Torsten Tomczak

Marketers are often older than the audiences they are trying to reach, making it a challenge to connect. A new study examines the marketing generation gap and suggests some ways to narrow it.

Scholars have argued that the exploitation-–exploration interaction provides a source of com-petitive advantage beyond that provided by each individually. However, we know little about the mutual effects of exploitation and exploration on either incremental or radical innovation per-formance. To address this gap, we examine data from 171 manufacturing firms. We find incre-mental innovation performance is highest when exploitation interacts with an intermediary lev-el of exploration. Radical innovation performance, however, is solely driven by exploration. A coupling with exploitation is not effective. We contribute to the extant literature, first, by disentangling the interaction effects of exploitation and exploration on radical and incremental innovation performance, respectively. Second, we extend extant literature that agrees that main-taining an appropriate balance of exploitation and exploration is critical for innovation performance and that has conceptualized this balance as symmetrical presence and magnitude of exploitation and exploration. In particular, we provide evidence in support of an asymmetric relationship.

Kwortnik, Lynn, and Ross demonstrated across multiple studies and service-industry contexts that voluntary tipping (a form of buyer monitoring) is a more effective employee control mechanism for improving service than is compensating workers with a service charge on the bill or a fixed wage per hour. However, Kwortnik et  al.’s studies were United States-based, where tipping behavior is common and generally accepted; such is not the case in many other countries around the world. Thus, the aim of this research note is twofold: (a) to replicate Kwortnik et al.’s results in the United States and, (b) to examine whether the results hold in other countries given cross-cultural differences that may affect the efficacy of buyer monitoring as a means to improve service. Using data from 10 countries across several continents, we show that (a) Kwortnik et al.’s findings only partially replicate in the United States, (b) the buyer monitoring principle does not hold worldwide, and (c) buyer monitoring is more effective in influencing service motivation and behavior in Western (individualistic) than in Eastern (collectivistic) cultures.

Purpose – In many industries, customers are offered the opportunity to revise their initial decision in return for a superior but more expensive service option, a selling technique that is typically referred to as upselling. Drawing on the research on customers’ service experience, cognitive effort, decision justification, and goal framing, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize upselling as a two-stage decision process where the process of making the first decision (i.e. deciding on an initial service option) affects the final decision (i.e. the decision for or against the upsell offer). Design/methodology/approach – First, qualitative interviews were conducted both with customers as well as managers. Moreover, in two experimental studies, different scenarios depicted an upsell situation that is common in many service encounters. After choosing a hotel room or rental car for reservation, participants were confronted with differently framed arguments to induce a shift toward an enhanced but more costly version of the initially chosen service option. Findings – The qualitative interviews reveal that upselling is a common practice in many companies and that the manner in which the upsell is communicated has a considerable influence on its effectiveness. The first experimental study finds that the cognitive effort that customers expend in the initial choice moderates the effect of upsell messages using different goal frames. The second experimental study shows that customers are only affected by different goal frames when they feel responsible for the outcome of the final decision. Practical implications – The findings provide a number of useful guidelines for designing upselling strategies and may also be used to segment a firm’s customer base. On amore general level, this research also raisesmanagers’ awareness of the sequential nature of upselling decisions and the customer’s intrinsic need to justify an upsell choice. Originality/value – The studies contribute to the literature on customers’ service experience and upselling strategies. Upselling is conceptualized as a two-stage process in which customers’ experience in one phase influences their behavior in later stages. The underlying psychological mechanisms of this effect are also highlighted by referring to customers’ need to justify service choices to themselves.