Trustworthiness and interest rates: an empirical study of Italian SMEs

Trust is expected to reduce transaction costs and agency costs and thus influence the cost of credit for small businesses. Assessments of trustworthiness are based on the ability, benevolence and integrity of the owner manager. The study examines whether lending managers’ assessments of the trustworthiness of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner managers are associated with the interest rate charged. Data were obtained from a survey of lending managers from small banks in North East Italy. Control variables and a vector of trustworthiness factors were collected on a random sample of customers, resulting in data for 365 small firms (74% response rate). Multivariate regression analyses provided evidence of a negative association between trustworthiness and interest rates. Banks, owner managers, policy makers and researchers should recognise the potential of trust to influence lending decisions and behaviour.     

Reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools: The impact of social enforcement, technology-relationship fit and the mediating role of reseller benefits

Manufacturer-reseller relationships are increasingly becoming technology-infused as distribution managers are employing e-business tools to streamline existing channels. This research examines the role of social enforcement, relationship-technology fit and the perceived reseller benefits in reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools. The results of the empirical test involving a sample of 224 resellers suggest that social enforcement and technology-relationship factors impact reseller e-business adoption, while reseller benefits play a mediating role. Implications of these findings for researchers and managers are discussed.     

Determinants of the adoption of HRM practices in tourism SMEs in Spain: an exploratory study

This paper explores the relationship between the adoption of HRM practices in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and the characteristics of the firm and the person responsible for HRM. We propose a conceptual model based on the resource-based view, which is tested with quantitative data from 164 tourism’s SMEs in Catalonia (Spain). As predicted, the adoption of HRM practices is positively associated with the presence of an HRM department. Also, SMEs in which the person responsible for HRM has previous experience in similar positions are greater adopters of HRM practices. Finally, SMEs which cooperate with other organizations are more likely to implement HRM practices.     

An empirical study on the effects of an enterprise fan page

Most major enterprises have invested in social networking to provide services, promote products, or communicate with customers. However, to date, no clear understanding on the effects of social networks on business performance has emerged. This study examines the relationship between the capability of the enterprise to manage social networks and the resultant benefits of their investing in the social network. A fan page on Facebook is the selected target of study. By analyzing the effort required to manage a fan page, we measured the fan-page managing capability by its number of fans. Then, we proposed six hypotheses for empirical examination of the causal relationship between enterprises’ social network managing capability and business benefits. The study applied two-stage data collection and testing. The first stage is to build a general understanding of the relationship between the number of fans and business revenue. Based on findings of the first stage, the study tested the hypotheses on selected global firms and sought patterns of benefits generated from the fan page. This study builds deep understanding from various aspects about fan-page effects on enterprises, and proposes that firms that provide products and services with characteristics of low-product price, short-product durability, and low-customer involvement are empirically influenced by the management of their fan pages.     

Operations flexibility and outsourcing benefits: an empirical study in service firms

Outsourcing is a widely extended practice for many industries competing at the global level. Through outsourcing, firms are able to clearly define their core field of activities while transferring non-core activities to organizations enabled to perform them with higher degrees of efficiency. However, outsourcing is not exempted from some risks, especially those derived from process coordination, information sharing, or oportunistic behaviours. Operations flexibility can play a fundamental role in moderating these risks while increasing the benefits from outsourcing by decreasing the level of dependence on the outsourced activities. In this paper, a structural analysis is performed to analyse the relationship between operations flexibility and outsourcing benefits in service firms. Results show that higher levels of flexibility in the informations systems, markets, expansion, and personnel dimensions are directly related to higher outsourcing benefits.     

Integrating customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in organizations-in-transition: an empirical study

The paper addresses the issue of interrelationships between market orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in the context of emerging economies. These three constructs have drawn an increasing level of interest in both marketing and management fields as organizations face challenges in a volatile environment. With a national sample of state-owned enterprises in China, the present study simultaneously tests potential relations between these structural constructs and their relationships with the organizational outcome that is reflected with marketing program dynamism. The findings of this study indicate that: (1) sampled state-owned enterprises demonstrate a higher level of changes in organizational outcome resulted from a stronger customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, or learning orientation; (2) learning orientation fully or partially mediates the impact of customer orientation and corporate entrepreneurship on outcome; (3) state-owned enterprises with foreign partnership have a higher level of customer orientation, entrepreneurship, and learning orientation; and (4) state-owned enterprises in the service sector have a higher level of customer orientation.     

Exploring the Impact of Digital Platforms on SME Internationalization: New Zealand SMEs Use of the Alibaba Platform for Chinese Market Entry

Digital platforms have changed the way in which Asia-Pacific firms operate across borders, however, the impact of digital platforms on entry strategy is under-researched in current International Business literature. This study aims to explore how digital platforms impact New Zealand small and medium-sized (SMEs) companies’ entry into the Chinese market. The results of case study interviews conducted with four SMEs suggest that digital platforms ease entry barriers to some extent, particularly in helping overcome resource constraints and facilitating access to networks. However, the participating firms still required local staff as a key part of successful market entry.     

The institutional environment and the number of bank relationships: an empirical analysis of European SMEs

This article examines the association between creditor protection, as measured by the nature of legal rules and the quality of law enforcement, and multiple bank relationships using a unique survey sample of SMEs from 19 European countries. We find that the likelihood of multiple banking is the highest for SMEs in French-civil-law countries, next highest for German-civil-law countries, and the lowest in Scandinavian-civil-law and English-common-law countries. We also find that SMEs in countries with low legal efficiency are more likely to establish multiple bank relationships. These results seems to confirm the underlying idea in the law and finance literature that relevant loan risk for banks also arises from low quality of laws and institutions and not just from firm-specific characteristics. Banks in countries where protection of creditor rights is poor may resort to multiple banking to share this additional risk. Policy makers can use our findings to justify the necessity of improving their institutions by reducing legal formalisms and thereby, lowering the enforcement costs in the courts. This would lead to better loan contracting and enhance the flow of debt capital, which is required for a healthy and dynamic economy.     

Expectations,network effects and timing of technology adoption: some empirical evidence from a sample of SMEs in Italy

We provide evidence on the influence of expectations and network effects on the timing of technological adoption. By considering a sample of SMEs operating in Italy, we focus on the determinants of their decision to adopt Fast Ethernet, a communication standard for Local Area Networks (LANs). We find that both expectations and network effects significantly affect the timing of adoption. In particular, price expectations generally tend to delay adoption and (indirect) network effects in the form of backward compatibility as well as informational spillovers tend to foster adoption. Firm size also matters.

The influence of customer loyalty on small island economies: an empirical and exploratory study

There is growing consensus that companies' long-term success is reliant on building and sustaining strong customer relationships. This study explores the antecedents of loyalty in business to business (B2Bs) using Guernsey's telecommunication industry as a case study. It examines how these influence customer loyalty orientation and factors that help service providers improve loyalty rates. Extant literature pays little attention to the antecedents of loyalty in small island economies. Prior research focuses on cultural, environmental and macro-economic issues. Drawing on Dick and Basu's (Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22(Spring), 99–113, 1994) loyalty model, this research explores loyalty antecedents that are cognisant of distinct market conditions that can impact customer loyalty within the telecommunications sector of a small island economy. It seeks to advance understanding of loyalty in B2B relationships in this context and identify factors that contribute towards converting passively loyal customers to being actively loyal customers.     

The impact of salespeople's relational behaviors and organizational fairness on customer loyalty: An empirical study in B-to-B relationships

Although customer loyalty has proved to be a powerful determinant of firms' profits, the drivers of loyalty in B-to-B relationships are still unclear. Recognizing that both interpersonal and interorganizational level variables are needed to predict customer loyalty, the aim of this study is to investigate the combined effects of salespersons' relational behavior and organizational fairness in predicting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Results from a field survey in a B-to-B setting show that buyer loyalty is largely determined by the quality of the interpersonal relationship with the seller. Perceived fairness is central for building overall customer satisfaction and loyalty toward the supplier.     

Moderating effect of customer's retail format perception on customer satisfaction formation: An empirical study of mini-supermarkets in an urban retail market setting

Customer perceptions of retail formats have become ambiguous with new value-added features of traditional retail formats. Hence, this paper proposes a framework for explaining retail patronage formation under the condition that customers perceive the ambiguity of retail format boundaries. The moderating effect of customers' retail format perceptions on customer satisfaction is examined using data from Japanese mini-supermarket customers. Results indicate that customers' perceptions of retail formats partially influence customer satisfaction. Theoretically, this implies that considering retail format as a concept that customers construct a posteriori may be necessary and practically indicates that retail practitioners should manage customers’ retail format perception.     

Strategies to offset performance failures: The role of brand equity

In this research, we examine the role of brand equity as a strategy to offset the negative effects of a performance failure. Two independent studies, spanning four industries and involving 669 respondents are employed to investigate this issue. Results suggest that high brand equity leads to more favorable satisfaction evaluations and behavioral intentions than low brand equity. The brand equity effect is identified as a prevailing advantage that spans the entire failure and recovery sequence. This is an important finding because it implies that the advantages of high brand equity theoretically can apply to all failures, not just those for which recovery is attempted. Further inspection, however, reveals that despite the prevailing advantage, high-equity brand failures lead to a more drastic decline in customer evaluations immediately after the failure episode. Managerial implications and future research are addressed.     

Managing the human resource in Indian SMEs: The role of indigenous realities

This paper discusses how issues of people management are addressed in Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also highlights the indigenous approaches to human resource management (HRM) that have surfaced in the Indian SME context. The research formulation has been built on the mapping of people-management practices in two SME case studies, one of which is also a family-based organization. The analysis shows that indigenous realities in HRM in Indian SMEs relate mainly to the provision of financial, emotional and social support to the workforce; employee involvement (EI) practices; recruitment; skill development; managing employee relations; and managing vis-à-vis labor law framework. The paper argues that in the sphere of people management in SMEs, the willingness to innovate and formalize the HR systems is constrained by a kind of bounded rationality, i.e., the owners of SMEs mostly believe that they are already doing what is humanly possible in this regard. The analysis has an important message for concerned practitioners—in order to realize their full potential and to progress towards fulfilling their vision; SMEs eventually have to intertwine indigenization and formalization for their people management approaches.     

A light in the dark: The benefits of co-production in service failures

Co-production is increasingly common but, at the same time, services failures are inevitable. Considering that previous studies are controversial about the effects of failed co-produced services, the goal of this research is to investigate the influence of co-production on causal locus attribution, in addition to emotional and attitudinal outcomes. Two experimental studies show that co-production reduces the self-serving bias, a result that brings implications for the services literature and practice. In addition to the positive effects of co-production, evidenced by previous studies, this research shows that companies and customers can benefit from co-production even when failures occur.     

The role of buyer power in oligopoly models: An empirical study

This study investigates whether an industry's profitability and concentration are influenced by structural characteristics of the industries and final markets to which it sells. Very few similar studies have been made, and there is some dispute about their conclusions. This study discusses the methodological problems behind this dispute and the ways in which the specification and data used here avoid these problems. The results show that seller profitability rises with the extent to which buyers are dispersed across many industries, but that no other buyer characteristic exerts a significant influence on either the profitability or the concentration of the selling industry.     

The roles of multiple channels in predicting website visits and purchases: Engagers versus closers

In today’s online environment, consumers and sellers interact through multiple channels such as email, search engines, banner ads, affiliate websites and comparison-shopping websites. In this paper, we investigate whether knowing the history of channels the consumer has used until a point of time is predictive of their future visit patterns and purchase conversions. We propose a model in which future visits and conversions are stochastically dependent on the channels a consumer used on their path up to a point. Salient features of our model are: (1) visits by consumers are allowed to be clustered, which enables separation of their visits into intra- and inter-session components, (2) interaction effects between channels where prior visits and conversions from channels impact future inter-session visits, intra-session visits and conversions through a latent variable reflecting the cumulative weighted inventory of prior visits, (3) each channel attracts inter-session and intra-session visits differently, (4) each channel has different association with conversion conditional on a customer’s arrival to the website through that channel, (5) each channel engages customers differently (i.e., keeps the customer alive for a next session or for a next visit within a session), (6) the channel from which there was an arrival in the previous session can have an enhanced ability to generate an arrival for the same channel in the current session (channel persistence), and (7) parsimonious specification for high dimensionality in a low-velocity, sparse-data environment. We estimate the model on easy-to-collect first-party data obtained from an online retailer selling a durable good and find that information on the identities of channels and incorporation of inter- and intra-session visits have significant predictive power for future visitation and conversion behavior. We find that some channels act as “closers” and others as “engagers”—consumers arriving through the former are more likely to make a purchase, while consumers arriving through the latter, even if they do not make a purchase, are more likely to visit again in the future or extend the current session. We also find that some channels engage customers more than others, and that there are interaction effects between the channels visited. Our estimates show that the effect of prior inventory of visits is different from the immediate prior visit, and that visit and purchase probabilities can increase or decrease based on the history of channels used. We discuss several managerial implications of the model including using the predictions of the model to aid in selecting customers for marketing actions and using the model to evaluate a policy change regarding the obscuring of channel information.     

Motives for service sabotage: an empirical study of front-line workers

Although researchers have called for a greater understanding of front-line employee behaviour during service encounters, few studies have been directed at the topic of service sabotage in general, and at the motives of such behaviours in particular. This paper presents systematic empirical insights into the motives of employee sabotage in the service sector. The evidence suggests varying motives for forms of service sabotage ranging from the benign, to the recalcitrant, to the, significantly less common, malicious. The findings of the study indicate the necessity for studies of employee work-based behaviours to incorporate a more complex but more comprehensive conceptualization of employee motivations for both sabotage and resistance-related activities.     

The framing effect of coupon value for new products: an empirical study in China

Two experiments tested the coupon framing effect with both existing products and new products, whereby the percentage-off format (vs. cents-off format) held an overall advantage in consumers' value perception, thus leading to higher purchase intention. We also found that different product price levels (high vs. low) and product types (physical goods vs. services) moderated this framing effect. Moreover, the context of new products' purchase significantly made this effect more salient than that in existing products. These results could contribute to the guidance of price and promotion strategy for business practitioners, especially in new product launch management.     

Critical success factors for e-commerce entrepreneurship: an empirical study of Thailand

The present study focuses on the relationships between entrepreneurial characteristics (achievement orientation, risk taking propensity, locus of control, and networking), e-service business factors (reliability, responsiveness, ease of use, and self-service), governmental support, and the success of e-commerce entrepreneurs. Results confirm that the achievement orientation and locus of control of founders and business emphasis on reliability and ease of use functions of e-service quality are positively related to the success of e-commerce entrepreneurial ventures in Thailand. Founder risk taking and networking, e-service responsiveness and self-service, and governmental support are found to be non-significant.