Formal business networking and SME growth

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the impact of formal business networking on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth. Using a large, unbalanced panel data set of Flemish SMEs over the period 1992–2008, we examine whether participation in a government-supported program aimed at providing small business managers with structured formal networking contacts is associated with SME growth. Our results suggest that formal business networking is significantly positively correlated with net asset and added value growth.     

E-Business Transformation via Alliance Clusters

The number of firms using alliances as part of their corporate venturing or market entry strategies has surged over the past decade. Three common reasons cited for pursuing alliances are technology convergence, market access and alliance partners' complementary resources. This paper contrasts the alliance strategies of HP and IBM, two major competitors in electronic services (i.e. Internet-based 'e- service') businesses, using the Familiarity Matrix as a display tool to portray the strategies. Whereas the HP strategy is to attempt to establish its technology infrastructure as the standard e-services infrastructure on the Internet, IBM aims to position its IBM Global Services, rather than its technology, at the center of this ecosystem.     

On the relation between corporate governance compliance and operating performance

Better corporate performance has been cited as one of the main benefits of adopting good corporate governance structures within organisations. However, in contrast to theory, a prior European study (Bauer et al., 2004) reports evidence of a negative relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance. This study re‐examines this relationship, and reports evidence of a positive relationship between the extent of compliance with international best practices concerning board structure and functioning and operating performance when operating performance is measured by the return on assets (ROA). This result is robust to controlling for the firms’ compliance with best practices in other governance areas, and holds for some other governance dimensions, namely disclosure of corporate governance and the range of takeover defences. Further tests indicate that greater compliance with international best practices concerning board structure and functioning is significantly associated with reporting less income from asset disposals and that studying a performance measure that includes this item obscures the inherently positive relationship between operating performance and the extent of compliance with international best practices regarding board structure and functioning. The results provide some support for an oftencited motivation for the adoption of good governance practices, and provide explicit evidence that the measure of operating performance is crucial in examining firm‐level operating performance.     

Personal interviews in cultural consumer research – post‐structuralist challenges

This paper takes a post‐structuralist perspective on consumer research and discusses the role of personal interviews in cultural analysis. It problematizes the use of the phenomenological interview in cultural consumer research, arguing that the underlying research paradigm, existential‐phenomenology, is not necessarily adequate for cultural analysis because it focuses attention primarily on the individual and the first‐person experience. Such a paradigmatic perspective is problematic because it tends to sustain a view of human agency that is highly individualistic and thus fails to account for the cultural complexity of social action. Overall, the paper contributes to the further development of the post‐structuralist approaches to postmodern marketing thought. Post‐structuralist ideas and assumptions challenge the central principles of modern marketing and consumer research in many ways and it is the aim of the paper to contribute to a better understanding of the methodological implications that they entail.     

The Effects of Relationship Marketing on Share of Business: A Synthesis and Comparison of Models

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The article synthesizes the extensive empirical work on relationship marketing (RM) and compares the various conceptualizations to give a better understanding of the relational factors (i.e., characteristics of the business relationship) that improve a seller’s objective performance (i.e., share of business) in a business-to-business (B2B) services context. These conceptualizations, taken from the literature, link relational antecedents (i.e., communication, domain expertise, relational value, and mutual goals) to relational mediators (i.e., trust, satisfaction, commitment, relationship quality) to explore how they in turn affect a seller’s share of business.

Methodology/approach: All 4 models derived from the literature review were assessed using a dataset drawn from a survey of 948 client firm representatives of a Portuguese hotel chain in a B2B services context.

Findings: The best of the models in terms of model fit and prediction of share of business shows that only customer commitment directly drives a seller’s share of business, and simultaneous interrelated changes in customer trust and satisfaction, as well as customer perceptions of relational value, drive customer commitment, and so exert indirect effects on performance. The model that proposes that a seller’s performance is strengthened by simultaneous interrelated improvements in customer trust, satisfaction, and commitment (i.e., with these three mediators being conceptualized as a single, combined, higher-order mediator, termed relationship quality [RQ]) shows inferior fit. No combination of mediators (satisfaction, trust, or commitment) improves the seller’s objective performance over and above their individual effects (i.e., there are no synergistic effects).

Research implications: The literature review suggested four ways of modeling RM antecedents, mediators, and their effect on performance. Complex second-order constructs such as RQ lack explanatory power when predicting outcomes and mask the effects of individual relational mediators. Correct conceptualization is important, as conclusions vary drastically even with the same set of relational mediators and same dataset.

Practical implications: B2B service providers’ investments in RM will lead to improved share of business only if customer commitment is high or there is at least the potential to improve it. This requires an understanding of how valuable

the customer believes the relationship to be, and how the customer rates the relationship with the firm in terms of satisfaction and trust. A customer segmentation approach to relationship building and maintenance is advocated and detailed suggestions are put forward.

Originality/value/contribution: Apart from the work by Palmatier, the relationships between RM antecedents and mediators have not yet been examined simultaneously and findings are fragmented. The article provides a synthesis of this expansive literature. It contrasts different interplays between RM mediators, including their interrelationships as a higher-order construct, and explores possible synergy effects. Unlike previous work, this study focused on an objective measure of seller performance (i.e., share of business), whereas previous studies have tended to examine subjective measures, especially within the B2B context. Furthermore, four full models were assessed here, each of which included the antecedents to RM mediators and their links to objective performance.