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The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on how success and failure for international assignments have been defined, and integrate several proposals for these definitions into a multi-dimensional model that considers task performance, relationship building, contextual performance and retention as all being part of how success or failure should be defined. The authors also discuss two proposed pre-requisites for success – absorptive capacity (operationalized at both the individual and the unit levels) and adjustment. The authors conclude by bringing in literature on performance management and how ideas about performance management must also be integrated into the discussion of the success or failure of international assignments.

This paper reviews existing proposals regarding the definition of expatriate success and failure, and proposes a multidimensional model of success based on the past literature. Based on this literature the authors also propose two pre-requisites for success and discuss several requisite KSAOs, as well as some suggestions from the literature on performance management.

The authors argue for a multidimensional model of expatiate success which includes task performance, relationship building, contextual performance and retention as part of what constitutes a successful assignment. The authors also argue that absorptive capacity and adjustment should be considered as pre-requisites for success, and that principles from performance management should be applied to dealing with international assignments.

A more comprehensive definition of success and failure should aid research by providing a better dependent variable, and by leading to research on various aspects of this outcome.

The proposed model and approach can hopefully help practice by clarifying the different dimensions of success and how performance management techniques can be applied to dealing with international assignments.

There has been a lot written about how we should operationalize the success or failure of international assignments. The present paper reviews that literature and integrates a number of ideas and suggestions into a multi-dimensional model which includes information about pre-requisites for success and relevant KSAOs, along with ideas from performance management to help insure the success of these assignments.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

This paper aims to demonstrate the variety of ways institutions and their libraries approach student success both conceptionally and operationally.

Librarians from nine different institutions of higher education were given a series of questions about student success on their campuses and in their libraries. They responded with written essays describing their experiences and perspectives.

The contributed pieces are collected together and display a shared interest in defining “student success,” aligning strategic planning with student success initiatives and establishing (and assessing) strong infrastructure to support student success.

These examples help us observe what is happening throughout higher education and see potential paths forward at our own institutions engaged in this work.

Despite substantial investment over recent years in telehealth there appears to be little consensus regarding what a successful implementation should achieve. However, defining success is often controversial and complex due to differing views from the large number of stakeholders involved, the local environment where telehealth is deployed and the scope, or size, of any planned initiative. Nevertheless, a number of generic measures are proposed in this paper which then provides a framework for the measurement of success. The local context can then be applied to determine the exact emphasis on specific measures, but it is proposed that all of the measures should be included in the holistic measurement of success. Having considered what constitutes success, attention is then given to how success should be quantified. Robust evaluation is fundamental and there is much debate as to whether the ‘gold standard’ randomised control trial (RCT) is the most appropriate methodology for telehealth. If the intervention, technology and system, can be maintained in a stable state then the RCT may well provide the most authoritative evidence for decision‐makers. However, ensuring such stability, in what is still a novel combination of technology and service, is difficult and consequently other approaches may be more appropriate when stability is unlikely to be maintained.

This study aims to examine women’s leadership in Oman, seeking to empirically determine whether and how local perceptions of “success” and lifestyle preferences are related to women’s agency and propensity for leadership.

Drawing on the literature, this paper qualitatively analyzes 32 semi-structured interviews of diverse Omani women leaders, identifying their conceptions of success as predominantly subjective or objective. At the same time, the study uses Hakim’s (2006) lifestyle preference model to explore women's agency.

Contrary to the literature on the central importance of domestic responsibilities for Arab Muslim women, more women in leadership positions are identified as career-centered (14/32, 44%); those who did identify as family-centered (6/32, 19%) did not cite Islam to justify that preference, and success is envisioned more subjectively (19/32, 59%).

The sample has an urban bias and does not claim to be representative of all Omani women. Interviews were conducted in English; most women leaders in Oman are required to speak English.

By analyzing work-life balance preferences as a proxy for agency and interrogating Omani women's own conceptions of success, the study may lead to more robust and culturally aware policies to support women’s leadership.

Defining in subjective terms suggests that success is not necessarily equated with achieving a high level position for Omani women. Further, only 6/32 were identified as home-centered, thus indicating the critical importance of domestic support from hired labor or family members.

This study contributes new empirical findings on women leaders in Oman that illustrates the role of personal agency and lifestyle preference in contrast to many studies that treat culture as a constant.

The purpose of this study is to develop an academic theoretical framework relating success and performance in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) so that future research could be carried out to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for SMEs.

The research used a literature review, in‐depth interviews with owner‐managers of SMEs and a knowledge elicitation exercise was carried out based on the experience of the researchers and on the interviews with owner‐managers.

A new academic conceptual model was developed linking CSFs, definitions of success and performance to the characteristics of the business environment, the characteristics of the owner‐manager and the characteristics of the business. The relatively new idea that feedback on performance in the model could modify the strategic/tactical behaviour of the SME owner‐managers was introduced.

The many research problems posed by performance studies aimed at establishing CSFs in SMEs are still present in the current framework but a longitudinal research methodology could be employed to avoid these problems in future research.

The theoretical framework offers a different way forward for both practitioners and business advisors in thinking about those factors that may be critical for success in SMEs.

This is a new framework that can be used to inform thinking and research design in the area of performance measurement and success.

The purpose of the research reported here was to discover what marketing approaches small wineries employ and to what degree they could be attributed to their success. The article describes how the particular issue of measuring ‘success’ and what constituted ‘marketing’ was tackled and reports on the use of this in the subsequent empirical work. Five exploratory hypotheses were derived relating to the way in which ‘success’ could be measured and the contributory factors leading to the use of marketing. For small businesses that are classified at one of three levels of success the article reports what marketing activities were conducted. Data was gathered by personal interview from small wineries in the three main wine producing states and five main regions within these. The study found that: small winery operators are able to very consistently rate themselves and each other on success. Broadly, there were three factors that were used by them to gauge success: (i) wine quality and respect for this by peers, (ii) lifestyle, and (iii) business performance. Wineries at a particular level of success tend to use similar marketing activities and these differ somewhat from level to level. Those at higher levels of success are able to more comprehensively define ‘marketing’ and their customers and engage in marketing activities in a more discriminating way.

Projects are one of the main ways used to develop organisations and turn their strategic initiatives into a reality. To support project management, several entities (e.g. associations, institutes, etc.) provide standards, guides and project management methodologies. However, despite its wide coverage of project management knowledge areas, standards currently have no specific processes focused on planning and evaluating success. The absence of these processes can limit the vision of managers and their teams on what most contributes to the success of a project. Aiming at contributing to fill this gap, this paper proposes the integration of success management processes in the ISO 21500 standard.

To develop the integration model, a Design Science Research approach was adopted for the construction and evaluation of the resulting artefact.

The result is an integrated model and insights for its application in practice. The model aims to help managers and their teams to identify which success management activities need to carry out and how to integrate them with the other processes of the ISO 21500 standard.

The integrated model was applied in only one project. Another limitation is the difficulty in comparing the results obtained due to the small number of works focused on success management (namely related to planning, measuring, controlling and reporting success in practice) and its integration with project management standards, guides and methodologies.

The integrated model, based on success management and the ISO 21500 standard, is an important and original contribution to understand and achieve success in projects. This promotes a new vision of balanced management, directing the management effort to the areas that effectively contribute to success in each project.

Interest in successful small businesses continues to grow, but is influenced by the different ways in which small businesses are categorised and the difficulty of defining “success”. There is a range of criteria associated with success in terms of individual owner characteristics, organisational values and performance measures. However, few researchers have consulted owner/managers about their views on success. This research is instructive in that it used a grounded theory approach to investigate success in small service sector organisations. The impact of education, training, development, prior knowledge and experience on the success of these businesses was investigated. Four substantive categories were developed, but only one category showed clear evidence that education and training had a positive effect on the success of the business. Most businesses relied heavily on prior knowledge and experience. The properties, personal characteristics of the owner‐manager and some hypotheses were also developed for each category.

Despite being one of the most used dependent variables in expatriate management research, no clear-cut understanding exists of what expatriate success means. Thus, this study aims to propose an integrative definition of expatriate success by providing an overview of expatriate success's dimensions, antecedents, and their interplay.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to achieve the purpose. A total of 249 empirical studies (quantitative 111, qualitative 50, mixed-methods 17), literature reviews (67) and meta-analyses (4) on expatriate success were reviewed from Web of Science and Scopus databases published from 1990 until December 2021. The study selection criteria followed the PRISMA flowchart steps, and then descriptive and network analyses were performed to identify expatriates' success dimensions, antecedents and their interplay.

The findings show the interplay among antecedents and dimensions of expatriate success across three levels (individual, interpersonal and organisational) to clarify the concept of expatriate success. Also, the study offers a comprehensive definition of expatriate success based on the dimensions identified.

The suggested definition of expatriate success elucidates the “atheoretical”, multidimensional and socially constructed nature of the construct and hence, calls for more “theoretical”, multidimensional and subjective considerations of the term to ground human resource management practices addressed to attain expatriates' success.

This paper provides an integrative definition of expatriate success, giving greater insight into the construct, in addition to critically reflecting on it.