Movie sequels, a type of brand extension, are prevalent in today's motion picture industry. Prior literature on brand extensions supports the intuition that attaching established brand names (e.g., titles of box-office hits) to new products decreases advertising costs. We counter this intuition and examine factors that may increase advertising costs for movie sequels. Specifically, we investigate the consequences of asset specificity and bargaining power-concepts from transaction cost economics-in the context of the motion picture industry. We find a positive relationship between the bargaining power of the movie studio's suppliers and advertising expenditures for the movie sequel. We also find evidence of a moderating effect: higher bargaining power of the movie studio dampens the impact of supplier bargaining power on advertising. This is the first study to measure the effect of supplier bargaining power on movie studios' marketing decisions. In a broader context, our findings not only challenge the notion that brand extensions are cost saving, but are also novel in linking transaction cost constructs to the advertising behavior of firms.

Purpose Despite its significance in salespeople management, salespeople expectation management has received little attention in the literature, especially in the industrial marketing literature. In response, the purpose of this study is to leverage the expectation confirmation theory to present a conceptual framework that provides an effective tool for salespeople expectation management. Design/methodology/approach This study first explores the application and strategic implications of expectation-confirmation theory in salespeople expectation management and theorizes that salespeople establish pre-expectations (expectations that are developed before joining the firm), experience multiple stages of the expectation-confirmation process throughout their sales career with a firm and – in each stage – establish either a longer-term commitment to or permanent disengagement from the firm. Findings A winning strategy for sales organizations is to recognize salespeople expectations and to meet or beat these expectations. Salespeople expectation management is particularly important in sales organizations that frequently find aligning sales force management strategies with organizational imperatives to be challenging. Research limitations/implications This study extends expectation-confirmation theory by presenting a conceptual framework that: identifies the existence of pre-expectations of salespeople and their outcomes; recognizes that the expectation-confirmation process occurs across multiple stages in the salespeople’s career cycle; recognizes that the level of expectations in previous stages of one’s career cycle influences the level of expectations in subsequent stages; and conceptualizes the non-linear relationship between expectations, tenure and turnover intentions. Originality/value The multiple expectation-confirmation framework can be used for effective salespeople expectation and turnover management and may also serve as a general model of organizational interventions.

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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the moderating impacts of seasonality on the effectiveness of new product commercialization strategies in short-lifecycle markets. The authors contextualize their theory in the vast and culturally significant entertainment industry sector and contrast the effects between independent films and big budget movies. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an econometric modeling approach. Findings This study finds that unlike new films by well-resourced studios, which must launch in a high season for best performance, independents can generate more revenue in low seasons under certain conditions. The study shows how seasonality moderates the effectiveness of new films’ commercialization strategies and how new product outcomes are different for small independent products than for big-budget productions with regards to distribution duration, advertising expenditure and product characteristics. Research limitations/implications This research extends the literature on launch timing, which examines various strategic tradeoffs. In contrast with the few extant studies whose concern is sensitizing to the effects of seasonality (Siqueiraet al., 2016), this research treats seasonality as an exploitable opportunity that can be strategically factored into business planning for small producers. Accordingly, this is the first study to theoretically and empirically investigate the moderating relationship between seasonality, marketing decisions, product characteristics and performance. Practical implications To achieve useful specificity, the study constructs its discussion around the highly seasonal entertainment industry sector. The study shows that seasonality moderates the effectiveness of new films’ commercialization decisions and that the strategic outcomes are different for small independent products than for major studio productions in particular. Originality/value In contrast with extant research whose concern is sensitizing to the effects of seasonality, our research treats seasonality as an exploitable opportunity that can be strategically factored into business planning. Accordingly, ours is the first study to theoretically and empirically investigate the moderating relationship between seasonality, marketing decisions, product characteristics and performance.

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