Developing and validating an overall international marketing performance scale

The purpose of this chapter is to develop and validate a scale of the overall international marketing performance. Based on a review of the existing literature, the scale constructed to measure international marketing performance used in this study included three factors; namely, finance, strategic and brand performance. A total of 315 Australian firms involved in international marketing were surveyed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were undertaken to validate the scale. Findings support the conceptualization that the overall international marketing construct consists of three factors. The present study contributes to the understanding of the measurement of the overall international marketing performance by empirically testing the dimensionality of this construct

Corporate social responsibility and firm performance : evidence from China

A series of China’s product safety scandals have recently aroused global concerns over the business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China. General public believe that companies have a responsibility towards the society that goes beyond their obligation of maximizing profits. The aims of this research are to understand the development of CSR in China over the past few years and measure the effects of CSR on firm performance by examining the standalone CSR reports for the period 2008-2009. The latest data indicate that Chinese companies have been making progress in their CSR practices. The results of this study show that the prior financial performance is positively associated with CSR disclosure and the CSR disclosure has a significant and positive effect on the firm financial performance in the next year

Born globals : how are they different?

The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of the difference between born globals and non-born globals. An Australian sample of 315 internationally active firms is surveyed using the mail questionnaire approach. After comparing born globals with other international firms, the results show about a quarter of the samples was born globals. The main differentiating attributes of the born globals versus non-born globals were their international performance, greater international commitment (willingness to invest resources into international ventures), smaller size of firms, and speed to market. Alternatively, there were several marketing capabilities, such as market orientation and brand adaptation, which were not superior for born globals.No Full Tex

An integrated-process model of service quality, institutional brand and behavioural intentions: the case of a university

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an integrated-process model/an index model by incorporating the antecedents and consequences of service quality in a higher education context. Design/methodology/approach– This research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The data from three focus groups, conducted at an Australian University, generated key themes and their interrelationships. The theoretical model was then tested using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique on a sample of 528 University students.Findings– The findings show that information (or marketing communications) and past experience are the antecedents of perceived service quality (PSQ). PSQ is a second order construct and has three dimensions: academic, administrative and facilities. The consequences of PSQ include trust, satisfaction, university-brand (UniBrand) performance and behavioural intentions. Overall, the results suggest a good validity of the model, and the nine path coefficients are found statistically significant.Originality/value– The model explains how service quality is formed, and how PSQ affects UniBrand and positive behavioural intentions overtime. This paper develops and validates three new constructs including information, past experience and UniBrand performance. In addition, it improves and validates other constructs including service quality, satisfaction, trust and behavioural intention. The paper also advances service quality literature and validates five hypothesised relationships between constructs that are relatively new in the service quality literature. Finally, this study validates a comprehensive three-tiered “integrated-process” model/an index model that includes antecedents, dimensions and consequences of service quality taking a University as a case. Universities aiming for a sustainable presence in a competitive global market and intending to enhance brand performance and attract and retain students are encouraged to consider this model and its implications

Medical tourism: a conceptual framework for an innovation in global healthcare provision

The purpose of this chapter is to establish a conceptual model that can potentially fill research gaps in the literature about medical tourism as an innovative concept in global healthcare provision by developing emerging economies as they are providing low cost alternatives in medical treatment at internationally accredited medical facilities to treat patients from developed countries. Major databases such as Ebscohost and Emerald have been used to search relevant literature. The literature on medical tourism is reviewed so as to understand the key drivers of medical tourism as well as research gaps in the existing literature. Three major drivers of medical tourism have been identified, namely cost, waiting time, and perceived quality. Further empirical research is needed to test the conceptual model in order to better understand what drives a decision to engage in medical tourism. This chapter makes three major contributions; firstly, the identification of the medical tourism literature from the service marketing and management perspectives; secondly, to propose a conceptual model representing innovation in medical tourism for global healthcare by developing emerging economies; thirdly, the identification of research gaps in the medical tourism literature through which future research can further the knowledge of why people travel to developing countries for medical treatment

Two essays on supply chain variations : evidence from cost behaviors and audit outcomes

Recent researches shed light on the information role of major customers of the supplier firms on a variety of users, including shareholders (Dhaliwal et al., 2016), debtholders (Campello and Gao, 2017) and analysts (Guan et al, 2015). However, scarce researches are developed to address the influences of major customers information on corporate managers’ and auditors’ decision-making. My thesis is composed of two essays. The first essay examines if characteristics in terms of length (the layers of intermediaries in the supply chain) and width (customer concentration) influence the extent of responsiveness in adjusting corporate capacity. Using a sample of non-financial U.S. firms between 1978 and 2012, I find that channel length is negatively associated with cost responsiveness, which is consistent with the notion that the longer the length, the greater the demand signal noises that hinder firms from making capacity planning. In addition, I also find a negative association between channel width and cost responses, which is consistent with the argument that the greater the concentration ratio, the greater relationship specific investment, which leads to lower cost responsiveness. Overall, the findings help us to understand how capacity is influenced by supply chain variations. The second essay examine if the industry homogeneity of audit clients and their major customers influence auditors in performing the audit risk assessments and the associated audit procedures. Using a sample of U.S. firms between 2002 and 2012, I find that auditors could exert less efforts on engagements in which audit clients and their major customers are in the same industry. However, the willing to share the cost savings to audit clients depends on the positioning of the auditor. Particularly, I find that industry expert auditors do not undercut audit fee as a result of cost reductions. These pieces of findings deepen our understanding of the audit pricing behaviors

A Continuum Model for Housing Allocation and Transportation Emission Problems in a Polycentric City

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Perceived importance and levels of technical English communication skills among stakeholders in engineering fields

The purposes of this study were to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the importance of technical English communication skills in engineering and academic teachers and industry professionals’ perceptions of current engineering students’ and graduates’ levels of technical communication skills. Survey questionnaires were designed to collect data from different research participants. The data were subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics. The study identified a discrepancy between students’ self-perceived performance on technical English communication skills and their perceived standards of these skills required by the programmes in which they were enrolled. Technical communication skills, including writing in engineering genres, essays and technical reports, reading and speaking, were viewed to be fairly important for their academic success. The findings also indicated that the students’ abilities in writing in engineering genres, and essays and technical report writing were perceived to be below the standards. In addition, the study highlighted that industry professionals viewed the technical communication skills of engineering graduates working in the engineering sectors as inadequate. Based on these results, it is vitally important to develop a tailor-made enhancement course to cater for the specific needs of engineering students, including technical communication skills for their study programmes and to prepare them for workplace needs of engineers in the near future