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The purpose of this paper is to investigate international franchise performance. It focuses on how franchisors conceive their international performance, the drivers of their international performance, and how age-at-entry moderates the impact of their resources and capabilities (R&C) on international performance.

Using the lens of the resource-based view of the firm, the authors build on franchisor voice from a qualitative study (n=28) to propose a research model of international franchise performance. A second, quantitative study (n=89) tests the model with PLS structural equation modeling.

Franchisors view international performance in terms of relationship satisfaction with foreign franchisees and performance in comparison to competitors. The empirical results show that relationship satisfaction significantly improves comparative performance. Both franchisor-owned resources, the brand and knowhow, enhance only comparative performance, while all three international relational capabilities, related to knowhow transfer, monitoring, and contract design, and both reconfigurational capabilities, related to organizational responsiveness and innovativeness, improve relationship satisfaction. Only contract design and innovativeness increase comparative performance. Finally, late internationalization reinforces franchisor ability to leverage relational and reconfigurational capabilities for better relationship satisfaction.

This paper contributes to research on international franchise performance. It uses a mixed-method design and offers the first quantitative investigation of the drivers of international franchise performance. This research also integrates the role of franchisor R&C with franchisor strategic choices, through the moderating effect of internationalization timing.

From a multidisciplinary perspective, combining international entrepreneurship and institutional theory, a model is presented in order to enrich the understanding of the speed of internationalization in small firms. This is achieved by including individual's attitudes and behaviour, as well as factors from the environment that may enhance firms' international behaviour.

Information from a random sample of 104 Spanish SMEs was gathered via personal interview with a structured questionnaire. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), specifically Partial Least Squares (PLS), was employed in analyzing the multiple relationships among the proposed constructs.

The results show how one of the main institutional determinants of the age of entry into international markets are the inter‐firm relationships, specifically the tendency to imitate the behaviour of other firms with successful activities in international markets. In addition, the results note the complementary nature of the approaches used, even though they are apparently distant, and suggest the need to undertake more eclectic research approaches in this field.

Results enhance the importance of having a good competence scanning system in firms as it may help in reducing the time of adoption for certain behaviours, in this case internationalization behaviour. Besides this, the export promotion agencies may find these results useful in improving the results of the implemented policies in order to obtain a greater impact with the same resources, taking advantage of the diffusion of the behaviour.

Both the methodology and the constructs analysed, have scarcely been implemented in the internationalization literature when compared to other management fields.

Family socio-cultural values and its practices have pervasive effects on early age at first marriage in every society. The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare how family socio-cultural values and its practices exert effect on early age at first marriage between Muslim and Santal couples in rural Bangladesh.

First of all through snow-ball process and checking of marriage documents the author carefully identified 598 couples from Muslim and 560 from Santal who were married the first time between 1995 and 2005 years and whose age range was 12-48 years for husbands and 10-45 years for wives. Then, 585 pairs of couples (295 for Muslim and 290 for Santal) were randomly selected from the Talonda of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. Data were collected, applying interview method with semi-structural questionnaire in family setting. Then the collected data were analyzed, using χ2 test and binary logistic regression (BLR) technique.

The frequency distribution showed that most of the Santal couples compared to the Muslim ones were married before the minimum legal age in Bangladesh. The results of χ2 test of the frequency distribution were significant at p<0.01 and p<0.05 level. In addition, results of BLR analysis suggested that early age at first marriage was significantly (p<0.01 and p<0.05) associated with family socio-cultural values studied. It is argued that ethnicity, family pattern, residence pattern, illiteracy and ascriptive occupational status were the risk factors to persist early marriage among the Santal couples than the Muslim ones in rural Bangladesh.

Although the findings are suggestive to understand differences in early marriage associated with family socio-cultural values between the ethnic couples, further cross-cultural study should be conducted on how socio-psychological factors affect early marriage between the ethnic groups. In spite of the limitations these findings may have implications in comparative social policy practice to prevent early marriage associated with changes in family socio-cultural values between the ethnic groups in Bangladesh.

The findings in the paper are original in linking between family socio-cultural theory, its related policy and practice to prevent early marriage between the ethnic couples in Bangladesh.

This study develops and estimates a model of the naturalization process in the United States. The model is based on both the characteristics of immigrants and features of their countries of origin, both of which are shown to be important determinants of citizenship status. The empirical analysis is based on the 2000 US Census. The individual characteristics that have the most influence are educational attainment, age at migration, years since migration, veteran of the US Armed Forces, living with a family, and spouses' educational attainment. The country of origin variables of most importance are their degree of civil liberties and political rights, GDP per capita, whether the origin country recognizes dual citizenship, and the geographic distance of the origin from the United States.

This paper is the first to use the individual level, longitudinal catch-up growth of boys and girls in a historical population to measure their relative deprivation. The data is drawn from two government schools, the Marcella Street Home (MSH) in Boston, MA (1889–1898), and the Ashford School of the West London School District (1908–1917). The paper provides an extensive discussion of the two schools including the characteristics of the children, their representativeness, selection bias and the conditions in each school. It also provides a methodological introduction to measuring children’s longitudinal catch-up growth. After analysing the catch-up growth of boys and girls in the schools, it finds that there were no substantial differences between the catch-up growth by gender. Thus, these data suggest that there were not major health disparities between boys and girls in late-nineteenth-century America and early-twentieth-century Britain.

Without controlling for selection bias and the potential endogeneity of the treatment by using proper methods, the estimation of treatment effect could lead to biased or incorrect conclusions. However, these issues are not addressed adequately and properly in higher education research. This study reviews the essence of self-selection bias, treatment assignment endogeneity, and treatment effect estimation. We introduce three treatment effect estimators – propensity score matching analysis, doubly robust estimation (augmented inverse probability weighted approach), and endogenous treatment estimator (control-function approach) – and examine literature that applies these methods to research in higher education. We then use the three methods in a case study that estimates the effects of transfer student pre-enrollment debt on persistence and first year grades. The final discussion provides guidelines and recommendations for causal inference research studies that use such quasi-experimental methods.

International organizations pursue multiple objectives in hiring policies including cultural diversity, reducing costs and avoiding discrimination among which there can be sharp trade‐offs. The paper has the purpose of studying how these trade‐offs are resolved in the World Bank's hiring processes.

The paper estimates that half of salary and grade differentials between men and women and staff from high‐ and low‐income countries are attributable to differences in productive characteristics. Alternative explanations for the remainder are explored, including omitted variable bias, quotas and discrimination.

The paper argues that the salary and grade differentials and differences in productive characteristics are not compelling explanations. Discrimination probably exists, though less than would be implied by a cost minimizing hiring policy.

Provides a discussion of the World Bank's hiring processes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a response to an article in Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 25 No. 4.

This is a commentary piece.

The paper finds that certain aspects of the practical application of a statistical model may need to be reconsidered. Marketing planners should take this discussion into account before applying the model in the same way.

Despite the questions raised, the original article and this commentary together provide the impetus for further research studies, potentially leading to a fruitful approach to the planning of “cross‐selling” initiatives.