Marketing Capabilities and Firm Performance: A Hierarchical Model

The resource based theory of the firm (RBV) is briefly reviewed together with its recent application in the marketing literature. Significant contributions by Webster (1992) and Day (1994) are identified and an integration of the two presented as a hierarchical model of marketing capabilities. Three research propositions concerning the relationships between marketing capabilities and performance are developed and tested empirically in the transition economies of central and eastern Europe. In line with expectations from the theory of the RBV, higher order marketing capabilities are seen to be more important than operational capabilities in explaining superior competitive performance. The overall model is shown to be a helpful conceptualization of marketing capabilities and a number of issues for further research are identified.     

Bonding Ties,Bridging Ties,and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Networks

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Building on the dynamic capabilities view and the configuration of network ties, this study investigates how dynamic capabilities moderate the relationships between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, thus an area with potential to explain the divergent empirical results contained in the existing literature on the relationship between intra/extraorganizational ties and performance.

Methodology: This study employed a mail survey to senior executives. A total of 169 firms operating in an industrial district were collected. Regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model.

Findings: This study found that the combination of dynamic capabilities and bonding/bridging ties helps improve firm performance. Furthermore, this study found a positive relationship between bonding ties and firm performance, but no equivalent relationship for bridging ties.

Research Implications: Research results indicate that firm performance is significantly enhanced by bonding ties, which provide opportunities for sharing information and exchanging resources. Moreover, the empirical results reaffirm the proposition that dynamic capabilities are important transformational mechanisms for managing resources.

Practical Implications: The findings reveal that managers can improve firm performance by simultaneously building social ties and developing and implementing dynamic capabilities.

Originality/Value: This study demonstrates that the components of dynamic capabilities (i.e., sensemaking and reconfiguration) are transformational mechanisms and can moderate the positive relationship between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, empirically supporting recent perspectives from the literature on dynamic capabilities and social networks.     

Work-Family Balance and Marketing Capabilities as Determinants of Chinese Women Entrepreneurs' Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

The authors examine how work-family balance and marketing capabilities are related to Chinese women entrepreneurs' firm performance. Drawing on the family embeddedness perspective, findings show that both factors are positively related to firm performance. Public policy recommendations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Web Adoption and Firm Performance in the Fashion Industry: The Moderating Role of Social and Economic Rational Managerial Perceptions

This article draws on an integrated perspective of institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm by studying the causal relationships among Web technology adoption, social and economic rational managerial perceptions, and firm results. It does so in the context of the fashion industry. The article suggests that both resource-based view and institutional factors may better explain firm performance. Isomorphic rationality as institutional forces of firm homogeneity are proposed as determinants of rent potential that complement and extend resource-based explanations of firm success variation and sustainable competitive advantage in the fashion industry.     

谦卑研究的前沿探析:基于资源观的企业竞争优势

基于谦卑的以往研究,首先梳理了"谦卑"概念的发展、内涵以及与相近概念的区分;然后基于资源观理论视角,指出谦卑是企业竞争优势的源泉,分析了谦卑作为战略性资源的特性;并进一步剖析了谦卑资源是如何通过组织学习、服务以及组织弹性发展的过程为企业创造价值;最后进行了总结和研究展望,以期为后续研究提供参考。     

企业资源基础论的经济学基础

企业资源基础论的发展很大程度上是由其经济学理论基石所决定的。企业资源基础论产生、依赖或从属于广泛的各门各类的经济学理论。新古典经济学、产业组织经济学和进化经济学是企业资源基础论的三种经济学基础。事实上 ,以不同的经济学为基础进行研究 ,就会产生不同的关于竞争优势的企业资源基础论。因此 ,为企业资源基础论选择一种合适的经济学基础就显得非常重要。     

中间商渠道绩效评价

本文认为,企业通过对中间商渠道绩效进行评价,可以为企业改进渠道关系,调整渠道成员,提高渠道运行效率提供必要的反馈机制。为对中间商渠道绩效进行合理评价,文章确立了销售额、按时回款率、服务质量、合作程度及信息沟通等五个评价指标,建立了中间商渠道绩效的模糊综合评价模型,从而实现了对中间商渠道绩效的科学评价与判断,为企业进行渠道决策提供了参考。     

Market Orientation,Competitive Strategy and Firm Performance

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the mediating effects of a firm's competitive strategy in the market orientation-performance relationship. Based on a sample of 371 manufacturing firms in China, evidence was found that the three dimensions of market orientation exert different effects on competitive strategy and performance. Among them, customer orientation has the strongest association with competitive strategy and market performance. This lends credence to a componentwise approach on the study of the relationship between market orientation and performance. The results of structural equation analyses indicate that the mediating effect of competitive strategy is mainly revealed in innovation strategy, the most vital factor in creating superior value for the company in the emerging market. Limitations of this study and implications for future studies are discussed.     

Firm factors, industry structure and performance variation: New empirical evidence to a classic debate

The quest to understand the determinants of performance has created a bifurcated view. On one side of the debate are the structural characteristics of industries. On the other side of the debate are firm-specific resources. However, in recent years, the nature of competition and the shifting of economic conditions have led to increased challenges of the assumptions upon which industry structure theories have been built. In today's business environment, arguments suggest that structural characteristics of industries are becoming less relevant determinants of performance while firm resources are becoming the basis upon which firms compete. Through studying 285 Australian firms, this research explores the relative importance of distinct resources and industry structure variables in explaining firm-level performance variation. Across the aggregated sample, the results demonstrate that resources are more important than industry structure. In service firms, resources are found to be much more important to explaining performance variation than in manufacturing firms. Lastly, in both manufacturing and services firms, intangible assets and capabilities explain performance variation while, as hypothesized, tangible resources do not.     

基于创新绩效的杭州市出口优势产业转型升级研究

在对杭州市出口优势产业进行筛选及判定的基础上,采用经济学统计方法以及DEA-Tobit两阶段分析法对纺织服装业、装备制造业的创新投入和创新效率进行8个城市间的对比分析,发现杭州市纺织服装业无论是在创新投入还是在创新效率方面均存在相对不足,装备制造业的主要问题集中在创新投入相对不足上。针对杭州市出口优势产业存在的问题,分别从技术、营销和产业链整合等方面提出转型升级建议。     

Impact of Traditional Chinese Culture on Business-to-Business Relationship Marketing and Service Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This work addresses the mixed findings in relationship marketing studies regarding the importance of traditional culture-level (i.e., interpersonal) relationships on service firm outcomes.

Methodology/approach: This article leverages customer relationship marketing (CRM) theory to advance a framework for understanding the causal relationship between the Chinese cultural worldview and relationship marketing in order to better predict firm performance.

Findings: The author suggests that five major Chinese cultural characteristics—iren-qing, wa-pao, mianzi, chaxu-geju, and collectivism—can qualify the business-to-business (B-to-B) relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on service firm outcomes.

Research implications: The study’s framework suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics, universal concepts manifest in the activities of Chinese society and organizations, have a positive effect on customer relationship marketing. Chinese culture characteristics can be used to generate excellent relationships with customers and thus create a consumer preference for certain companies and drive service marketing repurchase.

Originality/value/contribution: This study’s theoretical framework (a) distinguishes between Chinese cultural characteristic and relationship marketing relationships; (b) suggests that Chinese cultural characteristics and customer relationship marketing have a positive and substantial effect on service firm performance and that Chinese cultural characteristics are related to customer relationship marketing in their effect on service firm performance; and (c) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

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。     

The Resource-Based Theory of the Firm and Firm Survival

This paper examines the determinants of firm survival. We use hazard models to test a number of hypotheses mainly drawn from the Resource-Based Theory of the Firm. According to the Resource-Based View the ability of a firm to develop distinct capabilities enhances its ability to adapt to the changing competitive environment and improves its survival prospects. The results confirm that firms that develop firm-specific assets through advertising and making R&D (independently of the technological intensity of the industry) enjoy better survival prospects. Furthermore, failure risk increases up to about 20 years of trading, and then decreases to later rise in line with liability of “adolescence” and “senescence.”      

环境不确定性下农产品电子商务能力对企业绩效影响的实证研究

农产品电子商务是拓展农产品销售渠道、促进农业产业兴旺的重要力量。然而农产品电子商务企业亏损经营、甚至倒闭正成为该行业面临的巨大挑战。如何在复杂的市场环境下顺利开展农产品电子商务并获得企业绩效,亟需引起产业界和学术界的重视。基于动态能力理论,文章从组织敏捷性视角构建了环境不确定性下农产品电子商务能力对企业绩效的影响模型,讨论农产品电子商务能力对企业绩效的作用机制。实证结果表明,组织敏捷性对农产品电子商务能力和企业绩效之间的关系存在中介作用;环境不确定性的三个维度环境敌意、环境动态性和环境复杂性均阻碍了组织敏捷性对企业绩效的积极影响,但对农产品电子商务能力与组织敏捷性之间的关系没有显著调节作用。因此在环境不确定性下企业应合理配置自身的农产品电子商务能力,以此来提高组织敏捷性并获取竞争优势。     

追加配额后棉花进口对我国棉花产业的影响及规律——以华北地区为例

文章主要从棉花价格、棉农收益和棉花收购企业三方面分析追加棉花进口配额对我国棉花产业的影响,进而得出其形成的规律:配额发放两个月后,国内市场价格开始下降;追加配额的时间和数量决定价格下降幅度;滑准税率下,关税配额的管理方法更能起到保护国棉的作用.针对影响及规律,提出在WTO框架下,采取积极措施应对棉花进口对国内棉花产业造成的冲击.     

网络关系嵌入对高端装备制造业供应链协同能力和绩效的影响研究

文章以航空制造业供应链为代表,利用层次回归分析法,探究网络关系嵌入对高端装备制造业供应链协同能力和绩效的影响及其作用机理。研究的结果表明,网络关系嵌入对供应链协同能力各维度均有着显著的正向促进作用。同时,供应链协同能力中同步决策、产品交付及时可靠以及激励联盟均可以显著提升供应链的运作绩效;虽然激励联盟和供应链的运作绩效对供应链的财务绩效有着直接显著的影响,但是同步决策和产品交付及时可靠则需要通过改善供应链运作绩效间接实现对供应链财务绩效的影响。     

进出口商品结构对我国工资差距的影响

本文研究我国进出口贸易结构对技术工人与非技术工人工资差距的影响。分析发现:我国技术密集型产品的出口逐渐取代了劳动密集型产品的出口,出口商品结构的改善加大了对技术工人的相对需求,扩大了我国技术工人与非技术工人工资差距。进口商品结构的变化对工资差距的影响则不确定。行业特征对工资差距的影响也非常显著,技术密集型行业偏向对技术工人的培养;劳动密集型行业则会偏向对具有比较优势的非技术工人的投入;资本密集型行业对技术工人的需求影响不显著。     

Capabilities and competitive tactics influences on performance: Implications of the moment of entry

This article examines the implications that the moment of market entry has for the effect of capabilities and competitive tactics on firm performance, using a sample of 253 companies from the information and communications technology industry. The results show that technical capabilities and low cost orientation are learning factors in the firms' performance, regardless of the moment of entry into the market. The study shows how the two perspectives of competitive strategy and resource-based view complement each other to incorporate different competitive factors in a coherent model for the study of entry timing. The study takes the sustainability model of competitive advantage further, by demonstrating that certain capabilities and competitive tactics can allow pioneers and early followers to achieve and maintain superior performance in a dynamic, hostile and with high level of imitation industry. This study also shows that the availability of a combination of marketing capabilities and low cost orientation will allow late followers' firms to take advantage of early entrants' mistakes.     

Marketing planning: Operationalising the market orientation strategy

Abstract

Despite strong empirical validation of the relationship between market orientation and business performance, the literature is inconclusive on the implementation of the strategy. This paper reviews the implementation of market orientation, and investigates the associations between market orientation and marketing planning and their associations with business performance. A survey of 216 Australian larger business organisations was conducted to find evidence of these relationships. The results highlight a close association between market orientation and marketing planning, with virtually the same level of association between them, and the business performance measures used. This evidence suggests that they arguably represent the same domain. The results suggest that marketing practitioners may use the marketing planning technique as an intangible productive resource to operationalise the market orientation strategy, and use it to design a specific style and magnitude of market orientation suitable for an organisation.     

基于制度理论的企业非相关多元化与绩效关系研究

传统战略管理理论认为非相关多元化对企业绩效有负向影响。然而在中国这样的转型经济国家,由于制度的缺失导致市场有效性相对较弱,非相关多元化可以使企业形成内部市场从而弥补制度的欠缺,通过对中国500强企业的实证研究也证明非相关多元化与企业绩效正相关。由于中国民营企业的非相关多元化程度较国有企业更高,民营企业非相关多元化与企业绩效的关系也较国有企业更为显著。