The benefits of geographic sales diversification: How exporting facilitates capital investment

Many strategic investments require firms to make upfront outlays to generate profits at a later date. When firms have limited access to external capital, they have to rely on internally generated funds for these investments. In this case, their strategic investments are constrained by cash flow. I predict that by geographically diversifying sales (i.e., exporting), firms can relax this constraint because exporting signals more stable expected cash flows and firm quality, which can increase external capital providers' willingness to fund investments. Examining a representative sample of Spanish manufacturers from 1990 to 1998, I find support that exporting mitigates investment liquidity constraints allowing firms to make strategic investments they would not otherwise be able to make. This highlights how diversification can be a strategy to create and maintain competitive advantage. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Outsourcing the sales process: Hiring a mercenary sales force

In today's highly competitive environment, many firms make the decision to outsource a business process on the well-established idea that it is better to contract for services that are not within the scope of a company's core set of competencies. While outsourcing was once limited to peripheral firm activities such as advertising, firms are expanding the types of functions they outsource. For instance, many firms have begun to outsource their sales force, or at a minimum, have begun to consider ‘renting’ a sales force rather than ‘owning’ their own sales force. Being a recent trend, very little is known about what prompts firms to outsource their sales forces, nor the consequences of doing so. As such, this research explores the factors associated with determining whether a firm should outsource their sales force as well as the value to be had by engaging in such a decision. Most importantly, we offer that beyond the standard cost-based analysis, there are numerous issues that deserve consideration and examination before a firm elects to outsource its sales force.     

企业电子商务集群模式与销售绩效的促进关系——以台州企业为例

为了研究电子商务集群模式与销售绩效间的关系,通过调查分析企业进行电子商务集聚的方式对其进行模式划分,主要为第三方电子商务平台、电子商务行业协会、电子商务产业园区、区域电子商务品牌、自建网站等模式;以集聚模式为因子,以销售量为绩效目标,建立绩效分析的指标结构模型,以台州地区110家企业的调研数据为样本,借助AMOS结构模型分析软件对样本数据进行回归分析。结果表明:第三方电子商务平台、区域品牌、行业协会、产业园区对销售量呈正向影响,影响程度依次减弱,而自建网站对销售量的影响不大。研究结果可为优化企业电子商务集群模式,促进销售绩效的提高提供参考,有助于企业采取相应策略以提高经济效益。     

我国煤炭进出口现状及展望

总结了近年来我国煤炭进出口的特点,分析了影响煤炭进出口变化的主要原因。在分析未来各主要进口煤源国和出口目的地煤炭供需趋势基础上,对"十二五"煤炭进出口趋势和数量进行了预测。     

Non-linear relationship between industrial service offering and sales growth: The moderating role of network capabilities

In an effort to approach the mixed findings regarding the relationship between a firm's industrial service offering and its performance, this study analyzes the impact of the industrial service offering on sales growth and the moderating role of network capabilities. The proposed research model is tested based on data from 91 Finnish manufacturing firms. Our results demonstrate a non-linear effect of the service offering on sales growth. We also find that network capabilities enhance the effect of the service offering on sales growth. For managers of manufacturing firms, the results imply that the active development of a comprehensive service offering should be implemented in conjunction with the development of organizational capabilities, such as network capabilities, to create value and promote improved performance.     

Strategy type and performance: the influence of sales force management

The basic premise of the strategy implementation literature is that different business strategies require different configurations of organizational practices to achieve optimal performance. Sales force management is a key functional activity and should contribute to the successful implementation of business strategy. In this study, we examine the relationship between multiple sales force management practices and performance within each of Miles and Snow's (1978) strategy types. The explanatory power of the eight models tested is quite high (incremental adjusted R² ≥ 0.25 for six of the eight models). Thus, we find substantial support for the general proposition that the different strategy types require individualized profiles of sales force management practices for optimal effectiveness and that sales force management is important to the successful implementation of business strategy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

出口集聚、企业相关生产能力与企业出口扩展

目前集聚效应对企业出口行为影响的研究中,集聚多是基于地理距离来刻画。本文试图将产品间的认知距离引入集聚的测度中,研究不同类型集聚对企业出口扩展边际的影响,并进一步讨论企业相关生产能力的异质性作用。本文发现,出口集聚效应和企业相关生产能力分别是企业出口多元化的外源动力和企业条件。具体来说,引入认知距离后,可以更好地区分集聚经济和集聚不经济的来源:同产品集聚和相关产品集聚均有利于促进企业出口扩展;而不相关产品集聚对企业出口扩展的影响则表现为竞争效应。进一步的研究发现,并不是所有企业都能在集聚的过程中“搭便车”,集聚发挥作用的方向和程度因企业储备的相关生产能力而异。在影响机制上,出口集聚效应通过专业劳动力共享和中间投入品共享等供给侧渠道以及目的国市场信息共享和已有出口经验等需求侧渠道来降低企业出口扩展的难度和风险。基于上述实证结果,本文认为地方政府应打造技术关联紧密、上下游产业相互依托、有核心竞争力的空间集聚形态,并创造良好的营商环境,以激发企业创新活力,提升中国对外贸易的核心竞争力。     

Transitioning from product to service-led growth in manufacturing firms: Emergent challenges in selecting and managing the industrial sales force

Despite the increasing strategic value of service-led growth in competitive and commoditized markets, firms frequently encounter problems orienting their industrial sales forces toward these new organizational objectives. To identify important potential challenges to firms attempting to make the transition to service-led growth, we conducted focus groups and depth interviews with 38 sales executives at goods-dominant business-to-business firms. Our discussion with C-suite managers uncovered four major transition issues, to wit, (1) the magnitude of change at the sales organization level triggered by a service transformation; (2) unique elements of selling hybrid offerings versus industrial goods; (3) the link between these differences and the sales proficiencies required for hybrid offering sales; and (4) potential individual differences among high-performing hybrid offering salespeople, compared with sales reps focused on goods sales. These insights highlight some of the managerial and sales force-level challenges that goods dominant firms will have to address as they attempt to initiate and maintain the transition to a service-led growth strategy.     

The free cash flow hypothesis for sales growth and firm performance

business is business! And business must grow –Dr. Seuss, The Lorax The paper investigates the agency argument that sales growth in firms with free cash flow (and without strong governance) is less profitable than sales growth for firms without free cash flow. It also tests whether strong governance conditions improve the performance of firms with free cash flow and/or limit the investments in unprofitable sales growth. Consistent with agency theory, firms with free cash flow gain less from sales growth than firms without free cash flow. But different governance conditions affect sales growth and performance in different ways. Having substantial management stock ownership mitigates the influence of free cash flow on performance, despite allowing higher sales growth. In contrast, outside blocks held by mutual funds reduce sales growth substantially, but does not increase performance from sales growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge-based sales management strategy and the grafting metaphor: Implications for theory and practice

An assessment of sales research reveals limited theoretical sophistication and grounding, less focus on intraorganizational issues, over emphasis on the micro (salesperson) versus the macro (sales function) aspects in sales management, and the criticality of knowledge to sales management. Although marketing literature draws on metaphors for theory development, there is very little sales management research that relies on metaphors for theory. In addition, reflecting the recent changes in the external environment, there have been several calls to research knowledge-based sales management. Therefore, this article explores knowledge grafting - a new theoretical metaphor - in the context of knowledge-based sales management. In doing so, first, we briefly overview the metaphor literature. Second, we introduce and evaluate the grafting metaphor. Third, we discuss the important issues of knowledge-based sales management. Fourth, we describe the knowledge grafting process and develop a knowledge grafting based conceptual framework in the context of sales management. Fifth, we discuss the strategic normative imperatives for practice. Finally, we conclude with a call for future research.     

A distribution-free newsvendor model with balking and lost sales penalty

In this paper, we extend the classical single period newsvendor model in an environment of customer balking, which occurs when customers are reluctant to buy a product if its available inventory falls below a threshold level. Since failure to make a sale usually results in a cost penalty, in addition to the opportunity cost of lost sales, we incorporate such costs in our model. Furthermore, we extend our model to include fixed ordering costs. Our analysis is based on the assumption that only the mean and the variance of the distribution of demand are known, without assuming any specific distributional form. We illustrate the concepts developed here through simple numerical examples and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by solving a set of 1000 randomly generated test problems.     

山东省外贸出口存在问题及对策研究

近年来山东省外贸出口取得了重大成就,但是也存在一些问题,而且这些问题日益成为制约外贸出口发展的瓶颈,本文从山东省外贸的现实出发,详细分析了山东省外贸出口中存在的五大问题,并针对这些存在的问题提出对策建议。     

Determinants of Export Channel Intensity in Emerging Markets: The British Experience in China

Export channels into emerging markets differ markedly in channel intensity. This inductive study of 18 British manufacturers and their Chinese intermediaries led to propositions exploring the mechanism behind the marked differences. Findings from the study indicate that low channel intensity may restrict exporting manufacturers' market coverage and expose them to high risks of intermediary opportunism in emerging markets where channel environments are highly uncertain and legal frameworks are weak. However, low channel intensity policy can be an appropriate option when exporting manufacturers face the threats of gray marketing and fake products or when they require heavy intermediary commitments.     

Exploring export sales management practices in small- and medium-sized firms

We investigate key sales management aspects in relation to the export involvement stage of the firm. Specifically, an attempt is made to examine the presence of significant differences in export sales management control strategy, export sales organization design and export sales management behavioral attributes between ‘active’ and ‘committed’ exporting firms. We identify several differences among these exporter groups with the main conclusion being that the sales management function is more effectively organized and managed at advanced levels of export involvement. These findings are discussed in the light of existing knowledge, and various conclusions and research implications are also derived.     

The relationship between product and international diversification: the effects of short‐run constraints and endogeneity

We examine the relationship between growth along the product and international dimension in the short run. We argue that while the presence of fungible intangible resources and economies of scope may create opportunities for a firm to expand along both dimensions, the effect of short‐ run constraints may lead to a trade‐off and a negative association between the two dimensions. In addition, we suggest that rather than being independent, decisions concerning the extent of growth along the two dimensions are likely to be made simultaneously and endogenously by firms after taking into consideration the availability of various resources. We test these propositions by observing a sample of 1,299 firms over the period of 1993–1997. Our results show strong evidence of endogeneity and a negative association between growth along the two dimensions. These findings provide important support for theories of firm growth that have long held that firms are limited in the number of opportunities they can exploit in the short run by various constraints. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大力发展服务外包 优化外贸出口结构

我国粗放型的外贸增长方式难以为继,必须实现根本性转变,实现外贸出口结构的优化,承接服务外包是促进其转变的重要途径和举措。全球新一轮以服务业为主导的国际产业转移为优化外贸出口结构转变提供了契机。我们应抓住这一机遇,加快服务外包发展,调整外贸产业结构,从而实现质量型的外贸增长方式。     

人民币汇率与我国纺织出口贸易的相关分析

本文选取2000年至2018年人民币汇率与我国纺织贸易出口额数据,通过实证分析研究人民币汇率与我国纺织出口贸易的关系。结果表明,人民币汇率的变动与我国纺织贸易出口额增速显著相关,人民币升值会导致我国纺织贸易出口额增速降低,人民币贬值会导致我国纺织贸易出口额增速升高。为应对人民币汇率变动对我国纺织出口贸易的影响,我国应继续推进人民币汇率市场化。     

Systems sales as a competitive response to the Asian challenge: Case of a global ship power supplier

Cost-based competition from East Asia has forced western companies to reassess their competitive strategies. It is difficult for western companies to attain cost leadership because of high domestic labor costs. Thus it is crucial to pursue differentiation. One way to do this is to shift the market from products to systems. To examine the role of systems as an enhancer of competitive advantage, this study synthesizes the literature concerning competitive advantage and systems. The emerging theoretical framework is then tested against an in-depth case study of a Finland-based ship power supplier. The findings suggest that systems can be a value-enhancing strategy whereby the seller takes over the buyer's value activities related to systems integration. Such forward integration results in enhanced systems performance at a lower total cost. This strategy, based on the seller's rare and valuable resources, is difficult for cost-based competitors to imitate or substitute.     

梯度发展战略与沿海出口加工业转移问题研究

从劳动力成本、转移成本和制度成本等方面,考察了外来投资出口加工企业向内地转移的可能性,认为国家梯度发展战略,并不是要在中西部继续走外向型发展道路,吸收东部沿海地区部分要淘汰的出口加工业。中西部地区发展,应以内需为导向的产业发展模式。加快中西部发展,是要在招商引资过程中,超越东部沿海地区外向型经济发展模式,积极引进内向型企业,这才是梯度战略的真实内涵。