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This study empirically investigates the relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure (i.e. debt ratio) of firms and the moderating effect of financial market development on the relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure.

This research applied a quantitative method. The article collects large samples of listed firms from 23 developing and nine developed countries and applied the panel data techniques. This research used firm-level data from the DataStream database for both developed and developing countries. The study uses 4,912 firm-level data from 23 developing countries and 4,303 firm-level data from nine developed countries.

The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure in developing countries, but goodwill assets have a significant negative relationship with capital structure in developed countries. Moreover, financial market development positively moderates the relationship between goodwill assets and the capital structure of firms in developing countries. The results inform firm managers that goodwill assets serve as additional collateral to secure debt financing. Moreover, policymakers should formulate a debt market policy that recognizes goodwill assets as additional collateral for the purpose of obtaining debt capital.

The study has several implications. First, goodwill assets are identified as a factor of capital structure in this study. Fixed assets have been identified as one of the drivers of capital structure in previous research, although goodwill assets are seldom included. Second, this article shows that along with demand-side determinants, supply-side determinants also play an important role in terms of the firms' choice about the capital structure. Therefore, firms should take both the demand-side and supply-side factors into consideration when sourcing for external financing (i.e. debt capital).

The study considered goodwill as a component of capital structure. The study analysis includes a large sample of enterprises, including 4,912 big firms from 23 developing countries and 4,303 large firms from nine industrialized or developed countries, which adds to the current capital structure information. Furthermore, a large sample size increases the results' robustness and generalizability.

Between the lack of incentives for larger international companies and the lack of resources of the local companies the majority of the people in less developed countries never benefit from new products. International companies generally offer modified product offerings to consumers in developing countries. To date, their attempts to penetrate the developing country markets have not been successful. The reasons for this failure in their attempts to succeed in these markets include the prohibitive cost of developing entirely new products for this market and the low‐income levels of the families in these countries. To succeed in developing countries, international companies have to observe and study their customers' needs and uncover the problem areas. There are many approaches available to accomplish this process including systematic innovation and the seven R's. Each approach focuses on the consumer and suggests a radical approach to developing new products. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction and overview of new product development in emerging countries.

Challenges, process, and success strategies are explored.

To succeed in developing countries, international companies have to observe and study their customers' needs and uncover the problem areas. The authors suggest an approach that focuses on the consumer and suggests a radical approach to developing new products – the limitations/constraints point of view. The single biggest constraint in developing products for less developed countries is affordability (price). Unlike the new product development process that is practiced in industrialized countries, international companies wanting to be successful in less developed countries should start with the customers' affordability and value‐added point of view and then work backwards to develop products/services for these countries.

International companies are provided with an approach to new product development in emerging countries.

New product development in emerging countries is likely to become increasingly important, and there is very little research on the topic. The value of this paper is in its overview of the challenges of new product development in emerging countries, and suggested solutions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern regarding alcohol consumption and related harms in developing nations. Concomitantly a growing evidence base suggests that alcohol marketing influences drinking behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to explore how critical social marketing can help assess the nature of alcohol marketing, and the effectiveness of its regulation, in developing countries.

A sample of 14 alcohol marketing campaigns from India, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are assessed against the regulatory codes governing alcohol marketing in the UK.

The study found that alcohol marketing often contravened the UK regulatory codes. Critical social marketing offers a framework for research and analysis to assess the nature and impact of alcohol marketing, and to address alcohol related harms in developing countries.

This exploratory study is limited to a small convenience sample. Future research to systematically audit alcohol marketing, and consumer studies to assess its impact on drinking behaviours in developing nations would be welcomed.

Findings suggest that initiatives to monitor and effectively regulate alcohol marketing in developing nations should be explored by policymakers. The competitive analysis and insight generated by studies of this nature can aid development agencies in the design and implementation of alcohol social marketing interventions. The global alcohol industry and marketers should also be encouraged to act more socially responsible.

The paper offers insights into how the critical social marketing framework can be applied in practice, to inform social marketing activity in the upstream and downstream environment.

This paper aims to reflect on different issues and perspectives on returns on investments made by MNEs towards social development. Need for an inclusive society drives accountable and effective cooperation between different actors in a market. Although multinational enterprises (MNEs) that operate in developing markets invest in social development, their managers find it very challenging to incorporate social development agenda into their business practices. Therefore, academics should develop business models which can guide thoughts and actions of managers of MNEs towards social development while allowing them to hold on to the business objectives and targets.

A review of current literature with available anecdotes about business practices helped the author to form a viewpoint and make recommendations.

The objective of the eighth millennium development goal is to promote global partnership between MNEs and domestic firms with or without intervention of a subsidiary. Addressing the particular needs of developing countries, such as capability enhancement or poverty reduction by managers of MNEs in a global setting, becomes a very complex issue. Investments by MNEs in developing countries towards these objectives are driven by different factors such as operational transparency, technological efficiency, investment types, innovation capability, branding strategy, quality assurance, public–private partnership, market-based pricing, reciprocity, distribution for penetration, etc., apart from linkages they create for developing resource-based competencies required for survival in a competitive market.

Empirical investigation of the viewpoint presented here will be required to convert recommendations into models applicable by managers of MNEs.

This study will help to enable managers of MNEs to perform need-based socially responsible actions.

This study will facilitate participation of MNEs in social development through their contributions towards poverty reduction and capability enhancement.

This paper pushes managers and academic scholars to think about the strategies required to incorporate social agenda into business models of MNEs benefiting from developing markets.

This paper explores the major factors influencing multinational companies’ (MNCs) propensity to change the level of resource commitments during financial crises in emerging markets. Favorable changes in the host government policies, market demand, firm strategy, and infrastructural conditions are hypothesized to influence the MNCs’ decision to increase resource commitments during a crisis. The hypotheses are tested with data collected in a survey of 82 MNCs during the recent Argentine financial crisis (late 2002). While all the above variables are considered by the respondents as generally important reasons for increasing resource commitments during a crisis, only favorable changes in government policies significantly influence MNCs’ decisions to change the level of resource commitments during the Argentine financial crisis. The research, managerial implications, and policy‐making implications are discussed.

The objective of the study is to derive a classification of export problems of SMEs from developing countries on the basis of a comprehensive literature study.

The study performed a comprehensive and systematic literature review of 40 articles published over a period of 25 years (1980‐2004). The export problems are classified into company barriers, product barriers, industry barriers, export market barriers and macro environment barriers.

The study provides a modified qualitative model that can be used by future researchers to further their research endeavour in export problems of firms from developing countries. It also identifies the similarities and differences of export problems in developed and developing countries.

The lack of extensive research on export problems limited the number of articles reviewed in this study. Thus, the results of this paper should be considered as a stepping stone for future research.

The export problems identified in this study can be used to develop a questionnaire for a regional or global survey of SME's exporters from developing countries.

The paper provides an important reference for researchers who intend to study export problems in developing countries. Moreover, policy makers in developing countries can use it to identify export problems that firms face and provide timely and effective assistance to SMEs.

The issue of export instability exerts an enduring fascination for economists with an interest in the area of economic development. Over several decades a voluminous literature has emerged embracing debates on the domestic consequences and on the causes of export instability. The purpose here is to examine these debates and an attempt is made to set out different theoretical stances, to classify and examine empirical findings, and to indicate the directions in which the debates have moved. Such a statement of a review article's purpose is, of course, incomplete without more specific delineation of the boundaries within which the general objectives are pursued. Here that delineation has three facets.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the branding strategies of SMEs from NIEs, juxtaposing the different strategies used to specifically target developed and developing countries with regard to brand-building approach, type and number of brands and degree of standardization.

A case-study approach is used. In-depth interviews are conducted with 10 Korean consumer-goods SMEs exporting their own in-house brands.

Clear differences emerge between the strategies of SMEs entering developed countries and those entering developing countries, particularly regarding brand identity development, use of foreign sales subsidiaries and number and types of brands used. The authors find an interaction effect between product characteristics and host market levels of economic development, both of which influenced the degree of product standardization.

This study is the first attempt to uncover the branding strategies of NIE consumer-goods SMEs. The findings contribute to the field by extending our understanding of branding strategies used by consumer-goods SMEs from NIEs, thereby providing useful insight for other NIE enterprises when establishing branding strategies aimed at foreign markets.

The purpose of this paper is to identify different outcomes in the relation innovation–exports for a firm located in a developing country, depending upon the destination market of its exports (i.e. a developed or a developing economy).

The specification strategy is a bivariate probit regression model applied to 640 Uruguayan manufacturing firms. Two simultaneous equations are used to estimate the probability of being an exporting or innovating firm. For both equations, the firm’s innovative activity and export status in the past are introduced as explanatory variables to solve endogeneity issues.

When firms located in a developing economy export to another developing country, the authors find that innovation precedes exports, in line with what they would expect according to theory. When the export market is a developed economy, firms are not able to cope with both innovation and export strategies simultaneously, whether innovating to access export markets or transforming knowledge from exports into innovation.

Causality could not be found and endogeneity problems were not solved. The data are limited to a sample of Uruguayan manufacturing firms during six years between 2010 and 2015, and authors do not know when did the firms began to export either to a developed or a developing economy. Furthermore, the database indicates if a developed economy is between the three main export markets of the firm or not, but authors do not know what kind of products (i.e. their technological level) are exported by the firm to that destination.

Although the link between innovation and exports is an important topic for firms and policymakers, the main bulk of empirical studies has ignored the role of destination markets. This study attempts to fill this gap contributing to a better understanding of the differences in the relation between innovation and exports (i.e. its sequence), when the destination market is a developed or a developing economy.