Abstracts

Sarkar, S, "Exploring Customers' Reactions to Enforcement of Fine Prints," Dissertation Study 1.

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of enforcement and/or unenforcement of "Fine Prints" on consumers' reactions. "Fine Prints" is defined as both the explicit and implicit conditions under which the product/service contract waives firm responsibility and accountability toward unsuccessful product/service experience and outcome or lack of customer satisfaction with the same. In this study, trust, satisfaction, repurchase intention, switching intentions, and word-of-mouth will be used to measure customers' reactions. Based on a 2 (Fine Prints: enforced/waived) x 2 (Company Reputation: large and national/small and local) between-subjects design involving a sample size of 120 respondents comprising of undergraduate students, four experimental conditions were used to describe situations involving "Fine Prints" and "Company Reputation". The results revealed that Fine Prints had a significant main effect on switching intentions, which means that consumers will have higher switching intentions if "Fine Prints" are enforced, compared to when "Fine Prints" are waived. Moreover, consumers showed higher switching intentions when the company is small and local, compared to when the company is large and national. Significant interaction effects between "Fine Prints" and "Company Reputation" was also observed for repurchase intention, where repurchase intention is higher in case of the large and national company when "Fine Prints" are waived, compared to when "Fine Prints" are enforced. Conversely, repurchase intention is higher in case of the small and local company when "Fine Prints" are enforced, compared to when "Fine Prints" are waived. Surprise also had a significant moderating effect between "Fine Prints" and satisfaction, where at low level of surprise, satisfaction was higher when "Fine Prints" were enforced, compared to lower satisfaction when "Fine Prints" were waived. Conversely, at a high level of surprise, satisfaction was higher when "Fine Prints" were waived, compared to lower satisfaction when "Fine Prints" were enforced.

Guo, Chiquan, Sudipto Sarkar, Jing Zhu, and Yong J. Wang, "Business Partnerships and Organizational Performance: A Social Capital Perspective," under review at Industrial Marketing Management.

Conventional wisdom posits that a long-term orientation with important partners such as key suppliers and clients is essential for superior performance. This study critically examines this business tenet by studying the relationship between duration of partnerships with major suppliers and clients and company performance. Based on a dataset comprising over 10,000 Chinese manufacturing firms obtained through a probability sampling procedure, results show that relationship duration with major suppliers' influences (relationship duration with major clients does not) annual entertainment costs, a proxy for firms' investment in guanxi, a unique phenomenon in China. Findings from the main quadratic effects model show relationship duration with suppliers has a positive convex association with performance, whereas relationship duration with clients has a negative concave correlation with performance. These two non-linear relationships are moderated by research and development (R&D). Specifically, relationship age with both suppliers and clients has a positive convex association with performance for manufacturers with a low R&D budget; cooperation duration with both suppliers and clients has a negative concave correlation with performance for firms with a high R&D budget. This is one of the first studies that challenges the doctrine of long-term orientation in relationship management with suppliers and clients.