Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Trade and Global Markets

 

Special issue on: "The Resource-Based View as Applied in International Marketing"

Guest Editor:
Dr. Craig Julian, Southern Cross University, Australia

There have been at least two major theoretical approaches used in international marketing research. These are the industrial organisation approach and the resource-based view. The industrial organisation approach ascribes a firm’s international performance to its external market position. The resource-based view focuses on internal organisational resources such as marketing competency or marketing capabilities to identify the determinants of a firm’s international marketing performance.

In previous international marketing literature, most studies adopted the industrial organisation approach to evaluate a firm’s strategy, characteristics and external factors as determinants of performance. Industrial organisation theory states that the external environment imposes pressure on firms to which they must respond. In line with this theory, Zou and Stan (1998) suggested that exporters who respond successfully to their external environments by developing and implementing an appropriate strategy would enjoy superior performance. The strategy factors that have been frequently studied as determinants of performance include adapting the different marketing mix elements to accommodate the needs of the local market, different channel relationships, and the different types of channels (Zou et al., 2003).

However, Zou et al.(2003) also suggest that the industrial organisation framework only focuses on the impact of a firm’s strategy and its external environment on performance, and places very little emphasis on the impact of idiosyncratic internal capabilities, such as marketing capabilities, on a firm’s performance (Barney, 1991).

In order to overcome this void in the literature, Barney (1991) introduced the new theoretical perspective that is the resource based-view of the firm. The resource-based view views a firm not in the light of its activities or strategy in the product market but as a unique bundle of tangible and intangible resources. In addition, a firm’s resources, not its strategy, are at the heart of its competitive advantage (Peteraf, 1993). In other words, the resource based-view states that the principal determinants of a business’s performance and its strategy are its internal resources.

Not all of a firm’s resources have the potential to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Barney (1991) argued that to create a sustainable competitive advantage, a resource must have four attributes: it must (1) be valuable, (2) be rare, (3) be difficult to imitate, and (4) have no strategically equivalent substitute. Specifically, resources that are necessary for creating a sustainable competitive advantage can be divided into two types: namely, assets and capabilities. Assets are the resource endowments a firm has accumulated, for example, an investment in facilities; while capabilities are a firm’s complex bundle of skills and accumulated knowledge, exercised through an organisational process that enables the firm to coordinate activities and make the best use of its assets (Day, 1994).

In recent years, there have been an increasing number of international marketing studies conducted using the resource-based view of firms (Calantone et al., 2006; Dhanaraj and Beamish, 2003). Additionally, Knudsen and Madsen (2002) have suggested that the resource-based view of firms has emerged as the dominant paradigm. As such, this special issue focuses on the resource-based view and its significance in international marketing.

Subject Coverage
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• The relationships between industry structure, strategy, marketing capabilities, learning, innovation and performance in international marketing
• The determinants of a sustainable competitive advantage in international marketing
• The relationship between an export venture’s resources and a sustainable competitive advantage in international marketing
• The influence of resource dependency on international marketing strategy
• Analysis of both internal and external firm factors on strategy and performance in international marketing
• The relationship between product, price, promotion and distribution capability and export marketing performance
• The significance of market orientation as a marketing capability in international marketing, whether it be as a mediating variable or having a direct influence on performance
• The influence of firm capabilities on collaborative stability and change
• The relationship between market knowledge and new product advantage
• Cross-national comparative studies of new product development processes
• The antecedents of marketing capabilities and organisational effectiveness
• Investigations of the different strategic types, marketing competencies and performance
• The effect of export marketing capabilities on export performance

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper was not originally copyrighted and if it has been completely re-written).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

Deadline for receipt of manuscripts: 29 February, 2012 (extended)