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Our study focuses on the internal process through which market orientation influences performance in export markets, and develops a model of market orientation–marketing capabilities–competitive advantages–performance relationships. Using survey data of 491 export ventures based in China, we find that marketing capabilities mediate the market orientation–performance relationship, while competitive advantages partially mediate the marketing capabilities–performance relationship. Moreover, coordination mechanism strengthens, and cost leadership strategy weakens, the effects of market orientation on new product development and marketing communication capabilities, respectively. Market turbulence attenuates the effect of market orientation on new product development capability while competitive intensity strengthens this effect.

In today's volatile global marketplace, firms should pursue flexible asset distribution and high-quality, low-cost manufacturing operations simultaneously. Previous studies have examined the relationships between supplier management-related variables and market performance with cross-sectional data; however, little guidance is available for newly internationalizing ventures aiming to build a global supply chain network from scratch. To shed light on this dynamic process, we examine Uniqlo's successful supply chain development in China, using longitudinal contextual data. Our findings show that Uniqlo went through discrete dynamic stages in its supply chain development efforts. First, Uniqlo, initially a small firm, developed relational governance with its suppliers by exercising dynamic economic power concentration over time. Second, it began to provide technical support to help its suppliers build competence with the aim of increasing their cooperation. Third, Uniqlo enforced compulsory nonexclusivity arrangements with suppliers to achieve supplier flexibility by not just having Uniqlo as primary customer. This provides relational flexibility through both relational governance and partner flexibility for the principal firm in the global supply chain development.

Although foreign multinational firms from the Triad regions increasingly use mainland China as both a sourcing and a marketing location, no study has directly examined the sourcing strategy-performance linkage. Using resource complementarity and resource dependence theory, we extend the sourcing literature and apply these perspectives to an important transitional economy-China. These two theoretical perspectives suggest that product and uncertainty factors moderate the relationship between strategic alliance-based sourcing (SA sourcing) of major components and market performance. We find that, at low levels of product innovativeness and technological uncertainty, the use of SA sourcing is positively related to market performance. However, the effects of product differentiation and demand uncertainty on the sourcing-performance relationship are insignificant.

We integrated the resource-, institution-, and industry-based views to investigate the determinants of export propensity and export intensity, and examined performance outcomes of firms' export behaviors using the longitudinal data of 18,644 domestic private enterprises and foreign wholly owned subsidiaries in China from 2001 to 2005. We found that institutional environment has significant effects on export behaviors above and beyond the impact of firm competencies and industry factors. Furthermore, firm competencies have differential effects on firms' export behaviors. Those firms that do not possess distinct firm competencies and those that have cost leadership competencies only do not benefit financially from exporting.

Purpose This study aims to investigate how relational resources, such as the buyer’s trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of tacit knowledge integration capabilities (TKICs) of the firm, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance. Design/methodology/approach Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and the relational view, this paper examines how TKIC, a special case of dynamic capability, influences business performance. The research context is the Brazilian automobile industry, in which firms are currently experimenting with modular production and increasing their interactions with suppliers. Using a sample of automobile suppliers, this investigates how relational resources, such as the buyer’s trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of TKIC, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance. In addition, this paper examines the moderating effect of various communication media on the TKIC-business performance relationship. The findings confirm the importance of relational resources and TKIC on business performance. Finally, this paper explores various theoretical and managerial implications to encourage future research. Findings The results suggested that the two relational resources (supplier involvement and buyer’s trust) are important drivers of TKICs and that the level of supplier involvement in the production process mediates the relationship between buyer’s trust and TKIC. Moreover, this study found that TKIC leads to superior firm performance, but the degree of media naturalness does not seem to facilitate knowledge transfer. The results confirm that supplier involvement is a pivotal process in that the buying firm’s internal resources and the major suppliers’ resources and capabilities are combined to achieve a competitive advantage – TKIC. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to the typical limitations inherent in cross-sectional research designs using subjective measures. That said, this still has some important implications indicating that relational resources, such as buyer’s trust and supplier involvement, are critical in developing TKIC that “seize” opportunities from interfirm relationships and integrate knowledge across and within firm boundaries. Moreover, while knowledge management tools can resemble face-to-face interactions to the largest extent, the research suggested that it cannot substitute face-to-face communications in transferring tacit knowledge. Practical implications Managers deal with complex interactions and linkages due to tacit knowledge from components, systems and modules, which are critical in developing organizational capabilities. Relational resources are important strategic assets facilitating resource combination and coordination. Managers must coordinate among multiple sources of learning and partner with their suppliers at an earlier stage to develop the relational capabilities and efficiently steer the process of boundary redefinition. Finally, managers must have the ability to manage tacit knowledge within the interface with suppliers using organizational mechanisms (i.e. TKIC) to help them absorb external knowledge from their supplier network and integrate it with specific internal competences. Social implications Recent disruptive technological developments pressure organizations to become more flexible by requiring firms to adapt quickly to constantly changing markets and to have the ability to apply different resources and capabilities to specific unique situations. All this with a huge impact on the firm’s employees and society in general. Thus, interfirm relationships and the role of knowledge integration is especially crucial, given the current industry trend in favor of experimenting with innovative production methods (e.g. flexible manufacturing and modular production) that can help managers to rethink work conditions in a more meaningful and flexible for society. Originality/value While prior research treats integrative capability mainly as a mechanism that explains superior firms’ performance in an interfirm relationship, few research efforts have explicated what shapes TKICs. By examining the relationship between relational resources, TKIC and performance, this study fills this research gap and develops and tests a theoretical framework.

The authors examine the differential effects of the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital on exploratory and exploitative learning in new product development in new ventures in China. In addition to investigating the potential nonlinear relationships between exploratory and exploitative learning and new product performance, the authors examine the relationship between the interaction of the two types of learning and new product performance. The findings suggest that different dimensions of social capital are indeed significantly related to the level of exploratory and exploitative learning. The results also support the argument that firms need a balance of exploratory and exploitative learning to enhance performance. The findings draw the attention of managers from multinational firms operating in China to the important role of social capital in enhancing new product performance.

Over the past few decades, outsourcing has become a widely used and researched means for firms to change their performance. In this article, we attempt to link outsourcing to the market success of firms, specifically their market share. We argue that although firms may be able to increase their market share through outsourcing, this is only true up to a point, beyond which market share actually decreases as a consequence of further outsourcing. There is, in other words, a negatively curvilinear (inverted U-shape) relationship between outsourcing and market share. We also hypothesize that the outsourcing–market share relationship is moderated negatively by both the strength of firm resources and the extent of competition in a firm’s market. We empirically confirm these arguments through a panel data analysis containing over 19,000 observations on manufacturing firms and offer some case examples to illustrate the mechanisms driving these results. Finally, we discuss implications for marketing research and practice.

In response to numerous calls for the cross-cultural validation of measures used in international research, the authors assess measurement invariance of the export market orientation (EMO) and export performance (EP) constructs using 491 Chinese and non-Chinese export ventures in China. The results show that both the EMO and the EP scales are invariant between Chinese and non-Chinese export ventures. In addition, different EMO components have differential effects on EP for Chinese versus non-Chinese firms. To achieve higher EP, Chinese firms should focus on export intelligence responsiveness, and non-Chinese firms should concentrate their efforts on export intelligence generation. The authors discuss implications and suggest directions for further research.

We investigate trust relationships between senior business executives and their overseas partners. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, social categorization theory, and the distinction between cognition-and affect-based trust, we argue that executives trust their overseas partners differently, depending on the partners' cultural ethnicity. In a field survey of 108 Chinese senior executives, we found that these executives have higher affect-based trust in overseas partners of the same cultural ethnicity as themselves; cognition-based trust is associated with affect-based trust differently when overseas partners are of the same or different cultural ethnicity. We also examine the role of relative firm size and age in shaping intra- and intercultural trust. Relative firm size has a stronger negative effect on executives' cognition-based trust if their partners are of a different cultural ethnicity. Although firm age does not have a negative effect on executives' affectbased trust as hypothesized, we found firm age to be positively associated with affect-based trust for partners of the same cultural ethnicity. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this pattern of inter- and intra-cultural trust on international business and networking (guanxi) dynamics in China.

Comprehensiveness has long been recognized as a key feature of marketing strategy decision making. However, few studies have examined its antecedents and the conditions under which it influences performance. This study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of marketing strategy by investigating project-level antecedents and outcomes of marketing strategy comprehensiveness (MSC). Drawing on contingency and institutional theories perspectives, the authors develop and test the effects of output and process rewards, task conflict, and project members' intra- and extraindustry relationships on MSC. They find that whereas process reward and extraindustry relationships are positively related to MSC, task conflict (when combined with conflict avoidance) hinders its development. Furthermore, the results indicate that MSC has a more positive effect on performance when implementation speed is higher. Finally, the authors discover that technology and market uncertainties differentially moderate the relationship between MSC and performance; the former has a positive effect, and the latter has a negative effect. The authors also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of their findings.