Introducing new products necessitates that manufacturers not only carefully craft the initial contract terms with retailers but also consider how the specificity of the terms influences a retailer's relational behaviors throughout the duration of the contract, contingent upon the new product's success. The authors develop a series of hypotheses to investigate new product introductions using a multimethod design consisting of a survey of manufacturers and a repeated measures experiment with retailers. The results indicate that manufacturers craft increasingly specific contract terms as new product creativity increases when frequency of new product introductions and performance ambiguity are higher. When they are lower, the positive influence of new product creativity on contract specificity weakens and can in some instances become negative. The results also indicate that there is no significant change in a retailer's relational behaviors throughout a contract's duration when contract specificity is lower, regardless of the new product's success. However, under the condition of higher contract specificity, the retailer's relational behaviors increase (decrease) over a contract's duration when the new product is successful (unsuccessful).

To augment traditional lecture with instructional tools that provide options for content representation, learner engagement, and learning expression, we followed the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to design and implement a learning environment for teaching and learning in large lecture classes. To this end, we incorporated four carefully selected instructional tools (PowerPoint, lecture notes, clickers, and MindTap) in the proposed UDL environment for an introductory marketing class of over 600 students. Self-reported and objective measures were collected to assess the effectiveness of the UDL environment by evaluating its impact on perceived learning, satisfaction with the instructional tools, and actual learning. Our study aims to provide educators with suggestions on how to meet the needs of a diverse group of students in large lecture classes without compromising the quality of teaching and learning.

Cultural distance is an important element in the study of international marketing phenomena. However, scholars have voiced significant concerns with its use. Although reviews of cultural distance have been conducted, no research has yet been put forth that directly addresses how the choices that scholars make in relation to the conceptualization and operationalization of cultural distance influence our understanding of its role in international marketing phenomena. In this work, concerns pertaining to cultural distance are reviewed and used as a foundation to systematically analyze 83 articles referencing cultural distance within the international marketing literature to understand the choices that have been made. Significant heterogeneity in conceptualization and operationalization of cultural distance is found. Then, the empirical consequences of this choice heterogeneity are examined within a single data set of 148 suppliers to a European OEM. The findings demonstrate that differences in choices significantly influence the observed effects of cultural distance, and hence the understanding of its role in international marketing phenomena. Last, a series of recommendations are put forth aimed at enhancing the ability to build a strong foundation of knowledge of cultural distance’s role in international marketing phenomena.

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