This paper is present the Technology Orientation affects to Enterprise Management Performance. In order to carry out this research, we obtained 212 survey sheets and inspected ten assumptions based on the reliability, validity of the questionnaires. The results of regression analysis are summarized as follows; First, the factor of Technology Orientation, research development activity, affects to all factor of Enterprise Management Performance significantly. Second, the factor of Technology Orientation, research development environment, only effect on the technology performance. Third, research development ability is affect to technology performance and new product performance that factor of Enterprise Management Performance. Finally, technology industrialization ability isn’t affects to Enterprise Management Performance significantly. Based on the results, we are recommendations for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

The present study is aimed at examining in multilateral ways the structural relationship among technological orientation, market orientation and product development performance of manufacturing companies, which are deemed to be key factors for them to increase absorptive capacities. From the study, it was revealed that: First, in terms of the relationship between market orientation and absorptive capacities, it was made clear by the analysis that the market orientation sought after by manufacturing companies has influence upon their absorptive capacities. Second, with regard to the relationship between technological orientation and absorptive capacities of manufacturing companies, the analysis found that the technological orientation pursued by them affects their absorptive capacities. Third, as for the relationship between absorptive capacities and product development performance, the analysis made it clear that the absorptive capacities of manufacturing companies exerts influence upon their product development performance. Fourth, in respect to the relationship between market orientation and product development performance, it was concluded from the analysis that market orientation produces effect upon product development performances like technological innovation and acquisition of new technologies needed for product development. Finally, regarding the relationship between technological orientation and product development performance of manufacturing companies, it became obvious from the analysis that the technological orientation affects the product development performance.

성공적인 수출입 거래를 위하여 기업들 간 윤리적이고 신뢰 있는 관계 형성이 더욱 중요해지고 있다. 본 연구는 교환관계 이론에 근거하여 수출입 거래 관계에 대한 신뢰(trust)와 윤리지향성(ethics orientation)의 형성 요인으로서 공동목표 추구수준(allocentrism)의 영향을 검증하고자 하였다. 이 연구에서 공동목표 추구수준은 거래 기업들이 상호 공유하고 있는 공동의 목표를 개별 기업 목표에 우선시 하는 정도를 의미한다. 아울러 다문화 관리 관점에 근거하여, 공동목표의 추구수준이 거래 관계의 질에 미치는 영향이 수출입업자들의 가치유사성과 자국중심주의에 따라 조절됨을 검증하고자 하였다. 최근 해외 수출입 경험이 있는 미국 수입업체 구매결정권자 200명의 응답 자료가 데이터로 사용되었다. 데이터 분석 결과 수입기업 구매담당자의 공동목표 추구수준은 파트너사에 대한 윤리지향성과 신뢰에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 지각된 가치유사성이 높을수록 그리고 자국중심주의가 낮을수록, 공동목표 추구수준이 윤리지향성을 더욱 강화하는 것으로 검증된 반면, 공동목표 추구가 신뢰에 미치는 영향력은 문화적 요인들의 조절효과 없이 일관되게 긍정적인 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 연구결과는 수출입 거래 담당자들의 공동목표 구축 및 그 실현을 위한 노력은 파트너사에 대한 윤리적 태도 및 신뢰형성에 효과적임을 의미한다. 또한 거래 관계에 대한 윤리적 태도는 가치유사성 향상 및 자국중심주의 감소 등 문화차원의 관리적 노력이 동반될 때 더욱 효과적으로 증대됨을 제시한다. 이러한 연구결과를 토대로 관계패러다임에 근거한 수출입성과 연구 흐름에 이론적, 실무적 시사점을 제공 하였다.

Recently, methods that usea carbon-based filler, a conductive nanomaterial, have been investigated to develop composite fillers containing dielectric materials. In this study, we added geometric changes to a carbon fiber, a typical carbon-based filler material, by differentiating the orientation angle and the number of plies of the fiber. We also studied the electrical and electromagnetic shield characteristics. Based on the orientation angle of 0˚, the orientation angle of the carbon fiber was changed between 0, 15, 30, 45, and 90˚, and 2, 4, and 6 plies were stacked for each orientation angle. The maximum effect was found when the orientation angle was 90˚, which was perpendicular to the electromagnetic wave flow, as compared to 0˚, in which case the electrical resistance was small. Therefore, it is verified that the orientation angle has more of an effect on the electromagnetic interference shield performance than the number of plies.

The purpose of this study is to present the Market Orientation affects to Enterprise Management Performance. In order to carry out this research, we obtained 212 survey sheets and inspected ten assumptions based on the reliability, validity of the questionnaires. The results of regression analysis are summarized as follows; First, the factor of Market Orientation, intelligence generation, doesn’t influence on the Enterprise Management Performance significantly. Second, the element of Market Orientation, information dissemination, doesn’t have an important effect on the Enterprise Management Performance. Finally, the requisite of Market Orientation, information response, affects to Enterprise Management Performance significantly. Based on the results, the parts with intelligence generation and information dissemination will be improved in the manufacturer of the small businesses.

본 연구는 네트워크 역량이론과 기업가 지향성이론에 근거하여, 기업을 설립한 후 3년 내에 해외에 신속하게 진출한 145개 한국기업을 대상으로 네트워크 역량과 기업가 지향성이 국제화 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하고 아울러 동태적 역량이 이들 요인과 성과 간의 관계에 있어서 매개역할을 하고 있는가를 실증적으로 살펴보았다. 보다 더 구체적으로는 혁신적 기업가 지향성 및 위험감수적 기업가 지향성이 국제화 성과에 정(+)의 영향을 줄 것이라고 가정하였다. 또 네트워크 조정, 네트워크 지식, 네트워크 소통역량이 국제화 성과에 정(+)의 영향을 미칠것으로 가정하였으며, 동태적 조정역량과 동태적 변화역량이 기업가 지향성 및 네트워크 역량과 국제화 성과 간에 매개역할을 할 것이라고 가정하고 주장하였다. 실증분석 결과 혁신적 기업가 지향성, 네트워크 지식역량, 네트워크 소통역량이 높을수록 국제화 성과는 높아지며, 위험감수적 기업가 지향성, 동태적 변화역량, 네트워크 조정역량의 경우에는 그것이 낮을수록 국제화 성과가 높아지는 것으로 나타나고 있다. 한편 이들 요인들과 성과 간에는 동태적 역량이 별다른 매개역할을 하지 못하는 것으로 분석되었다.

The performance of an organization largely depends upon the strategy-environment fit (Mintzberg, 1979). The success of business-level strategy is contingent on industry environment characteristics (Pelham, 1999). Under the strategic fit, new ventures need to match their strategies of market, product with external environment. In different contextual situations, a new venture should employ appropriate management practices that positively impact its performance. The strategic fit provides important theoretical foundations for understanding how strategies drive firm performance. Today, technology-based start-up ventures and corporate entrepreneurship both embrace emerging markets and emerging technologies as the core of their competitive advantage (Thukral, Ehr, Walsh, Groen, & Sijde, 2008). For these new ventures, it is important to set up market orientation strategy at the beginning of founding. New ventures need to explore market opportunities and respond to market requirements. Proactive and responsive market orientations are two dimensions of market orientation considering to latent and current market needs ((Narver, Slater, & Maclachlan, 2004)). Current studies acquiescently treat proactive and responsive as two types of market orientations. However, further study need to clarify whether and what extent and under what contextual situations new ventures pursue two dimensions of market orientation strategy. In specifically, does pursuit of a hybrid market orientation lead to superior performance relative to a pure one? What extent should a new venture emphasize relative pure strategy which can help it to fit its strategy with performance objectives? Furthermore, is the market orientation strategy purity equally important in both emerging and established market conditions and industrial technology standards? This paper proposes hypotheses of positive relationship between market orientation strategy purity and new venture performance. And, Market needs has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging market, the MO purity will exert a weaker influence on the new venture performance. Technological uncertainty has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging technology, the MO purity (especially proactive market orientation) will exert a stronger influence on the new venture performance.

This research explore the complementarity effect of export-market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on export performance of SMEs from a CEE developing economy. We found that the likelihood of this effect on export profitability is higher in dynamic export market environments if high level of resources are committed to export operations.

We propose a conceptual model of MO in emerging markets by drawing on industrial organization and economic sociology, and outline factors which can better explain the determinant-strategy-performance relationships in emerging markets. We provide two country examples (Russia and China), and propose future research directions for our conceptual model.

The need for a co-alignment between internal and external marketing has largely been discussed in the literature. In an attempt to increase the conceptual and empirical body of knowledge, the present study follows a systematic presentation of balanced market orientation. After a brief literature review, it tackles research gaps building on theoretical hypotheses. An empirical examination based on 217 questionnaires, addressed to hotel managers, illuminates the role of culture in this context. Results unveil a significant positive relationship between internal marketing, market orientation and firm performance, irrespective of the underlying culture. Opting for a balanced market orientation, hotel managers gain particular insight into its principal axes and their interrelationships in practice.

This research is aimed at finding the economic antecedents of comparatively low level of customer orientation of the firms in the BRIC countries. To generate propositions regarding antecedents, the market environment and conditions for doing business, and management practices and entrepreneurial activity in BRICs are compared based on the cross country studies by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the Global entrepreneurship monitor consortium. Also the conclusions regarding the consumer products markets and firm market strategies in emerging countries are generated on the basis of academic literature review in comparative strategic management and expert views on management in emerging countries. The outcome of the research is a group of propositions on the economic determinants of gaps in the level of customer orientation between the developed and the emerging markets. Three potential causes of the comparatively low customer orientation related to the management practices of firms can be hypothesized. First, the level of business management sophistication in the BRIC countries is assessed to be lower compared to the developed countries. Second, the state capitalism, the dominant economic paradigm of the BRIC countries is not conducive to fostering the quality of business management. Third, local entrepreneurs enter the markets being necessity-driven and have relatively low capabilities and are less skilled in the application of the modern management practices. The development of markets in the BRIC countries also could be informative for explaining the relatively low average level of customer orientation of the emerging market companies, and one can infer three potential causes. First, the consumer markets in the BRICs are growing with a fast pace, so suppliers are more powerful than consumers. Second, the intensity of competition at the BRIC markets is comparatively low. Third, the emerging markets today are represented by the less demanding consumers, and on such markets mass marketing might be a winning strategy. Further study could potentially allow us to improve and test empirically the above formulated propositions regarding the sources of gaps in the level of customer orientation between the companies of the developed and emerging markets.

One of the longstanding goals of both managers and researchers has been to understand the characteristics of effective salespeople. Selling orientation (SO), one of the general approaches of salespeople, has also been referred to in several studies as selling behaviors (Saxe and Weitz 1982; Brown et al. 1992; Jaramillo et al. 2007). SO is the degree to which salespeople place their own needs and/or the needs of the firm before those of their customers by attempting to sell as much as possible to customers. This is exhibited when salespeople are primarily engaged in selling activities that emphasize “getting the sale” (Schultz and Good 2000; Boles et al. 2001). Few researchers focus their attention on SO as one of the sales approaches enhancing sales performance and previous studies generally discuss SO as a factor negatively correlated with customer orientation (CO) (Saxe and Weitz 1982; Brown et al. 1992). These studies suggest SO should be controlled to encourage CO. However, Schwepker (2003) shows in his overviews of recent research that there is not a general consensus on the relationship between SO and individual sales performance. In fact, some studies indicate that SO increases individual sales performance, while others find that it is not an influential factor (e.g. Goff et al. 1997; Boles et al. 2001; Wachnel et al. 2009). Salespeople are required to adopt long-term perspectives as well as short-term sales results simultaneously in a competitive market; thus, it is meaningful to explore whether SO, as an aggressive sales approach, improves individual sales performance and whether SO can be used as an effective organizational indicator. Some studies, on the other hand, argue that the relationship between SO and individual performance is affected by moderating factors, such as differences in performance measurement (subjective or objective) (Jaramillo et al. 2007) and the sales skill level salespeople possess (Wachner et al. 2009). For example, Wachner et al. (2009) tested the moderating impact of three selling skills: interpersonal skills, salesmanship skills, and technical skills. These studies show that various external and individual factors can affect the relationship between SO and performance. Unfortunately, the impact of internal factors, such as integration with other functional members of the organization, has largely ignored. However, integration between salespeople and a variety of functional members is crucial for exchanging information and activating organizational learning (Rouizes et al. 2005), which may affect sales strategy. Indeed, salespeople, as boundary spanners, cooperate with other functional members and provide the firm with external market information (Griffin and Hauser 1990; Singh 1998; Krohmer et al. 2002). On the other hand, salespeople also receive information and support regarding new products and product delivery from other functional members, which benefits individuals’ sales performance. Our study, therefore, aims to examine the performance impact of SO at the level of the individual salesperson. In addition, we test for the moderating effect of integration with other functional members. We use the term integration as proposed by Kahn (2001), in which levels of integration are gauged by the extent of information exchange and personal interaction, and argue that integration, as an option internally available to salespeople, will increase the effectiveness of a sales approach. The indices we use to judge individual sales performance are as follows: the sales figures achieved, the degree to which the salesperson commits to the target sales figure, the number of new customers found, and the level of task innovation displayed in comparison with other members of the same sales team. SO is usually seen as a short-term sales approach. While pure SO cannot have a positive effect on customer loyalty or satisfaction levels (Boles et al. 2001; Schwepker 2003), it is often the most effective short-term selling method. In fact, Wachner et al. (2009) report that SO directly increased individual sales performance in the B to B market settings. Moreover, Boles et al. (2001) reported that SO is not harmful to relationships with customers for in-store retail settings because customers expect salespeople to engage in selling-oriented behavior to some degree. Schwepker (2003) argues that salespeople are more likely to utilize SO in an effort to meet the demands and goals placed on them when managements use the outcome-based measurements (e.g. financial performance) to evaluate their performance. This may mean that when salespeople take a more strongly selling-oriented approach, they increase their attention on selling itself and find effective methods for increasing performance. These discussions show that SO is influential in increasing sales performance. Our first hypothesis, therefore, is: H1. SO positively affects individual sales performance. Meunier-FitzHugh and Piercy (2007) emphasize that the selling of products and services is not exclusive to marketing or sales. Integration between different functional members is vital to improved customer satisfaction and product development performance (Kahn 2001). In addition, Kahn and Mentzer (1998) show that integration between different functional members has a positive influence on performance in terms of department success, overall firm performance and new product development. The authors explain that the information exchange intrinsic to integration allows members to reduce uncertainty, thereby facilitating different types of performance. By transmitting information and interacting with members who work in complementary functions, salespeople are more likely to increase their product knowledge and control time schedules. Accordingly, we expect integration with other functional members to positively impact individual performance. According to Storbacka et al. (2009), sales can play an important role in new product development, which also increases opportunities to broaden customer relationships and modify sales strategies. We argue that when integration is coupled with SO, individual performance improves because integration modifies SO’s aggressive behaviors into an adaptive selling style. Adaptive selling is considered “the altering of sales behaviors during a customer interaction or across customer interactions based on perceived information about the nature of the selling situation” (Weitz et al. 1986, p. 175). Franke and Park (2006) argue that the benefits of adaptive selling behaviors are likely to outweigh the costs of gathering and applying information to specific situations, thereby improving overall individual sales performance. Thus, if salespeople integrate with other functional members in the process of selling products and providing customized service according to customer needs, we expect that the relationship between SO and individual performance will be stronger. On the other hand, role ambiguity of salespeople may be reduced by high SO, which stimulate salespeople to put higher priorities on selling and short-term purpose (Tubre and Collins, 2000; Wachner et al. 2009). Low role ambiguity will make functional integration efficient and effective since allocation and coordination regarding functional roles cost less compared with the situation where the roles are ambiguous. Therefore, when salespeople have higher SO, integration produces more results in shorter time. Hence, on the basis of this reasoning, we hypothesize that: H2. Integration positively affects individual sales performance. H3. The positive relationship between SO and individual sales performance is stronger when salespeople are more integrated with other functional members. 382 questionnaires were handed out to a firm and 186 salespeople including the sales managers filled in the questionnaires. This company’s services and products are related to real estate, car insurance and financial insurance. We chose this particular company because the salespeople are encouraged to use SO approaches and generally integrate with other functional members. Based on Wachner et al. (2009), SO was measured with a three-item indicator that included the following items: “high sales performance is more important than how to accomplish it,” “I try to focus attention on the degree of sales performance compared with others,” and “when a company appraises salespeople, only financial performance has to be considered.” These measures were modified from those used in Wachner et al. (2009) to reflect SO’s short-term transactional manner and emphasis on high financial performance. In addition, the integration with other functional members referred to in Kahn and Mentzer (1998) was also measured using an indicator with the following items: “I frequently exchanges information with other functional members,” “I am actively gathering information from colleagues with different functions,” “critical information is shared between colleagues with different functions,” and “the integration between sales and other functions is possible.” We assessed the validity and dimensionality of our reflective constructs by performing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Our CFA model contains SO (three items, α= .730), integration (four items, α= .839), and performance (four items, α = .826). The model shows an acceptable fit with the data with a χ2 of 153.481 (df = 41, p< .001), a comparative fit index (CFI) of .926, AGFI of 0.846 and a root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of .10. We conducted a moderated hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. Regression results have been provided in Table 1. After mean-centering the interaction variables, multicollinearity was irrelevant because the VIF of the multicollinearity statistic was low level. Model 1 includes control variables and the effects of SO and integration. Model 1 reveals a positive effect of selling orientation (β= .201, p< .01) and integration (β= .358, p< .001) on performance. In Model 2, interaction terms were added. The Model 2 results indicate that the interaction effect between SO and integration on performance is positive and significant (β= .142, p< .05) supporting H3. Post hoc analysis also confirms that integration moderates SO to increase performance. Specifically, examination of the simple regression lines show that there is only an effect of the SO on performance when the salesperson’s integration level is high (t= 3.60, p< .00), but is not significant when integration level is low (t= 1.085, ns). Overall, our results indicate that SO and integration have an important impact on individual sales performance. In addition, as shown by Fig. 1, SO affects individual performance more positively when salespeople integrate more fully with other functional members. These results highlight the tact that, when they co-exist, SO and integration between different functional members contributes to increased individual sales performance. As one of the components of market orientation, integration with other functional members prompts salespeople to consider customer satisfaction. By exchanging knowledge and contributing to internal information flow, integration allows salespeople to develop SO into an adaptive selling approach, thereby increasing sales performance. On the other hand, because high SO results in salespeople using their time and efforts more effectively for performance with integration than low SO, sales performance increases. From a theoretical perspective, the findings we report here taking into account the moderating effects of integration, present a new understanding of the relationship between SO and individual performance. Moreover, our findings have managerial implications. Although SO has a positive effect on individual performance, SO also presents considerable challenges, such as decreasing customer loyalty and endangering salespeople’s job satisfaction (Boles et al. 2001; Schwepker 2003). As a result, the relationship between SO and salespeople’s individual performance requires more discussion and should be considered carefully. Our study shows that sales management could potentially increase sales performance by using cross function teams and setting financial goals, which would simultaneously encourage integration as well as SO (Rouziès et al. 2005).

This study seeks to understand how the interplay between Market Orientation, Firm strategy and Performance is developed over time. In order to study the interplay, I build a model on industry and company evolution by adopting a Variation, Selection and Retention (VSR) analysis of a telecom company and industry 1980-2010 in Finland market. The evolution of telecom industry and a case company is manifested in innovations and strategy in a company and respectively in the basis of competition in the market. In addition, what capabilities and resources a company can use successfully when innovating and developing products and services, and how those capabilities and resources change over time are of interest. A longitudinal (1980-2010) abductive case study of a telecom company’s offerings and strategy was made. Company’s spearhead innovations, managerial cognition and strategy were studied in a longitudinal setting. The theoretical contributions of the study are to discover Market Orientation payoff is context and industry life-cycle specific. Secondly, Market Orientation has potential adverse effects on Firm Performance, and what is the most important, Market Orientation as a sole source of innovation activity has a permanent influence on company’s comparative advantage in the market.

Introduction A market orientation is a fundamental concept of strategic marketing that reflects a thorough understanding of both customer needs and competition (Narver & Slater, 1990; Kohli & Jaworski, 1990; Salavou et al., 2004). Market orientation as organizational culture increases firms’ interest in providing greater value for its customers, and, consequently enhances business performance (Narver & Slater, 1990). Thus, it is important to understand processes related to development and management of market-oriented culture (Zhou, Gao, Yang, & Zhou, 2005). As practitioners are encountering many difficulties in implementing market orientation in their organizations (Day, 1994; Mason & Harris, 2005), more detailed studies have been called to investigate managerial processes of deploying and developing market-oriented culture (Harris, 2000). Recent studies have found that market orientation can be enhanced by top management emphasis and reward systems (Kirca, Jayachandran, & Bearden, 2005; Kumar, Jones, Venkatesan, & Leone, 2011). However, fewer studies have specifically looked into the remuneration of the management in this setting (Ruekert, 1992), and particularly how the different parts of employee compensation, such as incentive schemes, are structured. Although our understanding of how compensation structure effects on development of market-oriented culture is limited, compensation structures have been studied extensively in finance literature (see Murphy 2012 for an extensive review). The structure of employee incentive schemes may be used to shift personnel’s myopia and risk-taking behavior (Murphy, 1999). Thus, these schemes provide a classic solution to the agency problem between shareholders and management (Jensen & Murphy, 1990) and have been predominantly postulated to be beneficial for the shareholder (Murphy, 1999). The underlying rationale is that the managers perceive risk differently from the shareholders and because of this asymmetry the managers may be hesitant to undertake projects that would be optimal for the shareholder value (Core, Guay, & Larcker, 2003). In this study, our aim is investigate how the structure of the employee incentive schemes affects to the market orientation of the firm. Given that the benefits of market orientation take time to become fully realized, the importance of top management both emphasizing and supporting a market-oriented culture is paramount (Kumar, Jones, Venkatesan, and Leone, 2011). Since developing market orientation is by its nature a long-term and risky investment (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993), and is linked to superior firm performance, we postulate the development of market orientation as an activity that stock-based compensation is meant to promote. Literature review and hypotheses development Market orientation as organizational culture is “the set of beliefs that puts the customer's interest first, while not excluding those of all other stakeholders, such as owners, managers and employees, in order to develop a long term profitable enterprise” (Deshpande Farley, & Webster, 1993, p. 27). As positive relationship between market orientation and business performance has been empirically proven (Huhtala et al., 2013; Deshpande & Webster, 1989; Narver & Slater, 1990), recent studies have focused on investigating possible antecedents of market orientation, such as reward systems (Kirca et al., 2005; Kumar et al., 2011; Sarin & Mahajan, 2001, Wei, Frankwick, & Nguyen, 2012). Studies have found that proper reward systems, such as participation based rewards, may facilitate market orientation (Sarin & Mahajan, 2001; Wei et al., 2012). Development of our hypotheses is based on the understanding that, firstly, market orientation is only acquired through risky and time-consuming projects (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993), and, secondly, stock-based incentive schemes are specifically designed to mitigate risk aversion and myopic investment choice challenges (Murphy, 1999). The benefits of a market orientation take time to realize, and especially management support is needed to instill a market-oriented culture (Kumar et al., 2011). This type of management involvement is also reflected in Jaworski and Kohli's (1993) statement that risk-averse management leads to subordinates being less likely to focus activities that increase overall market orientation. The reward and compensation system is a critical factor as it can either encourage or impede managers’ actions (Hambrick & Snow, 1989), and, therefore, has an impact on market orientation (Wei et al., 2012). We argue that stock-based incentive schemes address the challenges of developing market orientation that has been found in extant literature (see Mason & Harris, 2005). The incentives should both motivate employees to focus more on long-term value creating activities as well as encourage them to overcome their risk aversion. As the market-based incentive systems aim to promote longer-term focus and reduce risk-aversion, which are major factors causing managers’ inertia to develop market orientation. In line with incentive and reward systems literature we propose that: H1(a)/(b): An increase in (a)option/(b)stock incentive schemes' total average value per employee involved increases a firm's market orientation (and its constituent factors) Organizations should provide more bonuses and long-term incentives to high level managers, since decision-makers in the upper echelons can have impact on the organization (Wang, Venezia, & Lou, 2013; Gerhart & Milkovich, 1990; Hambrick & Mason, 1984). We argue that top managers are the priority when designing stock-based compensation and the larger the proportion of employees benefiting from an incentive scheme within a firm is, the better the relevant decision-makers and experts have been incentivized. Thus, we propose: H2(a)/(b): An increase in the proportion of employees benefiting from an (a)option/(b)stock incentive scheme increases a firm's market orientation (and its constituent factors) Data and methods The incentive scheme data was obtained from Alexander Incentives, a remuneration scheme consultancy that administers a broad database of publicly disclosed information on the remuneration and incentives of public and private companies in Finland. We use data from 2008 to 2012 comprising 67 firms. Over this period the average year specific value of an option based incentive scheme was 4.7 million € and corresponding value of a stock based incentive scheme was 7.6 million €. On an average year, an option based scheme comprised 595 grantees and a stock based scheme comprised 317 grantees. Measurement of market orientation was conducted through survey using the questionnaire items developed by Narver and Slater (1990). The survey was conducted in the spring of 2008, 2010 and 2012. The survey was sent to all companies in Finland with more than 5 employees in the previous year resulting 1157, 1134, and 952 completed answers, respectively. The respective firm-level response rates were 16%, 10% and 9%. However, in this study, we are investigating only the companies that were publicly listed at the time of conducting the survey and who have disclosed personnel incentives. Such companies answering the survey totaled 55 firms in year 2008, 39 in 2010, and 28 in 2012. The final sample consisted of firms that responded to the survey in one or more years and from which we were able to obtain incentive scheme data. The sample comprises 122 firm-years collected from 65 unique firms (n = 122). The items measuring market orientation were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using SPSS AMOS version 21.0. The latent variables measuring the dimensions of market orientation (customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination) were included in a single second-order CFA model. Following suggested guidance for the model fit index thresholds (Bagozzi & Yi, 2012; Bentler, 1990), the second-order CFA model shows a good fit (χ2 = 58.08, df = 24, χ2/df = 2.42, RMSEA = .10, SRMR = .047, NNFI = .94, and CFI = .96). All items loaded significantly on their respective second-order (standardized loadings ranged between .90 and .95) and first-order latent constructs (standardized loadings ranged between .68 and .96), indicating convergent validities. All model maximum likelihood estimates were found to have statistically significant critical ratio values. We conclude that the tests proved the factorial validity of the second-order CFA model. Additional financial data was used to formulate control variables and was obtained from Worldscope and Datastream. We are using annual and quarterly financial statements data to control the size of the companies and the volatility of the environment. Stock market data were used to control the riskiness of the firms. We are controlling for the size of the firm with the logarithm of the total assets. To control for the environment, we are using the volatility of the quarterly revenues within a year. We also use the monthly volatility of the stock market performance to control for the investors’ perceptions of riskiness. Detailed descriptive statistics of the sample are available upon request. Results The impact of the employee stock-based incentives on the market orientation of the firm was investigated using multiple regression analysis. We used the market orientation as the dependent variable. As the independent we used the value of the incentive scheme (option and stock based) per grantee and the percentage of total employees who were grantees. Total assets, quarterly revenue volatility, and monthly stock returns volatility were control variables. The variable for market orientation significantly correlated with option scheme value (p < .10), presenting a low correlation of -.17. Quarterly sales volatility significantly correlated with monthly stock return volatility at -.21 (p < .05). Other correlations were found statistically insignificant and ranged between -.14 and .23. Table 1 reports the regression results predicting market orientation. Models 2 and 4 test Hypotheses 1(a) and 2(a). Models 3 and 4 test Hypotheses 1(b) and 2(b). All Models 1 through 4 were found statistically significant based on the F-statistic (p < .01). Hypothesis 1(a) proposed increase in option incentive scheme’s total average value per employee predicts increase in a firm's market orientation. As indicated in Model 2 and 4, there is no strong support for the hypothesis. Although the coefficient for option scheme value is significant (p < .10), the coefficient is negative instead of being positive as was hypothesized. Hypothesis 2(a) postulated the option scheme coverage to have a positive impact on the market orientation of the firm. The coefficient in both Models 2 and 4 was positive, however not significant. Thus, the Hypothesis 2(a) is clearly rejected.

The catching-up process of the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) towards the average income level in Western Europe has driven the marketing strategies of Western multinational companies (MNC) so far. Particularly, the boom years from 2002 to 2008 with an average GDP growth for the region of more than 6% (Becker et al., 2010) fuelled the notion that soon a large European market with similar demand and market structures will exist that will allow Western MNCs to sell their international brands in a highly standardized way in the whole region. The Great Recession of 2008-09 stopped this convergence process and highlighted the still existing differences in consumer behavior (Schuh, 2012). The recessionary developments in the aftermath of the crisis have shown that this is more of a structural problem than a temporary one (Labaye et al., 2013). The Western firms now have to acknowledge that many product markets are not “structural twins” of Western markets with a strong upper- and mid-price segment but that CEE markets are rather shaped like bottom heavy pyramids. By just transferring brand strategies developed for high-income economies to emerging markets they ignore large segments of the mass market. To tap these market segments MNCs have to think how they can make their products affordable to these lower-income consumers, i.e. bring-ing the purchase of a product within the financial means of a consumer or household. The neglect of low-income segments may be either a deliberate decision based on the well-proven inherent business logic of Western branded good marketers (“stick to our success-ful way of doing business”) or a blind spot in the strategic approach to emerging markets (Sheth, 2011). The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, a case is made for the relevance of affordability concepts to CEE markets; second, three case studies of affordability initiatives of leading fast-moving consumer goods companies are analyzed in order to get a better understanding of how these firms approach the affordability issue and what are the success factors of such strategies in CEE. Most of the existing emerging market literature is dealing with very low income consum-ers in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa earning less than US- 2,500 p.a. (Prahalad, 2005; London & Hart, 2011; Khanna & Palepu, 2010). While the coverage of the “bottom of the pyramid” is regarded as an extreme stretch for most Western firms, more attention is paid to the growing middle class in the emerging markets (Court & Narashimhan, 2010). The steady growth of the middle-class in the emerging economies is promising rising sales for the future and at the same time supporting the notion that West-ern MNCs can continue with their business model and just have to “wait for the market”. The rapidly growing middle class consumers in emerging markets include almost 2 billion people with a total spending of US- 6.9 trillion annually which will expand to US-20 trillion within the next decade (Court & Narasimhan, 2010). Surprisingly, lead-ing Western MNCs approach the affordability issues in the context of CEE rather defen-sively and reluctantly (Schuh, 2012). This may be resulting from the belief that the eco-nomic catching-up process will bring CEE consumers to a similar standard of living as in the “old” EU and any investment in products for the lower-segments would be only of temporary value. Therefore, CEE countries are not seen as the typical candidates for affordability strategies. This may be partly true for the most advanced Central European countries and Russia with rapidly rising household incomes in the last decade. But the economic downturn and the following recessionary development has shattered the consumption model that was based to a high degree on credit financing in those markets too. Moreover, studies show that there exists a high share of low-income households and price-sensitive consumers in CEE. According to the “Life in Transition” survey the mid-dle-class ranges from 4% in Albania to 27% in Slovenia – in between you can find Poland with 16% and Russia with 18% (EBRD, 2007). Pfeifer, Massen and Bombka (2007) estimate that 56% of the consumers or 57 million people, in Eastern Europe are low-income consumers (< 10,000 in PPP per year). In addition, in Russia and Ukraine 70% of the populations are falling in this category. A study of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (2008) on “Consumer Archetypes in CEE” identified seven basic consumer types in CEE. Three out of them – the “self-centered consumers” (18% of population), “minimalists” (14%) and “rationalists” (12%) – can be classified as highly price-sensitive. Together, these three highly price-conscious consumer types make up 44% of the CEE market. What is more, other identified consumer types with less distinct price sensitivity could be taken into account as well. In total, these consumer types whose purchasing behavior is influenced predominantly by affordability amount to 56% of all CEE consumers. Summing up, the studies provide divergent figures of the size of the middle class and low-income segment in CEE. Different methodological approaches, classifications, and data bases are the reasons for these variations (Kharas, 2010). However, the findings show that the market below the middle class in CEE is a large one, accounting for more than 60% of the population of a country. The strategies that are used to address low-in-come consumers are described by the so-called “4 A’s”: affordability, acceptability, availability and awareness (Anderson & Markides, 2007). Affordability as a strategy con-cept can be defined as all measures of a company that aim at bringing the purchase of a product within the financial means of a consumer or household (or business). In the literature you can find different approaches towards this goal. Firms typically start with marginal changes in their marketing strategy (e.g., different packages, single portions). However, to tap the lower-end of these price-sensitive mass-markets and to reach non-consumers of your products changes have to go beyond rebranding and adapted market-ing elements. New business models with deeper and more comprehensive changes in product development and architecture of the supply-chain are needed to be successful in this segment (Johnson, Christensen & Kagermann, 2008). The purpose of the empirical part of this study is to get a better understanding of motives, goals and success factors of affordability initiatives addressing the countries of CEE. A case study approach is the best way to learn about underlying assumptions and considera-tions of managers involved in the decision-making process (Yin, 2009). The cases consist of two parts: a) a general company profile describing businesses, geographic presence and goals; b) the role of affordability for tapping emerging markets and the description of affordability initiatives in CEE countries. Globally active consumer goods companies in the food sector from USA and Western Europe were chosen as target firms: They ex-panded strongly into emerging markets and CEE in the last years, play a pioneer role in tapping low-income markets and exemplify the sought-after strategic constellation for this research, i.e. an MNC expanding from a traditional “premium-position” into lower-price segments. In addition, food companies serving broad segments of the population are faced with social responsibility issues, namely if they legitimately can deny people access to their products. So far three cases of Western companies with an extensive presence in emerging markets are available (see overview in Table 1). The results show that affordability is part of the marketing strategies in CEE of all these selected companies. A considerable share of the product portfolio and overall sales vol-ume in their CEE country organizations stem from affordable products. Higher growth rates of this segment than the overall market prove that there is a demand for this type of products. And it seems that these companies don’t see an insurmountable conflict in pursuing the two-pronged approach as indicated in the literature. All affordability strate-gies are run under a business perspective. They have to contribute to the growth and profitability goals, although social motives are mentioned as strong arguments too. The case of company A nicely shows how the affordability initiative started as a CSR project and then evolved into a business project. During this process they learned that they can make a “sustainable business case” out of it. This step was a break with so far existing concepts in the company, as it involved product development targeted to the demand and financial conditions of low-income households. Country organizations decide individu-ally if and to what degree they use affordability initiatives. In our cases Russian, Polish and Romanian subsidiaries were interested in the introduction of affordable products and looking for support within the group. The establishment of competence centers for affordability initiatives at global headquarters is a clear indication that a central hub is needed which provides basic strategy guidelines, offers assistance in the introduction of such initiatives and spreads best practices in the group. However, differences can be found in the market and branding strategy. While company A is using local brands in combination with the company brand, company C is using a strict two-tier strategy. Inter-national brands are sold parallel to local/regional ones which are used for the entry into the lower-income segment. Company B is covering all price points within a category with the international brand. So the brand stretches from the super-premium, premium and mainstream to the affordability segment. 4,000 “good value for money products” are sold worldwide today, in CEE the affordable category accounts for 25% of total turnover and grows twice as fast as the whole zone Europe. The differences can be explained via the basic approach towards branding: are they following a House of Brands or a Branded House architecture. As far as success factors are concerned all three cases show that the successful introduction of an affordable product range is based on (a) a commitment of the organization to the development of affordable products; (b) deep understanding of consumer behavior, buying patterns, and market situation; (c) utilization of synergies with higher priced brands; (d) focus on volume and scale via covering a large consumer base and (e) radical cost cutting along the whole value chain. In our ongoing research we try to increase the number of companies which run affordability initiatives to be able to cover a greater variety of industry and company types. Our research shows that multi-tier and affordability strategies can be found in other consumer and industrial markets in CEE too. This research shall help to clarify for which type of company it makes sense to ex-pand to lower-income segments. While so far the internal perspective was in the center of our research attention, market and competitive constellations should be covered in the future too.

The concept of customer orientation (CO) has been studied for quite a long time at first as a major part of market orientation and then as a separate construct. For emerging market the role of CO became paramount with the shift from the planned to the market economy. However, after more than two decades of transition Russian companies are still demonstrating rather a claim of being customer orientation, instead of implementing a long-term orientation towards customer. This paper focuses on reconsidering applying the Narver and Slater (1990) approach to conceptualizing and measuring customer orientation, and its empirical test and validation in the context of Russian economy. This study is based on data from two empirical studies on Russian companies, conducted during the pre-crisis (2008) and post-crisis (2010) period. Our results reveal that existing theory on customer orientation is not fully confirmed by the evidence from Russian companies.

Despite an extensive liberalization of the Chinese economy, cultural differences between western countries and China still affect international business relations. This qualitative study reveals that German professionals encounter significant cultural resistance in Chinese business environments. The results emphasize relationship orientation is a core element for successful Sino-German communication.

New product promotion is an expensive and time-consuming process that suffers from a high failure rate. Scholars have examined the relationships between product introduction and sales force management, but the importance of the sales force in selling new products can still be further explored (Fu, Richards, , Hughes, , & Jones, 2010; Spanjol, Tam, Qualls, & Bohlmann 2011). The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of perceived sales management controls on a salesperson’s new products sales performance (i.e., electronic goods) in a business-to-business context. In addition, the direct, mediated, and moderating influences of market orientation on sales performance will also be investigated.Through the literature reviewed (e.g., Evans, Landry, Li, & Zou, 2007; Matsuo, 2009; Matear, Osborne, Garrett, & Gray, 2002), this paper proposes its hypotheses. In terms of the antecedents of sales performance, this research focuses on the effects of innovativeness (Matsuo, 2009). Second, based on the works of Evans et al. (2007) and Matsuo (2009), this study proposes that management controls (i.e., behavior-based control, knowledge-based control, and output-based control) both directly and indirectly affect sales department performance by first influencing innovativeness. Third, this research intends to examine the effect of organization psychological climate, which is market orientation, on the innovativeness and performance of sales departments (Matear et al., 2002). Finally, this study investigates the moderating effects of an organization’s market orientation on the relationship between sales innovativeness and performance (Matear et al., 2002).EMBA and MBA students were recruited as interviewers to gather data. The companies involved in this study were electronics product manufacturers that were publicly listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. A total of 315 complete responses were obtained. The target research question was “what are the determinants of a sales department’s new product sales performance?” This study used partial least squares (PLS) to examine the proposed model.This research found that sales department innovativeness is positively linked with new product sales performance. For the effectiveness of management controls, the results show that sales management controls (i.e., output-based control, behavior-based control, and knowledge-based control) positively affect department innovativeness but cannot influence performance directly. As for marketing orientation’s influences, this current research confirmed an organization’s market orientation-ness cannot positively affect sales department’s innovativeness and performance when selling new product. However, market orientation can positively moderate the relationship between innovativeness and performance. Based on the findings of this research, managerial implications have been put forth.

This study empirically investigates how four individual-level characteristics impact the effect of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. A widely used practice among marketers focuses on communicating that using their brands will bring consumers closer to how they would like to see themselves, their ideal self-concept (e.g. being a slim person like the models in the ads), instead of how they actually see themselves, their actual self-concept. However, recent research shows that there is no “universality” of a superior self-congruity effect. Specifically, individual-level characteristics (e.g. self-esteem levels, product involvement levels) determine if actual or ideal self-congruity impact brand perceptions more strongly (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer & Nyffenegger, 2011). This study extends that research by (a) considering all four self-congruity types (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social) and (b) four additional individual-level characteristics, which are valuable for segmenting consumer markets within and across countries. The four individual-level characteristics are a dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan orientation and local orientation. Considering these individual-level characteristics offers marketers insights on which of the four self-concept types they should try to match with their brand communications when targeting these specific consumer groups. Survey data from a non-student sample was collected in the US. After performing data cleaning procedures, 800+ usable responses were analysed with the use of PLS-SEM (Lohmöller, 1989). The measurement models demonstrate satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results suggest that the data is not compromised by non-response bias and common method variance. The structural models display satisfactory predictive capabilities of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. The findings show that as expected an individual’s dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan and local orientation impact which of the four self-congruity types has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant local orientation or interdependent self-construal, actual self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant cosmopolitan orientation or independent self-construal, ideal self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. The findings of this study extend self-congruity theory by considering the effect of these four individual-level characteristics. Managerial implications are also presented.

Learning-orientation and trustworthiness are two important components of corporate image in Asian societies. This paper examines consumers’ perceived learning-orientation and trustworthiness of retailers in Hong Kong with a survey of 909 respondents. The results of a structural equation model show that learning orientation and trustworthiness are two distinctive attributes of a positive corporate image. Advertising creativity correlates positively with building a learning-oriented corporate image, while advertising believability correlates positively with building a trustworthy corporate image. The two perceived corporate images in turn positively associate with brand awareness and purchase intention respectively. Corporates which are perceived as learning-oriented recorded higher awareness, while consumers reported that they are more likely to patronize in companies which they found trustworthy. In summary, this research demonstrates the influence of advertising and promotion strategies (i.e. creativity vs. believability) on the perception of corporate’s image, and subsequently, on brand persuasiveness (i.e. brand awareness and purchase intention).This research has both theoretical contributions and managerial implications. It contributes to the existing corporate image literature by establishing the antecedents and consequences of building a learning-oriented and trustworthy corporate image. The research also provides practical implications to marketers. Specifically, the findings suggest that if a company aims to enhance consumers’ awareness about its branding, more attention should be put on developing creative advertising so as to build a learning-oriented corporate image. Alternatively, if a company aims to increase consumers’ purchase intention, more effort should be put on developing advertising with high believability so as to build a trustworthy corporate image.