This article reports on a marketing initiative at a pharmaceutical company to redesign its distribution network. Distribution affects a firm's cost and customer satisfaction and drives profitability. Using a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model, the authors develop a distribution network...

Previous studies have separately shown that a firm needs to rely on its customers and employees to achieve superior performance. In this study, the authors draw on signaling theory to develop and empirically test a cross-validation argument. They argue that how a firm treats one stakeholder...

Companies and academics rarely account for balancing the risk and reward in a customer portfolio of a firm. Unlike a stock portfolio where both measures are taken into account, many people tend to look only at the customers' average profit value. Applying financial portfolio management...

Empirical studies in marketing conceptualize commitment as a three-component construct comprised of affective, normative, and calculative commitment. We develop and empirically test a five-component typology of consumer commitment — affective, normative, economic, forced, and habitual...

Credence goods are often delivered to consumers via a vertical channel where the true quality of the good is determined by a manufacturer (an upstream channel member), while consumers' quality perceptions are driven by the observable signals of quality sent by a retailer (a downstream channel...