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Organisational capabilities and relationship quality

Performance implications for palm oil processors in Malaysia
Yew Chong Tan, Felix Mavondo and Steve Worthington
Department of Marketing, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose The paper aims to examine the mediating role of relationship quality in the relationship between organisational capabilities and business performance in palm oil processing companies in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The study used a mail survey and achieved a nal sample of 330 palm oil processing companies. Findings The results show that relationship quality has strong mediating effects on the relationship between market orientation, learning orientation, and innovativeness and business performance, but does not have any signicant effect on the relationship between manufacturing capabilities and performance. Practical implications The study has implications for academics, managers and policy makers. Originality/value The major contribution of this paper is to ll the gaps in theoretical and empirical perspectives about the mediating role of relationship quality. Keywords Malaysia, Competitive manufacturing, Edible oils, Business performance Paper type Research paper

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Received November 2009 Revised October 2010 Accepted October 2010

Asia Pacic Journal of Marketing and Logistics Vol. 23 No. 2, 2011 pp. 152-164 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1355-5855 DOI 10.1108/13555851111120461

Introduction The resource-based view (RBV) of the rm has been widely used in strategic management over the past two decades (Makadok, 2001; Newbert, 2007, p. 22; Wernerfelt, 1984). This notion has recently been extended to strategic marketing (Attia and Hooley, 2007; Hooley and Greenley, 2007). The term RBV was rst coined by Wernerfelt in 1984 and the central question of this theory is why do some rms persistently outperform other rms? (Barney and Clark, 2007, p. 4). It focuses on internal analysis at rm level about their strengths and weaknesses, whereas Porters (1980) focus external factors creating opportunities and threats (Barney, 1991; Porter, 1980). In the context of this study, organisational capabilities examined are market orientation, learning orientation, innovativeness, and manufacturing capabilities. The main contribution of RBV is in providing a comprehensive explanation on the theory of competitive advantage. Despite the growing empirical and theoretical research in RBV of the rm, its usefulness and standing as a paradigm is still being debated (Armstrong and Shimizu, 2007; Barney, 2001; Kraaijenbrink et al., 2010; Newbert, 2007; Srivastava et al., 2001). It has been argued that more empirical research is needed to strengthen the support for this important theory. Based on the literature review, signicant gaps in the theoretical perspective appeared. For example, several researchers have identied relationship quality as an important resource of the rm, but still there

is lack of empirical study to incorporate relationship quality into RBV and performance (Luo et al., 2004; Palmatier et al., 2006, 2007). It might be due to the different specialization of research streams, RBV in strategic management, whereas relationship quality is in relationship marketing. Consequently, additional research should acknowledge this insight; investigate how well the RBV integrates with the relational view to enhance business performance. For that reason, we have identied the aspects of relationship quality such as trust, commitment and cooperation as components of relations quality in this study. In response to this gap, another equally important factor to guide this study is the research context. The role of capabilities and relationship quality on rm performance is studied in the palm oil processing sector. The Malaysian Oil Palm Statistics (MPOB, 2009) reported that the performance of export earning of palm oil constituted RM65.2 billion (US$18.6 billion) in 2008. At the rm level, palm oil processors are concerned about the business performance, and are involved in the seeking important capabilities and relationships to gain business protability. No prior studies exist in this industry hence the motivation to explore the generalisability of RBV to such a context. Literature review Organisational capabilities The notion of organisational capabilities has been established within the RBV of the rm (Barney, 1991; Hunt and Morgan, 1996). It is dened as an organisations capacity to deploy its tangible and intangible assets, to perform the task or to carry out activities in the rm (Maritan, 2001). Furthermore, according to Day (1994, p. 38) capabilities are complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge, exercised through organizational processes that enable rms to coordinate activities and make use of their assets. While capabilities are also known as distinctive competency or core competency, and it is dened as the knowledge set that distinguishes and provides a competitive advantage (Leonard-Barton, 1992, p. 113). Based on the above denitions, organisational capabilities are those that are difcult to imitate and duplicate by other competitors that have implications for competitive advantage and business performance (Barney, 1991; Enz, 2008). In this study, we examine four important capabilities: market orientation, learning orientation, innovativeness, and manufacturing capabilities that were identied by CEOs in the palm oil processing industry in Malaysia. A brief explanation of the selected constructs now follows. Market orientation. It is chosen as one of the organization capabilities for this study. This concept is dened as the organisation culture that most effectively and efciently creates the necessary behaviour for the creation of superior value for buyers and thus, continuous superior performance for the business (Narver and Slater, 1990, p. 21). Kohli and Jaworski (1990, p. 2) dened market orientation as:
[. . .] a philosophy of business management, based on a company wide acceptance of the need for customer orientation, prot orientation, and recognition of the important role of marketing in communicating the needs of the market to all major corporate departments.

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With respect to this context, market orientation plays a vital role in creating business performance. The palm oil processing companies are concerned about the business performance, and it will be better if they are interested in the linkage between market orientation and relationship quality. This reects that senior managers need to relate

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market orientation particularly in building and maintaining good relationship quality with their suppliers. Hence, given that information, the hypothesis as stated: H1. Market orientation is positively related to relationship quality. Learning orientation. The concept of organisational learning is the advancement of new knowledge or insight that can potentially inuence behaviour (Kropp et al., 2006; Slater and Narver, 1995). On this basis Sinkula et al. (1997) conclude that a more positive learning orientation will directly result in enhanced market information generation and dissemination, which in turn, directly affects the degree to which an organisation can make changes in its marketing strategies (a behavioural construct). In this study, the culture of learning in the organisation particularly in palm oil processing companies is related to relationship quality and therefore it is expected that learning orientation will lead to effective relationships. Thus, we posit that: H2. Learning orientation is positively related to relationship quality. Innovativeness. Innovativeness is dened as the capacity to introduce new process, product, or ideas in the organization (Hult et al., 2004, p. 430). It has three important dimensions, which are process, product, and administration innovation (Hult et al., 2004; Hurley and Hult, 1998; Mavondo et al., 2005). From the perspective of palm oil processing companies, innovativeness may relate to efcient research and development effort in the utilization of resources, creation of more diversied and new products (Yusof and Mohd.Arif, 2005). It is further supported by related studies in the palm oil industry (Chamala, 2003) who noted that key issues and challenges in technology transfer in agricultural industry (palm oil) revealed that innovation management involved in every part of the agricultural system and how can it help the industry to face challenges to meet the needs of sustainable business performance. Innovativeness is strongly supported by having effect partners who can pool their resources and capabilities to assist the focal rm. Therefore, we hypothesize that: H3. Innovativeness is positively related to relationship quality. Manufacturing capabilities. These are dened as [. . .] the skills and knowledge that enable a rm to be an efcient and exible producer or services provider in the use of resources as fully as possible (Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008, p. 2). In addition, Fritz (1996) suggested that manufacturing capabilities refer to production and cost orientation that emphasize on low-cost production, productivity enhancement, capacity utilisation, cost cutting, standardisation, and mass market strategies. Effective manufacturing requires leveraging the resources and capabilities of suppliers to enhance efciency. Strong channel relationships assist in achieving supplier support and reduction in operating costs. Hence, we hypothesize that: H4. Manufacturing capabilities is positively related to relationship quality. Relationship quality Relationship marketing is progressively more important to the overall marketing strategy of many rms (Hunt et al., 2006; Morgan and Hunt, 1999; Srivastava et al., 2001). Morgan and Hunt (1994) dened the concept of relationship marketing as referring to all marketing activities which involve establishing, developing and maintaining successful

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relational exchange. In this study, the relationship dimension primarily focused on the business-to-business relationship with suppliers. Relationship quality is chosen as the major driver inuencing inter-organisation relationship performance due to the theoretical gaps which have emerged in the investigation on a meta-analysis regarding the factors inuencing the effectiveness of relationship marketing (Palmatier, 2008; Palmatier et al., 2006) and the studies assessing empirical research concerning the RBV of the rm (Newbert, 2007). Furthermore, integrating relationship quality into the RBV of the rm could be even more benecial for an understanding of the relationship performance linkage (Newbert, 2007; Palmatier et al., 2006). Relationship quality as a multiple dimensions construct is tied with trust, commitment and cooperation, providing an overall assessment of the strength of relationship (Crosby et al., 1990; Palmatier, 2008). Ndubisi (2007) reafrmed that there were signicant positive relationship between trust, commitment, and conict handling on relationship quality. These constructs contribute differentially to relationship quality. Additionally, a critical review undertaken by Athanasopoulou (2009) indicates that most relationship quality research focuses on business-to-business in certain market as distinct from customer markets. Relationship quality is relevant to the palm oil processing companies and it reects the current challenges in their management and relationships building with the suppliers. Therefore, we posit that: H5. Relationship quality is positively related to (a) market effectiveness, (b) nancial performance, and (c) strategic objective. Relationship quality as mediator Mediators are also called intervening variables. They inform about the mechanism that links or explains how the independent variables are related to dependent variables (Baron and Kenny, 1986; MacKinnon et al., 2007). The importance of relationship marketing was further investigated by Morgan and Hunt (1999), and they explain that it is important to understand the role of capabilities needed from gaining effective marketing relationships to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. In short, the impact of relationship marketing in strategy marketing reects the adoption of relationship marketing into RBV. In view of that, the palm oil processing companies should constantly build and maintain good relationships with their suppliers in order to share and exchange capabilities. By incorporating relationship quality, it may help to meet the evolving needs of an ever-intensifying competitive market. As a result, it is important to investigate the mediating effect of relationship quality. Thus, we predict the hypotheses as below: H6. Relationship quality mediates the relationship between market orientation, and (a) market effectiveness, (b) nancial performance, and (c) strategic objective. H7. Relationship quality mediates the relationship between learning orientation and (a) market effectiveness, (b) nancial performance, and (c) strategic objective. H8. Relationship quality mediates the relationship between innovativeness and (a) market effectiveness, (b) nancial performance, and (c) strategic objective. H9. Relationship quality mediates the relationship between manufacturing capabilities and (a) market effectiveness, (b) nancial performance, and (c) strategic objective.

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Organisational performance In this study, organisational performance is measured from three important dimensions: market effectiveness, nancial and strategic objective. First, from the dimension of market effectiveness; the measures are market share, sales volume, sales growth and new product introduction (Venkatraman and Ramanujam, 1986). Day and Wensley (1988) showed that the most popular indicator of marketing effectiveness is market share. Another important dimension of performance is nancial performance, consisting of accounting and economic indicators such as return on asset, return on investment, gross margin and protability (Barney and Clark, 2007). Finally, the measures for strategic objectives are, achievement of nancial objective, achievement of the strategic objectives, achievement of overall customer satisfaction, and overall performance of the rm (Sarkar et al., 2001). Proposed model of theoretical framework Based on the literature review, organisational capabilities and relationship quality provide an appropriate theoretical framework to explain the direct effect and indirect effect on rms performance. Capabilities include market orientation, learning orientation, innovativeness, and manufacturing capabilities. Relationship quality is posited as a mediator. In sum, all these factors are expected to play a crucial role in contributing to the rm performance outcome. Figure 1 shows the proposed model of conceptual framework based on the RBV. Methodology Sample and data collection The study has been conducted by using structured questionnaire surveys with closed-ended questions, which has been distributed by mail to the chief executive ofcers/senior managers of palm oil processing companies in Malaysia. The stratied sampling technique used for selecting the participants is based on the directory of the Malaysian Palm Oil Processing Sector 2009; which reviews that there are 480 licensed palm oil processing companies in operation. The sampling frame is conned to three major industries of the palm oil processing sectors in Malaysia, consisting of companies involving in milling, rening, and oleo-chemicals. A total of 330 respondents completed and returned the questionnaire to the researcher, consisting of 283 palm oil mills,
Capabilities Market orientation Performance Market effectivenes Learning orientation Relationship quality Innovativeness Strategic objectives Financial

Figure 1. Conceptual model of RBV

Manufacturing capabilities

31 reneries and 16 palm oleo-chemical plants. This means that the overall response rate of 69 per cent was achieved in this study. Informants quality In order to assess informants quality, the survey has included a question regarding how certain did you feel in answering all of the questions. The informant indicated on seven-point scale about their degree of certainty (1 very uncertain, 7 very certain) about answering all the questions. The mean for the informant is 5.98. Development of the measure The structured questionnaire consisting of existing or modifying measurement items is the primary instrument for data collection. Three main factors have been taken into consideration in developing the questionnaire design in order to reduce biases in research. First, wording, language, general appearance, items, scaling and pre-testing have been taken into account. Pre-testing by in-depth interview with 12 general managers has been conducted to validate the content of the questionnaire. The instrument for market orientation was adopted from the 18-item scales of Narver and Slater (1990) and Narver et al. (2004), learning orientation in this study has six items, adopts some of the scales from Sinkula et al. (1997). Innovativeness construct was adopted from Hurley and Hult (1998) and Mavondo et al. (2005), Manufacturing capabilities was adopted ve-items scale from Fritz (1996). Relationship quality was adopted from the scale used by Mavondo and Rodrigo (2001) and Morgan and Hunt (1994). The construct conceptualised as consisting of three dimensions, namely, trust (six items), commitment (four items), and cooperation (ve items). Market effectiveness (four items) measure market share, sales volume, sales growth and new product introduction (Venkatraman and Ramanujam, 1986). Financial performance (four items) was conceptualised as consisting of return on asset, return on investment, gross margin and protability (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Shoham, 1996), and strategic objective (four items) was adopted from Cavusgil and Zou (1994) and Sarkar et al. (2001)). The reliability of the scales, square roots of average variance extracted, and correlation matrix are shown in Table I. Results and discussion The summary of results for the hypothesised relationships is presented in Table II. The rst column restates the hypotheses as mentioned in earlier section. The second column indicates the hypothesised direction of relationship. Measure for direct effect is unstandardised regression coefcients. The nal column illustrates whether the hypothesis was supported or not. Hypotheses relating to market orientation The results show that H1 market orientation has a direct relationship with relationship quality ( p , 0.001) (Table II). This suggests that senior managers need to relate market orientation particularly in building and maintaining good relationship quality with their suppliers. Hypotheses relating to learning orientation As hypothesised H2, the relationship between learning orientation and relationship quality ( p , 0.01) was supported. This suggests that a culture of learning in the organisation

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No. 0.87 0.74 0.85 0.84 0.86 0.80 0.81 0.90 0.79 0.545 * * 0.475 * * 0.541 * * 0.094 0.345 * * 0.301 * * 0.70 0.518 * * 0.565 * * 0.229 * * 0.240 * * 0.448 * * 0.80 0.683 * * 0.583 * * 0.373 * * 0.569 * * 0.148 * * 0.330 * * 0.366 * *

Table I. Internal consistency, square roots of average variance extracted and correlation matrix Internal consistency 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.65 0.511 * * 0.127 * 0.197 * 0.311 * * 0.85 0.269 * * 0.269 * * 0.350 * * 0.80 0.560 * * 0.516 * * 0.60 0.355 * * 0.84

Construct

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Market orientation Innovativeness Learning orientation Manufacturing capabilities Relationship quality Financial performance Market effectiveness Strategic objective

Notes: Signicance at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01; the diagonal (in italics) shows the square root of the average extracted for each construct

Direct effect Hypothesis H1. Market orientation is related to relationship quality H2. Learning orientation is related to relationship quality H3. Innovativeness is related to relationship quality H4. Manufacturing capabilities is related to relationship quality H5. Relationship quality is related to a. Market effectiveness b. Financial performance c. Strategic objective Direction Coefcient 0.234 (0.069) 0.203 (0.074) 0.278 (0.110) 0.154 (0.103) 0.556 (0.119) 0.068 (0.130) 0.443 (0.101) t-value 3.391 * * * 2.743 * * 2.527 * * 1.495 4.672 * * * 0.523 4.386 * * * Supported/ not supported Supported Supported Supported Not supported Supported Not supported Supported

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Note: Signicance at: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01, and * * *p , 0.001

Table II. Summary of results for direct effect of organisational capabilities on relationship quality

is related to relationship quality. The results indicate that learning orientation leads to effective relationships. Hypotheses relating to innovativeness The results suggest that innovativeness H3 has a direct relationship with relationship quality ( p , 0.01). Hypotheses relating to manufacturing capabilities Contrary to expectations, H4 manufacturing capabilities were not related to relationship quality. The results show that the palm oil processing companies are using the same operating system, machinery and technology. Hypotheses relating to relationship quality The results reveal that H5a, H5b and H5c, relationship quality has direct relationship with market effectiveness ( p , 0.001) and strategic objectives ( p , 0.001). This means that relationship quality will be able to lead directly to market effectiveness and strategic objective, and in turn to better business performance outcome. The relationship between relationship quality and nancial performance is not signicant. Hypotheses involving mediation Table III shows the mediation hypotheses (H6, H7, H8, and H9). All the hypotheses suggest that relationship quality will mediate the relationship between organisational capabilities (market orientation, learning orientation, and innovativeness and manufacturing capabilities) with business performance (market effectiveness, nancial performance and strategic objective). As hypothesised for H6, the relationship between market orientation and market effectiveness ( p , 0.01), nancial performance ( p , 0.01) and strategic objective ( p , 0.01), all the mediated effects were supported and this is consistent with our expectations. The results also reect that in the palm oil processing industries, market orientation has become the most important capability, due to the strongest inuence on market effectiveness, nancial performance and strategic objective,

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Hypothesis H6. Market orientation a. Market orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] ME b. Market orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] FP c. Market orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] SO H7. Learning orientation a. Learning orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] ME b. Learning orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] FP c. Learning orientation [. . .] RQ [. . .] SO H8. Innovativeness a. Innovativeness [. . .] RQ [. . .] ME b. Innovativeness [. . .] RQ [. . .] FP c. Innovativeness [. . .] RQ [. . .] SO H9. Manufacturing capabilities a. Manufacturing capabilities [. . .] RQ [. . .] ME b. Manufacturing capabilities [. . .] RQ [. . .] FP c. Manufacturing capabilities [. . .] RQ [. . .] SO

Mediating effect Direction Coefcient 0.130 0.144 0.147 0.113 0.148 0.151 0.155 0.186 0.190 0.086 0.081 0.083 SE 0.048 0.054 0.051 0.045 0.066 0.058 0.067 0.085 0.076 0.061 0.075 0.077 t-value Supported/ not supported

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2.708 * * Supported 2.667 * * Supported 2.882 * * Supported 2.511 * * Supported 2.242 * Supported 2.603 * * Supported 2.313 * Supported 2.188 * Supported 2.500 * * Supported 1.410 1.080 1.078 Not supported Not supported Not supported

Table III. Mediating effect of relationship quality (RQ) on capabilities and performance

Notes: Signicance at: *p , 0.05 and * *p , 0.01; RQ, relationship quality; ME, market effectiveness; SO, strategic objective

as compared with others capabilities such as learning orientation, innovativeness and manufacturing capabilities. As hypothesised H7, the results indicate that the relationship between learning orientation and market effectiveness ( p , 0.01), nancial performance ( p , 0.05) and strategic objective ( p , 0.01), all the indirect effects were supported and this is consistent with our expectations. The indirect effects of all these aspects obviously explain that relationship quality is an important mediating mechanism in creating business performance. As hypothesised H8. The relationship between innovativeness and market effectiveness ( p , 0.05), nancial performance ( p , 0.01) and strategic objective ( p , 0.01), all the indirect effects were supported and this is consistent with our expectations. All the indirect effects for these dimensions demonstrate that relationship quality is an important transmitting mechanism in creating business performance. However, the result for H9 reveals that the mediating effects of relationship quality on manufacturing capabilities to: . market effectiveness; . nancial performance; and . strategic objectives were not supported. This might be due to most of the palm oil processing companies are using the same operating system, machinery, and technology and do not link with relationship quality. Overall, this highlights that relationship quality plays a critical role as mediator in the model. In other words, this means relationship quality is one of the principal mechanisms for transmitting the effects of organisational capabilities into performance outcomes.

Conclusion In conclusion, the selection of organisational capabilities variables (market orientation, learning orientation, innovativeness, and manufacturing capabilities) and incorporating relationship quality are relevant and critical to the palm oil processing companies in Malaysia. The interpretation of the RBV also provides an explanation for the link between the selected organisational capabilities and business performance. Contribution of the research The contributions of this study are highlighted from the theoretical perspectives, managerial and policy implication as follows. Theoretical perspective. The result of this study may contribute to enhance the theoretical understanding and empirical support for RBV of the rm by investigating the differential contributions of capabilities to organisational performance. It is also important to generalize the ndings to the context of manufacturing sectors in agriculture commodity particularly in oils and fats industry. Another important contribution of this study is expanding the theoretical application by incorporating relationship quality into the RBV as mediators in enhancing performance outcome. Managerial implications. The results are able to provide advice to senior managers as to what capabilities to invest into achieve desired performance outcomes, particularly in the oils and fats industry in Malaysia. Furthermore, the results are also help senior managers to identify important relational issues that enhance performance outcomes. Incorporating relationship quality into resource-based models provides richness in understanding how to improve market effectiveness and achieve superior nancial and strategic performance of palm oil processing companies. Policy implications. The ndings of this study were found to be very important for directors of the relevant authorities and will help directors in formulating policy. To provide useful information to Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and Malaysian Palm Oil Council in identifying and understanding the key success factors of the palm oil processing companies. Limitation of this study and suggestion for future research The limitation of this study is only focusing on one respondent since the issues are organization wide. Therefore, the future research could use longitudinal design and multiple respondents. In addition, future research could also consider conducting a mixed method study by using questionnaire survey and in-depth interview with CEOs or general managers of palm oil plantation sector, particularly those focuses on upstream activities. Furthermore, future research can include other relevant organisational capabilities such as logistics, products branding and physical location.
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Sinkula, J., Baker, W. and Noordewier, T. (1997), A framework for market-based organizational learning: linking values, knowledge, and behavior, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 305-18. Slater, S.F. and Narver, J.C. (1995), Market orientation and the learning organization, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 63-74. Srivastava, R.K., Fahey, L. and Christensen, H.K. (2001), The resource-based view and marketing: the role of market-based assets in gaining competitive advantage, Journal of Management, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 777-802. Venkatraman, N. and Ramanujam, V. (1986), Measurement of business performance in strategy research: a comparison of approaches, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 801-14. Wernerfelt, B. (1984), A resource-based view of the rm, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 171-4. Yusof, B. and Mohd.Arif, S. (2005), Vision 2020 the palm oil phenomenon, Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 1-10. Further reading Andrew, K.R. (1971), The Concept of Corporate Strategy, Dow Jones Irwin, Homewood, IL. Carmeli, A. and Tishler, A. (2004), Resources, capabilities, and the performance of industrial rms: a multivariate analysis, Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 25 Nos 6/7, pp. 299-315. Davis, J. and Devinney, T. (1997), The Essence of Corporate Strategy: Theory for Modern Decision Making, 1st ed., Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Galbreath, J. (2005), Which resources matter the most to rm success? An exploratory study of resource-based theory, Technovation, Vol. 25 No. 9, pp. 979-87. Nasution, H.N. and Mavondo, F.T. (2008), Organisational capabilities: antecedents and implications for customer value, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 Nos 3/4, pp. 477-501. Penrose, E.T. (1959), The Theory of Growth of the Firm, Wiley, New York, NY. Rumelt, R. (1984), Towards a strategic theory of the rm, in Lamb, R. (Ed.), Competitive Strategic Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 556-70. Seidler, J. (1974), On using informants: a technique for collecting quantitative data and controlling measurement error in organization analysis, American Sociological Review, Vol. 39 No. 6, pp. 816-31. About the authors Yew Chong Tan is a Doctoral Candidate of Business Administration (DBA) in Marketing at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He has worked as a Senior Government Ofcer in the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities Malaysia. Yew Chong Tan is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: yewchongtan@hotmail.com Felix Mavondo is a Professor of Marketing at Monash University, Australia. Steve Worthington is a Professor of Marketing at Monash University, Australia.

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