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Despite failure rates of around 30 per cent, international joint ventures (IJVs) continue to grow. It is argued that IJVs provide a platform for organisational learning, which facilitates organisational performance. Intuitively, IJVs that are learning oriented should have a positive impact upon organisational performance. However, it is unclear as to whether a firm in an IJV should focus more on being learning oriented, or market oriented. The paper aims to address this question.

A survey of 168 senior managers involved in IJVs in Malaysia. Data were analysed using two‐stage least squares estimators for latent variable models.

Results suggest that for IJVs, a market orientation has a more positive impact on organisational performance than a learning orientation. The non‐linear relationship between market orientation and performance suggest that larger gains in performance are achieved by firms who have low initial levels of market orientation. Thus, in the absence of one or the other, it is preferable for a firm in an IJV to have a strong market orientation.

For managers of IJVs, the study would suggest that firms should concentrate on improving their organisations' overall level of market orientation if they are to improve the level of business performance.

This paper is the first to examine the relative effects of a market orientation and a learning orientation in the context of IJVs.

The expansion of the phenomenon of two-way flow expatriation due to the accelerated process of globalization has resulted in an increasing need for a better understanding of cross-cultural transitions. Given the absence of convincing a priori theoretical explanations, as part of an inductive discovery process, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between cultural intelligence (CQ), job position, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) for expatriates.

Explicit consideration is given to uncovering the potential importance of cultural distance asymmetry (CDA) effects. Structural equation modelling techniques are employed to analyse survey data from a two-flow sample of expatriates between Australia and China.

Results indicate that motivational CQ has a statistically significant effect on CCA. CDA is found to moderate the relationship between job positions and expatriate adjustment, such that the relationship depends on the direction of cultural flow between more and less authoritarian cultural contexts.

These findings discover and highlight the potential importance of identifying the direction of cultural flows of expatriation in understanding successful expatriates’ CCA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioral dimensions of the middle managers’ cultural intelligence (CQ) on firms’ innovation performance in a context of cultural diversity and the mediating role of knowledge sharing in this relationship. The author deepens the analysis by exploring the moderating role of collaborative climate (CC) on the link between CQ and KS.

A survey was conducted on 186 foreign middle managers working in Tunisian firms. The data analysis was performed via the partial least square method.

The results revealed that middle managers’ metacognitive CQ has a positive effect on KS, which in turn enhances firms’ innovation performance. In this line, KS partially mediates the relationship between metacogntive CQ and innovation performance. Findings also indicate that CC moderates the link between three dimensions of CQ, namely metacognitive, behavioral and motivational CQs and KS.

The paper sheds lights on the contribution of middle managers’ CQ and the CC within firms to the KS and innovation performance in a context of cultural diversity. At the best of the author’s knowledge, the links among these variables had not been empirically examined, especially involving samples of middle managers. This study offers important insights for managers by providing them with tools to improve KS and firms’ innovation.

This paper aims to explore the nature of the cooperation–competition nexus in regional clusters by examining how wine firms in Australia engage in knowledge exchanges about a “common” strategic issue: climate change. Further, it determines if differences in climate change innovations exist based on sub-regional position.

Using a survey, data were collected from 557 firms across three wine-producing regions in Australia. Respondents were drawn from a leading wine industry database.

The findings suggest that, after accounting for all knowledge exchanges, firms across the regions appear to be generally engaging in knowledge exchanges about climate change within their own geographic sub-regions. However, paradoxically, firms in “elite” sub-regions appear to be demonstrating more of a cooperative posture via a greater level of external knowledge exchanges. The results also suggest that implementation rates differ for adaptive climate change innovations only (as opposed to mitigative innovations) to the apparent advantage of firms in elite sub-regions.

The study represents Australian wine regions and should not be taken as a general population sample. The impacts of climate change in other wine-producing regions around the world may vary, leading to different results than those found in this study.

Wine producers face many challenges with respect to climate change. To respond effectively to this issue, the sharing of knowledge is important to innovate around mitigative and adaptive practices. This research suggests that greater stimulation of open knowledge exchanges is likely needed so that all producers can benefit from industry-wide learning.

This paper provides insights to wine scholars, industry practitioners and peak industry bodies seeking to understand and enhance the wine industry’s response to climate change. The paper also points to areas of future research opportunity and provides policy recommendations.

Eastern European countries have an important history of quality and tradition in winemaking. The radical economic modification that the wine sector had to face during communism exposed these countries to various problems during transition, when their market share in Western European markets shrunk. This paper aims to argue that an important cause of the decline is the inability of price to convey information about the quality level of the wine, as from the theory of asymmetric information.

This paper uses the econometric theory of hedonic pricing to explore the research question, relating price to the characteristics of the wine, including a quality rating from a respected British wine expert for the year 2006. Results are presented for a sample of 134 wines coming from different Eastern European countries (EEC) sold in the UK. The analysis also tackles the issue of understanding which parameters contributed to the quality level of Eastern European wines, modelling the qualitative description in order to identify the keywords that explains the change in quality level.

The results show evidence of no correlation between ratings and price in the considered segment of the UK wine market, suggesting an imperfect communication of quality via the price information. Moreover, Romania, which is a very important producing country, has a weak brand value, suggesting the need for restructuring the industry and improving quality management schemes to compete in their newly enlarged destination market. The quality model shows that fruity flavours are those playing a most important role in defining the quality level; hence a more targeted product supply should be encouraged.

No previous research has used hedonic modelling to the case of Eastern European wines. Furthermore, the context used here is to understand the weaknesses of the specific segment, and the tool is used to investigate the loss of competitive advantage of Eastern European products in the UK markets, focusing on the quality/price relation.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been found to be under-represented in the awarding of public sector procurement contracts. Currently, very little is known about the strategic and behavioral aspects associated with SMEsʼ participation in public sector procurement. To take a step in filling the gap, we used a conceptual construct known as market orientation (MO). The construct comprises a firmʼs orientation in gathering information on competitors and customers, and using the information to gain competitive advantage. This research found that MO has a positive effect on how active SMEs are in searching information on available requests for tenders and how actively they participate in bidding contests. This work strongly suggests that MO should be taken into account when designing procurement contracts, and MO should be fostered among SMEs.

This paper addresses the strategic orientations (entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and market orientation) of rapidly internationalizing small software companies.

The empirical analysis is based on an intensive investigation of ten small Finnish software companies that have exhibited rapid and proactive internationalization behavior.

It is argued that the manifestations of the orientations evolve as the small company develops, and these concepts are thus strongly related to the internationalization process. Further, an entrepreneurial orientation, especially a strong desire to seek growth in international markets, must be embedded in the mindset of the rapidly internationalizing small company. However, It is argued that it does not have an effect on the success of the international venture if it is not combined with strong learning and market orientations.

This paper brings an evolutionary viewpoint to the existing academic debate of strategic orientations of companies. It is suggested that the current conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation should be developed to include also measures of market orientation.

It is suggested that the members of the management team of a small and global software company should not only possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset and previous experience of international operations, they should also show strong commitment to considering the customers the most important stakeholders of the company, and a willingness and ability to learn rapidly from all available information about global markets.

This is the first qualitative investigation of the strategic orientations during the internationalization process of small companies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ) and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) using meta-analytic methods. The paper serves a dual purpose as it critically examines the CQ-CCA literature and provides summary effects using meta-analysis to determine how CQ and its facets affect CCA and its three dimensions.

A meta-analysis of 77 studies involving 18,399 participants was conducted to obtain the summary effects. The studies reporting the relationship of CQ and/or its facets with CCA or any of its dimensions were included in the analysis.

Results revealed that CQ (overall) and all individual CQs were positively and significantly related to CCA and its three subdimensions. Although CQ (overall) had a strong effect on CCA and moderate to strong effects on all the subdimensions of CCA, the strongest effect size was measured for the relationship of motivational CQ with CCA. Not only this, when individual CQs' relationships were assessed with the individual adjustment dimensions, the motivational aspect of CQ happened to be the most influencing factor, having a close to strong effect on interaction adjustment.

Since the study combines the results from numerous empirical research conducted over time, it avoids the limitations that an individual study has, which is carried out at a single point in time and on a limited sample.

This study adds to the academic research by critically reviewing the CQ-CCA literature. It also works as a guiding map for future research in the area. The study highlights the summary effects for each association between CQ and CCA and their dimensions, elucidating the mixed findings reported in previous research.

This paper aims to explore the role of eco-innovation in the competitiveness of the Barossa Valley wine region, which is one of the premier wine areas in Australia.

A case study approach using qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews was utilised to gather data from respondents in the wine regional cluster.

The findings suggest that eco-innovation and regional wine clusters contribute to better international performance of wine firms. In addition, environmental issues are important for the wine industry because of the role they play in the global economy.

This study highlights the growing importance of climate change and sustainability on the willingness of wine firms to be involved in eco-innovation. This is crucial for wine firms in the Barossa Valley being globally competitive leaders based on environmental innovations.

Due to the large amount of natural resources that wine firms use, clusters can be used to encourage eco-innovation, which can facilitate further expansion into new international markets. This is important because of consumers increasing emphasis on environmentally friendly food products and the government priority given to eco-innovations.

This paper provides insights into the eco-innovation process that can help wine firms, industry practitioners and regional planners develop better environmental strategies that lead to increased global competitiveness.

The complexity in determining the quality of a credence good like wine increases due to the lack of mandatory ingredient labeling. This has generated a significant information asymmetry in the wine market, leading consumers to delegate their purchase decisions to expert rankings and wine guides. This paper explores whether expert assessments reduce the information asymmetry caused by the absence of ingredient labeling in the wine market.

By employing analysis of variance (ANOVA) in a sample of 304 wines included in the Wine Guide of the Spanish Consumers Organization (OCU), this paper assesses the extent to which expert assessments based on sensory evaluations converge with the objective cues provided by laboratory analysis in wine quality evaluations.

Results reveal a mismatch between expert assessments and laboratory analyses. Chemical aspects such as SO₂ levels or volatile acidity, sensorial factors such as intensity and persistence, and extrinsic variables such as the region of origin or wine type play an important role in the quality ranking of wines.

These findings call for the inclusion of objective intrinsic cues in expert sensory assessments to provide consumers reliable information about wines and to resolve the apparent dissonances in wine quality assessments.