The Invalidity of Profit=F(Product Quality) PIMS Validation Of Marketing Games

Abstract

Research that purports to validate simulations should itself be valid. A current stream of research puts forth as game validation criteria “laws” drawn from the Profit Impact of Market Strategies (PIMS) project. One PIMS-based “law” is that the most important determinant of company performance is product quality. The present study invalidates that PIMS profit=f(product quality) criterion based on empirical findings from the PIMS project itself, PIMS companies being nonrepresentative, the ultimate infeasibility of simulating fundamental PIMS concepts and executions, and the invalidity in several vital respects of the methodology applying that invalid “validation” criterion.