Twenty-seven years have elapsed since Bergen, Dutta, and Walker Jr. (Citation1992) published their work on agency theory in marketing. Agency theory is still relevant in marketing today. However, since 1992, there has been no comprehensive update of the literature on agency theory in marketing-related contexts despite the various developments in marketing, such as the advent of the internet, that have occurred in the interim. This paper covers the application of agency theory to marketing-related topics between 1992 and 2018. It seeks to update the overall knowledge of this application, suggesting new areas of research and managerial implications.

As humans beings, we act to our advantage. In some cases, this is done to the detriment of others; also known as opportunistic behavior. As past and current industrial marketing relationships have been impaired by opportunism, it is valuable for scholars and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of opportunistic behavior and how to prevent it. A key driver of opportunistic behavior is information. This informs the purpose of this dissertation, which is to address its research problem: How can information facilitate and constrain opportunistic behavior in industrial marketing relationships?

Agency Theory is the first theory used to address this research problem. Agency Theory focuses on governing opportunistic behavior in a principal-agent relationship. The theory has been widely applied in the marketing literature. Therefore, this dissertation’s first research question addresses: How has Agency Theory been used to constrain opportunistic behavior in industrial marketing relationships? To answer this question, an extensive literature review is conducted and future research agendas suggested.

However, during the course of this dissertation it was found that Agency Theory is limited when applied to relationships where the agent is a professional. Most industrial marketing relationships comprise professional agents. Furthermore, both principals and professional agents can act opportunistically ex-ante (i.e., pre-contract) and ex-post (i.e., post-contract) at the same time. Therefore, the second research question asks: What role does information play in manifesting ex-ante and ex-post opportunistic behavior in principal and professional-agent industrial marketing relationships? This research question is answered in a purely conceptual manner, through the introduction of a new model.

The remaining two papers follow a constructivist, qualitative research design. A context was needed to gain an empirical understanding on opportunism in industrial marketing relationships. The context chosen for this dissertation is the client-advertising agency relationship. The third research question therefore asks: How do clients and advertising agencies act opportunistically ex-ante and ex-post? To answer this research question, representatives from advertising agencies and clients were interviewed.

Given the clear need to constrain client-advertising agency opportunism, the fourth research question asks: What role does information play in the choice of constraint mechanism for the client-advertising agency relationship? To do this, the Theory of Relationship Constraints was extended to the client-advertising agency relationship context. The theory focuses on choosing the appropriate constraint mechanism to curb opportunistic behavior.

Broadly, this dissertation primarily contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a better understanding on how opportunism can manifest and be constrained in today’s industrial marketing context.

The remainder of the dissertation is laid out as follows. First, the research area is introduced. Second, the key literature and theoretical perspectives are discussed. Third, the methodology employed is explained. Fourth, the findings are disclosed. Last, the theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations and future research agendas are presented and followed by a conclusion. The four papers that comprise this dissertation are then included. Three of these papers are published/accepted; the final paper is a working paper. 

While it is seldom spoken about openly, opportunism always prevails in client–agency relationships and could lead to their demise. This study directs attention to client–agency opportunism by describing how it happens and ends with a discussion on how today’s client–agency dynamics can be improved.

Purpose

This paper aims to explore, using the employee lens of business-to-business firms, word use through brand engagement and social media interaction to understand the difference between employees who rate their employer brands highly on social media and those who don't.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a textual content analysis of posts published on the social media job evaluation site glassdoor.com. LIWC software package was used to analyze 30 of the top 200 business-to-business brands listed on Brandwatch using four variables, namely, analytical thinking, clout, authenticity and emotional tone.

Findings

The results show that employees who rate their employer’s brand low use significantly more words, are significantly less analytic and write with significantly more clout because they focus more on others than themselves. Employees who rate their employer’s brand highly, write with significantly more authenticity, exhibit a significantly higher tone and display far more positive emotions in their reviews.

Practical implications

Brand managers should treat social media data disseminated by individual stakeholders, like the variables used in this study (tone, word count, frequency), as a valuable tool for brand insight on their industry, competition and their own brand equity, now and especially over time.

Originality/value

This study provides acknowledgement that social media is a significant source of marketing intelligence that may improve brand equity by better understanding and managing brand engagement.

How do marketing campaigns encourage a majority group of consumers to support a minority group of consumers’ opinion? Why do consumers change their opinions? Why do consumers do what they do? Conversion theory addresses a simultaneous majority and minority influence on consumer behaviour. Whilst conversion theory is applied to various disciplines, there is a gap in literature on conversion theory as applied to the marketing discipline. This paper focuses on conversion theory in marketing and contributes by introducing three new propositions to marketing literature, namely, (1) marketing campaigns can convert the majority opinion to support the minority opinion privately and/or publicly when portraying ‘consistency’, (2) marketing campaigns can convert the majority opinion to support the minority opinion privately and/or publicly when portraying a style of thinking that encourages discussion amongst the majority, and (3) marketing campaigns can convert the majority opinion to support the minority opinion privately and/or publicly when the majority identifies themselves with the message of the marketing campaign.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the impact of editorial policy towards being both inclusive and international on the quantitative metrics of the journal.

Design/methodology/approach: A bibliometric analysis was performed.

Findings: The chief areas of impact, along with trends in methodologies and international contribution and collaboration are discussed.

Originality/value: A review of the British Food Journal over the past ten years.