Gregor Pfajfar

Challenges in conducting and publishing research on the Middle East and Africa in leading journals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for the lack of research attention paid to the Middle East (ME) and Africa regions. In particular, this study seeks to identify the reasons for and implications of the paucity of ME- and Africa-based studies in high-quality international journals in the marketing field with a specific focus on the challenges in conducting and publishing research on these regions. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature on the ME and Africa regions to identify papers published in 23 high-quality marketing, international business, and advertising journals. This search resulted in 301 articles, among which 125 articles were based on primary or secondary data collected from a local source in those regions. The authors of these 125 articles constitute the Delphi study sample. These academics provided input in an effort to reach a consensus regarding the two proposed models of academic research in both regions. Findin...

Managing in a time of crisis: marketing, HRM and innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between selected market orientation dimensions, HRM, and innovation, and their impact on organizational performance before and during the current economic crisis in Slovenia.Design/methodology/approach – The data for the analysis are drawn from a longitudinal cross‐sectional study of the 101 best Slovenian employers between 2008 and 2009. Altogether, over 15,000 respondents and more than 170 companies took part in the study, making it the largest of its kind in Slovenia and southeast Europe. The research method applied in the paper is exploratory and consists of simple paired comparisons of univariate and bivariate statistics, as well as factor analysis, regression analysis, and correlation analysis.Findings – The results show that customer expectations regarding trust and long‐term performance have a positive impact on HRM practices within a firm, that HRM positively impacts organizational performance, and that innovation unexpectedly impacts it ...

Slovenian business culture – How proverbs shape dynamic leadership styles

This paper examines the characteristics of Slovenian business culture in a proverbial context using the Yin-Yang (holistic, dynamic, dialectic) approach to analysing cultures. The results show that Slovenian managers are generally risk prone, and apply feminine values in their leadership. The charismatic leadership style dominates. The research makes several contributions to the literature. It is the first practical application of the Fang (2012) dialectic approach in Slovenia. Second, the research builds a bridge between Fang (2012) and Hofstede by systematising proverbs. Third, this study stresses the importance of introducing a more dynamic understanding of leadership styles in a cultural context through paradoxical proverbs.

Integration Mechanisms as Enablers of International Standardized Strategies

This chapter aims to assess the relationships between standardization of international strategy and performance. Additionally, it aims to study the relationships of four integration modes with international strategies. A sample of Slovene exporters is used. Managers responded to a structured survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied. It was found that integration modes play a role in allowing standardized strategies to be developed and implemented successfully. This study is the first to assess the integration modes → standardization relationships. Its findings are useful to academia and international managers.

Power, Conflicts, and their Consequences for Export Performance: Evidence from Slovenian SMEs

We aim to evaluate the relationship between six sources of power (French and Raven 1959) and different conflict types (positive and negative), as well as impact of conflicts on export performance of Slovenian SMEs. The relationships are assessed on both sides of the dyad, using surveys with structured questionnaires. Data from 105 Slovenian exporters and 101 of their foreign reps showed all power sources (accept reward) as conflict drivers at the sellers’ and buyers’ sides. When looking at the impact of conflicts on performance, only task conflict did not play part in the sellers’ sample, while in the buyers’ case both negative perspectives of conflict did not show any significant results. When comparing SMEs to large companies, SMEs reported much less significant results and absolutely no connection between conflict and their performance. The value added of this research is evaluation of power sources and their impact on conflict on the individual basis, as well as implications for SME research.

Political Tourism/Tourist Revisited: Extending the Concept in a Developing Country’s Point of View: A Thought-Provoking Case from Turkey

The main goal of this chapter is to broaden the extent of political tourism phenomenon in order to explain recent practices in Turkish political life theoretically. Very few researchers dealt with the non-monetary outputs of tourism which falls beyond the conventional economical value of it. Thus firstly, the political tourism and political tourist concepts were reviewed by introducing daily election meetings as a new type of political tourism and election meeting tourists as a new political tourist classification. Secondly, the pull factors for election tourism were indicated as solidarity, support (emotional and/or financial), nostalgic/patriotic/nationalistic reasons following the motivation list of Simone-Charteris and Boyd (2010). The other motivators such as the thrill of political violence or none of the attractions defined by Simone-Charteris and Boyd (2010) were found relevant with the Turkish phenomena. Besides meeting areas can be introduced as attractions.References available upon request.

The Role of Conflict Resolution Strategies and Power in the Conflict-Export Performance Relationship

The rationale for this study lies in the mixed viewpoints on the conflict and thus its consequences. Traditionally, conflicts have been viewed as negative whereas the interactionist viewpoint perceives conflict as energizing by pointing out problems and unifying a group (Banner, 1995). Thus, the relationship between conflicts and export performance should depend on the type of these conflicts. On one hand, task conflict as perceived or recognized disagreements within groups about the tasks to be performed (Amason, 1996), reflects the positive aspect of conflicts and should motivate managers to actively review the issues and indicate a need for change (Rosenberg, 1974). However, if conflict resolution strategies are not in place to resolve such conflicts, they could escalate into emotional conflict and harm export performance. On the other hand, emotional conflict is defined as perceived or recognized interpersonal incompatibilities within groups that are based on friction and personality clashes (Rose & Shoham, 2004). Here, we observe the negative aspect of conflicts, leading to the resistance to resolve future conflicts and emotional disruptions and the damage created through subjectivity and distorted judgments (Rosenberg, 1974). We believe that the latter is closely connected to partner’s power. High levels of power should encourage the channel member holding them to behave opportunistically and exploit the weaker party through coercive influence strategies (Frazier & Rody, 1991), which in turn impact the (emotional) conflicts and performance. In sum, the research’s intended contribution is to study power and conflict resolution strategies as moderators of the conflict—export performance relationship. Data were gathered by a structured questionnaire among 105 Slovene exporters. We found a positive impact of task conflict on emotional conflict, which reduced export performance relative to the expectations of the owners and representatives on foreign markets, but not relative to the company’s plan for the current year or relative to the previous three years. The relationship between task conflicts and export performance was not supported. Thus, the impact of task conflict on export performance is fully mediated by emotional conflict. The important implication of this study is that task conflict can also be perceived with negative outcomes and not necessarily just improve work processes by abolishing problems that arise, but also hinders the productivity and inflicts possible delays. However, this result also confirms Rose and Shoham’s findings (2004) that international channels of distribution are more prone to negative conflict, because cultural differences decrease the amount of opportunities for interactions to resolve task conflicts. This study takes the discussion a step further, explaining that conflict resolution strategies have an important effect on the relationship between conflicts and performance. We argue that the passive aggressive strategy is more like the active avoiding strategy, which is characterized by low assertiveness and low cooperative integrative style. The reason for these findings may be the long-term orientation of the firms, according to which firms prefer to engage in stable long-term relationships, where any type of aggression and divergence from win-win solutions may harm that relationship. In sum, these results are contributing to the development of the theory on conflict resolution strategies and offer a fresh view on practical implications.