Firm capabilities and export performance of small firms: A meta-analytical review

Despite its importance, there is no clear understanding of the impact of small firms’ capabilities (networking, innovation, and marketing) on their export performance. This article attempts to address this issue with a meta-analysis of 74 recent empirical studies comprising 76 independent samples and covering more than 30 countries. We found that innovation, marketing, and networking capabilities positively influence export performance of small firms. However, the context-dependent nature of these relationships demands a more fine-grained examination. The variations in the ES of these relationships are explained by the role of external business environmental factors prevailing in the country of origin of the firm (developing/developed country and individualism/collectivism culture). We examined the divergent results provided by empirical studies using the moderator analysis. The findings of this article shed light on the role of small firms’ capabilities in enhancing export performance in different contextual settings.     

REENGINEERING CHANNEL REORDERING PROCESSES TO IMPROVE TOTAL SUPPLY-CHAIN PERFORMANCE

This paper discusses the relationship between business process reengineering and channel performance for firms implementing electronic data interchange (EDI) linkages within the U.S. grocery industry. Both quantitative and qualitative data sources are combined to test the hypothesis that channel transformation involving adoption of EDI and redesign of replenishment processes enables performance improvements more than an order of magnitude greater than implementation of EDI alone. This new process, enabled by EDI, provides retailers with 50- 100% higher inventory turns for products on continuous replenishment processes (CRP) relative to retailer performance using traditional ordering processes. Firms adopting EDI without using CRP to reengineer the ordering processes have failed to realize any statistically significant improvements in either inventory levels or warehouse stockouts. This research provides evidence to support the claims of process reengineering that are common in the popular business press, but for which statistically significant empirical evidence is minimal. The findings of the research also demonstrate the potential improvements that firms can realize through extending the business process reengineering concept to include the firms' entire supply chain.     

Corporate Strategy Formulation and Taxation: Evidence from UK Firms*

This paper considers the relationship between corporate strategy formulation and taxation. Drawing on prior literature we briefly review the important influence that international taxation has on an array of corporate strategy decisions. We then consider issues in strategy formulation and taxation planning in order to develop an understanding of when and how taxation factors impinge on strategic decision‐making. We draw out the apparent paradox between the nature of strategic decision‐making and financial decision‐making and look for areas of reconciliation. In order to shed light on some of these issues we present findings from the qualitative analysis of a set of personal interviews undertaken with senior tax practitioners in seven UK‐based multinational enterprises and then consider quantitative responses from the tax practitioners working in 145 UK firms.     

How market entry order mediates the influence of firm resources on new product performance

Building from the resource-based view of the firm and the first-mover advantage literature, this paper asserts that the entry order in a new product-market affects how the firm's resources and capabilities influence the product's performance. This proposition is tested on a sample of 136 product launches by Spanish manufacturing firms. The empirical analysis reveals that firms with superior managerial and R&D resources achieve superior new product performance when an early-entry strategy is adopted. Manufacturing resources also contribute positively to the success of new products, but this effect is weakened by the difficulties and inconveniences that firms with advantages in operations face when they attempt to pioneer a new market. The results regarding the influence of marketing resources on new product performance are not conclusive.     

Portfolio analysis for the small firm

Strategic decision-making in small firms is frequently described as being implicit or even as a process characterized by reactive, short-term oriented and incremental behaviour. Managers of small firms lack methods for analysing systematically and explicitly their strategic situation and the potential for future development of their firms. Strategic portfolio analysis could initiate and guide strategic reasoning. The article describes, on the basis of an empirical investigation, the problems and conditions of an application of this method in small firms and formulates proposals for its introduction and use.     

Transforming an industry in crisis: Charisma,routinization, and supportive cultural leadership

This article narrates the saga of how leaders in the highly competitive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry framed their future as a struggle for survival against an unprincipled adversary and thus generated an industry-wide strategy for battling the competition. Their strategy amounted to a social experiment in that it required unprecedented cooperation from members of the industry. Our account and analysis focus on four remarkable, interrelated aspects of this saga: (1) how these leaders linked their actions to support the charisma of their central leader—Robert Noyce—who became the first CEO of the resultant consortium; (2) how the participation they shared in the saga of the founding and growth of the U.S. semiconductor industry, especially at Fairchild Industries, provided a basis for their later cooperation; (3) how they created an unusual participative and democratic culture at Sematech; and (4) how Noyce's vision persisted after his death through various forms of routinization established earlier. Five bodies of qualitative data generated in two independent series of investigations inform this study. They include two sets of in-depth interviews with participants at various levels, extensive archival data, ethographic observations, informal conversations and interviews, and information supplied by a key informant.     

European industrial districts: Influence of geographic concentration on performance of the firm

This paper reviews ideas and insights from recent firm strategy literature. We argue that these perspectives can be usefully extended to explain the competitive advantage of the industrial district. Most of the empirical studies seeking evidence of the competitive advantage of the industrial district consisted of case studies. This paper attempts to offer a measurement of the performance of industrial district firms on a comparative basis by using the case of the Spanish ceramic tile industry.     

Firm Size and Wages

In this article the authors analyse the evidence found in several countries that large firms pay more than firms categorised as small. Firstly, this study discusses the factors which, according to previous theoretical research, explain the firm size-wage differential. Secondly, the different theoretical arguments are tested empirically. As a data base the authors use the individual and longitudinal data of the first four waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel. In the empirical investigation the instruments of variance, correlation and regression analysis, including the estimations of fixed-effects and random-effects odels are applied. The empirical analysis clearly demonstrates that positive effects of firm size on wages persist after controlling for

• — labour quality
• — differences in working conditions
• — employment tenure and rates of fluctuation
• — monetary fringe benefits of firms
• — heterogeneity of employese
• — monopoly power and ability to pay of firms.

The article concludes with some proposals for future research.     

BUSINESS STRATEGY,MANUFACTURING FLEXIBILITY,AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIPS: A PATH ANALYSIS APPROACH

It has been argued in the literature that business strategy and manufacturing flexibility independently affect the performance of an organization. However, no empirical examination of the interrelationship among these three constructs has been performed. In this paper, based on a field study of 269 firms in the manufacturing industry, the identified constructs have been used to test a theoretical model using path analysis techniques. Our results indicate that business strategy contributes both directly and indirectly to organizational performance. The findings provide evidence of direct effects of (i) business strategy on manufacturing flexibility and (ii) manufacturing flexibility on organizational performance.     

When outsourcing is not an option: International relocation of investment bank research — Or isn't it?

Outsourcing is high on the agenda of firms seeking to cut costs. Based on an enhanced value-chain concept we develop a model that determines the conditions under which outsourcing and offshoring are not expedient. The model allows for an integrated analysis of horizontal and vertical links to actors within and outside the firm. Equity and country research in investment banks and their outsourcing potential are used as case studies. We draw mainly on qualitative evidence from interviews with investment bank analysts, as well as data on locations of research units of foreign investment banks in India. The option of outsourcing certain stages of business processes and offshoring parts of the value chain within firms to low-wage locations depends crucially on how processes are ‘embedded’ in relation to other departments within and to corresponding actors outside the firm. Our analysis shows that there is little, if any, scope for outsourcing but some potential for low-level research activities to be offshored to low-cost regions.     

Designing a long range marketing strategy for services

The purpose of the article is to develop a frame of reference for long range marketing strategy, labelled the Three Stage Model which could benefiti the attempts of service firms and institutions to successfully introduce marketing and eventually achieve marketing-orientated operations. The author stresses some organizational aspects especially concerning the use of traditional marketing departments for handling an organization's marketing function. The views on service marketing are supported by a substantial amount of empirical evidence from the industrial and the consumer service sector. The frame of reference and the organizational views of the marketing of services will be equally valid for industrial marketing of services and for marketing consumer services.     

感知实绩、顾客满意与顾客忠诚--微观层次上的审视

最近几十年来,对顾客满意-企业利润之间关系的认识不断深化,使得对顾客满意的研究得到了很大的发展.其中,顾客忠诚被认为是顾客满意影响企业利润的中介.然而,对于顾客满意影响顾客忠诚的微观过程,目前缺乏一致的结论.我们采用声誉、重复消费意向和推荐他人消费意向作为中间变量,对顾客感知实绩、满意和忠诚之间的因果联系进行了实证研究.结果表明,顾客满意同顾客忠诚之间并无直接的因果联系,因此,企业在制定市场份额策略时,不应该仅局限于提高感知实绩和顾客满意的范畴,而应从多个角度出发来提高顾客忠诚.     

The reconstitution of broken interfirm relations

Why do firms re-establish previously dissolved relations with other firms? In this paper we explore this phenomenon in a customer-supplier context. Organization and strategy theorists have focused primarily on the formation, evolution, and dissolution of interfirm ties, but few have examined their reconstitution, despite evidence that tie reconstitution can have benefits for firms. We address this gap through an examination of strategic customer-supplier relations among 26 Scandinavian firms. Based on 95 open-ended interviews with executives of these firms, we show that four factors promote the reconstitution of previously dissolved ties: the existence of relation-specific investments in the earlier tie, accompanied by a history of reliability and coordination; concerns regarding the uncertainty and risk associated with the initiation of a new relation from scratch; the maintenance of social ties between firm officers during the period of dormancy; and a major structural change such as a reorganization, merger, or acquisition in one or both firms. The results suggest that reconstituted interfirm relations represent a type distinctly different from newly-formed, currently active, or repeated ties. Successful reconstitution requires that the firms overcome whatever difficulties led to the cessation of their relation in the first place. How the ties were dissolved has an impact on their reconstitution at a later stage. A dormancy stage may provide new and unexpected knowledge, novel information, and other new resources that can lead to substantial benefits after the firms achieve a successful reconstitution.     

Does Immigration Raise Blue and White Collar Wages of Natives? The Case of Italy

This paper analyses both theoretically and empirically the effects of immigration on the wage rate of native workers. There is rare evidence in empirical literature that immigration generates a fall in the wages of manual workers. By hypothesizing an economic system where advanced firms buy an intermediate good from traditional firms, which employ manual workers in both clean and dirty tasks, the latter being more disliked by native workers, we present a theoretical model that justifies these results. We conclude that native skilled wages always increase whereas native unskilled wages can both increase or decrease with immigration. An empirical analysis of the Italian labour market follows, showing that native workers' wages always rise with immigration.     

Implementing corporate strategy: Using management education and training

This article surveys a wide area—all of it relevant to the chief executive and the corporate planner—in linking management training and education to corporate strategy. Some companies are well aware of the benefits of using training as a means of implementing strategy. Unfortunately the management of many firms does not seem to be aware that the option exists and they are not able to use training this way because of their organizational and control systems. Training is a powerful weapon for implementing strategy. All the evidence suggests that it works, so who can afford to ignore it?     

Strategic management: New ventures and small business

This paper examines the factors influencing the formulation and implementation of strategy in new and small firms. Small businesses vary substantially in their resource positions, the goals of their founders and their potential. They also vary in stage of development: thus strategic management is examined separately in the start-up stage, the early-growth stage, and the later-growth stage. Intracorporate entrepreneurship in established firms is also considered. Despite this diversity, small firms create an environment for strategic management in which both the opportunities and constraints are different from those in large organizations.     

Evaluating the impact of lean practices on environmental performance: evidences from five manufacturing companies

Abstract

Previous evidence suggests that lean practices help organizations to enhance environmental performance. However, the impact of lean practices on the environment is still unclear. This study, therefore, aims to analyse the relationship between lean and environmental performance in two main stages: first, a review of the relevant literature was developed, followed by a multiple case study analysis conducted in five manufacturing companies. Onsite data were collected from the firms during a 5 years’ time span of research and developing semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that the environmental performance of the companies analysed is generally enhanced in the long-term after the implementation of lean. Moreover, the results suggest that the environmental performance of the firms investigated is mainly improved by using JIT and TQM practices in a lean transformation context. The research findings provide further results remarking the possible negative impact of Kanban deliveries, 5S and TPM on various environmental performance indicators.     

Discovering and Managing Interdependence with Customer‐Entrepreneurs

Research on inter‐organizational relationships has largely focused on the interdependence between formal organizations. In recent years, firms have encountered a new logic in which interdependent parties are not formal organizations but platform‐based ‘customer‐entrepreneurs’ that create value through illegal means. Drawing on a 5‐year‐long qualitative study, we examine how firms recognize and instantiate this new logic and, consequently, respond to their interdependencies with customer‐entrepreneurs. Viewed through the lens of institutional logic, we find that, with the benefit of hindsight, firms recognize the existence of the logic of customer entrepreneurship, which triggers organizational sensemaking that is made up of three elements: interpretation of legitimacy compatibility; interpretation of efficiency compatibility; and integration of stakeholder perspectives. This sensemaking results in either a determined account concluding on the compatibility calculus in a top‐down manner, or an open‐ended account avoiding the construction of a resolute, synthesized view. A determined account leads to a defiance strategy, by which firms attempt to remove the source of interdependencies with customer‐entrepreneurs, whereas an open‐ended account guides firms to espouse a decoupling strategy, whereby firms covertly resort to efficiency maximization enabled by the interdependence. Our results offer implications for the research on inter‐organizational relationships and institutional logic.     

Brokerage and governance for business networks: a metasynthesis-based discussion

This article reviews and discusses empirical literature on the micro-mechanisms of Burt’s concept of brokerage for inter-firm business networks from a governance perspective. Using a combination of a literature review and a qualitative metasynthesis, research gaps are first identified in the literature about these micro-mechanisms and then filled with interpretations, stemming from a qualitative metasynthesis of 13 in-depth case studies on brokerage for business network environments. The paper discusses three related elements and their inter-relationship in the brokerage process: the enabling factors for brokerage in business networks; the brokerage activities, particularly the combination of “bonding”, “bridging”, exclusion, and moderation/negotiation in different network configurations; and the outcomes of brokerage for business networks. We argue that network managers should take care of these elements when using brokerage to govern business networks. For example, the positional factors of agents in the network who take over brokerage functions need to be monitored and a balance of their embeddedness in the network and independence of focal firms should be safeguarded. Moreover, activities associated with brokerage should be steered and controlled in order to generate network benefits such as a higher collaborative stance of the partaking firms or learning processes amongst them.