Guest editorial

Citation

Rudiger Kaufmann, H. and Yedidia Tarba, S. (2009), "Guest editorial", EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 4 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/emjb.2009.34604baa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: EuroMed Journal of Business, Volume 4, Issue 2

About the Guest Editors Hans Rüdiger Kaufmann, a native German academic, received his PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1997. Currently, he is Associate Professor in Management at the School of Business of the University of Nicosia. His research interests refer to the interdisciplinary relationship between identity and marketing, management and entrepreneurship. In the past, Hans Rüdiger was engaged for academic institutions in the UK, Budapest and Liechtenstein. He is a visiting fellow of Leeds Metropolitan University and a visiting lecturer at a variety of international universities. He was President of the research network CIRCLE from 2007- 2009 and is currently Vice President of the EuroMed Research Business Institute.

Shlomo Yedidia Tarba received his PhD from Ben-Gurion University, Israel in 2009. Currently he is a Lecturer in Strategic Management and Global Strategic Alliances and Mergers and Acquisitions at School of Business Administration of College of Management, Rishon LeZion, and Departments of Economics and Management, The Open University, Raanana, Israel. His research interests refer to strategic management, strategic partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions. He is currently a Vice-President of the EuroMed Research Business Institute.

The European-Mediterranean (EuroMed) region has experienced rapid market environmental changes in recent years. The challenges and threats to academics, practitioners, researchers and governments of the region often have distinct differences to those experienced in other geographic areas in the world. The purpose of the 1st EuroMed Conference organized by the Academy of Business of the EuroMed Research Business Institute (EMRBI) was to provide a unique international forum to facilitate the exchange of cutting-edge research through multidisciplinary presentations of new challenges in global business with special emphasis on European and Mediterranean countries.

The selected papers reflect the current discussions on some very up-to-date topics: theory development in international business, inter-cultural knowledge transfer, ethics and corporate responsibility in transition settings, concentration trends in the banking industry, the relationship between the concepts of brand architecture and brand portfolio, strategic planning in the marina industry as well as organic food consumption.

The purpose of Yeheskel and Shenkar’s paper is to investigate the knowledge flows into and from international business, using a JIBS citation analysis as the primary indicator. Key suggestions of the authors refer to moving from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary research and to entice theory development. Pursuing a grounded theory approach, Sánchez Bengoa, Kaufmann and Orange present empirical research which illuminates the effects that national cultures have on the transfer of knowledge between Central/Eastern European (CEE), using Russia as a case study, and Western European co-operation partners. The authors elicit the categories of inappropriate and appropriate knowledge transfer methodologies and the knowledge receiver characteristics with its sub-categories as major barriers for a successful knowledge flow between East and West.

Referring to a very up-to-date topic, Grbac and Loncaric explore the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility in achieving the organizational effectiveness, i.e. in terms of profit and work productivity among managers in a transition economy and establish a positive correlation between the two factors. Based on the conviction that a concentration of the banking system has a negative impact on the economy, Malul, Shoham and Rosenboim identified that the independent variables “economic freedom” and “culture” impact the level of concentration in the banking system. Furthermore, based on the Israeli case, the authors demonstrate that a reform in a banking system can reduce the negative impact of high levels of concentration. The authors applied logit and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with a sample of 42 nations. The nature of the links between brand architecture and brands portfolio is investigated by the work of Chailan. Whereas brand architecture corresponds with a hierarchical relationship between brands, the brand portfolio organizes the brands in a non-hierarchical nature. The findings have implications on the notion of competition between individual brands. Based on the Croatian case, First and Brozina research the role of culture on healthy food consumption. The influence of individualism and assertiveness was confirmed whereas human orientation and uncertainty avoidance showed no correlation with organic food consumption motivation. Finally, Raviv, Tarba and Weber’s study that explores the international marina industry, puts forth the argument that marinas as business entities can create and sustain competitive advantage by maximizing the advantages that stem from their superior resources and core competences. Providing corroborative empirical evidence to the hypothesis that occupancy can be used as a proxy for marina’s profitability, their model can serve for strategic planning and ongoing management of an existing marina or for the establishing of a new one.

Hans Rüdiger Kaufmann, Shlomo Yedidia Tarba