Abstract:
Trade shows are an important part of the marketing mix, however there is considerable doubt to their contribution to the financial results in an organisation. A significant amount of firm’s’ marketing budgets are spent on trade shows, with the expectation that it will yield positive financial results. However, there is little research on trade show capability; especially literature relating to direct links between trade show activities and financial performance. The objective of this study was to determine whether trade show capability of South African companies results in improved financial performance. Trade show capability in this study refers to the activities, such as the resources that are required to participate in events and the outcomes from these activities. The resource based view of a firm, and conceptual models were used to link trade show marketing activities to trade show marketing outcomes to study the effects on the sales of companies. Marketing activities were limited to the number, frequency and level of expenditure of trade shows. The marketing outcomes included the number of leads generated and alignment of trade show goals to financial goals. In addition, company specific factors such as the type of industry, size of company and complexity of product were also explored. The research design was quantitative and descriptive in nature and tested the links between trade show capabilities and the financial performance of South African firms. The research found that overall there was no statistical evidence to show that all the trade show capabilities mentioned above, with the exception of some company specific factors, impacted the level of sales. These company specific factors included the type of industry, size of company, company type and complexity of product. Copyright
