Search results

This study focuses on the use of export marketing information in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), an area that has previously attracted little academic research attention. It reports on the application of scales measuring instrumental/conceptual and symbolic export information use, using a random sample of UK exporters, to SME exporters of engineering and IT products. The results show that the scales are applicable within the specific context of the industrial SMEs surveyed and that levels of symbolic export information use are higher in these SMEs than in UK exporting companies as a whole. The latter is explained as a function of a shortfall in two areas: first, in available export marketing information, leading to greater dependence on “guesswork” and intuition; and second, in specialist marketing information‐processing skills on the part of SME export decision makers. The article concludes by appealing for an extension of export support for SMEs, to include the use of export information as well as simply its acquisition. It suggests that the scales tested here could be used both to diagnose the need for such SME support and to measure its effectiveness.

To test empirical relationships between export market information use and export knowledge and export performance.

Confirmatory factor analysis, using LISREL 8.50, based on a postal survey. The setting selected was the Norwegian seafood industry, mainly consisting of a number of small and medium‐sized firms with a strong export dependency.

The results indicate that “instrumental/conceptual” use of information positively affects both export knowledge and export performance, while “symbolic” use does not affect either. Export knowledge is found to have no direct influence on export performance in this study.

For generalisation purposes, longitudinal studies in multiple settings would be preferable to this cross‐sectional survey in a specific setting.

Firms accumulate knowledge and expertise by integrating and incorporating information that has been processed, interpreted and used. This study underscores the importance, for success in export markets, of a commitment to systematically generating, disseminating and responding to export market information. There are clear implications for the management of market intelligence and planning, to enhance the firm's performance.

Provides a better understanding of export market information use and its consequences, by integrating it with the concepts of export knowledge and export performance, and testing their structural relations.

Export information acquisition has mostly been examined disparately as researchers have tended to focus on certain modes of information acquisition independently of others. Furthermore, past studies have typically employed single‐item measures to operationalize information acquisition. The present study attempts to redress these deficiencies by considering a comprehensive set of export information acquisition modes and by developing psychometrically sound measures for each. The results show the adequacy of considering three broad export information acquisition modes (export marketing research, export assistance, and export market intelligence), each of which is operationalized by means of a multi‐item scale. The latter are shown to be reliable and to possess content, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.

Purpose – Despite the increasing use of formative measurement models in literature, little is known about potential consequences for substantive theory testing. Against this background, the aims of this chapter are (1) to highlight some problems that may arise when formative instead of reflective measures are used to test even simple theoretical models with covarianced-based methodologies, (2) to illustrate some approaches that might help overcome these problems, (3) to pinpoint potential interpretation difficulties of the results involving re-specified measurement models, and (4) to stimulate discussion on the implications for theory development when models are tested with formative measures.

Methodology/approach – Potential consequences of formative measurement models for theory testing are highlighted using an empirical study on consumer animosity as an illustrative example and applying covarianced-based structural equations modeling procedures for estimation purposes.

Findings – The empirical study shows (a) that some scaling options for the (composite) latent variable result in non-convergence problems, (b) that, assuming convergence, parameter estimates, standard errors, and significance levels vary depending on the scaling method used, and (c) that goodness-of-fit statistics cannot be used as diagnostic measures for the appropriateness of divergent results.

Originality/value of paper – The contribution of this chapter is two-fold: First, it shows that to enable estimation, it is often necessary to modify (i.e., expand) the original theoretical model in a conceptually reasonable manner and to do so before data collection. Second, it demonstrates that alternative scaling options for composite latent variables may result in inconsistent substantive conclusions. Consequently, the impact of formative measurement on theory testing is a critical topic and needs to receive further attention in future literature.

Building on prior research in organizational knowledge, learning, and memory, this paper suggests that export market knowledge may provide a deeper understanding of the relationships between export market information use and export performance. Specifically, a conceptual model is developed linking different dimensions of information use to different dimensions of organizational knowledge as well as to export performance. This is then used to generate research propositions that provide insights into how export market knowledge integrates with export market information use and affects export performance.

Sport teams not only compete with other teams for the ultimate prize but also for a share of customer mind space. For winning fan loyalty and resultant economic success, management of sport teams need to focus on team-branding, and thus, developing and measuring a team’s brand equity becomes essential, which is the core purpose of this paper.

Current work builds upon previous efforts to develop a reliable and, more importantly, a parsimonious sport team brand-equity (STBE) index, as opposed to the usual multi-dimensional reflective scales, too complicated and not of much use to practitioners.

The authors propose that the STBE index having eight indicators is enough to capture the full domain of the concept and provide a snapshot about the ability of a team’s administration to create strong emotional bonds with its fans.

Apart from demographics of the respondents, an important drawback is that the STBE index is from the perspective of television or online viewers and not those watching live in stadiums. This work contributes to extant sports brand equity literature by proposing a simpler scale made of casual variables, as opposed to reflective scales running into large number of similar items, a first of its kind in this domain. The authors also are able to forward the growing call for developing more of such scales through this effort.

Not only can the present scale be easily used by sport-marketers and researchers, it will be especially useful for marketing managers who want to associate their brands with sport teams, as it affects performance of their own brand.

The work represents a novel effort for developing a team-based brand equity and, to the authors’ knowledge, has not been attempted in this literature before.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

To explore the perceived attributes of export information quality provided by export assistance sources, in order to provide some guidelines for how these information suppliers can improve the quality of their offered information.

Twelve in‐depth personal interviews of export managers were used as the data collection method. The setting selected for this research is the Norwegian seafood industry, which mainly consists of a number of small and medium‐sized firms with a strong export dependency, and thus well positioned to address export‐specific issues.

Four service aspects are important: reliability (delivery within agreed deadline), responsiveness (rapid feedback and good communication flow), assurance (credibility and honesty) and empathy (able and willing to serve individual needs). Six aspects related to outcome are important: form and comparability (concrete, specific, precise, comparable and up‐to‐date), infrastructure (distribution, logistics and storage), general marketing (economics, trends and culture), specific marketing (detailed information regarding, e.g. price fluctuations, consumer preferences, distributor assessments, credit valuation), production/supply (volumes, quotas and availability) and regulatory framework (customs, market access and regulations).

These findings are not fit for generalizing purposes and future research could test these results in a quantitative study. Further, the effect of other variables such as firm size and export experience could be examined and linked with different dimensions of export market information use.

Suggestions for providers of export information on how to improve the process of supplying information to exporters and the type of information needed by exporters and how exporters can influence this process and results are provided.

This paper identifies attributes of export information quality as perceived by exporters and thus enables subsequent information quality measurements and information quality improvements.

Researchers often use partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate path models that include formatively specified constructs. Their validation requires running a redundancy analysis, which tests whether the formatively measured construct is highly correlated with an alternative measure of the same construct. Extending prior knowledge in the field, this paper aims to examine the conditions favoring the use of single vs multiple items to measure the criterion construct in redundancy analyses.

Merging the literatures from a variety of fields, such as management, marketing and psychometrics, we first provide a theoretical comparison of single-item and multi-item measurement and offer guidelines for designing and validating suitable single items. An empirical comparison in the context of hospitality management examines whether using a single item to measure the criterion variable yields sufficient degrees of convergent validity compared to using a multi-item measure.

The results of an empirical comparison in the context of hospitality management show that, when the sample size is small, a single item yields higher degrees of convergent validity than a reflective construct does. However, larger sample sizes favor the use of reflectively measured multi-item constructs, but the differences are marginal, thus supporting the use of a global single item in PLS-SEM-based redundancy analyses.

This study is the first to research the efficacy of single-item versus multi-item measures in PLS-SEM-based redundancy analyses. The results illustrate that a convergent validity assessment of formatively measured constructs can be implemented without triggering a pronounced increase in survey length.

The export‐pricing literature is characterized by a distinct lack of sound theoretical and empirical works. Of the marketing decision variables, pricing has received the least attention in research despite the continued identification of this issue as an important problem area for firms engaged in export marketing. Businesses competing internationally must develop an effective pricing strategy, as this is a critical factor in their operation. Globalization also requires that management coordinate prices across multiple export markets. Research is thus needed on the empirical relationship between an export‐pricing strategy (EPS) and the factors that influence this strategy, as well as the relationship between EPS and the performance of the export venture. A multidimensional conceptualization of export‐pricing strategy is proposed in order to integrate the various components of an EPS and link it with its antecedents. Theoretical insights and empirical findings from the general pricing literature, as well as executive insights from qualitative interviews, are connected with the conventional export‐pricing and strategy literature into an integrated model, and specific research propositions are offered for future cross‐industry empirical studies.