Sussie C. Morrish and Anna Earl
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of network relationships and institutional environment on premium winegrowers’ internationalization process.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of network relationships and institutional environment on premium winegrowers’ internationalization process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a case study approach to examine two premium wine producers engaged in internationalization. The data sources consist of semi-structured interviews, observations at three major events and secondary data sourced from industry reports and materials that are available online.
Findings
Findings illustrate that both personal and inter-firm networks help wineries to internationalize. Inter-firm networks play a significant role in gaining international legitimacy. Personal networks were found to be more important in establishing brand authenticity that facilitates wineries in their internationalization process. Gaining international legitimacy and establishing brand authenticity are crucial in the successful internationalization of premium wineries.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides an explanation of how networks can be put into institutional context. Future studies could map out the formal and informal institutions within the wine industry and investigate the closer dynamics among the different actors in the whole network. A whole network is formally structured and governed, yet still built on the relationships among members, making it a very complex phenomenon. This would allow the evaluation of multilateral ties that link firms and actors within the network and how this affects the internationalization process.
Practical implications
This paper provides managers with insights on how they can capitalize on their inter-firm and personal networks to help them deal with domestic and international institutional environments when embarking on internationalization activities.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the existing literature on networks relationships and provides an important link between networks, institutions and internationalization.
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Sussie C. Morrish, Leyland Pitt, Joseph Vella and Elsamari Botha
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how brand personality and its dimensions can be applied to wine tourism, and how a content analysis of the text taken from a wine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how brand personality and its dimensions can be applied to wine tourism, and how a content analysis of the text taken from a wine estate’s website can be used to derive a snapshot of how brand personality is communicated.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the text analysis software DICTION to identify the extent to which each estate’s website communicates the brand personality dimensions of excitement, competence, ruggedness, sincerity and sophistication, and then agglomerates the scores of individual estates within a region to overall scores for the country or wine region in which they are located.
Findings
Major findings are that the southern hemisphere producers, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, communicate all five brand personality dimensions to a greater extent than do the northern hemisphere regions of Bordeaux and Napa. Furthermore, while the levels of brand personality communication may differ, all countries and regions seem to follow the same pattern, or stated differently, emphasize the same brand personalities as their international counterparts. Excitement is the main dimension communicated, and then sincerity. Ruggedness and competence are communicated to a lesser extent and sophistication is hardly communicated at all.
Research limitations/implications
The countries/regions selected for the study are among the most popular tourist destination wineries within five of the world’s prominent wine producing countries and regions. However, this selection is arbitrary and were also carefully chosen merely by the simplicity and convenience afforded by a Google search. The results are also an aggregation of the wineries within a region and does not give any indication of the brand personality of a single website for a winery with in a region, which might be very different from the aggregation.
Practical implications
Wine tourism is a big business for many wine estates as well as regional and national economies, generating huge potential for economic growth and job creation above and beyond the production and sale of wine. The paper offers a practical insight for wineries that want to portray themselves to the world and especially to their target customers. At a general level, the approach illustrated here provides a way for those who manage wine tourism at the national, regional and estate levels to gauge whether the personality of their brand is being communicated online as they intend it to be.
Social implications
Wine tourism is very social in nature, and the findings in this study offers a unique understanding of how customers could perceive their destination especially where they are looking to experience the wine estate among similar minded people. A wine estate marketer might wish to be conveying a personality of sophistication and competence, and then be informed by a study like this that the brand is instead being communicated as exciting and sincere.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates the use of powerful content analysis software, DICTION, to determine the extent to which this text specifically communicates dimensions of brand personality, and in broader terms gives a feel for the tone of text. Regular use of the technique helps wine marketing decision makers to track their own brand’s personality as well those of competitors over time.
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Anisur R. Faroque, Sussie C. Morrish and Ahmed Shahriar Ferdous
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business process innovativeness in the networking-export performance relationship in a developing country low-tech industry…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business process innovativeness in the networking-export performance relationship in a developing country low-tech industry setting. Most innovation research in international business and entrepreneurship is conducted on high-tech industries in developed countries. Less research has focused on the low-tech industry context. This study bridges this research gap by testing whether international new ventures’ (INVs) networking resources impact their export performance through business process innovativeness.
Design/methodology/approach
The study tests the link between low-tech INVs’ networking, business process innovativeness and export performance using a sample of 647 export start-up apparel firms in Bangladesh, the second largest apparel exporter in the world.
Findings
The results recognize that an INV entrepreneur’s personal and inter-firm networking are directly and positively related to business process innovativeness and export performance. The findings also indicate that business process innovativeness acts as a mediator only between an INV’s inter-firm networking and its export performance.
Research limitations/implications
The study was undertaken in a Bangladeshi low-tech industry setting-the apparel sector; thus, future research may include data collection from a range of industries across countries. Data collected for the purpose of this study used a cross-sectional research design, and this may only have confirmed the relationships in the model and not causality between the constructs.
Practical implications
The findings highlight that low-tech INVs should focus more on leveraging their personal and inter-firm networking resources, as this should result in improved export performance. The results also provide directives for INVs in regard to improving their business process innovativeness to achieve increased performance.
Originality/value
The study is not only carried out in the context of low-tech early internationalizing firms (i.e. INVs), but also contributes to theory and practice by testing whether INVs’ networking resources (personal and inter-firm) have an impact on business process innovativeness, which in turn leads to improved performance.
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The purpose of this paper is to present the author's view of the role of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) as a strategy to address the dynamic marketing environment of recent times.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the author's view of the role of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) as a strategy to address the dynamic marketing environment of recent times.
Design/methodology/approach
The author reflects on some significant marketing changes and provides some contemporary example of companies that have successfully adopted EM approaches and challenged traditional marketing wisdom.
Findings
EM is best conceived not as a nexus between marketing and entrepreneurship, but as an augmented process, where both the entrepreneur and the customer are the core actors, co‐creating value within the marketing environment.
Originality/value
While this is an opinion piece, the paper provides evidence of how EM can be adopted and applied by entrepreneurial firms and challenges marketers to create and control their own‐marketing environment.
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Hannah L. Wolf, Sussie C. Morrish and Joanna Fountain
Consumer perceptions and motivation for luxury consumption are extensively investigated in the existing literature, although studies have largely focused on branded products with…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer perceptions and motivation for luxury consumption are extensively investigated in the existing literature, although studies have largely focused on branded products with not much attention given to luxury wine. The wine category is distinctive, and luxury wine consumption is notably different from other luxury products. Over the past 20 years, the luxury segment of the wine industry has experienced steady growth, yet understanding of consumer perceptions and motivation for luxury wine consumption is still underdeveloped. Using self-congruency theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of the perceptions of, and motivation for, luxury wine consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a scoping review approach, the current literature on luxury wine and luxury branded products is analyzed for existing gaps in understanding luxury wine consumption.
Findings
The conceptualization of luxury wine along with the perceptions, motivators and indicators for wine consumption are currently underdeveloped. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding what drives perceptions and motivators of luxury wine consumption.
Originality/value
Emerging from a scoping review of extant literature, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding consumers’ perceptions of luxury wine and motivations for consumption. This framework will enable a better understanding of the dynamics of luxury wine consumption.
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C. David Shepherd, Gaia Marchisio, Sussie C. Morrish, Jonathan H. Deacon and Morgan P. Miles
The purpose of this paper is to conceptually and empirically explore the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial burnout – that is burnout related to the process of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptually and empirically explore the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial burnout – that is burnout related to the process of discovery or creation of attractive economic opportunities, the assessment of these opportunities, and the decision on the exploitation of opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a survey of entrepreneurs in New Zealand who were alumni of a university sponsored executive development course for owner‐managers of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises.
Findings
It is found that role stress is positively related to burnout and that burnout has a negative impact on organizational commitment, organizational satisfaction, and relative perceived firm performance. In addition, implications for entrepreneurs are offered with the objective of providing suggestions to mediate the negative consequences of entrepreneurial burnout.
Research limitations/implications
The present study is limited by culture – the sample was drawn from New Zealand entrepreneurs; survivor bias – only successful owner‐managers who self‐selected for executive education were in the sampling frame; and the limits of the metrics. The first additional questions would be how widespread is the problem, and how does that vary by type of entrepreneurial endeavor? The secondary research priority concerns the antecedents of burnout in the entrepreneurial context.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurial burnout may have significant social and economic costs that can be minimized with proper treatment and prevention.
Originality/value
Burnout has not been extensively explored in the context of entrepreneurs.
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Saeed Mirvahedi and Sussie Morrish
This paper aims to investigate the distinctive role of serendipity in opportunity exploration. The study specifically explores how serendipity happens and the pattern of its…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the distinctive role of serendipity in opportunity exploration. The study specifically explores how serendipity happens and the pattern of its occurrence. The paper attempts to break new ground in the study of serendipity within the entrepreneurship area. Serendipity is quite established in scientific literature and investigating this concept in the context of entrepreneurship contributes towards the discourse on why some firms are able to discover and realise opportunities that seem to present themselves sometimes out of nowhere.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses multiple case studies, cross-country approaches and the causal mapping method.
Findings
The findings suggest that serendipity is likely to take place at the early stages of firm formation. In addition to the three patterns of serendipity that are well-known in accidental scientific discoveries, the authors identify and introduce “entrepreneurial serendipity” as a distinctive pattern in entrepreneurship, whereby entrepreneurs look for any opportunity to start a business and explore an appropriate opportunity that comes along.
Research limitations/implications
This research has several limitations that offer new opportunities for future research. Further research can be undertaken to compare successful fast-growth firms with unsuccessful firms to determine how entrepreneurs were exposed to serendipity and to what extent they were able to exploit and realise opportunities. A comparative study would also enhance the authors’ interpretation of the role of serendipity in these two types of firms and demonstrate the different levels of serendipity they are potentially exposed to. The debate on serendipity could benefit from quantitative research and some tangible measures of serendipity can be developed.
Practical implications
The findings help entrepreneurs understand elements involved in opportunity exploration. The role of serendipity and its sources offer some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can potentially expose themselves to serendipity. The role of networks is crucial to doing business, and entrepreneurs should be aware of expanding their personal and business networks. Being engaged in friendly, professional and academic networks helps in finding new opportunities. Perseverance, being alert to changes in the environment and commitment to clients in terms of high-quality products and services are other elements that may open new windows of opportunity.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence that serendipity does play an important role in nearly every investigated business, regardless of their size and age. Serendipity potentially leads to new opportunities and entrepreneurs can explore them to achieve growth. By investigating grown firms in New Zealand and Iran, the authors identified a new pattern of serendipity in terms of opportunity discovery. This unique pattern, entrepreneurial serendipity, is characterised by finding an unspecified opportunity through an orderly or haphazard search, which could happen with either high or low levels of knowledge.
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Jonathan H. Deacon and Jackie Harris
The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptualisation of the components of contextual marketing (CM), in light of the outcome of the Charleston Summit, through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptualisation of the components of contextual marketing (CM), in light of the outcome of the Charleston Summit, through the development of the meaning and operation of language used in context – that is: the language and the associated meaning of words used in a highly socialised setting such as a small firm and articulated through conversation.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptualisation of the components of CM are proposed based upon a critical review of pertinent literature and the development of extant conceptualisations for research at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface.
Findings
A model is produced that outlines a development of one of the four perspectives (as an outcome of the Charleston Summit) of research at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface and proposes that a third notion be considered in developing research studies that includes the wider aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology and philosophy – in this case: sociolinguistics, in order that a better insight be gained of the meaning and operation of marketing at the “interface”.
Practical implications
A more detailed understanding of the components of CM will advance research meaning and gain practitioner credibility.
Originality/value
This paper develops a conceptual framework for future and further research at the interface by considering the need to introduce fundamental socially derived aspects to the scope of research – in this case the third notion of sociolinguistics – in order to gain a better insight to the phenomena of marketing in entrepreneurial small firms.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider marketing and its relevance to entrepreneurs and small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), and how entrepreneurs and SMEs owner/managers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider marketing and its relevance to entrepreneurs and small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), and how entrepreneurs and SMEs owner/managers adapt and use marketing for their specific requirements during the life of an enterprise. Initially, the paper will give some background to the subject, including how entrepreneurs and SMEs owner/managers are defined and their value to the economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The discussion draws from the academic literature and from experience of working with entrepreneurs and SMEs over a number of years. The background characteristics and frameworks of entrepreneurial and SMEs marketing are considered, with emphasis on a pragmatic approach, to try to understand how entrepreneurs and SMEs actually “do” business.
Findings
The main body of the paper focuses on the nature of entrepreneurial marketing typically used by SMEs. The key themes of the discussion are how entrepreneurs and SME owner/managers adapt standard marketing frameworks to suit their own enterprises, how they use networks to improve their business activity, the use and development of marketing management competencies and how they try to use and develop innovative marketing.
Research limitations/implications
Finally, the paper comments on the inter‐relationships and relevance of entrepreneurship and marketing for each other.
Originality/value
In practice, entrepreneurial and SMEs marketing is quite different from the marketing frameworks described in the standard marketing textbooks used to teach most undergraduate students. This paper illustrates how entrepreneurs and SMEs adapt and use marketing according to the needs of their enterprises.