Marketers play an integral part in the strategic planning process of a firm, both concerning the role of marketing in the strategic discourse, as well as the marketers’ interaction between various levels of hierarchy within an organization. The top management team (TMT) formulates strategic decision and influences the implementation of tactical approaches. Organizations often also mirror their TMT. Organizational strategy plays a critical role in the marketing capability of an organization, as activities are decided based on strategy and organizational goals. A TMT needs to be structurally composed in such a way that the firm is functionally positioned to respond and adapt to challenges in the marketplace continuously. With this in mind, the paper develops a conceptual representation of the interface between marketing organization, strategic decision-making, functional TMTs, and organizational structure. We conceptually assess the impact of functional TMT composition on marketing organization and corporate-level strategy alignment. Our research question focuses on how functional TMT composition and decision-making impacts marketing organization and overall market orientation. At the crossroads between strategic organizational decision-making and leadership, the upper echelon theory and contingency theory serves as the theoretical foundations from which conceptual propositions are developed in the context of marketing organization and market orientation.

Kindness can strengthen your employer brand. The business environment is changing, and the value of kindness in the corporate world is garnering increased attention. Paying it forward is a way to pass acts of kindness on to others. This allows employees and business partners to go above and beyond formal expectations that not only benefit the individuals involved but also the businesses they represent. Paying it forward can potentially create competitive advantage for firms from an employer branding perspective (to attract and retain talent) and in the broader market sense. This behavior can strengthen the employer brand in numerous and effective ways, and managers must understand, engage in, and encourage such conduct. In this article, we discuss different examples, benefits, and risks of paying kindness forward on a micro-, meso-, and macro-level. After providing this foundation, we introduce practical guidelines for managers on how to foster a paying-it-forward mindset among employees and the broader organization. The guidelines were created using insights from interviews we conducted with stakeholders in a business ecosystem in northern Sweden.

This research investigates how employer branding can be strengthened by taking a business ecosystem approach that encourages and leverages indirect social exchanges, such as the behaviour of paying it forward. This work is founded on extant literature and exploratory interviews with individuals from firms seeking to strengthen their employer brand by interdependently operating in a business ecosystem. A model is developed that proposes how indirect social exchanges can occur in an ecosystem, and what types of outcomes it can lead to for the individuals, firms and the ecosystem as a whole. As far as can be ascertained, this is the first study that combines these perspectives. The work suggests that there is value for firms in taking an ecosystem-focused approach to employer branding. The findings highlight that indirect or generalized social exchanges can provide value for individual firms when they form a group of interdependent collaborators rather than simply being competitors. Further, this work adds to the literature related to employee and partner extra-role behaviour by proposing the perspective of an Ecosystem Citizenship Behaviour. Ecosystem Citizenship Behaviour is an extra-role behaviour that occurs in the business ecosystem and as such can be beneficial for joint employer branding initiatives of participating firms.

Helping behavior and other acts of kindness are important in the business context as they lead to numerous positive outcomes for organizations and individuals and they can help form the foundation needed for meeting organizational goals. Acts of kindness can have a multiplying effect which can be achieved by kindness being paid back to the individual who conducted the act of kindness or paid forward to others. Paying it Forward (PIF) is a type of generalized social exchange behaviour that occurs when a person gives something of value to another person because they have in the past received something of value from someone else. PIF is forming a growing area of interest in business, yet to date PIF has received less attention in a Business-to-Business (B2B) context than in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). There are two key considerations that makes PIF important in the B2B marketing context, namely that marketing itself constitutes exchange and that the multiple responsibilities that the marketing manager often hold makes them actors in social exchange, both as participants of exchange relationships between firms and as facilitators of exchange through the responsibilities they hold within their firm. With this in mind, this dissertation identifies research gaps as it relates to PIF in the context of B2B marketing, and these gaps can be summarized by the research problem statement: How can marketing managers participate in and facilitate/encourage Paying it Forward in the B2B marketing context? This research problem statement was examined by four research questions, each addressed by a study producing an individual research article.

The purpose of the first study was to address the research question: What is the role of the Generalized Social Exchange behaviour Paying it Forward in the Business-to-Business marketing context? The findings of this work serve to further situate PIF in the B2B marketing context, and contribute a conceptual framework and several researchable propositions for PIF in the B2B marketing context. Next, the purpose of the second study was to address the research question: How does Generalized Social Exchange such as Paying it Forward occur and drive value co-creation results for employer branding in a business ecosystem? This study extended knowledge of B2B marketing from an employer branding perspective by proposing the existance of an ecosystem-centric perspective and Ecosystem Citizenship Behaviour (ECB) as it relates to employer branding. Meaning that employer branding can be perceived and acted upon from the perspective of the ecosystem as a whole. Following this, the purpose of the third study was to address the research question: Does organizational commitment predict Paying it Forward behaviour in the workplace? This study conceptually confirmed that PIF is an organizational citizenship behavior distinct from other conceptualizations. It also further added to the literature by confirming that there exists a positive relationship between organizational commitment and PIF, and that age and gender are confirmed moderators of this relationship. Finally, the purpose of the fourth study was to address the research question: How can managers encourage Paying it Forward behaviour that contributes to strengthening the firm’s employer brand? Study 4 introduced a conceptual definition for a PIF mindset and described what it entails and the value it may bring. It also provided a summary of different examples, benefits and risks of how PIF occurs on a micro-, meso- and macro-level. Finally, it provided practical guidelines summarized as principles for managers regarding how to foster a PIF mindset among employees and the broader organization. Through these studies taken together, this dissertation is contributing to furthering B2B marketing literature by providing insights into how marketing managers can participate in, facilitate and encourage PIF in the B2B marketing context, by first providing a general assessment of PIF in this context, and then addressing specific areas to further our understanding of how actors engage in this context.

This dissertation is organized as follows: First, Chapter 1 provides an introduction and overview of the research area. Next, Chapter 2 provides a review of the literature relating to the key concepts and develops the research questions under examination in this dissertation. In Chapter 3, the methodology undertaken to study the research area is discussed. Chapter 4, in turn, presents a summary of the findings of each research article. Finally, Chapter 5 presents the theoretical contributions and practical implications of each of the four studies, it also discusses limitations and proposes recommendations for future research. The four contributing research articles can be found in full length as appendices to this dissertation.

Purpose

Providing B2B marketing with insights into the nascently explored generalized social exchange dimension paying it forward. Marketing is an ongoing exchange relationship of particular significance in the B2B context, where exchanges often are indirect. Therefore, understanding the generalized exchange mechanism paying it forward is important in order to derive value from it, both as a manager of marketing teams (intra-firm) and as a participant in inter-firm exchange relationships.

Methodology/Approach

By reviewing extant research, this conceptual paper provides a synthesis of paying it forward exchange, how it occurs and can be encouraged in the inter- and intra-firm B2B marketing contexts and proposes a researchable and practically applicable framework, as well as a series of researchable propositions.

Findings

Founded on the understanding that paying it forward is an extra-role behavior (i.e., not defined by a job description or contract) that occurs both within and between firms, this work presents a conceptual framework as well as a series of researchable propositions with regard to the benefits that can be derived from paying it forward behavior. The framework proposes four different modes (peer, partner, affiliation, and alliance) under which marketers can facilitate or participate in the paying it forward type of exchange. The dimensions of the framework are relational interdependence and the intra-and inter-firm settings. These different modes emerge naturally based on the type of interaction. Depending on the circumstances, an individual could operate in any of the four modes, however depending on mode they operate in there are different key considerations to focus on.

Originality/value

Makes contributions to literature by providing a synthesis of the generalized social exchange dimension paying it forward, drawing conclusions, and developing a comprehensive framework and researchable propositions for marketing related intra- and inter-firm paying it forward exchange behavior. Academics and practitioners benefit from understanding the value paying it forward may provide and improve the role marketers play in both facilitating and participating in this type of exchange, yet to date this behavior has received scant attention.

Practical implications

Provides practitioners a synthesis of paying it forward exchange and outlines why and how it is relevant in a B2B marketing context, how it can be encouraged and what managers need to know to make use of its advantages and avoid its pitfalls.

Across many industries, individuals are increasingly relying on customer ratings and reviews on social media. While customer reviews often provide detailed diagnostic information about experiences, customer ratings often reduce the experience down to a simple number. Moreover, there is evidence to support that customer rating inflation is occurring on social media sites over time, especially in the sharing economy, and especially with regard to travel and tourism experiences. This paper conceptualizes how customer experiences are reduced into customer reviews and further abridged into customer ratings in both the traditional and sharing economy contexts. We propose that customers observe how service providers present themselves as a professional (established chain hotel) or amateur (owner operated vacation rental apartment), and then form different service expectations and perceptions accordingly. We investigate 55,110 customer reviews and ratings of New York City’s accommodation providers and indeed find evidence of rating inflation over the eight years studied.

在许多行业中，个人越来越依赖社交媒体上的客户评级和评论. 虽然客户评论通常提供关于体验的详细诊断信息，但客户评级通常将体验降低到一个简单的数字. 此外，有证据表明，随着时间的推移，社交媒体网站上的客户评级通胀正在发生，尤其是在共享经济中，尤其是在旅游和旅游体验方面. 本文从概念上阐述了在传统经济和共享经济环境下，如何将顾客体验简化为顾客评价，并进一步简化为顾客评价. 我们建议客户观察服务提供商如何将自己定位为专业（已建立的连锁酒店）或业余（业主经营的度假租赁公寓），然后据此形成不同的服务期望和感知. 我们调查了55110个客户评论和纽约市住宿供应商的评级，确实发现了在研究的八年里通货膨胀评级的证据.

This research expands knowledge of individual tendencies to “pay it forward,” as a result of commitment to the organization. It is desirable for organizations to have employees who go above and beyond their prescribed work duties, resulting in positive outcomes and increased organizational performance. The critical role that organizational citizenship behavior plays in providing internal and external benefits for the organization highlights the importance of research in this field. This is particularly important in dynamic work environments with an increase in non-traditional (e.g., decentralized and remote) working arrangements. This work conceptually confirms that the generalized social exchange driven behavior of paying it forward (PIF) is an organizational citizenship behavior distinct from other conceptualizations. The research proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model contributing to literature examining individual tendencies to engage in social exchange and organizational citizenship behavior in organizations. The research uses a single, cross-sectional descriptive research design and data are analyzed using regression analyses. The findings confirm that a positive relationship exists between organizational commitment and PIF. Age and gender are confirmed moderators of this relationship, with younger respondents and males exhibiting the highest levels of PIF. Key practical implications from this research relate to furthering the understanding of individual tendencies to engage in organizational citizenship behavior, as a result of their commitment to the organization. This provides managers insight into fostering desired behavior, which assists with the creation of a self-reinforcing, positive behavioral cycle.