Robert Winsor, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration | Loyola Marymount University

Los Angeles , CA, UNITED STATES

Biography

You can contact Robert Winsor at Robert.Winsor@lmu.edu.

Robert Winsor is a professor of marketing and business law at Loyola Marymount University. He earned a Ph.D. in marketing and management from USC, and has taught at UCLA, University of Alabama and USC. Dr. Winsor has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a wide variety of business topics including pricing, competitive strategy, business ethics, franchising and marketing theory. His research has been published in the top marketing and entrepreneurship journals, and has been frequently cited in both academic and industry outlets. Dr. Winsor has experience in the retail and wholesale industries, and has advised a number of both large and small companies on marketing and management topics. He has received multiple teaching awards including the LMU President’s Fritz B. Burns Teaching Award, and was named by the Princeton Review as one of the “Best 300 Professors” and one of the top three marketing professors in the country.

Education (3)

USC: Ph.D., Marketing and Management 1989

Claremont McKenna College: B.A., Psychology 1983

University of La Verne: B.A., Business Administration 1982

Areas of Expertise (5)

Branding

Business History

Franchising

Pricing

Competitive Strategy

Industry Expertise (6)

Advertising/Marketing

Consumer Services

Supermarkets Food Retail and Distribution

Retail

Market Research

Consumer Goods

Articles (11)

Improving Student Presentation Skills Using Asynchronous Video-Based Projects

Journal of Management Education

Aidin Namin, Seth C. Ketron, Velitchka D. Kaltcheva, Robert D. Winsor

2021-01-08

Given the central role that excellent presentation skills plays in management, methods for better developing these skills represent an important area of focus in business education. Rapidly evolving distributed (distance) technologies have compelled businesses to reimagine practices in most areas, and presentations are no exception. In the present study, we examine the potential advantages of video presentations—not from the perspective of the audience, but rather from the perspective of the student as immersed in the process of developing individual presentation skills. We crafted a course project where students collaborate to create a video presentation, replacing a more traditional in-class presentation. To test the effectiveness of this new approach, we conducted a study in which measures from multiple course sections using either the new video creation approach or the traditional presentation approach were compared. For the former, we found a significant improvement in students’ presentation skills on five dimensions (central message, supporting material, language, organization, and delivery) as evaluated with the authoritative Oral Communication VALUE Rubric developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. We describe the project and the study, and end the article with lessons learned and recommendations for expanding the project’s applications to other courses.

An Integrative Framework of Buyer-Supplier Negative Relationship Quality and Dysfunctional Interfirm Conflict

Journal of Business to Business Marketing

2016-09-22

Problems of relationship quality and interfirm conflict in business-to-business settings are serious concerns that need to be addressed. Thus, the authors have engaged in an extensive review to promote an understanding of these complex issues. This article develops an integrated framework for analyzing wide-ranging relations between individual representatives and patterns of interfirm incompatibility for managerial control. The article outlines a causal chain from interpersonal agent dissimilarities to dysfunctional buyer–supplier relations, and provides concrete indicators that operationally define ideas and enable or improve measurement for empirical modeling.

Knowledge and Skills Transfer between MBA and Workplace

Journal of Workplace Learning

2015-06-07

This paper uses goal-setting theory to explain the transfer of knowledge and skills between master of business administration (MBA) and the workplace. Using an online survey of MBA students enrolled in at four US graduate business schools, this research shows that multiple goals of reciprocal knowledge and skills transfer may bein harmony and mutually reinforcing. In principle, each goal is more likely to be attained with greater economy of effort than might be surmised. Additionally, the same forces may act similarly to facilitate attainment of two well-integrated goals, in this case transfer between MBA studies and work, as well as between work and MBA studies.

How Important Are Different Socially Responsible Marketing Practices? An Exploratory Study of Gender, Race, and Income Differences

Journal of Consumer Marketing

2014-10-03

This paper examines the importance consumers place on various types of socially responsible marketing practices, and whether the level of importance varies by gender, race, and consumers' income. A survey was designed that asked subjects their attitudes toward the various social marketing practices that were uncovered through an analysis of recent literature from ABI-Inform, Fordham University's Center for Positive Marketing and focus groups. The survey was administered to 232 subjects and included information regarding race, gender, and income. Survey results were analyzed using latent class analysis (LCA). The results of the LCA were used to develop a correspondence analysis map.

The Regulation of Dietary Supplements Within The United States: Flawed Attempts At Mending A Defective Consumer Safety Mechanism

Journal of Consumer Affairs

2013-07-02

The use of dietary supplements in the United States has escalated in the past decade, driven by the public's desire to exert control over their health and by the mistaken belief that the safety of dietary supplements is assured by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In fact, the marketing of largely unregulated supplements presents significant risks to public health.

The Impact of Sales Promotions on Customer Price Comparisons

Journal of Business Research

2013-07-01

Retailers implementing the Hi–Lo or promotional-pricing strategy frequently offer temporary price promotions to attract customers to the store. For this strategy to be financially successful, however, the store must entice bargain seekers to purchase non-discounted merchandise. Because regular prices at Hi–Lo retailers, as a rule, substantially exceed those of EDLP competitors, customers engaging in price comparisons across stores may perceive that a Hi–Lo retailer's regular (non-discounted) prices are excessive relative to competitors' prices and therefore will be less likely to make purchases at the regular Hi price. Given the potentially harmful effects of across-store price comparisons for Hi–Lo retailers, this exploratory research examines whether some forms of price promotion may be relatively more effective at discouraging consumers from comparing a retailer's non-discounted prices to those at competing stores.

Manifest Conflict and Conflict Aftermath in Franchise Systems: A Ten-Year Examination

Issue Journal of Small Business Management Journal of Small Business Management

2012-10-07

Conflict within interorganizational relationships has been demonstrated to impair the mechanisms by which cooperation results in mutually beneficial outcomes for partners. The focus of this research is upon the landmark legal battle that occurred within the Meineke franchise organization in the 1990s—a case that includes a potentially devastating demonstration of manifest conflict encompassing overtly opportunistic behavior, contentious class-action litigation, and a demoralizing reversal of a half-billon dollar verdict. In a study spanning a 10-year period within the Meineke organization, the effects of conflict on franchisee satisfaction and compliance are revealed to be long-lasting and substantial. Using path analysis and mediation tests, we examine both the immediate and long-term impacts of manifest conflict on channel partner perceptions. We find that episodes of manifest conflict can, through the increased salience of this conflict, have long-lasting negative impacts on franchisee satisfaction with the relationship and willingness to comply with franchisor regulations, even when the original conflict was remediated in a manner that yielded highly positive outcomes to the aggrieved parties. As a result, our study provides unique and valuable insights to the understanding of franchises and other forms of interorganizational relationships.

Do Customer Relationships Mitigate or Amplify Failure Responses?

Journal of Business Research

2013-04-03

Service failures can have a damaging impact on company profitability. Prior research demonstrates that robust relationships with customers may mitigate the negative impact of a service failure on behavioral outcome variables, such as repatronage intentions and word-of-mouth. Yet other research finds that customer relationships may actually intensify this negative impact on word-of-mouth and complaining. In earlier research, customers' relationships with service marketers are conceptualized as a uni-dimensional construct ranging from a low level of intensity to high intensity. This research demonstrates that a two-dimensional conceptualization of customers' relationships with service marketers—the Personality-Relatedness and Reciprocity (PRR) framework (Kaltcheva and Parasuraman, 2009)—can account for the seemingly discrepant results in the literature. This article leads to the formulation of a framework—the PRR-Failure Control framework—that links customer relationship strategies to failure control solutions.

A Model of Trust and Compliance in Franchise Relationships

Journal of Business Venturing

2011-05-12

Despite the danger of franchisee non-compliance as a severe impediment to overall franchise operation and performance, there is currently minimal understanding of the key factors that lead to these behaviors. Using a foundation of relational exchange theory, we construct and test a model that demonstrates how two distinct forms of trust, based upon perceptions of franchisor integrity and franchisor competence, are critical to explaining the roles that relational conflict and satisfaction play in influencing franchisee compliance. Implications of these findings are then demonstrated to have compelling relevance to the effective management of franchise systems.

An Empirical Examination of The Rule of Three: Strategy Implications for Top Management, Marketers, and Investors

Journal of Marketing

2010-03-09

This study represents the first empirical examination of the “Rule of Three,” a theory at odds with several popular notions regarding industry structure and business performance, including the positive linear market share–performance relationship. In general, the findings from more than 160 industries support the Rule of Three and provide five main insights: First, there appears to be a prevalent competitive structure for mature industries in which three “generalist” firms control the market. Second, industries that conform to this structure tend to perform better than industries with a fewer or greater number of generalists. Third, both “specialists” and generalists outperform firms that are “stuck in the middle.” Fourth, the performance benefits of market leadership appear to diminish with excessive market share. Fifth, the Rule of Three industry structure and its influence over firm profitability do not appear to be priced appropriately by financial markets. The authors discuss the implications for multiple stakeholders. (This article was the Runner-Up Finalist for the 2010 MSI/H. Paul Root Award for the Best Article in the Journal of Marketing, and Runner-Up Finalist for the 2010 Maynard Award for the Best Article in the Journal of Marketing)

The Impact of Customers’ Relational Models on Price-Based Defection

Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice

2010-01-01

Retailers that cannot or do not wish to compete on price face the formidable task of trying to retain customers while charging higher prices for equivalent merchandise. Prior research demonstrates that in the face of competitive price threats, developing relationships with customers may be effective in discouraging customer defection. Yet the cultivation of customer relationships may require a considerable resource commitment or run the risk of infringing upon customers' relationship preferences. Results from a study we conducted demonstrate that the appropriateness of different relationship strategies as a deterrent of customer defection is contingent upon the intensity of the threat from price competition. More resource-intensive relational strategies may be needed to ensure customer retention in the face of severe price competition. (Winner of the Best Paper Award, 2010, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.)