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This article aims to analyze factors impacting international entrepreneurship in Malaysia.

Interviews were conducted with 71 firms, both in the manufacturing sector and the service sector, across the 12 states of Malaysia.

The interviews revealed the reasons these firms internationalised, key success factors, and the barriers to internationalisation including export market attractiveness, government policy, foreign practices being incompatible with domestic business and adapting to foreign market needs.

Due to a lack of resources, firms from West Malaysia were not contacted. West Malaysian firms may well possess characteristics concerning the barriers to internationalisation that are unique to their region.

This article provides insight into the perceptions and decision‐making processes of Malaysian entrepreneurs with regard to the barriers to internationalisation, thereby making a contribution to international business knowledge in a relatively unknown region of the world.

The study findings and interviews showed that in order to encourage and to be successful in international business, government policy must play an active role in promoting, assisting and helping Malaysian firms in terms of financing, training, technology and the offer of lucrative tax concessions so that the domestic firms would be encouraged to engage in international business.

This study is concerned with an empirical investigation that explores the barriers to export that emerging market entrepreneurs face when engaging in international business. The data was gathered from a survey of 214 manufacturing firms, headquartered in Malaysia, and considered to be an emerging market. Statistical analysis was carried out using one‐way analysis of variance and the Tukey‐Kramer Multiple Comparison Procedure. The study’s key findings indicate that exporters and non‐exporters perceive the importance of the need to adapt products to meet foreign customer preferences and a lack of capacity dedicated to a continuing supply of exports differently as barriers to export. However, other than those barriers to export the study findings indicate no significant differences in the perceptions of exporters and non‐exporters from an emerging market towards the different barriers to export.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that various incentives to export have on the export marketing performance of Australian export market ventures.

The paper is based on an empirical investigation of firms involved in exporting to foreign countries from Australia. The sample of firms came from a wide cross section of industries. The list of firms comprising the sample is provided by a state government department.

The paper indicates that the export marketing performance of Australian export market ventures is positively influenced by the export incentive of the chance to diversify into new markets.

From a methodological perspective, a potential concern may be that the measures are all self‐reported. Consequently, the relationships tested may be susceptible to the influence of common method variance.

The importance of diversifying into new markets is identified. Management should consider taking international expansion opportunities because a pre‐occupation with the domestic market can make local firms vulnerable to other growth‐oriented foreign firms and economies of scale via increased productive capacity can assist in reducing the costs of production thereby enabling firms to be more competitive in the global market as well as in the firm's own domestic market.

A major contribution of this paper is that it validates a measure for examining the different incentives to export. Furthermore, it examines the relationship between incentives to export and export marketing performance identifying the chance to diversify into new markets as the key predictor of export marketing performance.

This study seeks to examine the empirical link in export market ventures of the relationship between the internet (when it is used for communication, networking, market research, sales, image enhancement, cost reduction and competitive advantage purposes) and export marketing performance.

Data were gathered via a self‐administered mail survey of Australian exporters. The sample consisted of 133 Australian firms coming from a wide cross‐section of industries.

The findings indicate that, when the internet was used to achieve a competitive advantage for the firm and reduce the costs associated in doing international business, these uses of the internet were significant in discriminating between high and low export marketing performance. Furthermore, the international experience of the export venture's management was a significant factor in discriminating between high and low export marketing performance.

From a methodological perspective, a potential concern may be that the measures are all self‐reported. Consequently, the relationships tested may be susceptible to the influence of common method variance. Evidence has been provided that, when the internet is used for cost reduction purposes and as a competitive weapon, this will have a positive impact on export marketing performance.

A major contribution of this study is that it re‐validates measures for the different uses of the internet, namely, communication, networking, market research, sales, image enhancement, cost reduction and competitive advantage.

This study explores the role of the Internet in export marketing. The data was gathered based on a survey of 61 Lebanese manufacturing firms engaged in exporting. The findings indicate a positive relationship between Website ownership, average annual sales volume and export. The findings further indicate that the main reason for owning a corporate Website was to attract clients outside of Lebanon. The second and third top reasons for owning a corporate Website turned out to be improving the company’s image and advertising, respectively. Finally, the findings indicate a positive relationship between Website ownership and engaging in export, share of exports over total sales and the number of countries to which the firm exports.

The purpose of this research is to explore the incentives to export that Lebanese entrepreneurs face when engaging in international business.

The study was based on an empirical investigation of the incentives to export that Lebanese firms face when engaging in international business. The sample of firms came from a wide cross section of industries and was provided by the Lebanese Ministry of Industry. A questionnaire was developed and pre‐tested using a small sample of exporters with the final instrument used to personally interview all respondents.

A total of 17 of the 20 export incentives tested were identified as being significantly important. Also, it was concluded that exporters and non‐exporters largely agree in their views of the various incentives to exporting.

One of the research limitations was the sampling technique. Convenience sampling was used in this project. Although it has many advantages, it also has some limitations, including respondent self‐selection.

The study findings suggest that exporters and non‐exporters perceive the same incentives to export to be important. However, exporters and non‐exporters had different attitudes towards one export incentive being “Decline in the Value of Currency Relative to Foreign Markets”.

From the multiple comparisons test conducted on “Decline in the Value of Currency Relative to Foreign Markets” for those who export 11 percent to 40 percent of their total sales and those who export 41 percent or more of their total sales the attitudes towards this export incentive are significantly different from each other.

Traces the economic development of Thailand since 1945, referring to relevant research, and analyses the reasons why it was the first Southeast Asian country to collapse in the 1997 economic crisis: large current account deficits, excessive external debt, a collapse in the property sector, exchange rate mismanagement and political instability. Considers its future prospects and shows statistics on economic growth and inflation for the world as a whole and various countries and groups within it.

Examines the role and importance of customer‐contact personnel in the marketing of a bank′s financial services and the importance of customer service in retail banking. Customer‐contact personnel from suburban branches of an Australian retail bank identified their level of agreement with statements dealing with customer purchase perceptions, customer purchase behaviour, the personal selling of services and their role and importance in the marketing of the bank′s financial services. The results were interesting in that they indicated several key factors that affected service purchase encounters. These factors included the organization′s reputation, the role of the customer‐contact personnel in the service encounter, level of reward given to the customer‐contact personnel for their contribution, the significance of an official sales training programme, word‐of‐mouth communication and the relationship between the salesperson and the customer.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and justify a theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between manufacturing strategy, business strategy, time-based manufacturing competence, capability and competitiveness and their impact on firm performance for firms operating in the manufacturing sector. Many executives and scholars have argued that time is an important component for developing a brilliant strategy to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for the firm.

This paper provides a theoretical framework primarily concerned with the relationship between time-based manufacturing competence, competitive priorities and firm performance. The framework suggests that firms focusing on time as a strategic factor at both strategic levels – business strategy and manufacturing strategy – can achieve a multi-competitive advantage, and, in turn, high performance.

To realize the level of performance associated with time-based manufacturing competence, it is essential for firms to identify the areas in which time can be reduced. These include reduction in design lead time, product concept to production; time-based competition for product-to-market firms; time-based manufacturing competence; product development activities; fast-to-product; and customer service.

This article provides a theoretical framework for linking manufacturing strategy to business strategy and performance to help expand the body of knowledge for other researchers to follow.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between time-based manufacturing competence (TBMC), time-based competitiveness, time-based manufacturing capability, and the performance of SMEs engaged in the steel minimill industry in the USA.

This study was based on an empirical investigation of manufacturing firms in the steel minimill industry in the USA. The sample of firms was provided by the US Association of Iron and Steel Engineers. In order to obtain valid and reliable measures of the variables, previously validated scales were used to measure all variables. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 137 SMEs with the sample consisting of 71 SMEs indicating a response rate of 52 percent.

Statistically significant positive relationships were found between all independent variables and performance. The results also indicate that the high performers have a higher TBMC than the low performers. The findings further confirm the assertion in the manufacturing strategy literature which states that time, as a strategic factor, is a source of competitive advantage.

From a methodological perspective, a potential concern may be that the measures are all self-reported. Consequently, the relationships tested may be susceptible to the influence of common method variance.

TBMC enables SMEs to offer high-quality products at low cost and in a timely manner. This reflects the value of the positive relationship between TBMC and business performance.

This study’s finding identifies the need for time-based competition. The literature suggests that the strategic focus on time enables firms to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage. Nevertheless, this suggestion has been based on conceptual rather than empirical research. The results of this study provide empirical support for that suggestion with respect to SMEs.