The impact of franchising on the financial performance of small firms

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between form of ownership (independent vs. franchise) and financial performance of a select group of small, mature firms. MANOVA and ANOVA tests failed to identify significant performance differences. Recommendations for future research studies are mentioned. Venturing into a small business is risky. Approximately 400,000 small businesses fail each year (The State of Small Business 1986). A conservative estimate of the failure rate of start-up firms in their first 5 years is close to 65% (Hodgetts 1982). Between one-quarter to one-third fail in their first year of operation (Small Business Reporter 1986). However, many would-be entrepreneurs minimize their business risk by purchasing a franchise rather than starting from scratch. In contrast, only about 2.5% of franchise-owned outlets discontinue operations per year, many for reasons other than economic (“Franchising is Management for Success” 1986).     

Alliance orientation: Conceptualization, measurement, and impact on market performance

Interfirm collaborations have inspired a rich literature in marketing and strategy during the past two decades. Building on this extant work, the authors developed a new construct, alliance orientation, and explored its influence on firms’ alliance network performance and market performance. The authors drew on data collected from 182 U.S. firms with extensive experience informing, developing, and managing strategic alliances in marketing, new product development, distribution, technology, and manufacturing projects. Using structural equations modeling, the authors demonstrate that alliance orientation significantly affects alliance network performance, which in turn enhances market performance. The findings also suggest that market turbulence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between alliance orientation and alliance network performance, whereas the moderating role of technological turbulence on that relationship does not appear to be significant. The study provides evidence that firms’ alliance orientations positively affect their performance in strengthening their alliance network relationships and in managing conflicts with their alliance partners. Destan Kandemir (kandemir@msn.edu) is a research associate in Center for International Business Education and Research at Michigan State University. She earned her PhD in marketing and international business from Michigan State University. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of International Marketing, and theJournal of Management. Her research interests include firm resources and capabilities, market-oriented knowledge management, and global alliance management. Attila Yaprak (attila.yaprak@wayne.edu) is a professor of marketing and international business at Wayne State University. He received his PhD from Georgia State University. His research interests include cross-national consumer behavior, global marketing strategy, and international alliances. His research has appeared in theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of International Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, andPolitical Psychology, among others. S. Tamer Cavusgil (cavusgil@msu.edu) is University Distinguished Faculty and the John W. Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University.     

供应链约束下的物流绩效管理现状分析

《北京市“十二五”时期国际商贸中心建设发展规划》提出全面推进商贸流通规范化、现代化、特色化、国际化的发展思路,这就要求物流企业具有规范的作业程序,高效的物流技术满足消费者的需求期望,具有特色的物流服务标准来对接国际化的服务绩效质量评价体系。目前虽然有对物流服务绩效评价指标的研究,但是指标体系较粗,且多是评价方法层面,深度不够。为此以北京市物流企业为主要研究对象,参考美国第三方物流企业绩效管理评价体系,设计调研问卷,确定指标体系,计算物流绩效评价指数,并分析了供应链约束下的物流绩效管理特点。     

The impact of product market strategy-organizational culture fit on business performance

Drawing on the organization theory literature concerning configuration theory, competing values theory, and fit assessment methodologies, we examine the existence and performance impact of product market strategy–organization culture fit. Specifically, we assess the relationship among three important elements of a firm’s product market strategy and the four cultural orientations that comprise the competing values theory of organizational culture using primary and secondary data from the US trucking industry. Using two different conceptualizations and operationalizations of fit, our results provide the first empirical support for the existence of interrelationships among product market strategy decisions and organizational culture orientations consistent with configuration theory conceptualizations of product market strategy–organizational culture fit. We also find support for theorized but previously untested relationships between product market strategy–organizational culture fit and firms’ customer satisfaction and cash-flow return on assets (CFROA) performance. Since product market strategy is heavily reliant on the input of marketers, and organizational culture has long been recognized as having an important impact on marketing-related decision making, these findings have important implications for marketing strategy research and practice.     

业务多元化对商业银行的业绩影响——基于风险承担的中介效应

从收入多元化和资产多元化两个维度选取商业银行业务多元化的代理变量,以2006~2019年我国A股上市的28家商业银行为研究样本,通过建立动态面板数据模型,研究我国商业银行业务多元化对业绩和风险承担的影响机理,并实证检验风险承担在银行业务多元化和业绩影响中发挥的中介作用。研究结果表明,无论从收入多元化还是从资产多元化角度,业务多元化与我国商业银行业绩均呈负相关,与风险承担正相关,但其作用效果因所有权结构而异,在业务多元化对银行业绩的作用中,风险承担部分或完全地发挥中介效应。     

An analysis of e-business adoption and its impact on business performance

Across industries, firms have adopted e-business initiatives to better manage their internal business processes as well as their interfaces with the environment. In this study, a unified framework that captures the antecedents of e-business adoption, adoption intensity, and performance outcomes is proposed and empirically tested using data collected from senior managers in four technology-intensive industries. Applying a framework that captures the intensity of e-business adoption across four business process domains, the authors find that the antecedents and performance outcomes of e-business adoption are best studied in a process-specific context. They find, for example, that while the communication and internal administration aspects of e-business positively affect performance outcomes, the more high-profile activities related to online order taking and e-procurement do not. The authors' findings provide the foundation for a more rigorous study of e-business. Fang Wu (fangwu@msu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an assistant professor of marketing at the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. Her current research interests include e-business adoption strategy, knowledge transfer in new product alliances, interfirm learning dynamics, and marketing knowledge management. Vijay Mahajan (vijay.mahajan@bus.utexas.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is the John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business and a professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, and dean of the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad, India. He has written extensively on product diffusion, marketing strategy, and marketing research methodologies. He has written and/or edited eight books. His research appears in journals such as theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Management Science, andHarvard Business Review. He has received the Best Research Paper Award from theJournal of Retailing (1982, 1985), theJournal of Marketing (Maynard Award, 1990), and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing (Prentice Hall Award, 1995). He also received the American Marketing Association (AMA) Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award (1997) and the AMA Marketing Research Special Interest Group Gilbert Churchill Award in 1999, recognizing lifetime achievement in marketing research. Sridhar Balasubramanian (balasubs@bschool.unc.edu) (Ph.D., Yale University) is an assistant professor of marketing at Kenan-Flagler, the University of North Carolina Business School. His research interests cover multiple areas including marketing strategy, channel portfolio management, e-commerce and m-commerce, direct marketing and customer relationship management, game theory and the management of competition, digitization, and strategic compensation. His research has been published or is forthcoming in journals such asMarketing Science, Management Science, Statistica Neerlandica, theInternational Journal of Electronic Commerce, Decision Support Systems, and theJournal of Retailing. He received the John D. C. Little Award for 1998 from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science (INFORMS) for the best marketing paper inMarketing Science andManagement Science. He has worked as a marketing strategy adviser to start-up companies and served as guest coeditor of the Centennial Issue of theJournal of Retailing.     

中国物流现代化的发展环境与策略

物流现代化关系到的经营成本，影响到我国在国际化进程中综合实力的提高。因此，重视中国物流现代化的发展环境，积极形成竞争性的策略，是我在国加入WTO后促进经济发展的一条重要途径。     

A longitudinal study of the impact of market structure,firm structure,strategy, and market orientation culture on dimensions of small-firm performance

The purpose of this article is to determine market orientation’s relative impact on small-business performance, compared to other influences, in an integrated model using longitudinal data. Contrary to expectations based on the management literature, the results indicate weak causal relationships between market environment, small-firm structure, and small-firm strategy. The results further indicate weak influences of these variables, but strong and consistent influences of market orientation, on various measures of small-firm performance. Contrary to expectations based on business policy literature, relative product quality and new product success were not significant influences on profitability, perhaps due to the significant influence of market orientation on these variables. In addition, although increases in growth/share had a significant short-term influence on increases in profitability, high levels of previous years’ firm growth/share had a negative influence on current profitability. The previous year’s level of firm coordinating systems and market competitive intensity has a significant impact on the level of small-firm market orientation.     

试析第三方物流保险中存在的问题及对策

同其它行业一样,物流服务离不开保险,但目前,我国的物流保险存在着市场需求不足、险种单一等问题。此种问题的出现既有物流作业中风险较难控制的原因,也与物流业对保险的定位不清有关。针对此种现状,应采取更新观念;规范物流业的法律、法规;细化物流保险的险种;实行物流保险的强制保险;加强保险业和物流业的合作等措施。     

电子商务下物流配送浅析

论述了电子商务的发展对物流配送产生的影响,以及对传统物流配送提出的新的要求,指出了我国物流配送中存在的问题。为实现电子商务环境下所要求的信息化、现代化、社会化的物流配送,我们应采取相应的对策。     

第四方物流与第三方物流的比较研究

自20世纪90年代初兴起第三方物流以来，第三方物流可节约物流成本、提高物流效率的功能已为众多企业认可。但是，随着客户企业要求的提高，第三方物流在整合社会所有的物流资源以解决物流瓶颈，达到最大效率方面仍显得力不从心。解决这一局限的有效途径是第四方物流，一种新的外包形式。同第三方物流相比．其服务的内容更加广泛，为企业提供全面的供应链集成方案。     

The influence of complementarity, compatibility, and relationship capital on alliance performance

Value creation through alliances requires the simultaneous pursuit of partners with similar characteristics on certain dimensions and different characteristics on other dimensions. Partnering firms need to have different resource and capability profiles yet share similarities in their social institutions. In this article, the authors empirically examine the impact of partner characteristics on the performance of alliances. In particular, they test hypotheses related to both direct impact of partner characteristics on alliance performance and indirect effects through relational capital aspects of the alliance. Empirical results based on a sample of alliances in the global construction contracting industry suggest that complementarity in partner resources and compatibility in cultural and operational norms have different direct and indirect effects on alliance performance. Accordingly, organizational routines aimed at partner selection need to be complemented by relationship management routines to maximize the potential benefits from an alliance. MB Sarkar (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida. His current research includes strategic alliances, innovation and entrepreneurship, knowledge management, and electronic markets. His research has been published in theStrategic Management Journal, theJournal of International Business Studies, and theJournal of Business Research, among others. Raj Echambadi (Ph.D., University of Houston) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida. His current research interests include investigation of territorial loyalty issues, management of innovations, and estimation issues pertaining to structural equation modeling and Partial Least Squares. His research has been published in theStrategic Management Journal, Multivariate Behavioral Research, and theJournal of Product Innovation Management. S. Tamer Cavusgil (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is University Distinguished Faculty and serves as the John William Byington Endowed Chair in global marketing at Michigan State University (MSU). He is also the executive director of MSU's Center for International Business Education and Research, a national resource center. His teaching, research, and administrative activities have focused on international business and marketing. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of International Business Studies, among others. His specific interests include the internationalization of the firm, global marketing strategy, and internationalization of business education. He was the founding editor of theJournal of International Marketing, now published by the American Marketing Association. Preet S. Aulakh (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an associate professor of strategy and international business at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University. His research focuses on international technology licensing, cross-border joint ventures and strategic alliances and strategies of firms from developing economies. His research has been published in theAcademy of Management Journal, theJournal of Marketing, and theJournal of International Business Studies.     

我国物流产业发展的潜力和措施

目前物流产业是世界各国经济发展的一个热点和新的增长点，我国不但已日益重视物流产业，而且也具备了加速发展现代的物流产业的基本条件。针对我国物流业发展的特点和潜力，我国应实施统一规划、协调发展的宏观调控政策；实行政府与企业共同投资、协手兴办的措施；制定和推行吸引民间资本向物流领域分流的优惠措施；实行吸引外资的扩大开放措施，制定抑制生产企业自办物流业务的措施等。     

基于ANP的农产品虚拟物流伙伴选择

农业是支撑整个国民经济不断发展与进步的保证,然而由于我国农产品生产分散,农产品物流水平不高,严重影响了我国农业的发展。建立农产品虚拟物流组织,整合现有的物流资源,能够有效减少农产品在流通过程中的损失,充分发挥物流的增值功能。基于网络分析法建立的BCR模型,在农产品虚拟物流伙伴的选择上,有一定的现实指导价值。     

物流与厦漳泉同城化关联分析

在分析物流与厦漳泉同城化作用机理的基础上,基于闽南金三角洲市级数据,利用耦合关联模型,检验了物流与厦漳泉同城化程度之间的相关性。实证结果表明:物流与金三角区域一体化之间存在较强的关联关系。其中,货物周转量、物流人才相对于交通基础设施更能推动区域一体化进程。     

中国特色的物流中心：保税物流中心评价研究

保税物流中心是新型的物流组织形式,它的建立对我国国际物流产业的发展及对外贸易发展具有积极的作用。以我国15个保税物流中心为样本,选取2007年数据,运用因子分析法对保税物流中心评价体系的指标进行筛选,再根据此指标体系采用聚类模型对各保税物流中心进行分类评价,进一步地利用判别分析检验聚类分析的结果,最后综合两种方法,得出全国15个保税物流中心大致可分为三类的结论。     

Exploring the impact of advertising and R&;D expenditures on corporate brand value and firm-level financial performance

A parsimonious framework linking advertising expenditures and research and development expenditures to brand value, and brand value in turn to firm-level financial performance, was proposed and empirically investigated under four data conditions: data form, brand type, financial performance metric, and lag structure. Using pooled data from 125 firms (848 firm-year observations) over the period 1991–2007, 108 path analyses were conducted to compute five path model output metrics. Data on these metrics were then compared for each of the data conditions by means of analysis of variance. Although significant relationships were generally observed among framework variables, study results differed considerably across three of the four data conditions. The principal take-away from the study is that the impact of marketing activities on firm-level financial performance is likely to be in large part a function of the specific research purpose and methodology employed. As such, the take-away has implications when interpreting value-relevance findings, when constructing theories involving market-based assets, and when designing studies to investigate relationships between marketing and financial performance.     

物流实践型人才素质可持续提升模式研究

通过分析物流行业员工进修培训需求现状,构架物流实践型人才素质可持续提升模型,创新了"定期定向回招进修培训"子模型,将政府、高校、行业企业、协会等多方主体扩充到从业者进修培训平台中,克服单独依靠企业自身开展培训进修的瓶颈约束,多协同方共同完成物流从业员工进修培训,提升物流行业整体作业水平和行业素质。     

绿色物流体系的构建与节约型社会建设

随着经济的发展，环境的恶化程度逐渐加深，绿色物流由于降低成本、节约资源而与节约型社会的建设紧密联系在一起，绿色物流已成为发展的必然趋势。传统物流因运输、储存、包装、流通加工、装卸搬运对环境的负面作用以及信息污染，急需构建绿色物流体系。为此，应树立绿色物流理念，制定绿色物流政策法规，实施绿色物流管理，选择绿色供应商，实现物流活动的绿色化，并重视逆向物流。     

浅析生产企业与第三方物流

近年来第三方物流已经成为我国学术界和实业界广泛研究和深入探讨的热门话题,本文通过对生产企业选择第三方物流的条件分析以及生产企业同第三方物流企业携手的利弊分析得出结论：中国生产企业需要第三方物流。