Studying the effect of strategic orientation and marketing capabilities on the performance of private bank branches in Kermanshah city

Abstract

In the resource-based view, there is a belief that inimitable, valuable, rare and socially complex resources and capabilities create superior competitive advantage. The success of an organization depends on the development of capabilities and relationships that are unique to the company and are maintained in the medium to long term. The current research has sought to investigate the impact of strategic orientation dimensions, including customer orientation, competition orientation, inward/cost orientation, innovation orientation, and intangible assets on marketing capabilities and their relationship with performance. Also, the influence of environmental factors (market turmoil and competition intensity) and lack of focus on the dimensions of banks' strategic orientation have been investigated. The current research is practical in terms of the purpose of the research, and according to the descriptive method, it is of the correlation and survey type. The model presented in the private banks of Kermanshah city and with the statistical population consisting of branch managers of these banks who are active in the city of Kermanshah with a sample of 112 people who were randomly selected, has been investigated and evaluated. The tool used to collect the necessary data for testing 9 main hypotheses and 13 sub-hypotheses was a questionnaire. The validity of the mentioned questionnaire was confirmed by professors and experts and Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole questionnaire was 0.953. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. In this research, Spearman's correlation and univariate correlation were used to analyze the data. The results of data analysis show that the relationship between marketing capabilities and performance is positive and significant. Also, the relationship between customerism, competition, internal/cost orientation, innovation, human capital, relationship capital, organizational capital, and informational capital with marketing capabilities is positive and significant. But the results of the model test show that the proposed model does not have a good fit, for this reason, models that have a good fit were extracted using statistical methods. Also, the results show that market turbulence, competition intensity and lack of concentration are related to the dimensions of banks' strategic orientation, and among these, only market turbulence has no effect on inward/cost orientation. Keywords: resource-based perspective, strategic orientation, intangible assets, marketing capabilities, performance. And the efficiency of communication and knowledge pointed out. This indicates the integration of global markets and the ever-increasing complexity of markets and the dynamics of the environment facing organizations (Hajipour and Momeni, 2018). In such an environment, the question can be asked, what is the secret of survival and success of organizations in today's competitive conditions? In response, it should be said that organizations have no choice but to acquire and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in order to remain immune from environmental shocks and to adapt to competitive requirements. The first point of view, based on the theory of industrial organization in the thoughts of Michael Porter in the 80s as a dominant point of view, sees the acquisition of competitive advantage as a result of environmental opportunities. In this perspective, the creation of a balance between the business and its surrounding environment is taken into account in order to guide organizations to obtain a competitive position and superior performance, and subsequently provide the ground for reaching a monopoly position as an ideal goal, followed by monopoly in profitability (Porter [1], 1980). In contrast to the industrial organization perspective, a resource-based perspective has been proposed. This point of view is based on the internal capabilities of the organization and states that the examination and analysis of the external environment to discover opportunities and threats cannot alone lead to the competitive advantage of the organization. Managers of organizations should also pay attention to their own organizations in order to have a superior performance and maintain themselves in the markets by identifying, strengthening and improving their capabilities (Arabi, Fateh Elahi and Asadzadeh, 2018). The competition to engage in financial intermediation has changed.Also, the threats and pressures caused by globalization and the increasing growth of non-bank financial and credit institutions have prompted banks to improve their performance in domestic and foreign markets for survival and competition (Iranzadeh and Barghi, 2018). Competitive interaction with the global economy is not possible through a backward banking system, and it naturally requires the preparation and up-to-dateness of the country's commercial banks to compete in the world's competitive markets (Divandari et al., 2007). Organizations can continue their activity and life in today's highly competitive world that have optimal and superior organizational performance compared to competitors. Organizational performance is one of the most important constructs discussed in management researches, and it is undoubtedly the most important measure of success in organizations (Abzari, Ranjbarian, Fathi, and Ghorbani, 2018). The performance of any economic enterprise can determine the current position of the enterprise (the degree of success in achieving strategic goals); Movement and future directions; and improvement programs and activities to be effective (Vorheis, Morgan and Autry, 2009). In this regard, the challenging issue of today's managers is to understand the importance and extent of the influence of organizational characteristics on performance. Therefore, the reasons for performance differences among organizations can generally be explained through the resource-based perspective [2] (RBV) (Rast et al. [3], 2004). Based on this point of view, inconsistency in levels, value, non-imitability and non-substitutability of resources and capabilities of organizations is the main cause of performance differences between them (Verhaisomorgan, 2005). The resource-based perspective focuses on the heterogeneity and immobility of resources as potential sources of competitive advantage (Barney [4], 1991). Organizational resources can be divided into assets and capabilities. Assets are tangible resources that the organization has accumulated, such as economies of scale, reputation and brand value. Capabilities are like the glue that holds these assets together and enables the organization to develop them in a competitive way, such as the superior quality of the organization's products and skills that lead to innovation (Barney, 1991; Day [5], 1994). Strategism is the most important capability of the organization. Strategic orientation reflects the strategic paths implemented by the organization in order to create appropriate behaviors that lead to superior performance and adapts environmental elements to organizational characteristics. Strategism is the guiding principle that improves the marketing activities and formulation of the organization's strategy (Teodosio, Kahajias and Katsika [6], 2012). The success of the company depends on the development of capabilities and communication that are unique to the company and are maintained in the medium to long term. Achieving sufficient knowledge of the market and control of valuable sources of competitive advantage, such as marketing capabilities, can provide real evidence for managers to recognize the need to improve capabilities (Hajipour, Darzian Azizi, and Shamsi Ghoshki, 2013). In marketing literature, marketing-related capabilities are considered as a key factor in achieving company performance. Therefore, it is believed that companies with superior marketing capabilities have characteristics that enable them to achieve superior performance and sustainable competitive advantage. Previous empirical studies show that marketing capability is a factor that leads to different performance among companies (Chang, Park and Chai[7], 2010). According to the above, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of strategic planning and organizational intangible capital through the formation of marketing capabilities on the performance of private bank branches. 1-3 The importance and necessity of research Today, the nature of business is facing rapid and important challenges and changes that have transformed the economic activities of organizations. The occurrence of events such as the expansion of competition, the advancement of information technology, changes in organizational structures, and the all-out efforts of economic units to obtain the top rank, have made it inevitable to pay attention to the continuous improvement of organizational performance. Survival and growth in such environments is only possible by achieving superior organizational performance, which requires achieving the characteristics of organizations with superior performance and paying attention to the categories that influence organizational performance (Qorbanizadeh, Badrabadi, Ebrahimzadeh, 2013). In order to achieve superior performance of a business, competitive advantage must be sustained. Organizations have always been looking for how to gain their competitive advantage in uncertain and rapidly changing environments (Dubney and Luffman [8], 2000).