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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 motivation for this study comes from decision making related to strategic marketing orientations in international markets. The authors examine if customer orientation and customer relationship orientation perform as two distinct constructs in driving firm innovativeness, and how together they support business growth among export firms. This study aims to suggest a customer-centric strategy for export firms that drive innovativeness and growth.

An international corporation specialized in company information services provided a list of the contact information of Italian companies. The authors sent an email request to respond to an online survey and received 416 effective responses from firms operating in export markets. The authors propose and empirically test a model in which customer orientation, customer relationship orientation and innovativeness predict business growth. This model controls for the effects of firm size, industry and customer type (B2B vs. B2C).

The study findings suggest that customer orientation and customer relationship orientation are two distinct strategic orientations driving innovativeness. However, they do not directly affect business growth. Instead, they require the innovativeness of an exporter to materialize as business growth.

The results of the study recommend business strategies focusing not only on customer needs and satisfaction but also on retaining current customers and building customer relationships in international markets. Firms can learn from international customers and develop effective customer-centric strategies to spread the acquired information into the internal decision-making as it contributes to firm innovativeness and business growth in international markets.

This study is one of the pioneering studies combining customer orientation and customer relationship orientation, showing their theoretical and empirical divergence. This study is also among the first which tests how the two strategic orientations together with innovativeness promote business growth among export firms. The authors add understanding of the synergistic effects both of using customer information and developing deeper relationships on firm innovativeness and performance among exporters.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the perceived trustworthiness of a B2B service provider relates to a business customer’s intention to use digital services from that provider. The study investigates whether perceived trustworthiness, composed of ability, integrity and benevolence, explains behavioral intentions equally among all business customer segments, and how characteristics such as job level, decision-making role, technology readiness age and gender moderate these effects.

Drawing on a model of trust transfer mechanism, the study explores how perceived trustworthiness established in face-to-face interaction influences the use of digital services in making B2B purchases. Hypotheses are tested using a sample of 1,866 responses collected from customers of four B2B firms.

Ability is the most influential on the customer’s intention to transact through digital channels, while the effects of integrity and benevolence show more variation. The effect of perceived trustworthiness on the intention to use digital services is remarkably stronger among senior and middle management, high-level decision makers, the younger age segment, men and individuals high in technology readiness, compared to other segments studied.

The study contributes to the scant research on B2B customer behavior in the digital environment and incorporates individual characteristics specific to the industrial domain.

Adopting technological service innovations entails substantial learning effort requiring information and guidance from the provider. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of information and guidance offered by a bank on five adoption barriers – usage, value, risk, tradition, and image – in a mobile banking context.

The measurement development and hypotheses were based on consumer resistance theory and the earlier literature on internet and mobile banking. A large empirical study on bank customers with 1,551 effective observations was conducted. The measure items were validated by measurement model and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The results show that the information and guidance offered by a bank has the most significant effect on decreasing the usage barrier, followed by image, value and risk barriers respectively. The information and guidance showed no effect on the tradition barrier.

This paper provides further understanding of how the information and guidance of a bank affect consumer attitudes and resistance in particular, on mobile banking. It also has implications for management in overcoming resistance to mobile banking.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the perceived obstacles to the adoption of mobile banking services among Brazilian internet users and search for patterns according to socio‐demographics variables.

Data were collected through an online survey involving the internet banking customers of a major Brazilian bank. A total of 3,585 usable cases were collected from customers who do not use any kind of mobile devices (cell phones, PDAs or Smartphones) to access electronic banking services. The main reasons for rejecting the service were explored using multidimensional scaling, while chi‐square tests were used to assess differences between socio‐demographic variables.

The results indicate that the majority of respondents do not use any kind of mobile banking service. Perception of cost, risk, low perceived relative advantage and complexity were revealed to be the main reasons behind the reluctance to use the service. The influence of other background factors is less evident.

The research has practical implications, as it suggests guidance strategies and presents directions for service enhancement as a key to overcoming the perceived obstacles to m‐banking adoption.

This is the first empirical research exploring mobile banking resistance factors in Brazil.

The purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of the diverse retail channel preferences of online bank customers by examining their channel attribute preferences in electronic bill paying. Two different groups of online customers were examined: those who pay their bills over the internet and those who, in addition, have experience of using a mobile phone for this service.

A large internet survey was implemented and conjoint analysis was used in order to identify the utilities of the attribute levels and relative importance of the different attributes. Moreover, cluster analysis was used to group the individuals into homogenous attribute preference segments.

The empirical findings indicate that internet users and mobile users differ in their channel attribute preferences. The results suggest coherent customer preference segments in both groups. In addition, the study identifies a group of potential mobile banking users among those who have never used a mobile phone for banking actions.

An internet survey design exposes the study to some limitations. All the respondents were online users of one bank, which implies problems with generalising the results to the whole population. Moreover, the questionnaire was open only for a limited time period, exposing the study to a potential bias.

The study provides new insights for decision makers in the electronic retail sector and especially in banking. The results contribute information for banks' marketing actions and provide indications to device producers of the need for a more diversified supply of devices for diverse consumer groups.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate innovation resistance among mature consumers in the mobile banking context. The reasons inhibiting mature consumers' mobile banking adoption were compared to those of younger consumers.

Following Ram and Sheth, resistance was measured with five barriers namely Usage, Value, Risk, Tradition and Image barriers. An extensive internet survey was implemented and 1,525 usable responses were collected, of which 370 respondents (24.3 percent) represented the mature consumer segment (age over 55) and 1,155 respondents (75.7 percent) represented the younger consumers.

The empirical findings indicate that the value barrier is the most intense barrier to mobile banking adoption among both mature and younger consumers. However, aging appears to be related especially to the risk and image barriers; the most significant differences between mature and younger consumers' perceptions of mobile banking were related to input and output mechanisms of information, the battery life of a mobile phone, a fear that the list of PIN codes would be lost and end up in the wrong hands and the usefulness of new technology in general.

The study has practical implications to marketers in different fields in that strategies to overcome resistance to innovations like mobile banking are discussed.

Innovation resistance can be seen as a less developed concept in adoption research. While the majority of studies have focused on the success of innovations and reasons to adopt, this study empirically investigates the reasons preventing innovation adoption.

The aim of the paper is to explore and compare customer value perceptions in internet and mobile banking. The purpose especially is to compare customer perceived value and value creation between internet and mobile bill paying service.

A qualitative in‐depth interviewing design was applied in order to ascertain the factors that create value perceptions in fund transfer service via personal computer and mobile phone. Means‐end approach and laddering interviewing technique was used in order to reveal how different value creating factors are hierarchically structured and related to each other.

The results indicate that customer value perceptions in banking actions differ between internet and mobile channels. The findings suggest that efficiency, convenience and safety are salient in determining the differences in customer value perceptions between internet and mobile banking.

The findings of the qualitative study, being more depth than wide in nature, deserve to be quantitatively measured in future studies in order to provide more generalisable results.

The paper provides enhanced information for business managers about both positive and negative customer value perceptions in internet and mobile banking. By understanding how and what kind of value different service channels provide for customers service providers are better enabled to create actions to enhance internet and mobile banking adoption.

The contribution of the paper lies in achieving a more profound understanding on consumer value perceptions to internet and mobile banking. It expands the literature on electronic and mobile commerce and on electronic banking especially.