Marketing capabilities: Antecedents and implications for B2B SME performance

The study provides a new perspective on SME marketing strategies in the B2B context. Using a resource-based view of the firm, the study develops a structural model linking marketing capabilities and marketing performance. A study of 367 SME Australian firms reveals that two key marketing capabilities, namely branding and innovation, have major performance outcomes in the SME B2B context. This is the first SME study to evaluate concurrently the contribution of innovation and branding marketing capabilities, with innovation capability the strongest determinant of SME performance. The study also finds market orientation and management capability act as enabling mechanisms for building marketing capabilities. Disaggregation tests indicate that the same findings apply to three size categories denoting micro firms (less than 20 staff), small firms (20-99 staff) and medium-sized firms (100-499 staff).     

Enhancing firm performance through internal market orientation and employee organizational commitment

Considering the importance of retaining key staff and managing the negative impact of high labor turnover on firm performance, this study investigates the notion of internal market orientation (IMO) as an employee management tool for helping companies retain employees and leverage performance via their organizational commitment. Drawing on data from three different managerial respondents in 275 companies based in China, the findings demonstrate the precedential effect of IMO on corporate performance through employees’ organizational commitment and retention. Interdepartmental relationship and interdepartmental communication, together with ownership types are identified as potential moderating variables, which may vary IMO’s effectiveness in the framework. This study provides scholars and practitioners with empirical evidence of IMO’s contribution to different industries and markets. Building on a western perspective, this study extends the literature in an emerging market context and specifically has implications for managing Chinese employees.     

Artificial neural networks: A new methodology for industrial market segmentation

Neural networks are a type of artificial intelligence computing that have generated considerable interest across many disciplines during the past few years. The authors explore the potential of artificial neural networks in assisting industrial marketers faced with a segmentation problem by comparing their classification ability with discriminant analysis and logistic regression. The neural networks achieve higher hit ratios on holdout samples than the other methodologies. A marketer in a business-to-business situation may be able to segment a market more accurately, thereby improving efficiency for sales forces and other promotional activities, by using artificial neural networks.     

DOCTORS AS MANAGERS - New Public Management in a New Zealand hospital

In a corporatized New Zealand public hospital, senior management introduced a strategy of ‘clinical leadership’ intended to incorporate clinicians more fully within some system of organizational control, and to make them accountable for the resources consumed as a consequence of their treatment decisions. An organizational restructuring created semiautonomous business units based around clinical specialities and headed by clinician managers. Clinician managers played a boundary role between their professional colleagues and management. In the short term, a number of senior clinicians adapted to this role and there was some evidence for their acculturation into managerial identifications. However, the majority of clinician managers acted to absorb change rather than actively champion change. For many clinical units, clinical practice continued more or less unchanged. The concept of loosely coupled systems is used to explain this separation of internal operations from organizational form.     

The Performance of Hedge Fund Strategies and the Asymmetry of Return Distributions

We present hedge fund performance estimates that adjust for stale prices, Fama‐French risk factors and skewness. We contrast these new performance estimates with traditional performance measures. Using three‐factor models to adjust for staleness in prices and to incorporate Fama‐French factors along with the Harvey‐Siddique (2000) two‐factor model that incorporates skewness, we find that for the period 1990–2003, all hedge fund categories achieve above average performance when measured against an aggregate market index. More significantly, however, when we estimate performance at the individual hedge fund level, we discover that only 40 to 47% of the funds are shown to achieve an above average performance over that time period depending on the model used. These results have important implications for investors, endowments and pensions when they choose hedge fund managers.     

Innovation in Australian Trade Unions

Building on the study of innovation in American national unions, this article specifies and tests a model of the determinants of innovation in Australian trade unions. The results generally support the principal Delaney, Jarley, and Fiorito (1996) finding that the degree of union innovative activity is positively associated with rationalization and size—an indicator of resource availability. Several contrasts between the Australian and American findings are also noted and discussed.     

点燃梦想，让年轻人获得成功和财富——记郗慧林和她打造的中国网络教育第一品牌

中国“网络教育”第一人．中国国际教育产业投资集团、校园在线教育集团、全国连锁领先英语中心，终生领导艺术管理学院、知识·财富会所等创始人，董事会主席，CEO。从小学开始就不断跳级．14岁考上大学．18岁当大学教师．22岁怀揣2万美金独闯华尔街成功创业．27岁投资800万美元创办国内首家大型网络教育机构．30岁出头掌控规模达6000万美元的企业资产，拥有无数的加盟伙伴和百余家知识·财富会所及全国连锁的领先英语中心．凝聚了众多的优秀人才，点燃了他们的创业梦想，带着这种年轻的、向上的张力及非凡的智慧和卓越的领导力．用生命谱写着未来网络教育的美好篇章……郗慧林，这个具有传奇色彩的女性企业家走着非同一般的网络教育之路。     

Predicting UK Takeover Targets: Some Methodological Issues and an Empirical Study

This paper examines the methodological issues of using accounting ratios to predict takeover targets. Certain improvements are suggested, notably the use of industry-relative ratios and the deterimination of an ex ante cut off point which maximizes returns. The empirical study suggests that industry-relative ratios are not an improvement upon industry-specific models and that, although the models perform better than chance, they do not perform sufficiently well as to earn excess returns. Unfortunately, the results are not sufficiently sensitive as to be significantly affected by the choice of cut off point.     

High Performance Work Systems and Employee Experience of Work in the Service Sector: The Case of Aged Care

In spite of the growing body of research on high performance work systems (HPWS), there is little evidence on their application in the service sector. It is commonly argued, however, that occupational segmentation in services is a barrier to HPWS. Analysis of data from aged‐care workers indicates that: HPWS have positive outcomes for workers; highly skilled nurses are no more likely than lowly skilled personal care workers to be subject to HPWS; and in some cases, HPWS are associated with more positive outcomes for low‐skilled than high‐skilled workers. These findings suggest that HPWS may well be widely applicable in service settings.     

PYRRHIC VICTORY? THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF THE PENSIONS ACT 2004

The UK's 2004 Pensions Act is a far-reaching piece of legislation, with significant implications for the occupational pensions marketplace. The Act is intended to improve the governance of pension schemes and increase the security of the members' accrued benefits. However, our research suggests that it will have serious and adverse unintended consequences. The most significant of these will be to undermine occupational pension provision by placing an increased burden on sponsoring employers, whose involvement in pension provision is on a voluntary basis.