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The purpose of this paper is to appraise methodological rigor in the application of discriminant analysis (DA) in export-focused research and to offer guidelines for future studies.

The sample includes 89 empirical peer-reviewed studies, comprising 102 models published over the period 1979-2014. Content analysis and vote counting are used to evaluate each of these studies.

This review highlights major flaws in the application of DA in export research. The shortcomings are self-evident particularly concerning suitability of DA for research context, completeness in the reporting of descriptive results, and validity and reliability of predictive results.

The study takes the position that the lack of methodological rigor may be undermining the eminence of knowledge in exporting, and this has extensive implications for both researchers and practitioners.

This review outlines steps to assess methodological rigor associated with DA and offers guidelines for scholars seeking to enhance rigor in future research.

The purpose of this study is to organize and assess knowledge on the capabilities pertinent to the early internationalization of born globals (BGs) and international new ventures (INVs).

A systematic approach is used to search, code, organize and synthesize 155 peer-reviewed journal articles on capabilities and early internationalization.

The study delimits eight operational and five dynamic capabilities. The synthesis links capabilities to three antecedents (i.e. firm specific factors, managerial socio cognitive attributes and market factors) and three outcomes (i.e. precocity, survival and performance). While 7 of the 12 linkages identified are well-established, relationships involving market factors, survival and dynamic capabilities are sparsely researched.

The authors know more about the effects of firm specific factors and managerial socio cognitive attributes on operational and dynamic capabilities than we do the influence of market factors on either group of capabilities. Likewise, the authors know more about the influence of operational and dynamic capabilities on performance than we do their impact on precocity or survival.

As the pandemic has shown, businesses with adaptable capabilities (e.g. shifting from a brick and mortar to an online/omnichannel approach or micro-breweries competent to switch from manufacturing beer to hand sanitizer) have increased their chance of survival while helping society cope.

This to the authors’ knowledge is the first study to provide a comprehensive review of literature on the nebulous concept of capabilities, in the context of the burgeoning research stream on early internationalization.

This study aims to use analogical reasoning to draw a conceptual link between liabilities in International Business (IB) and export barriers.

Following a review of 130 articles on export barriers, the study develops and applies a “liabilities” metonymy to connect the source construct (liabilities in the IB) and target subject (export barriers).

Liabilities in the IB map to export barriers, and the concepts of liability of foreignness, liability of outsidership, liability of newness and liability of smallness can substitute export barriers.

Adoption of metonymy creates new opportunities for enhancing theory development while offering alternative perspectives regarding coping mechanisms for overcoming export barriers.

This, to the author’s best knowledge, is the first study in the IB to theorize based on metonymy.

This paper aims to dissect cross-border contracting practices among exporting businesses. The under-representation of exporter-importer dynamics and the superficial understanding of contracts are the motivation for this exploratory study.

The qualitative multiple case study design focuses on 18 small to medium size enterprise (SMEs) exporting from New Zealand. The analysis encompasses coding, pattern matching and explanation building. This paper uses coding to uncover themes and pattern matching/cross-case comparison to facilitate explanation building.

The paper underlines the scant use of formal international sales/distribution contracts, the lack of knowledge concerning contracting, barriers to contract formation, misgivings about the court system and litigation and the adoption of proxy contracts. This paper depicts varieties of contracting practices, namely, no formal contract, improvisational, normative, and formal contractual arrangements and underlines the context in which each approach applies.

Similar to most studies in this area, the dissection of contracting practices derives from the exporter side of the dyad. This robs the research of a holistic view of the exchange. Nonetheless, this paper contributes to a better understanding of contract formation and formalization and to the role of context in shaping the activities of exporting SMEs.

Although formal contracts are vital, they are not obligatory in all exchanges. Contracts matter more for high intensity exporters with comparatively short relationship histories, selling knowledge-intensive products in predominantly non-relational cultures. Policymakers should highlight the importance of contracts in such contexts and direct SMEs to several freely available resources on cross-border contracting.

The research casts fairness/equity and access to justice as pertinent structural disadvantages impacting the contracting practices of exporting SMEs.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first studies to provide an in-depth portrayal of the contracting practices of exporting SMEs, to detail the pervasiveness of non-contractual contracting practices and to depict contracting as nuanced and context-dependent.

While service inclusion principles raise the awareness of scholars to service that improves holistic well-being, little research explicitly investigates the spiritual dimensions of service inclusion. This study, therefore, aims to explore faith-based service inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa.

A qualitative case study of the Salvation Army’s Chikankata Services in Zambia was undertaken. Semi-structured interviews with the organization’s leaders and professionals were analyzed thematically.

Service inclusion pillars evince contextualized meaning and priority. In resource-constrained, vulnerable communities, faith-based service inclusion prioritizes two additional pillars – “fostering eudaimonic well-being” and “giving hope,” where existence is precarious, fostering (hedonic) happiness is of low priority. Findings reveal that pillars and processes are mutually reinforcing, harnessed by the individual and collective agency to realize transformative outcomes from service inclusion.

This paper provides unique insight into faith-based service inclusion but acknowledges limitations and areas warranting further research.

The study yields important managerial implications. Service providers can use the framework to identify the contextual priority and/or meaning of service inclusion pillars and relevant reciprocal processes. The framework emphasizes the harnessing potential of individual agency and capability development for transformative well-being.

Faith-based service inclusion, predicated on inclusion, human dignity and holistic well-being, has important implications for reducing the burden on scarce resources while building resilience in communities.

By examining a faith-based service in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper provides a holistic framework conceptualizing pillars, processes, agency and outcomes to extend Fisk et al.’s (2018) service inclusion pillars and to better understand the shaping of service delivery for service inclusion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of export barriers at two different points in time, 1995 (t ₀) and 2010 (t ₁), respectively. Using “confidence” as a surrogate for affect, the study proposes an inverse relationship between affect and export barrier intensity with the influence of export barriers increasing as exporter confidence subsides.

The study draws two random probabilistic samples (1995/2010) of New Zealand’s SME exporters, from the same working population, using an identical survey instrument. Preliminary analysis combines exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis techniques. The research proposition is tested using binary logistic regression.

The results found that the influence of export barriers changes substantially across time. There was support for the proposition in that the 2010 sample of exporters were two to nine times more likely to consider export barriers influential than the 1995 group. Such evidence was particularly strong in the context of logistics and distribution factors, internal resource constraints, trade-related barriers, home market factors and currency and payments obstacles.

This research suggests managerial evaluation of the prevailing business atmosphere, as captured by exporter’s confidence, can influence perception of export barriers. Specifically, barriers tend to be evaluated as influential when there is a sense of pessimism within the export sector. Thus over time export barrier influence can be traced to the manager’s evaluation of export prospects as opposed to the frequently researched organizational and internationalization variables.

This is the first study to use theory to predict and empirically test the change in export barrier influence across time. While the majority of export barrier research adopts the cognitive or “objective-verifiable” view, the study supports the contention that export barrier influence can also be understood in the context of the emotive or “subjective-moot” perspective. Additionally, export managers should adopt long-term orientation towards exports while policymakers are encouraged (contrary to mainstream research) to move from targeted export support programs to inclusive or mass market approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of export performance within the parameters of the structure-conduct-and-performance (SCP) paradigm, resource-based view (RBV), rational choice (RC) and perceptual view (PV), theoretical templates.

The study surveyed continuing manufacturing exporters from New Zealand (n=118) using an electronic method. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationships among the groups of predictors and three types of measures.

The results found that strategic factors (encapsulating RC) were strong predictors of both export intensity (EI) and export intensity growth, followed by export barriers (representing PV). Conversely, firm factors (representing an amalgamation of SCP and RBV variables) generated lower explanatory power in predicting export performance. Regarding measures of export performance, EI carried the highest efficacy.

This research suggests export performance depends primarily on deliberate strategic initiatives (RC) (regarding, products, markets and approaches to order generation), and implicitly challenges the resource and natural selection based advantages inherent in firm factors.

This is one of the few studies on export performance to test the explanatory power of competing theoretical views using a multiple measures approach. Insights from this research extend to the very definition of an internationalizing SME with significant implications for export researchers.