Shows
Ashwin PapersBrands and Branding: Research Findings and Future PrioritiesBranding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have. Driven in part by this intense industry interest, academic researchers have explored a number of different brand-related topics in recent years, generating scores of papers, articles, research reports, and books. This paper identifies some of the influential work in the branding area, highlighting what has been learned from an academic perspective on important topics such as brand positioning, brand integration, brand-equity measurement, brand growth, and brand management. The paper...
2026-02-2253 minAshwin PapersEvolving to a New Dominant Logic for MarketingMarketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of \"goods,\" which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and transactions. Over the past several decades, new perspectives have emerged that have a revised logic focused on intangible resources, the cocreation of value, and relationships. The authors believe that the new perspectives are converging to form a new dominant logic for marketing, one in which service provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic exchange. The authors explore this evolving logic and the corresponding shift...
2026-02-221h 07Ashwin PapersUnraveling the Personalization Paradox: The Effect of Information Collection and Trust-Building Strategies on Online Advertisement EffectivenessRetailers gather data about customers' online behavior to develop personalized service offers. Greater personalization typically increases service relevance and customer adoption, but paradoxically, it also may increase customers' sense of vulnerability and lower adoption rates. To demonstrate this contradiction, an exploratory field study on Facebook and secondary data about a personalized advertising campaign indicate sharp drops in click-through rates when customers realize their personal information has been collected without their consent. To investigate the personalization paradox, this study uses three experiments that confirm a firm's strategy for collecting information from social media websites is a crucial determinant of how...
2026-02-2258 minAshwin PapersBrand LoveUsing a grounded theory approach, the authors investigate the nature and consequences of brand love. Arguing that research on brand love needs to be built on an understanding of how consumers actually experience this phenomenon, they conduct two qualitative studies to uncover the different elements ("features") of the consumer prototype of brand love. Then, they use structural equations modeling on survey data to explore how these elements can be modeled as both first-order and higher-order structural models. A higher-order model yields seven core elements: self-brand integration, passion-driven behaviors, positive emotional connection, long-term relationship, positive overall attitude valence, attitude certainty...
2026-02-221h 10Ashwin PapersTheory Building: A Review and IntegrationBuilding theories is important for advancing knowledge of management. But it is also a highly challenging task. Although there is a burgeoning literature that offers many theorizing tools, we lack a coherent understanding of how these tools fit together—when to use a particular tool and which combination of tools can be used in the theorizing process. In this article, we organize a systematic review of the literature on theory building in management around the five key elements of a good story: conflict, character, setting, sequence, and plot and arc. In doing so, we hope to provide a richer un...
2026-02-221h 01Ashwin PapersThe Ties That Bind: Measuring the Strength of Consumers' Emotional Attachments to BrandsExtant research suggests that consumers can become emotionally attached to consumption objects, including brands. However, a scale to measure the strength of consumers' emotional attachments to brands has yet to be devised. We develop such a scale in Studies 1 and 2. Study 3 validates the scale's internal consistency and dimensional structure. Study 4 examines its convergent validity with respect to four behavioral indicators of attachments. Study 5 demonstrates discriminant validity, showing that the scale is differentiated from measures of satisfaction, involvement, and brand attitudes. That study also examines the scale's predictive validity, showing that it is positively associated with indicators of both commitment...
2026-02-2145 minAshwin PapersConsumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer ResearchAlthough the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legitimacy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand...
2026-02-212h 04Ashwin PapersThe Platformization of BrandsDigital platforms that aggregate products and services, such as Google Shopping or Amazon, have emerged as powerful intermediaries to brand offerings, challenging traditional product brands that have largely lost direct access to consumers. As a countermeasure, several long-established brands have built their own flagship platforms to resume control and foster consumer loyalty. For example, sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, or Asics launched tracking and training platforms that allow for ongoing versatile interactions among participants beyond product purchase. The authors analyze these emerging platform offerings, whose potential brands struggle to exploit, and provide guidance for brands that aim to...
2026-02-191h 18Ashwin PapersThe consumer psychology of brandsThis article presents a consumer-psychology model of brands that integrates empirical studies and individual constructs (such as brand categorization, brand affect, brand personality, brand symbolism and brand attachment, among others) into a comprehensive framework. The model distinguishes three levels of consumer engagement (object-centered, self-centered and social) and five processes (identifying, experiencing, integrating, signifying and connecting). Pertinent psychological constructs and empirical findings are presented for the constructs within each process. The article concludes with research ideas to test the model using both standard and consumer-neuroscience methods.
2026-02-1934 minAshwin PapersBrands and Their Meaning MakersThis article by Allen, Fournier, and Miller argues that traditional branding theory — rooted in cognitive psychology and information processing — is insufficient for understanding brands in today's marketplace. The "received view" treats brands as knowledge structures in consumers' minds, controlled primarily by marketers. The authors propose an alternative "emergent paradigm" that sees brand meaning as co-created by three key actors: corporations, consumers, and broader culture. Culture shapes brand meaning through historical events, media, and social movements (as seen with Harley-Davidson and Martha Stewart), while consumers actively construct and sometimes subvert brand meanings through identity projects, brand communities, and resistance movements like...
2026-02-191h 54Ashwin PapersCustomer Satisfaction and Stock Returns RiskOver the past decade, several studies have argued that customer satisfaction has high relevance for financial markets because it has a significant impact on stock returns. However, little attention has been given to understanding the impact of customer satisfaction on the risk of stock returns. The finance literature suggests that investors that judge performance only in terms of returns place more resources than warranted in risky opportunities, forgo profitable opportunities, and apply misguided performance evaluations. Accordingly, this study develops, tests, and finds empirical support for the hypotheses that positive changes (i.e., improvement) in customer satisfaction result in negative...
2026-02-1343 minAshwin PapersEvolving to a New Dominant Logic for MarketingThe text, an article from the Journal of Marketing, discusses the evolution of the dominant logic for marketing from a traditional goods-centered perspective to an emerging service-centered view. The authors, Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch, argue that the original model, inherited from economics, focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and discrete transactions. The new dominant logic emphasizes intangible resources like knowledge and skills, the co-creation of value, and ongoing customer relationships, positing that service provision is fundamental to economic exchange, even when goods are involved. This shift redefines concepts such as the role of goods (now seen...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersDynamic capabilities and strategic managementThe text, an excerpt from the seminal 1997 Strategic Management Journal article "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management" by David J. Teece, Gary Pisano, and Amy Shuen, proposes the dynamic capabilities framework as a means to understand how firms create and maintain competitive advantage in environments marked by rapid technological change. This framework argues that long-term success flows not from strategic maneuvers against competitors (strategizing), but from internal organizational and managerial processes that allow a firm to effectively coordinate, learn, and reconfigure its asset positions and evolutionary paths. The authors compare this capabilities approach against established strategy paradigms, such as the...
2025-11-2314 minAshwin PapersConsumer Trust, Value, and Loyalty in Relational ExchangesThe text presents excerpts from a Journal of Marketing article by Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol, which introduces a framework for understanding how service provider actions affect consumer trust, value, and loyalty. Their model conceptualizes trustworthiness using multiple dimensions, including operational competence, benevolence, and problem-solving orientation, evaluated through two distinct facets: frontline employees (FLEs) and management policies and practices (MPPs). A key finding from testing the model in retail clothing and airline contexts is that value serves as a mediator in the trust-loyalty relationship, indicating that trust must generate value to foster loyalty. Furthermore, the study explores contingent asymmetric relationships...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersFactors Influencing the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing: A Meta-AnalysisThe provided text is an excerpt from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Marketing that investigates the factors influencing the effectiveness of relationship marketing (RM). The authors synthesize empirical research to determine how various RM strategies, like relationship investment and communication, influence relational mediators such as trust and commitment, and subsequently affect exchange outcomes like customer loyalty and objective seller performance. A key finding is that while RM generally positively affects performance, the impact is often strongest when relationships are critical to customers, such as in service or business-to-business contexts, and when built with an individual person rather...
2025-11-2316 minAshwin PapersThe Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship MarketingThe provided text is an excerpt from a 1994 academic paper by Robert M. Morgan and Shelby D. Hunt titled "The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing," which defines relationship marketing as all efforts aimed at establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges. The authors theorize that relationship commitment and trust are key mediating variables (KMV) essential for successful relationship marketing, contrasting their model against a rival model that does not treat these as mediators. The research tests this KMV model using data collected from automobile tire retailers to demonstrate how commitment and trust encourage cooperative behaviors and other positive outcomes...
2025-11-2314 minAshwin PapersA Meaning-Based Model of Advertising ExperiencesThe provided text outlines a research article by Mick and Buhl from 1992, which introduces and empirically evaluates a meaning-based model of advertising experiences centered on the consumer's perspective. The authors challenge conventional advertising theories that view ads as fixed stimuli and consumers as passive reactors, advocating instead for an approach that stresses the subjectivity of ad interpretation. Their proposed model incorporates two core humanistic concepts: life themes (such as being true vs. false) and life projects (like career or family roles), arguing that these deeply motivate and shape the meanings consumers derive from advertisements. Through a phenomenological inquiry, specifically...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersThe penalty for privacy violationsThe provided text is an academic article titled "The penalty for privacy violations: How privacy violations impact trust online" by Kirsten Martin, focusing on consumer trust in websites. The research, utilizing a factorial vignette survey methodology, investigates how the violation of privacy expectations, particularly the secondary use of information, diminishes a consumer's trust in a firm. Findings indicate a "double penalty" for firms: privacy violations directly reduce trust and also lessen the importance of traditional trust factors like integrity and ability. Furthermore, the study suggests that technologically savvy consumers place greater emphasis on privacy violations when forming trust judgments...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersThe Dangers of Poor Construct ConceptualizationThe provided text, an excerpt from an essay by Scott B. MacKenzie, discusses the critical issue of poor construct conceptualization in academic manuscripts, particularly within marketing science, arguing that this foundational flaw leads to a cascade of negative consequences for research validity. The author highlights that inadequate definition of constructs is a more significant problem than often acknowledged, comparing it to the nursery rhyme about a lost nail causing the loss of a kingdom, and states that this failure undermines construct validity and statistical conclusion validity, and ultimately, internal validity. MacKenzie explains that poor conceptualization makes it difficult to...
2025-11-2314 minAshwin PapersCustomer-Based Brand EquityThe provided text, an excerpt from Kevin Lane Keller's 1993 paper, Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity, lays out a detailed conceptual model of brand equity from the individual consumer's perspective. It defines customer-based brand equity as the differential effect that brand knowledge—which includes both brand awareness and brand image—has on a consumer's response to the brand's marketing efforts. The document thoroughly examines the components of brand knowledge, specifically emphasizing the favorability, strength, and uniqueness of brand associations that reside in a consumer's memory. Furthermore, the paper discusses practical issues related to building, measuring, and managing this type...
2025-11-2314 minAshwin PapersWhy Do Brands Cause TroubleThe provided text, an academic article by Douglas B. Holt, constructs a dialectical theory to explain the emergence of a powerful antibranding countercultural movement that targets successful, highly branded companies. Holt challenges older theories of consumer resistance, which view marketers as "cultural engineers" dictating consumer desires, by arguing that this perspective is outdated and fails to account for contemporary market dynamics. Through an examination of consumer case studies and a historical analysis, the author posits that the current "postmodern branding paradigm" is rooted in the pursuit of "personal sovereignty through brands," where companies aim to present their brands as...
2025-11-2316 minAshwin PapersConsumers and Their BrandsThe provided text, an excerpt from an academic paper, focuses on developing a relationship theory in consumer research by moving beyond traditional notions of short-term exchange and mere brand loyalty. The author advocates for treating brands as active relationship partners with whom consumers form various types of emotional and behavioral bonds. The research employs an exploratory, qualitative methodology using detailed case studies of three women to understand how brand relationships are woven into their life themes and identity projects. This analysis leads to the proposal of a typology of consumer-brand relationship forms—including "committed partnerships" and "flings"—and an iden...
2025-11-2315 minAshwin PapersPersonalized Online Advertising EffectivenessThe source, an excerpt from an academic paper by Bleier and Eisenbeiss (2015), focuses on the effectiveness of personalized online advertising, specifically the method known as retargeting. The authors investigate how the effectiveness of these ads is affected by the interplay of personalization intensity, timing, and placement factors. Through both large-scale field experiments and controlled lab studies, they show that while personalization can boost ad effectiveness, its impact significantly depends on when in the purchase process a consumer is reached and whether the ad appears on a motive-congruent website. Key findings include the phenomenon of "overpersonalization," where highly specific ads...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersPutting one-to-one marketing to workThe provided text, an academic article from 2008, offers an extensive overview of one-to-one marketing, specifically focusing on the differences, applications, and challenges of personalization and customization. It explains that personalization involves the firm tailoring the marketing mix based on collected customer data (like Amazon's recommendations), while customization is when the customer actively specifies elements of their own marketing mix (like designing a Dell computer). The authors summarize the current knowledge gaps and key challenges from empirical, economic, and consumer behavior perspectives, addressing issues like the cost of implementation and potential invasion of customer privacy. Ultimately, the paper concludes with...
2025-11-2315 minAshwin PapersUnraveling the Personalization ParadoxThe academic article, "Unraveling the Personalization Paradox," explores the contradictory effects of personalized online advertising that arises when increased relevance clashes with consumer discomfort over data collection. Researchers, using both field studies on platforms like Facebook and controlled experiments, found that while personalization can boost click-through rates, the positive effect is significantly undermined when firms engage in covert information collection without consumer consent, causing an affective response termed perceived vulnerability. The study proposes that this negative reaction can be mitigated by firms adopting overt data collection strategies—either by providing upfront transparency or by incorporating trust-building cues (like informational ic...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersStrategic Brand Concept-Image ManagementThe academic paper, "Strategic Brand Concept-Image Management" by Park, Jaworski, and Macinnis, introduces a long-term framework called Brand Concept Management (BCM) for marketers. This framework outlines a sequential process for consistently managing a brand's image over its life cycle, which includes selecting, introducing, elaborating, and fortifying a brand concept. The authors argue that a brand concept—derived from basic consumer needs classified as functional, symbolic, or experiential—should guide all positioning strategies to enhance the brand's market performance. The BCM model contrasts with short-term positioning by emphasizing a planned, strategic coordination of marketing activities across the different stages. Specific posi...
2025-11-2316 minAshwin PapersSpeaking of Fashion Consumers' Uses of Fashion DiscoursesThe provided text offers excerpts from an academic paper that investigates how consumers interpret and use fashion, arguing against the idea of a single, dominant cultural view. This study, based on phenomenological interviews with college students, analyzes the complex system of cultural meanings, referred to as fashion discourses, that shape consumers' understanding of style. The research specifically highlights the countervailing meanings within these discourses, which allow individuals to construct their personal identities and negotiate tensions between individual autonomy and social conformity. Using examples from participants like "Hanna" and "Brandon," the paper details how consumers utilize contrasting interpretations—such as vi...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersThe Ties That BindThe text is an excerpt from a journal article detailing the development and validation of a new psychometric scale designed to measure the strength of consumers' emotional attachments (EA) to brands. The authors, Thomson, MacInnis, and Park, argue that while prior research acknowledges emotional brand attachments, no empirically tested measure exists to quantify this bond. Through a series of five studies, the researchers introduce a 10-item scale that reveals a three-factor structure—Affection, Passion, and Connection—all loading onto the higher-order EA construct. The research confirms the scale’s reliability and validity by demonstrating its distinction from related marketing concep...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersBrand CommunityThe provided text, an article titled "Brand Community" by Albert M. Muniz, Jr. and Thomas C. O’Guinn, introduces and examines the concept of a specialized non-geographically bound community centered around admiration for a specific brand. This study utilizes ethnographic and computer-mediated data focusing on three brands—Ford Bronco, Macintosh, and Saab—to illustrate the nature of these collectives. The authors argue that brand communities function similarly to traditional communities by exhibiting shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility, but they are distinctively shaped by a commercial and mass-mediated environment. The research thoroughly explores how these...
2025-11-2313 minAshwin PapersHow Stock Market Listing Changes Firm Innovation BehaviorThe provided text is an excerpt from a 2015 academic article by Simone Wies and Christine Moorman, which explores how going public via an initial public offering (IPO) affects a firm's innovation strategies in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector. The authors hypothesize that while public financing increases the level of innovation, stock market pressure and disclosure requirements lead firms to reduce the riskiness of those innovations. Specifically, the study finds that after an IPO, firms introduce more products and greater variety, but fewer breakthrough innovations or products in new categories, confirming the authors' predictions using a sample of 40,000 product...
2025-11-1917 minAshwin PapersInnovation's Effect on Firm Value and Risk - Insights from Consumer Packaged GoodsThe provided text is an excerpt from a 2008 Journal of Marketing article by Alina B. Sorescu and Jelena Spanjol, examining Innovation’s Effect on Firm Value and Risk within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. The authors differentiate between breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation, analyzing how each type affects three facets of firm performance: normal profits, economic rents, and total firm risk. Based on data from over 20,000 new CPG products, the findings indicate that breakthrough innovation is associated with increases in both normal profits and economic rents, as well as an increase in firm risk, which is compensated for by...
2025-11-1912 minAshwin PapersNew Product Design - Concept, Measurement, and ConsequencesThe provided text, an excerpt from an academic paper, focuses on new product design as a source of competitive advantage and a driver of company performance. The authors define product design as a multidimensional construct comprising aesthetics, functionality, and symbolism after conducting an extensive literature review and consumer interviews. Crucially, they introduce and validate a new, nine-item scale to measure these three dimensions across different product categories and cultural contexts, using data from thousands of U.S. and European consumers. Finally, the research investigates the impact of these design dimensions on key consumer outcomes, including purchase intention, word of...
2025-11-1912 minAshwin PapersThe Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Sales ForceThe academic paper examines the causal effect of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving a mismatch of external images on a firm's sales force, drawing on social identity theory. Through two studies—a natural longitudinal experiment and a scenario-based experiment—the researchers found that a merger with a poorer-image firm immediately weakens salespeople's organizational identification (OI), subsequently impairing their performance. This adverse effect is attributed to image uncertainty rather than job uncertainty, with the OI dilution effect being stronger than any OI enhancement from merging with a better-image firm. The study also identifies boundary conditions, noting that longer-tenured salespeople experience...
2025-11-0918 minAshwin PapersThe Threat from WithinThe scholarly article from Management Science explores a paradoxical issue within cross-functional account teams, focusing on how account managers’ transaction-specific investments (TSIs) in customers lead to concern about internal opportunism by their own team specialists. This concern about internal misconduct, referred to as the "threat from within," prompts account managers to engage in internal blocking—restricting specialists' access to customers and information—which ultimately harms overall performance with the customer. The research identifies that the expected duration of the account manager–customer relationship strengthens this concern, while the expected duration of the specialist–customer relationship weakens it. The study concludes that managin...
2025-11-0913 minAshwin PapersDesign and Governance of Multichannel Sales SystemsThe provided text is an excerpt from a 2020 journal article by Homburg et al. titled "Design and Governance of Multichannel Sales Systems: Financial Performance Consequences in Business-to-Business Markets," which examines how the design and management of sales systems affect financial outcomes in B2B markets. Drawing on multiple agency theory and governance value analysis, the authors investigate the impact of direct and indirect channel usage on manufacturer performance, contingent on governance mechanisms like formalization and centralization. The research finds that the effectiveness of governance strategies depends critically on alignment with channel design; for example, formalization benefits indirect channel usage whil...
2025-11-0916 minAshwin PapersCorporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder WealthThe provided academic excerpts examine the relationship between a firm's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts and its shareholder wealth, focusing on the moderating influence of marketing capability. The authors utilize data from 1,725 firms over ten years to argue that while overall CSR efforts alone do not significantly impact stock returns or idiosyncratic risk, they become significant when coupled with a strong marketing capability, defined as a firm's efficiency in converting marketing resources into sales. Furthermore, the study differentiates between six types of CSR, finding that marketing capability positively complements CSR activities with verifiable benefits to stakeholders (like environment and...
2025-11-0313 minAshwin PapersRed, Blue, and Purple FirmsThe academic article, "Red, Blue, and Purple Firms: Organizational Political Ideology and Corporate Social Responsibility," explores the relationship between a company's collective political beliefs and its engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The authors introduce the concept of organizational political ideology to explain why firms vary in their CSR stances, suggesting that the political leanings of the larger employee population, not just the CEO's, influence these corporate actions. Using employee political donations to define firms as "red" (conservative), "blue" (liberal), or "purple" (moderate), the study finds that liberal-leaning companies engage in more CSR advances across measures such as overall...
2025-11-0316 minAshwin PapersThe New Regulator in TownThe academic text examines the effect of Walmart's sustainability mandate on its suppliers' short-term shareholder value, treating the dominant retailer as a private-sector regulator. The authors investigate whether supplier concerns about absorbing investment costs while retailers appropriate potential gains are justified, finding that most suppliers are financially harmed, although a significant minority benefits. The research explores how a supplier's marketing characteristics, such as brand equity and advertising, provide countervailing power to resist Walmart's appropriation attempts. Conversely, the study reveals that a supplier’s operational characteristics, like cost efficiency and R&D investment, surprisingly make them more vulnerable to the re...
2025-11-0318 minAshwin PapersDoes Corporate Social Responsibility Lead to Superior Financial PerformanceThe academic article, published in Management Science in 2015 by Caroline Flammer, examines the causal relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and superior financial performance using a regression discontinuity approach. Specifically, the study analyzes the financial outcomes of companies where shareholder proposals related to CSR pass or fail by a narrow margin of votes, treating these "close calls" as a quasi-random assignment of CSR. The author finds that adopting these close-call CSR proposals leads to positive shareholder value and improved accounting performance, driven by increases in labor productivity and sales growth. However, the study cautions that these findings primarily apply...
2025-11-0315 minAshwin PapersThe Differential Impact of New Product Development “Make/Buy” Choices on Immediate and Future Product QualityThe academic article explores the differentiated consequences of new product development (NPD) "make/buy" decisions on vehicle transmission system quality within the automobile industry. Utilizing data on 173 models from twelve major firms, the authors determine that NPD outsourcing ("buy") is generally associated with higher immediate product quality, while internal development ("make") leads to greater future product quality. This study establishes that the positive immediate quality impact of outsourcing is amplified by greater technological complexity and higher firm NPD capability. Conversely, the positive long-term quality benefit of internal development is strengthened by post-launch adverse feedback and greater firm NPD capability...
2025-10-2413 minAshwin PapersTransaction cost theory: past, present and futureThe academic article provides an extensive overview of Transaction Cost Theory (TCT), tracing its evolution from its inception to potential future applications. It examines the foundational ideas of three major scholars: Ronald Coase (the past), Oliver Williamson (the present), and Yochai Benkler (the future), detailing their respective contributions to the theory. The author explains that TCT posits that conducting economic transactions involves costs, and different organizational structures, such as markets versus firms, entail different costs, which determines the optimal arrangement. The text highlights how each scholar has built upon or significantly modified TCT, with Coase establishing the concept, Williamson...
2025-10-2414 minAshwin PapersTransaction Cost Analysis: Past, Present, and Future ApplicationsThe provided text is an excerpt from the 1997 academic article, "Transaction Cost Analysis: Past, Present, and Future Applications," authored by Aric Rindfleisch and Jan B. Heide and published in the Journal of Marketing. The article offers a comprehensive synthesis and integration of Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) research, particularly focusing on its application within the marketing discipline and related fields. It outlines the foundational concepts of TCA, including the behavioral assumptions of bounded rationality and opportunism and the transactional dimensions of asset specificity, environmental uncertainty, and behavioral uncertainty. Furthermore, the text reviews a large body of empirical research to assess...
2025-10-2418 minAshwin PapersAdvertising Disclosure, Investor Risk, and Analyst UncertaintyThe academic article examines whether publicly traded firms benefit from voluntarily disclosing their advertising spending in annual reports, finding that this disclosure significantly lowers investor uncertainty (idiosyncratic risk) and reduces the disagreement among financial analysts regarding future firm performance. The authors argue that this occurs because formal disclosure provides more complete and public information compared to external estimates, allowing analysts to better assess managerial actions and future cash flows. Consistent with agency theory, the positive effect of disclosure on reducing analyst uncertainty is stronger for firms with high liquidity or those in more competitive industries, but also for firms...
2025-10-2118 minAshwin PapersAgency Theory: An Assessment and ReviewThe provided text is an academic article titled "Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review" by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, published in the Academy of Management Review in 1989. This comprehensive review examines the controversial nature and significant contributions of agency theory, which analyzes the relationship between a principal delegating work and an agent performing it, often framed as a contractual problem. The article describes the two main streams of agency theory—positivist and principal-agent research—highlighting their differing focuses but complementary roles in identifying efficient contract types. Eisenhardt concludes that agency theory provides unique insights into information systems, incentives, risk, and outcome unce...
2025-10-2117 minAshwin PapersAgency Relationships in Marketing: A Review and FutureThe academic article provides an extensive overview of Agency Theory and its implications and applications within the field of marketing. The authors establish that agency relationships are pervasive in marketing, despite the theory only recently gaining traction in marketing research, and they clarify the theory's major constructs, including the hidden actionand hidden information models. A significant portion of the text is dedicated to reviewing past and potential agency-based research across various marketing issues, such as salesforce compensation, channel coordination and control, and consumer promotion/signaling. The paper concludes by discussing the limitations of Agency Theory and suggesting ways marketing researcher...
2025-10-2117 minAshwin PapersTheory Building: Review and IntegrationThe article "Theory Building: A Review and Integration" by Shepherd and Suddaby offers a comprehensive systematic review of the literature on theory construction within the field of management. The authors organize their review by structuring the process of theorizing around the five core elements of a compelling story: conflict, character, setting, sequence, and plot and arc. The text explains that theory development is essential for advancing management knowledge, but it is a challenging task due to the numerous, often unintegrated, theorizing tools available. Furthermore, the authors propose an innovative approach called pragmatic empirical theorizing, which transparently uses quantitative empirical find...
2025-09-2619 minAshwin PapersSignaling Theory: State, Future, and Management ApplicationsThe provided text is an excerpt from a 2025 Journal of Management article by Connelly et al., which offers a comprehensive review and future agenda for Signaling Theory in organizational sciences. Signaling theory explains how observable signals convey credible information about unobservable qualities to decision-makers, with the efficacy of a signal resting on its costliness. The review categorizes prior management research into two main groups: organizational-level signaling, often targeting shareholders and customers, and individual-level signaling, frequently aimed at prospective employers and co-workers. Furthermore, the authors call for increased scholarly focus on aspects such as consistently accounting for signal costs (including "reaction cost...
2025-09-2617 minAshwin PapersThe Platformization of BrandsThe academic article "The Platformization of Brands" examines how traditional product brands are responding to the challenge posed by digital aggregation platforms like Amazon and Google Shopping, which have usurped direct access to consumers. The authors propose that brands can counteract this by creating their own brand flagship platforms, which foster versatile and ongoing interactions, moving beyond simple commercial transactions. A key element of this strategy is the concept of consumer crowdsourcing and crowdsending—consumers drawing value from and contributing value to the platform community—which helps define a framework for assembling different platform types. The research introduces a typology o...
2025-09-2617 minAshwin PapersA Theories-in-Use Approach to Building Marketing TheoryThe academic article by Zeithaml et al. champions the theories-in-use (TIU) approach as a vital method for developing novel, organic marketing theories distinct from those borrowed from other fields. It presents the TIU approach as a research methodology that involves cocreating relevant knowledge with practitioners and consumers by examining their mental models of how things work in a specific marketing context. The authors detail the TIU process, including guidance on developing new constructs and theoretical propositions, and compare it with other inductive and deductive research methods like grounded theory and case studies. They conclude by discussing the rigor, limitations, and fut...
2025-09-2620 min