Search results

The study examines organization citizenship behavior (OCB) as a mediating variable between instrumental work values (IWVs) and organizational performance; and group differences between family manager and nonfamily manager for integrated models in family hotels. Data were collected from 189 hotels (n = 921) ranging from budget to three-star family hotels in Ghana using questionnaire administered conveniently. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Work value positively influences OCB and organizational performance of family hotels. OCB mediates the relationship between work values and organizational performance. The study also found significant support for group differences between family and nonfamily firms for IWVs and mediating effect of OCB on the relationship between IWVs and performance.

This study aims to contribute to international doctrine by testing how environmental social governance (ESG) pillars can affect marketing performance in the pharmaceutical industry.

The authors follow a pioneering approach, using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and data from the largest European listed companies belonging to the pharmaceutical industry in 2019. Specifically, the authors contribute to international doctrine by testing how ESG pillars can affect marketing performance by presenting two configurational paths that may help to clarify not only the individual role of the pillars but also how their interrelationships predict marketing performance.

The results identify two different causal configurations that lead to higher marketing performance. These configurations allow us to think more carefully about the role of ESG pillars in the pharmaceutical sector. These results could help managers reflect upon and justify their choice to invest in specific ESG pillars, highlighting the importance of the governance pillar.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use configurational analysis to investigate combinations of ESG pillars that lead firms to achieve higher levels of marketing performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between firm capabilities, business model (BM) design, and firm performance.

The study provides a quantitative assessment of the proposed model using a sample of 411 small- and medium-sized enterprises. Heckman’s sample selection model is employed as an econometric framework.

The outcomes demonstrate that the adoption of a given BM is endogenous with respect to firm capabilities, different capabilities spur the adoption of different BM, and that different BM designs have variable impacts on firm performance.

Some investigated variables were operationalized using proxies, and firm performance was measured based on a self-assessed scale.

Since different types of capabilities are at the bases of different BM designs that eventually reverberate on firm performance, SMEs should carefully balance their financial resources invested in the development of capabilities.

This study represents one of the first attempts to investigate the relationships between firm capabilities, BM design, and firm performance.

By outsourcing or partnering with two or more firms to perform certain activities targeted toward customers, firms are engaging in service networks. This research begins to examine how customers evaluate firms in a strategic, B2B service network and how their assessment of firms involved in co‐producing after‐sales service affects their evaluations of a focal selling firm. These evaluations include the key relational outcomes of brand image, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

The conceptual model examines the effects of partner firm performance on customers' evaluations of a focal selling firm. Key factors such as focal brand strength and the strength of the relationship between the partner firm and the focal selling firm are proposed to influence this relationship.

Post‐sale business services provided directly to the customer are likely to play an important role in building a firm's brand image and equity, whether those services are provided by the firm or its partners.

The individual firm to individual customer dyad approach that currently dominates the literature does not adequately capture the complex nature of today's B2B service relationships. This research develops a conceptual model that directly addresses the way customers evaluate service when it is performed by multiple partners.

Discovering how customers evaluate service experiences in which multiple firms co‐produce the service within a B2B service network can provide firms with the guidance needed to improve the performance of the entire network and the overall service experience of network customers.

This paper presents new theoretical developments in the area of business‐to‐business service networks. This research also addresses several gaps in the industrial marketing literature, particularly B2B services and branding.

The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity – why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a “neo-configurational perspective” of Misangyi et al. (2016) in proposing complex antecedent conditions affecting complex outcome conditions. Rather than examining variable directional relationships using null hypotheses statistical tests, the study examines case-based conditions using somewhat precise outcome tests (SPOT). The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets – the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical outcomes. The study here examines firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross-sectional data of manufacturing firms with headquarters in one of two nations: Finland (n = 820) and Hungary (n = 300). The study includes examining the predictive validities of the models. The study contributes conceptual advances of complex firm orientation configurations and complex firm performance capabilities configurations as mediating conditions between firmographics, firm resources, and the two final complex outcome conditions (high performance in declining markets and low performance in growing markets). The study contributes by showing how fuzzy-logic computing with words (Zadeh, 1966) advances strategic management research toward achieving requisite variety to overcome the theory-analytic mismatch pervasive currently in the discipline (Fiss, 2007, 2011) – thus, this study is a useful step toward solving the crucial problem of how to explain firm heterogeneity.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the antecedents of export performance and branding advantage, as a key type of competitive advantage in export markets among entrepreneurs and managers of agri-food exporters.

A sample of entrepreneurs from 182 exporting firms of the agriculture and food industry participated in a cross-sectional survey. The data were collected by a self-reporting questionnaire and partial least squares were used to analyse the data and assess the path model.

Results revealed that experiential resources strongly promote communication capabilities. Also, communication, distribution and product development capabilities contribute to the creation of the branding advantage in export markets. In addition, a positive relationship between the branding advantage and export performance of agri-food products is confirmed.

The study targets exporters of agri-food products. Hence, the results should be interpreted regarding the context of low-technology firms. Further, this paper delineates branding advantage considerations that managers need to account for to achieve effective exporting. Practitioners can efficaciously exploit resources to achieve a competitive advantage, considering that they focus on building capabilities, and in particular, communication capabilities.

The present study highlights the role of the branding advantage as an important type of competitive advantage in international entrepreneurship and export markets. It attempts to examine the combined relationships of resources and capabilities with branding advantage and export performance.

While extant research highlights the importance of both market orientation and brand orientation in brand success, it is still unclear how they actually combine to contribute to brand performance. Grounded in the theoretical perspectives of the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities, this study unpacks how, and when, brand orientation and market orientation link systematically to influence brand performance.

In testing the research hypotheses involving mediation and moderation effects, survey data were gathered from a sample of business firms in the manufacturing sector and analyzed through regression analysis.

The results suggest brand orientation manifests through market orientation to influence brand performance via the intervening mechanism of brand management capability. The results also suggest at high levels of competitive intensity, the systematic combination of market orientation and brand orientation is critical in facilitating brand management capability enhancement and subsequent brand performance.

This study extends current literature by providing a more detailed account of how brand orientation and market orientation systematically combine to yield superior brand performance via the mediating role of brand management capability. This study also provides further insights into how, in response to different levels of competitive intensity, the systematic combination of brand orientation and market orientation is managed to facilitate brand management capability enhancement and subsequent brand performance.

The purpose of the paper is to examine and analyze the alignment between (information technology) IT, strategic orientation (SO) and organizational structure (OS) and their impact on firm performance (FP).

A theoretical framework is proposed regarding the constructs of IT, SO and OS. A model incorporating these three constructs is examined and their impact on FP is assessed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The sample data from 295 firms were obtained through structured questionnaires.

The results of the SEM support the hypothesis that the alignment between IT, SO and OS significantly affects FP.

Non‐financial and intangible performance measurements are not included and the sample is not homogeneous.

This study suggests that managers should choose the appropriate level and type of IT, depending on a firm's structure and SO, in order to benefit from the advantages of IT usage and achieve higher performance levels.

This study presents an overview of the impact of SO, OS and IT on FP, and that shows that there is scope for further research into the inter‐organizational relationships that exist between them.

Trust and commitment are the central tenets in building successful long‐term relationships in the online retailing context. In the absence of physical interaction between the buyer and the seller, how websites can gain the trust of the buyers and deliver on the promises made have become central issues in online customer relationship management. This paper aims to re‐examine the commitment‐trust theory (CTT) of relationship marketing in the online retailing context. It seeks to theorize the antecedents and consequences of commitment and trust in the online context and identify how CTT can be adapted in a digitized business environment.

Modified constructs and their measures are developed to understand the antecedents and the outcomes of commitment and trust. Survey data from British online customers (n=651) are used to test CTT hypotheses with structural equation modelling.

The study suggests a significant modification to the traditional CTT model in the online environment. Privacy and security features of the website along with shared values are the key antecedents of trust, which in turn positively influences relationship commitment. Behavioural intentions of customers are consequences of both trust and commitment. The relationship termination cost has a negative impact on customer commitment.

The paper identifies interesting differences between the original work by Morgan and Hunt and the findings presented, but basically concludes that the commitment‐trust theory applies to online retailing.

Contributions of this study in re‐examining the CTT model of relationship marketing in an online context are manifold. This paper proposes a modified model to understand the role of consumer trust and commitment in a digitized environment. The modified constructs and measures truly reflect the dynamism of online business. The extended CTT model can provide better insight into managing customer relationships in online retailing.

Although there has been much academic discussion of employee behaviours as potential barriers to market orientation, comparatively little attention has been focused on organizational barriers to market orientation. No single study has undertaken a holistic review of structural, strategic and systems impediments. The aim of this paper is to extend and synthesize existing research into the obstacles to market orientation by performing a holistic analysis of the organizational characteristics which influence the extent of market orientation in an organization. This paper begins with a brief review of existing research into the barriers to developing market orientation. After a discussion of research design and methodology, the summary findings of three in‐depth case studies are presented and eight hypotheses are forwarded. Thereafter, the results of a survey of organizational barriers to market orientation are presented and the findings are discussed. The paper concludes with a number of implications for both strategic marketing and management theory and practice.