Knowledge acquisition by SMEs in weak client-firm exchange relationships

This thesis examines the role that non-collaborative, weak exchange relationships might play in the acquisition of knowledge by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). An important source of knowledge for a firm lies in its network of relationships. There has been considerable research conducted on knowledge transfer and acquisition through linkages, such as strategic alliances and similar-type, close collaborations with other businesses. However, many SMEs are less likely to be involved in collaborative, close interfirm relationships because of their relatively small market share, short industry time and uncertainty associated with the firm's future. Consequently, much of the research on interfirm relationships has overlooked SMEs. Many SME linkages are the non-collaborative, arm's-length type that many researchers argue play very little or no role in knowledge transfer and acquisition. However, research has found that inter-firm relationships that are not close and less collaborative are a source of new external knowledge.This doctoral study researches the value of weak, arm's-length client ties to the SME in terms of the knowledge they could impart to the firm. The extent to which this acquired knowledge leads to knowledge-related outcomes, such as new product and market development, increased operating efficiency and innovative performance, are also examined. Factors posited to lead to knowledge acquisition in these weak exchange ties include the SME owner's efforts at building more long-term relationships and efforts at signalling the SME's reputation and legitimacy. Also posited to lead to knowledge acquisition is the trust of the arm's-length client. The study also examines factors posited to contribute to the knowledge-based outcomes derived from the knowledge acquisition. The factors include absorptive capacity and exchange partner similarity and are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between knowledge acquisition and knowledge outcomes. Other moderating factors include the size and age of the client firm and the growth intentions of the SME owner.To conduct this research, a cross-section of Western Australian SMEs was surveyed through the WA Small Business Benchmark Survey undertaken by Curtin's School of Management. A paper-based version of the survey was administered to a Dan & Bradstreet database of 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. Additionally, an on-line version of the survey was also sent to SMEs via a range of small business associations across Western Australia. Low response rates are common in SME research and this study is no exception. Just over 400 businesses responded to the survey, of which 298 respondents completed the survey questions pertaining to the thesis study.A model explaining the interrelationships of factors and paths leading to knowledge acquisition and knowledge outcomes was analysed. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses of the data were carried out and structural equation analysis examined the fit of the model to the data. Based on the results, the measure of the relationship strength of the client-firm tie could not be verified. However, it was found that trust of the client in exchange relationships led to knowledge acquisition but reputation signalling and relationship initiation seemed more related to marketing efforts and did not contribute significantly to knowledge acquisition. Knowledge acquisition was significantly associated with knowledge-based outcomes and absorptive capacity, as well as exchange partner similarity, which partly moderated the extent to which knowledge based outcomes were derived from acquired knowledge. The growth intentions of the SME owner could not be verified as a moderator and the size of the client firm was not found to have a moderating effect. The findings are tempered by the small sample size and the low response rate so generalising these findings to the broader WA SME population would be inappropriate. However, the study did reveal the relative importance of absorptive capacity and exchange partner similarity in the conversion of acquired knowledge to knowledge-based outcomes. These findings encourage further research and more analyses to verify the role of absorptive capacity and exchange partner similarity in client-firm exchange relationships

Governance Through Social Learning

Governance connotes the way an organization, an economy, or a social system co-ordinates and steers itself. Some insist that governing is strictly a top-down process guided by authority and coercion, while others emphasize that it emerges bottom-up through the workings of the free market. This book rejects these simplistic views in favour of a more distributed view of governance based on a mix of coercion, quid pro quo market exchange and reciprocity, on a division of labour among the private, public, and civic sectors, and on the co-evolution of these different integration mechanisms. This book is for both practitioners confronted with governance issues and for citizens trying to make sense of the world around them

Controversial advertising in the UK : its regulation and practitioner ethical decision making

This thesis explores the phenomena of controversial advertising, its regulation, and the ethical dimensions of its practice in a UK. context. The £19bn advertising industry is a major contributor to the British economy, helping to stimulate consumer demand, market competition and employment (IPA, 2012). Despite these benefits, advertising is often criticised for its negative social consequences. Controversial advertisers utilise content or tactics that breach acceptable standards of society (Harker et al., 2005). Controversial advertising practices include: shocking, offensive or distressing content or tactics (Waller et al., 2005); deceptive or misleading advertising claims (Preston, 1996); or harmful social consequences (Pollay, 1986). The UK advertising industry use self-regulation via voluntary codes of practice to maintain acceptable standards; address stakeholder complaints and forestall government intervention (CAP, 2012). Before advertising is placed, media clearance and pre-vetting procedures are also common. However, despite these controls, over 25,000 complaints are received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) every year and on average 2,500 campaigns annually are found in breach of the code (ASA, 2012). This raises questions as to the ethics of controversial advertising practice and the effectiveness of its regulation. This research employs exploratory interpretive methods to makes sense of practitioner ethical decision making (EDM) involved in creating, pre-vetting and regulating controversial UK advertising. New findings highlight the importance of proactive clearance rather than post-complaint regulation. The code of advertising represents a fluctuating line to be pushed at, rather than acting as a moral brake on malpractice. Practitioner EDM is built from the collective interactions of actors, not the actions of individual decision makers or organisations, thus advertising practitioners become myopic to their stakeholder responsibilities. The thesis presents a new 360 degree model of the advertising process from creation through to regulation. The research has important implications for academic, marketing and advertising and regulatory practitioners

Experiential marketing: bridging the gap between value creation to customers and value capture by firms

An already voluminous literature addressing the value of marketing to the firm has, until now, fallen short of expectations. In a context in which marketers have increasingly been challenged to prove their worth, the scholarly attempts to demonstrate the value of marketing to the firm have stumbled to reach unquestionable results. Part of the problem may lie in the lengthy and twisted chain of effects from marketing actions to marketing performance outcomes. Between inputs and outputs lie numerous uncontrollable and often confounding external factors, such as the actions of customers, competitors, and other market agents. The problematic operationalization of such complex market structures impelled researchers to analyze fractions of this web of effects rather than attempting to study overarching conceptual models in full. Prior empirical research has typically considered either the impact of marketing actions in the marketplace or the consequences to the firm of the behaviors of customers and rivals. There is still a gap in the literature of an all-encompassing end-to-end demonstration of how specific marketing inputs can drive specific marketing outputs unequivocally contributing to organizational performance. This thesis addresses the issue of marketing as a value-capturing corporate function through its determinant role in managing value-creating exchanges with customers in the marketplace while hindering competitors from appropriating it. Our research suggests that experiential marketing may bridge the gap between value creation to the customer and value capture by the firm. In particular, our findings show that marketing-crafted valuecreating online shopping experiences may predict value-capturing marketing performance outcomes with the mediation of superior customer-level marketing performance. Thus, our results suggest that experiential marketing may offer an opportunity to bridge the gap between "give and take," value creation and value capture, and demonstrate how relevant the contribution of marketing to the firm's value rising can be.Uma já volumosa literatura abordando o valor do marketing para a empresa tem até agora ficado aquém das expectativas. As tentativas para demonstrar a valia do marketing para a empresa não têm conseguido alcançar inequívocas demonstrações de como o marketing pode ter uma contribuição relevante para a apropriação de valor pela empresa. Parte do problema reside na longa e sinuosa cadeia de efeitos ligando os estímulos de marketing aos resultados do desempenho. Entre uns e outros existem inúmeros fatores externos, incontroláveis e perturbadores, tais como as ações de outros participantes no mercado. A investigação empírica anterior tem tipicamente estudado ou os efeitos the ações de marketing no mercado, sobretudo nos clientes, mas também nos concorrentes, ou então as consequências para a empresa dos comportamentos dos clientes e rivais. Consequentemente, há uma lacuna na literatura de uma demonstração abrangente de como determinados estímulos de marketing podem conduzir a efeitos específicos precursores do desempenho da organização. Esta tese equaciona o marketing como função de captura de valor para a empresa através do seu papel determinante na gestão de trocas de valor com clientes, em paralelo com o impedimento aos concorrentes de se apropriarem do valor criado. A nossa investigação sugere que o marketing experiencial pode estabelecer a ligação entre criação de valor para o cliente e captura de valor para a empresa. Em particular, os nossos resultados mostram que experiências de compra criadoras de valor para os clientes em ambientes digitais podem conduzir à captura de valor para a empresa através da mediação de desempenho de marketing a nível de cliente. Portanto, os nossos resultados sugerem que o marketing experiencial pode ser uma grande oportunidade para preencher a lacuna entre “dar e receber”, criação e captura de valor, e mostram quão relevante pode ser a contribuição do marketing para o valor da empresa