Pioneering advantages in manufacturing and service industries: empirical evidence from nine countries

The contingent influence of organizational capabilities on proactive environmental strategy in the service sector: An analysis of North American and European ski resorts

“…We did not use annual sales as an indicator of size because pricing varies by country. Since the level of country affl uence and development may infl uence the institutional context for environmental consciousness and regulations as well as help in understanding the strategic differences between the services (Song et al, 1999), we also controlled for the country in which a resort was situated by using gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The size and the relative affl uence of the consumers in a ski resort's country (refl ected by GDP per capita) might affect a ski resort's capacity to develop a proactive environmental strategy.…”

The whole relationship between environmental variables and firm performance: Competitive advantage and firm resources as mediator variables

“…Studies have shown that early adopters in technological and product innovations typically enjoy better market and business performances because of the early adoption advantage (Gilbert and Birnbaum-More, 1996;Song et al, 1999). Hart and Ahuja (1996) demonstrate that the early moving firms may be opting for more advanced environmental strategies that build on low emissions, but which also involve other sources of sustainable competitive advantage (Ghemawat, 1986).…”

“…The results show that early investors in pollution-reducing processing equipment benefit from higher profit growth than later investors. This would imply that firms identified as 'earlier and better environmental performers' adopt proactive environmental programs and practices (Sarkis, 2006) and consequently that there is a positive relationship between early investment timing and intensity of involvement in environmental issues and the adoption of proactive environmental practices (Nehrt, 1996;Sarkis, 2006) that involve better firm performance (Ghemawat, 1986;Song et al, 1999). This leads to the formulation of a following proposition:…”

Investigating Time-in-Market Effects in Kuwait Health Clubs

“…By contrast, the cost and differentiation advantages are perceived to be higher in manufacturing than in services. Regarding cultural aspects of first-mover theory, Western manufacturing managers are shown to perceive cost advantages to be larger than do the Asian manufacturing managers (Song et al, 1999). Similarly, Song, et al (2000), found that service managers from Western firms perceive the preemptive advantages of pioneering to be more important than do their Asian counterparts.…”

“…In fact, Song et al (1999), in a multicountry study, found differences regarding the way managers from Western and Asian countries view this time-in-market effect in both manufacturing and service industries. Both groups see cost and differentiation advantages as more significant in manufacturing than in services.…”