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This study aims to address the relevance of the mediating role of the relative absorptive capacity (ACAP-R) in the relation between absorptive capacity and innovation, contributing to a better understanding of innovation in a business network. Participants’ firms in this study are part of the supply network of an automotive cluster.

The study is developed in 225 companies that are part of the supply network of an automotive cluster in Mexico. A survey was applied to key firm informants who had been involved on processes of innovation, quality or continuous improvement. During data analysis, structural equation modeling was implemented with the support of SmartPLS 3.0 to understand the mediation role of relative absorptive capacity as a novel insight of innovation in a Mexican cluster.

The results demonstrate the partial mediator role of the ACAP-R among the absorptive capacities and the level of innovation of the companies that make up the network studied. The findings represent an approach to the understanding of one of the key dynamic capacities in the innovation process and, thus, to the competitiveness of organizations, which has scarcely been studied from the perspective of business networks.

The limitations of the research focus on the fact that the source of information in the surveys comes, in most cases, from the opinion of a key informant per unit surveyed, which is why there is a certain margin of subjectivity that could be reduced if there is more than one source of information in the same organization. It is also considered important that the information offered by the suppliers could be complemented by the opinion of clients. This would provide a more complete view of the circularity of information involved in inter-organizational exchanges.

The findings provide useful insights not only in terms of understanding the link between absorptive capacity and innovation, but also how to improve levels of innovation through knowledge exchanges that occur during the participation of suppliers and customers in a business network. Firms with high levels of ACAP are more likely to recognize the opportunity to benefit from external knowledge and to participate intensely in collaborative efforts. That is, technological similarity or similar knowledge base between source or recipient firms impacts their innovation.

Societal changes and technological development have brought about drastic lifestyle change in the past decades. This drastic change is evident when comparing the lifestyle and general characteristics of generations who have been born immersed in this technological context to those of other generations. The objective of this paper is to analyze brand image (BI) as determinant of brand attitude (AB), and the moderating effect of brand equity (BE), in the use of online information among millennial shoppers from Colombia. In general, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to existing literature related to the importance of generational membership in classifying individuals regarding brand perception (BI, AB and BE) and association with the use of shopping channels between different generations.

A hierarchical regression model is estimated with a sample of university students in Colombia who are considered potential coffee consumers, and who were classified as millennials based on their age.

The results support that BE effect has a greater impact on AB when consumers have a good BI. Millennials also use more online communication sources to create brand perceptions.

Nevertheless, few studies have concurrently analyzed the characteristics of brand building and types of sources of information (online vs offline). This paper attempts to analyze the behavior of millennial consumers and the use of information channels online vs offline to manage brand and analyze BI, AB and BE.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which social media competence (SMC) determines exporting companies’ actual adoption of social media applications, which eventually might impact these firms’ performance. Quantitative study where data were collected through a web-based survey addressed to Spanish exporters. SEM is employed for testing the hypotheses. SMC has an influence on the firm’s actual use of these social media applications, which in turn has an impact on the firm’s performance. However, the intention to use social media applications mediates the relationship between the firm’s SMC and its social media usage.

Value co-creation is an important topic of interest in marketing domain for the past decade. Co-creation via the internet has received a particular attention in the literature (O’Hern and Rindfleisch, 2010). Although there have been substantive number of studies of what motivates customers to participate in value co-creation in the internet-based platforms, there is a lack of research of what the deterrents are that may prevent customers from contributing their ideas online. This research was undertaken to define the deterrents from the customers and companies’ point of view. Furthermore, the difference, if exists, between the users’ and marketing professionals’ ranking of the inhibitors to co-creation online is also studied.

This exploratory qualitative research is based on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with customers and 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with marketing specialists from different companies. Spearman’s rank correlation is applied to explore the relationship between the internet users’ and marketers’ responses.

There are nine constraining factors. The results show that although there is a repetition of the mentioned constraining factors indicated by the both groups of the interviewees, the ranking of the barriers is distinctive.

New conceptual information is received on what restrains customers from co-creation from both customers’ and companies’ point of view.

This paper explains the potential problems to be confronted when launching a co-creation project in the internet-based platforms and offers managers a preliminary guide to comprehension of the users’ deterrents rating.

The paper that defines deterrents to co-creation online.

This paper fills a gap in the literature on branding, as local and glocal brands have not received as much attention as global brands from academics and practitioners and the scarce amount of relevant research done on glocal branding strategies is mainly theoretical or conceptual.

This paper therefore defines a model relating brand beliefs (brand quality, brand image, brand familiarity and brand as a social signalling value), brand attitudes and brand purchase intentions. The model is then tested with a sample of different categories/types of consumer brands (local, global and glocal). The influence of the type of brand on these relationships is then analysed.

The findings suggest that brand quality is the most important driver of brand attitude for any type of brand, and that the relationship between brand quality and brand attitude, as well as between brand attitude and brand purchase intention, is weaker for a glocal brand than for a local or global brand.

This paper provides new empirical evidence of the influence of brand type on brand associations and attitude configurations and the effects these attitudes have on buying intentions. This work is also relevant for the managers’ efforts to develop more effective global, glocal and local marketing strategies for brand positioning.

El presente trabajo persigue contribuir a la literatura sobre marcas al tratar sobre las marcas locales y las marcas glocales, puesto que éstas han estado menos estudiadas que las marcas globales.

Definimos un modelo que relaciona las creencias de marca (la calidad de marca, la imagen de marca, la familiaridad de marca y la marca como señal de valor social), las actitudes de marca y las intenciones de compra de la marca, probamos el modelo con una muestra de diferentes categorías de marcas de consumo (local, global y glocal) y analizamos la influencia del tipo de marca en estas relaciones.

Nuestros resultados sugieren que la calidad es el impulsor más importante de la actitud hacia la marca, para cualquier tipo de marca, y que la relación entre la calidad y la actitud hacia la marca, así como entre la actitud hacia la marca y la intención de compra es más débil para una marca glocal que para una local o global.

La investigación proporciona nuevas evidencias empíricas en relación a la influencia del tipo de marca (local, global o glocal) en las asociaciones de marca y en la configuración de las actitudes hacia dichas marcas y en su intención de compra. Nuestro trabajo es de interés también para los directivos de marketing ya que les puede permitir desarrollar mejores estrategias de posicionamiento para marcas locales, globales o glocales.

Marca global, Marca local, Marca glocal, Teoría de las señales, Actitud hacia la marca, Intención de compra

Trabajo de investigación

Broadly speaking, internationalisation means the entry to new-country markets. It may, therefore, be described as a process of innovation (Bilkey & Tesar, 1977; Andersen, 1993; Casson, 2000). Faced with increasing international competition, innovation has become a central focus in firms’ long-term strategies. Firms competing in global markets face the challenges and opportunities of change in markets and technologies. One important aspect within innovation management is the optimal integration of external knowledge, since innovation increasingly is derived from a network of companies interacting in a variety of ways (Veugelers & Cassiman, 1999).

According to a recent and interesting revision of advances in international marketing theory and practice, the international marketing literature has grown exponentially in recent years in order to offer sufficient support to corporate and public policy makers confronting today's hostile global business conditions (Katsikeas, 2003a). In fact, some of the most relevant academic journals in this field (Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, International Business Review, Advances in International Marketing, among others) can be considered highly stable and mature publications, with research articles covering a wide range of topics within the international marketing domain and usually authorized by leading contributors to other high-ranking marketing journals (DuBois & Reeb, 2000; Malhotra, Wu, & Whitelock, 2005).

This study attempts to facilitate the future development of a more general theory relative to the nature of small business internationalization and provides a step toward a more holistic understanding of this process. More concretely, its general goal is to draw attention to this potential: the possibility of better examining this process - and developing a more accurate explanation of it - by encouraging future writers to consider the consolidated contributions of four major streams of research in the international business literature: FDI theories, the stage models, entry-mode research and the network approach. Some relevant conclusions and implications are derived from this holistic approach.