Beta golf harvard business

Harvard Business School: This solution includes: A Word File. Beta Group was founded in by Bob Zider, and the company received a. Beta Golf Case Solution, The Beta Group is a technology incubator in Menlo Park, CA, which successfully built a portfolio of companies in the medical. beta, and leveraging. 50, first printing. Read golf, poorly concealed loathing of corporate life, knowledge of ancient Greek. (MBA) program of the. Roberts, Harvard Business School Howard H. Stevenson, Beta golf harvard business Business School Case Beta Golf Case Zipcar: Refining the Business Model Case

Introduction

Current Stock:. Quantity: Want to buy more than 1 copy. Buying for your team. See quantity pricing. This is a copyrighted PDF. Add copies before sharing with your team. Product : Pages: Summaries and excerpts of the latest books, special offers, and more from Harvard Business Review Press.

Sign up. This Product Also Appears In. See quantity pricing. This is a copyrighted PDF. Add copies before sharing with your team. Product : Pages: Summaries and excerpts of the latest books, special offers, and more from Harvard Business Review Press. Sign up.

This Product Also Appears In. Related Products. View Details. Beta golf harvard business By Rajiv Lal , Edith D. Technologies like VR, which allow consumers to explore and experience products in various contexts, exemplify this dimension Heller et al. Launch monitor technology similarly increases decision convenience by allowing consumers to test and evaluate different equipment inside the store.

Using a mobile phone to scan quick response QR codes for detailed product information improves benefit convenience. Similarly, launch monitor technology enhances benefit convenience by providing detailed performance data to help consumers visualize the outcome and benefits of using certain golf equipment.

Apart from convenience, social presence is crucial for enhancing consumer experience and achieving desirable outcomes Grewal et al. Social presence can be induced through i engagements with the device itself e. We argue that launch monitor technology promotes social presence through the first two means. First, it allows consumers to interact with the machine itself to view and analyze their performance, creating a sense of interacting with a knowledgeable golf expert Leach et al.

Second, the in-store use of launch monitor technology necessitates a salesperson to guide the process, provide feedback and suggestions, and even share their own passion for golf. These verbal and body interactions may facilitate human connections and foster a sense of community.

Consequently, the combined interaction with both the machine and salespeople can enhance social presence during the use of launch monitors. Drawing on the preceding discussion, launch monitor technology exemplifies an in-store technology that offers high convenience and social presence. Such technologies have the potential to draw consumers, promote engagement, and ultimately produce more favorable outcomes than scenarios lacking these technologies Grewal et al.

To test whether the technological sales approach using launch monitors can achieve desirable outcomes for golf shops, this study uses the Foote, Cone, and Belding FCB Model as a guiding framework to select measurable outcomes. The FCB model is a significant contribution to advertising and retailing research, suggesting that consumers navigate cognitive, affective, and behavioral stages when making purchase decisions Vaughn , These stages often interact with one another and are integral parts of the shopping process.

Consequently, we hypothesize that:. Additionally, as women become an increasingly influential demographic in the golf industry, it is essential for researchers to better understand their specific needs and preferences as consumers NGF , ; L. These potential gender-based differences are important for golf retailers seeking to cater to a diverse consumer base and foster an inclusive environment L.

A deep understanding of how launch monitor technology impacts male and female golf consumers can guide effective marketing strategies. For instance, if responses to this technology vary by gender, additional qualitative research should explore the reasons behind these differences and retailers may need to tailor their sales approaches accordingly.

Therefore, it is not just academically interesting, but also business-critical, to investigate whether men and women perceive the use of launch monitor technology differently in the sales process. Based on these considerations, we hypothesize that:. This quasi-experimental study has six consumer background variables that could not be controlled through sample randomization.

Instead, we will control for these potential confounding variables through statistical analyses. Golfer Age. Golf is a sport that appeals to all ages Sorbie et al. As of , the age group was the largest consumer segment with 6. This study identifies the age of golfers as a potential confounding variable, in line with current golf industry research conducted by organizations such as the NGF.

Consumer Expertise. Johnson and Russo suggested that familiarity with a product category can lead to three forms of consumer expertise: superior knowledge of available alternatives, superior ability to process new information, and superior ability to distinguish relevant and irrelevant information. The Salesperson. Due to the constraints of the business environment, random assignment of participants to the technological or traditional sales groups was impractical.

To address this issue, six covariates were statistically controlled: consumer age, golf experience, golf ability skill level , perceived salesperson attributes, familiarity with golf equipment, and familiarity with launch monitor technology. This is a common practice in quasi-experimental studies when it is not possible to physically control confounding variables Shpitser et al.

By controlling for these covariates, we were able to estimate the causal effects of the treatments more accurately and make causal inferences. This study was conducted at a retail golf shop in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and involved consumers who were at least 18 years old and willing to participate on a voluntary basis.

The target population for the study was frequent and avid golfers, as opposed to beginner or novice players. A total of participants were included in the sample, which was collected over a period of seven days. Data for this study was collected via a survey instrument that was adapted from a review of relevant literature.

The first section of the questionnaire collected socio-demographic information including gender, ethnicity, household income, USGA golf handicap, golf experience, and age, using multiple-choice format. The questions and answer choices were designed based on the previous research of Braunstein and Zhang , Cianfrone and Zhang , and NGF The study utilized ten items adapted from Kent and Allen to measure covariates like familiarity with golf equipment and launch monitor technology.

Perceived salesperson attributes were assessed using a six-item scale adapted from Darley et al. All items used a 7-point Likert scale with anchor adjectives illustrating the concept. Consumer learning was gauged using five items adapted from Cianfrone et al. The shopping experience was measured using five items adapted from Bagdare and Jain and Pine and Gilmore , while satisfaction was evaluated via five items derived from Angelova and Zekiri and Hansemark and Albinsson Behavioral intention was assessed using five questions from Cronin et al.

All items utilized a 7-point Likert scale with anchor adjectives illustrating the concept. The last measure was actual purchasing behavior, with consumers reporting their total purchase amount, if any. In addition to using the literature as the primary guideline to assess the content validity, the formulated questionnaire was submitted to a panel of three experts with expertise in sport marketing research and practice.

The panel members reviewed each item in the questionnaire for relevance, representativeness, and clarity in the context of the specified concept. They provided suggestions for minor wording improvements and approved all items with respect to the three aspects of content validity. A pilot study involving 30 golfers at a local driving range was conducted to evaluate our questionnaire and familiarize ourselves with the quasi-experimental procedures.

Participants were eligible if they had purchased golf equipment in the past two years. After consenting, they were asked to reflect on their recent golf retail experience and complete the questionnaire. To examine the content validity of the measures, open-ended questions were included after each concept e. Golf british open 2019 betting odds Using SPSS Version 26, item-total correlation coefficients were calculated for each item within a concept, all exceeding the.

This exceeded the recommended cut-off criterion of. Based on these results, minor improvements were made to the wording of a few items to enhance their clarity. Overall, the pilot study demonstrated that our questionnaire and procedures were appropriate for the proposed quasi-experimental study.

The study was conducted at this shop, which has approximately 13, square feet of retail space and two Trackman 4 equipped hitting bays. Customers were invited to participate in a brief questionnaire upon entry, with data collected over a span of seven days from most of the customers. Participants were requested to complete a two-part questionnaire; the first part prior to their shopping experience and the second part afterwards.

The first half contained 16 questions related to socio-demographic information and familiarity with golf equipment and launch monitor technology. The second half, completed post-shopping, consisted of 27 questions across six constructs: consumer learning, shopping experience, salesperson attributes, consumer satisfaction, intention to buy or recommend, and actual purchase amount.

A total of participants completed the item questionnaire covering nine factors. As the study was conducted during the COVID pandemic, measures were taken to follow social distance regulations and ensure participant safety. All data was collected outside the entrance to the store at a table set up in an open location. No more than two participants were allowed to complete the questionnaire simultaneously, and each questionnaire was presented on a clipboard with a new, single-use pencil.

Clipboards were disinfected after each use. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all socio-demographic, covariant, and dependent variables across both quasi-experimental groups i. Despite preliminary construct validity checks during the pilot study, we further examined the unidimensionality of each concept. To do so, we conducted a factor analysis with principal component extraction and varimax rotation for items within each concept Williams et al.

We followed the guideline of using an eigenvalue equal to or greater than 1. Items were retained if they had a factor loading of. Finally, using the factor scores, we conducted a 2x2 factorial MANCOVA to examine differences in mean vector scores of consumer learning, shopping experience, consumer satisfaction, purchase intention, and actual expenditure amount between the technological and traditional sales group and between genders, while controlling for the identified covariates.

A total of shoppers voluntarily participated in the study, with Most of the participants The sample was predominantly composed of avid golfers, as Most of the dependent variables e. Every covariate and dependent variable had KMO values above the recommended threshold of.

Using an eigenvalue threshold of 1. As a single factor was extracted, a rotation was not needed, and the scree plot Cattell , confirmed unidimensionality. All items within each concept were retained based on a factor loading of. Alpha reliability coefficients ranged from. In conclusion, all concepts demonstrated acceptable factor validity and internal consistency reliability, making the data suitable for hypothesis testing.

Factor scores were then calculated for each variable and used in further analyses. The original data were later used for the three other covariate variables golf experience, golf skill level, and age and one other dependent variable actual purchase expenditure amount , which were observed variables.

Table 4 outlines descriptive statistics for both covariate and dependent variables across experimental groups and genders. Beta golf harvard business Unadjusted comparisons between the technological and traditional sales groups reveal significant increases in all dependent variables, with the most marked changes in consumer learning and expenditure amount. This implied that implementing launch monitor technology in the sales process significantly impacted overall consumer behavior.

However, the study failed to support Hypotheses 2 and 3. Some golf equipment retailers have recently adopted a technological sales approach that uses launch monitor technology as the focal point for nearly every equipment sales transaction. However, no academic studies have been conducted to quantify the effect of launch monitors on golf consumers.

This quasi-experimental study sought to bridge this gap, comparing sales procedures using launch monitors with those that do not and investigating potential differences in buyer behavior between genders. Our findings suggest that launch monitor technology can impact consumers at every purchasing stage. We found that these covariates did influence the model, but their effects were minimal outside of salesperson attributes.

This finding aligns with previous research emphasizing the impact of perceived salesperson attributes on consumer behavior Darley et al. This result highlights the importance of hiring and training salespeople who demonstrate attributes such as honesty, sincerity, and a positive consumer-focused attitude. In the context of golf equipment sales, it also suggests that golf retailers should employ trained salespeople with advanced knowledge in golf, human kinetics, and data analytics to increase short-term and long-term profits.

One of the most important findings of this study was the conclusive empirical evidence that using launch monitor technology significantly increases golf equipment purchasing behaviors among consumers. Our results showed that the use of launch monitor technology in the sales process resulted in a Furthermore, this enhancement was observed across all three stages of the purchasing process.

This study used the construct of consumer learning to measure the cognitive stage in the purchasing process. We found that the use of launch monitor technology in the sales process improves consumer learning i. This finding is consistent with previous research showing that in-store technologies such as augmented reality AR and virtual reality VR can create an interactive shopping environment and positively impact product learning Jung et al.

We posit that, like AR and VR, launch monitors offer an interactive environment that enhances consumer learning experiences by providing instant feedback on ball flight and club movement parameters after each swing. A closer examination of the survey completion rate suggests that the increase in consumer learning may be even more significant than our model results indicate.

Of the participants, 22 did not respond to the five items in the consumer learning scale, all of whom did not use launch monitor technology during their shopping experience. This suggests that the analytical data produced by launch monitors enables retailers to add a valuable educational element to the sales process, which is unlikely without a launch monitor.

The study used the constructs of shopping experience and consumer satisfaction to measure the affective stage of consumers in the golf shop. The results indicated that using launch monitors in the sales process significantly improved the shopping experience i.

Participants who used the technology rated their experience as more enjoyable, unique, memorable, engaging, and educational than those who did not. This conclusion is reinforced by the high ratings both traditional and technological sales groups gave to salespeople attributes in the questionnaire, indicating that consumers can be satisfied with salespeople irrespective of the use of launch monitors.

It was found that the use of launch monitor technology in the sales process led to an increase in purchase expenditure amount i.