Brand orientation and brand performance in SMEs

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Odoom ◽  
Priscilla Mensah

Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of innovation capabilities and social media capabilities on the relationship between brand orientation and brand performance among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the size differential feature from the organizational ecology theory, the paper further tests variations in these conditions across disaggregated SME levels. Design/methodology/approach The empirical part of the study was carried out with a sample of 484 enterprises in an emerging market context via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, along with a moderated hierarchical regression. Findings Results from the moderated hierarchical regression analysis indicate that although the two capabilities generally offered positive moderating effects across all enterprises, these are conditional and not invariant when disaggregated based on enterprise sizes (small vs medium). Originality/value The study suggests the need for enterprise owners/managers to identify optimal combinations of enterprise capabilities, based on their sizes, for which their complementarities with brand orientation efforts are more potent.

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1229-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Odoom

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine brand-building efforts within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an attempt to understand the extent to which such efforts are undertaken in high- and low-performing enterprises. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data from 430 SMEs in an emerging market. After evaluating scale measures with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, multiple stage analyses involving cluster analysis, ANOVA and hierarchical regression with sub-group analysis were used to examine the theoretical relationships among the constructs. Findings Findings from the study identify four composite brand-building efforts that influence SMEs’ performance. These are implemented in varying extents, culminating into proportional levels of performance within high- and low-performing SMEs. Significant differences with regard to profit margin, market share, sales volume, customer base and new product success are also exhibited in the two enterprise segments. Originality/value The results provide evidence to issues of research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities. The paper offers a preliminary attempt to progress literature by synthesizing various brand-building efforts under four broader theorizations in SMEs setting.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunyi Cho ◽  
Kari Wilson ◽  
Jounghwa Choi

This study investigated whether and how dimensions of perceived realism of television medical dramas are linked to perceptions of physicians. The three dimensions of perceived realism were considered: plausibility, typicality, and narrative consistency. Data from a survey of college students were examined with confirmatory factor analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. Across the three dramas (ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and House), narrative consistency predicted positive perceptions about physicians. Perceived plausibility and typicality of the medical dramas showed no significant association with perceptions about physicians. These results illustrate the importance of distinguishing different dimensions of perceived realism and the importance of narrative consistency in influencing social beliefs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goudarz Azar

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which managers’ perceptions of cultural distance – one of the most important explanatory factors in the field of international business – are congruent with objective reality. Design/methodology/approach – By subjecting a sample of 242 export ventures to correlation and confirmatory factor analyses, managers’ perceptions of the cultural distance (i.e. perceived cultural distance) between 29 international markets and Sweden (the home market) were compared, with “objective” cultural distance gauged using Hofstede's (1980) scores for dimensions of national culture. Findings – A statistically significant correlation was found between managers’ perceptions of cultural distance and “objective” cultural distance. Originality/value – Despite the importance of perceptual data in many theoretical and practical domains, few studies analyze the validity of such data. The present findings validate the congruence of perceptual data regarding cultural distance with “objective” cultural distance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Jörg Felfe ◽  
Insa Fooken ◽  
Ho Thuy Ngoc

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of commitments of local employees to a parent company and a local operation in comparison to the nature of commitment of Western expatriates to the two foci. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by questionnaire from 532 local employees and 471 Western expatriates currently working for the subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) in Vietnam. Hypotheses were tested using exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, correlation analyses, t-test, generalized linear models and hierarchical regression. Findings – The results confirmed two distinct commitment foci and revealed that the commitment to the local operation was stronger than the commitment to the parent company for local employees. Remarkably, retention and absenteeism are more driven by local operation commitment than by parent company commitment for the local employees. In contrast, these outcomes are more driven by parent company commitment for the Western expatriates. Working conditions (job autonomy, job variety, transformational leadership and remuneration) positively predicted affective commitment to the local operation for both groups; particularly job variety and leadership were better predictors for local employees than for Western expatriates. Practical implications – The comparison shows effective and specific ways to sustain and reinforce the commitments of each employee group with regard to two foci. This information may help to reduce the rate of turnover intention and absenteeism in MNCs. Originality/value – By using a multifaceted approach, this study provided a comparison of dual organizational commitment for different categories of employees working in MNCs. Second, this study shows that the stronger commitment focus has a stronger influence on related outcomes (i.e. retention and absenteeism). If so, MNCs can focus on reinforcing the selected commitment focus in order to reduce the costs of management. Third, the study has initially pointed out that some work factors exert a specific influence on different commitment foci in the two groups. Controlling these work conditions is recommended to sustain and develop commitment levels of the two groups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 720-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiping Zhou ◽  
Yanhong Yao ◽  
Huanhuan Chen

Purpose This paper aims to explore the direct effects of open innovation (OI) on firms’ innovative performance, and to examine the moderating effects of knowledge attributes, including knowledge distance, knowledge embeddedness and partner opportunism on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Survey data of 247 samples from China were used to test the proposed model through hierarchical regression analysis. Findings The findings indicate that the dimensions of OI are positively related to innovative performance. The results also reveal that knowledge distance positively moderates the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge embeddedness negatively affects that relationship. Knowledge embeddedness negatively affects the relationship between inbound OI and innovative performance, whereas knowledge distance positively moderates that relationship. Thus, a new finding is proposed that knowledge attributes could align effectively with specific OI type to achieve superior innovation outcomes. In addition, the empirical results suggest that partner opportunism plays a negative moderating role on the relationship between outbound OI and innovative performance. Originality/value The proposed view that a firm’s innovation outputs will be superior when its knowledge attributes effectively align with OI enriches studies of the OI context and expands the literature of both the resource-based view and the knowledge-based view. Furthermore, this study provides insights into how OI benefits can be influenced by external contexts from the perspective of partners’ opportunistic behaviour.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1559-1580 ◽  
Author(s):  
César Camisón ◽  
Montserrat Boronat-Navarro ◽  
Beatriz Forés

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to enrich the explanation of the interplay between internal and external – or district shared – exploration and exploitation capabilities as antecedents of a firm’s radical and incremental innovation. Previous studies do not differentiate between exploration and exploitation in district shared capabilities and how they interact with internal capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses hierarchical regression analysis to test the quadratic and moderating effects in a sample of 1,019 Spanish firms.FindingsResults show an increasingly positive effect on radical innovation of exploration capabilities, enhanced by shared capabilities in exploration. In the case of incremental innovation, the study finds evidence of an increasingly positive influence of exploitation capabilities and a concave relationship of exploration capabilities. Moreover, shared exploitation capabilities weaken the effect of internal exploitation capabilities and also have a direct effect on incremental innovation. Therefore, the two capabilities are interchangeable in the effect they have on incremental innovation.Practical implicationsDepending on the firm’s innovation strategy, intra-district firms should develop specific capabilities and/or concentrate on adopting the shared capabilities in the destination.Originality/valueThe study furthers the understanding of the relationship between exploration and radical innovation, and between exploitation and incremental innovation, which is more complex than previously depicted. The study also differentiates between exploration and exploitation in shared capabilities, enriching understanding of the competitiveness of district firms.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Effat Sadat Mahboobi Renani ◽  
Seyed Fathollah Amiri Aghdaie ◽  
Majid Mohammad Shafiee ◽  
Azarnoush Ansari

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting brand competitive positioning (BCP) and its components in the home appliance industry and also to develop a scale for it, considering both the seller’s and the buyer’s side. Design/methodology/approach The factors were investigated both qualitatively and quantitatively. Data was collected from findings of previous research as well as interviews with experts in the industry. After conducting thematic analysis, the extracted factors were confirmed by experts. A total of 400 samples was used to test the BCP scale. Respondents were the customers of some selected home appliance brands. Findings The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that seven main factors influenced BCP, including product quality, service quality, perceived price, sales and distribution, marketing communication, market orientation and reputation and background. Also, the five components of BCP are distinctiveness, desirability, credibility, value for money and top of the mind awareness. Originality/value Modelling a new scale on BCP is of considerable importance. Using mixed method, the current study presents a new scale named Brand Competitive Positioning Scale.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Martínez-López ◽  
Irene Esteban-Millat ◽  
Ana Argila ◽  
Francisco Rejón-Guardia

Purpose – Psychological perspective has been omitted or considered a secondary issue by past studies focused on e-commerce recommendation systems (RS). However, this perspective is key to gaining a better understanding of consumer behaviours when these systems are used to support purchasing processes at online stores. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The field study consisted of a simulated online shopping process undertaken by a sample of internet users with a recommender system at a real online store (Pixmania). The authors applied rigorous and detailed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the empirical validity of the model. Findings – The proposed sequence of psychological outcomes is valid, with the exception of one hypothesized relationship. In particular, satisfaction with an online store’s recommender has a strong influence on a consumer’s willingness to purchase one of the items related to his/her shopping goal. However, this satisfaction has no direct effect on a consumer’s intention to make add-on purchases based on the recommender’s suggestions. On the contrary, the results support the idea that add-on purchases are conditioned by a previous purchase related to the consumer’s initial shopping goal. On the other hand, a consumer’s flow state while shopping improves all his/her psychological outcomes linked to an online store’s recommender. The influence of flow state is particularly interesting when seeking to gain a better understanding of consumers’ unplanned purchases based on the recommender’s suggestions. These findings have important implications for practitioners. Originality/value – This paper discusses in detail and empirically test a set of psychological outcomes that emerge when an e-vendor’s recommender is used to assist a consumer’s shopping process. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first attempt that empirically tests most of the hypothesized relationships within an online store’s RS context.


2009 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Raeder ◽  
Anette Wittekind ◽  
Alice Inauen ◽  
Gudela Grote

In this study, we validated a questionnaire measuring psychological contracts in a Swiss employment context. We argue that this measure sufficiently considers the characteristics of a stable employment situation and meets the criteria for the validity of psychological contract measures. The sample consisted of the employees of two firms and portfolio workers. An item and scale analysis was conducted and the dimensionality of the instrument was tested by means of confirmatory factor analyses. Finally, the instrument consists of three factors measuring employee expectations and employer inducements as well as two factors measuring employer expectations and employee contributions. Validity was evaluated by comparing groups with different employment status and by hierarchical regression analyses predicting intention to quit and performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shujie Zhang ◽  
Wei Sun ◽  
Haochen Ji ◽  
Junyun Jia

PurposeThe primary purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedent (i.e. leader's self-transcendent value) and outcomes (i.e. follower's environmental commitment and behavior) of transformational leadership. The second purpose is to examine the mediating role of transformational leadership plays in the relationship between leader's self-transcendent value and follower's environmental commitment and behavior.Design/methodology/approachMulti-source data were collected at multiple times in China. A total of 262 employees and their 64 supervisors completed the survey. The authors conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to verify the validity of the constructs and adopted the SPSS PROCESS macro with bootstrapping techniques to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe authors find that leader's self-transcendent value is an important antecedent of transformational leadership, and transformational leadership can enhance followers' environmental commitment and foster their environmental behavior. Besides, transformational leadership plays a significant mediating role between leader's self-transcendent value and follower's environmental commitment and behavior.Originality/valueThis study has developed an integrated model of the antecedents and outcomes of transformational leadership in the Chinese context. It also confirmed that transformational leadership mediates the process through which leader's self-transcendent value has a positive impact on follower's environmental commitment and behavior.


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