How do small firms possibly survive? A comparison study of marketing skills and logistics infrastructure of small and large wholesalers

Most wholesalers are small family-owned firms that frequently lack marketing skills and an infrastructure capable of setting into practice state-of-the-art marketing distribution systems. They are much more consumed with daily activities and credit and collection functions than they are with developing marketing skills and logistics networks. The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify the elements of marketing skills and logistics that are associated with the performance of small and large wholesalers, and to compare and contrast these variables. Data were collected from 4500 small and large wholesalers in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures in Japan. Multiple regression analysis of this study found that the factors of supplier's financial assistance and buyer's services to wholesalers explained the performance of small wholesalers, and the factors of supplier's service to wholesalers and buyer's service to wholesalers explained the performance of large wholesalers. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple discriminant analysis revealed that large and small wholesalers differed with respect to supplier's services to wholesalers, the supplier's financial assistance, and the wholesaler's intra logistics activities. Implications are discussed.     

Differences among exporting firms based on their degree of internationalization

An overwhelming majority of the investigations of company export behavior have utilized data obtained from all types of firms in a sample. An alternative approach would involve disaggregating the sample into some meaningful groups and contrasting company characteristics across the subsamples of firms. This study attempts to delineate differences among exporting firms when firms are classified by their degree of internationalization. Three types of exporters are identified in light of the internationalization hypothesis: experimental exporters, active exporters, and committed exporters. These firms are then contrasted with each other with respect to measurable company characteristics, domestic market environment, nature of international business involvement, marketing policy aspects, and export market research practices. The analysis in the paper is based upon data gathered through personal interviews with the executives of 70 midwestern manufacturers. The study reveals significant differences among the three types of exporters and provides further insights into the export marketing behavior of firms.     

Profiting from product innovation: The impact of legal, marketing, and technological capabilities in different environmental conditions

Although product innovation is a key tool for firms competing in the marketplace, innovating firms often fail to obtain economic returns from their product innovations. This study examines the moderating effects of legal, marketing, and technological capabilities on the relationship between product innovation and firm performance in different environmental conditions in order to identify how a firm can leverage these capabilities to profit from product innovation. Based on the data of 223 Chinese firms, this study finds that legal capability positively moderates the relationship between product innovation and firm performance, especially when competitive intensity is high; the moderating effect of marketing capability is positive, although it is weakened by market turbulence; and technological capability has a negative moderating effect, which becomes more significant as technological turbulence increases.     

Textile marketing: a status report

This exploratory study investigated the status of textile marketing in the United States by (a) examining the textile industry's use of effective marketing techniques, and (b) identifying common problems and needed improvements in textile marketing. The procedure followed these steps: (a) effective marketing techniques were identified, (b) interviews were conducted with nine textile executives and four individuals representing the United States textile industry at large, and (c) the respondents' statements about textile marketing practices were analysed for evidence of effective marketing techniques, common textile marketing problems and needed inprovements in textile marketing. The results indicated that only five of the thirteen respondents described textile firms that were using effective marketing techniques, but some textile firms were using effective marketing techniques and this should be an incentive for other textile firms. Several common problems and needed improvements in textile marketing were also identified. Because of the small sample size, the open-ended questions, and the subjective analysis of the respondents' statements, this study must be regarded as exploratory. However, representative statements from the respondents are presented and these statements are informative about textile marketing practices.     

Innovation-based strategic flexibility (ISF): Role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D

In this research, using a capability perspective, we first define innovation based, strategic flexibility (ISF) as consisting of three lower-level capabilities- market sensing, resource reconfiguration, and proactiveness; then link it to new-product/innovation outcomes, and develop a new metric of ISF that is input–output based. This metric captures a firm’s realized flexibility in translating market opportunities into innovation output. We then examine the role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D in driving a firm's ISF. Combining survey data of 191 CEOs with objective performance data, we find that (a) ISF is positively influenced by the frequency and duration of the CEO's relationship with the two functional units, but negatively influenced by CEO's relationship closeness, and (b) ISF contributes to future profit growth of firms. We test the robustness of our findings to the potential violation of sequential-ignorability assumption as defined in the causal mediation literature and find the results to be robust. The results provide insights into the role of CEO characteristics in driving innovation, and upper echelon’s contributions to marketing.     

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty and Asset Specificity on the Degree of Buyer-Supplier Commitment

When manufacturers purchase products from suppliers, the types of relationships they establish may depend on many factors. These relationships can range from formalized, extensive contractual obligations to discrete individual purchases. This study investigates the potential determinants of where on this continuum of commitment the relationship lies. These determinants include uncertainty in both the supplier market and the buyer's customer market, the investment in transaction specific assets by both buyer and supplier, and the investment in product specific assets. Results indicate that market diversity, supplier concentration, investment in product specific assets, and the supplier's investment in transaction specific assets are potential reasons for higher levels of buyer-supplier commitment.     

Illusions of marketing planners

The article highlights the risks of using self‐evaluation as a substitute for primary and secondary market research when designing and monitoring marketing programs. Included is a study of 110 management teams that suggests internally dominated marketing analysis may breed illusory evaluations of a company's own marketing programs versus competitors. If acted upon, such illusions could lead to oversights in developing marketing offerings. The overriding potential implication of the study addresses the allocation of a company's substantial marketing assets—most notably, the risks of bypassing secondary market data and primary market research when developing and evaluating marketing programs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Entrepreneurial Marketing in the Public Sector: The Lessons of Headteachers as Entrepreneurs

This article argues that headteachers of primary schools have been at the forefront of the marketing/entrepreneurship interface since attempts to introduce competitive market forces into the maintained education system. It examines primary school headteachers' marketing strategies and compares them to those of owner managers of small firms. Case studies of ten schools illustrative of a variety of provision and market conditions provided the empirical data over a five year period. The headteachers shared many of the marketing problems of owner-managers of small firms. Headteachers found that the most effective marketing strategies consisted of: i) marketing to improve relationships with existing parents, staff and governors as an essential precursor to any external marketing effort; ii) parental involvement in the school which improved the likelihood of word of mouth recommendations; and iii) influencing such recommendations by marketing to improve parental and other involvement in the school. As word of mouth is also the most important source of new business for small firms, there are opportunities for lessons from the public to the private sector.     

Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth

The Internet has been shown to facilitate elements of internationalisation such as information accumulation and network opportunities. However, there is limited understanding of how the Internet combined with marketing capabilities drives international market growth. This study, based on a sample of 224 Australian firms, develops and tests, using structural equation modelling (SEM), a conceptual model of Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth. Results indicate that firms deploying Internet marketing capabilities will benefit due to the reduction of information uncertainty and increased capacity to develop international network capabilities. Moreover, Internet marketing capabilities indirectly lead to international market growth when the firm has a high level of international strategic orientation and international network capabilities. Overall, Internet marketing capabilities enhance the firm's ability to generate other internal capabilities within the firm, which in turn have a positive impact on the international market growth of the firm.     

Exploring Corporate Donation Behavior: A Case Study of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Given that funding from governments and donations from individuals have declined and are unstable, it is important for nonprofit organizations to identify corporate donors' real motives for making contributions and potential corporate donors' reasons for not making contributions and to design appropriate marketing strategies accordingly. This paper utilized both in-depth interviews and a survey to explore these aspects with Taiwanese firms. The results indicate that, from these firms, Social Responsibility, followed by Top Management's Influences and External Solicitation, are the highest motives. It appears that enhancing Product Sales, Corporate Image, and Sales Promotion or Reducing Pressure from Competitors are not participant firms' primary motives when making corporate contributions. With regard to reasons for not making corporate contributions, the data reveal that Lack of Human Resources is the primary cause that leads participant firms to make no corporate contributions, followed by Insufficient Funds. This paper also develops scales for measuring motives of corporate philanthropy and reasons for not making corporate contributions.     

Try it at home: Avon and gender in Brazil, 1958–1975

This article examines the entry of US-based cosmetics firm Avon into the Brazilian market from 1958 to 1975. Avon's direct-to-home distribution model and family brand strategy gave the company a competitive advantage in the Brazilian cosmetics market. However, Avon's branch managers had to adapt the company's marketing strategy and recruitment practices to accommodate Brazilian standards of feminine respectability and in response to saleswomen who expanded distribution beyond the company's original target markets. Avon's Brazilian branch excluded women from management positions, and the company's marketing materials emphasised conservative gender roles for women. Nonetheless, Avon sales increased many women's economic agency.     

Entrepreneurial proclivity: its environmental conditions and growth consequences

To contribute to the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) literature, this study investigates how business unit growth relates to environmental risks and rewards (i.e., environmental dynamism and market growth rate) and three facets of entrepreneurial proclivity (i.e., innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness). The authors find that perceived environmental dynamism has a direct and positive influence on strategic business units' innovativeness and proactiveness. Moreover, this study explores the interplay between the risk and reward facets of the market environment and reveals that firms are most likely to adopt EM strategies in a high-growth, highly dynamic business environment. The results also show that whereas the industry growth rate promotes a firm's market expansion, but not market sustention, the firm's innovativeness and proactiveness positively influence both market expansion and sustention.     

Marketing Chewing Gum: A Case Study of a Cypriot Company

The purpose of this article is to examine the issues related to the chewing gum marketing practices employed by a Cypriot company importing gum. Thus, the product, its target market, and competition are examined, a SWOT analysis is performed and the marketing mix is presented. Then the results are compared with the international market.

The case study method was employed to gain an initial understanding of the marketing practices employed by the company concerning the production of chewing gum.

The findings showed that the company offers a gum of superior quality, which in two years' time has captured a great share of a very competitive market. The company is giving special attention to the distribution and the promotion of the product.     

APPLICATIONS TO SELECT SERVICE SECTORS

The authors report the findings of a survey of architecture firm principals concerning the status of marketing in the architecture profession. Among other key findings, the vast majority of responding principals consider marketing essential to new business development, and believe marketing's importance to firm success is increasing. However, fewer than half of the responding firms have a marketing plan in place. Architecture firms are more oriented toward public relations than marketing, and large firms are more involved in marketing than small firms. Overall, the results suggest a somewhat limited understanding of marketing's role and potential, and the need for architecture firms to either develop better internal marketing expertise or rely more heavily on experienced marketing consultants.     

User engagement for mobile payment service providers – introducing the social media engagement model

Twitter is being used by mobile wallet firms for customer acquisition, relationship management, marketing and promotional purposes. This study examines service advertisement and promotional tweets by mobile wallet firm's on Twitter. For this study, timeline data of top four mobile wallet firms of India, Paytm, MobiKwik, Freecharge and Oxigen Wallet were extracted from their Twitter screen (firm generated tweets). The user generated tweets were also extracted, using the search terms as firm's name. This study proposes a Social Media Engagement model for understanding user dynamics. The study provides three interesting inputs for promotional marketing tweets, firstly, firm should post mix of the tweets with respect to content type (i.e. informational, entertainment, remuneration and social). Secondly, a periodic campaigning is needed by the firms; and lastly, firms should focus on increasing their network size. The implications of these findings can help firm's managers and marketers in planning effective social media marketing campaigns.     

An exploration of multinational enterprise knowledge resources and foreign subsidiary performance

Successful international expansion requires that parent firms simultaneously transfer multiple MNE knowledge resources and their foreign subsidiaries effectively absorb and utilize the knowledge. In this study, we examine the relationships between multiple knowledge resources (technological and marketing knowledge), the relatedness between parents and foreign subsidiaries, and subsidiary performance. Relatedness is specifically linked to the type of knowledge being transferred from the parent (i.e., technological relatedness versus market relatedness). We hypothesize that subsidiary performance improves with (1) the integration of a parent firm's technological and marketing knowledge resources, (2) high technological (market) relatedness between a parent firm and subsidiaries for transfer of parent technological (market) knowledge and (3) the co-presence of high technological and market relatedness. We find general support in our analysis of pooled cross-sectional data on more than 4000 observations of foreign subsidiaries from 572 Japanese MNEs across 47 countries. Theoretical implications and future research are discussed.     

Marketing and the competitive performance of British industry: Areas for research

The author suggests that inadequate marketing has been an important factor in the decline of Britain's competitive market position. He argues that instead of investigating macro economic factors as a cause of the UK's poor performance, the emphasis should be on the examination of factors within individual firms, for example the lack of commitment to marketing. The author comments on the relative dearth of qualitative studies into marketing effectiveness in the UK, and makes some specific suggestions for further research.     

International Catalog Mix Adaptation

Abstract

Striking the right balance of adaptation of the international catalog mix may be the key to profitability. U.S. catalog firms, new to international markets, have less experience in adapting than firms in more globalized industries. The literature on international marketing strategy adaptation reveals that this decision depends on the environment, industry, market, product, and characteristics of the firm. This paper examines the influence of market similarity, type of business and the firm's international experience on international catalog adaptation, and explores the effects of catalog adaptation on a firm's performance. We hypothesize that the greater the market similarity, the less likely it is that firms will adjust their catalog. We also argue than adaptation is greater for consumer catalogs than for business-to-business catalogs. A third hypothesis is that more internationally experienced firms will adapt more and a final hypothesis is that a greater degree of adaptation will increase the international catalog performance. The results did not support the association of international catalog adjustment and market similarity, experience, and type of catalog. Findings are mixed both on catalog adaptations and firm performance. We found that some but not all adaptations in the catalog lead to improved performance. We speculate that U.S. catalog firms are making adaptations to reduce the costs of international marketing operations. This cost reduction strategy may not necessarily lead to profitability, thereby discouraging other firms from entering international markets.     

Market valuation of marketing alliances in East Asia: Korean evidence

This paper investigates firm value created by non-equity marketing alliance announcements of Korean listed firms in terms of stock price reactions to the announcements. We find evidence that on the Korean stock market, the announcements of marketing alliances produce significant positive abnormal returns, which reflect an increase in firm value, around the announcement date. This suggests that firm managers need to seek for various marketing alliances not only for an effective competition in competitive business environments but also for enhancement in shareholder wealth. The increase in firm value has inverse relationship with firm's size and growth opportunity. In particular, marketing alliances with firms based in G7-countries create greater firm value than ones with firms based in the home country. Our study provides investors, firm managers, and academics with valuable implications of an importance of marketing alliances for valuation of firms in other Asian countries as well as in Korea.     

Sources of opportunities used by growth minded owner managers of small and medium sized enterprises

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources and nature of opportunities used by owner-managers of small and medium size (SMEs) firms in order to grow their businesses. In addition to the owner-manager's desire for growth, clearly there needs to be both opportunities to pursue and sufficient management activities that will discover such opportunities, so that a business can grow. These opportunities may originate through some form of environmental change such as advances in technology or by exploiting changes in the marketplace, for example, the exit of a competitor.Research was carried out within twenty SMEs whose owner-manager's aimed to grow their businesses. The focus of the research was on the sources of opportunities they encountered and how and why opportunities were recognized by these firms.The key findings of this research illustrate that the majority of sources for business opportunities for SMEs in this study lie in the market place and are not a direct consequence of environmental change. Traditional marketing analysis tools can, therefore, identify significant sources and scope for growth opportunities for SMEs.