The Role of Management Control Systems on Inter-Organisational Efficiency: An Analysis of Export Performance

Resource-Based View and SMEs Performance Exporting through Foreign Intermediaries: The Mediating Effect of Management Controls

“…The RBV focuses on internal resources and capabilities to identify the determinants of a firm's competitive advantage and performance. It has been suggested that inclusion of the RBV is a fruitful direction that would enrich the export management literature [12,53], focusing more on dynamic capabilities, considering the interactions between resources and capabilities and incorporating views from other academic areas [53,54]. Furthermore, this perspective has been advocated as a fruitful direction for understanding the complex process of managing internationalization [13,55] and export channels [1,2,54].…”

“…Nevertheless, in the literature, there is no consensus on the association of control and export performance, perhaps influenced by the diversity of control types and research contexts employed [36,75]. Although the literature proposes different typologies regarding MCS design, a widely accepted typology that has shown its relevance to analyze control elements in downstream inter-organizational relationships [12,16] classifies its elements into two main categories [41,76]: formal and informal control. Formal control is made up by written, deliberately articulated, management-initiated mechanisms and practices that provide information in a structured and routinized way for control and decision-making processes.…”

“…Baraldi et al [96] argue that, to assist in the process of interaction of resources in inter-firm relationships, MCSs should indicate what resources (technical and organizational) and interfaces (interconnections or contact points for which two or more resources interact between two entities) are relevant to track them and measure them. The key issue In recent years, there is a growing number of studies in RBV that considers MCSs as drivers to achieve competitive advantages in inter-organizational relationships [12,46,47,[89][90][91]. Focusing on planning and implementation capabilities, Spyropoulou et al [92] find that these architectural capabilities collaborate in achieving strategic goals in export markets; since, in an exporter-foreign intermediary relationship, MCSs are implemented and used both to create conditions that motivate the intermediary to achieve predetermined outcomes and to contribute to the definition and implementation of the strategy [16,93], these systems can play a key role in supporting the creation of value for organizations.…”

“…However, usually SMEs have greater difficulties than larger firms to access export resources and capabilities, SMEs face barriers to enter and to achieve successful performance in foreign markets [6,7]. Cooperation between firms can provide them with the resources to engage in internationalization activities [7][8][9], RBV suggests that inter-organizational relationships can allow SMEs to gain access and availability to tangible and intangible resources that strengthen their current resource base, which will positively impact on performance [10][11][12]. Export activities are usually based on relationships between firms and foreign intermediaries [13] and independent export channels are the most common exporting mode [14,15].…”

“…These researchers also argue for the necessity in marketing literature to wide RBV, on the one hand, including inter-firm relationships to explain the effect of exchange-level resources on the performance of marketing exchange, and, on the other hand, carrying out research to understand and refine the knowledge about the skills, processes, and policies that lead to resource exploitation at the exchange level of analysis. Recent studies in RBV claim that the adequate management of inter-organizational activities should also be analyzed as a key determinant of export performance [12,45,46] and that the role of MCSs can be argued "as a capability which is valuable, distinctive and imperfectly imitable" ( [47] p. 549), even as an important capability for SME internationalization that can collaborate in the exploitation phase [29]. In addition, research beyond direct links of antecedents on export performance, but about factors mediating this relationship in order to "improve research accuracy and reliability" (p. 636), is required in marketing literature [48].…”