Achieving sustained competitive advantage in retail and consumer service firms: The role of entrepreneural orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage

The vital role of entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage in creating sustained competitive advantage in retail and consumer service firms is increasingly acknowledged in modern markets. Using data from 246 retail and consumer service firms (hereafter R&CSFs) in Japan, this paper develops and empirically tests a framework delineating how entrepreneurial-oriented R&CSFs strategically combine existing resources while managing risks to differentiate their service portfolios to be competitive. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage influence differentiation advantage and risk management, which, in turn, is associated with creating a sustained competitive advantage (hereafter SCA). This paper adds novel insights to the dynamic capabilities view and retail and service marketing literature by identifying entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial bricolage, and risk management as dynamic capabilities, which allows R&CSFs to create service innovations in resource-constrained environments

Social media and SMEs’ performance in developing countries: effects of technological-organizational-environmental factors on the adoption of social media

Increasing globalization and rapid digitization across industries have led to greater international competition. Furthermore, the emergence of new innovation has created both challenges and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have recently been attracted to social media applications to reach a larger audience, improve their relationship with potential customers, and retain existing customers. However, the scant focus has been devoted to comprehensively understanding the adoption of social media in the SME context in developing countries. This study investigates the effects of technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) factors on social media adoption and its effect on SME performance. Data was collected by generating online survey link. SmartPLS 3.3 was used for the path analysis of 381 SMEs. The findings revealed a significant effect of relative advantage, cost-effectiveness, compatibility, interactivity (technological), entrepreneurial orientation (organizational), and customer pressure (environmental) factors, and an insignificant effect of top management support (organizational) and competitive pressure (environmental) determinants on social media adoption. The study found a significant influence of social media on SME performance. This paper offers several implications for decision-makers, policy-makers, and scholars interested in social media and its use. It builds an empirical, integrated framework for SMEs in developing countries

Higher Education Research Collaboration to Support Excellence and Competitiveness

Abstract This manuscript is the result of research which aims to understand the reality of LP2M UNM collaboration which is implemented in research by collaborating with universities, schools, communities, private and government institutions. The methodology used is qualitative with interview techniques, documentation and observation. Qualitative analysis approach with steps of data collection, reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The data sources are documents, observations and interviews with informants who are directly related to the implementation of the collaboration, as well as several internal and external stakeholders involved. The argument from the results of this research is that "collaborative research in higher education can be of high quality if it is built from a study program based on the root of the problem, and has support from various interested parties, and is carried out in an integrated manner. in accordance with what has been agreed." There is also a cooperation agreement so that intensive relationships are established between all parties, and the implementation of the collaboration has opened a partnership network to share resources with various parties. The research conclusions are as follows: (1) The implementation of the collaboration has achieved its objectives; (2) Utilization of resources (people, facilities and funds) in implementing collaboration has been fulfilled; (3) Collaboration has supported the quality of research processes and products, as well as making a positive contribution to LP2M UNM, although not yet optimal. There are still support and obstacles from an economic, social and political perspective

Achieving sustained competitive advantage in retail and consumer service firms: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage.

The vital role of entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage in creating sustained competitive advantage in retail and consumer service firms is increasingly acknowledged in modern markets. Using data from 246 retail and consumer service firms (hereafter R&CSFs) in Japan, this paper develops and empirically tests a framework delineating how entrepreneurial-oriented R&CSFs strategically combine existing resources while managing risks to differentiate their service portfolios to be competitive. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial bricolage influence differentiation advantage and risk management, which, in turn, is associated with creating a sustained competitive advantage (hereafter SCA). This paper adds novel insights to the dynamic capabilities view and retail and service marketing literature by identifying entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial bricolage, and risk management as dynamic capabilities, which allows R&CSFs to create service innovations in resource-constrained environments

Are Growth Led Financing Decisions Causing Insolvency in Listed Firms of Pakistan?

We examine the relationship between growth opportunities and insolvency risk in a mediating framework through financing decisions for 330 listed firms on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) This study covers a data period of five years ranging from 2013 to 2017. Financing decisions used in this study involve capital structure decision and debt maturity decision. We applied robust clustered panel OLS regression to the data and found a negative relationship between growth opportunities and insolvency risk in all samples consisting of overall, large and small firms. Growth opportunities have a negative impact on the capital structure, but debt maturity was influenced positively. Financing decisions influenced the insolvency risk positively. We used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach to detect the intervening effects of financing decisions. Further, Sobel’s test used to check the significance of mediation. Partial mediation was found for the debt maturity ratio in the large and overall sample of firms. However, the capital structure did not mediate the relationship between growth opportunities and insolvency risk in this study

Cogent Business & Management

Globally, there is an increasing trend in online shopping, which is considered a critical preference due to the wide reach of the internet. Internet usage has been continuously growing for two decades. In 2019, of the 7.676 billion population, 4.388 billion people were using the internet, of which 3.484 billion were active social media users and 3.256 billion were using the internet over mobile phones (Kemp, 2019). Asia has an estimated population of 4.24 billion, of which 2.33 billion (c. 55%) are internet users; the penetration rate in the region is 54.2% (Internet World Stats, 2019). In 2018, almost 1.8 billion people purchased online products from various platforms, including Walmart, Amazon, daraz.pk, and flipkart.com. In 2018, online retail sales reached $US2.8 trillion, estimated to be US$4.8 trillion in 2021 (Clement, 2019). The UK, China, and Finland are the top three countries dealing in e-commerce retail sales, with 76.9% of people purchasing via computers/laptop, 37% of whom are aged between 30 and 39 years; the worldwide penetration rate is 47.3% (Saleh, 2019). Despite this growth in the usage of the internet and online shopping worldwide, in some countries, customers are still reluctant to shop online due to a lack of trust (Stouthuysen et al., 2018), privacy (Regner & Riener, 2017), education (Badwan et al., 2017), perceived risk (Pelaez et al., 2019), and perceived quality (Sahoo et al., 2018). Conversely, the motivational factors for online shopping include time-saving (Escobar-Rodríguez & Bonsón-Fernández, 2017), discounted pricing (Carlson & Kukar-Kinney, 2018), convenience (Pham et al., 2018), competitive pricing, expert advice, and greater access to information (Tarhini et al., 2018). This study aims to analyze the factor of trust, as previous scholars consider it one of the most significant elements in online shopping (Thomas et al., 2018). Ariff et al. (2014) proposed that perceived risk is a significant issue in online shopping due to its direct influence on attitude and intention to purchase. There remains, however, a need to expand the theoretical conceptualization and provide detailed evidence for contexts in which online shopping is supported and beneficial (Hsu et al., 2018). Several theories of trust such as cue utilization suggest that trust mediates the interaction. Although trust has received significant research attention in online shopping, little attention has been paid from the process point of view and its causal relationship (Chuang & Fan, 2011); hence, the mediating role of trust has not been included. Furthermore, regarding purchase intention and its antecedents, online suppliers and e-retailer must learn that customers’ first concern during buying is not the products/services but the perceived risk, which may reduce their purchase intention (Salisbury et al., 2001). Hence, perceived risk may have a moderating effect on purchase intention. The motivation for this study includes the scant examination of the trust-building mechanism and its interactions (Chang et al., 2013), its significant impact on internet society, and intention towards online buying (Truong et al., 2017). Theoretically, this article contributes to the existing literature by offering insights into the mediating role of trust in the relationship between perceived service quality, perceived website quality, perceived reputation, perceived risk, and the moderating role of perceived risk between trust and purchase intention. Practically, this scholarship can benefit well-established and new online shopping platforms’ executives regarding the importance of trust and how perceived risk affects the relationship between trust and purchase intention in the online shopping context.https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.186936

JAFEB The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Bussines

Electronic commerce is becoming a significant hub for sourcing products/services which helps organizations to connect with potential customers and gain competitive advantages, though little empirical work focuses on small businesses operating in developing countries to date. Increasingly, companies are looking to utilize social media to connect with stakeholders and pursue several benefits. This study aims to investigate the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) factors that influence small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) social media (SM) adoption in developing countries. This study used a closed-ended questionnaire to collect data from randomlyselected respondents (owners, executives, and managers) from SMEs in Pakistan. SMART PLS version 3.2.8 was used for path analysis of 316 responses and for structural equation modeling. The research findings include the direct influence of TOE factors (relative advantage, interactivity, visibility, top management support, and institutional pressure) on SMEs’ SM adoption, and in turn SM adoption also has a positive influence on SMEs performance. Moreover, the coefficient of determination of the study showed that 77.7% of the variation in SM adoption occurs because of TOE factors and 29.8% variation in SMEs occurred because of SM adoption. This paper has implications for practitioners and scholars interested in exploring the SM adoption and usage by SMEs.http://jafeb.org/journal/article.php?code=7582

The effect of firms’ environmentally sustainable practices on economic performance

Companies are pressured by stakeholders to protect the environment while improving their economic performance. This study aims to further explore the impact of environmentally sustainable practices (ESP) on firm performance (FP), by considering the effects of green employee integration (GEI), environmental sustainability (ES), and employee environmental orientation (EEO). To test the set of hypotheses defined for this article, a closed-ended questionnaire survey was conducted with employees working in the manufacturing sector in China. Data from 325 employees were analysed using SmartPLS 4 software. The results demonstrate that environmentally sustainable practices (ESP) have a direct and significant influence on GEI, ES, and FP. In addition, GEI has a significant direct impact on ES and FP, and ES has a direct impact on FP. This research also demonstrated the partial mediation of GEI and ES and the moderation of EEO on the ESP–FP relationship. This research advances the scope of the ability, motivation, and opportunity theory and the social identity theory. Results suggest that managers should adopt, implement, and promote green practices, as this leads to involving employees in activities that can lessen adverse impacts on society and improve firm’s economic performance, including in terms of reputation and profits

Innocent devils: The varying impacts of trade, renewable energy and financial development on environmental damage: Nonlinearly exploring the disparity between developed and developing nations.

Global warming has grown to be a significant issue on a global scale and is a result of human activities. As a potential solution, nations are looking for sustainable economic growth and investments in clean energy technologies. Therefore, this study aims to empirically investigate the impact of trade, renewable energy, and financial development on environmental degradation among developed and developing countries in light of the EKC (Environment Kuznets Curve) hypothesis. The influence on carbon emissions from 1990 to 2019 is analyzed and contrasted using the Non-linear Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) regression technique. Results show that developed and developing countries emit significantly different amounts of carbon. Consequently, evidence of a non-linear and inverted U-shape relationship supports the EKC hypothesis. Further evidence shows a high risk of carbon emissions among both groups of countries with the increase in financial development and trading activities. However, the usage of renewable energy reduces environmental damage, and the association is non-linear. The study recommends using effective measures to minimize environmental damage by using clean energy sources and strengthening the financial system by offering environment-friendly investment loans. Moreover, policies should be designed that promote sustainable growth and investments in environment-friendly technologies

Cross-Border E-Commerce Brand Internationalization: An Online Review Evaluation Based on Kano Model

The objective of this study was to build an international evaluation index system of cross-border e-commerce brands. It improves the sustainable development ability of the brand and then drives the sustainable development of the enterprise’s brand internationalization. As the top priority in the innovative development process of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, it is a key means to achieve longer-term and more stable development of cross-border enterprises and to maintain a place in the fiercely competitive market. Therefore, the internationalization of cross-border e-commerce brands is a topic that needs to be explored in depth to provide a comprehensive understanding to businesses from the consumers’ perspectives. This study constructs an international evaluation index system for cross-border e-commerce brands. The keywords in the online reviews are captured through the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and matched to the indexes, and the indicators are classified into Kano categories through Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) training to explore the promotion strategies of different Kano categories in the process of brand internationalization. Based on the empirical analysis of online reviews of the Kano model, it was determined that in the process of internationalization of cross-border e-commerce brands, managers should focus on service indicators related to expected factors, give priority to meeting service indicators related to essential factors, strive to meet service indicators related to charm factors, and make appropriate choices to observe service indicators related to indifference factors in real-time