David A. Griffith & Robert F. Lusch
Executive Summary
Marketing personnel are key firm resources because the capital that they embody enables their firms to compete. Because this firm-specific capital provides firms with heterogeneous resources necessary for competitive advantage, developing a governance mechanism that will stimulate marketing personnel to accumulate it is a major challenge for senior marketing managers, who are responsible for people in the marketing function. Using a survey of marketing professionals, this study examines several key issues related to understanding marketer accumulation of firm-specific capital: (1) How do marketing personnel perceive the governance structure in relation to the different types of capital that they as marketers embody? (2) What job outcomes (i.e., organizational trust, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intention to stay) accrue under governance structures related to marketers’ capital? and (3) How do job outcomes influence the accumulation of firm-specific capital by a firm’s marketing personnel?
The results indicate that marketing personnel believe that they are able to obtain value in excess of market value on their specific capital and slightly less than market value on their more easily transferable capital. This suggests that firms view specific capital as important and thus provide a market premium on this type of capital when it is embodied by marketing personnel. However, although marketers perceive specific capital as being governed by a protective structure, the results indicate that marketers’ perceptions of the governance structure for specific capital were not related to job outcomes, whereas marketers’ perceptions of the governance structure related to general capital were positively related to job outcomes. Finally, the results indicate that marketers do not invest in the accumulation of specific classifications of capital only on the basis of how the elements of capital are valued; rather, the stimulation of reciprocity through a governance structure characterized by dignity stimulates marketers to invest in the accumulation of firm-specific capital. As such, the findings indicate that the protective governance structure implied by transaction cost economics does not fully explain the stimulation of the accumulation of firm-specific capital.
From a managerial standpoint, the study’s findings indicate that though rewarding marketers for their specific capital is important, it is not necessarily the most effective way to stimulate positive job outcomes and, thus, marketer investment in specific capital (i.e., when marketers believe that they cannot obtain greater value on less easily transferable capital than they could externally, they may view the firm as acting opportunistically, thus negatively influencing job outcomes). Rather, the findings indicate that a protective governance structure related to marketers’ more easily transferable capital is a more effective strategy for stimulating marketers to accumulate firm-specific capital.
Biography
David A. Griffith is Associate Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University. He has taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Japan–America Institute of Management Science, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, the University of Oklahoma, and Kent State University. He received his PhD and MBA from Kent State University. His primary research interests are international marketing strategy and the employment of firm resources for strategic marketing effectiveness. His research has been published in numerous journals, including Journal of Retailing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Advertising, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of World Business. He currently serves on the editorial review board of Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Business Research.
Robert F. Lusch is Lisle & Roslyn Payne Professor of Marketing and Head of the Marketing Department in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. Previously, he was on the faculty and served as dean at both the University of Oklahoma and Texas Christian University. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. His expertise is in the area of marketing strategy, distribution systems, and marketing theory. Lusch served as editor of Journal of Marketing. He is the author or coauthor of more than 150 academic articles and professional publications, including 18 books. In 1997, the Academy of Marketing Science awarded him its Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, and the American Marketing Association has twice presented him with its Harold Maynard Award for contributions to marketing theory. Lusch has served as Chairperson of the American Marketing Association and trustee of the American Marketing Association Foundation. He has served on several corporate boards, has been active in consulting, and frequently teaches in executive education programs. Some recent publications have appeared in Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Retailing, and Journal of Marketing.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 71, No. 1, January 2007
View Table of Contents