Effect of transformational-leadership style and management control system on managerial performance

Our study adds perspective on research into choices in the design of management control systems by examining: (1) how transformational-leadership style influences the choice of the design of a comprehensive performance-measurement system (PMS) and reward system; (2) how subordinate managers' reliance on broad-scope accounting (BSA) information facilitates their managerial decision-making processes and managerial performance. Our results suggest that transformational-leadership style has a significant positive and direct effect on managerial performance. We find that it has a significant positive and direct effect on the use of BSA information and comprehensive PMS, but has no significant effect on reward systems. We also find that transformational-leadership style has a partial indirect effect on managerial performance via three mediators, namely, comprehensive PMS, reward systems, and BSA information. Our findings shed light on how such mediators intervene in the relationship between transformational-leadership style and managerial performance.     

Studying resource and capability effects on export venture performance

While extant research has welcomed the resource and capability perspectives as valuable lenses to study international business phenomena, there have been scant attempts to study the role of comprehensive sets of firm resources and capabilities on different aspects of export venture performance and even less the role of their interactions. This study examines the impact of experience, scale of operation and financial resources as well as informational, customer relationship and product development capabilities on dimensions of export venture performance. The results suggest an interesting role of knowledge factors. Each one of experience and informational capabilities has a U-shaped effect on export venture performance, while their interaction negatively impacts the same, denoting that the two factors are antagonistic. Scale of operation and financial resources have a U-shaped and a negative effect respectively on adaptability only, while neither customer relationship nor product development capabilities directly influence export venture performance. Finally, the interaction of product development with informational capabilities has a positive impact only on efficiency. Practitioners are offered specific suggestions as to where they should place emphasis when pursuing particular performance objectives.     

Defining the Relationship among Founding Resources,Strategies, and Performance in Technology-Intensive New Ventures: Evidence from the Semiconductor Silicon Industry*

The degree to which a firm's performance is dependent on its resources and strategies is widely debated in the literature. We examine this issue by analyzing historical data on the entire population of new independent firms started worldwide in the semiconductor silicon industry for the first 50 years of its existence. We measure resources (managerial capabilities and technological competencies) and strategies (emphasis on demand pull or technology push) at the time of founding and test their relationship with each other as well as with multiple measures of performance (lifespan and best year's sales). We find that firms founded on managerial capabilities emphasize demand-pull strategies at founding, whereas firms founded upon technological competencies emphasize technology-push strategies at founding. We also find that firms emphasizing technology-push strategies perform better than firms emphasizing demand-pull strategies. Lastly, we find that though managerial capabilities are related to a firm's best year's sales, this relationship is mediated by the firm's founding strategy.     

Export Performance: Is It Possible through Knowledge and Capabilities? Evidence from Turkish Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: This article measures to what extent export performance is affected by certain resource-based view (RBV) elements and seeks to elucidate relationships between these elements. Design: Among those RBV elements, knowledge and experience as resources, and marketing, production, product development, logistics, and service differentiation as capabilities, are chosen to be the basis of this research. Their effects on export performance are measured with a survey applied to personnel of Turkish manufacturing firms operating in Istanbul district. Findings: The results show us that marketing planning capabilities and service differentiation capabilities have a significant effect on export performance. The overwhelming effect of knowledge and experience of firms on marketing planning capabilities is one of the intriguing findings. Notwithstanding that, we found no trace of a relationship between product development capabilities and service differentiation capabilities. Value: This research provides several managerial and academic implications by contributing to a resource-based view in terms of knowledge and capabilities. Additionally, in this study, it is underlined that collective knowledge is vital for achieving high export performance.     

An empirical investigation of the antecedents and performance outcomes of export innovativeness

The present study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model of the organizational, strategic, and environmental drivers of export innovativeness. The relationship between export innovativeness and export performance is also examined. Using data collected from 168 small- and medium-sized direct exporters, we find that decentralization in decision making, export market orientation, information exchange and export market dynamism have a significant influence on exporting firms’ degree of innovativeness. Furthermore, export innovativeness has a significant positive effect on export performance. Several theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these findings. Directions for future research are also provided.     

Exploring the role of dynamic capabilities in firm performance under the resource-based view framework

This study investigates the role of dynamic capabilities in the resource-based view framework, and also explores the relationships among different resources, different dynamic capabilities and firm performance. Employing samples of top 1000 Taiwanese companies, the findings show that dynamic capabilities can mediate the firm's valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (VRIN) resources to improve performance. On the contrary, non-VRIN resources have an insignificant mediating effect. Among three types of dynamic capabilities, dynamic learning capability most effectively mediates the influence of VRIN resources on performance. Furthermore, the important role of VRIN resources is addressed because of their direct effects on performance based on RBV, as well as their indirect effect via the mediation of dynamic capabilities.     

External Financing,Export Intensity and Inter‐Organizational Collaborations: Evidence from Canadian SMEs*

Drawing on institutional theory, resource‐based perspective and internationalization theory, we propose that the domestic collaborations of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have a direct positive effect on their export intensity, as well as an indirect effect through enhancing these firms' access to external financing. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 151 Canadian manufacturing SMEs and find partial support for the indirect relationship. Overall, our results suggest that domestic collaborations positively affect SMEs' access to equity financing but not to bank financing. While both equity and bank financing are found to enhance these firms' export intensity, bank financing seems to have a greater impact. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Experience,age and exporting performance in UK SMEs

We consider the determinants of SME exporting performance using a survey of internationally engaged UK SMEs. We first develop a model incorporating organisational and prior managerial learning effects. Our empirical analysis then allows us to identify separately the positive effects on exporting from the international experience of the firm and the negative effects of firm age. Positive exporting effects also result from grafted knowledge – acquired by the recruitment of management with prior international experience. Innovation also has positive exporting effects with more radical new-to-the-industry innovation most strongly linked to inter-regional exports; new-to-the-firm innovation is more strongly linked to intra-regional trade. Early internationalisation is also linked positively to the number of countries to which firms export and the intensity of their export activity. We find no evidence, however, relating early internationalisation to extra-regional exporting, suggesting that early-exporting SMEs tend be ‘born regional’ rather than ‘born global’.     

Complementary effect of entrepreneurial and market orientations on export new product success under differing levels of competitive intensity and financial capital

The literature implies that entrepreneurial and market orientations are market-based resources that are essential for securing business success, but their performance impacts are unclear. In the specific field of export research, there is limited information on the interactive effect of these two market-based resources on export new product performance. Accordingly, the current study investigates the joint impacts of these two resources on export new product performance under differing levels of competitive intensity and financial capital. Using a survey of 212 British exporters, the study shows that seeking complementarity between entrepreneurial-oriented and market-oriented behaviors is a useful strategy for export new product success, especially when there is a suitably high level of competitive intensity in the export market environment, and when the export unit has greater access to financial capital. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

Strategic choice during economic crisis: Domestic market position,organizational capabilities and export flexibility

This study examines how sudden shrinkage of domestic demand affects firm-level export performance. Using the Asian economic crisis as a natural experiment, we show that while the industrial organization (IO) economics and resource-based view (RBV) apply well in the pre-crisis period, the real options perspective does a better job in explaining firms’ efforts to increase exports in the post-crisis period. Specifically, using a real options perspective, we show how sudden change in domestic demand provides benefits to those firms that have invested in flexible capabilities while those firms that are locked in with inflexible resources fail to change. We find that the positive relationship between a firm's domestic market position and export intensity becomes stronger in the post-crisis than the pre-crisis period. Further, we find a positive relationship between non-location-bound flexible capabilities such as R&D and export intensity and a negative relationship between location-bound inflexible capabilities such as advertising and export intensity. These relationships become more pronounced in the post-crisis period.     

Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: A developing country perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted wider research interests over recent decades. While some studies have examined the impact of CSR activities on firm competitive advantage (CA), the findings so far remain contradictory. Moreover, the role of export orientation, firm strategy, and structure on the association between CSR and CA has not been explicitly examined. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of export orientation, firm strategy, structure, and firm size on the association between CSR and CA. Using a sample of 179 responses from management staff in organizations across five sectors in a developing country context of Ghana, the study found positive effects of CSR on CA. The study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV) scholarship by confirming the important complementary effect of export orientation and organizational structure as important resources and capabilities on the CSR–competitiveness relationship. However, no evidence of a moderating effect of firm strategy, or firm size on the CSR–CA relationship was found. These findings are instructive, impactful, and enrich the existing literature on CSR and strategy. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

Managerial competencies,innovation and engagement in SMEs: The mediating role of organisational learning

According to job demands-resources theory, resources promote positive attitudes, which results in several positive behaviors at work. However, there is little research that examines the effect of managerial competencies on positive attitudes at work. Our research proposes a scale of 7 managerial competencies that evidence to be connected with a particularly relevant attitude at work, namely, engagement. We find that the proposed managerial competencies scale overcomes the required psychometric properties, on the basis of a sample of 204 managers of Spanish SMEs. Following job demands-resources theory, our study confirms a direct and positive effect of the 7 managerial competencies on engagement. The implications of the study are that managerial competencies should be considered by managers to promote engagement at work.     

Selecting a marketing strategy for private hotels in Taiwan using the analytic hierarchy process

Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to competitive advantage, the current study attempts to identify specific resources and capabilities of small ventures by focusing on private hotels and by doing so develops an evaluation framework of marketing strategy in a service industry within its unique conditions. Given the complexity and difficulty of utilizing allocated specific and limited resources with a marketing strategy toward a competitive advantage for private hotels the purpose of the current study is to employ the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to select a competitive marketing strategy for private hotels. After reviewing theory and research on competitive advantage in general and in the service industry in particular, the resources and capabilities are identified as managerial capabilities, customer-linking capabilities, market innovation capabilities, human resource assets, and reputational assets. Finally, the findings indicate that the differentiation strategy is the best strategy for private hotels. The study emphasizes the importance of allocating specific and limited resources and capabilities to evaluate and select an appropriate marketing strategy so as to capture a sustainable competitive advantage.     

Trust and affective commitment as energizing forces for export performance

This study explores the effects of trust, commitment, relation-oriented competencies and entrepreneurial competencies on export performance. Using survey data from 134 exporting organizations located in the south of the Netherlands, a conceptual model is tested in which trust and affective commitment act as energizing forces for the development of competencies that have a positive effect on export performance. The main difference between this approach and other models is that affective commitment is hypothesized to have an indirect effect on performance, rather than a direct effect. This prediction is borne out by the data, which indicates that the role of trust and affective commitment in relational models of export performance may need to be reconsidered.     

Businesses without glamour? an analysis of resources on performance by size and age in small service and retail firms

Research on factors influencing performance in new and small companies is extensive. Earlier work found that strategies (e.g. cost, quality, differentiation, etc.) affected performance contingent on industry conditions, the environment, and the entrepreneur’s background. Although this work provides a solid basis for understanding differences in entrepreneurial performance, some firms are limited in their choices of strategy due to size, age, or industry. Often these firms are in industries where entry barriers are low and competitive advantages are easily imitated.Small service and retail businesses operate in sectors where these conditions are apparent. Comprising more than 50% of all small firms, they require minimal start-up investments but face intense competition. Lacking the “glamour” of high innovation/high growth firms, service and retail companies are at the “end” of the value chain, their fortunes rising and falling as a result of the direct influence of the owner-founder. Hence, performance variation may be better explained by the capabilities of the firm or individual competencies of the owner-founder, that is the resource-base and resource combinations, rather than strategy.The strategic importance of an organization’s resources and capabilities is the foundation of resource-based theory. Resources are tangible and intangible assets tied to the firm in a relatively permanent fashion. Their combinations are heterogeneous and form the basis for product/market strategies. Studies of resources, strategies, and performance are emerging in the entrepreneurial area. Research shows that various resources in concert with different strategy types can lead to above average performance over the business life cycle, and that combinations of resources are related to survival. Yet the vast majority of work focuses on high growth, high tech, or manufacturing businesses. Less is known about the relationships of resources to performance in less “glamorous” sectors. In these small service and retail businesses, we speculate that resources, in particular human and organizational resources, may play a greater role in explaining performance than strategy. Further, as other authors have suggested, it is expected that the combinations of these resources will vary across age and size.This study examines the influence of human and organizational resources on performance in a sample of 195 service and retail firms operating in central New Jersey, using a structured questionnaire. All companies utilized a focus strategy (either focused cost or focused differentiation) and employed a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 100 employees. All measures had theoretical and/or empirical precedent and were tested statistically for reliability. We used factor analysis to reduce the independent variables to: two human resource variables (owner resources and commitment), one organizational resource variable (comprised of planning, systems, and staff skills), and one strategy variable (focused cost and focused differentiation). Control variables were business age, business size, environmental benignness, and industry growth. The dependent variable performance was measured in two ways: net cash flow and log of growth in employees over 3 years.The study first examined whether strategy or resources had a greater influence on performance. Results showed that strategy influenced performance less than human and organizational resources both individually and interactively. The influence of owner resources (background and attitudes) on net cash flow was stronger than on growth, where the only significant variable was industry (market) growth.To analyze effects of resources on performance by size, we divided the sample by size groupings, selecting the smallest (maximum five employees) and largest quartiles (minimum 16 employees), which were comprised of 55 and 50 companies, respectively. These analyses showed that owner resources, commitment, and organizational resources contributed positively to net cash flow in very small firms; however, interactive effects of these resource combinations were negative. For instance, owner resources and organizational resources together, and organizational resources and commitment together, resulted in less positive cash flow than when analyzed separately. This implies that different resource combinations can have negative influences in these very small firms.We examined age effects in the same manner as size—dividing the sample into age group quartiles and conducting an analysis only for very young (fewer than 5 years) and very old (minimum 19 years) groups, which comprised 54 and 52 companies, respectively. These analyses showed that although growth was more rapid among the youngest firms, there were no distinctive resource-based correlates to growth in either age group. Substantive increases in formalized systems and procedures were not apparent among the oldest of these companies compared with the youngest, contrary to previous work showing the evolution of these over business life cycles.Results of this study are applicable only in the context of service and retail firms, and, readers should note this sample was nonrandom and geographically concentrated. Our purpose was not to predict, but describe associations between resources and performance. This study shows that, for firms in competitive industries at the end of the value chain, type of strategy is less important than resource combinations for certain types of performance. Human and organizational resources are associated with more positive cash flow, whereas industry and market factors are related to growth. These results imply that firms seeking growth are best served by selecting and entering growth markets and industries. On the other hand, if strong positive cash flows are the primary objective, attention to combinations of resources is more important. For instance, owner-founders having a strong business and managerial background, and industry experience will need less formalized systems, whereas those owner-founders with weaker managerial resources might benefit from more formalized procedures and skilled staff.     

The two faces of foreign management capabilities: FDI and productive efficiency in the UK retail sector

We investigate the impact of management capabilities of foreign firms on the management capabilities and performance of domestic firms using survey data on the UK retail sector. On average, foreign-owned retail firms achieve higher management capability scores and are more productive than domestic firms. Our results suggest two faces of foreign management capabilities. On the one hand, capabilities that can be codified, for example human resource management capabilities, generate some positive spillovers on the relevant management capabilities of local firms. On the other hand, dimensions of capabilities that are more tacit and highly competitive exert a negative competitive effect on domestic firms’ own management capabilities. While the overall management capabilities of domestic firms are found to have a significantly positive effect on their own productive efficiency, we find no evidence of a direct efficiency effect of foreign management capabilities on local firms.     

What is beneficial for first-time SME-exporters from a transition economy: A diversified or a focused export-strategy?

We examine whether more focused or more diversified exporting is beneficial for first-time SME-exporters from a small European transition economy (TE). We test the impact of market (geographic) diversification, product diversification and export intensity (export volume) on firm performance. In addition, we test whether a complex export strategy – of simultaneous product- and market-diversification – is beneficial for TE SMEs. We use panel data of all reported, first-time Slovenian exporters in the period 1995–2010. We find that a diversified export strategy in terms of product, market and intensity is positively related to performance although with decreasing returns. Furthermore, a complex diversification strategy pays off for first time TE SME-exporters, but in a decreasing fashion.     

出口企业营销动态能力提升出口绩效的机理研究

本文在动态能力观与权变理论框架下,探讨出口企业营销动态能力提升出口绩效的作用机制,利用我国238家出口企业数据实证分析后发现营销动态能力显著提升出口绩效,关键权变因素影响营销动态能力与出口绩效的作用关系,文化智力和文化距离正向调节营销动态能力与出口绩效的关系,风险倾向和制度距离负向调节营销动态能力与出口绩效的关系。这一结论为出口企业培育营销动态能力,并在不同的内外部环境条件下运用营销动态能力提升出口绩效提供有益的管理启示。     

EXAMINATION OF A PATH MODEL RELATING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE WITH FIRM PERFORMANCE

This article draws on the resource‐based view of the firm to investigate the mechanisms through which information technology (IT) impacts firm performance. Research suggests that the relationship between IT and firm performance may be both direct and indirect. In this study, a path model is tested that proposes a firm's IT infrastructure resources as having both a direct impact on organizational performance, as well as an indirect effect that is propagated through its impact on an intermediate organizational resource, a firm's logistics information system (LIS). The results suggest that positive firm performance may be derived directly from an organization's superior IT infrastructure, as well as indirectly, through its enabling impact on LIS's. These findings contribute to our understanding of the nature of the relationship between IT and firm performance by exploring the value of IT at both the process and organizational levels.     

Strategic ambidexterity and innovation in Chinese multinational vs. indigenous firms: The role of managerial capability

In this study, we challenge the conventional understanding of ambidexterity as an unquestionable contribution to better performance. We combine the concept of ambidexterity and the notion of managerial capability to explore different effects of ambidexterity on innovation performance in the context of emerging markets. We investigate this ambidexterity-innovation effect, and how this effect is moderated by managerial capability, on a sample of 74 Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) vs. 60 indigenous firms that are both in high technology industries. We find that, surprisingly, ambidexterity has a negative effect on the innovation performance of indigenous firms, although this effect is less so in the case of Chinese MNEs. More importantly, strong managerial capability increases the positive effect of ambidexterity on the innovation performance of Chinese MNEs, but not so for indigenous firms. We discuss the implications of these findings on research on ambidexterity and product innovation.