Search results

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how business process‐based approach (PROPHESY) facilitates integration of resource‐based and market‐based approaches to strategy management. The paper begins by presenting resource‐based and market‐based strategy management approaches generally. It extends earlier research by examining the linkages between markets and resources as practised by three case study companies representing a cross‐section of the manufacturing industry. It continues with a discussion on the reasons behind the choice of the criteria used for cross case analysis. Although the results are exploratory, they provide a comparative analysis of how market‐based strategies could relate and integrate with resource‐based strategies through business processes.

This paper presents a model of resources refinement for systematically and comprehensively deriving competence-based competitive advantages. Competence-based competitive advantages support market-based strategies. They reinforce the overall market-based advantages of low costs, product differentiation and minimal cost differentiation at the business unit level and of carrying out tasks jointly in a performance compound at the corporate level. Competence-based competitive advantages also support resource-based strategies by reinforcing the advantages of product innovation skills at the business unit level and transfer of core competences in a performance compound at the corporate level.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the coexistence of independent and manufacturer-owned distributors within the same distribution system. In particular, the authors seek to identify those factors that determine the use of dual distribution and the effect of dual distribution systems on different economic outcomes.

Using a case study-based approach, the authors compare different brands in different European markets of a German automobile manufacturer using 24 expert interviews in Germany, Sweden and Spain.

Our results demonstrate the importance of limited resources, investment specificity, location, divergent interests and competitive strategies for the development of dual distribution structures. The results show that the overall distribution system performance is positively related to dual distribution.

The generalizability of the findings is limited due to the use of cases for different brands of one large corporation within a specific industry and the limited number of countries that were examined. This study is also limited to the subjective evaluation of firm performance and the qualitative evidence provided by the interviewees in our sample group. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate on the use of independent and manufacturer-owned distributors among distributive vertical chains. Based on the qualitative findings, propositions for future research and managerial implications are provided.

While in previous research, the explanatory approach of make-or-buy has often been used for examining dual distribution, the authors combine insights from different theoretical streams (transaction cost theory, market-based view, resource-based view and principal-agent theory) to identify and empirically investigate the antecedents and outcomes of dual distribution. Furthermore, while prior research focused on single-country studies and franchise systems, the authors examine a multi-country sample in the automobile industry and expand the findings of the existing literature by covering different brands.

This paper aims to survey the existing literature on the causal relationship between market-based financial development and economic growth – in both developed and developing countries, highlighting the theoretical and the empirical evidence.

The paper divides financial development into bank-based and market-based financial development, and it closely reviews the international literature on the relationship between market-based financial development and economic growth.

The direction of causality between market-based financial development and economic growth varies from one country to another, depending on various country-specific characteristics, data sets and the methodology used by the researcher. On balance, there is predominant support for the supply-leading response, where the development of the market-based financial sector is expected to precede the development of the real sector.

This review differs fundamentally from previous reviews, in that it divides financial development into bank-based and market-based financial development, and it focuses closely on market-based financial development and economic growth. The majority of the previous studies on this subject failed to make such a distinction, thereby focusing mainly on the general causal relationship between the overall financial development and economic growth. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this may be the first review of its kind to survey the existing research in detail on the causal relationship between market-based financial development and economic growth, in both developed and developing countries.

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the relevant literature is reviewed briefly to provide a strategic context of the different views on strategy development. In the process, the linkages between the e-commerce view of strategy and previous views are explored. As such, the perspectives of different schools of thought on strategy are briefly highlighted. Second, the different dimensions of the e-commerce strategy and their impact on organizational performance are investigated.

A survey integrating different theoretical views of value creation was developed and sent to Portuguese e-commerce firms to assess the underlying dimensions of their strategies through factorial analysis. Then, a clustering analysis was performed to determine strategic groups to compare corporate performance.

Three e-commerce dimensions were identified: marketing, innovation and efficiency. Results of data analysis suggest that differentiation factors have impact on corporate performance in the context of virtual markets.

Although the Portuguese specific nature of the study could be seen as a limitation of the generalization of the findings, in the authors’ view, it is not truly a limitation because Portuguese executives face the same challenges that other countries counterparts, due to the universal application of e-commerce. Moreover, the use of a Portuguese sample validates findings from other cultural settings, contributing toward a unified theory and testing its applicability. In this way, it is an opportunity rather then a limitation.

The research identifies what is strategic and highlights the competitive methods that enhance differentiation in virtual markets, which could be useful as a framework for strategic formulation. Moreover, it provides a theoretical rational for investments in intangible assets.

The development of a survey to assess e-commerce strategies and the identification of the e-commerce strategic dimensions are the main contributions of this research, which highlights the importance of differentiation factors in virtual markets.

The effectiveness of corporate governance enforcement is a complex issue requiring the understanding of the role of institutional factors. The latter may or may not converge towards best practices, depending upon the extent to which history and politics matter more than purely economic or efficiency‐related considerations for convergence. The appropriateness and effectiveness of corporate governance enforcement mechanisms differ among market economies and cannot be attributed to one single factor nor does any such factor have the same significance in all countries as it depends on the relative state of development of financial intermediation. This paper aims to address these issues.

A critique is launched on the hypothesis of legal conformity used to explain the deviation of corporate governance practices and enforcement efficiency from is considered as best practice. The critique follows an historical development approach and is substantiated with some new empirical evidence of ownership structures and market views.

Empirical evidence on ownership structures and on the market views regarding the effectiveness of corporate governance legislation shows that for an understanding of the relationship between financial intermediation and corporate governance broader institutional influences must be taken into consideration.

The analysis of empirical evidence needs detailed expansion and proper association with institutional elements to provide a more comprehensive understanding of corporate governance enforcement efficiency.

The exercise of corporate governance enforcement is an interactive process that goes beyond the role of legal rules and must combine an optimal set of private and public mechanisms properly tailored to each corporate governance regime.

New empirical evidence is provided on ownership structures and on the market view regarding the effectiveness of corporate governance legislation and a broader account is provided on institutional setting for understanding corporate governance policy.

Since the 1990s, the International Olympic Committee has offered nations more medal-winning opportunities at every Winter Games. Meanwhile, many countries are constrained by their limited financial resources to target sports strategically. The purpose of this paper is to examine the targeting approaches to Olympic Winter Sports of National Sports Agencies (NSAs), and to identify the factors they assess in the decision-making process.

The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 decision makers of medal-winning NSAs at the 2014 Sochi Games. The data were then analysed with reference to strategic management in an approach which combines a resource-based view (RBV) with a market-based view (MBV) to build a competitive advantage.

The results show that NSAs, like firms, combine an internal analysis that reflects the RBV on resources and capabilities (e.g. athletes’ performance per sport and sport-specific elite sport system), with an external analysis of the competitive environment that reflects an MBV (e.g. sport’s medal market size and intensity of competition at Games) to target sports. Using this information, two phases were distinguished: first, the target sports are identified and finance is prioritised accordingly; second, the allocation of the nation’s resources is constantly reviewed in order to optimise it.

Even though social desirability bias in the responses could not be fully excluded, the findings can help policy-makers to distinguish between the internal and external factors identified in this study, and to make more strategic decisions by combining RBV and MBV approaches to build-up their nation’s competitive advantage.

This paper models the targeting strategies of NSAs during an Olympic cycle by introducing the competitive positioning of firms to sports management.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect between intangible and tangible (i.e. financial) organizational performance as well as the effects of the crucial influencing factors “trust”, “strategic relevance” and “participation”.

Structural equation modelling is used to test a large‐scale empirical study of more than 100 German business networks. Quantitative data are collected from the heads of the management accounting departments by means of a written questionnaire.

The results show an interrelation between intangible and tangible/financial performance that is mainly influenced by strategic relevance and participation. In contrast to other studies, trust is not found to have significant effects on tangible or intangible performance.

As the study focuses on German business networks, country‐specific effects cannot be excluded. Furthermore, no time‐lagging effects have been revealed, as the data are only representative of a point in time. As the study is based on empirical data gathered by individual persons, it is open to general criticism of the broad empirical analysis methodology that is applied.

The study supports the selection of measures for performance management and the control of intangibles. It differs from prior studies in respect of its findings regarding the impact of trust on intangible and tangible performance; consequently, more research on this topic is essential.

This is one of the first studies that focuses on the prerequisites of intangible performance instead of investigating the correlation between different groups of intangible factors. Measures from social capital theory, as well as from organisational system design and strategic management, are integrated into this study.

Marketers frequently lament the lack of representation of marketing in the boardroom and the short tenure of CMOs. The most common explanations offered are that marketing is not perceived as a strategic discipline and that marketers do not demonstrate a strong enough understanding of how the business makes money.

Financial accounting is how “score is kept” in terms of business performance. It is, therefore, in the self-interest of marketers to become familiar with financial reporting. Doing so will allow them to understand how marketing activities are recorded. In addition, academic researchers need to understand the meaning of the financial measures that they often use as the metrics of success when researching marketing strategy questions.

This is especially important since financial reporting generally does not recognize assets created by marketing investments. In order to substantiate a claim that “brands are assets”, marketers must be able to explain how the financial accounting rules misrepresent economic reality and why managers might use a different set of principles for management reporting.

We argue that the misrepresentation of market-based assets has two forms of negative impact for marketers: external and internal. The external problems are that financial statements are not especially informative about the value of marketing for the providers of capital and do not provide a true portrait of the economic resource base of the company. The internal problems are that marketers cannot point to valuable assets that they are creating, nor can they be effectively held accountable for the way that these assets are managed given that the assets are not recorded.

We do not expect immediate radical changes in financial reporting because financial accounting rules are designed with the specific interests of the suppliers of capital (debt and equity) in mind. To influence financial accounting developments, such as encouraging greater disclosure of marketing activity in the notes to the published accounts, marketers must be able to communicate in language understood by accountants and the current users of financial accounts. To aid this we provide guidance for marketers on the purpose and practices of accounting. We also discuss how academic marketing researchers might wish to adjust financial accounting data to capitalize a proportion of marketing expenses for companies where marketing is a primary driver of business performance.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the main market entry barriers confronted by the new operators in liberalized railway freight market (Poland and Sweden), as well as to analyze the inaugurating market of Finland.

Swedish and Polish markets were scrutinized utilizing qualitative case study, implemented through semi‐structured theme interviews. Among primary observations, numerous second‐hand sources were used to gain triangulation. Research was conducted during early 2009. The Finnish material was collected with Delphi technique‐based questionnaires in 2005.

The main findings support previous studies arguing that the main barriers to entry are rolling stock acquisition, needed investments and bureaucracy. In Sweden, companies were start‐ups established on the grounds of the incumbent. The Polish market obtained new operators via vertical integration with a significant competitive presence of a governmental operator. Inaugurating Finnish market is identified as a combination of these two. Therefore, it is easier to understand why new entrants are not operating in the Finnish market.

The research contributes novel, first‐hand data to the subject, which earlier have been studied mostly via second‐hand data and literature analyses.