توضیحاتی از منابع دوگانه بازاریابی/ انسانی برای اثربخشی پیاده سازی استراتژی های بازاریابی در شرکت های خدماتی

The marketing strategy literature is often criticized for the dearth of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies focusing on antecedents to effective marketing strategy implementation. Despite some related research on the constituency-based theory of the firm, even less is understood concerning the interplay between functional areas on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We examine the marketing/human resources (HR) dyad and contribute to this limited platform of knowledge by testing a set of eight hypotheses that forms the basis of the model in which six process-based organization dimensions are considered to be related to the psychosocial outcomes of relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict. These, in turn, are hypothesized to impact upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. The data that are used to test these relationships are generated from 230 medium and large European service-based firms. While we find that psychosocial outcomes do have important effects on marketing strategy implementation effectiveness, a paradox is observed in the effects of process-based dimensions upon psychosocial outcomes. These findings are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications are drawn.

Within service organizations there are primarily two bases for cost: operating costs and organizing costs. The former are associated with the direct/indirect operational expenses of the firm while the latter are costs incurred from the organization structure and the way in which tasks are performed within and between functions. Writers argue that problems associated with organizing costs may lead to a future crisis for senior executives in service firms (Metters and Vargas, 2000). Therefore, internal working relationships and mechanisms are crucial issues for service management (Montgomery and Webster, 1997). There are three critical management functions in service organizations and these are marketing, human resources (HR), and operations—known as the Service Management Trinity (Lovelock, 1991). The interdependence between each of these functional areas is important (Krohmer et al., 2002), especially given demands of the technologies employed in the production, delivery, and consumption of services. These properties of services take place simultaneously due to the intangible nature of service output, and therefore effective performance demands a coordinated and integrated approach to the interface functions of marketing, HR, and operations. To effectively implement marketing strategy, managers are required to coordinate marketing efforts with other functional priorities (Menon et al., 1999). Despite the fact that operations considerations have historically tended to dominate service management (Metters et al., 2003), the effective implementation of marketing strategy is considered to be heavily reliant upon the marketing/HR dyad (Glassman and McAfee, 1992) rather than the marketing/operations interface (Metters, 2002). In this paper we adopt the constituency-based theory of the firm (Anderson, 1982) and explore the internal relationship (process-based) factors, specifically in respect of the marketing/HR interface in service firms, that impact upon the psychosocial outcomes (relationship effectiveness and interfunctional conflict) of this relationship. Following this, an assessment is made of the impact of these psychosocial outcomes upon the behavioral outcome of marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. We then test this conceptualization empirically with data generated from a survey of 230 medium and large European service-based firms. Following the discussion of these findings, several implications for both managers and further research are drawn.

These findings indicate that firms devoting attention to marketing/HR alignment are able to realize significantly greater advantage in strategy implementation success. Although intuitive, such evidence reveals that efforts directed toward improving dialogue and coordination (overcoming many of the barriers to “collective” planning) between these functions is rewarded by psychosocial benefits which thereby encourage improved strategy implementation (cf. Nutt, 1986). Specifically, these findings imply that marketing managers should seek to improve relationship effectiveness with their HR colleagues by emphasizing all bar two of the process-based dimensions reported in this study: joint reward systems and written communication. For both of these no influence in relationship effectiveness terms was evident, and so they provide no specific value in internal coalition building campaigns. In contrast, however, both of these are useful mechanisms in conflict-reduction efforts in that they help to constrain the “turf battles” that can develop between these functions. Additionally, seeking to engage senior management support and encouraging informal integration do not help to alleviate interfunctional conflict levels, despite their favorable impact upon relationship effectiveness. Consequently, it is important for managers to appreciate which factors influence which outcome. While low levels of interfunctional conflict are a prerequisite to building relationship effectiveness, the results in Table 2 and Table 3 indicate that the payoffs are different depending on the process-based dimension considered. Both interfunctional conflict reduction and relationship effectiveness are inextricably intertwined in their impact upon marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Our findings do not suggest that firms were or should be in any way led or dominated by the marketing function, but rather that the synergistic effects of the marketing/HR dyad provide insights to enable these service firms to articulate coherent positions within their competitive domain through their boundary-spanning, information intensive, customer interface roles. What is suggested here is that marketing combined with HR is able to facilitate improved levels of market competitiveness by (i) encouraging a comprehensive approach focused on marketplace reality, emphasizing the marketing assets and capabilities of the organization; (ii) stimulating cross-functional integration even at the expense of “politicking”; (iii) improving communication quality throughout the organization by developing internal marketing strategies; and (iv) testing the strategy for realism by ensuring appropriate levels of resources and commitment to drive the program through to successful implementation (cf. Homburg et al., 1999). A number of potential avenues for future research emerge. First, the findings of this empirical investigation generate a number of valuable implications for managers in their efforts to enhance marketing implementation and market performance. In order to ensure successful strategic change, managers must be aware of the interdependence in strategy formation and strategy implementation processes. This dichotomy has been espoused in well-received textbooks on strategy as well as being considered a useful model with which to frame strategic development, but such a traditional approach does not necessarily reflect practice and can in itself cause a breakdown in strategic processes (for an elaboration, see Piercy, 1998a and Piercy, 1998b, for the “symptoms of strategy formulation/implementation dichotomy” and “sources of barriers in the implementation process,” pp. 233–234). Second, the contribution of marketing/HR to marketing strategy implementation effectiveness is important but it should be considered in context. Market-based management is multifaceted and its constituent elements need to be appreciated. Market orientation, internal marketing, organizational culture in services, structural configuration, internal systems and procedures, environmental factors, to name a few, all contribute to the properties of market-based management and due recognition needs to be paid to the multiple effects of these influences. Although an attempt has been made in this study to develop generalizable conclusions, marketing managers must appreciate the uniqueness of their particular organizational circumstances and develop contingencies to meet these. Third, although replication and extension is frequently recommended following the report of empirical studies, recent interest in the value and importance of these issues has been raised within the management literatures with the emphasis based upon Type I error—erroneous rejection of the null hypothesis. Consequently, replicability plays a fundamental role in scrutinizing the worth of research conclusions and we make such a recommendation here. Thus, such future extension studies may serve to determine the scope and parameters of these preliminary empirical findings by testing whether they can be generalized to other situations. This study was set within the context of medium and large European service-based firms. Consequently, while the study exhibits external validity insofar as services are concerned, it has limited generalizability as findings may have limited applicability to the manufacturing context. This points to the need for caution in drawing generalizations to nonservice settings. Finally, an alternative view of business is provided by viewing organizations as a collection of “processes” instead of “functions” (Workman et al., 1998). This is both a practical and fundamental distinction in that processes tend not to respect functional boundaries and more accurately represent the workflows in organizations. Insights derived from this stream of research may help to improve understanding of functional coordination and facilitate a more holistic view of interfunctional dynamics. This process-based view is likely to have important implications for the strategic role of marketing and its relationships with other functions.