Gabriel Ogunmokun

The influence of interfirm relational capabilities on export advantage and performance: an empirical analysis

Owing to the nature of the export channel environment, exporting firms cannot rely solely on their internal competencies for achieving competitive advantages and export success. Instead, exporters must look beyond the firms boundary to tap into the distinctive competencies of external actors such as distributors if they want to realize the full potential of their products. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of the strategic impact of resources and capabilities that can be shared in marketings cooperative relationships. This study raises two research questions: (1) does a firms relational capability contribute to its export competitive advantages? and (2) does a firms relational factors make an incremental contribution to its export advantage and performance beyond the contribution of firm factors. A significant conclusion of this study is that after controlling for internal firm factors, relational factors make a unique contribution to both the competitive advantages of the firm and its export performance.

Effect of export financing resources and supply-chain skills on export competitive advantages: implications for superior export performance

Although many studies have sought to discover the determinants of superior export performance, far less attention was given to the sources of competitive advantage and the resources or capabilities required to build up competitive advantage in export markets. To address these issues in the export competitive advantage literature, this study utilized the resource-based theory of the firm to conceptualize export competitive advantages as the outcomes of how management conceptualizes the firms resource base and how management leverages the firms core competencies to grow over time. This study also postulated that creating export competitive advantages can be expected to bring along superior export performance. Empirically, this study identified export financing resources and export supply-chain management skills as significant contributors to both low-cost and high-differentiation export competitive advantages. Furthermore, this study maintained that managements perceived export advantages seem to be an important determinant of export performance.

The Effect of Flexibility on Export Venture Performance

Abstract Although both international marketing theorists and practitioners have been expounding the importance of flexibility little or no research has been done to examine the effect of flexibility on export venture performance. Most of the research to date was directed towards examining the effect of flexibility on performance in the domestic context. Moreover, the studies in the literature also gave exclusive attention to the performance-enhancing effect of flexibility and ignored the moderating effects of organisational and environmental contingencies on the flexibility-performance relationship. This paper will present the results of a study that assessed the effect of flexibility on export performance. The findings support the proposition that flexibility is significantly related to export performance but that environmental dynamism, legal forms of business ownership, international experience, control mechanism, and exporter-distributor cooperation have a moderating effect on the relationships between flexibility and export venture performance. The study also found that firms that were challenged by intense competitive rivalries, spent a lot of time and effort on monitoring foreign marketing activities, and had substantial cooperation with overseas distributors were more flexible in their manufacturing, marketing, financial, and organizational activities.

Effect of marketing control on export venture performance : the moderating role of relationship intensity and market dynamism

Abstract Although the prescriptive literature in the area of international marketing asserts that effective control of foreign distributors can lead to superior export performance, there is very little empirical data to support it. The few studies that examined the effect of control on export performance reported very mixed findings and did not address whether control mechanisms interact with environmental uncertainty and channel relationship to influence the performance of export ventures. In order to address this gap in the literature, this study tests whether or not market dynamism (in terms environmental uncertainty) and relationship intensity play a moderating role regarding the effect of control on export venture performance.

Determinants of foreign market entry mode decision: an exploratory study of business organisations in Australia

While a number of overseas studies have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the foreign entry mode behaviour of business organisations and have identified some factors that could impact entry mode decisions, most of the studies concentrated either purely on multinational corporations or focused mainly on small-medium sized companies. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study that was designed to identify the factors that determine the entry modes used by big and small-medium sized business organisations in Australia when entering foreign markets. A stepwise discriminant analysis was utilised for the analysis.

The effect of marketing capability, financing resource and spatial configuration on market-focused flexibility

In spite of the normative appeal of flexibility, the concept has rarely been considered from strategic marketing perspective. Without being market focused, flexibility will not result in superior value creation and sustainable competitive advantage. In the light of the above shortcomings, this study examined a firms flexibility with reference to a specified export venture market. Based upon the strategic marketing perspective, this study identified three sets of antecedents of market-focused flexibility: marketing capabilities, financing resources and spatial configurations. The empirical evidences showed reasonable support for the proposed model. In addition, this study brought clear evidences demonstrating the powerful effect of market-focused flexibility on competitive advantages and performance in the corresponding markets. As a whole, this study helps scholars and managers to better conceptualise and measure market-focused flexibility, understand how it develops in the firm and how it works together with other important resources and capabilities to affect outcomes.

Marketing Control and Export Success: An Exploratory Study of Exporting Firms in the People's Republic of China

This paper provides the results of an exploratory study that examined whether there are significant differ ences between the levels of strategic marketing-mix control practised by exporting firms when they were successful in their export ventures versus when they were unsuccessful. The study found that export success is significantly related to the extent to which the home office managers control marketing-mix activities in their foreign export markets.

Marketing Flexibility and Export Performance: A Study of Exporting Companies in the People’s Republic of China.

The literature concerning export performance (e.g. Aaby and Slater, 1988; Axinn, 1988; Chetty and Hamilton 1993; Christensen et al. 1987; Holzmuller and Kasper, 1991; Kaynak and Kuan 1993; Koh 1991; Louter et.al 1991; Madsen, 1989; Reid, 1991; Style and Amber, 1994) suggests a wide range of determinants of export success. For example, Aaby and Slater (1988), includes factors such as technology, market knowledge, planning, marketing strategy, organizational size, commitment and perception of likely profit as factors affecting export performance. Louter et. al. (1991) on the other hand classified determinants of export performance into company characteristics, attitude and strategy characteristics while Holzmuller and Kasper (1991), claimed

Strategic Marketing Planning Practices: A Study of Australian Small Business Organizations

Strategic marketing planning has received increasing attention over the last decade as a valuable weapon in the battle for long-term success in today’s competitive environment. A review of the literature demonstrates that strategic marketing planning helps firms to identify opportunities, avoid threats and capitalise on the organization’s strengths in order to gain some aspect of differentiation and competitive advantage (Cravens 1994; McDonald 1992). Strategic marketing planning provides many other benefits, allowing firms to: realign objectives and strategies to the changing environmental conditions: obtain an objective viewpoint of management problems; balance corporate resources and marketing opportunities; and, coordinate and integrate organizational members and functions leading to greater control of the total marketing function and company (Cravens 1994; Greenley 1986a, 1986b; McDonald 1989, 1992b). However, the accumulation of literature has mostly covered marketing planning in large organizations in the United Kingdom and United States (McDonald 1992). Little is known about marketing planing pertaining to small businesses, particularly in Western Australia Therefore, this paper will be presenting the findings of a study in Australia that examined whether there are significant differences between high and low level marketing planners in terms of their marketing objectives, strategies, marketing orientation and performance.

Determinants of Export Performance: Research Evidence from Mainland China

Despite the substantial quantity of work that has been done in the area of export marketing and performance over the last three decades, according to Aaby and Slater (1989), as well as Cavusgil and Kirpalani (1993), there still remain few generalizable conclusions that can help guide firms in their export endeavors. Reviews by Bilkey (1978), and Cavusgil and Nevin (1981), Reid (1983), Madsen (1987), Aaby and Slater (1989), and Da Rocha and Christensen (1994) indicated that the international literature is contradictory with mixed empirical evidence. In the light of the shortcomings of the export marketing literature, Da Rocha and Christensen (1994) called for additional research to examine to what extent export management theories and practices developed in the West are applicable to the developing countries. Styles and Ambler (1994) also called for future research to empirically test a comprehensive list of variables that might influence export performance. This paper will be presenting the results of a study in China that was designed to investigate the relative importance of the key success factors of export marketing put forward by various paradigm (including: management commitment paradigm, firm competence paradigm, strategic management paradigm, industrial organization paradigm, relationship paradigm, etc.). This study surveys three major cities in China namely Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. Discriminant analysis will be used to identify the relative importance of key success factors differentiating success export ventures from unsuccessful export ventures.