Marketing strategy and the efficacy of procedural justice: The mid-level marketing manager in industrial service firms

a r t i c l e i n f o A principal challenge confronting the senior marketing team in B2B firms is how to ensure that the marketing strategies they develop are implemented effectively. The literature indicates that mid-level marketing managers' perceptions of the procedural justice within the firm may be critical in this respect. However, there has been little empirical research on this issue. The authors develop and test a conceptual model of the key drivers and consequences of marketing managers' procedural justice perceptions. The findings show that if mid-level marketing managers trust their senior marketing colleagues and simultaneously operate within moderately organic structures, then procedural justice will thrive. A consequence of this is more effective implementation of marketing strategy which, in turn, leads to increased market performance. 1. Introduction " Procedural justice …may be one of the linchpins that carry organizations into the tumultuous 21st century…where rapid change…become[s] even more a concern of organizational life " (Konovsky, 2000). Senior marketing executives and their advisory teams within business-to-business firms rarely complain that the marketing strategies they formulate are flawed. Instead, managers commonly attribute the problems of their strategizing to implementation challenges (Neilsen et al., 2008). Against this backdrop, it is paradoxical that the significant investment in financial, human, and strategic capital associated with formulating marketing strategies far outweighs the effort given to execute these same strategies in firms. Described variously as the 'elusive phenomenon' of strategy (Bour-geois and Brodwin, 1984), the strategy 'black box' (Piercy, 2002), and the 'implementation gap' (Miller, Wilson & Hickson, 2004), the successful execution of marketing strategy has for some time been an issue of research interest and competitive value for academics (Chebat, 1999) and practitioners (Bower and Gilbert, 2007; PA Consulting Group, 2002) respectively. To be considered effective a well-formulated strategy must be implemented successfully. Implementation effectiveness however, clearly depends on the appropriateness, feasibility and desirability of the strategy. Our argument is that through the development of competency in implementation—the ability to translate ideas into actions and generate positive outcomes—can provide a source of competitive advantage for the organization. A diversity of perspectives has been put forward in defining the concept of strategy implementation (Noble, 1999). Some researchers emphasise inter-personal and behavioural elements (e.g. but a review of the literature reveals few formal definitions of strategy implementation. We borrow from Wind and Robertson (1983) to define marketing strategy implementation as: the operationalization of …