Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: The role of knowledge creation process

This study examines the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge creation process, and firm performance using survey data from 165 entrepreneurs. We use LISREL analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of the entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance. Knowledge creation process - operationalized to reflect the dimensions of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization - is used as the mediating variable for explaining the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The results indicate that the significance of the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance is reduced when the indirect effect of entrepreneurial orientation through knowledge creation process is included in a total effect model. Consequently, entrepreneurial orientation is positively related to firm performance, and knowledge creation process plays a mediating role in this relationship.     

Actors, resources, activities and commitments

A new concept, commitments, is introduced and defined as “agreements between two or more social actors to carry out future actions” and its incorporation into, and articulation of, the actors-resources-activities model described. Commitments are distinguished from the concept of commitment as traditionally used in inter-organisational relationships. The latter is mainly an affective measure at the level of an individual concerning the general relationship between buying and selling organisations. By contrast commitments are agreements made between actors and range from the specific and everyday to the general and strategic.The theoretical background and nature of commitments are described and how commitments relate to and enrich each of the elements of the ARA model demonstrated. The application of the concept to B2B relationships at the level of individual, group, organisational and net actors is set out and implications of the use of the commitments concept for researchers and managers are suggested.     

Mobile technology usage and B2B market performance under mandatory adoption

This paper investigates the relationship between mandatory adoption of mobile information technology and market performance in the business-to-business (B2B) setting. This study presents and tests the B2B technology satisfaction model (TSM), including perceived loss of control as the mandatory technology acceptance-specific variable. The results of this study reveal that integrating perceived loss of control with user satisfaction and the TAM (technology acceptance model) in a single model can better explain the B2B market performance model. The empirical results suggest that perceived loss of control has a negative effect on user satisfaction and perceived market performance is influenced by user satisfaction and perceived usefulness. Managerial implications of the study are discussed.     

Organizing and integrating marketing and purchasing in business markets: An introduction to the special issue, issues and implications

The article is the introductory paper to the special issue on “Organizing and Integrating Marketing and Purchasing in Business markets”. It analyses the different organizational issues in the marketing and purchasing interfaces by an extensive analysis of the literature. It introduces the different contributions to the special issue and draw some reflections on further research steps.     

The impact of market freedom on the adoption of third-party electronic marketplaces: A fuzzy AHP analysis

Electronic-marketplace (EM) is an innovative model for interfirm transactions that are undertaken via the Internet. However, in view of higher investment costs and other associated risks, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), instead of establishing their own EMs, turn to adopt third-party-hosted EMs. In literature, most relevant studies to the adoption of the third-party-hosted EM were conducted on the research contexts of free market. Industries under the protection of government policies may have limited degree of market freedom, different from industries without these protection policies. Thus, this study intends to compare the decision choice of EM adoption between industries with various degree of market freedom. The decision choice of EM adoption consisted of many strategic factors that were constructed in terms of a three-layer hierarchical structure proposed in this paper. A fuzzy analytic hierarchical process (Fuzzy AHP) was utilized to estimate the relative importance of these individual strategic factors involved in the decision-making process of adopting third-party EMs. The research findings indicated there were some similarities and differences in the decision choice between the two industries of interest. The variety of market freedom can account for the differences in the decision choice of EM adoption. In addition to enhancing our understanding of the EM adoption decision of participative companies, the research findings also provide insightful information to third-party EM providers so that they may improve the effectiveness and efficiency of resource allocation.     

Japanese distribution system: The impact of newly designed collaborations on wholesalers' performance

In January 1995, the Kobe earthquake devastated a major part of Kobe's distribution infrastructure. Apart from the expected complaints about lost sales, wholesalers reported some surprising comments after the reopening. Wholesalers stressed the advantages of newly designed distribution channels, especially the opportunity to end longstanding business relationships known as keiretsu. This study is concerned with the recent development of vertical collaboration in the Japanese distribution channel. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the supplier's service to wholesaler, the supplier's offerings to the wholesaler, and buyer's service to the wholesaler did contribute to the enhancement of the performance of the wholesaler. The three factors explained 16% of the wholesaler's performance. The regression analysis also showed that the wholesaler's intra-logistics activities contributed to the improvement of the performance of the wholesaler and explained 5% of its performance.     

The asymmetric moderating role of market orientation on the ambidexterity-firm performance relationship for prospectors and defenders

Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and, in particular, the capabilities perspective of firm performance, the authors examine the relationship between ambidexterity and firm performance for two strategy typologies: prospectors and defenders. Ambidexterity, defined as the combination of two discrete capabilities (exploration and exploitation), should have a less negative effect on firm performance among prospectors that add exploitation to exploration than among defenders who add exploration to exploitation. Hence, this research predicts an asymmetric effect of ambidexterity on firm performance for prospectors and defenders. The authors further posit that a boundary-spanning culture, such as market orientation, can function as a metaculture by integrating the subunit cultures generated by exploration and exploitation. As a result, market orientation should mitigate the negative effect of ambidexterity on firm performance, albeit differently for prospectors and defenders, and thus point to an asymmetric moderating role of market orientation. The findings provide mixed results, which the authors discuss along with some theoretical and managerial implications.     

Analyst Report Readability

Using an extensive database of 356,463 sell‐side equity analysts' reports from 2002 to 2009, this study is one of the first to analyze the readability of analysts' reports. We first examine the determinants of variations in analyst report readability. Using several proxies for ability, we show that reports are more readable when issued by analysts with higher ability. Second, we test the relation between analysts' report readability and stock trading volume reactions. We find that trading volume reactions increase with the readability of analysts' text, consistent with theoretical models that predict that more precise information (and hence more informative signals) results in investors' initiating trades. These results support the view that the readability of analysts' reports is important to analysts and capital market participants.     

Non‐Homothetic Multisector Growth Models

Multisector growth (MSG) models are dynamic versions of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Non‐homothetic preference (utility) functions are required for the evolution of factor allocations and industrial structures in accordance with consumption expenditure patterns implied by the non‐unitary income elasticities observed in all budget data since Engel in the 1850s. But comparative static general equilibrium solutions and particularly solving the dynamics of MSG models require explicit specifications of all demand and cost (price) functions. On the demand side, the constant differences of elasticity of substitution (CDES) non‐homothetic indirect utility functions and Roy's identity provide the explicit Marshallian demand functions and budget shares. Sectorial constant elasticity of substitution (CES) cost functions and Shephard's lemma provide the explicit relative commodity price functions and the sectorial cost shares and capital–labor ratios. Walrasian equilibria are given by one equation and the multisector dynamics by three differential equations. Benchmark solutions are given for three cost regimes of a 10‐sector MSG model. History patterns of industrial/allocational evolutions are recognized.