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1 – 10 of over 25000Henry F.L. Chung and Mia Hsiao-Wen Ho
This study aims to examine the effects of international competitive strategies, i.e. cost leadership and differentiation, on export (market share and strategic) performance. This…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of international competitive strategies, i.e. cost leadership and differentiation, on export (market share and strategic) performance. This study further explores the roles of exploitative and exploratory organizational learning in the relationships between international competitive strategies and export performances. To fill research gaps, this study intends to provide guidance on how varied exploitative/exploratory organizational learning and cost leadership/differentiation strategy combinations would affect export performance. The outcomes of this study provide a new match and mis-match conceptualization to extant international competitive strategy and organizational learning literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This study selected New Zealand (NZ) exporting as the research setting because exporting plays such a vital role in NZ’s economy and NZ exporting firms have long been highly competitive in international markets (e.g. meat and dairy exporters), with the primary data collected through surveys conducted in 2010 and 2013. This study adopted a three-year lagged performance approach.
Findings
Cost leadership strategy has a positive effect on market share performance. This effect is enhanced by exploitative learning but dampened by exploratory learning. Cost leadership also has a positive effect on strategic performance, which is not affected by exploitative and exploratory learning. Differentiation strategy bears no relation to market share and strategic performance, even allowing for exploitative and exploratory learning. Collectively, the contingent role of organizational learning in the international competitive strategies and export performance framework is far more comprehensive than was expected.
Research limitations/implications
This study reveals that a match between cost leadership strategy and exploitative learning may result in a superior market share. The configuration of differentiation strategy and exploitative learning and the integration of cost leadership strategy and exploratory learning are suggested as mis-matches, as these combinations would not lead to any significant and positive market share and strategic performance. Unexpectedly, the co-alliance of differentiation strategy and explorative learning is not suggested as a match, as it does not result in a superior market share and strategic performance. This latter outcome suggests that the differentiation strategy-export performance link may be stimulated by other moderating factors (e.g. business managerial ties).
Practical implications
While choosing an appropriate international competitive strategy, managers may use cost leadership over differentiation strategy to achieve successful export performance in both the market share and strategic perspectives. Export managers focusing on cost leadership strategy may further implement exploitative learning instead of explorative learning, when market share is vital. Meanwhile, they may note that explorative learning may not have a moderating effect on enhancing strategic performance through cost leadership. These points signify that exploitation of existing knowledge may be more effective than exploration of new knowledge for market share expansion when cost leadership strategy is devoted to exporting activities. Differentiation strategy, however, does not influence market share and strategic performance in exporting, even with an alignment of exploitative/exploratory learning. Managers are urged to pay attention to the mis-match of differentiation strategy and organizational learning when market share and strategic performance are the priorities in export performance evaluation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the organizational learning literature by providing a new match and mis-match conceptualization relating to international competitive strategy and export performance. The new framework provides directions on when firms should use organizational learning to enhance their competitive strategies (a match scenario) and when they should not use it (a mis-match scenario). This study broadens the existing research that has mainly focused on alignment combinations such as organizational learning-internationalization strategy and organizational learning-social network.
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Rui Sousa and Giovani J.C. da Silveira
This study theoretically articulates and empirically validates a model of relationships between market complexity (competition intensity, heterogeneity and technological change)…
Abstract
Purpose
This study theoretically articulates and empirically validates a model of relationships between market complexity (competition intensity, heterogeneity and technological change), strategic focus on product and service differentiation, ADS offerings and differentiation advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop and test hypotheses through structural equation modeling based on data from the Sixth International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS-VI), involving 931 manufacturers from 22 countries.
Findings
The results indicate that (1) market complexity has a positive impact on strategic focus on product and service differentiation; (2) focus on product and service differentiation, but not market complexity, has a positive impact on the extent to which business units offer ADS to their customers; (3) ADS have a positive impact on service differentiation advantage, but no influence on product differentiation advantage.
Practical implications
Managers should incorporate decisions related to ADS provision as part of their manufacturing strategy formulation processes to align markets, strategic focus on product and service differentiation, and ADS provision. ADS seem an appropriate lever for market differentiation, because they appear not only to support service differentiation advantage, but also to be consistent with strategic focus on product differentiation.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights and large-scale empirical evidence on the influence of the market environment on the offering of ADS, as well as on how relationships between the product and service activity in the manufacturing organization may affect differentiation advantage.
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Karishma Trivedi and Kailash B.L. Srivastava
This study explores how strategic human resource practices enhance the competitive capability of differentiation and cost-effectiveness by leveraging knowledge resources in Indian…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores how strategic human resource practices enhance the competitive capability of differentiation and cost-effectiveness by leveraging knowledge resources in Indian IT/software organizations. It examines the mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) processes in the relationship between strategic HR practices, competitive differentiation and cost-effectiveness capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire survey collected data from 380 knowledge workers in 25 IT/software and consultancy firms. The authors checked data reliability and validity by conducting exploratory factor analysis in SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS. The authors evaluated hypotheses using path analysis in structural equational modeling in AMOS.
Findings
Strategic HR practices significantly and positively affect KM processes and competitive capabilities-differentiation and cost-efficiency. Both strategic HR practices and KM processes have a closer association with differentiation than cost-effectiveness. Knowledge management processes significantly and positively mediate between strategic HR practices and competitive capabilities. The mediation is more substantial in predicting differentiation than cost-effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
It is a cross-sectional study with a constrained capacity to predict accurate causal inferences; The authors call for future studies with longitudinal design and objective measures. Further studies are required to explore the impact of various strategic HR configurations on KMP to understand how different routes stimulate a particular competitive strategy. This conceptual framework can be validated across different industry types and sizes.
Practical implications
This study provides practical insights to HR and knowledge managers regarding devising HR and KM processes to accomplish the goals of differentiation and cost-effective, competitive strategies. This study highlights that leveraging human capital for effective KM is crucial for gaining a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the strategic HR and KM literature by exploring the mediating role of KM processes in enabling strategic HR processes to enhance differentiation and cost-effective, competitive strategies. It provides original empirical evidence from knowledge-intensive IT/software consultancies, particularly in India's emerging economy. It indicates the current state of HR practices adopted for optimum utilization of knowledge resources and the importance of differentiation strategy for Indian knowledge-intensive IT/software firms.
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Karishma Trivedi and Kailash B.L. Srivastava
Innovation is critical for businesses to stay competitive in today's world, as it allows them to constantly look for new ways to differentiate their products or services from…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation is critical for businesses to stay competitive in today's world, as it allows them to constantly look for new ways to differentiate their products or services from their competitors as well as improve cost-effectiveness. This study explore the role of strategic human resource practices in developing organizations' competitive capabilities-differentiation and cost-effectiveness, which, improves their innovation performance to create a competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 387 employees from 25 knowledge-intensive information technology organizations in India through a questionnaire-based survey. After checking for biases, reliability and validity, the hypothesized relationships were tested by structural equational modeling using AMOS 26.
Findings
Strategic HR practices have a significant and positive effect on innovation performance and both competitive capabilities-differentiation and cost-effectiveness. While the differentiation capability had a strong positive effect on innovation performance, cost-effectiveness capability was not significantly related to innovation performance. The differentiation capability mediates the relationship between strategic HR practices and innovation performance link, whereas the cost-effectiveness capability did not have a mediating effect.
Practical implications
This study provides practical insights to HR and knowledge managers to focus on development of human capital and invest in hiring, training, development, strategic performance management practices to enhance employees' knowledge behaviors, which, stimulates innovation performance.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the strategic HRM paradigm by clarifying the underlying process of how strategic HR practices leads to higher innovation. It affirms the vitality of choosing appropriate competitive capabilities, and supporting organizational factor for business's success. It fills an important research gap by providing original empirical evidence from knowledge intensive information technology organizations in the emerging economy of India.
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Henry F.L. Chung and Tsuang Kuo
This study aims to present two new contingent frameworks that hypothesize the moderation role of managerial ties (MTs) in the international competitive strategy-export financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to present two new contingent frameworks that hypothesize the moderation role of managerial ties (MTs) in the international competitive strategy-export financial and strategic performance framework. The purposes of this study are to explore whether a common standardized or individual customized conceptualization consisting of MTs, international competitive strategy and performance can be used to achieve export financial and strategic performance; to offer contingent factors for the current international competitive strategy-export performance framework; and to generalize the roles of MTs in the developed vis-à-vis developing region.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the experience of 114 exporting firms operating in the European Union region to test its theoretical frameworks. MTs include both business and political ties.
Findings
Business and political ties have completely different moderation effects on the relation between international differentiation/low-cost strategy and export financial/strategic performance. Business ties have a positive influence on the international differentiation strategy-export strategic performance and international low-cost strategy-export financial performance dyads, but a negative effect in the international low-cost strategy-export strategic performance framework. In contrast, political ties are revealed to have a negative effect on the international differentiation/low-cost strategy-export financial performance framework.
Originality/value
This research advances extant international competitive strategy-export performance literature by revealing the bright and dark sides of business ties and the down side of political ties in the framework. Performance should be investigated in terms of financial and strategic performance. The moderation effect of business ties is more complex than that reported in the developing region; thus, a cross-regional generalization on these ties’ effects is more difficult to establish. In contrast, the dark side effect of political ties is consistent across developed and developing regions; a cross-regional generalization on these ties is more viable. Collectively, the results show that a standardized process for achieving both export financial and export strategic performances is not feasible, while a customized process for each export performance is needed.
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Changju Kim and Bin Hu
Drawing on the resource-based view, this study aims to investigate the conditions under which small- and medium-sized retailers can improve competitive benefits through the lens…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the resource-based view, this study aims to investigate the conditions under which small- and medium-sized retailers can improve competitive benefits through the lens of brand equity and strategies for competitive advantage in retail buying groups.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 241 samples from small- and medium-sized supermarket retailers who joined retail buying groups in Japan.
Findings
This study offers two key findings. First, the results indicate that a buying group’s brand equity partially mediates the relationship between member retailers’ strategic integration and their buying group benefits. Second, member retailers with a stronger differentiation orientation strengthen the positive impact of strategic integration on the buying group’s brand equity and buying group benefits. The moderating effects of low-cost orientation were not found to be significant.
Practical implications
To highlight the sustainable growth of small- and medium-sized retailers in retail buying groups, which are often ignored in the extant literature, this study offers practical guidance on the importance of a buying group’s brand equity. In addition, based on the findings, this paper postulates that member retailers pursuing differentiation orientation, rather than low-cost orientation, are more beneficial to retail buying groups in terms of relational outcomes and performance consequences.
Originality/value
By conceptualizing brand equity in retail buying groups, this study suggests a novel approach for retail management that investigates how a buying group’s brand equity is linked to strategic integration, strategies for competitive advantage and buying group benefits from the viewpoint of member retailers.
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What effects does radical innovation produce on the dialectical relationship between enterprises and their environment? In this paper, by adopting the dynamic adaptation matrix…
Abstract
Purpose
What effects does radical innovation produce on the dialectical relationship between enterprises and their environment? In this paper, by adopting the dynamic adaptation matrix methodological framework, the author addresses this research question by discussing the evolution of the music industry in the period of 1999-2013. The purpose of this study is to identify possible co-evolutionary adaptation paths, namely, virtuous or contradictory adaptation cycles.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is presented as a descriptive comparative case study about the major changes that have occurred in the sector, and this could be of interest to the industry stakeholders. The paper also contributes to the debate about co-evolution as it is an empirical implementation of the adaptation matrix and sheds light on the main environmental dynamics.
Findings
The author found that for a low level of environmental determinism and moderate degree of strategic choice, cost leadership strategy dominates other strategic options. For moderate levels of environmental determinism, differentiation-marketing strategy ensures a better performance than differentiation-innovation strategy. Finally, for a high level of both environmental determinism and strategic choice, differentiation-innovation strategy is the best strategic option among differentiation strategies.
Practical implications
The adaptation matrix, especially in its dynamic form, can be applied to understand the changes within a sector with a co-evolutionary lens and to analyze critically the strategic choices enacted by the market’s incumbents.
Originality/value
This study may have useful implications for both scientific research and managerial practice. In fact, it is intended for all scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the nature of organizational adaptation, especially in industries affected by major technological changes, such as the music industry, which only recently has been considered as a fertile ground for research.
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This article illustrates how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging market exporting firms can adopt differentiation strategies using composition-based capabilities, which, in…
Abstract
Purpose
This article illustrates how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging market exporting firms can adopt differentiation strategies using composition-based capabilities, which, in turn, will enable them to strengthen their images and market shares, i.e. their strategic marketing performance in advanced markets.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on survey data obtained from 86 Pakistani firms exporting to advanced economies.
Findings
The study found that compositional collaboration capabilities positively influence the differentiation strategies and strategic marketing performance of emerging market exporting firms conducting business in advanced host markets. Furthermore, the findings indicate that differentiation strategies mediate the influence of compositional collaboration capabilities on the strategic marketing performance of these firms.
Originality/value
By taking a new compositional based theoretical perspective, this study examined the underexplored phenomenon of how emerging market firms can differentiate their offerings in advanced export markets in order to achieve a better strategic performance during external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that export growth is a strategic priority for many emerging markets, including Pakistan, due to their substantial trade deficits, this study provides important contributions from both the theoretical and practical perspectives.
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This study aims to test the moderating effect of market-supporting institution on the strategic similarity–firm performance relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the moderating effect of market-supporting institution on the strategic similarity–firm performance relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The present is study based on a large panel of firms from developed and emerging economies covering the period 2000–2014.
Findings
Highly-developed market-supporting institutions improve the performance of firms that stick to industry's average strategies while weakly-developed market supporting institutions improve the performance of firms that deviate from industry norms.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that shows that the effect of strategic similarity on firm performance depends on the degree of development of market-supporting institutions.
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Yuliansyah Yuliansyah and Johnny Jermias
Considering the significant contribution of service sector of the whole contribution of the economics, this study aims to investigate the impact of strategic performance…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the significant contribution of service sector of the whole contribution of the economics, this study aims to investigate the impact of strategic performance measurement sytstem (SPMS) on sustainability strategic outcomes in the industry through organizational learning and service strategic alignment.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey study, 158 usable data were analysed using SmartPLS.
Findings
The results show that service strategic alignment and organizational learning mediate the relationship between SPMS and performance for product differentiation companies. For cost leadership companies, the results indicate that there is no mediation of service strategic alignment and organizational learning on the relationship between SPMS and performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study first provides evidence that SPMS improves performance through service strategic alignment and organizational learning for product differentiation companies in which innovation is crucial to thrive and succeed. Second, it introduces to the literature the characteristics of SPMS.
Originality/value
New insights of implementation of SPMS in improving companies’ performance in Indonesian financial institutions are provided.
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