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Understanding how international business opportunities (IBOs) are recognized and developed is critical to the study of international entrepreneurship.

We draw on entrepreneurial cognition research broadly and the entrepreneurial judgment perspective specifically to develop a model of the recognition and development of IBOs by considering three theoretically important sets of drivers – social networks, international experience and a proactive mindset. We use a sample of 92 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to test the model empirically.

We find robust support. Entrepreneurial judgment surrounding IBOs and uncertain international business environments entails tapping social networks, international experience and a proactive mindset to both recognize third-person opportunities for someone as well as to act upon and develop IBOs as first-person opportunities from which a focal firm can profit.

Conceptually and empirically, we peer inside the black box of IBO entrepreneurial judgment processes by jointly evaluating the abstract recognition of third-person opportunities as well as the concrete actions and interactions that develop the IBOs into first-person opportunities.

The strategic entrepreneurship (SE) literature exists at the intersection of the strategy and entrepreneurship literatures and has grown rapidly over the past two decades. This study aims to document the proliferation of research papers and identifies the major thematic clusters of topics and other summary information for the SE research domain.

This is a systematic bibliometric review of 586 articles published over the period 2009–2019 in 143 journals. The inductive quantitative assessment of these articles uses meta-data driven techniques that prioritize reproducibility and rigor in the process of literature analysis.

This study identifies six main themes in the strategic literature, namely, Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Knowledge Management; Ecosystems; Strategy; Entrepreneurialism; and Organization and Management. It also reports data on a variety of issues including research techniques, country of data, co-author count and trends and differences between journals based on their journal impact factors and calls for more research in key areas.

An innovative original analytical tool was developed to facilitate the analysis of research papers in this growing field. This online tool allows multiple tags to be attached to each paper by multiple authors working simultaneously to identify keywords and other aspects that were subsequently used to identify six main thematic areas within the SE literature. This paper highlights emerging research trends and identifies gaps in the literature that provide opportunities for further research in this field.

Outlines legal issues in Internet advertising to children in the USA, European Union, Australia and Canada; the Internet is now dominated by mainstream international companies which market to children. Outlines the COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) in the USA, plus the work of CARU (the Children’s Advertising Review Unit). Moves on to the European Union’s Data Protection Directive and Communications Data Protection Directive, and the guidelines of the FEDMA (Federation of European Direct Marketing Associations). Concludes with the Australian Privacy Act and the guidelines of the Canadian Marketing Association.

The purpose of this paper is to create a strategy for “Best Buy”, a major consumer electronics and appliance retailer in the USA, to improve their service system to ensure that they can continuously gain market share. This study will examine and analyze Best Buy's store service blueprint in comparison to its competitors' service blueprints. The study will then examine Best Buy Geek Squad's service blueprint and recommend improvements that can be implemented to provide higher quality service to Best Buy's customers.

A combination of design methods was used which included creating multiple service blueprints and implementing the Six Sigma DMAIC approach. A Service Quality (SERVQUAL) Survey was conducted and analyzed the data, to give an understanding of customer satisfaction with the service provided at Best Buy, compared to its major competitors. The service blueprint was analyzed and strategies were recommended to improve the present system, with the goal of providing better customer service and an improved shopping experience. With the recommendations an “improved service model” for Best Buy was created, along with fail safe mechanisms to ensure that service guarantees will be met.

In the Six Sigma DMAIC Process Improvement approach, poka‐yokes were implemented to improve the Best Buy service blueprint, which were identified through cause‐and‐effect diagrams that were created. By implementing the new service blueprint, along with the poka‐yokes, Best Buy will see a significant improvement in customer satisfaction.

Best Buy and other retail service providers should consider investing in adequate staffing of technically savvy and customer sensitive store associates and implement customer service training programs to improve their education relating specifically to the quality of service delivery to their customers.

This paper focuses on the business case for implementing Six Sigma tools to improve the service provided by retailers. This should lead to long‐term profitability and improved customer service.

Previous theoretical explanations and empirical analyses of the multinationality‐performance relationship have produced mixed arguments and results. Linear and inverted U‐shaped relationships have been theorized and confirmed empirically. Recent research has theorized that there is a three‐stage, sigmoid relationship between multinationality and performance. We contribute to the debate by showing that the impact of multinationality depends on the time dimension incorporated in the performance measure; that is, the net benefits from multinationality are likely to be higher in the longer term. The results from our sample of US manufacturing multinationals indicate that there is a three‐stage, sigmoid multinationality‐performance relationship.

Inventory control problems often result in record and physical count discrepancies which may ultimately lead to higher than preferred inventory levels. Conversely, accurate inventory records result in lower inventory investment and are the foundation for forecasting, ordering, tracking, vendor evaluation, and dead stock administration programmes. Guidelines, based on general systems theory, to identify the presence of inventory control problems in both physical operations and information systems areas are presented. Next, procedures to correct control problems are discussed. These include the formation of a permanent taskforce, corporate‐wide education on the importance of record accuracy, and the development of a general management plan based on sound principles for effective inventory control. Recent experiences within a telecommunications company having inventory control problems are used as a case example to illustrate specific points.

This paper examines both the imports and exports of nonmaquiladora Mexican firms, theorizing that importing is generally motivated by exploration for new resources and exporting by exploitation of existing resources. Our results indicate that firm size is positively related to both imports and exports, while low cost labor advantage is positively associated with exports but not significantly related to imports. Because importing may precede exporting, it should be considered as part of the internationalization process of firms and as a key way to acquire resources before exploiting them through exporting.

Little is known about the strategies used by state courts during the appropriations process. This article examines court budgetary practices in the state of Oklahoma. It reveals how court funding works in Oklahoma, what strategies are used by the state courts, and which factors are most important in determining the success of the courts in getting the funds they need. It shows that the judiciary is not necessarily at the mercy of the other branches of government when seeking resources. The findings provide the first glimpse at court budgeting strategies and determinants of these strategies’ success at the state level.

Considers the impact of multi‐faceted measures of job satisfaction on customer‐oriented behaviours demonstrated by service providers. Reveals how overall job satisfaction, together with specific satisfaction related to supervision, colleagues, promotion and work are positively related to customer‐orientation, while satisfaction with pay is not of significance in this case. Discusses recommendations for management and suggestions for further research.

A growing body of literature suggests that unpredictable, resource-depleting shocks – ranging from natural disasters to public health crises and beyond – require the firm to respond adaptively. However, how firms do so remains largely undertheorized. To contribute to this line of literature, the authors borrow from the conservation of resources (COR) theory of stress and the dynamic capabilities perspective to introduce the concept of firm stress – a state of reduced and irregular readiness firms enter into following unpredictable, resource-depleting shocks. Our theoretical model illustrates that firms must punctuate the stress state to adapt by first deploying a retrenchment response, thereby conserving resources and allowing the firm to consider how to best redeploy its dynamic capabilities to adapt. Subsequently, the firm can redeploy its capabilities and adaptively respond in one of three ways: exiting (reconfiguring resources for alternative use), persevering (reconfiguring resources for better use), or innovating (developing new resources). Overall, the authors offer a process model of firm stress and adaptive responses following an unpredictable, resource-depleting shock that paves the way for future research on stress in the strategy literature.