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The authors aimed to contribute to the interface of comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing by exploring the micro-foundations and micro-processes of network bricolage aimed at international market entry among the entrepreneurs of small biotechnology firms. The research questions of the study are (1) How do the international entrepreneurs of small firms act and use their domestic and/or international networks for new market entry? (2) How are the micro-foundations and micro-processes of networking similar or different between individuals from different countries?

A qualitative research design was used to investigate six cases from different countries of origin, looking at the micro-foundations and micro-processes underlying international market entry undertaken by entrepreneurs from Canada, Finland and New Zealand.

The micro-foundations for network bricolage by international entrepreneurs were taken to involve features of the country of origin, including market size and location, and the usefulness of the official language of the nation. The micro-processes were taken to involve the international entrepreneur’s network bricolage actions (i.e. collaborating and generating, obtaining and applying, reaching and maintaining, and seeking and reviewing), while encompassing also the location of their networks (domestic and/or international) and the operational domains these belonged to (R&D, funding, sales channel and customer). The study categorised three types of international entrepreneurs undertaking new market entry, illustrating cross-national differences: (1) sales-channel-oriented seekers, (2) funding-oriented riders and (3) customer-oriented hunters.

The study contributes to research on comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing. This findings show that national-level micro-foundations influence the actions of network bricolage, the importance of various operational domains and the location of the network ties used. This main contribution is a conceptual model based on our cross-national investigation of international entrepreneurs’ networking actions. The authors reveal the micro-foundations and micro-processes relevant to international entrepreneurs’ network bricolage for new market entry, and present examples of international entrepreneur types emerging from our cross-national setting.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current trends, implications and challenges of information systems (IS) related to omni-channel logistics.

An exploratory survey study is conducted with 23 Swedish retail companies transforming to omni-channel logistics. The study investigates the retailers’ current situations regarding logistics IS as well as their perceptions of the future development.

From the perspective of leading Swedish retailers, omni-channel requirements drive the implementation of new IS to support effective and efficient material handling across the network and in the respective nodes. The shifting roles and increase in the number of handlings nodes will require flexible IS platforms that can support multiple flows and integrated inventory. The major increase in the implementation of new, critical functionalities is related to real-time, multi-criteria decision making on order allocation to different handling nodes. More advanced IS functionality is also required in material-handling nodes to support the increased degree of automation and continuous improvements with the aim to shorten order-to-delivery lead times. A number of challenges are identified that must be addressed during the transformation to omni-channel logistics, especially related to the growing complexity and decentralization of networks, tougher lead-time requirements and larger product assortments.

To support further theory development, 11 propositions related to trends and a schematic framework conceptualizing implications and challenges are submitted for testing in future research.

The study highlights several aspects related to logistics IS that are important for practitioners to consider as they undergo the transition to omni-channels. It provides insights into IS functionalities that are likely to grow in use and criticality for supporting material handling and inventory management in increasingly complex and decentralized networks. In particular, the authors stress the need to implement functionality that works across previously separated handling nodes and decision areas. Managers can also use the propositions to reflect on what the near future holds and as input for their own scenario analyses.

Previous research has primarily focused on technology that supports the front-end customer experience. This study is original in that it explores the trends, implications and challenges for logistics IS in omni-channels – an area that has not been explored in detail previously. It also studies both perceived and expected changes over time related to the transformation toward omni-channel logistics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of the perspective applied to distribution structures in the late 1900s. This change implied that the previous focus on channel management by a channel captain was abandoned because of changes in the business reality. This perspective was replaced by models and concepts featuring collaboration and joint coordination between actors and relationships embedded in networks.

Changes of perspectives on phenomena are assumed to occur through the dynamic interplay between business reality, the conceptualisation of this reality and the managerial recommendations derived from this conceptualisation. The study is based on a thorough longitudinal literature review.

Shifts of perspectives occur when there is an increasing mismatch between the current business reality and mainstream conceptualisations. In this transformation, new constructs are required to illustrate new aspects of the business reality, exemplified in the study by interaction and networks. Some established concepts lose their significance, illustrated by the channel captain. Others may be re-interpreted, as is the case with the power concept. The study also shows that “forgotten” conceptualisations can be re-wakened, exemplified by the view of distribution structures as network constellations. In turn, these changes in the conceptualisation of distribution impact the managerial recommendations.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are no previous studies analysing how the perspective on a certain phenomenon changes through the dynamic interplay between business reality, conceptualisations and managerial recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how warehouse operations and design are affected by the move toward integrated omni-channels.

A structured literature review is conducted to identify and categorize themes in multi- and omni-channel logistics, and to discuss how aspects related to these themes impact and pose contingencies for warehouse operations and design.

The review revealed a lack of focus on warehouse operations and design in multi- and omni-channels. Instead, most articles published in scientific journals discuss changes in consumer demand and implications for the network level, concerning aspects such as the organization and management of material and information flows, inventory management, resources, actors and relationships. Ten themes in omni-channel logistics were identified and grouped into two categories: the value proposition and channel management; and the physical distribution network design. The themes and related aspects have implications for warehousing, and by combining these with general warehousing knowledge, the authors derive a comprehensive and structured agenda is derived to guide future research on omni-channel warehousing.

This paper outlines a research agenda, including detailed research questions, for advancing the theory on warehouse operations and design in omni-channels.

The agenda can inspire practitioners in their work to understand the upcoming challenges and address relevant issues in omni-channel warehousing, taking into consideration its interdependence with value proposition, channel management and network decisions.

This is the first comprehensive review focusing on and synthesizing available literature on omni-channel warehousing. This topic has until now received limited coverage but is of increasing importance to scholars in the field.

The purpose of this study is to empirically weigh the evidence for financial depth, liquidity and efficiency role to economic growth, and test for the existence of cointegration between financial development variables and economic growth in Tanzania.

The study used the autoregressive distributed lag model with bound testing procedures. The sample covered yearly time-series data from 1980 to 2017, i.e. 38 years.

The results suggest that financial system depth is positively related to economic growth in the short run and that financial system liquidity and efficiency is strongly negatively associated with economic growth both in the short and long run. Further, it is found that financial development is cointegrated with economic growth. Thus, financial reforms and liberalisation have not fully brought the desired positive effects on economic growth yet.

The study uses principal component analysis to capture specific dimensions within the financial system as an intuitive way to aggregate financial development effects. Unlike studies that included several countries with heterogeneous characteristics, which are sometimes difficulty to homogenise, in recognition of countries’ unique experiences, this study uses data from Tanzania as a specific case. It documents pertinent pieces of evidence for a developing economy necessary for financial policy adjustments post the financial and economic liberalisation and reforms period. It nevertheless sheds light on financial policies for other comparable developing economies during and after both financial and economic liberalisation settings.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how to introduce a financing scheme to tackle the manufacturer's capital constraint problem, discuss the effects of data-driven marketing (DDM) quality, cross-channel-return (CCR) rate and financing interest rate on the members' pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions and optimal performances, and analyzes `how to achieve the coordination within a dual-channel supply chain (DSC) by contract coordination.

This work establishes a DSC model with DDM, and the offline retailer can provide internal financing to the capital-constrained online manufacturer. The demand under the price is determined based on DDM quality, customer channel preference and delivery lead time. Then, combined with the Stackelberg game, the optimal pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions are discussed under the inconsistent and consistent pricing strategies with decentralized and centralized systems. Furthermore, it designs a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract to coordinate the members under the two pricing strategies.

(1) The increase of DDM quality will reduce the delivery-lead-time under the inconsistent or consistent pricing strategy and will push the selling prices; (2) The growth of the CCR rate will raise selling prices and extend the delivery-lead-time under the decentralized decision; (3) Under price competition, the offline selling price is higher than the online selling price when customers prefer the offline channel and vice versa; (4) The retailer and the manufacturer can achieve a win-win situation through a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract.

This paper contributes to the studies related to DSC by investigating pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions based on DDM, CCR, internal financing and supply chain contract and proposes some managerial implications.

This study examined the roles of public spending and population moderating characteristic structure of selected African economies on bank-based financial development through credit to private sector.

The study sampled 37 selected African economies for the years 1991–2018, and it applied a pooled mean group (PMG) estimator to account for short-run and long-run causal effects, and confirmed short-run adjustments towards the long-run convergences between the variables. Specific suitable tests were also applied.

Evidence confirms positive impacts of both capital formation and final consumption expenditures on financial development in the short run and long run. The moderation of population structures on expenditure structures help to speed up convergences.

This work attests its innovation by accounting for the separate effects of the expenditure types, the moderation effects of young and mature populations for capital and final consumption expenditure on financial development among selected economies in Africa.

Globalization occupies a central research activity and remains an increasingly controversial phenomenon in economics. This phenomenon corresponds to a subject that can be criticized through its impact on national economies. On the other hand, the world economy is evolving in a liberalized environment in which foreign direct investment plays a fundamental role in the economic development of each country. The advent of financial flows – FDI, remittances and official development assistance – can be a key factor in the development of the economy. The subject of this article is to analyses the effect of financial flows on economic growth in developing countries. Empirically, different approaches have been employed. As part of this work, an attempt was made to use a panel data approach. The results indicate ambiguous effects and confirm the results of previous work.

The authors seek to study the effect of foreign direct investment, remittances and official development assistance (ODA) and some control variables i.e. domestic credit, life expectancy, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), inflation and three institutional factors on economic growth in developing countries by adopting the panel data methodology. Then, the authors will discuss empirical tests to assess the econometric relevance of the model specification before presenting the analysis of the results and their interpretations that lead to economic policy implications. As part of this work, the authors have rolled panel data for developing countries at an annual frequency during the period from 1990 to 2016. In a first stage of empirical analysis, the authors will carry out a technical study of the heterogeneity test of the individual fixed effects of the countries. This kind of analysis makes it possible to identify the problems retained in the specific choice of econometric modeling to be undertaken in the specificities of the panel data.

The empirical results validate the hypotheses put forward and indicate the evidence of an ambiguous effect of financial flows on economic growth. The empirical findings from this analysis suggest the use of economic-type solutions to resolve some of the shortcomings encountered in terms of unexpected effects. Governments in these countries should improve the business environment by establishing a framework that further encourages domestic and foreign investment.

In this article, the authors adopt the panel data to study the links between financial flows and economic growth. The authors considered four groups of countries by income.