Resources and capabilities as drivers of hotel environmental marketing strategy: Implications for competitive advantage and performance

Building on the resource-based view, we develop a model of drivers and outcomes of environmentally friendly marketing strategies in the Greek hotel sector. Data collected from 152 hotels reveal that possessing sufficient physical and financial resources is instrumental in achieving effective green marketing strategies. In addition, shared vision and technology sensing/response capabilities help develop a sound environmentally friendly marketing strategy. In turn, the adoption of such a strategy is conducive to obtaining competitive advantage, which subsequently increases the potential to achieve superior market and financial performance. Furthermore, the study finds that the effect of environmental marketing strategy on competitive advantage is stronger in the case of intense competitive situations, while market dynamism has no moderating effect on this association. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings for both corporate and public policy makers and interesting directions for future research are provided

Hindrances and outcomes of social bonding in exporter-importer relationships: The moderating role of formal contracting and ethical climate

Drawing on Transaction Cost theory, Relational Exchange theory, and Social Information Processing theory, we develop and test a conceptual model that investigates the damaging effect of certain key behavioral factors on social bonding between an exporter and its import buyer, and its subsequent impact on the exporting firm's long-term orientation in their working relationship. We also examine the moderating role of formal contracting and ethical climate governing this relationship. The model was tested with data collected from 262 Greek export manufacturers, using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that opportunism, distance, and conflict negatively affect social bonding in the working relationship between an exporter and its importer customer, which ultimately leads to detrimental effects on the exporting firm's long-term orientation. However, both the existence of formal contracting and the prevalence of a strong ethical climate were found to be responsible for alleviating the negative effect of most of the associations between inhibiting behavioral factors and social bonding

Internationalization Process of Spanish Small Firms: Strategies, Transactions and Barriers

The purpose of this article is to provide theoretical and empirical evidence to offer a more integrative vision of the internationalization process of SMEs. Traditionally the literature on the internationalization process has been based on two perspectives, the process theory and the international new ventures model. Combining both approaches and based on empirical data collected from 250 Spanish SMEs, the article explores two possible internationalization strategies (proactive and reactive), identifying the international transaction forms (market and cooperation agreements) and the obstacles and barriers that SMEs meet in internationalization. Our results suggest the complementariness of two theoretical perspectives to explain the internationalization process. Further, that strategic positioning of SMEs is the outcome of a 'learning cycle' that allows firms to overcome internal and external obstacles.When SMEs have a high commitment and control of their international activities, our results also show that firms tend to prefer alternative governance mechanisms such as cooperation. The implications of these results, both for managerial and public policy, are discussed as well as suggestions for future research