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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between technology orientations and export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. The paper formulates hypotheses from the literature review. These hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling with data collected from 231 SMEs in Uganda. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and AMOS.

The findings of this study showed technology orientation has a positive and significant relationship with the performance of Ugandan SMEs and that supply chain agility moderates technology orientation and export performance.

The study discusses the findings, advances limitations and managerial implications. It also suggests future research avenues. It proposes some recommendations to help Ugandan SMEs to form flexible supply chains, use the latest technology and create strong relationship ties with their partners in the supply chain.

The study suggests that managers of Ugandan SMEs should use the latest technology in production, marketing, logistics and supply chain management which will enable them to respond quickly to customer tastes and preferences leading to higher levels of export performance.

This study contributes to the literature on strategic management showing the reliability of scales used and the confirmatory of the factor structure. This study shows that in strategic management technology, orientation is critical in increasing export performance. This study has extended the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities theories.

Based on the dynamic capability theory, our study tries to explore the mediator mechanism of service supply chain dynamic capability between market orientation and service innovation performance, as well as the boundary conditions in which service supply chain dynamic capability plays a role, in order to reveal the key elements and their mechanisms for manufacturing enterprises to improve service performance.

With a total of 317 valid questionnaires, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research model and hypotheses.

The empirical results confirm that the three types of service supply chain dynamic capability (environment insight capability, resource integration capability and resource reconfiguration capability) can partially mediate the relationship between firm market orientation (responsive and proactive market orientations) and service innovation performance. In addition, supply chain collaboration has different types of moderator effects on the relationship between the three types of service supply chain dynamic capability and service innovation performance.

This research discovers that market orientation and dynamic capability are the key factors leading to high service performance and reveals the mediating role of service supply chain dynamic capability between market orientation and service innovation performance. Moreover, this research explores the moderating role of supply chain collaboration in service supply chain resource reconfiguration capability and service innovation performance.

Scholars and practitioners alike are paying attention to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as an antecedent of the financial performance of SMEs. Other factors foster and improve SMEs' financial performance. This paper aims to shed the light on other two different strategic orientations that may help enhance SMEs' financial performance in addition to EO, namely; market orientation (MO) and brand orientation (BO).

The three different important strategic orientations are explored through two different studies. The first study was conducted to determine the different effects of the three orientations on SMEs' financial performance. Data were collected using a questionnaire among a convenient sample (131) of business owners/managers, and next PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. The financial performance of firms in the second study is hypothesized to be an outcome of a combination of different strategic orientations; therefore, the fsQCA method is applied to explore the causal recipes of those orientations.

The paper concluded that the three different strategic orientations are collectively, of paramount importance to strategic managers of SMEs.

The brand, market and EOs have been discussed discretely in previous studies and this study attempted to provide managers/owners of SMEs with a holistic view of the three different orientations and the amalgamation among them to be beneficial for better financial performance.

This research aims to apply the contingency approach to explore the effectiveness of the improvisational behavior of salespeople on their sales performance by considering the moderating role of functional customer orientation.

Survey data were obtained from a sample of 227 salespeople in Bangkok, Thailand. The data analysis was implemented by partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The overall results indicate that the association between improvisational behavior and sales performance is significantly contingent on the level of functional customer orientation that salespeople exhibit. For salespeople with high functional customer orientation, improvisational behavior clearly shows a positive association with sales performance. In contrast, for salespeople with low functional customer orientation, improvisational behavior appears to have a negative association with sales performance.

This research broadens the knowledge in the literature by showing that improvisational behavior of salespeople needs to be combined with functional customer orientation to yield a benefit to their sales performance.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of strategic orientations on firm performance moreover, to assess the role of environmental munificence as a moderator for the link between strategic orientations and firm performance.

This study designed as quantitative research method. Data were collected by structured questionnaire and included 185 managers from various industries in Israel. The analysis of this study was done by Smart PLS-SEM 3 software. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, the authors view departmental characteristics (conflicts and connectedness) as antecedents of strategic orientations (customer and competitor). These, in turn, affect firm performance, defined here with two facets: behavioral (team spirit and commitment) and bottom-line performance.

The analysis results show that customer and competitor orientations affect bottom-line performance. However, only customer orientation affected team spirit and employee commitment. Finally, environmental munificence had a limited moderation role, affecting the relationship between competitor orientation and between behavioral outcomes (team spirit and commitment).

This study defining the importance of firm's strategic orientations as key capabilities for achieving competitive advantage.

This paper aims to elucidate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, reverse innovation and international performance of emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs).

The authors analyze archival data of Chinese limited companies between 2010 and 2016, including 11,230 firm-year observations about 1708 firms. In order to test the study’s mediation hypotheses, the authors apply an ordinary least square (OLS) regression.

The authors find evidence that the entrepreneurial orientation of EMNEs has a positive effect on reverse innovations. Furthermore, the authors find positive effects of reverse innovation on the international performance of EMNEs. This pattern of results suggests that the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and international performance is partially mediated by reverse innovation.

The study’s findings help managers in EMNEs to promote reverse innovation by building and using their entrepreneurial orientation. It also helps them to set out and gauge the chances of success of their internationalization strategies. The findings also hold relevance for firms in developed economies as well, as they may understand which emerging economy competitors stand to threaten their positions.

The strategic role of reverse innovations – i.e. clean slate, super value and technologically advanced products originating from emerging markets – has generated considerable research attention. It is clear that reverse innovations impact the international performance of EMNEs. Yet how entrepreneurial orientation influences international performance is still underexplored. Thus, the current study clarifies the mechanism by examining and testing the mediating role of reverse innovation among the entrepreneurial orientation–international performance link.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between brand orientation and business growth in business-to-business (B2B) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors also explore whether this relationship is moderated by internal firm-related factors (firm age, firm size) and/or external market-related factors (market life cycle, industry type).

The authors develop and empirically test a conceptual model using data from 396 B2B SMEs operating in Finland. Structural equation modeling is used for testing the research hypotheses.

Brand orientation contributes to business growth via two indirect paths, the first one going through brand performance and the second one going through brand performance and customer relationship performance. However, although the effects are positive, the results reveal that the regression coefficients are relatively small, implying only a limited impact of brand orientation on growth among B2B SMEs. The results further suggest that firm age, firm size and industry type moderate the brand performance–business growth relationship, whereas market life cycle moderates the effect of brand orientation on brand performance.

Future research could extend this study by examining brand orientation in industrial markets simultaneously with alternative strategic orientations, such as market, technology and innovation orientation. New moderator variables should also be considered, such as market or technological turbulence. Furthermore, given that this study uses a cross-sectional data set, it is recommended that future research should attempt to test the model using longitudinal data sets.

B2B SMEs are able to gain business growth through developing a strong brand. However, brand orientation per se appears to be of limited relevance for such an endeavor. Consequently, managers of small industrial firms should consider brand orientation only with, and in comparison to, alternative strategic orientations.

Brand orientation has been very rarely examined from the perspective of B2B firms or that of SMEs. Interestingly, the findings indicate that the performance benefits of brand orientation seem to be smaller among B2B SMEs than what earlier research would imply. The analysis of moderation effects offers additional insights into whether there are differences between industrial SMEs as to the relevance of brand orientation.

Drawing on the customer value-based theory and the resource dependency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers leverage their customer orientation to improve operational performance directly in a stable environment or through building and maintaining high-quality 3PL relationships in an uncertain environment.

A survey-based approach is employed to collect data from managers at 132 3PL providers in mainland China. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to assess measures and hierarchical regression is utilized to test the hypothesized relationships.

This study documents significant positive effects of customer orientation and relationship quality on operational performance, as well as significant mediation effect of relationship quality. However, the effect of customer orientation on operational performance decreased, while the effect of relationship quality on operational performance became stronger, under high rather than low environmental uncertainty.

An important implication for managers based on this study is that, in order to be effective, Chinese 3PL providers would need to become more customer oriented and to continually develop and leverage high-quality 3PL relationships in order to enhance their operational performance, especially in situations of high environmental uncertainty.

The paper documents the importance of developing and leveraging high-quality 3PL relationships as a key mediator of the relationship between customer orientation and operational performance. It also documents how environmental uncertainty exerts a powerful moderating influence in this relationship, providing insights into understanding how customer orientation is leveraged by 3PL providers to improve their performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance effects of brand identity in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The authors examine whether brand identity mediates the relationship between brand orientation and brand performance, and further, whether brand performance leads to better financial performance. The authors also study whether these performance effects are moderated by customer type and industry type. Differing from earlier research, this study analyzes brand identity through its constituent components: brand values, brand vision and brand positioning. The data include altogether 721 effective responses from Finnish SMEs. Structural equation modeling is used for testing the research hypotheses.

Brand positioning and brand vision have a direct positive effect on brand performance, which in turn, positively affects financial performance. Brand orientation drives the components of brand identity. Importantly, there is variation in some of the relationships between brand orientation, brand values, brand vision and brand positioning across business-to-business firms and business-to-customer firms, and across firms in service industries and in production industries.

The research is based on a single-country sample. Including additional factors for the model with the potential to moderate the described relationships is also called for. Future research could also consider new potential brand identity components currently not addressed in the paper.

This paper contributes to the literature by increasing the knowledge of SME branding.

The purpose of this paper is to help firms to create competitiveness by developing marketing capabilities. It analyzes how the component and architectural competences affect and enhance market orientation and firm performance.

Built on the theories of organizational capability, knowledge creation, and market orientation, this research develops the contents of marketing capabilities, including component and architectural competences that contribute to marketing capability by responding to external changes, and analyzes their influence on market orientation and firm performance.

The study reveals the following effective marketing capabilities which benefit to marketing performance. First, hiring and retaining employees with higher professional, local, and specific knowledge. Second, firms with higher tacit knowledge enhance market orientation. Third, arranging employees into teamwork to implement marketing tasks. Fourth, assigning employees into small-scale experiments on creative proposals. Fifth, standardizing procedures of generation, dissemination, and response of marketing intelligence. Sixth, providing written market information and training programs to non-marketing staff. Seventh, appropriately delegating to staff. Eighth, establishing apprenticeship among the staff to deliver experiential know-how.

From a dynamic capability perspective, this research construct the two kinds of marketing competences and examine their effect on market orientation and firm performance. For further understanding the complementary effects of marketing capabilities, market orientation, and synergistic performance, a larger sample data (e.g. product, market share, sales, characteristics of staff, firm, and knowledge, etc.) and objective evaluation are encouraged. Otherwise, from the viewpoint of agency theory, the incentive system should also be discussed.

This research has potentially significant implications for knowledge management and marketing management fields as well as managerial practice. The results suggest the importance of marketing capability for market orientation and firm performance.

Marketing resources and marketing capabilities are significant drivers of firm performance, and their impact is greater when they are complementary to each other. This study takes the perspectives of organizational capabilities and market orientation to find out the factors which contribute to marketing capability and performance. This study provides practitioners with a framework for analyzing marketing capabilities as an object of improving firm performance by creating market orientation. Furthermore, this research empirically introduced strategic specific competence (tacit knowledge and autonomy) into the model and tests their effect of market orientation and firm performance.