International orientation, marketing mix, and the performance of international German 'mittelstand' companies

Kraft, Patricia; Dowling, Michael; Helm, Roland

doi:10.1504/ijbg.2012.046207

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Using Google Scholar, we identified 67 sources with "German Mittelstand" in the title; most, again, not being relevant for the topic under investigation. Berlemann and Jahn, 2016;Kraft, Dowling, and Helm, 2012) building on them and other material that was identified in a rather unsystematic way, when writing this perspective article. Given the lack of an established scholarly literature dedicated to the Mittelstand, the authors also reviewed the family business and SME literatures in search for arguments that could support specific aspects of their theoretical examination.…”

Section: Methodological Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, they aim to find ways of outcompeting their competitors with their available resources to survive and succeed in the long term. Mittelstand firms typically do so by expanding internationally (Kraft et al, ), which helps keep their product portfolio focused and their resource requirements “controllable” while reducing market risk and increasing revenue. With their niche‐focused globalization strategy, Mittelstand firms are thus able to maintain their position as innovative pioneers, in line with prior research that assumes globalization and innovation to be complementary for SMEs (Golovko and Valentini, ; Love and Roper, ).…”

Section: Resource Deployment Strategy Of German Mittelstand Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

Massis¹,

Audretsch²,

Uhlaner³

et al. 2017

J of Product Innov Manag

315

275

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German Mittelstand firms are globally recognized for their innovation, especially regarding product, process, and service innovation. So what can scholars and managers across the globe learn from the success story of German Mittelstand innovation? Drawing on information collected on innovative Mittelstand firms and extant knowledge on innovation, the resource-based view, and family firm research, the authors investigate how these highly innovative firms flourish and achieve high innovation performance despite the severe financial and human capital resource constraints they face as compared with larger corporations. The authors then present a model identifying and integrating six salient traits of such firms that allow them to efficiently orchestrate their resources to innovate and outcompete their competitors in the global market, enabling those firms to overcome their resource-related weaknesses and turn them into strengths. Specifically, these traits are: niche focus and customer collaboration, globalization strategy, preference for self-financing, long-run mindset, superior employee relations, and community embeddedness. The power of this Mittelstand approach takes full effect only when all six traits operate in an integrated fashion, and the proposed resource-based model serves as a starting point for a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of firm ability to innovate and successfully compete within a specific context. The article outlines the implications of the model of German Mittelstand innovation for research conducted in different fields including innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy, dynamic capabilities, ecosystems, and family business. Finally, the article proposes a future research agenda aimed at improving current understanding of the German Mittelstand "innovation strategy" and its transferability to other contexts, and outlines practical implications for owners and managers worldwide wanting to emulate the German Mittelstand innovation model.

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Section: Methodological Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resource Deployment Strategy Of German Mittelstand Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

Massis¹,

Audretsch²,

Uhlaner³

et al. 2017

J of Product Innov Manag

315

275

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mittelstand firms have benefitted from globalization. They have internationalized and sell a significant share of their products abroad (Franch Parella & Carmona Hernández, 2018;Kraft et al, 2012). Despite limited resources, such firms often attach great importance to innovation (De Massis et al, 2018).…”

Section: The German Mittelstand and Its Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Financial performance of hidden champions: Evidence from German manufacturing firms

2021

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Hidden champions are market leaders in niche markets and are an important part of the German Mittelstand. Although the hidden champion phenomenon has received considerable interest in practice, few academic studies on this issue exist. We especially lack evidence on the financial performance of hidden champions. Our study addresses this gap and investigates the profitability of hidden champions. In analyzing a panel dataset of 4677 German manufacturing firms, of which 617 are hidden champions, we find that hidden champions have significantly higher profitability with regard to return on assets but less so regarding return on equity. The hidden champion performance effect on return on assets is valued at 1.7 percentage points. Furthermore, the hidden champion performance effect decreases with firm size. Our paper contributes to the literature on the effect of firm strategy on firm profitability and adds to a better understanding of the hidden champion phenomenon.

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“…A study by Levy (2005) suggests that firms are more likely to be highly global when their top management pays attention to the global environment and considers a diverse set of elements in this environment; on the other hand, firms led by top management teams that pay attention to the internal environment are less likely to consider globalization as a viable strategic choice. In a more recent study conducted by Kraft, Dowling, and Helm (2012) on a sample of 259 internationally operating businesses based in Germany, findings indicate that business mindset orientations influence performance and such influence is enhanced by better coordination with marketing strategies.…”

Section: Export Mindsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Export Practices and Performance across Global Mindset Orientations

Koh¹,

Gammoh²,

Okoroafo³

2013

IBR

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Extant literatures suggest three different approaches to decision making for operating a firm internationally: ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric. This study investigated differences in firm characteristics, export marketing strategies and export performance outcomes across these three orientations on a sample of North American (Canadian and U.S.) firms. The findings revealed major differences in examined variables across these decision-making orientations. While global mindset seemed to influence export strategy and performance, it did not affect many aspects of firm characteristics. Implications for export managers and public policy are drawn from the results.

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International orientation, marketing mix, and the performance of international German 'mittelstand' companies

Cited by 4 publications

References 60 publications

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

Innovation with Limited Resources: Management Lessons from theGermanMittelstand

Financial performance of hidden champions: Evidence from German manufacturing firms

An Investigation of Export Practices and Performance across Global Mindset Orientations

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