Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the validity and utility of two theoretical approaches to understanding the relationship between strategic orientations, innovation and firm performance and to examine the role of innovation in the relationship while avoiding circular arguments. The universalistic approach suggests that strategic orientations have independent and parallel effects on firms’ performance, and that innovation does not influence this relationship. The holistic approach proposes that strategic orientations in a complementary and interrelated view have both direct and indirect effects on firms’ performance through innovation.Design/methodology/approach: A meta-analytic path analysis applying two-stage structural equation modeling (TSSEM) was conducted on data from 132 primary studies and 33,063 observations.Findings: The holistic approach was demonstrated to be superior due to its more explanatory power in linking more complex relationships through simultaneous direct and indirect effects and its capacity for including the interrelatedness and complementarity of strategic orientations. It was found that innovation has a full mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance, and a partial mediating role in the relationship between market orientation (MO) and learning orientation (LO) and firm performance.Research limitations/implications: The study used observed variables instead of latent variables for meta-analytic path analysis, which may reduce some sources of endogeneity. However, causal inference is not possible due to the nature of meta-analysis. The scope of the final sample was limited by some studies not reporting the estimates of correlations between constructs.Practical implications: Managers can improve an organization's chances of success in the marketplace by adopting a holistic view of strategic orientations focusing on customer satisfaction, learning from the external environment and pursuing new market opportunities. Furthermore, an organization can gain a competitive advantage through innovation by creating products and services that are different from what is currently available in the market. To be successful, an organization must not only create innovative products and services but also market them effectively to consumers.Originality/value: This study is the first to meta-analytically assess the explanatory value of two theorized models linking strategic orientations, innovation and firm performance. It also clarifies the role of innovation in the relationship between strategic orientations and firm performance.

Purpose: Despite the importance of assessing business performance, there is limited research on the ways of measuring marketing effectiveness. Aims to redress this issue.Design/methodology/approach: This paper focuses on six categories of marketing effectiveness measures to compare the ways of measuring marketing performance in two groups of Spanish firms (Tourism and Hospitality firms and Industrial firms) in an exploratory study; and also studies the effect of business orientation (customer and competitor orientation) on the measures used to evaluate marketing performance.Findings: It was found that consumer‐based measures have a leading role in the evaluation of marketing effectiveness in Tourism and Hospitality companies and customer orientation affects the importance of these consumer‐based measures.Research limitations/implications: Research is exploratory and subjective measures of business performance were used.Practical implications: The main implications are addressed to the Tourism and Hospitality managers for improving the ways of measuring marketing effectiveness.Originality/value: This is a study of the measurement of marketing effectiveness in Tourism and Hospitality companies in comparison with the industrial counterparts.

Purpose – This is the first part of two papers which examine the Italian and Spanish textile-clothing sector The purpose of this paper is to analyse the key factors in the international performance of textile manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a comparative study of the main factors that have affected the export performance of the Spanish and Italian businesses. A wide range of factors has been studied, such as size, dispersion of sales and export experience. In order to compare Spanish and Italian cases, the empirical study used a standardized questionnaire for collecting data. The cases analysed were respective geographical zones with a great tradition in textile-clothing industry in their country, Catalonian (in the Spanish case) and Lombardian business (in the Italian case). Findings – It was found that international experience is the main factor in the export performance for both cases but the investment in R&D and the export experience have been the keys for explaining the major export performance of the Italian businesses. Research limitations/implications – The sample is formed basically for small textile-clothing businesses (with less than five employees). Originality/value – The paper explains why the Lambardian textile-clothing companies export more, in relation to total sales, than the Catalan companies in the same sector. The general character of the study suggests new future lines of investigation.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide evidence that private label brands (PLB) have the ability to build brand equity as they develop, and to determine whether the capitalization of PLB equity varies across consumer segments and product categories. The paper builds on previous research incorporating consumer‐level factors, showing their relevance as key determinants of PLB choice.Design/methodology/approach: The brand choice model used is a multinomial logit model (MNL) calibrated with a consumer panel database of two product lines of yoghurt from 8,000 Spanish households for a three‐year period.Findings: It is shown that PLB have been able to build brand equity throughout their development, across product categories; however, brand equity is capitalized across only some consumer segments. The use of consumer‐level factors to segment the market prior to measuring brand equity is necessary to allow the identification of consumer groups where equity is created.Practical implications: Findings provide key directions to PLB managers regarding how to determine, approach and leverage the equity of their PLB across different consumer segments and product categories.Originality/value: Prior research has attempted to measure PLB equity using product/brand factors and market factors, but without considering consumer‐level factors. In this research, consumer‐level factors, specifically consumer demographics, are incorporated into the analysis, and equity is measured across seven different consumer segments for two product lines.

While research exists regarding the internet’s influence on traditional forms of youth leisure, research based on a comprehensive set of leisure indicators is scattered. We explore how a set of young peoples’ in-person leisure activities are complemented by their internet practices, using a canonical correlation framework to estimate the relationship between leisure activities and internet practices. We also measure how internet practices vary depending on the social properties of young people. We find that a strategic complementarity exists between certain offline leisure activities and specific online internet practices, in particular, that in-person social leisure is complemented by social interaction over the internet, that in-person cultural leisure is complemented by online information-seeking and asynchronous communication practices, and that in-home gaming is complemented by software and associated downloads. This strategic complementarity, furthermore, is also socially patterned, primarily by gender.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze different brand clarity levels (BCLs) of local, global and glocal types of brands in fast-moving consumer goods from the consumer's perspective. The study also intends to identify whether the consumer's previous experience with such brands may impact BCL. Design/methodology/approach: Twenty-eight global and local brands were used to test the hypotheses by conducting a survey with 400 consumers in the emerging economy of Iran. The authors applied a quantitative technique of brand classification, previously proposed in the literature. After categorizing the brands as local, global or glocal, one-way ANOVA, Tukey post hoc and t-test analyses were performed to identify whether the different types of brands had different BCLs. Findings: The results showed that brand clarity was significantly higher for local bands than for global or glocal brands and that it was higher for glocal bands than for global brands. Furthermore, the consumer's prior experience with a brand had no impact on BCL for different types of brands. Social implications: For global brand managers, it is essential to know that local brands in Middle Eastern emerging markets may have more brand clarity than global brands. Therefore, if global brands intend to enter these markets, adopting a glocal positioning appears to be a helpful strategy. Besides, the results suggest that managers should analyze brand categorization from the consumer's perspective, i.e. from a subjective instead of an objective perspective. Originality/value: This was the first study analyzing the BCL of local, global and glocal brands and identifying significant differences in their BCL.