Market Competence Research Articles

Probe into the Talent Cultivation based on Learning Enterprises

In the severer market competition, the learning character of enterprises tends to be the most important resource of enterprises winning and maintaining market competence. By analyzing problems in talent cultivation based on learning enterprises at present in China, this thesis advances that enterprises can make efforts from these aspects: updating thoughts and opinions, improving enterprise qualities, enhancing internal cooperation, and constructing human-oriented corporate culture.

Mind thegap

PurposeWhy are some libraries more market‐oriented than others? The purpose of this paper is to answer this question by examining the pertinent issues underlying the inter‐relationship between market‐orientation and superior service performance.Design/methodology/approachAn integrated methodological approach of qualitative as well as quantitative methods was used to gain knowledge behind the market‐orientation – service performance relationship. The directors and consumers of 33 academic and special libraries participated as respondents in this study.FindingsIn total, three kinds of libraries were found: the strong; the medium; and the weak. The findings show that the higher market‐orientation is positively connected with the libraries’ superior service performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe implication of this research does suggest that thegapbetween the service provider and receiver can be closed by increasing the marketing competence of service provider.Practical implicationsThe practical implication for libraries is that it pays to be market‐oriented, the ultimate result being higher customer satisfaction.Originality/valueThe relationship between market‐orientation and service performance has yet to be explored and established in the library world. This is one of the first such studies which attempted to investigate this inter‐relationship.

Drucker’s insights on market orientation and innovation: implications for emerging areas in high-technology marketing

In 1954, Drucker boldly declared that organizations have only two basic functions, marketing and innovation. While true for any organization, this insight is particularly pertinent for technology-based businesses. The complicated environment surrounding high-tech companies creates a great need for sophisticated marketing. Yet these companies continue to have under-developed competencies in marketing and in understanding customer needs. This essay explores Drucker’s insights with respect to two particularly salient issues for high-tech companies: developing and implementing a market orientation and break-through innovations. We review Drucker’s insights and synthesize them with the scholarly research on these issues. Finally, we discuss three emerging areas in high-tech marketing where academics and managers could build on Drucker’s insights to guide future research and practice: market driving, customer co-creation, and corporate social responsibility. These illustrative examples highlight that even today, Drucker’s writings continue to offer remarkable guidance to scholars and managers who are willing to take the time to reflect, understand, and incorporate his insights in the unique context of high-tech industries.

When Does Guanxi Matter? Issues of Capitalization and Its Dark Sides

Guanxi refers to the durable social connections and networks a firm uses to exchange favors for organizational purposes. This study examines how and when guanxi operates as a governance mechanism that influences firm marketing competence and performance in the transitional economy of China. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors propose an integrative framework that unbundles the benefits and risks of guanxi and delineates the organizational processes to internalize guanxi as a corporate core competence. The authors surveyed senior executives in 282 firms in China's consumer products industries. The findings confirm guanxi's direct effects on market performance and its indirect effects mediated through channel capability and responsive capability. The authors also confirm that technological turbulence and competition intensity can be effective structure-loosening forces, thus reducing the governance effects of guanxi. The findings suggest that firms can improve market access and growth through guanxi networks, but managers need to capitalize on them from the personal to the corporate level. In addition, managers should be aware of guanxi's dark sides, which include reciprocal obligations and collective blindness. This study shows that personal networks are popular universally, but in China, they have unique, distinct ways of operation.

When DoesGuanxiMatter? Issues of Capitalization and Its Dark Sides

Guanxi refers to the durable social connections and networks a firm uses to exchange favors for organizational purposes. This study examines how and when guanxi operates as a governance mechanism that influences firm marketing competence and performance in the transitional economy of China. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors propose an integrative framework that unbundles the benefits and risks of guanxi and delineates the organizational processes to internalize guanxi as a corporate core competence. The authors surveyed senior executives in 282 firms in China's consumer products industries. The findings confirm guanxi's direct effects on market performance and its indirect effects mediated through channel capability and responsive capability. The authors also confirm that technological turbulence and competition intensity can be effective structure-loosening forces, thus reducing the governance effects of guanxi. The findings suggest that firms can improve market access and growth through guanxi networks, but managers need to capitalize on them from the personal to the corporate level. In addition, managers should be aware of guanxi's dark sides, which include reciprocal obligations and collective blindness. This study shows that personal networks are popular universally, but in China, they have unique, distinct ways of operation.

Design-intensive born globals: a multiple case study of marketing management

This paper explores the marketing activities of "born global" companies that have been established either by one or two designers, or by a designer and a business graduate. "Born globals" are companies that have internationalised their business soon after their establishment. The focus in this paper is on the impact that the mental model of the founders – in terms of marketing competences operationalised in terms of educational background – has on the firmś commercial success in the early stages of internationalisation. Our analysis shows that the marketing competences of the designers we studied were geared toward establishing the founders' own brand as designers or successfully launching their product offering into the market. Participating in international trade fairs, personal contacts with the distribution channel representatives and control of point of sale activities were the main marketing methods. Conventional advertising was used very little, mainly because of the high costs associated with operating in the global arena. After early development and early growth the design-intensive born globals began to suffer with a lack of sufficient marketing competencies. The marketing competences required for managing growth to maturity and managing profitability were crucial, if there was to be any 'second stage' for the design-intensive firm. In the companies we studied, a partnership between design entrepreneur and a marketing professional was a source of sustained competitive advantage in some firms. We propose that our findings are generalisable. We believe that also other design-intensive born globals meet the challenge of higher requirements for marketing competences in the 'second stage' of growth than in the initial stage. Hence, they may find valuable our result of why and how a "co-preneurial" partnership between the designer and a marketing professional can be a solution.

Benchmarking China firm competitiveness: a strategic framework

PurposeThis editorial aims to review various theoretical frameworks in measuring firm competences, including marketing competences, strategic flexibility, innovation capacity building of organizations and attempts to propose a conceptual framework to benchmark and rank the Chinese firms in terms of competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachAn overview and conceptual paper based on observations and research experience. Drawing on the prevalent theoretical models of building up competitiveness and reports from well established research centres, government and international associations worldwide, this paper presents a strategic framework for evaluating and measuring firm competitiveness in China.FindingsThe paper stresses the importance of keeping‐up with the fast pace of technological change and the emerging new global paradigms of the business environment. It addresses the development trajectory and the way through which firms can contribute to capacity building and the creation of competitive advantage in facing the pressing challenges of globalization. It aims to establish the potential indicators of competitiveness by analysing the theoretic elements and the microeconomic business environment.Originality/valueThis paper presents the crucial tenets of the strategic framework of developing firm competitiveness, which include: creation of core competence, establishment of competitiveness index and competitiveness rankings. These are closely linked with the development of corporate strategy, marketing strategy and technology and innovation strategy within firms. These core features will have strong implication to Chinese and foreign enterprises and provide an invaluable instrument for firms to enhance their performance through benchmarking and evaluating their current competitive position and determine new strategies to create competitiveness.

Overcoming export manufacturers’ dilemma in international expansion

Learning and acquiring local market knowledge from foreign distributors are central to manufacturers’ export market performance. Drawing from the resource-based view, we propose that manufacturers need to develop stronger local market competence while simultaneously minimizing the costs of distributor opportunism in order to compete successfully in the export market. Cultural distance and other barriers, however, may hinder the development of local market competence for the manufacturer while contributing to the occurrence of distributor opportunism. In order to overcome these barriers, we examine the impact of three alternative forms of manufacturer governance – trust, knowledge sharing, and contract-based relationship – in export channels. Findings suggest that all three governance mechanisms contribute to enhancing the manufacturer's competence to exploit local market opportunity. However, of the three, trust seems to be the only effective way to curtail distributor opportunism.

The process of technological competence leveraging

AbstractTechnologies are often amenable to uses for a range of markets, but yet are often underutilized, and consequently not all value is extracted from them. This article presents a longitudinal case study of a firm that successfully applied a fungible technology to products for its served market, but was unable to tap its considerable potential in new markets. The processes of resource allocation and resource transformation inhibited technology leveraging, shaped by the presence of a competence to serve current customers (a customer competence trap) and the lack of a competence to gain access to new customers (a marketing competence gap). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A PROPOSAL OF A NEW SCALE TO MEASURE COMPETENCE IN MARKETING

Apesar de existirem alguns estudos que exploram as relações entre competências em marketing e performance, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo avançar no conhecimento sobre assunto. Sendo assim, cumpre os seguintes objetivos: propõe e valida uma nova escala para mensurar o construto de competência em marketing e suas dimensões no contexto brasileiro; identifica o impacto das competências em marketing individualmente na performance das organizações; avalia o impacto das competências na performance, considerando a interação entre as competências. Os resultados sugerem que as competências, quando consideradas em conjunto, têm impacto superior do que quando consideradas isoladamente, bem como hierarquiza as dimensões de competência segundo sua contribuição para a performance.

New organisational competences for supply chain management: a study in the Indian context

This paper tries to investigate the issue of the development of organisational competences for increased business performance in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) environment. We propose Information Technology (IT) and innovation competences as the two new drivers for development of supply chain management capabilities to a manufacturing firm in addition to traditional purchasing, production and marketing competences. A survey-based study was conducted with the help of data collected from a sample of top-level managers from the Indian manufacturing industry. The results provide empirical evidence to the construct and the positive impact of these competences on business performance in the Indian context. We maintain, based on our findings, that development of IT and innovation competences are critical success factors in a firm's position in the marketplace in a supply chain environment.

PERAN MARKETING COMPETENCY DALAM MENINGKATKAN KEUNGGULAN BERSAING

Functional area competencies are considered as sources of competitive advantage (Porter, 1994; Heene & Stanches, 1997; Cravens, 1996; Vickery el AI, 1993; Vickery et. Al, 1994), and marketing competency is one of them. Marketing competency construct is defined as the sum of the performed on 31 competitive items, weighted by importance and extent of marketing responsibility (Vickery et al., 1994).This study examines a model of relationships between marketing competency and business performance outcomes such as market share and market share growth. The questioners were sent to marketing managers from manufacture organizations at Jakarta. The instrument from Vickery et al. (1994), was used in this study. Regression was used to analysis this data. The result showed that marketing competency is related to business performance outcomes (in this case: market share and market share growth). So, It suggests that marketing competency is a source competitive advantage.Keywords : Marketing Competency, Business Performance Outcomes (market share and market share growth), competitive Advantage.

Pasikeitusio prekybos režimo poveikis Lietuvos tekstilės ir siuvimo pramonei

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama, kokią įtaką tradiciškai svarbiam Lietuvos tekstilės ir siuvimo sektoriui turėjo narystė Europos Sąjungoje (ES) ir tekstilės gaminių importo liberalizavimas nuo 2005 m. sausio 1 dienos. Siekiant objektyviai įvertinti šių pokyčių poveikį, remiantis Eurostato duomenimis analizuojami Lietuvos ir Europos Sąjungos tekstilės ir siuvimo gaminių importo srautai pagal tekstilės gaminių kategorijas ir šalis atsižvelgiant į prekių kiekį ir jų vertę 2004 ir 2005 metais. Straipsnio tikslas - išnagrinėti susiklosčiusią padėti Lietuvos tekstilės ir siuvimo sektoriuje po kvotų panaikinimo, įvertinti šio sektoriaus gamybos ir eksporto plėtros galimybes. Tai pirmasis straipsnis mokslinėje periodinėje literatūroje, kuriame įvertinami kvotų panaikinimo padariniai Lietuvos prekybai tekstilės ir aprangos gaminiais.

The integrated effects of market‐oriented culture and marketing strategy on firm performance

Existing studies concerning the effects of marketing on firm performance have been conducted primarily in the areas of market‐orientation and marketing strategy studies. Recently, efforts have been made in investigating the integrated effects of these two factors on firm performance. As part of these efforts, this study employed market‐oriented culture and the marketing strategy‐making process of a firm as constituents of its marketing competence, and, based on reviews of related literature, developed the relationship between market‐oriented culture and the marketing strategy‐making process, and finally verified the suggested relationship by surveying managerial personnel from a range of firms. It was found that market‐oriented culture does not only affect firm performance directly, but does so indirectly by affecting the marketing strategy making process.

Marketing competencies and the sources of customer value in business markets

This introduction to the special issue discusses the notion of marketing competencies in buyer–supplier relationships, and the role these competencies play in creating value for the customer. Existing work on the role of competencies in industrial marketing has two main foci. The first, established approach deals with competencies as inputs to organizational processes, and seeks to establish in how far marketing competencies such as customer relationship management, channel design, etc. lead to superior financial returns. The second, emerging, approach focuses on the marketing of competencies as a source for customer value. This article uses supply and demand side perspectives to look at these two approaches and suggests a typolology involving four distinct value-creation strategies. Recent literature is discussed and implications for advancing the application of resource-based thinking to industrial marketing are provided.

Enhancing Customer-Needs–Driven CRM Strategies: Core Selling Teams, Knowledge Management Competence, and Relationship Marketing Competence

Managing relationships with customers is often challenging because firms engage in many different types of transactions and their customers vary considerably as to their wants and needs. To meet these challenges, firms are turning increasingly to formal customer relationship management (CRM) programs. Because of their ability to enhance interfirm relationships in business-to-business marketing, firms often turn specifically to customer-needs–driven CRM strategies. These strategies focus on the use of database technology to aid in developing long-term cooperative relationships with key customers. One important resource that enables firms to more easily develop and implement customer-needs–driven CRM strategies is the core selling (CS) team. We examine CS teams’ ability to enhance the development of two competences (a knowledge management competence and a relationship marketing competence) that are important components of customer-needs–driven CRM strategy.

Entrepreneurial strategy making and performance in China's new technology ventures – the contingency effect of environments and firm competences

In this study we examine the contingency value of entrepreneurial strategy making with a sample of technology-based new ventures in China's emerging economy. Our results show that the relationship between entrepreneurial strategy making and performance is moderated by both environmental factors and firm competences. Specifically, entrepreneurial strategy making has a positive relationship with performance when the environment is highly uncertain and when the firm has strong marketing competences.

Norway

Up to ca. 1960, the forest sector was the largest export sector in Norway. Since then its importance has decreased, until in 2003 the export value totalled only 2.5% of the export sector. The import of forest products constituted a relatively higher share of the total import value than the export (about 3.3%). Pulp and paper, mainly newsprint, is the most important export product. The annual cut has declined 30 per cent over the last decade and in 2003 totalled about 7.5 million cubic metres. The reasons for this decline are not fully understood, but changes in ownership structure, low unemployment rates and good job opportunities outside of the forest sector and the abolition of cost-share programs are certainly some of the explanation. Private non industrial owners own 78.5% of the forest area and the average size of a forest property is 57 hectares. Almost all fellings are certified, and there is an intensive ongoing debate on the need for protection of a larger forest area. There is a large potential for developing non-wood products and services, and the forest owners association have companies and organisations dealing with this. There is a demand from both domestic and foreign customers for non-wood products and services but the co-operation with the domestic tourist industry still has to be improved to co-ordinate this effectively. There is a weak entrepreneurship culture in the forest products industry, with a few regional exceptions. The culture is mainly production oriented and market competence and international orientation is needed. Compared with other industries in Norway the level of education is low in the forest products industry. A large public program was started in 2002 to stimulate innovation and competence building activities in the forest products sector.

An inquiry into born‐global firms in Europe and the USA

Companies that internationalise at or near their founding, “born globals,” are emerging in great numbers world‐wide. Characterised by a specific Gestalt of marketing‐related competencies, they are playing an increasing role in international trade. Born globals are investigated using data from case and survey‐based studies in Denmark and the USA. First introduces and describes the born‐global phenomenon. Then, hypotheses are developed and tested via a structural model that represents key factors in the international success of this important breed of firm. Results suggest that born‐global international performance is enhanced in the wake of managerial emphasis on foreign customer focus and marketing competence. Product quality and differentiation strategy also play important roles, particularly in the US firms. These and additional findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical implications.

Impact of export promotion programs on firm competencies, strategies and performance

Export promotion programs are provided by governments to help firms, especially small and medium‐sized ones, overcome real or perceived obstacles to exporting. To date, there has been limited empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these efforts. This study clarifies the ways in which export promotion programs bolster the export competence and export activities of firms by drawing on the results of a survey of small and medium‐sized Canadian high‐technology firms. The results suggest that using a greater number of government programs influences the achievement of export objectives and export expansion strategies, and enhances export marketing competencies. By segmenting firms by level of export involvement, a clearer picture of the benefits and limitations of export promotion programs emerges. These results suggest that sporadic and active exporters gain the most from export promotion programs, while there is little impact in the short term for more experienced international firms who derive most of their incomes from exporting.