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The purpose of this study is to assist practitioners in improving the benefits they receive from trade shows. This study seeks to investigate the behaviour of resource commitment of exhibiting firms and its relationships with market orientation and exhibition performance.

Data were collected at the 2007 Suzhou Circuitex Show, which is held annually in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. It is one of the largest international shows for the printed circuit board (PCB) industry. A total of 315 questionnaires were handed out and 185 usable questionnaires were returned.

The results advance the theoretical understanding of the market orientation‐resource commitment behaviour – performance framework within the setting of an industrial trade show. This study finds that market orientation is positively associated with an exhibiting firm's resource commitment behaviour, which in turn has varying influences on the different dimensions of trade show performance.

The cross‐sectional study suggests that different facets of exhibition resource commitment may have distinct effects on several dimensions of trade show performance. Future research should adopt a longitudinal survey and extend this study domain to a broader range of industrial contexts.

The research provides a better understanding of the development process of trade show programmes for practitioners in industrial firms to develop effective exhibition strategies.

This paper fills a significant gap in the literature and offers evidence for the relationships among market orientation, resource commitment behaviour and trade show performance. Furthermore, the current research identifies three aspects of resource commitment behaviour and creates corresponding measures for them.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying dimensions of trade show performance in an emerging market context. Firms in industrial and emerging markets typically differ in terms of access to firm level resource endowments. Such differences make attempts to generalize the trade show performance dimensions proposed for industrialized country exhibitors to emerging market exhibitors problematic. This motivates the need for understanding the dimensionality of trade show performance in an emerging market context.

Data obtained from firms that partake in an emerging market trade show that takes place in an emerging market are used to investigate the dimensionality of trade show performance. By subjecting several trade show performance items into principal component analysis, a multidimensional performance construct, applicable to emerging market exhibitors, is introduced.

The empirical findings show that trade show performance, in an emerging market context, is multidimensional. The findings suggest that emerging market exhibitors tend to utilize trade shows somewhat differently from their industrialized market counterparts.

The findings imply the need for exhibit managers in emerging markets to set multiple objectives for trade show participations. The findings also suggest that exhibit managers need to staff the trade show booth with individuals possessing different sets of expertise.

The paper clarifies the dimensionality of trade show performance in the context of emerging markets and sheds light on the tactical and the strategic roles that trade show participations play in emerging markets.

This paper seeks to examine the differences at international trade shows between exhibitors who participate in joint booths and those who participate in individual booths. The structure, strategy and trade show performance of exhibitors at joint booths and those at individual booths are analysed.

The paper presents an empirical study of 208 exhibitors at an international food and beverage show, focusing on the differences in structure, strategy and performance between individual exhibitors and exhibitors at joint booths. The differences are identified and discussed.

Individual exhibitors place more personnel and products at their booths and they allocate more resources, top management commitment and planning. However, exhibitors at joint booths have more formalised planning and objective setting. The performances of five groups of trade show activities were assessed. Individual exhibitors perform significantly better on image‐building activities at the show. There are no differences with regard to firm characteristics between the two participation modes.

The study is limited by the fact that the sampling frame is made up of exhibitors at a single international food and beverage show, and may therefore be more representative of that kind of show. Despite the limitations encountered, the findings have important implications for exhibitors at international trade shows and export marketing programmes as well as other marketing programmes offering services to international trade show exhibitors.

A broad range of joint booths and strategy variables is investigated. Also, a more comprehensive and theoretical grounded performance measure is adopted compared with previous research.

A growing body of literature highlights the relationship between the marketing strategies for trade shows and performance. However, the effect of exhibitor experience on the international trade show processes has not been addressed in the literature. This chapter fills the gap by examining the moderating role of exhibitors’ trust, commitment, and satisfaction at World Travel Mart London 2017. The purposes are to identify the concepts of experiential marketing, to develop a conceptual framework, and to propose a new perspective on exhibitors’ performance at such events. Using survey data, structural equation modeling was applied to test the theoretical links and assess the value of competing explanations.

This study proposes a literature review and, based on the findings, the authors develop a conceptual framework, attempting to explain how technology may influence visitor behavior and eventually trade show performance.

The present research explores the role of visitors in the trade show context. The analysis specifically focuses on the variables that influence visitors’ participation at business-to-business trade shows and how their satisfaction and perception can be related to exhibition performance. The authors also take into consideration technological trends that prior to COVID-19 pandemics were slowly emerging in the trade show industry.

The findings highlight a continuity between pre-, at and postexhibition phases. Visitors’ behavior represents a signal of how a trade show is perceived as postexhibition purchases and next visit emerge as signals of an exhibition evaluation in relation to visitors’ perception. Besides being urgent tools for the continuity of the sector due to the pandemics, emerging technological trends can be key elements in understanding visitors’ behavior and in boosting their interest and loyalty toward trade shows.

The paper proposes a conceptual model including top notch and innovative technological trends to improve the understandment of visitors’ behavior. Both practitioners in companies and academics might find the study useful, given the digital uplift generated by the pandemics.

Previous studies explored only the direct effect of industry, company and trade show strategy influence factors on trade show performance and left the intervening processes virtually unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to provide one of the first empirical tests of the intervening role of trade show marketing processes (pre‐show promotion, at‐show selling, and post‐show follow‐up) in the relationship between resource allocation and performance of trade shows.

This study used the Directory of Chinese Export Commodities Fair Exhibitors as its sampling frame. From this directory, a systematic random sample of 1,000 firms was drawn. A final total of 444 exhibitor firms fully completed the questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 44.4 per cent. The hypotheses were tested by regression analysis, the appropriate procedure for assessing interdependent variables, since trade show marketing processes are interdependent.

The results show that the effect of the resources variables on sales and non‐sales achievement for trade shows were not fully, but rather were partially, mediated by trade show marketing processes.

By empirically exploring the notion of partial mediation of the effects of firm resources through trade show marketing processes, this study has opened up a fruitful avenue for future research on trade show marketing.

Applying stakeholder theory in the trade show industry, this paper aims to examine the effects of the key stakeholders’ perceptions on trade show exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

This study used a 46-item measurement scale on exhibitors’ satisfaction to predict positive behavioral intention. Three dimensions were proposed to account for three key stakeholders in the trade show industry: satisfaction with self-performance, satisfaction with organizers and satisfaction with visitors. Data were collected from 594 exhibitors at three trade shows.

This study found that satisfaction with self-performance, satisfaction with organizers and satisfaction with visitors are significantly and positively related to exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention. All three dimensions in combination explained approximately two-thirds of the variance in exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

This study introduced a new way of predicting exhibitor’s positive behavioral intention. Satisfaction with organizers was found to be the dominant predictor of exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention, which challenges the notion that exhibitors attend trade shows only for sales activities.

Trade show organizers and exhibitors could use the three determinants as a diagnostic tool for future improvement and benchmark their performances across different time periods and/or against their competitors.

Although the three key stakeholder types have been studied previously, the factors that theoretically lead to exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention have not been simultaneously addressed. For the first time, the model proposed in this study showcased the importance of considering all three key stakeholders when studying exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

E-Trade (paperless trade or cross-border e-commerce in B2B format) does not necessarily show positive results. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize why and how such happens and furthermore, has two research purposes. First is to explain why studies in e-Trade performance show controversial results, such as some showing positive while others are not. Second is to investigate the relationship among research constructs such as e-Trade benefits, e-Trade use, asset specificity, and exporting firm’s capability.

This study considers multiple dimensions and evolutionary perspective of e-Trade performance. Structural equation model adopts the measures of firm’s capability, e-Trade use, and benefits to analyze e-Trade performance. Performance was divided into organizational net benefits (ONB) and industrial net benefits. Several hypotheses were suggested to test the relationship among the variables in the model. Basic moderator effect represented as an interaction between asset specificity and other constructs. In total, 295 exporting firms have participated in the survey and their responses were utilized for analysis.

This study shows that e-Trade performance should consider maturity as well as multiple stages among constructs. Critical paths were found among capability factors, process use (PU), ONB, and asset specificity. Results also show that information capability and marketing capability (MC) are determinant factors on e-Trade performance. In addition, MC and level of PU are read to be determinant factors of ONB. Furthermore, small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) asset specificity, with level of capability and e-Trade use moderates their e-Trade performance.

Asset specificity of SMEs has to be managed in a positive direction. Government’s e-Trade supporting programs for SMEs should be transformed in a way that can foster the growth of capability and self-sustainment. It reads to be inevitable to amend the current characteristics of e-Trade services. Furthermore, developing a specialized e-Trade service for large firms will also be in need. And utilizing exporting firm’s financial data would be more advisable testing the hypotheses.

Most works in information system as well as in e-Trade area report controversial performance results and this paper suggests an alternative model by combining asset specificity into capability and e-Trade use. Study on e-Trade performance is complicated and needs to consider multiple dimensions as well as their stages. This study envisions firm’s capability, asset specificity and at the same time contributes in e-Trade benefits.

Taking the dynamic capability and institutional perspectives, this study seeks to examine how capability‐driven and institution‐driven factors influence usage of internet technology in trade show markets. The current study also examines the influence of the usage of the internet for trade show marketing on performance of trade shows.

Structural equation modeling was undertaken to test the research model in a sample of 414 exhibitors at the Chinese Export Commodity Fair.

Overall, the results point to the powerful influence of the usage of the internet for trade show marketing on trade show performance as perceived by exhibitors. The specific results also reveal that, while a website's capability in providing quality information facilitates the usage of the company website for pre‐show promotion, an exhibitor's legitimacy motive of using its website to build up the company image contributes to the usage of the company website for at‐show selling, and the firm's inter‐functional coordinating capabilities that capitalize on internet connectivity in support of superior customer services encourage the usage of company website for post‐show follow‐up.

The key lesson for exhibitors is to adopt the right approach to internet marketing – using the internet primarily for “informational and communicational purpose” in pre‐show promotion, and for “customer service and support purpose” in post‐show follow‐up.

While trade shows remain an important customer relationship management (CRM) tool, recent advancements in information technology (IT) have raised concerns about the future of trade shows. This study aims to examine the antecedents and consequences of IT integration into trade shows.

The study uses a questionnaire-based survey with senior and middle managers in the aviation services, resulting in 135 valid responses from industry professionals. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings demonstrate differential but significant impact of perceptions toward website design and firm motivations toward the integration IT in the three stages of trade shows marketing. The results also show significant impact of IT usage on the perceptions toward the accomplishment of trade show objectives. Further, the results vary according to the levels of experience of the professionals.

This study did not account for the differences in perceptions toward IT implementation across personnel from different departments, such as IT, finance and operations management. In addition, it did not examine situational factors and individual characteristics as additional antecedents of IT usage in trade shows, including pricing, return on investment, convenience and the social media.

Exhibitors are advised to integrate IT in supporting pre-trade show activities to approach potential customers. Exhibitors should integrate electronic interactions and personal communications during the show to reduce the amount of unanswered customer queries, focusing on timeliness and accuracy of information content, ease of navigation and graphic attractiveness of corporate websites, as effective CRM tools.

This paper offers novel insights into hitherto unknown aspects of trade show performance. The results have managerial implications for adopting IT as a CRM tool for effective trade show management.