The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically whether a hybrid, compared with other forms of competitive advantage, contributes to better business performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically whether a hybrid, compared with other forms of competitive advantage, contributes to better business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 105 food manufacturing firms in Greece, a European Union (EU) member state, this study performs a factor analysis, a cluster analysis and an analysis of variance.
Findings
This study provides evidence in favour of the hybrid as the best‐performing form of competitive advantage for Greek food firms. Specifically, the findings show pure (the cost‐based nichers: 36 firms), combined (the hybridists: 49 firms) and stuck‐in‐the‐middle (the confused strategists: 20 firms) strategic alternatives that differ in terms of performance.
Research limitations/implications
Research on Porter's dominant paradigm within Europe is surprisingly limited. Given the call for further research on competitive strategy to focus on European firms, this Greek study extends Porter's original model and represents one of the few studies to examine the relationship between hybrid strategies and performance.
Practical implications
Managers should keep in mind that hybrid strategies are usually better and never worse than pure and stuck‐in‐the‐middle alternatives. Emphasis on all dimensions of the hybrid form may be a safe and rewarding option for Greek food players to compete at home against global players.
Originality/value
This study provides new evidence on hybrid strategies within Europe, a subject that lacks sufficient foundation. Despite the contradictory results obtained elsewhere on the Porter‐based perspective since 1980, the empirical evidence within a European country, Greece, suggests a pleasant surprise.
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This article aims to describe the valuable work conducted most recently on competitive strategies. Its purpose is to elaborate on suggestions for theorizing the hybrid form of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to describe the valuable work conducted most recently on competitive strategies. Its purpose is to elaborate on suggestions for theorizing the hybrid form of competitive advantage and stimulate the interest of scholars.
Design/methodology/approach
As this article emphasizes hybrid strategies, both electronic and manual methods have detected 15 studies focusing on competitive strategies and their relation to firm performance from 2000 until today.
Findings
This article underlines the need to deal more thoroughly with combined-emphasis competitive strategies, which have seriously enhanced Porter’s paradigm, defined in 1980 with three single-emphasis strategic choices. The era in which combining competitive strategies was synonymous with stuck-in-the-middle alternatives has been left behind, and the era in which hybrid strategies suggest the most attractive choices, at least in some circumstances, has already begun.
Originality/value
This article is one of the few stressing conceptual issues of hybrid strategies that emerged from Porter’s (1980) model. No matter how many years pass by, research on competitive strategies will continue, as it considers businesses of any age, size, sector or country. The global challenge of today is how scholars will revise theory to better capture reality. This article intensifies the need for a theoretical framework embracing the full variety of competitive strategies, namely, single-emphasis, mixed-emphasis, no-distinctive-emphasis and stuck-in-the-middle. Nonetheless, due to their complex and multidimensional nature, hybrid strategies receive particular attention.
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Helen E. Salavou and John Halikias
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine types of exporting firms featuring strategy orientations and profitability of differential emphasis.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine types of exporting firms featuring strategy orientations and profitability of differential emphasis.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer the questions the paper raises, data of 82 exporting firms established in Greece are analysed with the help of factor analysis, cluster analysis and cross‐tabulation.
Findings
The findings reveal three types of firms pursuing different strategy orientations for dealing with competition in export markets (i.e. the marketing‐based strategists, the hybridists and the non‐strategists). Furthermore, they suggest that export profitability is dependent on these strategy types.
Research limitations/implications
Generalisation of the research results should be made with caution. A fruitful direction of further research is to replicate the principal features of the study with other samples of firms in Greece or in comparable national contexts, especially within the European Union.
Practical implications
The empirical results highlight the discussion of more vs less profitable forms of competitive advantage pursued by firms operating in foreign markets. A message of utmost importance for practitioners is that the hybrid form of competitive advantage, although dominant, does not offer the most profitable strategic choice.
Originality/value
The study focuses on strategy types of firms competing in the international arena to offer a view on the basis of competitive advantage. By excluding the well‐known pure and stuck‐in‐the‐middle alternatives, the evidence highlights either no‐strategy or combined choices of strategy orientations, which differ in terms of export profitability. As such, the study sheds some light on the relation of strategy to export performance, which is under‐researched outside the USA.
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Helen Salavou and Dimitris Manolopoulos
The purpose of this paper is to shift the idea of competitive strategy from the for-profit to the non-profit context and to explain how social enterprises (SEs) get advantages…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shift the idea of competitive strategy from the for-profit to the non-profit context and to explain how social enterprises (SEs) get advantages over competitors within and outside the social sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Based upon a sample of 63 SEs located in Greece, the exploratory research employs factor analysis to answer which strategic options they have to compete. Subsequent analysis of variance and correlation analysis were performed to answer if competitive strategic options relate to impact SEs generate.
Findings
The empirical findings identify and empirically validate a variety of strategic options based on four pure (low cost, low cost sustainability, low cost focus and differentiation focus) and one hybrid (efficient differentiation) types of competitive advantage. Additional evidence shows that hybrid compared to pure strategic options link more influentially to impact in terms of positive environmental, social and economic contributions.
Research limitations/implications
Apart from providing some explanations of how mission-driven businesses compete, it helps widening the debate of pure vs hybrid strategies beyond the commercial sector. Contrary to what the authors already know, the evidence presented here shows that strategic purity and hybridization co-exist in the social sector.
Originality/value
This is the first study with empirical evidence on competitive strategies from businesses in the third sector emphasizing how SEs ensure competitive advantage along with impact potential. Consequently, the authors respond to recent calls for more survey-based, quantitative evidence in the social entrepreneurship field.
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The purpose of this study is to empirically examine different types of service firms, featuring strategy orientations and the performance of different emphases.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically examine different types of service firms, featuring strategy orientations and the performance of different emphases.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer the questions the paper raises, data of 80 Greek firms of the services sector are analysed with the help of factor analysis, cluster analysis and analysis of variance.
Findings
The findings reveal three types of firms pursuing different strategy orientations for dealing with competition (i.e. the hybridists: 44 firms, the confused strategists: 25 firms and the non‐strategists: 11 firms). Furthermore, they suggest that performance is dependent on these strategy types.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides new evidence outside the manufacturing industry and the US context, which dominates the literature. Nonetheless, further empirical research will help to generalise the findings within the services sector in Greece and/or comparable national contexts, especially within the European Union.
Practical implications
The empirical results highlight the discussion of pure vs hybrid forms of competitive advantage pursued by service firms operating at home. A message of the utmost importance for practitioners is that the hybrid form of competitive advantage, which places high emphasis on low cost, is the prevailing and the best‐performing strategic choice.
Originality/value
The study focuses on strategy types of firms to offer a view on the basis of competitive advantage within the services sector of a dynamic European Union member state. By excluding the well‐known pure and stuck‐in‐the‐middle alternatives, the evidence highlights the lack of a strategy and combined choices of strategic orientations, which differ in terms of performance. It appears that the dominant argument of strategic purity is not applicable to all firms in all countries.
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Helen Salavou and George Avlonitis
The aim of this paper is to classify firms according to dimensions of product innovativeness (PI) and identify differences in performance on the product and the firm basis in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to classify firms according to dimensions of product innovativeness (PI) and identify differences in performance on the product and the firm basis in the context of SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer the questions this empirical study raises, a sample of 128 SMEs is clustered on the basis of the PI construct. After validating the clusters, an analysis of variance is performed to detect differences, if any, across performance measures on PI profiles of SMEs.
Findings
This paper provides evidence in support of three groups featuring different levels of PI, namely the straight imitators (low PI), the product innovators (high PI) and the concept innovators (medium PI). Further, it shows that these groups demonstrate differences in their performance potential at the product but not at the firm level.
Research limitations/implications
This paper refers to an empirical study of SMEs in a European Union (EU) member state since 1981, namely Greece, which is far from restricted to the evidence provided herein. Further research is needed to confirm and extend the present results by replicating the principal features of this study with SMEs in countries within the EU, especially small ones.
Practical implications
The identification of successful PI profiles could become a major challenge to the management of SMEs. At a national context, this identification could direct efforts in designing different supportive actions for different groups of SMEs according to their PI profiles within the wider EU innovation policy initiatives.
Originality/value
The paper provides insights into supportive actions for different groups of SMEs according to their PI profiles.
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A significant body of research has focused on the conceptualization of market orientation showing evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation and business…
Abstract
A significant body of research has focused on the conceptualization of market orientation showing evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation and business performance. However, little attention has been drawn to how innovation could affect this link. Keeping track of limited research on this issue, this study attempts to empirically investigate the moderating effect of product innovation, if any, on the market orientation – profitability link in SMEs. Drawing upon data collected from the food industry in Greece, the findings suggest that product innovation is partially tied to this relationship. Apart from providing some new evidence, the results lead to managerial implications and reveal considerable scope for further research.
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Helen Efstratios Salavou, Georgios Chalkos and Spyros Lioukas
Embracing the theories of gender role and career socialization, this study focuses on young adults and explores gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions and…
Abstract
Purpose
Embracing the theories of gender role and career socialization, this study focuses on young adults and explores gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurship education.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 203 young adults, this study employs a logistic regression model to test hypothesis 1 regarding differences in gender. In addition, it performs an analysis of variance using the two groups of young adults with and without academic entrepreneurship education to detect differences in entrepreneurial intentions between men (hypothesis 2) and women (hypothesis 3).
Findings
The empirical findings from a European country trailing in university-level entrepreneurship education confirm the dominant evidence that young women have lower entrepreneurial intentions than young men. In addition, women's proclivity toward entrepreneurship is lower with academic entrepreneurship education than without.
Originality/value
This study provides new evidence from Greece, which has few studies on entrepreneurship education at the tertiary level. Scholars are advised to keep track of the new pathway exploring linkages between gender, entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurship education. Policymakers in Europe are encouraged to establish an approach of tailoring university courses to their students. Currently, society will benefit from entrepreneurship education curricula targeting young women based on their particular needs and interests, while nurturing their entrepreneurial intentions.
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Organisational innovativeness is a broad concept involved in a firm’s proclivity to innovate. As such, widely varying conceptualisations and operationalisations of this construct…
Abstract
Organisational innovativeness is a broad concept involved in a firm’s proclivity to innovate. As such, widely varying conceptualisations and operationalisations of this construct appear to be the main cause of major deficiencies in the research of organisational innovativeness determinants. This article suggests a shift in emphasis from organisational to product innovativeness. After defining this concept, it selectively addresses how the investigation of product innovativeness as a dependent variable could contribute to further research and theory development. The benefits of such an investigation are far from restricted to the recommendations made herein. However, such recommendations are meant to intrigue scholars into conducting similar investigations on product innovativeness, a rather overlooked aspect of organisational innovativeness.
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Rao Sanaullah Khan, John Vincent Grigor, Alan G. Win and Mike Boland
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a comparative account of NPD approaches between registered New Zealand food companies that are doing some sort of functional foods (FF…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a comparative account of NPD approaches between registered New Zealand food companies that are doing some sort of functional foods (FF) development (Group 1) and those that are not (Group 2); to generate a better understanding of differences and commonalities in their NPD approaches from resource-based view of competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted an exploratory approach using a quantitative survey across food manufacturing companies in New Zealand. The primary foci of this empirical investigation were: orientation towards the NPD, innovation processes, collaborative NPD links and routes to commercialisation.
Findings
The results (based on a 22 per cent response rate) show a significant difference (p<0.05) in the aims and mode of NPD between Groups 1 and 2. Further it was observed that food companies in Group 1 have significantly (p<0.05) more diverse external collaborations with broader aims to collaborate, in comparison with food companies in Group 2.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted in New Zealand and thus generalisability of the findings may have to be interpreted carefully.
Practical implications
The traditional NPD approach (independent and closed NPD), with loose intellectual property protection practices, dominates the food manufacturing industry in New Zealand. Research-oriented collaborations need to be strengthened in their scope and content to develop the innovative capabilities and capacities of small and medium enterprises (SME's) within future value-added food productions.
Originality/value
This research provides the comparative narration of innovation process of food manufacturing companies with reference to FFs development.