When and how managerial ties and institutional distance matters for export venture performance in a digital age : an emerging market perspective : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Despite the recent research on export performance, research is still unclear about what and how drives export performance in the digital age, especially for firms from emerging markets. Given the unprecedented and rapid environmental changes globally, exporting firms from emerging markets have encountered serious strategic issues. To overcome the challenges caused by cross-market institutional environment distance, social networking theory suggests that emerging market export firms need to rely on different managerial ties (host market business and political ties, home market ties and intrafirm ties) when conducting business in foreign host markets. Drawing on resource integration and innovation, social networking theory, digital technology, social media, institutional theory and export venture performance literature, in this thesis I have developed a series of conceptual models that have addressed the key research gaps in the extant literature. This thesis consists of three papers. Paper 1 is a conceptual study that outlines the contingent role of managerial ties in the resource integration-export venture innovation framework concerning emerging market export ventures. Paper 1 provides a platform for further empirical exploration, in relation to resource integration, managerial ties and export venture innovation. In Paper 2, I explore and examine the contingent effect of managerial ties in the digital market technology-export venture performance framework. In Paper 3, I further uncover the contingent effect of the institutional environment in the social media platform-export venture performance framework. The studies in Papers 2 and 3 are conducted based on the empirical evidence of 251 Chinese manufacturing firms’ export ventures. The results suggest that digital marketing technology has a direct impact on export venture economic and channel performance. In Paper 2, it is found that host market managerial ties (business and political) can positively impact the effect of digital marketing technology on export venture performance, whereas home market managerial ties either have no impact or have a negative contingent effect on digital marketing technology-export venture performance conceptualisation. In Paper 3, my research findings confirm that a firm’s social media platform has a direct and significant effect on export venture economic and channel performance. The institutional environment has both dark and bright side effects in the social media platform-export venture performance framework. Collectively my empirical research offers substantial new and novel insights into social networking theory, institutional theory, digital marketing technology, social media platform, and export venture literature. The outcomes of my research also provide insightful managerial implications for export ventures, especially for those from the emerging markets operating in foreign host markets

Using stakeholder relationship marketing to enhance entrepreneurship : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Marketing at Massey University

Relationship marketing has received extensive attention from marketing scholars in the last two decades. It evolved in the 1980s from the transactional marketing of the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the high cost of competition, a lot of organizations have to reexamine the business environment and their long term strategies. A simple transaction was no longer sufficient to ensure corporate sustainability and there was a growing awareness of the importance of building longer term customer relationships (Maguiness, 2004). The relationship marketing, as a new marketing paradigm has been supported and reinforced by a considerable body of theoretical and empirical work over the last two decades. More and more business people realized that the success of their business should establish good customer relationships from short term to long term (Berry, 1983; Gronroos, 1997; Gummesson, 1999; Kotler & Armstrong, 1999). However, many marketing commentators (Freeman, 1984; Arrow, 1988; Murphy, 1988; Verbeke, 1992; Polonsky, 1995; Murphy et al., 1997, 1999; Payne et al., 2001; Polonsky et al., 2002; Christopher et al., 2003; Murphy et al., 2004) have expressed the view that a business is a coalition of stakeholders including employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community, as well as customers. Hence, business should shift their focus from relationship marketing to stakeholder relationships

Construct validation of Hebrew versions of three physical self-concept measures: An extended multitrait-multimethod analysis

This study extends support for the construct validity of the three strongest physical self-concept measures for 395 Israeli university students (60% women) aged 18 to 54, demonstrating a new extension of the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) design that incorporates external validity criteria and a test of jingle-jangle fallacies. Structural equation models of this MTMM data confirmed the a priori 23-factor structure of the three instruments, and the convergent and discriminant validity of factors from each instrument in relation to those from the other instruments. There were few age effects, whereas gender differences were smaller than expected and stable over age. In support of the known-group-difference approach, physical education majors had systematically higher physical self-concepts than management majors. Relations of body image to self-concept factors supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the physical self-concept factors and the separation of body fat from physical appearance self-concepts, but having a more obese body was not significantly related to health self-concept or global self-esteem factors. © 2006 Human Kinetics, Inc