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The role of marketing as a business function is rapidly changing in China. Consequently, their views on marketing orientation – whether it is accepted, rejected, modified or reframed – have been seriously impacted. This paper aims to report on the results of a survey among Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers and their perceptions of the market-orientation philosophy. In particular, emphasis was placed on three dimensions of market orientation: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. The effect of market orientation on business performance was also examined.

The authors collected data from 214 managers from SMEs. These businesses were located in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The commonly used market orientation (MARKOR) measure was used to test the hypotheses.

Consistent with the extant literature, the findings provided empirical support for the three dimensions of market orientation among Chinese SME. The authors also found that a positive relationship existed between Chinese SME market orientation and firm performance.

This study provides major insights into the market orientation measurement and practices of SME in China. From a measurement perspective, the empirical support for MARKOR across a non-Western context is noteworthy. From a practitioner perspective, the implications relating to understanding Chinese SME and how these companies can best market their products and services to their respective markets are critical. Some of the limitations of our study relates to the sample size, convenience sampling and geographic concentration of the respondents.

This study addresses the gaps in the literature by exploring market orientation in non-large scale businesses as well as the adaptation of the concept in a non-Western cultural setting. The findings extend the conceptualization and application of market orientation to Chinese SME.

The purpose of this study is to identify challenges and derive options for stakeholder engagement of project partnerships for sustainable innovations in higher education institutions (HEIs).

Guided by Donabedian’s structure-process-outcome (SPO) model, our conceptual exploration focuses on understanding stakeholder experience and identifying stakeholder engagement options in different project phases. This research includes empirical data on sustainability expectations towards HEIs collected from 239 business students from the USA and Germany. The Kano method and factor analysis were used for data analysis.

This research suggests that balancing differences in stakeholder types and priorities, identifying and fulfilling key stakeholder expectations and addressing their resource limitations play a crucial role in the partnership’s structure stage. Adjustments for timing and forms of engagement, based on the stakeholder types and their expectations, are necessary during the process stage. Attaining stakeholder consensus on goal achievement and fostering trust and long-term commitment for sustainability are vital tasks in the outcome stage.

HEIs are advised to identify and assess stakeholders according to their anticipated inputs and contributions to the expected project outputs. They should consider adopting minimal thresholds of involvement and actively engaging key stakeholders, students, by demonstrating direct sustainability impacts.

This conceptual study adds value by enhancing the understanding of sustainable project partnerships in HEIs through the adoption of concepts from open innovation, service management and relationship management research. It illuminates the significance of stakeholder engagement and experience, including the management of expectations, thereby supporting HEIs in effectively implementing sustainability initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the robustness of the three (Bowersox and Daugherty, 1987) dimensions (process, market and information strategies) of logistics strategy in a Chinese manufacturing environment. In addition, the impact of the three dimensions, coordination and customer service on the organizational competitiveness of Chinese manufacturers firms is explored.

The authors conducted an online survey hosted at Sojump.com and disseminated to members of a manufacturing trade association. A total of 513 completed responses were generated. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were used to test the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model.

The findings suggest that the three dimensions of the Bowersox and Daugherty (1987) were relevant to the Chinese manufacturing environment. The authors also found that the overall logistics strategy measured by the three dimensions as well as coordination and customer service effectiveness positively influenced Chinese manufacturing firms’ competiveness.

Further research into logistics and supply chain management may benefit from expanding the understanding to include antecedents and moderating factors (e.g. competition, market turbulence and differences in business environment) into the model. Future studies on cross-cultural logistics/supply chain management logistics may benefit from the application of strategy-structure-process (SSP) approaches similar to those discussed in this manuscript.

This study attempted to provide a robust conceptual framework to increase the understanding of the role of logistics/supply chain management strategy and provide insights to managers seeking to improve firm competitiveness. An essential implication of the conceptual model presented in this manuscript is the dynamics of logistics strategy as a competitive tool.

The findings provide an understanding of how business and manufacturing are operating in various locations in China with opportunities for employment and socio-economic gain among the population of these geographic locations. Having employment can provide a better quality of life and assist the community in developing its opportunities for other groups.

As the current Chinese administration seeks to achieve its goal of generating higher value-added production through its “Made in China 2025” initiative, the results the authors represent are quite timely and insightful. Examining manufacturing firms’ logistics strategies (i.e., OLS), coordination and customer service could provide state planners (SOEs) and/or privately owned Chinese manufacturers insights on how to move closer towards their aforementioned goal and achieve global competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Turkish students’ perceived relevance of Facebook, the value of Facebook advertisements and the ethics of Facebook targeting users with advertisements.

Latent class cluster analysis is estimated to determine whether segments exist and whether covariates differ among segments.

Segments differ on Facebook relevance and advertisement targeting ethics and usefulness and the covariates gender, hours spent on Facebook during the week and personality. The segment that finds Facebook most relevant and uses it the most disapproves of Facebook’s targeted advertisements. Facebook is an organization that relies heavily on advertising dollars for survival. This fact should be emphasized; otherwise, Facebook may not be able to sustain itself.

The paper provides an understanding of Facebook from a marketing perspective for a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

The decade from 2000 until 2010 was a turbulent time for Toyota Motor Company. The carmaker came under significant criticism from the United States government, consumers throughout the world, and media critics amid allegations of poor quality control and vehicle safety concerns. Problems with accelerators and brake systems were found on several of its most popular models, a situation initially exacerbated by the slow and somewhat tentative response from top management. Toyota was accused of not addressing early warning signs that appeared several years before the crisis received intense negative publicity. Toyota struggled to retain the confidence of consumers and governmental regulators, eventually recalling approximately eight million automobiles.

In the globalization age, with worldwide increases in dual income households, decision‐making has become more difficult and even more important than in the past. In this article, a five‐countries cross ‐ cultural comparisons of husband and wife decision‐making roles in the purchase of various goods and services in unlike environments is presented. Despite substantial cultural variation, there are surprisingly high degrees of similarities in family purchasing decision roles among the five countries. This study provides insights for managerial and public policy makers on the implications of cross‐cultural similarities and differences in consumer decision‐making.

This manuscript aims to empirically examine logistics strategy in Guatemalan firms and compare the findings to recent research into logistics strategy research of USA firms.

Data on logistics strategies and logistics outcomes were gathered from Guatemalan logistics managers and then compared with empirical data gathered from US logistics managers.

While the fundamentals of logistics strategy in Guatemala were similar to those of USA firms, it was found that Guatemalan logistics managers place somewhat less importance on process strategy but greater importance on market strategy and information strategy to achieve logistics coordination effectiveness, customer service commitment, and organization competitive responsiveness. Possible reasons for these differences include culture and size of the economy.

The results suggest that logistics strategies in different countries may be affected by differences in culture, the size of an economy, and possibly other considerations.

These findings should be considered as a point of departure for those conducting research into cross‐cultural logistics and supply chain management strategies.

This paper aims to investigate the link between market orientation and performance of US and Taiwanese small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). This study is primarily centred on empirically investigating two issues: test the effectiveness of MARKOR (a widely used market orientation measure developed by Kohli et al.) in US and Taiwanese SME contexts, and investigate the factors influencing US and Taiwanese SMEs’ performance.

This study's participants were owners or managers from 138 SMEs located in three states in the USA (i.e. Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania) and 151 SMEs located in Taiwan. A survey was created to collect data: market orientation scale items used in this survey were mainly adopted from MARKOR; performance scale items were adopted directly from previous studies. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data collected.

This study finds that neither US and Taiwanese SMEs’ intelligence generation, nor intelligence dissemination had a significant relationship with their firm performance. However, the findings do indicate that there was a significantly positive link between US and Taiwanese SMEs’ responsiveness and their firm performance.

In almost all previous studies in this field, the primary emphasis has focused on the market orientation of large businesses. Research on market orientation in SMEs has been scarce. Hence, this paper contributes to the extant literature by changing the research direction and studying market orientation in SME context. In addition, this paper provides SME managers with a more understandable guide to specific market‐oriented activities.

The purpose of this manuscript is to empirically compare logistics strategies in Chinese and US manufacturing firms and the outcomes of these strategies to test the underlying factor structure and measurement equivalences of Bowersox/Daugherty model and its relationship with critical success factors.

A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from Chinese and American logistics managers. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the authors compared the three dimensions of the overall logistics strategy (OLS) – process strategy, market strategy, and information strategy – in two countries. A structural equation model (SEM) was then used to assess the impact of OLS on perceived competitiveness in two countries.

Although the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the two countries differed substantially, the findings were similar. Data from both countries provided strong support for the three dimensions of overall logistic strategy (OLS). In addition, it was found that OLS, when combined with logistics coordination effectiveness (LCE) and customer service effectiveness (CSE), contributes to organizational effectiveness (COMP).

This research provides insights into comparative logistics in two large disparate economies and provides support for the Bowersox/Daugherty logistics/supply chain management typology.

This manuscript provides insights into comparative logistics/supply chain management that have not been previously reported through empirical research.