of private label
performance, the demographic or socioeconomic characteristics of private label
buyers, and the effects of competition in the category in a single empirical analysis.
Using data from 625 product categories, we attempt to create empirical generalization
about what factors drive private label market share. Partial least squares modeling is
applied to our data to test new and prior hypotheses on private label market share
determinants. Our findings suggest that private label success is positively associated
with the level of concentration, the margin potential, and the price gap between
private label and the average price of national brands. Financial risk of the category
influences the private label market share adversely. In addition to category
determinants, private label share in categories where consumers are older, have more
education, have larger families and have less knowledge about product quality.
■ SC14
Champions Center VI
Marketing Strategy IV: Firm Performance
Contributed Session
Chair: Sohyoun Shin, Visiting Assistant Professor, Eastern Washington
University, 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd., Spokane, WA, United States of
America, synthiashin@gmail.com
1 - Drivers of International Growth: Analysis of U.S. Franchisors’
International Growth Strategies
Bart Devoldere, Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School, Reep 1,
Ghent, 9000, Belgium, bart.devoldere@vlerick.com,
Venkatesh Shankar
Firms are increasingly going global to realize high rates of growth. By some estimates,
among the Standard & Poor 500 companies, those that derive over half of their sales
revenues overseas are expected to grow about twice the rate of companies focusing
on the U.S. Global growth is particularly important in the franchising context. Why
do some franchisors grow larger than others internationally? Is it due to effective
pricing policy decisions, such as up-front fixed fees and royalty rates that franchisors
charge the franchisees for use of the franchise brand? Or is it due to the right
decisions related to strategic control, including the number and proportion of outlets
owned and operated by the franchisor? Or is it due to strategic selection of the most
attractive international markets? We investigate the drivers of international growth
for franchisors. Drawing on agency and power relationship theories, we develop
hypotheses on the influence of these strategic decisions on the size of international
operations. We develop a model of international franchise system size that includes
the effects of these strategic decisions as well as those of environmental push and pull
factors. We test our hypotheses on panel data relating to 200 U.S. business format
franchise systems during 1999-2010. We estimate our model using a Hierarchical
Bayesian approach. Our model controls for unobserved firm and industry effects,
accounts for endogeneity of decision variables, and corrects for selection effects due to
system failure. Our results offer important implications for researchers and
practitioners on international growth strategies.