Yolanda Polo Redondo

Importance of company size in long‐term orientation of supply function: an empirical research

Purpose – The study of the relationships established between firms and their suppliers is of great interest at the present time, not only among academics but also among practitioners in business. But, although many works analyze this temporal orientation, fewer analyze the effect of company size on it. This paper sets out to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approach – An important proportion of firms is made up of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), and their economic importance is vital. Therefore, this current work, taking the Spanish agro‐food industry as a reference, analyzes the possible influence of the size of the customer firm on the temporal orientation of its supply relationships, specifically differentiating between SMEs and micro‐SMEs. The moderating effect analysis, included in the EQS software, has been used.Findings – The company size influences the temporal orientation of firm‐supplier relationships. Important conclusions related to trust, commitment and satisfaction emerge. Di...

Moderating effect of type of product exchanged in long‐term orientation of firm‐supplier relationships: an empirical study

Purpose – Taking the Spanish agro‐food sector as reference, the current work seeks to examine the moderating effect of the type of input exchanged; specifically, to analyze the potential differences in temporal orientation of the relationships established between companies and suppliers of “core” and “auxiliary” inputs.Design/methodology/approach – The information was obtained by means of a postal survey of managers responsible for the supply function from a random sample of Spanish agro‐food companies, specifically wine producers. The reason for approaching these professionals was to obtain responses from individuals who are directly in contact with the firms suppliers, and who negotiate the purchasing agreements.Findings – The findings show that, although communication, trust and satisfaction are always important as evaluated elements, their importance is higher when “core” products are considered. The data also indicate that for the case of products that are considered “core”, the relation between com...

Looking for performance: how innovation and strategy may affect market orientation models

Abstract Despite 20 years of research into various aspects of the ‘market orientation’ (MO) construct, doubt remains regarding the existence, nature and significancy of the relationship between MO and firm performance. To obtain more evidence some authors suggest including innovation in MO models. Debate continues to examine whether organizational strategy is an antecedent or a consequence of MO, whilst some argue that strategy moderates the MO–performance relationship. Furthermore, there are sectors of industry and geographies where the phenomenon has received very little investigation, even of an exploratory nature. This study aims to explore the MO–performance relationship and to value the effect of innovation in MO–performance models in a sector where MO was virtually unknown: the Spanish real estate industry. The magnitude of shifts taking place in this sector enhances its potential as a showcase for processes of anticipation and adaptation to the environment. This article also aims to shed some light on the question of whether strategy potentially moderates the MO– performance link. The principal implications of our findings are discussed.

Assessment and reassessment of supply relationships: a case study in the Spanish wine industry

Purpose – Companies that are able to manage efficient relationships with their suppliers have a greater guarantee of success and profitability in their activity. Their products will achieve the desired standards of quality. The amount of time and economic resources that firms need to build relationships is substantial and hence involves greater risk and uncertainty. Furthermore, smaller firms have fewer resources than larger ones and, therefore, the management of supply relationships can be more complicated. Therefore, this paper, by analysing a specific case, tries to identify those factors that a small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) assesses when choosing and deciding on building a supply relationship with a specific supplier.Design/methodology/approach – Through a real and practical case, considering the customers point‐of‐view, this paper aims to offer a new model. It links to one group of some previously tested variables that illustrates the temporary evolution of supply relationships with present...

Market Structure And The Adoption Of Innovations: The Case Of The Spanish Banking Sector ‡

This paper is an empirical study of the determinants of adoption time for the teleprocess terminal by Spanish commercial and savings banks. The explanatory variables include the characteristics of the adopting firms, size, and in the case of the savings banks, the structure of the market and concentration. The results indicate that the speed of adoption is maximized at intermediate levels of size and market concentration, confirming one theoretical prediction of models of diffusion: namely, that adoption time is minimized at intermediate levels of market concentration.

The Long-Term Orientation of Firm-Suppliers Relationships

Abstract Within the food products marketing area, traditional researches have centred their attention on market and consumers. But because the final products are defined by their inputs, supply relationships are also important. The long-term orientation of the commercial relationships established between firms and their suppliers is a subject of great interest at present. Prior researches have shown that lasting relationships with supplier have positive effects on the quality of final products and on the firms satisfaction. But although there are many works that look at this temporal orientation, there has been no previous research analysing the agro-food sector. Therefore, the present paper analyses the moderating effect of belonging to an agro-food protection system on the factors determining the temporal orientation of firm-supplier relationships. Thus, taking as reference the Spanish agro-food sector, this current work examines this moderating effect. Our findings indicate that this property does indeed have an influence: through the effects of trust and communication on perceived satisfaction, on the one hand, and through the effect of this level of satisfaction on the temporal orientation of the supply relationship, on the other. Firms that belong to an agro-food protection system seem to value trust, communication and satisfaction more than others.

Proceso de entrada y salida del mercado: análisis del mercado de la franquicia

El momento de entrada de las empresas en el mercado determina la obtencion de ventajas competitivas (Alpert y Kamis, 1995; Robinson y Min, 2002; Michael, 2003), de forma que se sugiere que son las pioneras las que obtienen mayores ventajas (Boulding y Christen, 2003). No obstante, estos trabajos suelen presentar limitaciones debido a la falta de analisis de las empresas no supervivientes, al estudio de las ventajas mediante la cuota de mercado y a los sectores maduros, como los productos de consumo duradero, en los que se han analizado esas ventajas (VanderWerf y Mahon, 1997; Shankar et al., 1998; Lieberman y Montgomery, 1998), por lo que tambien se ha sugerido que son los entrantes tardios los que obtienen mas ventajas (Bates, 2001; Cottrell y Sick, 2002; Mirjam van Praag, 2003). Por tanto, este articulo 1) analiza el proceso de entrada y salida del mercado de franquicia mediante un estudio longitudinal y dinamico (1995-2002) en el mercado de franquicia espanol, incorporando en el estudio las empresas no supervivientes, examinando ademas las caracteristicas de estas empresas; 2) analiza las ventajas obtenidas por las empresas —en terminos de rentabilidad, ventas, beneficio neto, beneficio operativo, valor anadido y cash flow— de los diferentes grupos de empresas entrantes, clasificadas segun el momento de entrada en el mercado (pioneros, primeros seguidores, seguidores tardios y ultimos entrantes).

El tamaño empresarial y la importancia del suministro como condicionantes en la generación de relaciones a largo plazo con empresas proveedoras

RESUMEN Las empresas, de cara a incrementar su eficiencia y probabilidad de exito, no se centran tan solo en gestionar contactos satisfactorios con sus clientes. Es necesario que den un paso mas y que identifiquen aquellas tareas que proporcionen mas valor a lo largo del ciclo completo de negocio. Un ejemplo son las relaciones de aprovisionamiento. El presente trabajo analiza el papel que juega la orientacion temporal en la relacion empresa-proveedor, en el contexto PYME. Asi, a traves de un estudio de perfil cualitativo, se comprueba que en general estas relaciones tienden a orientarse a largo plazo, aunque los motivos difieren dependiendo del tamano de las empresas y de la importancia del suministro. Aquellas empresas de mayor dimension basan su decision en el nivel de satisfaccion percibido, mientras que las organizaciones de menor tamano lo hacen en funcion de su “no-insatisfaccion”. Ademas, conforme aumenta la importancia del suministro se incrementan los costes de cambio. La metodologia seguida ha sido el estudio del caso, y las conclusiones obtenidas destacan el importante papel que en el contexto PYME tienen tanto el numero de alternativas disponibles como los costes de cambio como impulsores de relaciones duraderas con proveedores.

Análisis de la salida del mercado: fracaso "vs." abandono en la franquicia

Resumen El estudio de la supervivencia empresarial ha sido un tema relevante tanto en el ambito academico como empresarial. Actualmente los trabajos se centran en examinar por separado las distintas formas que tiene una empresa de salir del mercado. Esta investigacion pretende comparar y examinar las diferencias entre los factores que determinan dos tipos de salida del mercado: el fracaso empresarial y el cese de actividad. El estudio se lleva a cabo para el sistema de franquicia, donde la decision de abandonar la actividad franquiciadora ha sido escasamente estudiada. En concreto se examina el efecto del momento de entrada, la estructura organizativa y la politica de incentivos sobre ambas salidas del mercado, a partir de una muestra de 387 empresas franquiciadoras operativas entre 1986 y 2004. Los resultados permiten observar que las empresas que fracasan como organizacion son seguidoras, con experiencia media y una elevada centralizacion y control de la cadena; mientras que las que optan por abandonar el mercado pertenecen al grupo de empresas seguidoras o primera mayoria, con escasa experiencia, baja expansion y un elevado nivel de centralizacion.