Evaluation and Use of Marketing Research by Decision Makers: A Behavioral Simulation

Lee, Hanjoon; Acito, Frank; Day, Ralph L.

doi:10.2307/3151508

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…While multiple studies (e.g., Deshpande and Zaltman, 1982;Low and Mohr, 2001;Menon and Varadarajan, 1992;Morgan et al, 2005;Moorman, 1995) have made important contributions to our understanding of how various factors affect market information use, far less is known about how organizations manage the equivocal situations that result from market information. And yet, several studies have observed that managers rely on equivocal information when making nonroutine decisions (Daft and Macintosh, 1981;Lee et al, 1987;Perkins and Rao, 1990). We continue this line of reasoning and argue that experience enables managers to better understand and integrate equivocal information to promote strategic change.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 84%

Achieving adaptive ends through equivocality: A study of organizational antecedents and consequences

Neill¹,

Rose²

2007

Journal of Business Research

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Confronting complex situations is the hallmark of strategic decision-making. While these situations may be perceived as equivocal, organizations must cope, act, and thrive within such ambiguities. This study explores the manifestation and regulation of equivocality during strategic marketing decision-making. The results indicate that organizations that tolerate ambiguity perceive greater equivocality in problem situations and exhibit greater adaptive behavior; however, the findings come with a caveat: while experienced firms may enjoy these benefits, the situation is more complex for firms with limited product-market knowledge.Keywords: Marketing decisions; Equivocality; Innovation; Performance; Knowledge In dynamic environments, understanding is transitory. Given the novel, complex, and indefinite nature of strategic decisions (Mintzberg et al., 1976), organizations may benefit from an open and broad interpretive capability in order to effectively model and adapt to external forces. Formulaic thinking is better suited to closed-systems where maintenance and stability are present and learning is not necessary. The challenge is in managing and remaining attuned to the equivocal inputs that manifest during strategic decision-making in information intensive environ ments while not succumbing to equivocality's befuddling effect. While prior studies (e.g., Day, 1994;Sinkula et al., 1997) suggest that the organization should broaden its perception and be open-minded, unresolved is the mechanism that allows for the emergence of equivocality without succumbing to its disorient ing nature, which might dampen performance.This study examines the relationship between organizational interpretation and action by capturing both the emergence and effect of equivocality during strategic marketing decisionmaking. The paper directly examines equivocality and its ante cedents and consequences. Equivocality is defined as a problem situation with multiple, possibly contradictory, interpretations that manifest during decision-making (Daft and Lengel, 1986). When viewed as interpretation systems (Daft and Weick, 1984), organizations may be challenged when confronted with equivo cality. Thus, several questions guide this research: 1) what are the organizational levers to equivocality and strategic change? 2) how do organizations regulate equivocality during strategic marketing decision-making? and 3) what are the consequences of equivocality? To examine these questions, we first present a conceptual framework and develop hypotheses, then describe the study method. After reporting the analyses and results, we discuss the study's findings, limitations, and implications.

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Section: Conceptual Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 84%

Achieving adaptive ends through equivocality: A study of organizational antecedents and consequences

Neill¹,

Rose²

2007

Journal of Business Research

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“…Our work investigates both dimensions of information use, thereby outperforming previous studies (Deshpandé 1982;Deshpandé -Zaltman 1982, 1983, 1987John -Martin 1984;Lee et al 1987Lee et al , 1997Perkins -Rao 1990;Moorman et al 1992;Mott 1993;Dennis 1996;Low -Mohr 2001) on market research having only concentrated on instrumental use.…”

Section: Dependent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the difference in their knowledge of research methodology and statistics also encumbers the objective judgment of research quality. Researchers (Lee et al 1987) investigated whether there is a difference in the perception of the quality of market studies when research methodology meets professional standards and when it does not. They found that the methodology applied did not influence perceived quality; neither the sampling method, nor the sample size affected quality perception.…”

Section: Hypothesis 6 (H 6 )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theme of market information use has appeared with increasing frequency as the topic has grown in importance. Most of the work (Deshpandé 1982;Deshpandé -Zaltman 1982, 1983, 1987John -Martin 1984;Lee et al 1987;Perkins -Rao 1990;Moorman et al 1992Moorman et al , 1993Dennis 1996;Lee et al 1997;Low -Mohr 2001;Young -Denize 2006;Sissonen 2008) in this area studied antecedents of the use of information in strategic decisions. In spite of the academic attention, there is only marginal reflection (Moorman 1995;Fisher -Maltz 1997;Maltz 2000;Maltz -Kohli 2001) upon the use of market research in generating market knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How market information is transformed into marketing knowledge?

Keszey

2011

Acta Oeconomica

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In the future, competitors will have more and more opportunities to buy the same information; therefore the companies' competitiveness will not primarily depend on how much information they possess, but rather on how they can "translate" it to their own language. This study aims to examine those factors that have the most significant impact on the degree to which market studies are utilised by companies. Most of the work in this area has studied the use of information in strategic decisions a priori. This paper -while reflecting on the findings of research on organisational theories of information processing -aims to bridge this gap. It proposes and tests a new conceptual framework that examines the use of managerial market research information in decision-making and knowledge creation within one single model. Collected survey data, including all the top-income business enterprises in Hungary indicate that market research findings are efficiently incorporated into the marketing information system only if the marketing manager has trust in the researcher, and believes that the market study is of high quality. Decision-makers are more likely to learn from market studies facilitating the resolution of some specific problem than descriptive studies of a more general nature.

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“…78,[83][84][85][86] Further work went on to describe how marketing planning was supplanted by less rational decision processes. [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] The related but more broadly-based literature concerning strategic decision making reinforces the picture that rational planning, whatever also linked to the degree to which strategic planning can be used. 112,113 Other authors building on this work suggest, however, that these tangible reasons reflect fundamental differences in small firms' beliefs about themselves 114 and other cultural factors.…”

Section: Internal and External Mediators Of Marketing Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effectiveness of marketing strategy making processes: A critical literature review and a research agenda

Smith¹

2003

J Target Meas Anal Mark

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commonly employed non-rational processes of strategy making -that the content of strong marketing strategies is, to a useful degree, well defined by the extant literature. This content definition is useful in evaluating the outputs of marketing strategy making processes and offers a valuable alternative to attempting to correlate strategy making process with organisational outputs -the normative, prescriptive models of strategic marketing planning are not an accurate description of most practice. This suggests that, for many practitioners, the practical application of the process falls some way short of the ideal -the effectiveness of normative strategic marketing planning is contingent upon both internal and external factors, both of which are limited in INTRODUCTIONStrong marketing strategies are clearly important to the effectiveness of an organisation and so the effectiveness of marketing strategy making processes is an important consideration for both academics and practitioners. Various approaches have been made towards understanding and improving such processes. This paper attempts to synthesise these perspectives to create a more rounded and deeper understanding of how marketing strategies are made and how they might be improved. In short, the findings of this work suggest:-that rational planning processes contribute to organisational effectiveness. No reported methodology, however, is able to say more than that, and relatively little is known about the value of the more Abstract This paper contributes to the literature concerning the marketing strategy process. It reviews the extant literature in this field, drawing out areas of consensus and gaps in that literature. The principal gaps identified concern non-rational strategy making processes and the combined implications of internal and external contingencies. Using well-established theories from the sociological perspective of the organisational behaviour literature, this work proposes relevant questions for future research in this field. [16][17][18][19] This phase of research therefore concluded that the planning/performance link was in fact unproved. Further, it suggested that such a simple correlation would never be possible. Instead, the consensus of this work was that, at best, planning is only effective within a certain set of contingent conditions and that effectiveness itself was a complex construct, dependent upon the organisation's goals and situation. The third and most recent phase of this work suggests a position somewhere between the unbridled positivism of the first and the inconclusive relativism of the second. Partly, this work paralleled the development of ideas about measuring organisational performance. [20][21][22][23] Further, it reflected more sophisticated work that attempted to allow for the many contingent effects on effectiveness. [24][25][26][27][28] This work therefore considers the performance/planning link within the limits of environmental contingencies and the context of organisation specific objectives. Within those...

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Evaluation and Use of Marketing Research by Decision Makers: A Behavioral Simulation

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Achieving adaptive ends through equivocality: A study of organizational antecedents and consequences

Achieving adaptive ends through equivocality: A study of organizational antecedents and consequences

How market information is transformed into marketing knowledge?

The effectiveness of marketing strategy making processes: A critical literature review and a research agenda

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