نشریه مدیریت کسب و کارهای بین المللی
پیاپی 3 (زمستان 1397)

Nowadays, organizations must always be creative and innovative to successfully deliver their activities and survive in international markets. Therefore, if organizations do not have creativity and innovation in their products, they will be downgraded and eliminated from the competition cycle. In global competitive markets, putting innovation strategies in the organization's programs is key to improving performance (Durand et al, 2017). Product Innovation Strategy (PIS) isthe invention of innovative and innovative methods of products and services has always been important for the lives of groups in competitive environments (Croitoru, 2012) .In this case, process innovation strategy is process innovations may include such things as input materials, job characteristics, workflow and information (Abernathy & Utterback, 1978). The main feature of the process innovation is that this type of innovation is within the organization and occurs in the production line and is not discoverable by individuals outside the organization, and this is a unique feature because it is not imitated by rivals because it is within the organization and cannot be outspoken (Maine et al, 2012). Competition means an attempt to employ a range of rivals in an industry to undermine each other, and in this way, each competitor will maximize his ability and ability to survive in the field and to achieve future growth and development (Knight, 2011). In this research, sales, profitability and market share were used to measure the export performance of the organizations. The statistical population of this study consisted of 230 companies that exported in the past 5 years in Tabriz city, with 148 companies selected as the sample. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The hypotheses were analyzed using SPSS18 and AMOS software. The results from such research will draw the attention of managers and organizational researchers to dimensions that are more important.  

Since this research analyzes the relationship between innovation and business strategies of exporters in Tabriz city considering the moderating role of competition intensity. This research in terms of its purpose is an applied research. The data has been collected using the questionnaire. Therefore, this research is a survey based on the field work. For measuring variables, standard measurements of previous studies were used. The face and content validity of the final questionnaire were confirmed by reviewing the views of management experts. The validity of the questionnaire constructs was also evaluated using the confirmatory factor analysis technique using AMOS software and the significance of the related items to the proposed structures was confirmed.

The research findings are presented in two tables. Table 1 shows the results of the research hypotheses test.   Table 1. Test results of research hypotheses Relationship results Standard coefficient t- value p- value Test result Product Innovation← Business Performance 0.25 2.471 0.013 Confirm prosess Innovation← Business Performanc 0.75 3.074 0.002 Confirm   And Table 2 shows the effect of product innovation and process innovation on business performance in two groups with high and low competition.   Table 2. Effect of product innovation and process innovation on business performance in two groups with high and low competition. Model Independent variables Dependent variables β sig R2 View count low competitive intensity prosess Innovation Business Performanc 0.255 0.000 0.065 72 High competitive intensity prosess Innovation Business Performanc 0.530 0.000 0.806 76 low competitive intensity Product Innovation Business Performanc 0.471 0.000 0.222 72 High competitive intensity Product Innovation Business Performanc 0.029 0.000 0.806 76   As can be seen in the above discussion, the effect of process innovation on business performance in two groups of companies with high competition is higher than that of low competition. The more the competition intensifies, the greater the impact of process innovation on business performance.

In this research all hypotheses were approved. According to these hypotheses, product and process innovation strategies have a positive impact on the performance of export organizations. It is important to note that in a high competitive environment, the use of process innovation strategy on export performance has a better impact on the product innovation strategy. One of the reasons for using the process innovation strategy in a competitive state of affairs is that the process innovation process is hidden from the eyes of competitors. In this case, the business will be able to maintain its financial resources for producing products and avoid the imitation of competitors.  It is safe to say that this is important to maintain business life in a competitive environment. The results are consistent with the results of previous studies. Paying attention to the external environment of the organization and understanding the intensity of competition in the environment will make it more effective for decision makers to get a better strategy. In short, attention outside and within the organization to adopt an innovation strategy must be consistent with the organization's success. A strategy, as it can be a business success, can equally create barriers to this path and eliminate the market. Therefore, taking innovation strategy in line with the market situation and international competitors not only helps to improve performance but also plays an important role in business development. Export companies provide successful businesses and executives by adopting a market-oriented strategy to innovate and utilize existing creativity while increasing sales by increasing market share and profits.

As a developing country, Iran has taken non-oil exports into consideration as an important strategy in its economic plans in order to be released from single-product economy and develop non-oil exports. However, in practice, the achievements associated with non-oil exports are mainly related to petroleum commodities and derivatives. Hence, the country needs to strengthen export firms and their international competitive capabilities, in particular, in the fields which have the required potential for international trade and competitions. One of the industries that can be of great value in a situation that the country is seeking non-oil exports is food industry (Kaffash et al. 2012). However, despite high potentials of food industries in Iran, the balance of trade is negative for this area and it should gradually become reasonable and positive (Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Mines, 2016).Therefore, this study has been focused on the food industry and export power. On the other hand, after examining the literature the gap in international marketing and small and medium enterprises, one can say that the criticism of the views in these areas is that they seek to identify and utilize existing resources and capabilities of the organization, and they have static view (Teece, 2009). Thus, in this study, factors affecting the ability of the firms to export entrepreneurship from a dynamic perspective are examined. As it has been mentioned earlier, in previous studies, the models of entrepreneurial exports presented from static perspectives like resource-based view (Navarro-Garcia et al., 2016, Tayloe, 2013). In addition, it should be noted that in each industry, different types of dynamic capabilities can be identified, which are different. So, it can be said that dynamic capabilities are vaguely identified. Therefore, another research gap is the ambiguity of the concept of dynamic capabilities in the food industry that this study try to identify. On the other hand, one of the concerns of business professionals is the documentation and modeling of the practices of entrepreneurs in various functional areas, including the field of marketing and internationalization. But entrepreneurial exports, which are part of international entrepreneurship, have not been taken into consideration (Hessels & Vanstel, 2011). Indeed, it can be said that there is a research gap in the field of international entrepreneurship (Mainela et al., 2014). Also, the models presented in the international entrepreneurship are about large and global companies. They are less relevant to small and medium enterprises, especially in developing countries (Taylor, 2013). Therefore, in view of the existing gaps in the literature on the issue of non-oil exports in the country, this study tries to identify the factors affecting the development of entrepreneurial exports of Iranian food industry enterprises in terms of dynamic capabilities.

Methods

 In the first stage, a theoretical discussion on the interviews and content analysis and sampling have been provided. In the design phase of the model, in addition to reviewing the literature, interviews with experts in the food industry were considered. These experts in the food industry include people from different levels of the organization in the leading manufacturing and exporting food companies in Iran. Sampling in this research is theoretical in the first stage. In this type of sampling, samples are not necessarily composed of individuals, and the specialized and theoretical literature related to a domain can also be considered as a unit of data and analysis, and the goal is to achieve theoretical saturation (Adolph et al.., 2012). In the first stage, a series of deep interviews was conducted with 20 academic experts and food industry experts to reach the theoretical saturation. Interviews were analyzed with MaxQDA 10 software and a model has been achieved. The statistical population in the second phase of study is small and medium-sized enterprises in the food industry, which these companies operate as exporters in the food industry, with more than three years of export experience. In total, 24 companies participated in the research. Sampling method at this stage is a purposive sampling and the tool used in this stage is a questionnaire. Of the total questionnaires sent for 210 people, 193 questionnaires were answered and analised. For testing the model, this study used a structural equation model and Smart Pls software.   Findings This study seeks to identify the factors affecting entrepreneurial exports using the dynamic capabilities perspective, at the level of small and medium enterprises that are known as a successful entrepreneur and exporter in the food industry. Therefore, in this study, based on the obtained model, the analysis of the content of interviews and the study of literature 5 dimensions were considered for the identifying and seizing the opportunities capability. But after test of the model, only four dimensions including management competencies, networking capability, entrepreneurial orientation and external market orientation, respectively, were identified as constituent dimensions. Furthermore, the results showed that four dimensions of the identifying and seizing opportunities capabilities are effective on the configuration capability and the macro environment has a negative impact on the configuration capability. Also, the micro-environment has a moderating effect in the relationship between the two variables. On the other hand, the configuration capability affects the entrepreneurial export.

In this study, three dimensions of strategic, analysis and global commitment as constituted dimensions of managerial competencies for identifying and seizing opportunities in international markets for small and medium enterprises were recognized. Networking capability, entrepreneurial orientation and external market orientation (retail environment audit and market research) are other dimensions of identifying and seizing opportunity capabilities. Moreover, the reconfiguration capability on entrepreneurial exports has a significant impact. Researches have also shown that the competitive responsive capability is effective on export performance of a firm (Helfalt et al., 2007). Based on testing the model, the micro-environment features, including market uncertainty and competition level, have positive impact on the relationship between identifying and seizing opportunity capability and reconfiguration capability. This means that companies that operate in environments with high levels of uncertainty can identify opportunities more quickly and face better environmental threats. In this study, is also has been found that the macro environment has a negative impact on the reconfiguration capability. But this impact is less than the positive impact of identifying and seizing opportunities on reconfiguration capability. Thus, by enhancing the capability of identifying and seizing opportunities with the following four sub-dimensions as mentioned above, the negative impact of the macro environment on configuration capability  to face market threats can be reduced.

Rapid changes in the environment and the intensification of the competitive environment, and the need to gain competitive advantage, require the organization's valuable resources to sustain the organization's competitive advantage. New Growth Theory, with its emphasis on knowledge as a major factor influencing economic growth, is the role of entrepreneurship in recent years. Accordingly, both the knowledge and the its impact on economic growth are vital in today's knowledge economies. Guaranteeing and maintaining the survival of organizations requires finding solutions and new methods to deal with problems that depend on innovation, the creation of new products, processes and new methods. The source-based theory believes that companies with valuable, scarce, and unique resources have the potential to achieve superior performance. Based on the concept of dynamic capabilities, in addition to organizational resources based view, organizational processes are also important because they facilitate resource control for value creation strategies. In this regard knowledge plays a significant role. Knowledge enables the organizations to transform and refine their knowledge resources to adapt with the environmental conditions. The present study examines the direct impact of entrepreneurial orientation and its indirect effect through the ability to learn on the performance of small and medium enterprises.

The purpose of this study is to determine the export skills of export manufacturing companies in different stages of internationalization. This paper extracts the export skills from literature and classified them into 6 groups: International finance and risk management skills, International marketing skills, International Strategic management skills, International trade logistics skills, International trade research skills, and International trade regulations skills. Then the importance of each of these export skills are compared in the five stages of internationalization of companies. The export manufacturing companies in the north and northwest of the Iran were selected as the statistical community and 214 companies have participated as the statistical samples to achieve the goals of this paper. Samples were selected using simple random sampling and the research hypotheses were tested through Analysis of Variance. The results showed that the importance of all export skills except international trade logistics skills is different in the five stages of internationalization.

Franchising is one of the dominant strategic methods for international strategies. In franchise method, the franchiser agrees for franchisee to use the franchisers brand, product, etc. in exchange of fees. This method is one of the key strategic methods (Leek and Christedoulides, 2014) for internationalization. The quality of relationship between the two business partners play a key role for franchising success. The quality of relationship has three dimensions including trust, commitment and satisfaction (Athanasopoulou, 2009). This research focuses on this important issue in international strategy. More specifically we will discuss the brand value, quality of relationship and brand citizenship behavior. According to the literature, the specific value of brand includes: quality of relationship, the brand image and the brand loyalty (Nyadzayo et al, 2016). The quality of relationship itself, has two dimensions including brand trust and commitment (Kim et al, 2002). The brand citizenship behavior includes seven dimensions namely, brand consideration, brand enthusiasm, sportsmanship, brand endorsement, self-development, and brand advancement (Nyadzayo, et al, 2016). Theoretical framework and literature review In this research we synthesized the literature and developed the conceptual framework of the research. Sehat et al (1393) in their research entitled “customer’s loyalty improvement, based on relational marketing” concluded that, enthusiasm in brand has strong impact on customer’s loyalty. Erkmen and Hancer (2014) investigated the role of trust in branding. Rezgani (1993) has also investigated the relationship between salesforces behavior and trust in marketing. Asadpoor (1392) also concluded that long-term compare to short-term relationship has meaningful effect on perception of brand and loyalty. Therefore, in this research we developed the following hypothesis: H1: Quality of relations has significant and positive effect on brand citizenship behavior. H2a: Brand citizenship behavior has positive and significant effect on value of relations. H2b: Brand citizenship behavior has positive effect on brand’s image. H2c: Brand citizenship behavior has positive effect on the brand’s commitment. H3: Brand’s citizenship behavior as mediating variable has positive effect on the relationship between quality of relations and special value of brand. H4: Franchise competence moderates the relationship between quality of relations and brand citizenship behavior components through behavior. H5: Duration of relationship moderates the relationship between quality of relations and brand citizenship behavior components through behavior.

This is an applied research using survey as research design. It is a quantitative research. The data has been collected using questionnaire. The sample has been drawn from the companies operating in home appliances manufacturing industry. In total 268 completed questionnaires have been collected. Prior to distribution of the questionnaires we conducted a pilot study. The face validity and content validity of the questionnaire have been tested. The internal consistent of the constructs have been verified by calculating Cronbach Alfa (quality of relations α= 0.71, brand’s citizenship behavior α= 0.89, special value of brand α= 0.90 and the franchiser’s competence α= 0.87). We conducted the data analysis in three levers. First, the descriptive analysis helped us to analyze variables individually to get a broad picture of the distribution of the data. Then we conducted bivariate analysis to test the correlation between the variables. Then we conducted multi-regression analysis using structural equation modeling to test the hypothesis.

The data has been analyzed in three levels. Descriptive analysis of the data revealed that most of the respondents were female. Majority of the respondents have had less than 6 years old. We have also found that most of the data for the measured variables were distributed normally. The association between variables have been measured using spearman rank-order correlation. All measured variables were associated significantly. We used factor analysis for testing the model of the research. The model test revealed that the SEM model was fit (RMSEA: 0.055, GFI: 0.886, PCLOSE: 0.175). We tested the hypotheses. The hypotheses one, the relationship between quality of relations and brand citizenship behavior was significant and positive. The relationship between the brand citizenship behavior and both quality of relation, brand image and brand commitment all were positive and significant. We also found significant relationship between all research variables.

The data analysis shows that quality of relations has significant effect on the brand citizenship behavior. It means that the agents those have better relations with their business partners have more autonomy to perform. They get more loyal to the franchiser. The agents pass this image of better quality of products and services to the customers. Trust is a key element in establishing good relationship between the franchiser and franchisees. It is concluded that to increase quality relationship in franchise strategic method, the firms should establish trust and become more loyal to the reciprocal relationships.

Companies and countries put exports as their main strategy in order to reach more market segments, increase revenues, and obtain scarce resources, low costs, competitive advantages and economic growth (Hoang, 2016; Acikdlli, 2013). Considering the major role of exports in developing and improving the economies of the countries, in this research, we seek to examine the effect of export market behavior on improving export performance by considering the mediating variable of marketing effectiveness in Dry Goods Export Companies.

In terms of objective, the study is a survey work, an applied work as to the purpose, and a cross-sectional work as to time horizon. Study population consisted of 120 export experts in 20 top dry goods export companies. All of these companies have central offices in Tehran province and their specifications are available in Iran's Dehydrated Exporter Union. Through random sampling and using a Jersey-Morgan table, 93 experts were elected as subjects. Statistical analyses were done in PLS. Validity of the questionnaire was assessed by two convergent and divergent validity criteria, which is specific to structural equation modeling.

In this research, Statistical analyses were done in PLS.  In the PLS, the hypotheses are rejected or confirmed by the T statistic and if the T statistic is higher than 1.96, it indicates the existence of a causal relationship between the variables and the hypothesis is confirmed. According to the structural equation model, the effect of export market behavior on the marketing effectiveness is significant. In other words, the value of T statistic is greater than 1.96 (26.33). Therefore, this relationship is significant. On the other hand, the path coefficient according to Figure 3 is positive, which is equal to (0.89). Export market behavior has a positive and significant effect on export performance. In other words, the value of the t statistic is higher than 1.96, and the path coefficient of these two variables is positive and strong. Also, marketing effectiveness has a positive and significant effect on the export performance of the organization. In other words, the statistic t is higher than 1.96 and the positive path coefficient is also positive. Therefore, these hypotheses were confirmed. Table 1 shows the results of the analysis using the structural equation model to test the research hypotheses:   Table 1. Test results Test result T Path coefficient hypothesis Confirmed 26.33 0.89 1. Export marketing behavior has a positive and significant effect on marketing effectiveness. Confirmed 2.15 0.80 2. Export market behavior has a positive and significant effect on export performance. Confirmed 4.35 0.86 3. Marketing effectiveness has a positive and significant effect on the export performance.. Confirmed - 0.76 4. Export market behavior has a positive and significant effect on the export performance through the marketing effectiveness.

Regarding the many problems that most of our Dry Goods Export Companies are facing in terms of increasing their exports, in this research, we tried to examine the impact of market orientation of these companies and the effectiveness of marketing activities on the increase and export performance. All the hypotheses of this research were confirmed. According to the results of the research, the following suggestions could be made for the companies that export the products: - Designing customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction indicators in order to positively influence the behavior of market orientation on export performance and knowledge of customers' point of view. - A permanent presence at domestic and international exhibitions to identify the latest trends in the development of new products and a variety of support services for this industry. - Launching international market research units to identify customers' needs and demands.

Countries around the world apply various tools and policies to obtain higher levels of growth and development. One of these tools is trying to expand the business structure to support greater integration and participation in the world trade. Trade development is influenced by several factors that business environment is seem to be one of these factors. The business environment refers to all factors affecting the business of enterprises that are beyond the control and domination of firms. The World Bank has been a good guide for investors and planners by publishing the Doing Business Report. This report has been published since 2004, so that the report of 2017 surveyed 190 countries and 11 indicators. According to the World Bank's 2017 report, Iran ranked 120th in the world. Business environment can play an important role in gaining a greater share of the global trade by providing more liberal trade and lowering legal constraints and additional transaction costs. Improper business environment will increase production costs by raising the costs imposed on the environment, such as fluctuations in power outage, bribery and judicial system problems, and it will reduce the competitiveness of the country in international trade. Accordingly, considering the key role of foreign trade in conducting economic development plans and promoting economic globalization, it is important to observe how business environment indicators affects the exports and imports.

This study investigates the impact of business environment indicators on exports and imports among 30 countries, during the years of 2004-2014 with GMM method. The sample countries have been selected as Iran's major trading partners by using Iran's Foreign Trade Statistic Yearbook, considering their export and import value with Iran. The required data have been extracted from WDI and Doing Business databases. In this study two export and import models have been used and the impact of business environment indicators is measured on them. The econometrics model is based on Gani and Celemes model (2013).   Findings The findings reveal that improve of business environment indicators has a positive impact on exports and imports. Among the 7 indicators used in this study, the indicators of “Starting a Business, dealing with Construction Permits, Trading Across Borders, Contract Enforcement and Resolving Insolvency” have positive and significant effects on export. About the import model also, improve of all indicators have positive and significant effect on imports, excepting the indicator of “Dealing with construction permits”. So improvement of business environment can boost foreign trade and increase exports and imports. Since economic development is based on the competitiveness of countries, a clear and healthy business environment results in positive economic outcomes, such as foreign trade growth, economic growth and industrial development.

Some important sub-branches of business environment indicators are about the number of steps and process time. Making some adjustments and simplifying their process can lead to significant improvements in business environment, but it requires a sustainable and coherent planning. One of the foundations of the business environment is to develop private sector, which is depended on a complex set of rules, physical and institutional infrastructures, economic stability, direct and indirect foreign investment and else. Institutional reform policy can be effective in accelerating improve of business environment, but it is a long-term issue and it cannot be achieved only by legislation and creation of formal institutions. In fact, institutional change involves a change in the system of informal institutions and cognitive structures of the people of the countries.

Customer relationship performance is one of the important factors in business performance. The relationship between the business and the customer creates significant services profits and influences the business performance directly such as income, preservation of the customers and obtaining new customers (Liao, 2016). One of the best approaches adopted by the firms and services sectors for fulfillment of this goal is relationship marketing. It includes expansion of strategies for establishing a relationship with customers and preservation of it in long-term and finally, creation of value. The aim of relationship marketing is creation of customer loyalty based on their satisfaction (Miquel-Romero et al, 2014). The commitment level of the parities of the relationship is very important. Commitment is defined as unilateral intention for continuation or preservation of the activity (Rashid, 2003). The services provider organization, especially job consultation and labor placement agencies industry is not optional in this regard and in addition to the relationships, commitment plays an important role. Previously, studies have been conducted on the positive impact of the relationship marketing on the customer satisfaction and loyalty in Iran and foreign countries. However, the effect of the relationship marketing on the business performance has not been investigated in Iran. Due to the importance of the improving of performance and efficacy of non-governmental job consultation and labor placement agencies, this research was conducted by the aim of improving the business performance (labor placement) based on the relationship marketing and commitment in the foreign labor placement agencies.Theoretical framework and literature review The goal of a market-based organization is expansion of activities, so that it is achieved by establishing market-based culture for helping value-added for customer and finally, improvement of organizational performance (Doaei et al., 2011). This research evaluates and measures the business performance by two created job opportunities and the number of employees according to the nature of the labor placement agencies. The relationship marketing includes all steps that a firm takes for identification and providing better services to its valuated customers. The relationship marketing is a continuous process for identification and creation of new values for customers which bilateral benefits are considered and these benefits are divided with the customer in his life time (LeNguyen et al., 2015). Commitment is a sustainable tendency of each trading stakeholder for preservation of valuable relationships. If each party believes in the importance of the relationship a commitment in the relationship will be shaped and the parities will make effort to preserve and promote their relationship (Morgan & Hant, 1994). Leo et al, (2012) showed that there is a positive relationship between the relationship marketing approach and organizational performance. The analysis showed that relationship marketing has a positive and significant impact on enhancement of sale, preservation of customers, market share, capital return and the firm total performance. In this research the variables such as communication, trust, common values, satisfaction and establishing a connection for a relationship marketing model that seems important for in the job consultation and nongovernmental labor placement agencies, have been considered as relationship marketing dimensions which proposed by Fontenot (2001). The theoretical foundation and variables, the research conceptual model are illustrated in figure 1.Main hypotheses -Relationship marketing via commitment increases the foreign labor placement. -There is a positive relationship between the relationship marketing and the number of employees. - There is a positive relationship between the relationship marketing and the number of the job opportunities. -There is a positive relationship between the relationship marketing and commitment. - There is a positive relationship between commitment and the number of employees. -There is a positive relationship between commitment and the number of job opportunities.

This is an applied research. This paper benefits from a descriptive and specially survey and cross-sectional methods.  The data were collected via questionnaire. The structural equations modeling was used for testing the research hypotheses. In multivariate analysis, the conceptual model of the research presenting the relationship between relationship marketing and business performance, was analyzed by structural equation and multiple regression methods. The statistical population of the research consisted of 120 job consultation and labor placement agencies active in the foreign labor placement sector.

In the bivariate analysis of correlation coefficient test of the variables showed that both sides of the equation had a high correlation and between the relationship marketing and commitment, the highest correlation was obtained between the variables of satisfaction and commitment and the lowest correlation was achieved in variables of connection and commitment. The results of multiple regression also indicated that the relationship marketing influenced commitment and in other words, establishing commitment in a business about 54% depends on the relationship marketing factors. Other findings of multiple regression test depicted that 88% of the variability of the number of job opportunities is explained by commitment and also 94% of variability of the number of employees is determined by commitment. Finally, variation in the obtained job opportunities was related to utilization of the relationship marketing by the job consultation and labor placement agencies as 52% and 51% respectively.

The results of the hypotheses tests showed that the relationship marketing had a positive impact on the nongovernmental job consultation and labor placement via commitment. The results of this research are consistent with the results of Olto and Maclitive (2010), Vou and Lu (2012), Leo et al. (2012), Tondar and Peters (2018), Vazifehdoust et al. (2017) and Rabjbari and Barari (2009) providing the impact of the relationship marketing on business performance.