Bernardo Balboni

SME practice towards integrated marketing communications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover and empirically test the gap between the theory and practice of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows a quantitative approach, using the questionnaire technique. Questionnaire items emerged from a literature review and a qualitative step (in‐depth interviews). The questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 210 manufacturing firms. Factor and cluster analysis were performed in order to give a descriptive overview of different communication behavioral profiles within SMEs.Findings – The sample shows evidence of a certain ability in marketing communication management on the part of SMEs. A group of virtuous firms able to employ a great variety of communication tools, to define in‐depth and consistent messages and to declare ambitious and long‐term goals appears. However, these firms do not adequately manage the internal organizational process aimed at marketing ...

Retail service quality as a key activator of grocery store loyalty

This paper demonstrates the crucial role of retail service quality as a key activator in the formation of customer loyalty to the store; the latter is understood in a conative and action sense. Applying a modified version of the RSQS scale, a model is tested by administering a questionnaire to 450 customers in an under-investigated retail setting, i.e. supermarkets, within the Italian context. Structural equation modelling was employed. The results prove that customers consider retail service quality as a second-order dimension and recognize the main contribution of physical aspects and reliability first-order dimensions. Findings corroborate the crucial role played by perceived service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction and conative loyalty within the relationship between service quality and action loyalty.

The effects of social media on brand attitude and WOM during a brand crisis: Evidences from the Barilla case

Brand crises endanger companies. Social media are a key platform where stakeholders elaborate and react to crises. This research explores whether social media audience and traditional mass media audience react differently to a brand crisis in terms of their (1) attitude towards the brand and (2) word-of-mouth (WOM). As to the brand attitude, we argue that stakeholders mainly exposed to the brand crisis via social media have a more negative reaction towards the brand compared to those who are principally exposed via traditional media. As to the behaviour, we posit that social media exposure intensifies WOM. By analysing the Barilla crisis, the findings suggest that the social media act as ‘multipliers’ of the reaction of stakeholders to a brand crisis.

Business Model Adaptation and the Success of New Ventures

In this study, we explore the connections between business model adaptation and the success of new ventures. We do so by analysing in depth the business model evolution of three new Italian ventures throughout their first years of life. We try to understand if and how the evolution of these firms’ business models is connected to their success. Our analysis reveals that adapting their business models was crucial to enabling these firms to survive in extremely dynamic environments. However, it did not fully act as a catalyst for their processes of growth and did not increase their profitability.

Innovativeness as a driver of the international expansion of developing markets’ firms: evidence of curvilinear effects

The purpose of this paper is to examine the curvilinear effects of firm innovativeness (i.e. product, organisational and marketing innovation) on international expansion as well as the effect of expansion on performance in the developing countries (DCs) setting.,Research hypotheses are tested using survey data obtained from firms located in four South-East European DCs. Covariance-based structural equation modelling is used to test the proposed conceptual framework.,Empirical findings support the hypothesised U-shaped relationship between product innovation and organisational innovation and the level of international expansion of firms in developing markets. The authors found an inverse U-shaped relationship between marketing innovation and the level of international expansion. Furthermore, the existence of a strong positive link between the level of international expansion and firm performance is also confirmed.,While this research utilises a sample of firms from a homogenous group of DCs, further research could use a more heterogeneous sample and thus control the model for various contingency effects (e.g. environment turbulence, market structure and competitive dynamics).,When it comes to product and organisational innovation, international expansion is achieved only with a higher level of innovativeness. On the contrary, beyond a certain level, further investments in marketing innovation do not have additional positive effects on international expansion.,This study is one of the first that explicitly focuses on examining the non-linear effects of innovativeness on international expansion in the DC context.

L’impatto della brand crisis sulla clientela e l’effetto della fedeltà alla marca

La reputazione dell’impresa e un asset competitivo sempre piu importante che incide direttamente sul capitale di fiducia che i consumatori riversano nei confronti dei brand. Una crisi dunque influisce sulla corporate reputation ed e quindi il contesto ideale per indagare le reazioni dei clienti e gli effetti della brand loyalty. I risultati evidenziano che, durante una brand crisis, i clienti piu fedeli mantengono un atteggiamento piu positivo nei confronti dell’azienda rispetto ai clienti meno fedeli e ai non clienti. Il cliente fedele potrebbe quindi essere disposto a difendere il brand dagli attacchi esterni. Una tale evidenza deve indurre le imprese ad investire nella fidelizzazione nonche ad un coinvolgimento piu attivo dei clienti piu fedeli nelle attivita di comunicazione connesse alla crisi.

A Multidimensional Approach to Equity Crowdfunding: Bridging the Equity Gap and Boosting Social Capital

Drawing inspiration from microfinance and crowdsourcing, equity crowdfunding has become a valuable source of fundraising for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Crowdfunding facilitates access to finance for those companies that would otherwise have great difficulty in accessing it and is viewed as a potentially revolutionary application of social networking with direct consequences for supporting sustainability and innovation. Our aim is twofold: (a) to explore the characteristics of equity crowdfunding campaigns launched by different European platforms and (b) to analyse the relationship between social capital created online and the number of investors sustaining the campaign. Given the web context in which it develops, the role of online social capital in the project’s success should be considered from a broad perspective that involves both the founder’s and the project’s social networks. These two levels of analysis represent different networks that mobilize different resources and frame different types of crowds.

The Moderating Effect of Trust on Formal Control Mechanisms in International Alliances

This study aims to shed light on the controversial debate regarding the substitutive or complementary nature of the relationship between inter-organizational trust and formal control as governance mechanisms in affecting international alliance performance. We deepen understanding of the trust–formal control interaction by considering the multidimensional nature of formal control – both output and process control – and examining the role of trust as a moderating variable in the relationship between these two distinct kinds of control and alliance performance. We test the research hypotheses on a sample of 138 international alliances involving Italian firms and foreign partners. First, we find that only output control has a significant positive influence on alliance performance and that trust shows a fully significant positive effect on alliance success. Second, we find that trust moderates the effect of formal control on alliance performance by reducing the relevance of output control and increasing that of process control.

SME export performance, capabilities and emerging markets: the impact of institutional voids

In this paper we address the theme of the export performance of the SME in the context of emerging markets. Surveying a sample of 200 exporting SMEs, we test specific hypotheses concerning the role of Institutional Voids (IVs) both in directly affecting the export performance of the SME and in moderating the positive impact of the SMEs resources and capabilities. Our results show that while directly hampering the export performance of the SME, IVs also have a negative moderating role on the firms marketing capabilities.

Product innovation capability, export scope and export experience

Purpose By applying the logic of the resource-based view and process-based internationalisation theory, this study aims to provide a better understanding of the effects of product innovation capability on the export scope of firms based in developing countries and the role of export experience as a facilitating mechanism. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data obtained from three developing countries, two main research hypotheses were empirically tested: a quadratic relationship exists between product innovation capability and export scope and export experience has a moderating effect in this relationship. Findings Product innovation capability and export scope have a U-shaped relationship, and export experience exerts a moderating effect. The greater the export experience is, the more the relationship between product innovation and export scope changes, taking on a more inverted U-shaped form. Practical implications Firms based in developing countries need to catch-up on innovation capabilities before being able to succeed in international markets. Managers must be aware that initial investments in product innovation could not pay off immediately and that significant additional efforts might be needed to obtain noteworthy results in terms of international expansion. Originality/value This study is among the first to focus on the curvilinear relationship between product innovation capability and export scope for firms based in developing countries while accounting for the moderating role of firms’ export experience.