دانلود رایگان مقاله عملکرد شرکت خدمات حرفه ای بازار نوظهور

ABSTRACT

Professional service firms (PSF) from emerging markets face a financial dilemma: PSFs tend to utilize high-wage labor, yet their emerging market status makes foreign clients cautious regarding quality and less willing to pay high prices. To allay these concerns, PSFs may be able to develop attractive, highly innovative services, but as the resource-based view (RBV) notes, this requires emerging market firms to possess critical capabilities to support such a competitive advantage. Relying on services theory, we propose that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of management and expert human capital (HC) are critical capabilities, enabling a PSF to develop and market innovative services profitably. In testing our model on 201 Indian PSFs, we find a mediating role for innovativeness whereby EO and HC drive service innovation which, in turn, accounts for financial performance. Further, we find EO positively moderates the innovative service–performance relationship as proactive, risk-tolerant managers improve foreign marketing. Insights for theory and practice are provided that enable PSFs to overcome the constraints and challenges of their emerging market origin.

6. Discussion

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), we develop and test a conceptual model of relationships between service innovation and performance of emerging market professional service firms. We suggest innovative, high-value services that offer foreign clients new and upgraded benefits have the potential to enhance profitability. Notably, developing and deploying valuable services in foreign markets are theorized to rely on key firm-level managerial and labor resources. According to the RBV, firms operate by leveraging and exploiting their operant resources, thereby attempting to gain a competitive advantage. The RBV provides insights into the potential benefits of acquiring and utilizing internal organizational resources that are appropriate to a PSF’s contextual setting so as to achieve superior organizational performance (Day, 1994; Barney, 1991). Importantly, our theoretical research question asks how managerial and labor operant resources enable emerging market PSFs to achieve desirable financial outcomes. As we note, extant research on managerial orientation and human capital is equivocal regarding a direct association with firm profitability, leaving unresolved the particular way these operant resources create value for emerging market PSFs. Our conceptualization of the drivers of financial performance for these firms recognizes that innovativeness of services mediates the impact operant capabilities have on revenue and profit outcomes. That is, we posit managerial orientation and human capital are key capabilities enabling PSFs to be highly innovative when developing professional services. Our empirical findings support the mediating role of service innovativeness, indicating expert front-line employees and proactive risk-tolerant management are necessary for PSFs to develop professional services that will be competitive in global markets. Our findings suggest these important labor and management attributes empower the creativity and inventiveness necessary for innovation in professional services.