Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072 – 1078

How technology advances influence business

research and marketing strategy
Roland T. Rust ⁎, Francine Espinoza 1
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States
Received 1 June 2006; received in revised form 1 July 2006; accepted 1 August 2006

Abstract

Technology has a profound impact on business research, and especially on marketing, because (1) technology changes the way marketing
managers do their job, (2) these changes lead to major changes in the topics that are important to study, and (3) technology provides new ways of
doing research. The most important result of technological advance is the increasing impact of information technology, resulting in the growing
importance of service and relationships in the economy. Future advances in marketing are likely to build from advances in technology and relating
improvements in communicating, storing, and processing information about customers.
© 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Technology; Information; Service marketing; Customization; Communication; CRM; Relationship marketing

1. Introduction
This article offers an overview of how technology influences
the way business research is done, especially in the field of
marketing. The article explores the proposal that research in
marketing follows advances in technology. Technology influ-
ences the way marketing is done in practice, the focus of
research topics, and the design of research methods.
This article offers examples of how advances in technology
modify major marketing practices. The service revolution leads
not only to fast growth of the service sector but also to a shift of
emphasis from goods to service among goods sector firms.
Technology supports the tasks of reaching customers and sat-
isfying specific needs, which increases the demand for more
sophisticated models of market segmentation and customiza-
tion. Technology advances influence customer relationship
management to the extent that gathering customer information,
interacting with customers, and, eventually, building relation-
ships with them become easier. These changes in the way
marketing managers do their job lead scholars to observe and
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 405 4300; fax: +1 301 314 2831.
E-mail addresses: rrust@rhsmith.umd.edu (R.T. Rust),
fespinoza@rhsmith.umd.edu (F. Espinoza).
1
Tel.: +1 301 314 1968.
0148-2963/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.08.002
analyze market trends and propose new and improved models
applicable in the field.
The information technology revolution leads to the trans-
formation of central marketing frameworks. Topics such as
service marketing, customization, and relationship marketing,
which benefit from technological advances, have developed
into “hot topics” in the marketing literature. Regarding research
methods, technological advances provide researchers the oppor-
tunity to make use of new tools to collect and analyze market
data. Computers and sophisticated software facilitate data anal-
ysis, resulting in new substantive and theoretical results.
2. Technology and marketing
Increasing demand for both new and traditional services
drives growth of the service sector, resulting in service be-
coming the core economic and marketing activity in most
developed economies. The service sector grows steadily in its
contribution to the gross domestic product in almost every
country and accounts for most of the growth in new jobs
(Lovelock and Wirtz, 2004). Marketing practice continually
adapts to the increased demand for service and, as a result, the
topics that are important to study in academia are changing over
the years. Scholars are able to look at marketing practice and
propose new theories and models to improve marketing
 R.T. Rust, F. Espinoza / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072–1078
management (e.g., Bucklin and Gupta, 1999; Rust et al., 2004;
Woodside et al., 1999). Three major marketing areas especially
benefiting from advances in technology are service marketing,
customization, and customer relationship management.
2.1. Service marketing
Implementable technology innovations in business lead to an
increase in available information and knowledge about markets,
customers, and competitors, and as a result companies can offer
more, newer, and better services to satisfy specific needs of their
customers. The increased availability of information and service
provide the structural change necessary to the rise of a new
paradigm: the service revolution, which makes service the focus
of business in virtually all developed economies.
The focus on service brings a new philosophy into marketing
management that is applicable to all businesses, including those
that involve tangible goods in the process of service provision
(Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Marketing shifts the center of its
attention from products to customers (and relationships with
them), and businesses compete vigorously in applying technol-
ogy to service (Rust and Thompson, 2006). As service becomes
more important, companies realize the necessity of enhancing
service quality perceptions and, consequently, service quality
and customer satisfaction become increasingly critical metrics
in successful marketing (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Rust et al.,
1996) in such diverse industries as health care organizations
(Woodside et al., 1989), fast-food, and amusement parks
(Brady, 2001).
The new paradigm has led the service sector to become the
largest sector of most developed economies (Rust and Thompson,
2006). For example, in the early 1950s, goods represented about
65% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), whereas services
represented about 35% (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2006).
Since the 1950s, a large shift has occurred as goods now represent
about 26% and services represent about 74% of the U.S. GDP
(Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2006). A similar pattern is
observable in nations such as Japan, where services represent 74%
of the GDP, and in the European Union, where services represent
70% of the GDP (Central Intelligence Agency, 2006). Addition-
ally, today in the U.S. about 80% of the work force is employed in
jobs in the service sector (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). In the
European Union, about 67% of the labor force works in the
service sector (Central Intelligence Agency, 2006). In developing
nations this percentage is lower, but the evolution to a service-
dominated economy is likely to take place over time as per capita
income rises (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2004). In India, for instance,
about two-thirds of the workforce is in agriculture (60%), whereas
less than one-quarter is in services (23%). However, services are
the major source of economic growth in that country and today the
service sector accounts for 51.4% of India's GDP (Central
Intelligence Agency, 2006).
Totally new markets arise as a consequence of technological
expansion: examples are personal computers, software, and cell
phones. Technology also allows higher levels of service in the
goods sector (Woodside, 1994, 1996), effectively turning every
business into a service business (Rust et al., 1996). For example,
1073
Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, besides making cars, are
regularly offering leasing services. Many goods are now largely
commodities and, as a result, service becomes the core business
of most enterprises. Companies as diverse as Dell and IBM are
popular examples of this trend, offering highly differentiated,
high-value service and relying on these services as their most
important source of profits. Companies whose core business is a
service, such as the mobile service companies, invest regularly
in technology to provide better service.
More recently, computers and the rapid expansion of the
information economy and electronic networks have converged
in the concept of e-service, the provision of service over elec-
tronic networks such as the Internet (Rust, 2001; Rust and
Kannan, 2002). The rise of interactive computer networks is
currently one of the most impactful technological developments
(Rust and Thompson, 2006). These networks promise the
capability of supplying new interactive services to billions of
people around the world. Therefore, service marketers must do a
good job of adapting to this technological environment by
becoming effective interactive marketers and bearing in mind
that tools such as search engines (e.g., Google) portend a
fundamental shift in how marketing should be done. Such tools
facilitate the consumers' search process, easily providing them
with information and making a wider number of offers readily
available. Even though search engines are not the end users,
interactive service providers must market their services to them.
Marketers are used to utilizing traditional media such as tele-
vision or magazines, but now new modes of communication are
available. The Internet and other computer networks offer the
capability of sending a message to customers and also receiving
messages from them. Consumers can now participate more fully
in the process of goods/services provision, they can share their
opinions with the company, and companies can supply them
with new interactive services (Rust, 1997).
By using information technology, companies have an
increased ability to be customer-centric and market driven.
Information technology permits interactive communication and
personalization, assisting companies on collaborating with and
learning from customers to offer services suited to their cus-
tomers' dynamic needs (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Therefore, the
information revolution and the service revolution are two sides
of the same coin, as technology applications generate knowl-
edge and information used to expand service provision.
2.2. Customization
This section describes how technology contributes to the
offering of individually customized goods and services. Readily
available information technology and flexible work processes
permit companies to customize goods or services for individual
customers in high volumes at low cost (Gilmore and Pine,
1997). Mass customization is the ability to provide individually
designed goods and services to every customer: consumers can
choose from large assortments and match product configura-
tions to their exact preferences (Rust and Thompson, 2006). For
example, Levi Strauss sells custom-fitted jeans and Nike allows
customers to personalize their own sneakers. Even though this
1074 R.T. Rust, F. Espinoza / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072–1078
idea seems to be highly accepted, the evolution of service shows
that mass customization still focuses on the product, rather than
on the customer. When making customers choose from large
assortments, mass customization leaves too much work for the
customer, which can lead to dissatisfaction in the long run.
Instead, the service paradigm is about personalization: compa-
nies should know about their customers' personalities and
provide them with individualized, personalized service, rather
than mass-customized service. Interactive communication gives
companies the ability to learn and to store more information
about the customer, which in turn gives companies the ability to
personalize its services to the exact customer's desires and to
develop relationships with their customers (Rust, 2004).
Until the 1960s, advances in technology allowed the pro-
duction of standardized goods and the use of mass merchandis-
ing, mass communication, and mass media (Pine, 1993). In the
late 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, as a result of the increase
in computerization and available information, segmentation
models experienced a great development as managers were able
to identify approximately homogeneous subgroups that were
reachable, measurable, and sizable. The use of computers to
collect and analyze customer data was suddenly viable and
psychographic and demographic data were heavily used to
segment customers (Wind, 1978). In the 1980s niche marketing
intensified this movement: markets were divided into smaller
groups of consumers and companies were able to offer products
to attend to very specific needs (i.e., the number of alternatives
in the same product category increased, and these alternatives
differed in the needs they attended).
From the late 1980s up to the present day, marketing has
been actively pursuing research on scanner data and integrated
databases, implementation of strategies based on those and
programs directed at single households or individuals (Bucklin
and Gupta, 1999). The resulting information assists managers
to direct promotion to consumers who demonstrate particular
buying habits or to target those who use a competitor's product.
Computer-aided technologies and general production technology
allow companies to customize virtually any good (McKenna,
1988). Varki and Rust (1998) demonstrate that technology im-
pacts optimal segment size; applying technologies to segmenta-
tion makes the size of the segment needed for maximum profits to
decrease. The more technology is used, the more customization is
needed to attend these smaller segments. Technological develop-
ments reduce the costs of customization enough to make the trade-
off between offering a customized product and the cost of doing
so worthwhile and, as a result, customization becomes more
widespread (Varki and Rust, 1998).
As technology contributes to the acquisition, storage, and
analysis of customer data, the trend towards customization
intensifies. Gathering and storing information about customers
provides enterprises with precious market knowledge that was
hard to conceive of a few decades ago. Scanner data, for ex-
ample, obtained from purchases at retailers' checkouts, allow a
great advance in understanding customer behavior (what, when,
where, with what frequency they purchase, etc.). A strong
stream of research – both academic and managerial – has grown
based on these databases, resulting in the delineation of diverse
marketing strategies (Bucklin and Gupta, 1999). More recently,
interactive communication, combined with the focus on cus-
tomers, is turning personalized service into reality. Managers
can learn about individual customer behavior and develop tools
that consider customer heterogeneity and result in the offering
of individualized service.
Information technology increases interaction between the
company and the customer, increases market knowledge, and
assists segmentation, customization, and personalization. Com-
municating with customers has become easier with the advent
of the Internet and cell phones. Providing customers with in-
formation that might be useful for them and for the company
and personalizing products to attend to individual needs also
becomes easier. More than communicating with customers,
companies can now communicate with them at the individual
level, which may reduce information overload and aid customer
decisions (Ansari and Mela, 2003). Considering that response to
a firm's interventions is highly heterogeneous across customers
(Rust and Verhoef, 2005), individual-level communication is
relevant for marketing theory and practice.
Fragmentation of media is another significant consequence
of technology. In the 1960s three major television networks
dominated the market in the U.S., with popular programs
sometimes watched by over 50% of all American homes with
television (and 85% of those homes tuned to television at dinner
time to watch the news) (The State of the News Media, 2006).
At that time, obtaining wide reach by sponsoring a popular
program was relatively easy. By 1980, the three major networks
still owned 87% of the viewing audience, but in the 1990s that
percentage was reduced to 62% (Rust and Oliver, 1994). In
2003 the big-three networks accounted for only 29% of all
television viewing (Webster, 2005). Certainly, some of the
reduction seems to be a result of technology creating more
alternatives. Cable television arrived in 1980, expanding the
range of television choices to over 300 channels that compete
for the attention of the audience, distributing the mass audience
into smaller percentages per channel (Webster, 2005). Cable
penetration has eroded network viewing, fractioning audiences
and destroying the former network oligopoly (Krugman and
Rust, 1987, 1993). Consequently, television is not as effective a
mass medium as before. In some cases such as the Super Bowl
broadcast, reaching a substantial amount of the population is
still possible; however, in general, mass media do not exist on
the same scale as previously. As the economy advances in the
information and service era and personalization becomes more
critical, media will inevitably become even more fragmented.
Consequently, increasing efforts in terms of integrating com-
munication approaches to reach a considerable percentage of
the population of interest will become a necessity (Rust and
Oliver, 1994).
Through customization and personalization, technology
helps improve service and increase revenues. Nonetheless,
thus far businesses are paying attention mostly to the cost side,
focusing primarily on how to save money. There is empirical
evidence suggesting that the best way to achieve profitability is
not necessarily from cutting costs, but from improving revenues
through achieving higher levels of service quality and customer
 R.T. Rust, F. Espinoza / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072–1078
satisfaction (e.g., Rust et al., 2002). Even though Mittal et al.
(2005) show that the relationship between customer satisfaction
and long-term financial performance is positive for firms that
successfully achieve both cost reduction and revenue expan-
sion, research shows that attempting to emphasize both cost
reduction and revenue expansion simultaneously usually fails
(Rust et al., 2002). Although no company can neglect cost
reduction, firms that adopt primarily a revenue expansion strat-
egy through service quality and relationship management may
perform better than firms that emphasize cost reduction (Rust
et al., 2002).
2.3. Customer relationship management
Companies used to be primarily focused on the product and
on “low-cost mass production”. Because of the difficulties in
reaching and interacting with customers, companies were often
led to neglect building and cultivating relationships with their
customers. Relationship marketing has become feasible because
firms are now able to interact with individual customers and
process information much more efficiently than previously
(Grönroos, 1996; Varki and Rust, 1998). The emphasis on ser-
vice and on customers leads companies to focus on developing
approaches to build direct ties with customers (Grönroos, 1990,
1994), and examples are the establishment of complex wholesale
and retail structures, the sophisticated mix of communications
media, and the improvement of market segmentation models and
direct marketing strategies. This trend towards relationship
marketing is happening in part because information technology
gives the company the ability to customize its services and to
develop customer relationships (Rust, 2004). Research reflects
this paradigm, as increasingly research takes into consideration
the context of relationships (e.g., Woodside, 2005). In this con-
text, the ability to acquire, manage, and model customer informa-
tion is a key asset of the firm that can become a source of sustained
advantage (Hogan et al., 2002).
The new service economy works differently than the old
goods economy. The goods economy was focused on transac-
tions, attracting customers, and selling products; brand equity, a
product-centered concept, was the core of marketing manage-
ment. Considering that the typical customer does not reconsider
his/her choice of service provider (e.g., a bank) at every trans-
action, and maybe not even after a few transactions, the service
economy must instead focus on relationships, retaining cus-
tomers, delivering value to customers, and managing through
customer equity. Even though mass marketing may still exist,
the focus is increasingly on long-term customer relationships
(Rust et al., 2000), even in the goods sector.
Managers may wonder what the advantages of investing in
relationships with customers are and how they can justify this
investment. The ultimate goal of investing in relationships is to
initiate the chain of effects that projects and maximizes prof-
itability through customer equity. Businesses should allocate
their investments in the three factors that drive customer equity:
value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity (Rust et al.,
2004). Marketing investments produce improvements in the
drivers of customer equity, which lead to improvements in
1075
customers' perceptions and, consequently, in customer attrac-
tion and retention. These, in turn, increase customer lifetime
value, customer equity and, eventually, return on marketing
expenditures.
One of the main consequences of technology to customer
relationship management is the increased number of levels on
which businesses can interact with their customers to satisfy
their needs. Companies can interact with customers at the ag-
gregate level through offering service improvements and other
general improvements. At the segment level, companies can
achieve specific niches and offer tailored products and services
through mass customization (Pine et al., 1993). Finally, in-
teracting with customers at the individual level is possible
through CRM tools, direct contacts, and personalized goods and
services. The service revolution transformed customers into
“co-producers” (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), which can be ob-
served in the increase in self-service (e.g., self-service airport
check-in) (Meuter et al., 2003, 2005), the increase of and
emphasis on the “experience” of the consumer (e.g., IMAX
movie theaters), and the extended number of options to solve a
problem without interacting with employees (e.g., Internet
FAQ, automated call centers).
3. Technology and research methods
The consequences of technology advances such as the
Internet or scanner data for research in marketing were largely
unforeseen only a few decades ago. The use of computers in
marketing research began in the early 1960s and, since then,
innovative methods of data collection and analysis help re-
searchers to be more productive (Bucklin and Gupta, 1999). The
use of computers brings new sources of information, new uses
of advanced technology, and emphasizes speed and accuracy,
which together transform both managerial practice and aca-
demic research (Holbert, 1994), and provide opportunities for
solving marketing problems and developing more effective
marketing strategies.
The late 1980s and early 1990s was a period of transition for
marketing research. During that period, technologies such as
single-source data, integrated computer systems, software for
data collection and analysis, and powerful mathematical tools
for statistical analysis and modeling of marketing phenomena
came onto the scene (Stewart, 1991). With such explosive data
growth, technology has transformed marketing research into an
“information business” and major efforts have been done to
develop systems that make this amount of information
meaningful (Gold, 1992).
Technology is also at the basis of fundamental changes in the
business climate. First, technology is responsible for the return of
the individual to the focus of marketing strategy via the collection,
storage, and use of disaggregate information. Second, technology
offers a stronger support for managerial decision making.
Managers are now able to access data collected via observation
(rather than only through surveys), store data in dynamic research
systems, and transform data into knowledge more effectively.
Very specific segments of customers are located, sometimes,
down to the level of single individuals. To reach these segments,
1076 R.T. Rust, F. Espinoza / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072–1078
technology has made possible the use of novel channels of
distribution, promotional vehicles, and tailored messages. Certain
innovations in marketing research were at the foundation of this
shift. Some examples are geodemographic segmentation and the
identification of increasingly more specific segments, online
databases, real-time databases, and the delineation of new uses
of media such as direct mail for targeting individual customers
(Bult and Wansbeek, 1995).
Overall, today the service sector dominates most developed
economies, markets are highly segmented, customization and
personalization are becoming widespread, and companies are
increasingly investing in relationships with customers. More-
over, new data sources are emerging, for example, from Internet
surfing and purchases and experimental data such as eye-
tracking data (e.g., Pieters et al., 1999, 2002), while the de-
velopment of marketing management support systems facil-
itates decision making (Leeflang and Wittink, 2002). Given this
scenario, marketing research methods also require reinvention
(Shugan, 2004).
3.1. The consequences of technology for sampling, data
collection, and data analysis
Consumer panels first appeared in the 1950s when marketing
variables started not only to be measured but also to be tracked.
In the 1960s econometric and normative models emerged,
making research focus shift from description to understanding.
In this era “marketing research has learned the art of data
collection” (Sheth, 1971, p.13) and there were developments in
simulation, Markov models, game theory, time series, and
multivariate statistics. In the late 1970s single source data be-
came available through a combination of electronic tools such
as lasers scanners at checkout counters, television meters, and
computers that pool and retain information at these details of
aggregation (Smith, 1990). Single source data refer to elec-
tronically collected data (consumer purchase data, store data on
sales, prices and promotions, and manufacturer data on tele-
vision advertising and coupons) on packaged grocery products
that are provided by one single supplier (e.g., AC Nielsen). Data
can also be obtained through “loyal customer” cards containing
previously collected (and updated at each new purchase)
demographic data about individual shoppers. Scanners at
checkout provide retailers with an immediate record of sales
by product, currency amount, and other specific information. In
the early 1980s software that allows linking scanner data to a
precise vector of demographic factors (that might cause pur-
chase behavior) at the household level created a research
revolution. Single-source integrated systems have allowed a
considerable number of causal factors to be considered and
psychological constructs were supplemented by behavioral data
linked to causal factors (Smith, 1990).
Until recently, telephone surveys were a reasonably effective
way of achieving respondents (Sudman and Blair, 1999).
Nonetheless, technology has reduced the value of telephone
interviewing because of cell phones becoming the sole phone in
many households and because of increasing difficulties in
reaching householders at their home phones. The rising own-
ership of personal computers connected to the Internet creates a
new way to reach the general population. Internet surveys and
online focus groups (Reid and Reid, 2005) increasingly prop-
agate and provide researchers with a simple and relatively cheap
way of achieving a broader population (Dillman, 2000). In-
ternet-based transactions create large databases of information
about customers, their demographics, and their purchase habits.
As people make use of the Internet for personal communication,
research, shopping, and entertainment purposes, the tendency is
that more services are offered (such as cable television con-
verged with the Internet) and that the demand for these types of
services increases. As a consequence, people may be willing to
exchange information in electronic panels for “free” Internet
services, that is, they may be willing to allow companies to track
their behavior while surfing in the web or using, for example, a
free e-mail service. Using this system, data regarding key
variables of interest can be electronically captured and entered
into databases that allow tracking and cross-referencing. Such
cyber panels can help companies to focus on highly targeted
populations as they move toward highly segmented forms of
marketing (Sudman and Blair, 1999).
Advances in technology also cause the costs of computing
data to drop rapidly, which makes the process that starts with
data collection and includes storage, analysis, and finally re-
ports on customer profiles and behavior to become more
affordable. Efficient and cost-effective data-warehousing tech-
nology and data-mining techniques allow researchers to analyze
the growing information pool to get insights for targeting and
discriminating customers and eventually building relationships
with them. The costs of inputting information and generating
valuable databases are dropping, which makes the amount of
available information and the complexity of databases very
likely to increase even more in the next few years.
Even though the huge volume of data now available seems
to be good, the overwhelming amount of information creates a
demand for the development and application of new models and
methods to analyze them (Gold, 1992; Leeflang and Wittink,
2002). To conduct longitudinal research, for instance, research-
ers need the existence of longitudinal data, powerful compu-
tational methods to analyze the data, and a good and reliable
data storage system (Menard, 2002). Beginning in the 1970s,
there was a huge increase in the ability to use computational
methods, leading to a “multivariate revolution” (Sheth, 1971)
and an increase in the use of methods that were not used before
due to their complexity (e.g., Bayesian methods), especially in
the past 15 years (Rossi and Allenby, 2003). The applicability of
such models would not be possible without the availability of
detailed data sets for many products, access to appropriate
software and estimation methods, and sophistication on the part
of both the model builder and the model user (Leeflang and
Wittink, 2002).
The development of techniques that assist market segmen-
tation and market modeling such as automatic interaction
detector (AID), conjoint analysis, multidimensional scaling
(MDS), and canonical analysis allows the development of more
accurate models of segmentation, identifying more precise
segments (Beane and Ennis, 1987). Traditional clustering
 R.T. Rust, F. Espinoza / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1072–1078
procedures used to be based on the premise of exclusivity: each
customer would be classified as an element of only one segment
(Wind, 1978). The idea that consumers can belong to more than
a single segment or that brands may compete in a number of
subsets of brands was conceptually accepted a long time ago,
but was not technically feasible to model. Overlapping clus-
tering and fuzzy clustering procedures alleviate the restrictions
of traditional clustering (non-overlapping) and allow consumers
to belong to more than a single segment (Wedel and Steenkamp,
1991). Fuzzy clustering permits a less sharp boundary between
clusters because this technique uses membership degrees
between zero and one to each cluster, rather than a categorical
assignment to one cluster. The fuzzy latent class model (FLCM)
allows items to be either crisp (belong to one category) or fuzzy
(belong to multiple categories) (Varki et al., 2000). Another
method, the generalized fuzzy clusterwise regression (GFCR)
simultaneously allows consumers to belong to more than one
segment and brands to compete with different subsets of brands
on different benefits (Wedel and Steenkamp, 1991).
In the past 15 years, due to developments in computational
methods and the availability of detailed marketplace data, the
Bayesian approach has become widespread in marketing
research (Rossi and Allenby, 2003). Bayesian models facilitate
incorporating customer heterogeneity into marketing models
and offer guidance in decisions such as choosing explanatory
variables that maximize profits or choosing the best model or
information set for a given situation. Simulation methods (e.g.,
Markov Chain Monte Carlo) have allowed researchers to build
models using a sequence of conditional distributions (hierar-
chical models), giving much more flexibility to the models.
4. Conclusion
Marketing has entered a new era and mainstream marketing
in the new era focuses on offering services suited to the
customer and on the use of information to build relationships
with customers. Advances in information and communication
technology impact the way marketing is done and the way
research is conducted.
Marketing practice is centered on the customer now, rather
than on the product. Companies are investing in relationships
with their customers and offering value to customers through
high-quality service. The current role of marketing is to employ
its measurement and modeling skills to connect the customer to
the product, to financial accountability, and to service delivery
(Moorman and Rust, 1999), and to help the firm match its
knowledge and strategic assets to the markets that have the
greatest potential for maximizing customer equity (Hogan et al.,
2002). Because research in management must not only follow
market practice but also offer managerial insights to be applied
in practice and lead market trends, this “new” marketing gen-
erates new research topics. The future of research in business
seems to be tied to technological change. As the latter advances,
different tools and strategies are developed, and, consequently,
research is transformed.
Considering that information technology is the driver of the
shift toward service in the economy, we can predict with a high
1077
level of confidence that the focus on service will only intensify,
given that information technology will continue to advance.
Revolutionary technologies such as the Internet, cell phones or
the fiber optic network create a platform that allows commu-
nication in multiple ways. As communication becomes almost
instantaneous and companies and customers have the opportu-
nity to know a great deal about each other, offering service
becomes easier and less costly, and customer relationships
deepen. Increased computing capacity leads to unprecedented
customization ability, so as the service sector expands, goods
become more information-laden and tend to be differentiated
based on information and service.
In a nutshell, technology changes the implementation of
strategies and tactics in practice and increases firms' ability to
gather information about customers, allowing interactive
communication and supporting the development of relation-
ships. Technology changes research by providing researchers
with improved tools to study market data. Therefore, the fu-
ture of business research is intimately related to advances in
technology.
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