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The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategies are put in place to formulate policies regarding the introduction and implementation of relationship marketing (RM) in the health sector, and how RM strategies are designed as part of the curricula for the training of prospective health professionals in Ghana.

Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit policy makers and health educationists in Accra for in-depth interviews. Qualitative interviews were analysed using framework analysis.

The findings revealed that, currently, there is no policy framework on RM in the health sector nor included in the curricula of health training institutions in the country.

Due to limited time and funding constraints, the study could not include many policy makers, educationists, health providers, facilities and regions outside the Greater Accra region of Ghana. This means that the authors missed out on useful insights from other relevant policy makers/educationists who would have added to the knowledge that this study contributes. There were still some areas that this study could not cover, including the lack of an exploration of the perceptions of health providers and patients.

Evidence from the current research provides the basis for scaling up of a similar study to the whole country to address the perennial RM or quality of care/patient satisfaction issues persisting in health facilities in the country. The outcome of this large-scale study would help to confirm the findings of the current study on the adoption and incorporation of RM into both policy framework and curricula of health training institutions in Ghana. The findings would culminate in the preparation and utilisation of guidelines on RM for client-centred service delivery in the health sector of the country.

This paper argues that RM orientation could enable health professionals to improve upon their healthcare service performance and quality of care so as to enhance patient satisfaction.

The study recommends that RM should be adopted by health policy makers and designers of curricula for health training institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic framework with a meta-analytical approach to distinguish various types of antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in the banking sector.

The authors conducted searches in 13 databases and analysed 811 relationships in 210 articles. For the quantitative data analysis, the authors used the coefficient of correlation r as a metric variable to measure the effect size of the studied scope variables.

The findings of this meta-analysis demonstrated ten dimensions that directly influence satisfaction in the banking sector: a bank’s atmosphere, special treatment and relational benefits, timesaving features, the dimensions and determinants of service quality, customers’ overall perceptions of service quality, end-user computing, service recovery, external factors, strategic orientation and behavioural outcomes. These ten dimensions were derived from 55 variables.

This meta-analysis reviewed relationships found worldwide in the literature, expanding and improving the current knowledge. It identified ways that research on satisfaction in the banking sector is lacking and presents suggestions for the elaboration of new studies to allow future researchers to better define their agendas.

The results show that managers should care about satisfaction because it results from the consumer’s banking experience. The ten dimensions affect satisfaction to differing degrees.

This research tested the impact of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in the banking sector and presented important results through this meta-analytical review. This meta-analysis contributes to the marketing literature, with a set of empirical generalizations, including relationship coefficients and calculated fail-safe numbers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and test the relationship between a company’s strategic flexibility, as evidenced by new product development flexibility and market flexibility, and its operational performance (OP) in Jordanian manufacturing companies.

Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected against two strategic decisions market and new product flexibility (NPF) from 222 middle and senior managers belonging to 116 Jordanian manufacturing firms. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to investigate the effects of these two strategic decisions on OP.

Results show a significant positive relationship between both NPF and market flexibility and OP. No significant differences between small and medium enterprises and large companies are found, indicating that the model is valid for both sizes. Also, the additional analyses suggest that the proposition that both NPF and market flexibility are important for OP was correct.

Only two strategic flexibility decisions were considered in this paper, however, researcher could investigate other strategic flexibility decisions on OP.

The strategic flexibility level, in terms of NPF and market flexibility, that is needed for coping with uncertainty equips managers to handle challenges by enhancing the company’s controlled capacity through a considerable reduction in response time. An improvement in the company’s strategic flexibility enhances its overall performance and competitiveness and this, in turn, has a positive impact on its long-term sustainability.

The paper provides insights into the strategic flexibility decision practices in a Jordanian context. It provides further evidence that both market flexibility and NPF are significant in enhancing OP.

This paper aims to derive a model that explores how the interplay between knowledge integration capability and innovation impacts strategic orientation, leading to the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. The study considers the constituents of strategic orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and technology orientation, as the basis for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The study suggests that the firm’s capacity for integrating external and internal knowledge shapes how strategic orientation influences sustainable competitive advantage through service innovation.

This empirical research relies on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from telecom professionals to assess how knowledge integration and service innovation influence sustained competitive advantage. Structured equation modeling is used to examine the model and its interrelationships.

The research establishes significant relationships between strategic orientations, knowledge integration capability, service innovation and sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge integration capability and service innovation are found to mediate the relationship between strategic orientations and the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage.

The study highlights the significant contribution of a firm’s knowledge integration capability in driving service innovation, especially in technology-intensive service industries facing hypercompetition. It also advocates prioritizing technology orientation and integrating knowledge from internal and external sources for competitive advantage.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to model the effect of knowledge integration capability and service innovation on strategic orientation-led sustainable competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to explore mechanisms of cultural distance in the base of Chinese Service Multi-National Enterprise (MNE) settings. When attempting to enter overseas markets, many service MNEs face challenges caused by the cultural distance between the home and host countries. Culture distance attracts much attention in academia and industry. However, there are few empirical works to examine how cultural distance affects customer orientation strategies in a global supply chain. This paper aims to answer the following research question: How is the effect of cultural distance on customer acquisition and customer retention strategies, and the effect of customer orientation strategies on the performance of service-oriented MNEs controlled by Chinese capital along the Belt and Road Initiative?

This paper examines the effect of cultural distance on the customer acquisition strategy and customer retention strategy, and the effect of customer orientation strategies on the performance of Chinese Service MNEs. A large-scale empirical study of Chinese Service MNEs operating in overseas markets is performed and questionnaires were distributed and collected. This paper uses Hofstede's method (Hofstede, 2010), Schwartz's method (Schwartz, 2003) and House et al.'s method (House et al., 2004) to calculate cultural distance. By using each kind of method, this study calculates the absolute culture distance and relative culture distance respectively.

The results suggest that cultural distance negatively affects customer orientation strategy, customer acquisition strategy positively affects performance and the interaction of customer acquisition and customer retention positively affects performance.

This study aims to contribute to the existing literature with a more fine-grained understanding of the inclusion of customer orientation strategy of Chinese Service MNEs in global supply chains.

The findings outline several important implications that Chinese Service MNEs seeking to expand to overseas markets.

This paper contributes a novel, combined perspective of culture distance and customer orientation strategy.

Innovation has become an approach to create value for the customer to remain competitive in the market. However, previous research on innovation performance particularly among Bumiputera small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had received little intention. Hence, Bumiputera SMEs need to inculcate the innovation culture to generate innovation performance. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the ambidextrous orientation and innovation strategy on innovation culture, and how innovation culture could mediate the relationship between ambidextrous orientation and innovation strategy and innovation performance. In addition, this study also examines the role of government support as the moderator between innovation culture and innovation performance.

Data were collected from 140 Bumiputera SMEs and analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modeling via Smart PLS.

Findings indicated that ambidextrous orientation (alignment and adaptability) and innovation strategy (proactive creativity strategy and growth risk orientation strategy) had a significant impact on innovation culture. Besides, innovation culture mediated the relationship between alignment, proactive creativity strategy, growth risk orientation strategy and innovation performance. Surprisingly, innovation culture does not significantly mediate the relationship between adaptability and innovation performance. However, government support plays an important role to support innovation culture and innovation performance in Bumiputera SMEs.

This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions, especially in identifying the significant role of Bumiputera SMEs in creating an innovation culture. Besides, it explained government support as an important role in strengthening the relationship between innovation culture and innovation performance. The findings of the study will provide great help to Bumiputera entrepreneurs in formulating innovation culture in Malaysian SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine political marketing with regard to its different conceptualisations and dimensions, and to suggest cognate areas for empirical research efforts, especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa.

Perspectives from relevant extant literature on meaning and dimensions of political marketing are examined, and empirical examination of these perspectives in developing countries suggested.

It was found that political marketing has many conceptualisations and dimensions, and its practice may be coloured by environmental issues, especially in developing economies with weak democratic infrastructure.

Empirical investigations of political marketing in developing economies, as suggested in this paper, may be constrained by secrecy, lack of secondary data, and aparty on the part of relevant party executives, among others.

Party executives will benefit from the conceptualisations and dimensions documented in this paper. In addition, researchers and students in the areas of marketing and political science will find the research agenda a fertile ground for empirical research effort.

This paper should be of value to political party executives, electoral commissions, educators and students of marketing and political science, in addition to government executives interested in relating beneficially with their citizens and other relevant stakeholders.

This study aims to examine the role of responsive market orientation and proactive market orientation in product innovation performance directly and indirectly via innovativeness, as well as the moderating effect of environmental turbulence in the market orientation‐product innovation performance link among Chinese manufacturing firms.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 227 manufacturing firms in mainland China. A total of 11 hypotheses related to responsive and proactive market orientation, innovativeness and new product success as well as moderating environmental variables are examined by structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression techniques.

The research results show that: both proactive market orientation and responsive market orientation have a positive total effect in improving product innovation performance; the direct path dominates the total effect of responsive MO on new product success, while proactive MO impacts product innovation performance primarily via innovativeness as a mediating variable; and the role of responsive market orientation in new product success is more significant under stable technological and market conditions, while proactive market orientation improves product innovation performance to a greater extent under turbulent technological and market conditions.

The research examines the relationship among responsive and proactive MO, innovativeness and new product success as well as potential environmental moderators, thus contributing to market orientation literature theoretically. In addition, relevant implications are provided for management as to how to improve product innovation performance.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) often gives a humanistic touch to the marketing activities of firms and even creates the atmosphere that businesses are reliable. Yet, little is known about its interaction effect on the relationship between market orientation (MO) and financial and marketing performance in emerging economies. The present study aims to comparatively examine the interaction effect of CSR on the direct link between MO and financial and marketing performance in manufacturing firms in Ghana and Ethiopia.

The interaction effect of CSR is examined using a quantitative methodological study design. A total of 439 usable questionnaires across manufacturing firms in Ghana and Ethiopia were collected and analyzed using SEM-PLS 3.0. Analytically, the study used product indicator approach to test the interaction effect of CSR on the nexus between MO and financial and marketing performance, while PLS-multigroup analysis (PLS-MGA) was used to test the significance of the observed differences in the results among the manufacturing firms in the two countries.

Results show that MO significantly improves financial and marketing performance. However, CSR reveals both “suppression” and “spurious” effects on the direct link between MO and financial and marketing performance under varying market conditions. The relationship between MO and financial performance is weakened in Ghanaian manufacturing firms but is strengthened in Ethiopian manufacturing firms when the level of CSR is high. Results, moreover, show that the nexus between MO and marketing performance is strengthened when CSR actions are high in both Ghanaian and Ethiopian manufacturing firms. The PLS-MGA revealed that these differences in findings in the two countries are statistically significant.

The findings suggest that company managers and marketing practitioners can use CSR in their marketing orientation campaigns to keep high performance and to remain competitive in today’s globalized market.

Findings illustrate that incorporation of social interests and sustainability initiatives into firms’ marketing orientation strategies can meet stakeholders’ interest and expectation.

This is one of the few studies that examine comparatively the interaction effect of CSR on the MO–financial and marketing performance linkage in two emerging economies. The study extends our understanding of the RBV and stakeholder theories regarding the role of CSR in firms’ marketing strategies.