Universidade de Aveiro 2010
Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial
HUGO DANIEL
OLIVEIRA RIOS
A ORIENTAÇÃO PARA O MERCADO DO SECTOR
CORTICEIRO PORTUGUÊS
Universidade de Aveiro 2010
Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial
HUGO DANIEL
OLIVEIRA RIOS
A ORIENTAÇÃO PARA O MERCADO DO SECTOR
CORTICEIRO PORTUGUÊS
Dissertação apresentada à Universidade de Aveiro para cumprimento dos requi-sitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Gestão, realizada sob a orientação científica da Doutora Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, Professora auxiliar do Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial da Uni-versidade de Aveiro e co-orientada pelo Mestre Victor Manuel Ferreira Moutinho, Assistente do Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial da Universidade de Aveiro
o júri
Presidente Professor Doutor António Carrizo Moreira
Professor Auxiliar do Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial da Universidade de Aveiro
Professor Doutor Eduardo Manuel Machado de Moraes Sarmento Ferreira Professor Associado da Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias de Lisboa
Professora Doutora Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro
Professora Auxiliar do Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial da Universidade de Aveiro
Mestre Victor Manuel Ferreira Moutinho
Assistente do Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial da Universidade de Aveiro
agradecimentos A conclusão da presente dissertação de Mestrado tornou-se possível graças à
colaboração e suporte de um conjunto de pessoas e instituições, às quais expresso o meu profundo agradecimento.
De todas, quero destacar os meus orientadores, os Professores Sandra Loureiro e Victor Moutinho, e todas as empresas que pacientemente
disponibilizaram o seu tempo no preenchimento do inquérito que deu base à presente dissertação.
Também a todos os meus amigos que directa ou indirectamente deram o seu contributo para finalizar este trabalho.
palavras-chave Orientação para o mercado; cultura organizacional, desempenho organizacional, posição competitiva, liderança, sector da cortiça
resumo Com a globalização das economias, o elevado desenvolvimento da tecnologia, e o acelerar dos fluxos económicos dos últimos tempos obrigam a que as organizações pensem de forma mais exigente acerca da sua forma de estar e de agir.
Segundo Slater e Narver (1994:46), sendo a orientação para o mercado uma geração e disseminação da informação de mercado que é composta pela informação sobre as necessidades actuais e futuras dos clientes e os factores exógenos que influenciam essas mesmas necessidades, torna-se necessário que essa informação seja convenientemente partilhada pelas diferentes áreas da organização. Desta forma pode concluir-se que a orientação para o mercado facilita e promove o papel individual de quem colabora na organização mas também dos próprios grupos e departamentos, o que contribui para uma performance superior.
Na continuidade de estudos referenciados pela literatura de Marketing, que relacionaram o grau de influência de cada uma das dimensões de orientação para o mercado - geração de informação, disseminação de informação e resposta ao mercado –aplicamos este estudo direcionado à orientação ao mercado no sector da cortiça em Portugal na região de Aveiro, em que os resultados deste estudo vieram demonstrar que as três dimensões da orientação para o mercado estão positivamente associadas à performance. E mais ainda se acrescenta, que a terceira dimensão da orientação para o mercado, designada por resposta ao mercado, é a que mais influência exerce sobre a performance empresarial no sector estudado.
A análise multivariada permitiu identificar as variáveis mais determinantes da variação na variável dependente orientação para o mercado e a sua implicação na performance o primeiro dado relevante aponta para a debilidade das práticas de Orientação para o Mercado destas empresas o que, em princípio, deverá também coincidir com alguma insipiência das suas práticas de marketing. Dedicou-se uma atenção especial nesta dissertação produtividade empresarial e à Aprendizagem Organizacional como motores da Orientação de Mercado. Seu impacto sobre o desempenho foi confirmado, mas parece ser muito fraco, talvez porque as práticas de Orientação para o Mercado também são embrionárias. A predisposição empresarial e aprendizagem organizacional parece ser decisiva em ambas as práticas de orientação para o mercado e para o desempenho.
Neste estudo, foi dado um lugar especial à predisposição empreendedora e à aprendizagem organizacional como motores de orientação para o mercado. Seu impacto sobre o desempenho foi confirmado, mas parece ser muito fraco, talvez porque as práticas de Orientação para o Mercado ainda são embrionárias. A predisposição empresarial e aprendizagem organizacional parece ser decisiva em ambas, práticas de orientação para mercado e o desempenho.
keywords Market orientation, organizational culture, organizational performance, leadership, cork sector, competitive positioning.
abstract With the economies globalization, high technology development and accelerated economic flows in recent times require organizations to think more demandingly about their way of being and acting.
According to Slater and Narver (1994:46), being the market orientation a generation and dissemination of market information that is made by information about current and future needs of customers and exogenous factors that influence those needs, it becomes necessary that such information is properly shared between different areas of the organization. Thus it can be concluded that market orientation facilitates and promotes the role of each person who participates in the organization but also of their own groups and departments, which contributes to superior performance.
In the continuation of the referenced studies in the Marketing literature, who related the degree of influence of each dimension of market orientation -information generation, -information dissemination and response to market – we applied this study guided to the market orientation in the Cork in Portugal in the region of Aveiro, municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, where the results of this study have shown that the three dimensions of market orientation are positively associated with performance. And more is added, the third dimension of market orientation, called the response to the market, is the most influence over the business performance in the studied sector.
Multivariate analysis identified the most determinants variables of variation in the dependent variable market orientation and its implication in the performance, the first relevant data points to the weakness in the practice of market orientation of these companies which, in principle, should also match some foolishness of their marketing practices. ln this study a special place as been given to entrepreneurial proclivity and to organizational learning as market orientation drivers. Its impact on performance has been confirmed but seems to be very week perhaps because Market Orientation practices are also embryonic. Entrepreneurial proclivity and organizational learning seem to be decisive on both market orientation practices and performance.
I
I N D E X
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I – CORK’S INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
1.1 HISTORY BACKGROUND 3
1.1.1 Portuguese Cork Industry Story 4
1.2 SECTOR’S CHARACTERIZATION 7
1.2.1 Subericole Production – In the World and in Portugal 8
i) Cork oak fields and cork in the World 8
ii) Cork oak fields and cork in Portugal 9
1.3 PORTUGAL IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE 12
1.3.1. Exportations 12
1.3.2 Importations 14
CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE ANALISIS
2.1. MARKET ORIENTATION 17
CHAPTER 3 – CONCEPTUAL MODEL
3.1. MARKET ORIENTATION ANTECEDENTS 37
3.1.1 Leadership 37
3.1.2 Adaptive strategies 38
3.1.3 Organizational culture 39
3.1.4 Environment evaluation 40
3.2. CONSEQUENCES OF MARKET ORIENTATION 41
3.2.1 Competitive Positioning 41
CHAPTER 4 – INVESTIGATION METHODOLOGY
4.1 MAIN GOAL 43
4.2 INVESTIGATION METHOD: CASE STUDY 43
4.3 METHOD OF BUILDING THE QUESTIONNAIRE 43
4.4 IDENTIFICATION OF THE SAMPLE AND CRITERIA SELECTION 44
4.5 THE QUESTIONNAIRE 44
CHAPTER 5 – EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
5.1 ANÁLISE DESCRITIVA DAS EMPRESAS DA AMOSTRA 47
5.1.1 Company’s Profile 47
5.1.2 Leadership Profile 49
5.2 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS AND SCALES RELIABILITY ANALYSIS 50
5.2.1 Reliability Analysis of the scales (coefficient alpha) 50
5.3 CONSISTENCY AND VALIDITY OF THE MEASURING MODEL 57
5.3.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis 57
5.3.2 Analysis of the Factors Reliability 59
CHAPTER 6 – REGRESSIONS
6.1. INTRODUCTION 75
6.2. CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS 75
6.3. HYPOTHESES TEST 80
A) Market Orientation Antecedents 81
B) The Influence of Market Orientation on the Competitive
Advantage through Positioning in the Production and Cost 85
C) The Influence of Market Orientation on the Competitive
Positioning through Competitive Aggressiveness 87
D) The Influence of Market Orientation on Organizational
Performance through the Relational and Financial Performance 88
E) The Influence of Market Orientation on Organizational
III
6.4. RESULTS DISCUSSION 89
6.4.1 Explaining factors of the determinants of Market Orientation
levels 89
6.4.2 Impact of Market Orientation on Competitive Positioning. 93
6.4.3 Impact of Market Orientation on Organizational Performance 95
CHAPTER 7 - CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
7.1. INTRODUCTION 101
7.2. FINAL CONCLUSIONS 101
7.3. MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS 104
7.4. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE
STUDIES 104
REFERENCES 107
ANEXES 113
A.1 - SPSS REGRESSION’S OUTPUTS FOR DETERMINANTS 113
A.2 - SPSS REGRESSION’S OUTPUTS FOR CONSEQUENTS 116
V
FIGURES & TABLES INDEX
FIGURES
Figure 1 – Cork oak distribution on the Mediterranean coastal line Map 8
Figure 2 – Cork oak fields’ evolution in Portugal (in ha) (1902-2001) 9
Figure 3 – Cork oak field’s distribution in Portugal (ha) Cork Production 9
Figure 4 – Cork world production, by countries (thousand tons) 10
Figure 5 – Portuguese cork Production (1990-1998), in thousand tons 11
Figure 6 – Distribution of Protuguese cork production 11
Figure 7 – Evolution of Portuguese cork exportations (1987-2002) 12
Figure 8 – Portuguese cork exportations for countries (EUR million) 13
Figure 9 – Portuguese exportations by cork products in 2002
(tons and EUR million) 13
Figure 10 – Portuguese cork importation (tons e EUR million) 14
Figure 11 – Portuguese cork Importations by main countries (EUR million) 14
Figure 12 – Portuguese importations by cork product in 2002
(tons and EUR million) 15
Figure 13 – Narver and Slater Conceptualization of Market Orientation 19
Figure 14 – Market Orientation proposed model 37
Figure 15 – Companies distributed by Share Capital 48
Figure 16 – Companies distributed by volume of Exportations (in EUR) 48
Figure 17 – Companies distributed by number of workers 49
Figure 18 and Figure 19 – Leadership profile 49
TABLES
Table 1 – Geographic distribution of facilities in Cork Sector and workers’
number 6
Table 2 – Number of factories for sector 7
Table 4 – Evaluation of Cronbach's alpha coefficient 50
Table 5 – Statistics for Leadership 51
Table 6 – Statistics for Strategy 52
Table 7 – Statistics for Organizational Culture 53
Table 8 – Statistics for Environment evaluation 54
Table 9 – Statistics for Competitive position 55
Table 10 – Statistics for Market Orientation 56
Table 11 – Statistics for Performance 57
Table 12 – KMO test evaluation to the identified variable groups 58
Table 13 – Analysis of the Internal Reliability: Cronbach’s Alpha (a) 60
Table 14 – Results of factor analysis for Leadership 61
Table 15 – Results of factor analysis for Marketing Strategy 63
Table 16 – Results of factor analysis for Organizational Culture 65
Table 17 – Results of factor analysis for External Environment Evaluation 67
Table 18 – Results of factor analysis for Competitive Positioning 68
Table 19 – Results of factor analysis for Organizational Performance 70
Table 20 – Results of factor analysis for Market Orientation 72
Table 21 – Pearson Correlation 78
Table 22 – Explanatory Factors of Market Orientation at the Generation and
Dissemination of Information and Response to Market 80
Table 23 – Explanatory Factors of Market Orientation-level Interpretation of
the Organizational Market Information 82
Table 24 – Explanatory Factors of Market Orientation at the level of Internal
capacity of Information Management 83
Table 25 – The Influence of Market Orientation on the Competitive
Advantage through Posicioning in the Production and Cost 85
Table 26 – The Influence of Market Orientation on Posicioning through on
the Competitive Competitive Aggressiveness 86
Table 27 – The Influence of Market Orientation on the performance through
the Organizational Relational and Financial Performance 87
Table 28 – The Influence of Market Orientation on Organizational
1
INTRODUCTION
Portugal is the biggest cork’s producer, transformer and exporter. There are, however, some nonsense inherent to the sector. Being cork a extremely polyvalent raw material, the industrial sector is highly dependent of corks segment – without it the sector could break down. Another example is the coexistence of the cork transformation sector (with a very handcrafted labor work) and a moderns segment, technologically developed, with sophisticated quality control means, well managed and commercially aggressive. In spite the cork sector doesn’t belong to the referred “new economy”, it is an activity which stands and “speaks” in Portuguese.
Cork industry is an integrated part of the cork “ecosystem” where coexist many important economic and professional specificities:
a) the Suberic production (related to Quercus suber – cork oak tree), basically consisting in farming and rationalization of the cork oak tree fields and cork bark extraction.
b) the Cork Industry, built with the Preparing, Transforming, Graining and Agglomerating sub-sectors; and,
c) Marketing/Sales, which deals with the final products transaction.
The main purpose of this study is to build a model that relate some antecedents and consequents of market orientation and apply the model to the context of the Cork Industry in Portugal. In this way, the first part of this dissertation focuses on the characterization of the Cork Industry in Portugal. Then we present the literature review of the main constructs in analysis. The third part shows the conceptual model, as well as, the theoretical justification of the model. The methodology of the empirical research, the questionnaire, the sampling and data treatment comes next. Finally, the conclusions and the limitations of the study are presented.
3
CHAPTER I – CORK’S INDUSTRIAL SECTOR
1.1 HISTORY BACKGROUND
Cork has been used since 3,000 BC in Asia as floating device in fishing, in Egypt on sarcophagus, in Pompeii in amphora as sealing and in the ancient Greece as stoppers in wine and olive oil recipients. There were found signs of the good preservation of best wines with cork stoppers on the Mediterranean area. Latter, it was used on shoes and house insulation (as the Convento dos Capuchos, in Sintra, Portugal) (Gil, 2003).
The first reference of the using of cork stoppers is due to D. Perignon, monk of the Hautvillers’ Abbey, keeper of its vineyard and wine, and creator of the Champagne which used cork stoppers for the wine (coming from Catalonia, Spain), instead of wood stopper. Is not known if it was an individual initiative or a different application of the knife was cut cork stoppers used by Spaniard pilgrims on their gourds.
The cork stoppers development is very close with bottle development. The first bottles were used by pharmaceuticals and alchemists. On the kingdom of Louis XIV, they were used for wine only between the gap barrel-table. Bottles were made by blowing, resulting in irregular tops. So, the conic cork stoppers would fit almost all the bottles. To improve stopping, the cork stopper was involved in tissue with olive oil (Mendes, 2002).
The utilizations of cork stoppers will be regular in the beginning of the XVIII century, with the developing of glass production which brought stronger bottles and with a regular top caliber, allowing the utilization of cylindrical cork stoppers. At time, corks were handcrafted with a knife, which leads to variations on size and shape, according each worker (a good one could make 2,000 corks/day), jeopardizing the bottle stopping.
With time, the utilization of bottle becomes regular and its shape has becoming uniform with the ones used today. Commonly, the bottle top and the stopper have developed, too. However, the cork stopper developing wasn’t technically advanced as glass developing. Until 1950’s, many conic cork stoppers
were used in current wines and only with machinated bottling the cylindrical corks were forced to be calibrated.
Cork stoppers industry has begun around 1750 in Angullane, Catalonia, Spain. Some years later, the industry developed in Portugal with Santiago do Escoural (Montemor-o-Novo) as start point. However, Portugal only become the main cork stopper producer since 1930’s due to the Spanish Civil War (António, 2001; ref. in Valkork, 2001).
Recently, the corks industry development is due to the demand of better wines all around the world and the quality demanded by consumers. Then, the evolution of the wine industry implied an evolution in the cork industry in a way to become the best wine stopper.
Cork stopper industry is the noble product of cork which allows scale economies.
1.1.1 Portuguese Cork Industry Story
Since 1955, the national industry has inverted the role of supplier of raw material to producer of all kind of cork products.
At start, cork industry was centered in some industrialized countries, like USA (in the 1950’s USA transformed almost 50% of the world cork produced – Sampaio, 1985). The development of those countries, the raising salaries and transport costs leaded to transpose the cork transformation industry to countries which produced cork (especially Portugal), around 1960.
In the end of 1960’s and beginning of 1970’s, many foreign factories planted in Portugal, main improvers, leaders and researchers (on I&D) of the cork sector, were beginning to abandon the country. Nowadays, foreign investment is at its lowest level (OE, 1992).
In the mid 1970’s there was a deep crisis with a nearly stop of traditional markets. Without marketing strategies, stocks were registered at their highest score (IAPMEI, 1975, referred in IQF, 2005). Political context, intense competition from other cork producer countries, and a completely lack of innovation and technological
5 applications were pointed as causes of that crisis. Exportations were released only in the usual markets, according importers’ specifications.
At 1980’s beginning the conflict between the national cork industry needs of raw material and the exportation levels maintenance was increasing. The increasing of the final cork product cost shouldn’t be fast because importers could stop buying and change to other material. In other way, there was a strategy in accessing to undeveloped countries to create the cork need and also to allow some cork transformation there.
It was also known the increasing valorization of handcrafted cork (non- transformed cork and other Portuguese cork products). The industrialization was commanded by the transformer industry (whose main product is the cork stopper), with positive implication on the fooling sub-sectors.
At this time, according to Santos (1983), Portugal kept the monopoly of cork production. The cork sector was characterized for the high competition level between the hundreds factories (leading to a price and quality decreasing). This situation made that international cork trade were merely the delivery, leading the value transfer to economic foreign agents which deal in final customer markets. Decision and profit centers were outside on importer companies and industrial users.
On the other way, synthetic products competition was rapidly increasing, with as high level of cost and technical characteristics, especially to industrial application products (common wines and thermal isolation).
In the mid 1980’s (Sampaio, 1985), industrialized countries bought the biggest part of manufactured products, meanwhile raw-material was guided to producer countries (like Portugal and other who industrialized some cork).
According Sampaio (1987), at time several facts were conditioning the cork industry:
- High number of shot factories, many of them badly equipped, with low financial capacity and technical support, which develop according the circumstances, incapable to plan their activity and with many difficulties in accessing external markets. Low levels of innovation, low quality standards and without technicians with a college degree.
investments, mainly in equipment and produce techniques and, some cases, in their facilities or final product diversification (integration).
- The economic and financial vulnerability conducted to a direct negotiation with foreign importer’s agents, with tan internal competition recession.
- In the external trading, the better products are the most required. Portugal has a dominant position in almost markets, leading to a global expansion of demand. However, it was noticed a great and savage competition (at quality, prices and payment schedules) and the presence of substitutes in the market. These ones begin to be seen as a necessary weakness as a way to fulfill the market gaps on emerging wine segments that cork cannot reach.
At time, actions to a vertical integration were not important, in spite of a increasing tendency to constitute groups. However, the economic and financial situation to factories devoted exclusively to natural cork stoppers was worrying. Since 1987 many companies had difficulties due to the increasing price of raw material (cork bark). Trade structures were net improve and the growing of trade agents did not help in the improvement of the final product. There was a reduced tax of new products with high added value. Investment was low comparing to needs, with the sector having some parts with incipient development.
Ina a poll of 1880 (Corkacção, 2004), there were in Aveiro district only 4 cork transformation factories in Santa Maria da Feira county, with a total of 7 labor workers. At same year, according the same source, Silves, in Faro district, was the county with workers (1004), distributed in 6 major factories and 4 smaller.
Through years, this distribution was changing and the factories on Aveiro district were increasing, namely in Santa Maria da Feira county. Next board shows that evolution.
Table 1 – Geographic distribution of facilities in Cork Sector and workers’ number
Year 1969 1979 1989 1999
District Fact. Workers Fact. Workers Fact. Workers Fact. Workers
Aveiro 172 6.133 348 - 453 8.879 895 11.000 Évora 38 477 27 - 23 272 20 275 Faro 104 1.531 38 - 27 723 15 546 Setúbal 246 7.042 147 - 103 3.022 150 2.722 Others 59 1.794 35 - 27 657 20 457 TOTAL 619 16.977 595 0 633 13.553 1.100 15.000
7 Preparatory only companies are diminishing, because many transformer enterprises are integrating that sector. The same fact happens with granulator only factories that are integrated in Agglomeration and producer enterprises.
In last years the Transformation companies increased and with some adaptations and investments they also have agglomeration production, as sticks to produce technic corks and champagne corks.
Table 2 – Number of factories for sector
1969 1979 1989 1999
Preparatory 169 98 85 50
Transformers and Mixts 428 463 520 1.020
Granulators 7 9 28 30
Agglomeration 18 35
TOTAL 622 605 633 1.100
Source: Adaptaded Corkacção, (2004).
There are some key-agents on the sector as associations, technological center and learning center, and on the other hand, some cork private enterprises have I & D centers directed to the industry which have already done some strategic action in cork industry. Some strategic studies and campaigns sponsored by some agents above mentioned are Corchiça (2005), Corkacção (2004) and CIC – Cork Institutional Campaign (2005).
1.2 SECTOR’S CHARACTERIZATION
To a better understanding of cork sector, this subchapter will show and macro and micro economic analysis of the cork sector. It will be shown its importance, world distribution, its different sub-sectors’ weight and its regional concentration, all in a summarized sector’s characterization.
1.2.1 Subericole Production – In the World and in Portugal
i) Cork oak fields and cork in the World
The geographic area of coral oak distribution (see figure 1), shows its preference for Atlantic influence fields, and for some occidental and Mediterranean coastal line, where the Mediterranean influence reaches.
Figure 1 – Cork oak distribution on the Mediterranean coastal line Map
Source: CEFE, (2008).
The supply volume and qualitative composition of cork are very rigid variables, because the appropriate cork soil limitations, the limited density of trees/field area and its slow growing. Adding theses three factors, it is estimated that the average annual growth will be 0,5% in the next century (Corticeira Amorim, 1983). Cork oak tree is a typical Mediterranean tree; all the attempts to spread the tree around the world had failed (USA, Latin America, Russia, China and South Africa): the tree grows, but does not produce cork good enough for industry purposes (Corticeira Amorim, 1983).
9 ii) Cork oak fields and cork in Portugal
The area of cork oak fields in Portugal has ascending through all the XX century, except in the 1930’s decade. It has passed from 360,000ha in 1902 to 750,000ha in 1999. Nowadays, Portugal has almost 1/3 of the world cork oak fields (APCOR, 2003).
Figure 2 – Cork oak fields’ evolution in Portugal (in ha) (1902-2001)
Source: Adapted from Valcork, (2001).
Cork oak tree is the second forest specie in Portugal, next to pine tree. The biggest cork oak field is in Alentejo and in Setúbal peninsula, mostly own by particulars, usually connected to cork industry.
Attending to its economical importance, efforts have being conducted to preserve and increase the cork oak fields, supervised by the Agricultural Ministry with legal protection, and also supported with EU funds which allows to maintain the forest and support its growth.
Figure 3 – Cork oak field’s distribution in Portugal (ha)
Alentejo; 65% Lisboa/Vale do
Tejo; 22%
Center; 4% North; 4%
Algarve; 5%
Portugal has proceeding to great reforesting (between 1993 and 197 has being planted more than 100,000ha, in a rate increasing of 16%) and future is promising because the average cork oak fields plantation rate is about 10,000ha/year.
• Cork Production
The annual production irregularity jeopardizes the whole cork economy because of the inherent difficulty in stocking it, financial problems and international up and down demand.
One of the mean commercial aims is to standard the cork extraction volume and assures the quality of “amadía” cork (the cork extracted after the first harvest).
Cork production is limited to countries mentioned above, which posses cork oak fields. World production has record a high variability as shown in the next figure.
Figure 4 – Cork world production, by countries (thousand tons)
143 42 88 26 20 6 18 5 15 4 9 3 5 1 44 13 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Portugal Spain Italy Morocco Algeria Tunisia France Others Thousand Tons %
Source: Adapted from APCOR, (2003).
In the 1990’s, Portugal was responsible for almost 42% of world cork production, with an average of 143 thousand tons, with Spain next with a 26% quota as shown in the figure above.
11
Figure 5 – Portuguese cork Production (1990-1998), in thousand tons
Source: data from INE - the Portuguese Statistics Institute, (2002).
As we can see in the next figure, the south Portugal means almost 93% of the Portuguese cork production.
Figure 6 – Distribution of Portuguese cork production
Source: adapted from Valcork, (2001).
Nowadays, the most cork comes from south Portugal, Spain, and some from Corsica and Sardinia because a cork oak field does not produce high incomes. Then, the low profit and the lack of labor work had contributed to finish with many cork oak fields.
The total amount of raw material transformed around the world is about 340.000 tons. Of this amount, Portugal transforms about 37%, being the first world cork transformer.
1.3 PORTUGAL IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Cork sector has an important place in Portuguese economy because Portugal is world leader in cork production, industrial production and exportations.
Concerning raw cork production, the leadership of Portugal was a fact in late XIX century, increasing until reach 50% in the beginning of XX century. On industrial production and exportation, the Portuguese leadership is due to the Spanish Civil War which had compromised the Catalonian cork industry, the predominant one at time.
1.3.1. Exportations
Cork exportation represents about 3% of the Portuguese total amour and, in 2001 they represented 36% in the forest products exportations.
The final data from INE (the Portuguese Statistics Institute) points to EUR 903.2 million to cork exportations to 2002, with an increase about 10 million to 2001, as shown in the next figure.
However, the increasing recorded since 1997 does not represent an increase in the subericole production, but in importation of cork raw-material to be transformed in Portugal.
Figure 7 – Evolution of Portuguese cork exportations (1987-2002)
233 289 382 401 400 407 434 481 510 551 642 716 757 915 893 903 114,2 119,8 111,2 105,6 102,0 107,0 116,6 120,9 122,5 122,3 131,6 139,9 139,4 138,8 134,3 138,5 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 € Million Thousand Tons
13 Concerning cork products importation, France comes as first with 21.84% (EUR 197.2 million), next with USA with 17.25% (EUR 155.8 million).
It is important to see the data about Australia (see figure below): the country is in 5th place but with an high growing rate, having consumed 9.21% of Portuguese cork exportations in 2002, in a total amount of EUR 83 million.
Figure 8 – Portuguese cork exportations for countries (EUR million)
2 1, 15% 17, 4 5% 10 , 2 3 % 10 , 17% 6 , 56 % 5, 6 7% 3 , 2 9 % 2 , 4 6 % 2 , 2 2 % 1, 9 9 % 1, 9 5% 1, 9 2 % 1, 6 4 % 0 , 9 4 % 12 , 3 6 % 21,84% 17,25% 9,68% 10,13% 9,21% 5,98% 2,85% 2,28% 1,84% 1,92% 1,39% 1,56% 1,48% 0,82% 11,78% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% France The Netherlands Switzerland A rgentina A ustria So uth A frica UK Japan Chile Italy A ustralia Spain Germany USA France 2001 2002
Source: Adapted from INE - the Portuguese Statistics Institute, (2002).
According INE (the Portuguese Statistics Institute), the first exported products in 2002 by cork sector were natural cork works (where are included technical cork stoppers) and agglomerated cork products, in a total of EUR 329.4 million.
Figure 9 – Portuguese exportations by cork products in 2002 (tons and EUR million)
37,7 48,3 0,9 5,5 23,5 519,9 78,2 329,4 0,0 100,0 200,0 300,0 400,0 500,0 600,0
Raw natural cork, or simply treated
Half-manufactures Natural cork works Aglomerated cork and its works
Thousand Tons € Million
1.3.2 Importations
Cork importation products, mainly manufactured production, come from Europe, namely Spain. But it was recorded, since 1990, a small importation rate of manufactures products from North Africa, as a result of Portuguese investment there.
Figure 10 – Portuguese cork importation (Thousand tons and EUR million)
41,0 69,0 41,1 86,9 40,8 92,7 62,5 154,8 50,0 139,0 52,7 139,0 0,0 20,0 40,0 60,0 80,0 100,0 120,0 140,0 160,0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Years Thousand Tons € Million
Source: Adapted from INE - the Portuguese Statistics Institute, (2002).
In 2001, importations were about EUR 140 million, where the main suppliers were Spain and Italy. Imported cork is transformed in Portugal making the final product more valuable. The evolution of importation in the last years is shown in next figure.
Concerning the main suppliers, there is a slight change in 2002: while Spain
remains in the first place, Tunisia raises from 4th (in 2001) to 2nd in 2002, followed
next by Morocco and Italy.
Figure 11 – Portuguese Cork Importations by main countries (EUR million)
6 5 ,8 0 % 8 ,13 % 7 ,2 3 % 4 ,7 8 % 3 ,5 1% 2 ,9 1% 2 ,3 1% 0 ,9 8 % 0 ,8 8 % 0 ,6 9 % 0 ,5 8 % 0 ,6 1% 0 ,3 5 % 0 ,2 7 % 0 ,0 3 % 0 ,0 4 % 0 ,2 0 % 0 ,7 0 % 76,71% 4,82% 3,15% 5,45% 2,45% 1,28% 0,83% 0,06% 0,34% 0,27% 0,53% 1,77% 0,14% 0,91% 0,17% 0,21% 0,17% 0,76% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Spain M o ro cco Italy Tunisia USA France A lgeria UK Chile A rgentina Germany A ustralia Switzerland So uth A frica Canada China Japan Rest o f the Wo rld 2001 2002
15
Figure 12 – Portuguese importations by cork product in 2002 (tons and EUR million)
44,7 90,6 3,8 14,2 1,9 25,7 2,3 8,5 0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0 90,0 100,0
Raw natural cork, or simply treated
Half-manufactures Natural cork works Aglomerated cork and its works Thousand Tons € Million
Source: INE - the Portuguese Statistics Institute, (2002), provisional data.
The results of cork trade is essential to the whole forest products because its cover rate (the relation between exported value and imported value, in percentage) is about 638€, in 2001.
Portugal is the start point of almost 60% of world cork trade and the biggest raw cork importer. Its share in world trade rises to 80% when considered transformed cork products.
The average year quantities involved in world external trade are about 220 thousand tons, where 58% are from Portugal. As importer, Portugal has a rate of 21% of the traded quantity.
17
CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE ANALISIS
2.1. MARKET ORIENTATION
The philosophical foundation of market orientation arose with the introduction of Marketing’s concept, but only in the late '80s and early '90s, with the return of focus on the consumer, the growing importance attached to the subject generated the development of concepts and measurement forms of the market orientation.
In literature it can be identified basically two streams of market orientation (Homburg and Pflesser, 2000): a behavioral and a cultural one. The behavioral perspective focuses on market orientation in specific aspects of organizational behavior, for example, the generation, dissemination and use of market intelligence, touted by Kohli and Jaworski (1990). Thus, market orientation can be defined as a set of processes and inter-functional activities aimed to create and satisfy customers through continuous assessment of their needs (Deshpande and Farley, 1998). The cultural perspective refers to the fundamental and philosophical aspects of the organization, which will serve as guidelines for establishment of the necessary behaviors to provide superior value to customers.
According to Kohli and Jaworski (1990), the term market orientation is used to define the implementation of the marketing concept. The marketing concept can be understood as a business philosophy, based on acceptance of all the company's need to be customer-oriented, profit-oriented and recognize the important role of marketing in communicating the market needs for all company departments. For Kohli and Jaworski (1990, p.1), "The marketing concept is essentially a business philosophy, an ideal or a policy" that can be implemented through a set of activities that these authors suggest. From this study, Kohli and Jaworsli (1990, p.6) defined market orientation as “The generation of market intelligence regarding current and future needs of customers, intelligence dissemination across departments and organization-wide response to this intelligence”.
Market orientation is then defined in three components: (1) Market intelligence generation;
(2) Intelligence dissemination across departments; and, (3) Organization's response to this intelligence.
The customer orientation is the central element of market orientation. To be customer-oriented, it must be based on market intelligence, which encompasses factors related to the market and current and future customers needs. The study also identified that it is critical that various departments are aware of the market needs (i.e., aware of market intelligence). The reaction or response to intelligence is the ability that the company had in order to act based on the generated knowledge. Profitability is not included in the definition because it is a consequence of market orientation, and not as part of it. Therefore, market orientation includes all activities involved in acquiring information about consumers and competitors of the target market and using it widely in order to have profit in the long term.
In 1993, Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar developed a scale to measure market orientation. The scale has 32 items and was extensively used in studies thereafter.
Narver and Slater (1990) define market orientation as an one-dimensional construct that consists of three behavioral components: (1) customer orientation (understanding the market), (2) the competitor orientation (understanding the strengths, weaknesses, skills and strategies of major competitors) and (3) interfunctional coordination (use of resources from all departments to provide customer value). Furthermore, the concept includes two decision criteria: focus on long-term and profit objective.
Customer orientation and competitor orientation represent, respectively, the relative emphasis on collecting and processing information relating to the client or the competitors capabilities.
The inter-functional coordination refers to the application of resources by the organization to synthesize and disseminate intelligence market (Narver and Slater 1990, Slater and Narver 1994). In this definition, the focus is primarily on consumer advice, since the understanding of target consumers is sufficient to create a higher value. According to the authors, the desire to provide superior value to customers takes the company to develop and maintain the culture that produce the behaviors necessary to achieve this goal.
19 The research of Narver and Slater (1990) presented the development of a range of market orientation and found that its magnitude was related to business performance. In 1994, Slater and Narver examined the moderating role of environment in association with an increased customer orientation and competitor or the performance.
Figure 13 – Narver and Slater Conceptualization of Market Orientation
Source: Adapted from Narver and Slater, (1990).
For Deshpandé et al. (1993, p.27), market orientation is "a set of beliefs that puts the client's interest first." It is the central element of the management philosophy based on the concept of marketing. Day (1994) defines market orientation as the superior ability to understand and satisfy customers. These definitions fail to address the market orientation only as a process and include cultural components. In this same vein, Slater and Narver (1995) suggest that market orientation is an aspect of organizational culture while it is inherently a learning orientation.
Although the character's cultural market orientation is recognized, the approach adopted in this work is establishing a set of processes that leads the company to be market oriented (eg Kohli and Jaworsli, 1990), since the objective is to suggest a relationship with the cultural aspect of organizational learning. Below is
the theoretical basis which leads to the hypothesis that composes the conceptual model previously suggested.
Major changes, environmental uncertainties, complexity and competitive intensity have led companies to an assessment of business practices. In this sense, their success depends on its competitive advantage. Such an advantage is to reconcile a vision endogenous with exogenous vision in order to respond more quickly and effectively to environmental constraints and opportunities (Deshpande, 1999). This is the sign of a market oriented company, which is putting into practice the concept of marketing.
Next pages present the overview of the several most interesting articles on marketing orientation published in recent years.
21 AUTH O RS, YEAR AND PAPER TITLE INVESTI G ATION PURP OSE S MODEL & METH OD O L OGY MAIN CO N C LUSI ONS CH RISTIAN HOMB UR G & CHRISTIAN PFLESSER (200 0) A Multiple-La y er Model o f Marke t-Orie n ted Organi zation al Culture : Measur e men t Issues a nd Performan c e Outcome s To dra w an e x plicit distin ction among valu e s that sup port market orie ntation, norm s for market orie ntation, artifact s indicating hig h and lo w ma rket orientatio n, and market-o rie n ted beh aviors Qualitative re sea rch and a sub s e que nt survey Finding s indi
cate that artifacts play a cru
c ial rol e in de terminin g behavio r withi n orga nizatio n s. Re sult s al so indi cate th at a market-o rie n ted cultu re infl uen ce s finan cial pe rform a nce in dire ctly throug h market performan ce an
d that this relatio
n ship is stro nge r in highly dynami c market. GARY F. GEBHARDT, GREG ORY S . CARPEN
TER, & JOH
N F. SHERRY J R . (200 6) Crea ting a M a rke t Orientation: A Longitudin a l, Multifirm, Ground ed Analy s is of Cultur al Tra n sforma tion Find ho w org anization s ch ange to becom e m o re ma rket oriente d Theo
retical model to explain
how firm s cre a te a market orientatio n. In c ontras t to c u rrent c o nc ept ualization s
, the authors find that
cre a ting a ma rket o rientatio n requi re s dramatic chan g e s to an orga nization’ s cultu re an d the cre a tion o f organi zation ally shared market und erstandi ng s. The finding s offer ne w insi gh ts into how orga nization s develop a greater ma rket orientatio n, organi zational cha nge, an
d the nature of market or
ie ntation, inclu d in g the role of intra-org ani za tional po wer and organi zat ional lea rnin g in creatin g and sustai nin g a market ori entation.
MARIA LETICIA SANTOS VIJ
A
NDE, MARIA J
O
SE
SANZO PEREZ. LUIS I. ALVAREZ GONZALEZ & RODOLFO VAZQUEZ
VASIELLES (200 5) Ef fe ct s of ma rk et orienta tion o n business stra tegic be hav ior Ho w market orientatio n
capability to influence strategy desi
gn. Empirical stu d y under the financi a l su pp ort of the gene ral kno w ledge prom otion progra m of the Spanish mini stry of edu cation a n d culture. A sampl e wa s d
rawn from the
D u ns a n d Br ad s tr e e t ( 2 00 1) dire ctory of Spani sh regi stered firms wh ere 2,610 unit s . Re sults in
dicate that market
orientation may be reg a rded a s a valuable reso urce to com p ete that
fosters the achieve
m ent of a comp etitive advantage an d whose effect s are al so cl e a rly manifest ed in the strategi c orie ntation adopte d by an orga nizatio n .
NDRAN, & (200 5) naly tic Rev ie w an d essme n t of Its ents and Impact nce The pap er ai ms to sh ow a multivariate analysi s to illustrate the paths th ro
ugh which market
orientatio n influen ce s perfo rman ce. The arti cle propo se s to pro v ide ins ights
into sample and
measurement
characte
ri
stics
that moderate the market orientatio
n–p erform an ce relations h ip. - Provide a q uantitative summ
ary of the bivariate
finding
s;
- Use of multivariate analyses of a
ggre gate stu d y ef fe ct s. - Use of reg re ssi on analysi s . The autho
rs find that the market orie
ntation–p erfo rma n ce relation shi p is strong er in sample s of ma nufactu
ring firms, in low
power-di s tan c e an d un cert ainty-avoida n c e culture s , a nd in studi es
that use subj
ective mea s u res of p e rfo rmance. The autho
rs also find that
the market ori
entation– perf o rma n ce correl ation is stron g e r for b o th co st-ba s e d and reve nu e-ba se d perfo rman ce measures in manufa c turi n g firms than i n servi c e firm s. On the ba sis of the finding s, the aut ho rs con c lud e wit h a discu ssi o n of the implica tions for p ra c tice an d furthe r re sea rch. NIKALA LANE (200 5) y implementa tion: ons of a e rs pectiv e for e man a gemen t
To analyze the cha
ra c teri st ics of succe ssful impleme n ters and the impact of manag er g e n der. The re sult s m a y provide in sight
into implementation capabilities in strategi
c marketing a n d more g ene rally. Single co mpa n y and multi-compa n y studies whe re the im plementatio n cap abilities of male and
female field sales man
age rs are exami ned . The pap er re
vealed the rol
e of female manag ers in im plementin g new ma nag e m ent techni q ues in sale s o rgani zatio n s — namely, the introdu ction o f behaviour-b ase d mana ge ment cont rol strategi es a s an indi cator o f a possi ble g ende r dime nsion in more g eneral implementation capabilities. T
he conclusion that superior
implementation capabilities are
shown by female sal e s managers in the impleme n tation of beha viour-ba s ed control st rategi es, may be con s id ere d provocative. N T O MCZAK & NN (200 5) e lopment of a nomy of strategic e g m enta tion: a w o
rk for bridging the
w e e n nor mativ e tatio n and s pr actice To solve the para doxe s : -What is the obje c tive of perfo rming m a rket segm entation ? -Which u n it of analysi s will be sele cted for t he se gmentat ion? Empirical find ings, taxonomy of four ma rket segm entation strategie s is develop ed th at addre s se s thes e s h ortfalls . The finding s sho w that se gmentation can be ind u ce d from the cu stome r a s well a s fro m the ma rket; bu t most impo rt antly, there h a s to be con s is tency bet wee n the obje c
tive and the unit
of analysis of a market se gm entation. These finding s provid e bot h useful ma n ageri a l implications.
23 SHIH-TUNG SHU, VERONI C A WONG & NI CK LEE (200 5) The effec ts of ex ternal linkages on ne w prod uct innov ativ ene ss: an examinatio n of modera tin g and mediati ng influenc e s
- Identify the relative importa
nce of alternative external lin ka ges in the developm ent of more innovative produ cts.
- Examine the extent to which the firm’s
absorptive c a pacity mode rate s the relation shi p s betwe en exte rnal lin kag e s and new p rod uct i nnovativene ss.
- To test the extent to which the positive impa
cts of the firm ’s absorptive ca pacity and external lin ka ges o n innov ative prod uct devel opment a re mediated by gain s in the stock of new kno w ledge p e rtine n t to the new p rod uct proj ect. Analysis of 116 ne w produ ct developm ent proje c ts in Taiwa n e s e In formation Tech nolo g y (IT) firms. The stu d y sh
ows that hori
z ontal lin ka ge s more strong ly impact on new p rod uct i nnovativene ss than verti c a l linkag e s. Th e firm’s learni ng abilit y or absorptiv e ca pacity increase s new product innovativene ss. It also mod e rate s the im pact s of co rp orate an d resea rch insti tute linkag e s on ne w pro d u c t innovativen ess. More over, it is co nfirme d that kn o w le dg e gain s medi
ate the positi
v e impact s of ab sorptive cap a
city and external linka
ge s o n new p rod uct innovativene ss. BRUCE H. CLARK,
ANDREW V. ABELA & TI
M AMBLER (200 5) Organi zation al motiv a tion, opportunit y and abilit y t o measure ma rketing perform a nce - Explore the drivers of perfo rman ce i n formatio n pro c e ssi ng, satisfactio n wit h marketing p e rforman c e asse ssm ent systems, an d top manag eme n t intention s to cha nge them.
A survey of senior manag
ers at 66 larg e c o rp or a tio ns . - The stu d
y reveals that organi
za tional ability and op portunity to pro c e ss m a rketing perfo rm ance inform ation app ear to have po sitive effects on b o th the sop h isti cation of processing a nd satisfactio n wit h perfo rman ce measurement . - Motivation to pro c e ss h a s both direct and mod e rating effects o n future mea s u reme n t spe n d ing plan s. - Satis fac
tion with the s
y
s
tem did not appear to influenc
e future spe ndin g pla n s. - Mana geri a lly, developing the organi zat ion’s a b ility to interpret perfo rman ce data app ears
to have the strong
est effect s on manag ers’ attitudes a nd int ention s reg a
rding the mea
s ureme n t sy st em.
NAL D & (200 5) ing Su n Tzu’s te rra in d to the stud y of trategy The autho
rs apply Sun Tzu’s
discu ssi on of grou nd an d terrai n , the co ntrollabl e environ menta l variable s , to the
study of marketing strate
gy Comp ari s o n betwe en
figurative battlefield of war (Sun T
z u’s T he Art of War ) and ma rketin g comp etition It is demon strated ho w Sun Tzu’ s gro und
and terrain can se
rve as
parsimo
niou
s typologies of
competit
ive market situati
ons that a
re
useful for the
study of marketing theory a
nd pra c tice. T EIN (200 6) te gic frame w o rk fo r segmenting markets - Ho w to define releva nt and pre -segme n ted market s. - Revie w useful market Termin ology and explain h o w a field-tes ted, multipartite frame w ork which i s roote d in the strate gic marketing literature ca n be used for developin g practical and
optimal market definitions
and segm entation appro a che s for busi n e ss a n d high-te ch comp anie s .
A model for market definition and
se gm entation wa s develop ed in an indu strial hig h techn o logy setting. The end p ro d u ct of this pro c e ss wa s discu s sed, exa m ples p rovid ed, and man age ri al implicatio n s pre s e n ted. Without empi rical sup p o rt and soun d theory, market definition in indu strial ma rkets i s likely to remai n an i s sue st
rictly for marketin
g schola rs a nd pra c titione rs t o debate. SHARON EMILY BOYLE (200 6) s tandi ng brands a s tial space s: for s - The arti cle p ropo se s that firms coul d gain m o re control over bran d loyalty building by cre a ting expe riential b rand places (brand scape s) that coul d hou se cog n itively and emotionally st imulating experie nces f o r co nsume rs. – To discu ss th e cog n itive and emotional p o tential of bran dsca pe s for cultivating long
term value creation an
d brand
loyalty but notes the ri
sks
involved in attempting this
.
One way of ‘cultivate custo
m er lo yalty’ (McAlexan der and Sch oute n , 1998, p. 378), is to suppo rt the c onsum p tion experien c e of the bran d by creatin g brand scape s th at allo w con s umers to exp e rien ce the bran d co mmu nally as a pla c e. Thi s expe rien ce is exp e cted to enha nce co n s ume rs’ view of the brand and inten s ify their commitme n
t and loyalty to it.
The problem for strate gic market ers an d bran d man agers ali k e is ensurin
g the value addin
g potentia l of the bran dsca pe . Evidence from re cent studie s su gge
sts that this is becoming in
crea singly difficult as a result of a g ro w th in anti -brandin g activities in stigated by con s um
ers (Holt, 2002; Brown et al., 20
25
J
O
ZE
´E LAPIERRE &
ROXANE G.
MEDEIROS
(200
6)
Information and communication
tech nolog y usage patterns : a c ase stud y To reveal u s a ge pattern by
identifying ICT clu
s ters for a sale s force in a large telec o mmunic a tion firm in Can ada. Cro s s-regi on al comp ari s o n of usag e pattern s comp
osed of different mixes
of 32 mature
and eme
rgi
ng
ICT (in Cana
da). The finding s provide a u s e ful mecha n ism enablin g st rategi c manag eme n t
to better allocate reso
urce s and identify trainin g need s. Manag
ers face several issu
es that merit attention wh e n developin g
strategy: - First, high monetary an
d n on-m oneta ry co sts, alon g with high impleme n tation failure rate s, call for a fu ller und erstan ding of wh at sale sp eople need to ha rve s
t the full potential of SFA (Keillor et al.,
1997 ); - Seco nd, the ICT clu s ters or usage p a ttern s identifie d for Que bec and Onta rio p rovide a detai led pictu re of whi c h ICT a re use d in an interrelated m anne r; - Third, comp
arison of the usa
ge pattern s of newly re cruited sale sp eople and mo re exp e rien ce d sal e s force may h e lp orie nt training by en cou ragi ng u s e of interrel a ted ICT; - Fou rth, usa ge pattern s m a y be use d a s a strategi c tool sin c e they allow ma nag ers to o p
timize ICT usage
among m
a
ture and eme
rgi ng techn o logie s ; and, - Fifth, usage pattern s may also b e used as a dia gno st ic tool by integratin
g them into techn
o logi cal audit. This would p rove esse ntia l for dismi ssin g
expensive ICT that can be
repla
c
e
d
with more matu
re,
less
c
o
s
tly ICT or, alternatively,
replacin
g a mature ICT that is no
longe r app ro priate for a n e w sale s orie ntation (Ing ra m et al., 2002). DAVE CRICK & SHIV CHA UD H R Y (200 6) Interna tional marketing stra tegy in t h e electr oni cs industry : a f o llo w -up in v estigation of UK SME’s 18 month s a fter the ex po rt w ithdra w a l d ecision
To state the reason
s why a sampl e of hig h -tech ori ente d UK small e r-si zed f irm s discontin ued export activities. A follow-up s tudy to an investigatio n on a sam p le (12 ) of high-t e ch o riente d UK small e r-si zed f irm s. The inve stiga tion provides recomme ndat ions fo r p o licy makers in th e provisi on of trade a ssi stan ce prog ram m e s to high-te ch firms of this
type that are finding it difficult to compet
e in oversea s markets. It was found t hat althoug h some firm s h ad co nsi dere d
that they could
not be com p e titive by operating an expo rt strategy in servin g oversea s markets, alte rnati v e ma
rket entry strategi
es i n volving sou rci ng from developing countrie s ha d enabl ed them to remain
competitive. The finding
s
of this study suppo
rt the assertio
n of Bell and Young
(199
8) that some firm
s are in ‘states’ of internatio nali z ation, with different stim
uli affecting forward and b
a ckward m o vement betwe en stage s (a s de fined in the st age mod e ls).
N VALOR (200 6) w a s fair e to achiev e fair trade The pap er fo cu se s on on e of the strate gies propo se d in the
name of ‘fair trade’: the inclu
s io n of s o cial clau se s in trade ag re em ents:
- Will the incl
usion of a social
clause in bilat
e
ral and
multi lateral trade ag
ree m e n ts help to achie v e the objecti ve of fair trade? T h e co n c lu si on of th e a rt icl e fo llo w s th at on ly t o som e ext e nt wil l th e in cl u s io n of a so ci a l cl au se in t ra d e ag re em e n ts he lp t o a c h iev e t h e goals o f the F a ir Trade mo vemen t. Since it does no t a im a t alter ing ‘unjust’ tr ade structures bu t ‘un fair ’ la bour practices, the social cla u se should be be tter un derstood as an impro v emen t o f existing Eth ical Trade in it ia ti ves. From a theore tica l po in t of view, th e socia l clause will on ly par tially achie v e the o b jec tives a ttac hed to the F a ir Trad e in itia tives . Beca use the socia l clau se does n o t a ttempt to chan ge curren t ma rket s truc tures , it sho u ld be a nalysed as a stra teg y similar to the Eth ic a l Trade . From a pra c ti
cal point of view, as
sug
g
e
s
ted above, these theoreti
c
al
benefits will o
n
ly materialise if, firstly,
the soci al clau se is attached to trade ag re em ents, and se condly, if it s implementatio n is effective to achi eve the o b jective. WILLIAMS (200 7) losing mark et d re turns : a tiv e d y namics model To pre s e n t a model lin king s trategic ac tion to s h ifts in market sh are and retu rn s. Comp etitive action
s that are not
met with respons
e s by rivals gene rate the most favora bl e con s e que n c e s for a c tors. The greater t he numb e r of competit o rs’ respon se s, a nd the more
quickly they resp
ond, the g reate r the attenuatio n of the initiators’ gains from their ac tion. Significant st rategic a c tion
s that are difficult to implement and
demon strate strategi c com m itm
ent on the part of the actor
discou rag e re spo n se. Compl e x and unpre d icta bl e strate gic a c tions promote market sha re gain s , and th e numb e r of moves a fi rm make s i s po si tively asso cia ted with profitabili ty CHE & ROBER T LAUFER (200 6) e nc y in prototy p ic al ten s ions The stu d y focuse s on the critical rol e of cong rue n cy i n prototypical b rand exten s io ns. A surv ey, mea s urin g reac tio n s to 1 8 p rop osed ex tensio ns involvi ng s ix well-k now n bran ds (Xerox , Kleenex , Band-Aid , Sco tch Tape , Cok e , Sony Walk ma n), w a s admin iste re d t o a s a mp le o f grad uat e st ude nts. Fo r each pro toty p ical b rand, the re w e re three p ro pose d ex tensio ns: cong ruen t, mo dera tely cong ruen t, and inco ngruen t. Prelimina ry a nalyse s , reve aled ro bu st variation s a c ro ss the six bran ds with resp
ect to the level of extension
con g ru e n cy. It was develo ped an d teste d three stru ctural eq uation model s linki n g these afo rem entione d vari able s , for con g rue n t, mode rately con g ru ent, an d inco ngruent extension s . Re sults in
dicate that — irresp
ective of the level of extensio
n con g ru en cy — perceptio n s of
fit had the stron
g e s t influence on extensio n su cce ss. While p a re nt bran d affect d irectly and in dire ctly influence d su cce s s for con g ruent brand exten s ions, the s e p a rent -brand a s soci ation s played no sig n ificant rol e for mod e rately cong rue n t an d inco ngruent bran d extensi ons.
27
SUNGHO LEE,
SUNG
-JOO
N YOON,
SANGUK KIM &
JO NG -W HA N KANG (200 6) The integr ated effec ts of market-orien ted culture and marke ting stra tegy on firm perform a nce The stu d y intend s to devel op the relation sh ip betwe en market-o rie n ted cultu re an d the marketing strategy-ma k in g p roc es s . It als o intends to verify the sug g e s ted rel a tionship. The stu d y employed ma rke t oriente d cultu re and the marketing strategy-ma k in g pro c e ss of a f irm as con s tituent s of its marketing comp eten ce, based on reviews of rel a ted literatu re . It also su rveyed mana ge ria l person nel fro m a rang e of firms . It was found t hat market-o riented culture does n o t onl y affect firm perfo rman ce dire
ctly, but does
so
indi
re
ctly by affecting the
marketing strategy makin g process. Re sults d e mo nstrate d that the com pon en ts of market-o riented culture ca n b e interp reted by a step-wise linear a s so ciation mo del , and u s ing thi s model the p reviou s co ncl u sio n that market -ori ented activities hav e a signifi cant influence on firm perfo rma n ce wa s
reaffirmed. The stu
d
y also identified shortcomin
gs and aime d to prop ose sug g e s tion s for asse ssme nt methods e m
ployed by Menon et al.,
(199 9) rega rd ing com pon e n ts of the MSM pro c e ss. It was proved that MSM provides the lin k between m a rket-o riente d culture and re al impleme n tations of ma rketing strateg y
, and that its
influen ce up o n firm perfo rmance ri se
s with the incre
a se in environ menta l turbulen ce. The b a si c ten e t of the study is, then, th at without the prese n ce of b o th
market-oriented culture and MSM,
the satisfactory fulfillment of
corpo rate go als would be difficult. Thus firms mu st first follow a M S M pro c ed ure ba sed u
pon a firm foundati
on of market-o rie n ted cultu re t o enha
nce firm perfo
rman ce. BOB DOHE RTY & J O HN MEEHAN (200 6) Compe ting o n social resour ces : the case o f th e Da y Chocolate Comp an y in the UK con fection e ry sector The pap er re views recent developm ent s in the fields of strategi c ma rketing a nd strategi c ma n ageme n t in relation to val ue, value ch a ins, comp etitive reso urce s and comp etitive advantage. A case study of the Day Cho c ol ate Co mpany: a UK-b
ased fair trade
comp any wa s started in 1998 with the aim of providin g more equitabl e market acce ss for Ghan aia n co coa g ro w e rs and h a s many uniqu e feature s , su ch as eq uity own e
rship for its
sup p lier Ku ap a Kokoo Farme rs Co -operative. Contem po rary theories of val ue creatio n stre ss a ch ange fro m hiera rchi c al value chain s to value networks o r co nst e llation s. The ca se stu d y presented illustrate s a n e w bu sin e ss model, whi c h addresse s bo th of these issue s , and so demon
strates the viability o
f comp etitive strategie s ba se d on more so cially acce pta b le bu sine ss prac tic e . The pa per argued that p u rsuit of so cial obje c tives, rat her tha n bein g a consequence of achieving profitab
ility by more self-serving busi
n ess pra c tice s can furnish a n organi zation
with the comp
etitive resou
rce
s
to develop effective market
ing strate
gie
s
