Enhancing competitive advantage and financial performance of consumer-goods SMEs in export markets: how do social capital and marketing innovation matter?

PurposeBuilding on the resource-based view (RBV), this study examines the differential roles of internal and external social capital (SC) in enhancing the marketing innovation (MI), competitive advantage and financial performance of Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in export markets.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 197 valid cases were obtained from Korean manufacturing SMEs in the consumer goods sector. Then, a path analysis was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsFirst, SME internal SC positively influenced MI, whereas external SC positively influenced foreign distributor's MI (or foreign distributor MI). Second, SME MI was positively associated with foreign distributor MI. Third, no statistical differences were found in the strength of the paths from foreign distributor and SME MI to competitive advantage. Meanwhile, foreign distributor MI positively affected financial performance more than SME MI. Fourth, SME competitive advantage predicted a positive financial performance. Finally, the effect of SME MI on financial performance had an inverted “U” shape.Originality/valueThis study fills a research gap in the MI literature by identifying MI in terms of its actors (SMEs and their foreign distributors) and examining the differential roles of internal and external SC in MI.

Architectural marketing capabilities of exporting ventures

Purpose The importance of architectural marketing capabilities (i.e. marketing planning and implementation) in exporting ventures has been recognised. However, extant literature has not taken into account the explicit roles and required synergy between the exporter and their foreign distributor in delivering these capabilities. Drawing from the resource-based theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the complementarity of distributor implementation capability and market orientation with exporter planning capability. Design/methodology/approach The study was carried out using a survey. Data were collected from 147 Greek exporters who replied to our questionnaire and the hypotheses were tested using the full information maximum likelihood estimation procedure. Findings The results support the hypotheses about the importance of exporter planning capability on financial performance and the complementary role of distributor market orientation. Further, the authors find that the distributor’s implementation capability partially mediates the impact of the exporter’s planning capability on financial performance. Originality/value This study contributes to a better understanding about the complementarity of exporter and distributor capabilities. It demonstrates the crucial role of the distributor in the deployment of architectural capabilities for the export venture: the distributor’s market orientation and implementation capability have the final say in achieving higher levels of export performance.

Relationships Between the Capabilities and Export Performance of Korean Clothing and Textiles SMEs and the Moderating Effects of Export Mode on These Relationships

The authors proposed hierarchical (stepwise) regression models to test the hypothesized relationships between capabilities and the export performance of Korean clothing and textiles small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), along with the moderating effects of export mode (exporting own-brand products versus exporting products under original equipment manufacturing [OEM] contracts) on these relationships. The authors show that both technological capability (TC) and the ability to leverage foreign-distributor capabilities (ALFDCs) are positively related to strategic export performance; marketing capability (MC) is positively related to financial export performance; TC and the ALFDCs are related more strongly to strategic export performance for SMEs exporting own-brand products than those exporting under OEM contracts; and MC is related more strongly to financial export performance for SMEs exporting own-brand products than those exporting under OEM contracts. In addition, strategic export performance is positively related to financial export performance. From these results, the authors offer implications for managers and future researchers.