According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly

The value-in-diversity perspective argues that a diverse workforce, relative to a homogeneous one, is generally beneficial for business, including but not limited to corporate profits and earnings. This is in contrast to other accounts that view diversity as either nonconsequential to business success or actually detrimental by creating conflict, undermining cohesion, and thus decreasing productivity. Using data from the 1996 to 1997 National Organizations Survey, a national sample of for-profit business organizations, this article tests eight hypotheses derived from the value-in-diversity thesis. The results support seven of these hypotheses: racial diversity is associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, greater market share, and greater relative profits. Gender diversity is associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, and greater relative profits. I discuss the implications of these findings relative to alternative views of diversity in the workplace.

/pdf/does-diversity-pay-race-gender-and-the-business-case-for-4cybufksoq.pdf

Does Diversity Pay?: Race, Gender, and the Business Case for Diversity:

An online prepurchase intentions model

As customer-organization relationships deepen, consumers increase their expertise in the firm’s product line and industry and develop increased switching costs. This study investigates the effects of customer investment expertise and perceived switching costs on the relationships between technical and functional service quality and customer loyalty. Technical service quality is hypothesized to be a more important determinant of customer loyalty than functional service quality as expertise increases. Both technical and functional service quality are hypothesized to have a reduced relationship with customer loyalty as perceived switching costs increase. Three-way interactions between the main effects of service quality, customer expertise, and perceived switching costs yield additional insight into the change in relative importance of technical and functional service quality in customers’ decision to be loyal. Six of eight hypotheses receive support. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management over the relationship life cycle.

Customer relationship dynamics: Service quality and customer loyalty in the context of varying levels of customer expertise and switching costs

The Internet may have more potential as a marketing tool than any of its media predecessors, including the television. We examined the literature and “surfed” the Internet to examine the moderating impact of the Internet on consumer behavior. Using the classical problem solving approach to the buying decision (problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior) as the foundation for our discussion, we explored how the Internet might influence buyer behavior.

The Internet as a Marketing Tool

This exploratory research examines how the COVID-19 pandemic led to increases in consumers’ social media marketing behaviors in the United States (U.S.). Previous research on the impact of a pandem...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23311975.2020.1870797

Social media marketing gains importance after Covid-19

Consumers’ product evaluations are often influenced by information contained in their memories. Prior to product evaluations, consumers are often exposed to data that permits them to judge the covariation relationships among different product attributes. However, these attribute covariance perceptions may lead to biased product evaluations. Using an experimental design, this study examines the accuracy of consumers’ product attribute covariance beliefs as a function of their product experience and the relevancy of product information to which they are exposed prior to evaluating product performances. The results indicate that even limited product information affects consumers’ beliefs about product performances on attributes for which no information is available. In other words, specific product information may serve as a cue or indicator for other product characteristics via attribute covariance inferences. The accuracy of these inferences appears to be, at least partly, the function of the consumers’ product experience. Consumers with high levels of product experience are more effective at encoding and retrieving product attribute performance information. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Product experience and consumer product attribute inference accuracy

A multidimensional approach for accuracy of ratings is introduced that examines consumers’ abilities to assess various brands across a set of attributes and attribute performances across a set of brands. A model is presented that addresses the roles of the relevancy of information, attribute-relationship schemata, and consumers’ product category experience on the accuracy of their brand attribute ratings. Study participants were provided either with relevant or irrelevant attribute information for various automobile brands and later asked to rate the attribute performances of brands. The results indicate that the provision of relevant information in the judgment environment increases brand and attribute rating accuracy but does not favorably affect consumers’ brand attribute-relationship schemata. Rather, consumers’ product experience was directly related to their attribute-relationship schemata, which in turn were related to improved accuracy of brand and attribute ratings.

The Accuracy of Brand and Attribute Judgments: The Role of Information Relevancy, Product Experience, and Attribute-Relationship Schemata:

The quick-service restaurant industry is a significant and growing aspect of the restaurant industry. For long-term success, quick-service restaurants must generate positive relationships with consumers. More specifically, quick-service restaurants need to produce satisfied consumers that ultimately lead to loyalty behaviors toward the restaurant. This article investigates factors that may enhance quick-service restaurant consumer dining satisfaction and behavior intentions. Based upon the findings, quick-service restaurants can improve consumers’ dining satisfaction and future behavioral intentions if they provide food quality, service quality, and an atmosphere that meets or exceeds consumers’ expectations. Implications for developing effective consumer relationships are provided.

Kevin Mason

Papers

The Internet as a Marketing Tool

Social media marketing gains importance after Covid-19

Product experience and consumer product attribute inference accuracy

The Accuracy of Brand and Attribute Judgments: The Role of Information Relevancy, Product Experience, and Attribute-Relationship Schemata:

Building consumer relationships in the quick service restaurant industry