This thesis examines the influence of market, learning, and entrepreneurial orientation as sources of competitive advantage in fast-growth SMEs. It is taken that these three factors synergistically comprise an organization's business orientation, enhancing marketing capabilities and firm performance. In Australia, these firms tend to be emerging enterprises, usually less than 10 years of age, and comprise approximately 10% of all SMEs, contributing substantially to national revenue. Two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) were incorporated, utilizing a sequential explanatory design, which is characterized by undertaking quantitative data collection and analysis (path modelling), prior to conducting qualitative research (case studies/causal network modelling). Study 1 reveals that business orientations are significant antecedents to marketing capabilities. Accordingly, firms leverage advantages associated with a business orientation to strengthen their marketing capabilities. While superior marketing capabilities are important drivers of performance, these capabilities also mediate relationships between business orientation and performance. Without such capabilities, it appears that firm market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations provide little value to attainment of desired performance objectives. Fast growth SMEs invest in maintaining sound relationships with distributors and developing superior products/services for positional advantages. However, only product/service development capabilities contribute significantly to firm performance. Although Relationship Capabilities are related positively with Shared Vision (learning orientation) and Proactiveness (entrepreneurial orientation), this marketing capability dimension displays nonsignificant relationshi ps with performance measures. This finding suggests that even though FGF employees might have sound relationships with distributors/retailers, Relationship Capabilities are not a direct contributor to subjective measures of firm profitability, ROI, ROE, customer satisfaction, new product success, and overall marketing effectiveness, confirming that positional advantage does not necessarily lead to enhanced firm performance. In addition, marketing research, marketing management, marketing communications, and pricing are nonsignificant contributors within the context of the present hypothesized model. Study 2 extends the hypothesized model originating from Study 1. Based on an inductive analysis of case studies, qualitative findings reveal four significant qualities specific to these organizations: Leadership/CEO characteristics, human resource practices, organizational culture, and organizational climate. These characteristics can be regarded as intangible resources associated with fast-growth firms. These attributes appear to be significant antecedents to business orientation, marketing capabilities, customer value, and firm performance. Customer value features prominently. This model is also nonrecursive: firm performance sends a signal to potential employees and customers, impacting human resource related issues such as staff motivation, rewards, and recruitment. Successful firms tend to attract highly talented employees because potential staff want to be associated with winning enterprises. Information generated and disseminated from the renewal process adds new knowledge to superior organizational r esources, making the process nonrecursive. Perhaps, more importantly, Study 2 reveals that fast-growth companies seem to have an uncanny ability to remain ahead, preventing competitors from surreptitiously entering their markets. It might sound as a cliché, however, but these organizations appear to possess a commitment to customer centricity for at least some period of time, retaining customers by developing new products which continue to serve current customers as they change what they value.

Family business is a typical organizational form around the world and dominates the economic landscape of many nations. Scholars propose that the reason why family businesses are different from non-family business because of resources that are distinctive to a firm as a result of the interactions between family, family members and business. The bundle of resources that have been theoretically developed within the resource-based view framework are identified as ¡§Familiness¡¨ of the firm. Familiness is considered as a source of competitive advantage to family firms, but some scholars believe that the resources are necessary but not sufficient to achieve a competitive advantage. Resources must also be managed and deployed effectively through capabilities. Marketing capabilities is one of the most important capabilities of a firm, there are many studies have pointed out that the marketing capabilities and business performance are significantly related. The purpose of this paper is to exam the relationships among the familiness of individual family firm and their marketing capabilities through the resource-based view framework. This paper conducted a convenience sampling questionnaire survey to collect data, using the members of "Taiwan Fastener Association", "Taiwan Watch & Clock Industrial Association¡¨, ¡§Taiwan Fluid Power Association", and the companies that National Sun Yat-sen University MBA¡¦s students work for as sample, issued 571 questionnaires, 134 valid questionnaires were retuned, the effective response rate is 23.5%. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, multivariate analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The results of this paper show that all of family human resource, family social resource and patiant financial resource have significantly positive correlation with marketing capabilities. The managers of family business can take advantage of such unique resources to strengthen marketing capabilities that create sustainable competitive advantage and achieve superior performance.

This thesis explores how the resources of marketing capabilities, business networks, and financial resources, influence the marketing approach of international new ventures. Building on the resource based view, the market entry of firms and how they compete is analyzed by exploring the resources and capabilities of INVs. By using a qualitative research method, this thesis identifies the three resources of marketing capabilities, business networks, and financial resources to be highly influential for INVs’ marketing approach. Also there has been shown to be a synergetic effect between the resources, and that the cross-industrial and cross-business type sampling did not entail any divergences, but rather similar patterns. Four main findings can be identified as a result of our analysis. First, market knowledge prior to internationalization is shown to be key. Second, the creation of trust through transparency in business networks spark business network opportunities and long-term relationships. Third, utilizing technological tools for marketing endeavors becomes highly efficient. Fourth, tackling financial limitations through the implementation of a low-cost strategy is shown to be essential. The findings of this research has great potential of contributing to managerial practice when working with marketing aspirations, as well as being a starting point for future research in the field of INVs and the resource based view theory. The study has limitations in regards to the scope of the research.

A compreensão dos fatores que influenciam a implementação de estratégia em marketing é um problema que desafia os pesquisadores da área desde o início da década de 1980. Para abordar o referido tema, esta investigação utilizou uma perspectiva de análise baseada na visão estruturalista da implementação. A realização desta tese se deu com o desenvolvimento de um modelo que contempla as seguintes dimensões dessa visão de implementação: Estrutura Organizacional de Marketing, Capacidades de Marketing e Dispersão de Marketing. Além disso, é analisada a utilização de relações interfirmas como meio de acessar recursos e capacidades indisponíveis na organização. Foi realizada uma pesquisa com empresas fabricantes de móveis no Brasil para o teste das hipóteses propostas, na qual foi obtida uma amostra de 424 casos válidos para o estudo. O uso de modelagem de equações estruturais permitiu a avaliação da influência dos construtos da estrutura de marketing na implementação de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Verificou-se que o modelo evidencia a influência desses construtos na implementação da referida estratégia. Mais especificamente, identifica-se que a Estrutura Organizacional e a Dispersão de Marketing influenciam positivamente as Capacidades de Marketing. Essas, quando divididas em Capacidades Arquiteturais e Especializadas proporcionam maiores subsídios para a compreensão de seus antecedentes e das influências que causam nos construtos de desempenho. Além disso, verificou-se que a tipologia de estruturas Orgânicas e Burocráticas é útil para o estudo das relações que envolvem estrutura de marketing, visto que são capazes de discriminar empresas a partir de suas características organizacionais. No que diz respeito à utilização de relações interfirmas, os resultados indicam a relevância de sua análise para o estudo da implementação de marketing, verificou-se que a influência da Dispersão de Marketing nas Capacidades de Marketing somente é significativa no contexto de empresas que utilizam tais relações. / Understanding the factors that influence the implementation of marketing strategy is an issue that challenges the researchers since the early 1980's. To address this issue, this research used an analysis based on the perspective of structuralist view of implementation. To conduct this study was developed a model that includes the following dimensions of this vision of implementation: Organizational Marketing Structure, Marketing Capabilities and Marketing Dispersion. Furthermore, it examined the use of interfirm relationships as a means to access resources and capabilities not available in the organization. We performed a search with furniture manufacturers in Brazil to test the hypotheses proposed, which was obtained a sample of 424 valid cases for the study. The use of structural equation modeling allowed the evaluation of the structural marketing constructs influence in the new product development strategy implementation. It was found that the model confirms the influence of these constructs in the strategy implementation. More specifically, it identifies that the Organizational Structure and the Marketing Dispersion positively influence the Marketing Capabilities. The capabilities divided into Specialized and Architectural Capabilities provided greater contribution to the understanding of their antecedents and influences that it cause to the performance constructs. Furthermore, we found that the Organic and Bureaucratic types of organizational structures are useful to the study of marketing structure, because with that types is possible to discriminate firms structures. Regarding the use of interfirm relationships, the results indicate the importance of its analysis to study the marketing implementation. It was found that the influence of Marketing Dispersion in Marketing Capabilities is only significant in the context of companies that use such relations.

A compreensão dos fatores que influenciam a implementação de estratégia em marketing é um problema que desafia os pesquisadores da área desde o início da década de 1980. Para abordar o referido tema, esta investigação utilizou uma perspectiva de análise baseada na visão estruturalista da implementação. A realização desta tese se deu com o desenvolvimento de um modelo que contempla as seguintes dimensões dessa visão de implementação: Estrutura Organizacional de Marketing, Capacidades de Marketing e Dispersão de Marketing. Além disso, é analisada a utilização de relações interfirmas como meio de acessar recursos e capacidades indisponíveis na organização. Foi realizada uma pesquisa com empresas fabricantes de móveis no Brasil para o teste das hipóteses propostas, na qual foi obtida uma amostra de 424 casos válidos para o estudo. O uso de modelagem de equações estruturais permitiu a avaliação da influência dos construtos da estrutura de marketing na implementação de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Verificou-se que o modelo evidencia a influência desses construtos na implementação da referida estratégia. Mais especificamente, identifica-se que a Estrutura Organizacional e a Dispersão de Marketing influenciam positivamente as Capacidades de Marketing. Essas, quando divididas em Capacidades Arquiteturais e Especializadas proporcionam maiores subsídios para a compreensão de seus antecedentes e das influências que causam nos construtos de desempenho. Além disso, verificou-se que a tipologia de estruturas Orgânicas e Burocráticas é útil para o estudo das relações que envolvem estrutura de marketing, visto que são capazes de discriminar empresas a partir de suas características organizacionais. No que diz respeito à utilização de relações interfirmas, os resultados indicam a relevância de sua análise para o estudo da implementação de marketing, verificou-se que a influência da Dispersão de Marketing nas Capacidades de Marketing somente é significativa no contexto de empresas que utilizam tais relações. / Understanding the factors that influence the implementation of marketing strategy is an issue that challenges the researchers since the early 1980's. To address this issue, this research used an analysis based on the perspective of structuralist view of implementation. To conduct this study was developed a model that includes the following dimensions of this vision of implementation: Organizational Marketing Structure, Marketing Capabilities and Marketing Dispersion. Furthermore, it examined the use of interfirm relationships as a means to access resources and capabilities not available in the organization. We performed a search with furniture manufacturers in Brazil to test the hypotheses proposed, which was obtained a sample of 424 valid cases for the study. The use of structural equation modeling allowed the evaluation of the structural marketing constructs influence in the new product development strategy implementation. It was found that the model confirms the influence of these constructs in the strategy implementation. More specifically, it identifies that the Organizational Structure and the Marketing Dispersion positively influence the Marketing Capabilities. The capabilities divided into Specialized and Architectural Capabilities provided greater contribution to the understanding of their antecedents and influences that it cause to the performance constructs. Furthermore, we found that the Organic and Bureaucratic types of organizational structures are useful to the study of marketing structure, because with that types is possible to discriminate firms structures. Regarding the use of interfirm relationships, the results indicate the importance of its analysis to study the marketing implementation. It was found that the influence of Marketing Dispersion in Marketing Capabilities is only significant in the context of companies that use such relations.

A compreensão dos fatores que influenciam a implementação de estratégia em marketing é um problema que desafia os pesquisadores da área desde o início da década de 1980. Para abordar o referido tema, esta investigação utilizou uma perspectiva de análise baseada na visão estruturalista da implementação. A realização desta tese se deu com o desenvolvimento de um modelo que contempla as seguintes dimensões dessa visão de implementação: Estrutura Organizacional de Marketing, Capacidades de Marketing e Dispersão de Marketing. Além disso, é analisada a utilização de relações interfirmas como meio de acessar recursos e capacidades indisponíveis na organização. Foi realizada uma pesquisa com empresas fabricantes de móveis no Brasil para o teste das hipóteses propostas, na qual foi obtida uma amostra de 424 casos válidos para o estudo. O uso de modelagem de equações estruturais permitiu a avaliação da influência dos construtos da estrutura de marketing na implementação de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Verificou-se que o modelo evidencia a influência desses construtos na implementação da referida estratégia. Mais especificamente, identifica-se que a Estrutura Organizacional e a Dispersão de Marketing influenciam positivamente as Capacidades de Marketing. Essas, quando divididas em Capacidades Arquiteturais e Especializadas proporcionam maiores subsídios para a compreensão de seus antecedentes e das influências que causam nos construtos de desempenho. Além disso, verificou-se que a tipologia de estruturas Orgânicas e Burocráticas é útil para o estudo das relações que envolvem estrutura de marketing, visto que são capazes de discriminar empresas a partir de suas características organizacionais. No que diz respeito à utilização de relações interfirmas, os resultados indicam a relevância de sua análise para o estudo da implementação de marketing, verificou-se que a influência da Dispersão de Marketing nas Capacidades de Marketing somente é significativa no contexto de empresas que utilizam tais relações. / Understanding the factors that influence the implementation of marketing strategy is an issue that challenges the researchers since the early 1980's. To address this issue, this research used an analysis based on the perspective of structuralist view of implementation. To conduct this study was developed a model that includes the following dimensions of this vision of implementation: Organizational Marketing Structure, Marketing Capabilities and Marketing Dispersion. Furthermore, it examined the use of interfirm relationships as a means to access resources and capabilities not available in the organization. We performed a search with furniture manufacturers in Brazil to test the hypotheses proposed, which was obtained a sample of 424 valid cases for the study. The use of structural equation modeling allowed the evaluation of the structural marketing constructs influence in the new product development strategy implementation. It was found that the model confirms the influence of these constructs in the strategy implementation. More specifically, it identifies that the Organizational Structure and the Marketing Dispersion positively influence the Marketing Capabilities. The capabilities divided into Specialized and Architectural Capabilities provided greater contribution to the understanding of their antecedents and influences that it cause to the performance constructs. Furthermore, we found that the Organic and Bureaucratic types of organizational structures are useful to the study of marketing structure, because with that types is possible to discriminate firms structures. Regarding the use of interfirm relationships, the results indicate the importance of its analysis to study the marketing implementation. It was found that the influence of Marketing Dispersion in Marketing Capabilities is only significant in the context of companies that use such relations.

In recent years, the direct-to-consumer business (DTC) has become an increasingly popular way for companies to conduct their business. A large part of why companies choose to build a business based on DTC is for the consumer data they get access to. This study aims to understand how small emerging DTC companies achieve sustainable growth as they both have to acquire new customers and retain existing customers. The empirical data consisted of qualitative interviews with three DTC companies operating in three different industries. The result of this study, which was based on the dynamic marketing capabilities model, is that a DTC company best achieves sustainable growth from a customer-centric approach, where decisions are based on data. This allows the organization to work more agile and, as a result, proactive manner. / Under de senaste åren har man kunnat se ett skifte i hur allt fler direct-to-consumer (DTC)-företag har startat. Anledningen till att DTC har blivit ett populärt sätt att bedriva sin verksamhet genom är för att företagen kan nå ut till sina kunder på ett effektivt sätt och på så sätt kunna anpassa sin verksamhet efter dem. Syftet med denna studie är att förstå hur små framväxande DTC-företag uppnår hållbar tillväxt då de både måste anskaffa nya kunder och värna om redan existerande kunder. Den empiriska data bestod av kvalitativa intervjuer med tre DTC-företag, verksamma inom tre olika industrier. Resultatet av denna studie som utgick från dynamic marketing capabilities-modellen, är att ett DTC-företag bäst uppnår en hållbar tillväxt från ett kundcentrerat tillvägagångssätt, där beslut baseras på data. Genom tydliga och informativa processer möjliggör det för företag att jobba mer proaktivt.

Purpose and research question: The purpose of this research is to explore how dynamic marketing capabilities in international e-tail companies are influenced by organizational culture. Furthermore, the aim is to contribute to the theoretical field of marketing capabilities, as well as providing practical implications to managers in international e-tail companies.How does organisational culture influence dynamic marketing capabilities in international e-tail companies? Method: The study is conducted with a qualitative method and an abductive approach, using a single case study design. The empirical data consist of eight semi-structured interviews with people at the company Scandinavian Design Center, in addition to secondary data and observations on site. Findings: The results of the study indicate that characteristics from four types of organisational cultures, including entrepreneurial, team, hierarchical and rational can influence DMCs positively and negatively on two levels: incremental and renewing. Team culture influences DMCs positively on both levels, while entrepreneurial culture has both positive and negative influence on different levels. Hierarchical and rational culture negatively influence DMCs on both levels, except when it comes to formal roles and articulated goals, which positively influence both incremental and renewing DMCs.

The most perplexing question of business organizations today is how to get and sustain competitive advantage. The dependable answer to this question, as Peter Drucker stated, is defining a business in terms of customer values and designing innovation activities to create those values. Hence, market orientation and innovation are the two complementary pillars of success. This research, therefore, develops a conceptual model to examine how 1) internal factors influence the development of market orientation and innovation; and 2) market orientation and innovation impact on the competitiveness of manufacturing businesses in Ethiopia, a least developed country in sub-Sahara Africa. Market and innovation orientations have been broadly recognized as performance antecedents in the strategic management literature. The performance impact of these orientations is extensively examined in the developed countries’ business environments. Studies also indicate that market and innovation orientations affect performance in situations where the competitive intensity is high. However, literature lacks adequate empirical evidence to determine whether market and innovation orientations have positive impact on performance in the least developed countries’ economies; it is also deficient with the required literature to confirm whether the impact of these orientations on performance is minimal in the least economically developed environment where competitive intensity is low. The other shortcoming in the strategic orientation literature is the heterogeneity in defining and measuring market orientation constructs. Market orientation is defined from behavioral, cultural, capability, and integrationist perspectives. Despite the contention on what the integrationist perspective suggests, very limited number of studies applies such comprehensive conceptualization. The study, therefore, is designed to fill these voids in the literature by designing a comprehensive model and testing it in the least developed context. From practical point of view, following the current encouraging economic growth of Ethiopia, changes have been observed on the competitiveness of the business environment. In response to the growing competitiveness of the business environment, organizations should adopt relevant orientations and practices; i.e., practices recognized as appropriate to the western environment. Hence, testing the validity of the sound managerial orientations and practices, based on scientifically accepted procedure in the least developed context, is mandatory before making use of them. The research is conceptually rooted in the argument of resource based view and its extension- the dynamic capability. Based on this, the study a) models strategic orientations and managerial practices as capabilities that affect competitive advantage of firms; b) reviews literature on market orientation, innovation, marketing capabilities, organizational culture, and managerial practices to theoretically validate the proposed relationships in the conceptual model; and c) develops eight main hypotheses for empirical verifications. The investigation pursues positivist paradigm. It applies quantitative research design where the study tests the proposed relationships quantitatively by analyzing 204 usable responses (n=204) of the selected manufacturing companies. The findings show that 1) market orientation and innovation have positive and significant effect on competitiveness of the manufacturing companies in Ethiopia; 2) the level of market orientation and its impact on competitiveness is influenced by sound employee training program, market based reward system, effective marketing program, and organizational culture that emphasize change, entrepreneurship, and achievement orientation; 3) the level of innovation and its impact on competitiveness is influenced by effective marketing program and organizational culture that emphasize change (i.e., adhocracy culture) and control over the change process (i.e., the hierarchy culture); 4) the effect of market orientation and innovation on competitiveness is stronger for the younger and larger organizations when compared to the older and smaller ones, respectively. Based on these findings, the study suggests that managers, beyond ensuring the smooth running of day-to-day operations, should focus on marketplace changes by adopting and developing relevant orientations (i.e., market and innovation orientations) via improving the culture, structure, and other relevant capabilities. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of dynamic marketing capabilities (DMC), foreign ownership modes and sub-national locations on the performance of foreign owned affiliates (FOAs) in developing economies. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a sample of 254 FOAs in Indian manufacturing sector (covering the period of 2000-2008 leading to 623 firm-year observations), the empirical paper adopts the panel data regression approach. Findings – The study confirms the significant importance of DMC to assist FOAs to gain better sales performance in an emerging market such as India. The findings indicate that Wholly Owned Foreign Affiliates (WOFAs) have better sales performance than International Joint Venture (IJV), and Majority-owned IJV (MAIJV) perform better than Minority-owned IJV (MIIJV) in the Indian manufacturing sector. The results confirm that effective deployment of DMC leads to better sales performance in WOFAs and to some extent in MAIJVs. Perhaps the most interesting finding is that developing DMC in non-Metropolitan areas is associated with higher sales growth than in Metropolitan locations. Originality/value – The study contributes to the literature by examining the impact of DMC on performance of FOA by considering the organised manufacturing sector in a large and fast growing developing economy. In addition, the results for the moderating effects provide novel evidence of the conditions under which DMC of FOA interacts with different ownership modes and influence firm performance.