Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of the marketing strategy process in the relationship between innovativeness and organizational performance in SMEs.

The partial least squares-structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze data from Brazilian SMEs that belong to the software sector. Innovativeness was considered as a cultural aspect of the firm, which is related to being open to new ideas. The marketing strategy process was analyzed considering its two dimensions, i.e., formulation and implementation of marketing strategies. Organizational performance included variables of market, financial and innovation performance.

The results show that innovativeness positively influences organizational performance through the marketing strategy process. Specifically, the formulation of marketing strategies mediates the relationship between innovativeness and organizational performance. Implementation by itself does not mediate this relationship. When considering the path formulation→implementation as mediator, the influence is positive, i.e., formulation positively influences the implementation of marketing strategies and this path mediates the relationship between innovativeness and organizational performance. Therefore, the mediating role is stronger when considering the formulation-implementation path than when taking into account the activities of the formulation and implementation of marketing strategies separately.

This study contributes to the literature by discussing how innovativeness influences SMEs’ performance through subsequent stages of the marketing strategy process. This is one of the first studies to consider activities in the marketing strategy process as a mediator in the innovativeness-performance relationship and explore its sequence.

Research on market information use in product innovation suggests that firms utilize two key strategic decision-making processes: incremental and comprehensive. Drawing from organizational information processing theory, literature implies that these processes operate differently. However, this assumption remains untested. Moreover, the degree to which a comprehensive process affects the innovation strategy outcomes depends on market information time sensitivity (MITS) and analyzability. To-date, no study has tested these assertions, either. Finally, it is suggested that meaningful market strategy is a key driver of new product success and it is important to understand how decision-making processes influence it under differing time sensitivity and analyzability.

Based on survey data from 250 Chinese firms, authors use structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.

The results generally support authors’ contentions. More specifically, marketing strategy outcomes are influenced by marketing strategy incrementality (MSI) and marketing strategy comprehensiveness (MSC) differently. Further, time sensitivity moderates the effect of both MSI and MSC on outcomes, except for the effect of MSI on decision quality. Finally, analyzability moderates the relationships between decision making processes and certain strategy outcomes such as between MSI and meaningfulness.

Drawing from information processing theory, authors argue that incremental and comprehensive marketing strategy decision making for new product operate differentially under the same conditions. Further, the effects of these decision processes on outcomes depend on time sensitivity and analyzability of market information. Finally, auhtors argue that meaningful market strategy is a driver of success. The authors find support for most of our hypotheses and provide directions for future research.

The purpose of this study is to understand one portion of the sales ecological system. This paper focuses on the mesolevel or intra-organizational system that includes the sales and marketing functions. This paper examines distinct tensions at three levels of the firm’s hierarchy and the mechanisms used to manage the tensions.

The authors use a qualitative data collection. A discovery-oriented process is used to understand the interconnections that exist among marketing-sales dyads at three organizational levels across several firms.

This paper uncovers distinct tensions and defenses exhibited by managers at each hierarchical level and this paper presents mechanisms that can are used to reduce the tensions.

The multi-level perspective demonstrates the value of examining the intra-organizational aspect of the sales ecosystem. This paper uses a qualitative approach to highlight that sales-marketing tensions are unique to each of the hierarchical levels. This paper demonstrates that the tensions are a function of the unique roles each sales and marketing executive has within the organization.

To make the sales and marketing interface more effective, managers need to view tensions across the sales-marketing interface as complementary versus opposing forces. Managers must balance these tensions, rather than fight them and/or select one of the alternatives over the other. This paper suggests that paradoxical thinking may be a valued skillset for managers at each level of the organization.

The study uses a unique qualitative data set that examines the sales-marketing interface across three levels of an organizational hierarchy. Through this approach, this paper delineates specific tensions between marketing and sales within each level of the firm. This paper also describes mechanisms to manage the tensions common within the sales-marketing interface.

The purpose of this paper is to present taxonomy of marketing strategy concepts and integrative frameworks that differentiate and integrate its formulation and implementation processes.

The paper is conceptual based on a review of academic literature on marketing strategy chronicled in major marketing journals January 1990‐April 2006. We present selected references classified by key marketing strategy topics for further pursuit by interested readers. Also, the paper reflects our experience and views based on practices chronicled in corporate case studies and trade journals.

The literature casts marketing strategy formulation and implementation in the context of strategic planning and marketing strategy process models. The focus of the strategic planning model is on achieving corporate financial objectives through the implementation of product, pricing, promotion, and place (distribution) programs. The focus of the marketing strategy process model is on the formulation of segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning strategies to create, communicate, and deliver the value to the customer resulting in gaining customer satisfaction and loyalty; i.e. marketing objectives.

The propositions and frameworks constitute guidelines useful in the process of marketing strategy formulations and implementation by practitioners and establish bases for academic researchers to test concept validity, examine concept differences, and explore concept relationships.

This paper advances propositions that clearly differentiate, but interrelate, marketing strategy formulation and implementation processes and recast the strategic planning financial‐oriented model and the marketing strategy process models into a set of frameworks to demonstrate that: the road to healthy financial results must first be paved by sound marketing strategies; explicitly state and underscore the role of branding and organizational strategies in mediating formulated marketing strategy into actionable marketing programs; and broaden the concept of firm orientation to reflect its role in mediating corporate strategy into a set of functional strategies including marketing.

The ideas expressed in this work are based on those put into practice at the Okuma Corporation of Japan, one of the world′s leading machine tool manufacturers. In common with many other large organizations, Okuma Corporation has to meet the new challenges posed by globalization, keener domestic and international competition, shorter business cycles and an increasingly volatile environment. Intelligent corporate strategy (ICS), as practised at Okuma, is a unified theory of strategic corporate management based on five levels of win‐win relationships for profit/market share, namely: ,1. Loyalty from customers (value for money) – right focus., 2. Commitment from workers (meeting hierarchy of needs) – right attitude., 3. Co‐operation from suppliers (expanding and reliable business) – right connections., 4. Co‐operation from distributors (expanding and reliable business) – right channels., 5. Respect from competitors (setting standards for business excellence) – right strategies. The aim is to create values for all stakeholders. This holistic people‐oriented approach recognizes that, although the world is increasingly driven by high technology, it continues to be influenced and managed by people (customers, workers, suppliers, distributors, competitors). The philosophical core of ICS is action learning and teamwork based on principle‐centred relationships of sincerity, trust and integrity. In the real world, these are the roots of success in relationships and in the bottom‐line results of business. ICS is, in essence, relationship management for synergy. It is based on the premiss that domestic and international commerce is a positive sum game: in the long run everyone wins. Finally, ICS is a paradigm for manufacturing companies coping with change and uncertainty in their search for profit/market share. Time‐honoured values give definition to corporate character; circumstances change, values remain. Poor business operations generally result from human frailty. ICS is predicated on the belief that the quality of human relationships determines the bottom‐line results. ICS attempts to make manifest and explicit the intangible psychological factors for value‐added partnerships. ICS is a dynamic, living, and heuristic‐learning model. There is intelligence in the corporate strategy because it applies commonsense, wisdom, creative systems thinking and synergy to ensure longevity in its corporate life for sustainable competitive advantage.

This study aims to identify appropriate strategies and actions adopted by business-to-business firms to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

A review of business-to-business marketing responses to the COVID-19 crisis in China was conducted.

Nine marketing responses built on core business processes were classified into three categories: (1) embedded in product development management process (stretching product lines to meet urgent needs, expanding product lines to meet urgent needs and adjusting products proactively for emerging needs), (2) built on supply chain management process (coordinating suppliers to meet surging demand, migrating to digital distribution channels and solidarity with supply chain members) and (3) related to customer relationship management process (investing in advertising and promotion, cross-selling to existing customers and supporting customers).

This study contributes to the literature of marketing responses to COVID-19 by examining the cash flows effects of various marketing responses. It also contributes to the business processes based on marketing strategy framework by extending it to the crisis management context. In addition, it provides five practical suggestions for business-to-business firms to cope with the COVID-19 crisis.

Despite 40 years of research by many social science disciplines, the conduct of planning in the business firm is not well modelled or understood. For marketers, this presents a particularly important problem. Marketing planning is particularly susceptible to the heirarchical nature of the planning process and the need to develop both deliberate and emergent plans. Since marketers provide the interface between the firm and its markets and customers, they must provide the essential strategic and tactical planning direction to the firm's overall strategic planning process. Marketing planning has a strategic and tactical component. Marketers must be precise with their use of terminology, being careful to identify exactly what they mean when they use the terms planning, marketing and strategy.

This paper aims to explore how senior business to business (B2B) marketing managers within a collectivist culture, contribute to knowledge development by interacting with staff in customer organizations to produce a co-owned marketing strategy.

A qualitative research strategy incorporating an open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from 15 senior B2B marketing managers in three Korean companies that deployed the customer-centred approach. The grounded theory technique (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) and the mind map method (Burgess-Allen and Owen-Smith, 2010) were used to show how senior Korean marketing managers’ thoughts are processed and knowledge transfer occurs.

The findings show that a governance mechanism is instrumental in guiding interactive communication that results in knowledge being used that benefits the members of a partnership arrangement. The knowledge development process is enhanced by mutual trust and emotional bonds that are established through socialization. Cyclical interaction through socialization and frequent (in)formal meetings facilitates the process of turning explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge and vice versa, and encourages new knowledge to be developed. Socialization also helps to reduce learning myopia and contributes to the innovatory processes that result in customer needs being met.

The paper provides insights into the importance of boundary setting that facilitates cooperative marketing action, which results in a B2B integrated marketing intelligence and planning process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the development of social media marketing strategy in an international context. We specifically look at the potential drivers and barriers throughout the social media marketing strategy development process and how cultural differences shape social media marketing strategy decision-making among firms in international markets.

The study is conducted with an inductive research approach involving in-depth interviews with 32 firms from Finland, China and Brazil. Using inductive data analysis, we identify both internal and external factors that drive and hinder the development of firms’ social media marketing strategies. Moreover, we explore the essential elements in social media marketing strategy development based on the key practices observed among these firms, which enables us to conduct a comparative analysis of how cultural values influence the development of social media marketing strategies.

Our findings underscore the importance of both internal (i.e. resources and capabilities) and external (i.e. market-level and country-level) factors that influence the development of social media marketing strategy. Our analysis also unveiled four key practices throughout the social media marketing strategy development process: social selling, content marketing, risk management and relationship management. Additionally, we identified three distinct mindsets regarding firms’ social media selling objectives across companies in the three countries.

The comparative approach provides novel insight into firms' international social media marketing strategy. Our proposed conceptual model shows the development process of social media marketing strategy in the international context. The research propositions highlight the role of cultural values and open up new avenues for future research.

The main objective of this paper is to consider how firms set about strategising in marketing and the nature of their implementation effort. Prior research has not considered the alternative means of implementation that firms display in practice.

A model is developed from a mid‐level (marketing) managerial perspective by comparing three groups of strategy implementation types (“change”, “collaborative”, and “cultural”) against five contextual and process characteristics of marketing strategy implementation.

Contrary to literature that has recommended bottom‐up marketing planning, the findings show if the firm displays an implementation environment characterised by hierarchical structures and strong top‐down influences, then marketing strategy implementation will be more effective.

More analysis of the daily lives of mid‐level employees is essential to improve the understanding of the key implementation success factors. Also, more research is needed on the influence of firm factors, such as culture, structure and management style, in determining the context for implementation.

The strategic paradox in the results suggests that there is a need for a degree of top‐down imposition, yet it also suggested that fostering the cooperation of mid‐level marketing managers through bottom‐up initiatives is required in the implementation process.

Provocatively, the paper concludes that the movement to restructure corporate hierarchies should not amount to a rejection of hierarchy as an organising principle in terms of implementing marketing strategies more effectively. The data indicate that a hierarchical implementation style will positively enhance the performance of those strategies.