Linking market orientation to international market selection and international performance

One key strategic decision in a firm's internationalization process is the international market selection (IMS). IMS must match the firm's own-specific resources and capabilities for optimal performance. This research, drawing on the resource-based view, investigates how a firm's market orientation (MO) resources and capabilities influence the firm's IMS between culturally close and distant markets and how the matching of MO and IMS impacts on its international performance. We hypothesize that market-oriented firms tend to choose culturally distant markets that help them exploit their MO. Firms with a fit between MO and IMS tend to perform better internationally than those without such a fit. Both hypotheses are supported by our database of Chinese manufacturing firms expanding internationally.     

Organizational Dynamic Capability and Innovation: An Empirical Examination of Internet Firms

This paper extends the dynamic capability perspective into the study of innovation by entrepreneurial firms. Drawing from both the resource-based view and the dynamic capability perspective, this paper explores theoretically and examines empirically the different roles played by a firm's resource stock (endowment of resources and capabilities) and its integrative capabilities (ability to recognize opportunities as well as to configure and deploy resources) in the process of firm innovation. Our structural equation modeling results, based on a sample of 120 Internet-based companies, indicate that both the firm's resource stock and integrative capabilities affect its innovation. Additionally, we also found that the relationship between resource stock and innovation is mediated by integrative capabilities. That is, merely possessing well-endowed resource stock per se is not sufficient for innovation. Thus, it is the firm's ability to mobilize its resources and capabilities and align them dynamically with the changing opportunities in the environment that is of vital importance as the firm constantly innovates to survive and create its own competitive advantage. In the hypercompetitive and fast changing Internet-based environment, such a need for dynamic capabilities is especially accentuated. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Determinants of Venture Performance in Singapore

Based on a survey of Singapore venture capital (VC)-backed firms, we find that environment, resource-based capabilities, strategy, and VC firms' involvement affect the venture performance significantly. The environment is a major constraint within which a firm's strategy is developed. While managers formulate and implement strategies, these strategies do not determine the eventual success directly. The strategy formulated should be complemented by a firm's resource-based capabilities. Firms that do not match their strategy and resources could lead to unfocused and unproductive efforts. Evidence shows that the "fit" between resource-based capabilities and strategy partially affects the venture performance. Our study provides implications for both venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in finding the right partner and in cooperating with each other.     

Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies

This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.     

How durable is sustainable enterprise? Ecological sustainability meets the reality of tough economic times

Today's business leaders are pressed to achieve ecological (eco) sustainable enterprise, but must do so with fewer resources. Given a protracted global recession, our concern is that the motivation for eco-sustainability may not be as strong as hoped for, nor as swift or durable as expected. To create a more explicit discourse on eco-sustainability activities during a recession, we set forth a framework to help business leaders examine their strategic perspective based on their organization's identity. We describe how this may influence how leaders broach change within their organizations, taking a surface or deep approach to achieve eco-sustainability. The intent is to highlight the importance of honestly assessing the firm's purpose and to work toward a more relational orientation in the new economy. To establish eco-sustainability during this recessionary period, we believe a middle path is needed, adopting a blended perspective. To this end, we offer three practical steps to begin this effort: reflection on the firm's values, development of relationships, and cultivation of different forms of change.     

动态网络环境下企业国际化战略转型——基于关系运作与网络演进视角的案例研究

在动态网络环境下,企业国际化行为本质上可以被看成是以跨国机遇发现和价值创造为导向的国际创业的过程,而这一过程中企业关系网络扮演着极为重要的角色.基于对关系网络影响企业国际化机制的分析,文章根据“主动性”网络结构观点和协同演进的思想,构建了关系运作、网络发展与企业国际化成长的协同演进分析框架,企业关系运作行为可以划分为“关系延伸→关系渗透→关系整合”三种演替的形式,而企业的关系网络沿着“本地社会网络-→国际商业网络→全球战略网络”的方向升级,这两者共同融入了企业国际化成长的周期中,并且实质上也是企业国际化行为的重要组成部分.最后结合株洲硬质合金集团有限公司的案例验证了文章理论框架的合理性并给出了相关的政策建议.     

转型环境下中国企业资源的分类问题研究

文章以中国企业为研究对象,综合了制度理论与资源基础理论的观点,通过大样本实证调研探讨中国转型环境下企业的资源分类问题,将企业竞争优势来源的资源基础拓展到企业外部,关注非市场资源与制度资源的价值与重要性;并对不同行业企业所拥有的资源特征与状况进行跨行业比较,从而得出相关的研究结论与重要启示。     

A Crossnational Prediction Model for Business Success

In this study, the Lussier (1995) success prediction model, originally developed using U.S. data, is tested using a sample of firms from Central Eastern Europe. The same factors found to be predictors of success in the U.S. (staffing, education level, use of professional advice, and planning) were also predictors of success and failure in Central Eastern Europe. All these factors have to do with the firm's human resources. These findings should lead to reconsideration of preconceptions existing in Central Eastern Europe regarding small business, as in many of its countries it is commonly believed that human resources have little to do with business success and failure.     

Foreign exchange market liberalization and the international diversification of borrowing by Italian firms

In this article we try to assess the relative importance of real and financial determinants in firm's foreign currency borrowing by extending a model earlier developed by Kawai. We use this framework to examine the behavior of Italian firms during the 1980s. The financial components of firm's decisions are studied by means of a repeated mean-variance portfolio model based on ex ante expectation. We show that (a) the invoice currencies seem to be a good indicator of firm's real exchange risk; and (b) even at times of capital controls, corporate debt policy was affected by financial variables. The latter will become increasingly important as European financial integration moves on.     

服务企业国际营销能力研究

20世纪80年代，服务企业国际营销活动开始引起人们的注意，国外学者开始进行服务企业国际市场进入模式、国际服务质量等方面的研究，但是对服务企业国际化有重大影响的国际服务营销能力问题尚没有引起人们的重视。本文从现有关于营销能力的研究出发，结合服务企业国际营销的实际情况，提出了国际服务营销能力的构成、影响因素及培育方法。     

A resource-based view of partnership strategies in health care organizations

The distribution of management structures in health care has been shifting from independent ownership to interorganizational relationships with other firms. A shortage of resources has been cited as one cause for such collaboration among health care entities. The resource- based view of the firm suggests that organizations differentiate between strategic alliances and acquisition strategies based on a firm's internal resources and the types of resources a potential partner organization possesses. This paper provides a review of the literature using the resource-based theory of the firm to understand what conditions foster different types of health care partnerships. A model of partnership alliances using the resource-based view is presented, strategic linkages are presented, managerial implications are outlined, and directions for future research are given.     

The role of planning in small firms: Empirical evidence from a service industry

The relation between planning behaviour and performance is analyzed for a large number of small real estate firms in the Netherlands. A firm's planning behaviour appears to be influenced by the way it perceives its environment (in terms of complexity and dynamics) as well as its own characteristics (size, age and activities). The explanation of performance is dominated by a firm's size and the nature of its activities. Hardly and effect of planning on a firm's performance is found, though it appears that in an environment perceived as highly dynamic, planning is merely counter-productive.The authors wish to thank Jan Eppink and Ingrid van Rijn, and are especially grateful to Roy Thurik and two anonymous referees for valuable comments on earlier drafts. It goes without saying that errors and omissions remain the full responsibility of the authors.     

Strategic orientation of high-technology firms in a transitional economy

Strategic orientation is a critical factor for a firm's competitiveness in a transitional economy context but it is understudied in the current literature. This article examines the antecedents of strategic orientation from both the socio-cognitive and resource-based view perspectives. The study posits that the strategic orientations of firms in a transitional economy context are influenced by the top managers’ cognitions and organizational resources. Based on a national survey of high-technology firms in China, the study finds that a stronger market-focused strategic orientation was facilitated by managerial cognitions about the future of the industry and current operation and performance of the firm, as well as organizational resources including an R&D infrastructure, technological alliance, and top managers' foreign experience. The study confirms that strategic orientations should be examined from multiple theoretical perspectives.     

Team and organizational resources, strategic orientations, and firm performance in a transitional economy

Firms in transitional economies are learning to develop strategies to exploit new market opportunities though bounded by their lack of market experience and resources as well as institutional and cultural heritage. This paper examines the managerial orientations of top managers in the transitional economy of China by focusing on a firm's team and organizational resources. Specifically, the following antecedents motivate a firm to put more emphases on strategic orientations: the firm has an effective top management team, strong managerial competences, and when the firm has ample endowment of slack resources, social network, and support from the institutional environment. Empirical results support that team orientation, managerial competence, social network, and local institutional support are instrumental in developing market-focused strategic orientations. In addition, strategic orientations with heavy emphases on overall low costs and product innovation relate to higher firm performance.     

技术能力、价值链位置与企业竞争力——来自苏州制造业的实证研究

从微观层面实证研究企业竞争力源泉的文献仍十分缺乏。结合经济转型背景,本文采用苏州制造业的微观调研数据和自抽样方法,从企业技术供给和应对市场需求两个层面去研究企业竞争力的内生决定因素。实证研究结果发现,企业竞争力取决于企业的技术能力水平和企业在价值链上的位置;而且这两者与企业在同行中所处的规模三者之间存在正向的联动关系,这表明企业规模和价值链位置往往是企业及其技术竞争力的甄别信号。本文的实证研究从企业微观层面有力地支持了转型期FDI背景下企业通过增强技术能力来提升其竞争力的观点,也直接证明了全球价值链理论关于企业在价值链上的位置与企业竞争力两者之间正向关系的论断。     

A comparison of revenue growth at recent-IPO and established firms: The influence of SG&A, R&D and COGS

A dynamic view of the resource based theory (RBT) examines how a firm builds its resources over time, considering variations in resources' growth rates while the firm attempts to grow. Accordingly, we consider the elasticity of accumulated resources to assess conditions where these resources might serve as substitutes for rather than complements to COGS during periods of growth. We specify a production function that links aggregate resource allocation among SG&A, R&D and COGS expenses to a firm's revenue. This function yields a set of hypotheses on the elasticity of SG&A and R&D, and the productivity of COGS, while controlling for the revenue growth rate. We test these hypotheses on a dataset of 64 randomly selected firms that recently underwent an IPO, and a comparable set of 64 established public firms from four high-technology sectors. Results show that the accumulated stocks of resources can serve as substitutes for rather than complements to COGS, and the manner in which recent-IPO firms allocate and use resources differs from their established counterparts. We discuss the implications of associated elasticity and productivity results.     

中国碳试点市场集中交易行为的理论研究

通过构建一个代表性控排企业跨期决策理论模型,分析碳配额交易企业在履约日与非履约日的最优交易量。均衡结果显示,企业在非履约日的最优交易量与其自身的风险规避系数、市场流动性提供者的风险规避系数、履约日随机碳需求的标准差成正比,而与企业的碳产出效率成反比。在此基础上,探讨了中国碳交易试点市场上履约日附近交易量巨大,而非履约日交易量稀少的原因,并提出相关政策建议,以帮助实现我国碳市场交易量的平滑及整体市场效率的提升。     

Graft and business in emerging economies: An ecological perspective

In this study we examine how a firm's engagement in graft in emerging economies is shaped by its organizational attributes. Building on the logic of organizational ecology, we envisage that a firm's engagement in graft is influenced by its (1) institutional structure (e.g., public ownership, foreign ownership, and government ownership), (2) market orientation (foreign vs. local market), and (3) firm capabilities (e.g., capacity utilization, product quality, and leadership quality). Using the World Bank's data, we analyzed 1782 firms in China, Brazil, Russia, Poland and South Africa, and found general support for our argument. The results suggest that a firm's engagement in graft is, at least in part, an organizational phenomenon influenced by the firm's founding conditions, required legitimization in the market, and capability conditions.     

Survival of high tech firms: The effects of diversity of product–market portfolios, patents, and trademarks

High tech firms can mitigate potential risks by diversifying their product–market portfolios. A key research question is how such diversification influences firm survival. A firm exits the market in two ways, specifically, dissolution and acquisition. Here, we model how the diversity of a new firm's product–market portfolio influences the times to both types of exits. Specifically, we allow for interaction effects of the competitive intensity of a firm's environment and the diversity of a firm's product–market portfolio with its patents and trademarks. Using a competing risk hazard model, we estimate the effects of various covariates on the time to exit for 1435 US high tech firms.We observed that a more diverse product–market portfolio, in conjunction with a larger number of patents, hastens the time to a firm's exit by dissolution (9% decrease in survival duration), while in conjunction with a larger number of trademarks, portfolio diversity delays the time to exit by dissolution (12% increase). A more competitive firm environment results in a greater effect on the portfolio's diversity in delaying its exit by dissolution (7% increase). On the other hand, a diverse product–market portfolio, combined with either a larger number of patents or trademarks, hastens the firm's exit by acquisition (19% and 11% decrease respectively).     

Linking knowledge, entry timing and internationalization strategy

This paper contributes to the current internationalization theory by linking the characteristics of the firm's resource-base, its market-entry timing orientation and international growth orientation so as to shed more light on internationalization strategies. By employing multi-industry data, we find that the nature of the firm's knowledge, its entry timing orientation and international growth orientation are related to its internationalization strategy. Among other results, we find that the firm's accumulated expertise is positively related for both the international growth orientation and entry timing orientation. The international growth orientation, in turn, is related both to the path type of internationalization the firm employs as well as the geographical diversification in market entry. In other words, the results suggest that the firm's resource-base influences on both its entry timing orientation and to the internationalization strategy. These and other findings are discussed with regard to their scholarly and managerial implications.