A Model of Interorganizational Networking Antecedents,Consequences and Business Performance

Purpose: This quantitative study intended to examine the communication interactions that develop within a business network among various actors (i.e., customers, providers, cooperators, etc.), together with their effects upon business networking and performance. To these ends, we developed a conceptual model of dyadic marketing-oriented and network-oriented communication exchanges (i.e., interorganizational antecedents), interorganizational networking consequences, and business performance. Specifically, interorganizational networking consequences were examined in terms of tactical and strategic cooperation, whereas business performance was examined in terms of adaptability, productivity and efficiency.

Methodology/approach: To set the hypotheses of the study we delved into the wide stream of marketing literature pertaining to interorganizational networks and business-to-business relationships, and specifically to the marketing orientation theory, the social network theory, and the IMP approach. These research hypotheses were tested using advanced statistical analysis and causal modeling. The research sample comprised 1,000 business-to-business international companies, which were mostly U.S., and European and were randomly selected from the yahoo.com business-to-business companies’ subdirectory. The data collection involved a two-wave e-mail survey, in which the quantitative research instrument was emailed to the respective marketing directors’ personal accounts. Totally 249 high ranking marketing executives responded, thus yielding a 24.9% response rate. The selected data were, then, subjected to rigorous advanced statistical analysis of structural equation modeling, using the AMOS21 statistical package, to test reliability and stability of selected measures and validity of the research model, as a whole.

Findings: Overall, the research findings provided sufficient evidence that the proposed model was robust. Moreover, the findings supported that communication exchanges that deploy within a wide array of participants (i.e., within a network of organizational members, customers, partners, and other interacting partners within a market), may have stronger explanatory powers upon a company’s networking effects and business performance, than communication exchanges that evolve merely at a dyadic company-customer level.

Originality/value/contribution: This research is original; that is, it deals with empirical, quantitative data and makes an attempt to combine marketing concepts mainly from 3 marketing streams studying the long-term business-to-business relationships. Our approach is based on existing marketing literature, suggesting that networks, apart from being embedded in previous relationships and interactions, they may also be based on more loosely coupling between organizations. Thus, we use the IMP approach to formulate the measures of our study; however, we don’t discriminate between strong and weak ties in relationship bonding. In this research we focus on specific communication behaviors that may nurture interorganizational networking and look for effects upon cooperation and business performance. The research findings imply that marketing executives would worthwhile expand their communication exchanges beyond their narrow customers’, or providers’ network, to the wider array of trustworthy business circle, as such a behavior may largely favor their companies’ adaptability to environmental changes, flourish innovation, and lead to synergies in efficiency and productivity gains.     

Research initiatives of the European Union in the areas of sustainability,entrepreneurship, and poverty alleviation

In an effort to combat poverty and sustain growth, the European Union launched initiatives and invested funds to research the area of sustainable development and social cohesion. This article reviews funded projects of the European Union established over the last decade in the areas of entrepreneurship, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. The analysis reveals that in Europe the issue of poverty is seen more as an issue of inequality and as lack of integration rather than an issue of wealth. This has an effect in the way policymakers and public authorities adopt new measures to achieve social cohesion, thereby ignoring the contribution of the individual as an entrepreneur with social consciousness that could lead the efforts to alleviate poverty. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Company Characteristics and Environmental Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between various firm characteristics and environmental disclosures. Our findings evidence that firms with higher environmental ratings present a statistically significant larger size, belong to more environmentally sensitive industries as compared with firms with lower environmental ratings and disclose environmental information according to GRI guidelines. However, neither profitability nor listing status seems to explain differences in environmental disclosure practices between Greek companies. The most influential variable for explaining firms' variation in environmental ratings is size, followed by GRI reporting and industry membership. This study adds to the international research on environmental disclosure by providing empirical data from a country, Greece, where empirical evidence is still relatively unknown, extending the scope of the current understanding of the environmental reporting practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Consumers’ intention to buy protected designation of origin and protected geographical indication foodstuffs: the case of Greece

There is evidence that consumers tend to highly regard the quality, authenticity, ethical standards, country of origin and sustainable production of foodstuffs; hence, the growing number of studies on products of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). PDO and PGI labelling is associated with the preservation of local plant varieties, the financial reward of local people and the sustainable development of rural areas. This study was set out to investigate the factors associated with Greek consumers’ intention to buy PDO/PGI food products. A total of 615 consumers took part in the study from the municipality of Attica, Greece. The survey was conducted during the period of March 2011 to April 2013. Results indicated that approximately 50% of respondents were willing to buy PDO/PGI products whereas the willingness to buy these products constituted an important factor in purchasing them. More specifically, according to the regression analysis, factors that are significantly associated with respondents’ willingness to buy PDOs/PGIs were as follows: origin, health claims and label of a product, as well as sustainable consumer behaviour. Understanding the main factors relating to consumers’ purchasing intent towards PDO/PGI products is an important step towards promoting special labelled agri‐foodstuffs and hence contributes to the local sustainable development.     

The web-based financial reporting adopted by the listed companies in the Athens Stock Exchange

Web-based corporate reporting is the provision of financial information through the Internet. Other companies prefer to disclose their financial information in order to satisfy their investors and to attract new ones while others prefer to provide as less information as possible. The purpose of this paper is twofold： first it provides a critical examination of the main reporting criteria followed by the Greek listed companies, in order to point out how many of these companies present these criteria. Second, it considers how the industry sector of the listed companies or their capitalization category is related with their disclosure degree of financial reporting.