For a multi-product sales force, the policy of paying commissions as an equal percentage of realized gross margins is shown to be in general, nonoptimal from the firm's profit maximization point of view. For a homogeneous salesforce, the nonoptimality results from the fact that earlier research...

This paper attempts to coordinate at the macro level the research potential and the development capability of an organization in a competitive environment. New product ideas generate from various sources of research which are then processed (preliminary screening, market appraisal, technical...

We compare quota-based salesforce compensation plans with the BLSS plan, i.e., the optimal curvilinear agency-theory-based compensation plans proposed in Basu, Lal, Srinivasan and Staelin (Basu, A. K., R. Lal, V. Srinivasan, R. Staelin. 1985. Salesforce compensation plans: An agency theoretic...

The authors propose a new approach for measuring, analyzing, and predicting a brand's equity in a product market. Brand equity is defined as the incremental contribution ($) per year obtained by the brand in comparison to the underlying product (or service) with no brand-building efforts. The...

This paper analyzes the role played by brand loyalty in determining optimal price promotional strategies used by firms in a competitive setting. (Loyalty is operationalized as the minimum price differential needed before consumers who prefer one brand switch to another brand.) Our objective is...

A decision support system to evaluate and formulate business portfolio strategies is proposed. Strategies are expressed in terms of market share objectives to be achieved in each of the N business units in the portfolio. STRATPORT evaluates a strategy in terms of the net present value of its...

A recent article in this Journal provides an efficient computational scheme for obtaining a regression line that minimizes the sum of absolute deviations of a set of two-dimensional points. The present note interprets that procedure as the solution of the parametric dual to the linear...

In multi-attribute models in marketing, a consumer's preference for a brand in a product class is expressed as a weighted sum of the brand's attribute values. However, marketing is abundant with examples where two brands may have approximately the same attribute values but enjoy very different...