Market Orientation, Innovativeness, and Performance of Food Companies

Food processors have seen escalating levels of competition over the past three decades. An underlying objective of this research is to gain a greater understanding of how food companies thrive in the face of this increased competition. This study incorporates market orientation theory (competitor orientation, customer orientation, and interfunctional coordination) and firm innovativeness to explain differences in firm financial performance. A national survey of food processors was conducted and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that the more successful firms are more internally focused (interfunctional coordination and innovativeness) than externally focused (competitor and customer orientation).firm performance, food industry, innovativeness, market orientation, structural equation modeling, Agribusiness, Marketing,

Fostering strategic awareness at an organization’s boundary

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of strategy messages emanating from both top and middle/supervisory managers regarding five different aspects of strategy on strategic awareness among boundary personnel. Design/methodology/approach – The results come from a survey of bank tellers and customer service representatives within a single large regional bank. Findings – The findings support a differential main effect on strategic awareness among boundary personnel depending on the source of messages, whether top management or middle management. More interestingly, there appears to be an interaction effect between the two sources regarding which will be the dominant information source for boundary personnel. Research limitations/implications – The survey data were collected within a single banking institution at one time point. Practical implications – The results provide useful information concerning the efficacy of messages concerning strategy from middle and top management in organizations. Originality/value – The paper extends past research by investigating different levels of strategic understanding within the firm across different levels and determining information dissemination strategies for increasing the level of strategic awareness among boundary personnel. Keywords United States of America, Banks, Customer service management, Management strategy, Strategic awareness, Boundary personnel, Information disseminatio

Linking the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness to firm performance

This study explores the link between financial performance and the formal strategic planning process, planning flexibility, and innovativeness of 448 firms in a multi-industry sample. The results suggest that firms’ formal strategic planning processes and planning flexibility are positively associated, and each is positively related to innovativeness. In addition, innovativeness fully mediates the relationships between firm performance and the formal strategic planning process and planning flexibility.Keywords: Planning flexibility, Formal strategic planning, Firm performance, Innovativenes

The impact of a service-dominant focus strategy and stewardship culture on organizational innovativeness in family-owned businesses

Drawing from service-dominant logic and stewardship theory, we examine the extent to which both family- and non-family businesses integrate their customers into their strategic orientation and attempt to satisfy them through increasing innovativeness, while integrating stewardship cultural behaviors in their customer service processes. Through use of primary data, we analyze 206 family- and 101 non-family-owned businesses. Our results indicate that family-owned businesses have a strong service-dominant focus and are more capable of incorporating stewardship cultural behaviors in their customer service processes resulting in increased organizational innovativeness compared to their non-family competitors.Service-dominant focus Stewardship culture Organizational innovativeness