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This study combines institutional and organizational learning perspectives to investigate the impact of institutional distance and institution-specific cross-border acquisition experience in emerging markets on cross-border acquisition performance.

The sample consists of 874 transactions involving targets across 37 emerging markets by 484 different acquirers from 45 developed and emerging markets. The authors decompose institutional distance and acquisition experience along their cultural, administrative, geographic and economic dimensions.

The authors find that cultural, administrative and geographic distance have a negative impact on acquisition performance. In contrast, economic distance does not appear detrimental to acquisition performance across markets. The study provides evidence that a company may apply learnings from previous transactions in similar cultural and economic emerging market environments to elevate the likelihood of a successful acquisition.

This study offers a more fine-grained perspective of the distance concept by decomposing the concepts of institutional distance and acquisition experience along different institutional dimensions. The research across 37 emerging markets sheds light on which of the similarities and differences between these markets are relevant concerning acquisition experience and performance.

Although many manufacturers depend on international sales, and product-related services continue to increase in importance, little is known about how manufacturers should deliver their product-related services across borders. This paper examines the international configuration decision of industrial service offerings across borders by investigating the impact of different service characteristics and the servitization strategy on this decision. Additionally, the paper sheds light on how digitalization and administrative heritage impact this decision.

116 industrial goods manufacturers from Switzerland and Germany were surveyed.

Servitization leads companies to centralize their service resources in their home countries. However, most service characteristics do not impact decisions regarding centralization, except for knowledge intensity, which leads to more centralization of resources. This implies that the resource configuration does not depend on each service individually but on the overall service strategy. Furthermore, the digital readiness of the host country directly and positively impacts resource centralization. Notwithstanding other variables, larger companies tend to decentralize service resources more than smaller companies.

This paper is among the first to study the international configuration impact of servitization and of individual service characteristics, thereby adding important knowledge regarding the provision of product-related services in the international context. Additionally, different aspects of digitalization are included to analyze its impact on companies and host countries.

The purpose of this research is to try to show the relevance of service quality in building a strong retail brand. It addresses how retailer attributes affect customer‐based retail brand equity, when considering retailers as brands. These attributes are compared with one another, and the importance of service is set in proportion to the other retailer attributes, both intersectorally and sector‐specifically. An integrated model is used here.

This is an empirical study across five retail sectors (grocery, textiles, DIY, consumer electronics and furniture retailing) based on a survey with 2,000 face‐to‐face interviews. Structural equation modelling is used to illustrate the impact of central dimensions of the perception of retailer service and of the other retailer attributes on customer‐based retail brand equity.

In retailing, service quality appears to be the most important retailer attribute in building a strong retail brand – as demonstrated in four out of five sectors. The integrated model developed in this study can make a significant contribution to a field of knowledge which at present is not well developed.

A more detailed analysis of the cross‐sectoral differences is undoubtedly necessary. Furthermore, a more exact analysis of retailer service is certainly required, but it must also incorporate other retailer attributes in order to achieve dimensions of comparison.

The importance of service in retailing is intersectorally underlined in comparison to the other retailer attributes/retail marketing instruments. Even in sectors that characteristically use self‐service, the importance of service quality and particularly of friendly and competent staff is evident. Compared to the other retailer attributes, service is one strategic element that can be used effectively by retailers of almost any size. A small or medium sized retailer usually cannot distinguish itself from its competitors by means of price, but with a service‐oriented business.

Unlike other investigations, a model is applied in this paper to five retail sectors, so both general and also sector‐specific conclusions can be drawn on the importance of customer service and the other retailer attributes. Furthermore, customer service is not analysed in isolation, thus we have dimensions of comparison, unlike many other authors who look at service alone.

Purpose – Taking a configurational perspective, this study explores if there are different market entry strategies used and if there are ideal configurations of subsidiary strategy in different types of foreign countries.

Methodology – The study is based on a sample of 238 subsidiaries of German companies that are located in 38 different countries. Capturing many different facets of the subsidiary strategy, the configuration of top performers in different environments is identified. With a ‘fit as profile deviation’ approach, it is investigated whether the strategy of the top performers indeed constitutes an ideal strategy.

Findings – The host countries of the subsidiaries can be clustered in four types: BRICs, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the USA. Chosen market entry modes differ significantly between those four host country types. The top performing subsidiaries in each of the country types have distinct strategy patterns. However, deviation from the strategy profile of the top performers only explains the lower performance of subsidiaries in country types BRICs and Eastern Europe. Performance differences between subsidiaries in Western Europe and the USA cannot be explained with the variables captured in this study.

Research limitations/implications – Taking a configurational approach on subsidiary strategy proves to be a promising path to create new insights. But subsidiary strategy pattern alone is insufficient to explain performance in two country types. Thus, other influence factors must be investigated. Furthermore, the study did explore subsidiary strategy patterns with a cluster analysis, without ex ante hypotheses about the patterns. Hence, further studies are needed to re-investigate these patterns.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on one of the main antecedents of consumer behaviour concerning its role in building a retail brand. It addresses how consumer involvement influences perception of retailer attributes, which affects customer‐based retail brand equity when considering retailers as brands.

A model is developed that includes the impact of central dimensions of the perception of retailer attributes, their effects on customer‐based retail brand equity and the moderating role of consumer involvement. The empirical study is based on a sample of 3,000 consumers spread over five retail sectors (grocery, clothing, DIY, electronics and furniture).

Using multiple‐group structural equation modelling, the intersectoral relevance of involvement as a moderator in building a strong retail brand is demonstrated. In retailing, consumer involvement has a moderating effect on the influence of retailer attributes on retail brand equity. The direction of this influence differs, however, from one perceived retailer attribute to the next. Whereas the influence of price, communication and store design is greater on highly involved consumers than on those with low involvement, the influence of service and assortment is greater in consumers with low involvement. Since consumers with a different level of involvement have a different perception of retailer attributes, this factor is relevant to retail branding.

Understanding retailers as brands – conceptually – a basic model shows how to build retail brand equity using the dimensions of retailer marketing instruments, and this model is stable enough to test different antecedents, including involvement for the first time in this context. The five sectors surveyed distinguish the study methodologically from those that focus only on one sector. Finally, the results show that the retailer attributes relevant to retail brand equity differ between customers with high involvement and those with low involvement. This aspect must be considered in the preliminary stages of retail brand building.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how cultural differences affect the perception of a brand.

A study was carried out in six countries among different involvement groups. The study uses Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Aaker's brand personality dimensions to see if brand perceptions of a product are similar among all six countries.

This study provides clear evidence that a same brand is perceived differently in different cultures in spite of its identical positioning. This means that if a firm wishes to achieve the same brand perception in different countries, the firm needs to create brand positioning strategies that emphasize the characteristics that enable consumers to perceive the product in a similar way.

This paper examines the perception of a single brand in the context of cultural dimensions in a global setting – in particular in six countries on three continents.

This paper introduces a conceptual framework to assess the foreign market entry behavior of emerging market multinationals (EMMs). By introducing strategic cognition as the underlying theoretical perspective, this paper postulates that different levels of institutional voids in home markets shape the strategic cognition of EMMs, influencing their market entry behavior due to the prevalence of organizational imprinting in the early stages of internationalization. The paper aims to contribute to the strategic cognition literature by introducing emerging markets as a relevant context in which to apply and extend current thinking. Additionally, it aims to contribute to the institutional voids literature by providing a cognitive framework of behavioral patterns that is rationalized by institutional voids. Finally, the paper contributes to the entry mode literature by proposing strategic cognition as a relevant moderator for foreign entry mode choices, particularly those of EMMs.

Purpose – This article addresses the internationalization processes focusing on changes of firms' internal structures, systems, and culture over time. These changes are analyzed in relation to the firms' developments in the last 10 years along a country and/or mode dimension, comparing firms with county or mode increase, two-dimensional expansions, stagnation/reduction, as well as comparing incremental one step versus multistep developments in a holistic way.

Methodology/approach – Conceptually, the changes in country dimension and establishment chain form a primary level, and structure, systems, and culture a secondary level of the framework. Managers of family-owned firms, able to evaluate the past, were asked about these dimensions in terms of their situation today and 10 years ago.

Findings – This study shows that internationalization causes changes in internal systems in particular, followed by changes in internal structural and slowest by changes in leadership and firm's culture. Even if stagnations or reductions take place, they are related to changes in internal structure, systems, and culture.

Research limitations/implications – Limitations are related to the retrospective design based on managerial perceptions, the use of less proven scales, as well as the analyses of family-owned firms. This exploratory study suggests more empirical insights on dynamic internationalization processes.

Practical implications – The study provides insights for managers into structural, systemic, and cultural changes when future internationalization steps are planned.

Originality/value of the paper – This paper shows holistic evidence of changes in 20 partial dimensions of internal structures, systems, and culture within the internationalization process over time empirically.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on retailers’ performance. An analysis using a comprehensive conceptualization of CSR reveals that CSR has positive implications for retailers’ firm performance and illustrates which CSR dimensions are the most important to focus on. It becomes clear that retailers must care about both downstream- and upstream-oriented CSR dimensions in the value chain. The paper highlights the impact of CSR communication activities for company success both in terms of general communication to the stakeholders and relating to in-store communications.

The authors conducted a survey among retailers. Data analysis was performed applying partial least squares structural equation modeling.

While CSR generally has positive effects on retailer performance – despite cost associated with CSR implementation, the authors show that diverse dimensions have different effects. Also, both downstream (customer-oriented) as well as upstream (suppler-oriented) activities count. Also, CSR communications, thus talking about what good a retailer does, is of high relevance.

This paper offers both theoretical implications on CSR dimensions in retailing as well as practical help for retailers on how and why to implement and communicate CSR activities.