Understanding Consumer Response to Sponsorship Information: A Resource‐Matching Approach

Sponsorship of sporting teams and events has become an increasingly popular form of corporate and brand communication. Despite the continued growth of sponsorship spending, the corresponding literature base is highly fragmented and little agreement exists related to the psychological mechanisms underlying response. This paper integrates several prominent sponsorship research streams in promoting a “resource‐matching” perspective of cognitive elaboration and attitude change. This research holds that in the absence of clear functional fit between sponsor and event, identifying a basis for sponsor–event fit is likely to require some degree of cognitive effort. The results indicate stronger social identification with the sponsored event influences the favorability they attribute to sponsor motives and promotes stronger perceptions of fit between the sponsor and the sponsored activity. Further, the results indicate fit perceptions mediate the relationship between attribution and sponsorship response. Consistent with ELM theory, when cognitive resources are insufficient for the complexity of the fit‐matching task, social identification may still act as a peripheral cue in driving a positive affective response to sponsorship information.     

Angel Financing and the Performance of High‐Tech Start‐Ups

In this paper, we investigate what drives the performance of high‐tech start‐ups receiving angel financing, while taking a closer look at the capabilities (i.e., experience) and investment behavior of business angels (BAs). We exploit a new data set (extracted from Crunchbase), which consists of 1,933 high‐tech start‐ups that received at least one financing round from a BA. The results indicate that the experience of BAs in early stage investments is positively associated with additional receipt of follow‐on rounds of financing and sequential capital injections from venture capitalists (VCs). Later‐stage experience is positively associated with the start‐up's success (i.e., probability to be listed or acquired), but reduces the need for new VCs to invest in the start‐up. Furthermore, we find consistent evidence that start‐ups that combine BA and VC financing experience higher levels of funding amounts, additional VC financing, and an improved likelihood of success. Finally, we find that the co‐localization of BA investors and start‐ups in the same area facilitates the attraction of VC financing.     

Corporate Social Responsibility That “Pays”: A Strategic Approach to CSR for SMEs

This study adopts a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR), puts forward a model of CSR activities that enhance small and medium enterprises (SMEs) growth, and argues that by aligning CSR activities with the competitive strategy of the firm, SMEs enhance firm growth. We test this model using multinomial logistic analysis and data from a survey with 211 U.K.‐based SMEs. We find that CSR activities related to the community enhance firm growth for all SMEs, but especially for firms adopting a cost leadership strategy, and that CSR activities related to the workforce are crucial to avoid sales decline, especially for SMEs adopting a differentiation or a quality‐driven strategy. We also find that environment‐related CSR activities are not beneficial for SMEs' growth and that human rights–related CSR activities slow growth for firms adopting a differentiation or a quality‐driven strategy. Finally, we put forward managerial and policy recommendations.     

Distance to Customers,Absorptive Capacity,and Innovation in High‐Tech Firms: The Dark Face of Geographical Proximity

This paper investigates the impact of both geographical and relational proximity on the innovative performance of the firm. We address the role of one firm characteristic—its absorptive capacity—as a specific contingency affecting the relationship between different proximities and innovation. Using data from 158 high‐tech firms located in the Tiburtina Valley in Italy, we studied the relationship between these firms and their key customers. Our findings support the need to downplay the role of geographical proximity in promoting innovation. Our results also show that relational proximity to key customers has a complementary relationship with absorptive capacity, which positively moderates its influence on innovative performance.     

Antecedents and Performance Outcomes of Strategic Environmental Sourcing: An Investigation of Resource‐Based Process and Contingency Effects

This study develops an understanding of the antecedents and performance‐related consequences of strategic environmental sourcing (SES). Institutional pressure and the firm's environmental engagement serve as antecedents to SES, with performance dimensions including environmental, product development, and product quality performance. While direct relationships between these dimensions and SES have been studied in prior work, the present research adds greater specificity and depth by investigating process and contingency effects on product‐level outcomes. The resource‐based theory provides the theoretical motivation for these relationships, which are tested via survey data collected from sourcing professionals in the U.S. manufacturing industry. The results emphasize environmental engagement as an important process element between institutional pressure and SES, and highlight the ability of institutional pressure to strengthen the relationship between environmental engagement and SES. Environmental performance was found as an influential conduit in the relationship between SES and both product quality and product development performance, with SES also serving as a contingency.     

Strategic Orientation, Management Characteristics, and Performance: A Study of Spanish SMEs

This paper analyzes from a resource-based view the management characteristics of Spanish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) according to their strategic orientation and the consequences in terms of firm performance and business efficiency. The typology of strategies formulated by Miles and Snow has important implications for management, because depending on the strategic orientation adopted—defender, prospector, or analyzer—the firm can emphasize to a great extent some aspects of management, such as technological position, innovation, organizational design, and human resource management. Moreover, these aspects of management can largely determine firm performance and business efficiency. A sample of 1,351 Spanish SMEs provided the data for an empirical test of these issues. The results confirm the expected relationships, revealing, on the one hand, significant differences between prospector and defender SMEs regarding the key factors on which they base their management characteristics and, on the other hand, the different influences that each strategic orientation has on firm performance.     

中国财税改革战略思路选择研究

中国亟需一次根本性的财税改革。财税改革需在认清改革的历史使命的基础之上全方位推进。财税改革必须适应经济全球化的要求,促进全球经济治理和社会发展;财税改革应有利于合理的国民收入分配格局的形成。财税改革新共识的形成,将有助于改革的顺利推进。     

The Resource‐Based View in Entrepreneurship: A Content‐Analytical Comparison of Researchers' and Entrepreneurs' Views

The resource‐based view (RBV) is one of the most influential perspectives in the organizational sciences. Although entrepreneurship researchers are increasingly leveraging the RBV's tenets, it emerged in strategic management. Despite some important similarities between entrepreneurship and strategic management, there are also important differences, raising questions as to whether and to what extent the RBV needs to be adapted for the entrepreneurship field. As a first step toward answering these questions, this study focuses on resources as the fundamental building block of the RBV and presents a content‐analytical comparison of researchers' and practicing entrepreneurs' resource conceptualizations to derive similarities and differences between established theory and entrepreneurial practice. We find that although the two conceptualizations exhibit some overlap, there are also important differences in the emphasis on different dimensions of resources and ownership requirements, as well as in the understanding of how those resources shape outcomes. These results suggest important contextual conditions when applying the RBV's tenets within the field of entrepreneurship.     

State‐owned Enterprises,Exporting and Productivity in China: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

A popular explanation for China's rapid economic growth in recent years has been the dramatic increase in the number of private domestic‐ and foreign‐owned firms and a decline in the state‐owned sector. However, recent evidence suggests that China's state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) are in fact stronger than ever. In this paper, we examine over 78,000 manufacturing firms between 2002 and 2006 to investigate the relationship between ownership structure and the degree of firm‐level exposure to export markets and firm‐level productivity. Using a conditional stochastic dominance approach, we reveal that although our results largely adhere to prior expectations, the performance of SOEs differs markedly between those that export and those that supply the domestic market only. It appears that China's internationally focused SOEs have become formidable global competitors.     

The Performance Advantages for SMEs of Product Innovation and Marketing Resource–Capability Complementarity in Emerging Economies

This study argues that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) must possess both resources and capabilities at a superior level, and those resources and capabilities must be complementary with one another to achieve superior financial performance. The resources and capabilities of interest are product innovation and marketing. Using data from manufacturing SMEs, the results suggest that product innovation resource–capability complementarity, marketing resource–capability complementarity, and their interaction are positively related to financial performance through product innovation and customer performance. The findings suggest that some SMEs may outperform others not only because they possess a specific individual resource–capability complementarity but also because they create synergy and asset interconnectedness.     

Entrepreneurial Attitudes as Drivers of Managers’ Boundary‐Spanning Knowledge Ties in the Context of High‐Tech Clusters

This study investigates the role of entrepreneurial attitudes for small and medium‐sized enterprise managers' tendency to create knowledge acquisition ties with managers of other organizations in the context of an institutionalized high‐tech cluster. We examine how innovation orientation, perceived personal control, need for achievement, and self‐esteem influence boundary‐spanning tie creation as a crucial facet of entrepreneurial behavior in the cluster context. Applying exponential random graph models to survey data collected in a German biotech cluster, we find that innovation orientation and perceived personal control positively affect managers' tendency to rely on interpersonal ties to gather knowledge. In contrast, need for achievement and self‐esteem are negatively related to knowledge tie creation.     

Examining Market Information and Brand Equity Through Resource‐Advantage Theory: A Carrier Perspective

To survive in this challenging economic environment, transportation providers must differentiate themselves in the eyes of current and potential customers. Consequently, they are seeking to develop superior resources that allow them to build greater awareness of and distinctive images for their brands. Those that are successful achieve higher levels of brand equity and, ultimately, positions of competitive advantage in the logistics services industry. This research applies resource‐advantage theory to investigate the role of market information in creating an informational advantage to build brand equity for transportation providers. Results from a survey of motor carriers indicate that informational advantage mediates the impact of market information resources on the levels of brand image and brand awareness, two dimensions of a firm’s brand equity.     

The Relationship Between Top Management Team–Outside Board Conflict and Outside Board Service Involvement in High‐Tech Start‐Ups

Corporate governance research has extensively studied the relationship between outside board characteristics and outside board involvement. We add to this literature by investigating the extent to which interactions between outside board members and the top management team (TMT) affect the functioning of the outside board. Building on conflict theory, our study shows that conflict between TMT and outside board is an important antecedent for outside board service involvement. Specifically, drawing from a hand‐collected data set of 70 high‐tech start‐ups in Belgium, we find that TMT–outside board task conflict is both directly and indirectly, that is, through TMT–outside board relationship conflict, related to outside board service involvement.     

Regional Financial Developments and Research and Development Investment–Cash Flow Sensitivity: Evidence on Chinese Public High‐Tech Companies

In a sample of 485 Chinese public high‐tech companies, we show that the R&D investment is significantly dependent on internal cash flow. Based on the sizable discrepancies of stock market and financial intermediary developments in the East, Middle and West regions of China, empirical estimation provides strong evidence that the financial developments in both credit and equity markets have large effects on reducing financing constraints. The effects are most significant in the financially advanced East region of China.     

The Internationalization Strategy of Spanish Indigenous Franchised Chains: A Resource‐Based View*

In this paper, we identify characteristics of Spanish franchised chains that favor the adoption of an internationalization strategy and those that have a negative influence from a resource‐based perspective. Data used were drawn from Annual Franchise Guidebooks published in Spain for 2005. Various independent variables were taken into account and the final sample included 316 Spanish franchised chains. In order to detect relevant differences between chains with some degree of internationalization and those that only operate in the Spanish domestic market, we conducted a discriminant analysis to discover which of the independent variables contributed significantly to a correct classification of chains to their corresponding group (those that have chosen to spread activities abroad and those that have not).     

The Impact of Organizational Orientations on Medium and Small Firm Performance: A Resource‐Based Perspective

Recent studies suggest that market, entrepreneurial, and learning orientations individually improve firm performance. In this study, we suggest that each of the orientations can enhance company success, but the potential of each orientation should not be viewed in isolation. Instead, we draw on the resource‐based view of the firm, looking at these three orientations as capabilities of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The analysis was carried out on a sample of 164 SMEs. The results indicate that market, entrepreneurial, and learning orientations jointly give rise to positional advantage, which, in turn, is positively related to the performance of the firm.     

Strategic agility of SMEs in emerging economies: Antecedents,consequences and boundary conditions

This study investigates the effects of firm-level capabilities, and their relationships with strategic agility and the international performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using time-lagged data from 233 internationalizing SMEs from Ghana, we test the direct relationships between SMEs’ capabilities and strategic agility. Additionally, we examine the indirect relationships between technological and networking capabilities and superior performance in international markets through the mediating mechanism of strategic agility. We also investigate the moderating effects of environmental dynamism and internationalization knowledge on the relationship between strategic agility and international performance. Our findings provide a nuanced view of the relationship between the firm-level capabilities, strategic agility and SMEs’ international performance.     

Gender Characterizations in Entrepreneurship: A Multi‐Level Investigation of Sex‐Role Stereotypes about High‐Growth,Commercial, and Social Entrepreneurs

The purpose of this study is to cast new light on possible gender biases in implicit theories people hold about various forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using social role theory, we delve into sex‐role stereotypes associated with high‐ and low‐growth entrepreneurship and commercial and social entrepreneurship. Predictions were tested with an experimental design using both a between‐subject design to capture group‐level stereotypes and a within‐subject design to capture individual‐level stereotypes. Findings reveal that commercial and high‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to men than to women and higher on agency than communality. Conversely, low‐growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to women than men, and higher on communality than agency. Social entrepreneurs are uniquely perceived as similar to both men and women, though they are also considered higher on agency than communality. Interestingly, female, but not male respondents, perceive some overlap between the feminine gender role and high‐growth and commercial entrepreneurship. Notably, those higher on modern sexism perceive less overlap between entrepreneurship and femininity. Taken together, our results suggest that commercial high‐growth entrepreneurship is most strongly male‐typed, which is likely to be problematic for women (and non‐traditional men) wanting to start growth‐oriented ventures. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.