Selected Publications Prof. Albers, Besio und van Quaquebeke
Selected Publications
(2012): Optimizable and implementable aggregate response modeling for marketing decision support, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29 (2): 111-122.
Abstract: The methodological discussion on the calibration of aggregate marketing response models has shifted away from how to obtain usable input for optimization toward how to avoid biases in statistical estimation. The purpose of this article is to remind researchers that such calibration is performed either to support managers in their marketing-mix decisions or to create general knowledge that leads to a better understanding of marketing relationships and thus indirectly supports decisions. Both goals require response models that are optimizable. The models must also be implementable if actual decision support is the objective. Herein, I identify several aspects for which these requirements are not always fulfilled: First, the appropriateness of the chosen functional form of the marketing response models is rarely discussed, although different forms imply quite different optimal solutions. Second, endogeneity is taken into account by structural equations, even though we lack sufficient information on how managers reach their decisions. Third, estimation methods for response models are often evaluated based on goodness-of-fit, while an assessment of their usefulness for subsequent optimization is neglected. Therefore, I provide recommendations for improving the current practice by better specifying the response function and undertaking more simulation-based evaluations of the best estimation method for use in subsequent optimization. With respect to implementation, usability can be facilitated using spreadsheets and heuristics. Moreover, gaining generalizable and replicable knowledge requires better documentation of results, which can be achieved through providing elasticities and as many details as are necessary to replicate a study, thereby enabling faster learning.
(2017): A Meta-Analysis of Marketing Communication Carryover Effects, Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (6): 990-1008.
Abstract: To optimally set marketing communication (“marcom”) budgets, reliable estimates of short-term elasticities and carryover effects are required. Empirical generalizations from meta-analyses of prior field studies can help guide these decisions. However, the last such meta-analysis of marcom carryover effects was performed on Koyck model–based estimates collected before 1984 and was confined to mass media advertising. The authors update and extend extant empirical generalizations via two meta-analyses of carryover estimates compiled from studies encompassing personal selling, targeted advertising, and mass media advertising, using diverse model forms, until 2015. The first is focused on and utilizes 918 estimates of the carryover proportion of the total effect, termed long-term share of the total effect, and the second focuses on 863 derivable estimates of 90% implied duration intervals. The authors find the mean long-term shares of the total effect for personal selling (.687) and targeted advertising (.650) are distinctly larger than that for mass media advertising (.523) and the corresponding median 90% implied duration intervals are 12.6, 2, and 3.4 months, respectively. The authors conclude by discussing differences by model type and the implications for marcom budget-setting and analyses.
(2011): Dynamic Marketing Budget Allocation Across Countries, Products, and Marketing Activities - Practice Prize Winner, Marketing Science, 30 (4): 568-585.
Abstract: Previous research on marketing budget decisions has shown that profit improvement from better allocation across products or regions is much higher than from improving the overall budget. However, despite its high managerial relevance, contributions by marketing scholars are rare. In this paper, we introduce an innovative and feasible solution to the dynamic marketing budget allocation problem for multiproduct, multicountry firms. Specifically, our decision support model allows determining near-optimal marketing budgets at the country--product--marketing--activity level in an Excel-supported environment each year. The model accounts for marketing dynamics and a product's growth potential as well as for trade-offs with respect to marketing effectiveness and profit contribution. The model has been successfully implemented at Bayer, one the world's largest pharmaceutical and chemical firms. The profit improvement potential is more than 50% and worth nearly €500 million in incremental discounted cash flows.
(2010): Personal selling elasticities: A meta-analysis, Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (5): 840-853.
Abstract: This article presents a meta-analysis of prior econometric estimates of personal selling elasticity—that is, the ratio of the percentage change in an objective, ratio-scaled measure of sales output (e.g., dollar or unit purchases) to the corresponding percentage change in an objective, ratio-scaled measure of personal selling input (e.g., dollar expenditures). The authors conduct a meta-analysis of 506 personal selling elasticity estimates drawn from analyses of 88 empirical data sets across 75 previous articles. They find a mean estimate of current-period personal selling elasticity of .34. They also find that elasticity estimates are higher for early life-cycle-stage offerings, higher from studies set in Europe than from those set in the United States, and smaller in more recent years. In addition, elasticity estimates are affected significantly by analysts' use of relative rather than absolute sales output measures, by cross-sectional rather than panel data, by omission of promotions, by lagged effects, by marketing interaction effects, and by the neglect of endogeneity in model estimation. The method bias–corrected mean personal selling elasticity is approximately .31. The authors discuss the implications of their results for sales managers and researchers.
(2010): Patient- or physician-oriented marketing: What drives primary demand for prescription drugs?, Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (1): 103-121.
Abstract: The authors analyze primary demand effects of marketing efforts directed at the physician (detailing and professional journal advertising) versus marketing efforts directed at the patient (direct-to-consumer advertising). The analysis covers 86 categories, or approximately 85% of the U.S. pharmaceutical market, during the 2001–2005 period. Primary demand effects are rather small, in contrast with the estimated sales effects for individual brands. By using a new brand-level method to estimate primary demand effects with aggregate data, the authors show that the small effects are due to intense competitive interactions during the observation period but not necessarily to low primary demand responsiveness. In contrast with previous studies, the authors also find that detailing is more effective in driving primary demand than direct-to-consumer advertising. A category sales model cannot provide such insights. In addition, a category sales model likely produces biased predictions about period-by-period changes in primary demand. The suggested brand-level method does not suffer from these limitations.
(1996): Zur relativen Aussagekraft und Eignung von Ansätzen der Neuen Institutionenlehre für die Absatzformwahl sowie die Entlohnung von Verkaufsaußendienstmitarbeitern, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, 66 (11): 1383-1407.
(2022): With or against others? Pay-for-performance activates aggressive aspects of competitiveness, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 31 (5): 698-712.
Abstract: While paying employees for performance (PfP) has been shown to elicit increased motivation by way of competitive processes, the present paper investigates whether the same competitive processes inherent in PfP can also encourage aggressiveness. We tested our hypothesis in three studies that conceptually build on each other: First, in a word completion experiment (N = 104), we find that PfP triggers the implicit activation of the fighting and defeating facets of competitiveness. Second, in a multi-source field study (N = 94), co-workers reported more interpersonal deviance from colleagues when the latter received a performance bonus than when they did not. In our final field study (N = 286), we tested the full model, assessing the effect of PfP and interpersonal deviance mediated by competitiveness: Employees with a bonus self-reported higher interpersonal deviance towards their co-workers, which was mediated by individual competitiveness. These findings underscore that PfP can entail powerful yet widely unstudied collateral effects.
: Wie sollen die Produkte vertrieben werden? - Distributionspolitik, in: Albers, Sönke, Kay Peters and Bernd Skiera (ed.): eCommerce - Einführung, Strategie und Umsetzung im Unternehmen, F.A.Z.-Institut: Frankfurt am Main, 79-95.
(2017): When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making: A Matter of the Right Climate, Journal of Business Ethics, 142 (1): 155-168.
Abstract: To advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives in two studies (Study 1, N = 144, US sample; and Study 2, N = 356, UK sample), in which we presented participants with moral business dilemmas. Specifically, we found that organizational identification increased moral decision-making only when the organization’s climate was perceived to be ethical. In addition, we disentangle this effect in Study 2 from participants’ moral identity. We argue that the interactive influence of organizational identification and ethical climate, rather than the independent influence of either of these perspectives, is crucial for understanding moral decision-making in organizations.
(2012): When does procedural fairness promote organizational citizenship behavior? Integrating empowering leadership types in relational justice models, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117 (2): 235-248.
Abstract: We examined how procedural fairness interacts with empowering leadership to promote employee OCB. We focused on two core empowering leadership types—encouraging self-development and encouraging independent action. An experiment revealed that leaders encouraging self-development made employees desire status information more (i.e., information regarding one’s value to the organization). Conversely, leaders encouraging independent action decreased employees’ desire for this type of information. Subsequently, a multisource field study (with a US and German sample) showed that encouraging self-development strengthened the relationship between procedural fairness and employee OCB, and this relationship was mediated by employees’ self-perceived status. Conversely, encouraging independent action weakened the procedural fairness-OCB relationship, as mediated by self-perceived status. This research integrates empowering leadership styles into relational fairness theories, highlighting that multiple leader behaviors should be examined in concert and that empowering leadership can have unintended consequences.
(2013): Why follow? The interplay of leader categorization, identification, and feeling respected, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 16 (1): 68-86.
Abstract: Guided by both social cognitive and identity-based perspectives of leadership, the present study investigated how and when the process of leader categorization results in greater leader effectiveness. Specifically, we propose that the relationship between leader categorization and subordinates’ openness toward leadership should be partially mediated by subordinates’ identification with their leaders. Furthermore, seeking to corroborate that the issue of self-esteem is the central ingredient in the identification process, we argue that the mediation should become weaker the more subordinates feel that they are being treated disrespectfully by their leaders, and thus are explicitly undermined in their efforts toward self-enhancement. The proposed mediating effect was tested and supported in two field studies (N 1 = 244, N 2 = 645). In the second study, we also tested and found support for the proposed moderated mediation model. The theoretical and managerial consequences are discussed.
(2017): When and how politicians’ disrespect affects voters’ trust in the political system: The role of social judgments and category prototypicality, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47 (9): 515-527.
Abstract: We propose that one politician's disrespectful behavior can spill over to voters' generalized judgments of politicians and thereby affect trust in the political system. We delineate the spillover effect along the basic dimensions of social judgment, communion, and agency. Moreover, we argue that any spillover effect is contingent on the focal politicians' category prototypicality, that is, their representativeness of politicians as such. Conducting an experiment (N = 392) and a field study (N = 273), we found that politicians' respect only affected trust through generalized communion ratings. This spillover only occurred if the observed politician was perceived as prototypical. Our findings provide new insights on when and how individual politicians may be able to undermine voters' trust in the political system.
(2014): Vehicle Supply Chains in Humanitarian Operations: Decentralization, Operational Mix, and Earmarked Funding, Production and Operations Management, 23 (11): 1950-1965.
Abstract: The work of international humanitarian organizations (IHOs) frequently involves operating in remote locations, decentralized decision-making, and the simultaneous implementation of development and disaster response programs. A large proportion of this work is funded by “earmarked” donations, since donors often exhibit a preference for the programs they are willing to fund. From extensive research involving qualitative descriptions and quantitative data, and applying system dynamics methodology, we model vehicle supply chains (VSCs) in support of humanitarian field operations. Our efforts encompass the often-overlooked decentralized environment by incorporating the three different VSC structures that IHOs operate, as well as examining the entire mix of development and disaster response programs, and the specific (and virtually unexplored) effects of earmarked funding. Our results suggest that earmarked funding causes a real—and negative—operational impact on humanitarian disaster response programs in a decentralized setting.