This study explores the diversity of sales organizations and identifies organizational characteristics that contribute to customer selection aligned with business strategy and to promoting customer involvement in new product development. In recent BtoB markets, co-creation with customers is increasingly critical for competitive advantage, highlighting the importance of strategic sales. In Western contexts, strategic sales refers to an organization involved in strategic decision-making and value co-creation with selected customers, encroaching on strategic roles traditionally held by marketing. In Japan, however, “eigyo” often encompasses both marketing and sales functions, showing similarities to Western strategic sales. Previous studies on classifying sales organizations have assumed a traditional division between marketing and sales. However, given the evolving roles and strategic expansion of sales organizations, a more nuanced understanding of this spectrum is needed. Thus, this study conducts a cluster analysis using nine variables derived from prior research that reflect characteristics of strategic sales. The analysis identifies five distinct clusters.

This paper examines the effect of color schemes in brand logos on brand personality perception, and the effect of their congruence. In our research, brand logos were created using an analogous- (small hue difference) and complementary- (large hue difference) hue color scheme. Four experiments were conducted to test these color schemes. The results revealed three key findings. First, the brand personality perception was affected by the color scheme of the brand logo. Specifically, the use of an analogous-hue color scheme was associated with sophisticated brand personality, while a complementary-hue color scheme heightened exciting brand personality. Second, when the color scheme of the brand logo was aligned with brand personality, consumers heightened their brand attitude. Third, the mechanism underlying this relationship was identified as feeling right.

This study aims to elucidate consumer patterns in retail channel choice. Retail firms may generate synergistic benefits or face cannibalization when adopting multi-channel strategies. Meanwhile, consumers increasingly engage in multi-channel purchasing behavior. This research proposes a conceptual framework and classifies consumers based on the frequency of each channel choice. This classification facilitates the identification of distinct patterns in channel choice and enables an examination of differences between patterns across various consumer attributes.

While previous studies have primarily compared offline and online channel choices, this study refines that distinction and identifies patterns of consumer behavior in greater detail. The analysis reveals six distinct channel choice patterns: consistent, high-frequency, standard, supermarket-oriented, convenience store-oriented, and low-frequency. The findings indicate that consumer characteristics vary across these patterns. The results are further interpreted through the theoretical lens of synergy and cannibalization.

When a manufacturer enters an overseas market, an important decision-making issue is how to achieve the firm’s performance while adapting to the environment of the entry market. This study aims to present a theoretical framework, grounded in the optimal distinctiveness theory, to examine how manufacturers can combine channel strategies and product strategies to enhance firm performance in foreign markets, and to validate its empirical relevance. The optimal distinctiveness theory is a framework that argues firms can improve performance by orchestrating actions that acquire legitimacy, based on institutional theory, and those that achieve distinctiveness, based on competitive strategy framework. An empirical analysis targeting Japanese industrial products manufacturers indicates that when the competitive intensity in the target market is high and either the regulatory/normative distance or cultural distance is significant, enhancing both channel strategy legitimacy and product innovativeness leads to higher performance.