The competitive response of small,independent retailers to organized retail: Study in an emerging economy

This study aims to decipher the competitive response of small, independent retailers in an emerging economy – India – to the onset of competition from large, organized retailers. The competitive behaviour is comprehended in terms of patterns of retail functional and business strategies, in further classifying the retailers into strategic groups, and finally by assessing the performance of these clusters. The study is based on a primary field survey of 605 grocery shops in two cities in India. The findings of the research point towards the presence of distinct strategies, strategic groups, and the positive impact on small retail performance of adopting distinct retail functional and business strategies.     

Performance effects of aligning service innovation and the strategic use of information technology

In the current dramatically changing business environment, innovation capability is the key to attaining competitive advantages for firms. Drawing on the concept of alignment, the present research proposes a service innovation alignment model within which service innovation and strategic use of information technology (IT) coexist in evaluating performance. Data for hypotheses testing are collected from top-ranked service companies in Taiwan. A total of 165 surveys were collected. Performance implications of alignment are examined using fit as covariation approach. The findings demonstrate that the alignment between service innovation and the strategic use of IT has significant impacts on service innovation performance as well as business performance.     

战略关系:理解私营中小企业竞争优势的新视角

我国私营中小企业有着很强的发展势头,但其自身也存在许多不足。本文认为,当前的主流战略管理理论并不能指导它们的发展,因此必须从交易和企业家个体去理解私营中小企业的发展,关注私营企业发展过程中的关键因素——关系。关系是非常特殊的具有中国特色的概念,将关系提高到战略层面来考虑,是理解私营中小企业构建竞争优势的新视角,为理解私营企业微观行为和宏观战略管理提供了思路,其后继的研究可集中在关系评估的量化以及关系拟合过程,私营中小企业关系实践的实证研究和关系管理技术的开发等三个方面。     

Retail supply chain management practices in India: A business intelligence perspective

The study surveyed executives of a major food retailer in India and explored their perspectives on supply chain management practices, competitive advantage and firm performance; to assess the importance accorded to application of business intelligence (BI) in their operations. Nine dimensions for SCM practices and four dimensions for competitive advantage are identified which are found to strongly relate to each other. The dimensions of SCM also strongly relate to firm performance. Though information sharing with suppliers and their inclusion in strategic decision-making emerge as key dimensions of SCM, their impact on competitive advantage is perceived to be insignificant by retailers.     

Competitive dynamics and business models in service business: a promising research subject

Successful firms create substantial value by doing things in ways that differentiate them from the competition. Business models reflect choices and their operating implications. They facilitate the analysis, testing, and validation of the cause-and-effect relationships that flow from the strategic choices. Due to business models are one of the main forces driving strategic renewal efforts of businesses around the world, we focus on service industry companies and their unique characteristics, with regard to new business and competition models that service companies use for strategic management and on how such models mesh with the traditional processes of competitive and corporative strategies.     

浅谈我国经济型酒店的发展现状与发展策略

随着我国假日经济引发的国内旅游的兴起,使人们对经济型酒店的需求骤然升温,因此为经济型酒店的发展带来了新的商机。在分析我国经济型酒店发展中存在问题的基础上,阐述经济型酒店的市场经营环境,进而提出了我国经济型酒店的发展策略     

Strategic transformation as the essential last step in the process of business turnaround

Just over a decade ago, the work of strategic management scholars helped to broaden the perspectives of executives caught in the throes of declining organizational performance. In addition to the traditional turnaround options that stabilized financial performance, managers were shown approaches that they could deploy to reduce the chances of a recurrence of the turnaround situation. This article updates the progress that has since been made in understanding the turnaround process. Further, we look at an ambitious approach to redirecting the strategies of a reemerging company toward a more promising competitive position, as the essential last step in the process of business turnaround. Called strategic transformation, this approach to reformulating strategy cultivates company growth in strong or emerging markets.     

The Evolution and Challenges of the Concept of Organizational Virtuousness in Positive Organizational Scholarship

This study considers the potential for influencing business students to become ethical managers by directing their undergraduate learning environment. In particular, the relationship between business students’ academic cheating, as a predictor of workplace ethical behavior, and their approaches to learning is explored. The three approaches to learning identified from the students’ approaches to learning literature are deep approach, represented by an intrinsic interest in and a desire to understand the subject, surface approach, characterized by rote learning and memorization without understanding, and strategic approach, associated with competitive students whose motivation is the achievement of good grades by adopting either a surface or deep approach. Consistent with the hypothesized theoretical model, structural equation modeling revealed that the surface approach is associated with higher levels of cheating, while the deep approach is related to lower levels. The strategic approach was also associated with less cheating and had a statistically stronger influence than the deep approach. Further, a significantly positive relationship reported between deep and strategic approaches suggests that cheating is reduced when deep and strategic approaches are paired. These findings suggest that future managers and business executives can be influenced to behave more ethically in the workplace by directing their learning approaches. It is hoped that the evidence presented may encourage those involved in the design of business programs to implement educational strategies which optimize students’ approaches to learning towards deep and strategic characteristics, thereby equipping tomorrow’s managers and business executives with skills to recognize and respond appropriately to workplace ethical dilemmas.     

Globalization and organizational restructuring: A strategic perspective

The new market opportunities, competitive threats, and diffusion of business models associated with globalization have been key drivers of organizational restructuring over the past decade. Companies have responded to these developments in a variety of ways with the objective of improving their cost and/or revenue structures through reorganizing their vertical, horizontal, and spatial boundaries and governance mechanisms. Major forms of restructuring at the business level have included labor intensification, investment in new technologies, downsizing and reengineering, the formation of strategic alliances and networks, spatial reconfiguration, and a shift from international and multinational to global and transnational strategies. To be most effective, any type of restructuring must be clearly and explicitly aligned with a firm's business‐level strategy in order to maximize the efficient and effective allocation of resources in pursuit of competitive advantage. A strategic use of restructuring which links such efforts to broader competitive strategy, and where possible to a “high‐road” approach to overall competitiveness, should result in more sustainable benefits which generate increased value‐added to shareholders as well as greater well being in the broader stakeholder community. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Online visibility as a source of competitive advantage for small- and medium-sized tourism accommodation enterprises

This study examines the importance of the Internet as a distribution channel for medium-sized and small accommodation enterprises, identifying the characteristics that could make the Internet a source of competitive advantage. From the resource-based view, online visibility is considered a differentiating factor in the accommodation business, able to produce superior organisational performance through the capture of new clients and by increasing the occupancy rate. The hypotheses are evaluated using regression models with data from small- and medium-sized hotels in Spain available in the public database SABI. The results show a positive effect of online visibility on organisational performance, although explaining only 10% of performance variance. However, online visibility is a determinant for the percentage of reservations made via the Internet.     

Strategic orientation in handicraft subsistence businesses in Oaxaca,Mexico

Abstract

This article, based in the body of strategic orientation literature, identifies and explores the practices of innovativeness, proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness that make up the strategic orientation implemented by subsistence entrepreneurs to improve business performance. A factor analysis was carried out using the data of 101 entrepreneurs, small artisanal business owners who operate in the subsistence markets in Oaxaca, Mexico. The results show that subsistence entrepreneurs notably engage in innovative and proactive practices, and, to a lesser extent, competitive aggressiveness. The research concludes that a combination of innovativeness with proactiveness is the most viable option for improving performance, whereas competitive aggressiveness impedes its development. Even so, however, it is still implemented by subsistence businesses in order to conserve their market share.     

THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS IN MARKET ORIENTATION

In today's increasingly competitive environment, survival depends on two key aspects of being market‐oriented ‐ understanding the external environment and executing decisions based on that understanding. Logistics personnel are uniquely positioned to play a key role in creating and maintaining a market‐oriented organization as they are progressively gaining more responsibilities in integrating cross‐functional processes and implementing supply chain strategies. This paper explores how logisticians participate in market orientation behaviors and how a market‐oriented logistics function impacts logistics and business performance. Based on a qualitative field research study involving in‐depth interviews with seventeen logistics personnel that draws and builds upon the logistics, market orientation, knowledge management, organizational behavior, information processing, and strategic management literatures, a theoretical model of logistics market orientation and its effect on logistics and business performance is developed and propositions are presented. Findings highlight logistics' central role in generating, disseminating, reaching a shared interpretation of, and responding to market intelligence.     

A resource-based analysis of sustainable competitive advantage in a global environment

The extant business literature on global competitive advantage has been dominated by a contingency-based approach, which advocates the attainment of fit between the firm's strategy, structures and processes and its competitive conditions. However, most support for this view has been anecdotal and rigorous empirical evidence has been lacking. This study adopts a more voluntaristic stance, and integrates perspectives from international business and strategic management to propose a resource-based model of global sustainable competitive advantage (GSCA). A series of hypotheses are presented on the nature of global resources and on the relationships between these resources and sustained superior performance. The model is tested on a sample of firms in the global automotive components industry with promising results. Conclusions are drawn and the implications for research and practice are outlined.     

Retail environment and manufacturer competitive intensity

We study how the intensity of competition and the degree to which manufacturers enjoy market power depends on the retail environment in a given market. Past research has discussed the growing importance of retailers and the power they enjoy over manufacturers. Yet, the empirical literature to date has not determined which retail characteristics have the largest impact on competitive behavior.Our starting point is the estimation of a structural demand-and-supply model, where both consumers’ decisions and the strategic interactions between manufacturers and retailers are explicitly modeled. We identify the type of competitive behavior of manufacturers by measuring the deviation from a Bertrand-Nash equilibrium. This measure of competitive conduct is expressed as a function of key retail characteristics such as size of the retailer, its assortment depth, and category expertise.We illustrate the proposed approach using data for the ground coffee category in Germany. Our findings indicate that retail characteristics have indeed a significant effect on competitive intensity among upstream firms and on their ability to exercise market power. Hence, a manufacturer considering entry into a new market should not only take into account its competitors but also the specifics of the retail environment in this market.     

Coping with the African Business Environment: Enterprise Strategy in Response to Institutional Uncertainty in Tanzania

Weak institutions, endemic market failures and low trust permeate the Tanzanian business environment. Nevertheless, some local enterprises overcome these challenges. Based on case studies of Tanzanian food processing enterprises, this paper identifies a number of coping strategies that contrasts markedly with the strategies traditionally emphasized by the strategic management literature: Instead of focus strategies, Tanzanian enterprises diversify; Instead of competitive strategies, Tanzanian enterprises adopt network strategies; And instead of internationalizing based on strengths, Tanzanian enterprises internationalize to overcome weaknesses. The paper traces these strategies back to specificities of the Tanzanian institutional environment and discusses implications for the strategic management literature.     

Management framework guiding strategic thinking in rapidly changing markets

Developing a management framework to guide strategic thinking in changing markets is increasingly critical for researchers and executives in coping with the complex and rapidly changing global business environment. Conventional training and practices have too often led strategy researchers and executives to assume a stable competitive box around existing businesses, not recognising the effects of radical and increasingly disruptive change on markets and competitive space. New strategic thinking logic and initiatives require a conceptual framework to guide obtaining information, perceptive interpretation of strategic issues and trends, and choice of the right strategic initiatives. The conceptualisation begins by determining the market-based strategic capabilities needed to identify the nature and scope of determinants of market changes. These changes must be identified, driven by new competition, new business models, and creativity and innovation. Understanding fast changing markets requires identifying new market space, conducting strategic segmentation analysis, and determining customer value requirements. Finally, this knowledge guides strategic vision and formulation and implementation of market-driven strategies for changing markets. The framework is based on conceptual logic and empirical findings from multiple disciplines including marketing strategy and strategic management     

Improving competitiveness through city marketing in Spanish hotels

The degree to which hotels can be competitive depends upon some very important factors, such as city promotion initiatives and city knowledge networks. The purpose of this study is to analyse and present how a city marketing procedure could become an effective tool for knowledge development and the competitiveness of Spanish hospitality hotels. Our findings support the view that in order to implement a marketing city programme oriented towards hotels, municipal managers need to provide and support knowledge creation networks. Furthermore, a hotel's size is significantly associated with levels of city promotion initiatives. Therefore, to consolidate marketing city results among small hotels, municipal managers need to reinforce the environment in which hotel managers operate and provide them with the means to survive in the context of a competitive knowledge-based economy.     

United we stand,divided we fall: historical trajectory of strategic renewal activities at the Scandinavian Airlines System, 1946–2012

Although the second half of the twentieth century saw the rise and fall of ‘multi-flag companies’ (MFCs) in the civil aviation industry, our understanding of how some managed to buck the trend and achieve longevity remains limited. This article advances business history and strategic management research by examining the strategic renewal activities of Scandinavian Airlines (formerly Scandinavian Airlines System [SAS]) during the period 1946–2012. The study sheds light on the key roles of private and state owners, rivals as well as banks, in critical financial phases are discussed in terms of longevity in the company. The longevity of the business stems from the leaders’ ability to develop as anticipated and respond to change in their competitive arena in close interaction with the owners. Thus, incumbent firms that strategically renew themselves prior to or during market reform, such as deregulation, enhance their chances of developing the size of their networks and revenue streams. Our main contribution to business history and strategic management literatures is the development of context-specific stages, which shed light on the evolution of strategic renewal activities and shifts from older processes and routines towards customer service and efficiency.     

A balanced scorecard-based composite measuring approach to assessing the performance of a media outlet

In an attempt to overcome massive challenges to survive in today's global and volatile marketplace, companies are adopting newer management systems to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is one such approach which is gaining significant interest, especially within the small and medium size enterprises. This paper describes a BSC-based composite measuring approach to performance measurement and illustrates how the approach was used by a media outlet in Turkey as part of strategic policing initiative. In the paper, first, a BSC framework was adapted, and then a composite measure was developed thereon to assess the performance of the organization with regard to its strategic business objectives. The scorecard-based composite measure was built around a vision to create superior growth of aggregate value through outlet operations. It was found that by using the suggested framework, it is possible to identify and measure the cause-and-effect relationship of using an effective operations strategy, and to assess its impact on the company's competitive advantages. This research exercise confirms the validity and usefulness of the proposed methodology and offers managerial insights and guidelines for similar implementations.