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Drawing on an organizational learning perspective, this paper examines the effect of levels of foreign market involvement (intensity and geographic spread) on internationalization outcomes recognizing that the moderating influence of entry-mode learning potential is not well documented in the literature on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The sample includes 180 SMEs evenly selected from three industries: biotechnology, software and clothing (60 firms in each industry). The sampled firms employ less than 250 employees and are equally distributed between three developed economies and three emerging economies. All were engaged in foreign business.

The authors find that there is a direct relationship between levels of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes. Entry-mode learning potential moderates the relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes but not the relationship between geographic spread and internationalization outcomes.

This study reveals several new insights that help explain the pathway through which foreign market involvement activities are translated into internationalization outcomes.

The authors conclude that the positive relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes is strengthened when SMEs also use an entry mode with a higher learning potential than exporting only.

The article explores how servitization influences firms' foreign market entry mode decisions. This relationship is researched under the contingent effect of macroenvironmental factors in the host country, namely, market attractiveness, institutional environment and national culture differences between the home and host country.

The study employs a conceptual framework typology that interrelates, contextualizes and conceptualizes extant knowledge to develop explicit propositions.

Based on the extant literature, using a 2 × 2 matrix, the authors delineate the influence of two dimensions of servitization on entry mode decisions: customer relationship focus and digitalization focus. They conceptualize that relationship management and digitalization-based servitization have an antagonistic effect on the need for entry mode resource commitments, and macroenvironmental factors' favorability moderates this tension.

The study extends and incorporates the servitization literature into the context of international marketing by exploring the combined effect of the two most significant dimensions of servitization, i.e. investment in customer relations versus investment in digitalization on entry mode, thus delivering valuable new insights and perspectives, as well as explicit propositions toward empirical testing.

The authors’ framework increases foreign market managers' awareness of how servitization drives entry mode decisions of firms in international markets. Also, the framework explicates how the host country's market attractiveness, institutional environment and difference with the home country's national culture tangibly influence the relationship.

The study provides novel insights into the implications of servitization on international marketing, particularly regarding foreign market entry mode. The study also elucidates the combined effect of two servitization dimensions, i.e. customer relations and digitalization – a critical research area in which the literature is scant.

By applying upper echelons perspective to the choice of full or shared control entry modes, this study aims to explore the moderating effect of interorganizational network on the top management team (TMT) characteristics and entry mode choice relationship. Existing studies on TMT’s demographic characters’ influence on entry mode choice remains inconclusive. The implicit assumption in extant literature is that firms share similar network structural advantages. This study integrates the largely ignored, network structural concept with entry mode to show how firm-level decisions are the outcome of interaction between internal and external environment.

The interorganizational network is modeled using board interlock data. The moderating effect of network is modeled on network size, centrality of the firms and density of ties, considering tenure and international experience of the upper echelons. The hypotheses are tested based on a sample of 83 publicly listed Indian firms from 2012 to 2015.

The findings indicate that despite a high international experienced TMT’s preference of full control entry mode, the high central position of the firm can influence the decision against full control entry modes. However, the choice of full control entry mode is also enhanced by the density of firm’s network. Similar evidence is also observed with tenure variable as well where the moderating variables showed a trend toward influencing the entry mode choices.

Thus, this study attempted to reconcile the inconsistencies prevalent in the relationship between TMT variables and choice of entry mode by introducing the contextual factor of interorganizational networks.

The decision on market entry mode, or how to enter a selected market, is of critical importance for international contractors' profit making and sustainable growth. Based on a previous study, which successively identified ten basic entry modes specifically for international construction markets, this paper aims to focus on differentiating these entry modes in terms of organizational setting characteristics, compatibility, transferability, feasibility regarding different markets, and strategic effects so as to develop a systematic and comprehensive selection method for international construction market entry modes.

Market entry cases were collected through extensive archival analysis and interviews of practitioners. By a comparative analysis, how the entry modes differ by organizational setting characteristics is analyzed, and how they can be combined or sequenced to deliver a market entry process is empirically explored. The strategic effects which constitute the basis for selection among the entry modes and their combinations are identified, which include risk exposure, return, resource commitment, control, and flexibility.

How the basic entry modes can be combined and sequenced is mapped. The applicability of selected entry modes regarding 42 main country markets is reported. It is found that mobile entry modes and permanent entry modes differ in resource commitment, investment risk and strategic flexibility. Based on the results of the comparative case study, a process model for market entry mode selection is proposed.

The study provides theoretical implications for future studies to develop the market entry mode selection method. Practitioners can also obtain a better understanding of the relationship between the basic entry modes as well as the constraints and principles governing the selection between them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural distance, governance quality, and market attractiveness on attachment of agents with a university.

A single university was chosen as a case study and secondary data were collected. The focus of this paper is on education agents who market higher education institution (HEI) in international market and recruit international students.

Multiple regression was performed and the finding indicated that governance quality and market attractiveness are significantly related with a number of agents attached to the marketing department of the university. However, cultural distance showed no significant relationship with agent attachment.

The availability of data was most challenging in gathering data for this study because the culture of a country may change across time and the sample was based on only one case study, a minimal amount of information was obtained.

This study addresses the external factors that needed to be considered in selecting new agents.

This study contributes to the international marketing literature by a focus on HEI and focus on agency approach.

The paper's objective is to demonstrate that marketing capabilities have positive effects on firms' international performance. These effects may be both direct and indirect. Marketing capabilities foster international commitment and influence the choice of international entry mode. Through these, marketing capabilities exercise an indirect influence on international performance.

First, based on arguments from the dynamic capabilities perspective, the dynamic theory of strategy and the transaction‐cost theory, the effects of marketing capabilities on international performance are discussed. A survey was carried out on Spanish and Belgian international firms to test the model. SEM was used to analyse the relationships established in the hypotheses.

The results show coincidences between the samples in relation to the positive influences of companies' marketing capabilities on economic international performance, international commitment and international entry modes. Moreover, there is also a positive and significant influence of high direct investment entry modes on international economic performance. However, there are differences in other relationships.

The results inform on the kind of entry modes that can be selected, based on firm marketing capabilities, and which of them provide better international results.

This paper confirms that marketing capabilities are at the core of the company's international decisions. Specifically, it demonstrates that marketing capabilities influence both the international commitment of the company and the selection of the appropriate international mode of entry.

As an exploratory study, our research aims to investigate what factors would influence choices of foreign market entry mode by system integration (SI) companies. There are two distinct points. First, we specifically focus on a service industry, i.e., SI (System Integration) industry, which has unique features compared with other industries, yet not been studied extensively. Second, we indirectly examine whether forces influencing firms in an advancing country like Korea are different from those in more advanced countries: in this paper we investigate the Korean cases only, since most of the previous studies viewed this issue from the perspective of advanced countries.

What drives small to medium‐sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) internationalisation strategy remains a significant issue in international business research, despite the huge research efforts on this subject over the past three decades. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the motives behind the equity modes of foreign market entry in Norway.

Employing a cross sectional survey, a sample of 146 firms consisting of 42 international equity joint ventures (IJVs), 53 cross‐border mergers & acquisitions (CBM&As) and 51 wholly owned subsidiaries (FWOS) from Norway was collected and analysed.

It was found that whereas market development and power influence the choice of IJVs and CBM&As, the need to access resources and control resources appear to be the most important motives behind FWOS as an entry mode choice. Moreover, the regression results indicate that market development and power, technology development, location advantage and synergistic gains appear to have a significant bearing on different entry mode choice in Norway.

The paper examines the motivation for the choice of foreign entry mode from the point of view of senior managers in Norway. Future research should accommodate multiple perspectives simultaneously from the parent companies and subsidiaries in a single paper to significantly advance the field.

The paper discovers that the motives behind the choice of cooperative modes of entry tend to be more linked with market development, technological development while FWOS are motivated by the need to control proprietary resources. The implication for the Norwegian government is that its financial incentives do not affect the mode choice of entry.

The paper finds that different motives and theories influence the choice of foreign market entry by SMEs in Norway and provides insights for senior managers on the factors taken into account in making choice decisions in Norway.

The purpose of this study is to explore market entry strategies in a high-tech successive generations (HTSGs) market, by investigating entry mode via entry timing and path differentiation and the performance outcomes of entry mode.

The methodology of building a theory from a longitudinal case study is adopted by using useful cases in a HTSGs market after constructing an integrated research framework to explore market entry mode. Different entry modes were investigated by studying entry timing and migration path of three firms’ case in logic semiconductor market. In addition, performance outcomes of different entry modes were measured and correlated with each other.

The results identified three major entry modes suitable for a HTSGs market. The three firms differentiated their entry modes by exploiting different entry timings from the earliest to the last and different migration paths including switching, leapfrogging and new entrance path to enter a market. First mover advantage also exists in a HTSGs market, and it was found uniquely that the financial performance denoted by entry mode outcomes was correlated with technological knowledge.

This study extends the theory of extant entry strategy from general consumer or industrial market to HTSGs market, in which intense competition exits and technological innovation is important. Moreover, this study verified that the causality between early entry and positive performance was also effective in HTSGs market with a shorter duration of early entry advantage.

This study has managerial implications for firms to establish market entry strategy in HTSGs market and other markets. To become a product leader, a fast follower or a late follower, firms can differentiate their entry mode by adjusting the entry timing and migration path in the context of market and technology.

This study examined market entry strategies suitable for HTSGs market based on its unique characteristics and extended relevant theory into HTSGs market. Further, an integrated research framework, which explores the market entry mode, was constructed to facilitate further exploration of entry mode into other markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theories used to study the international equity-based entry mode strategies of emerging market multinationals (EMMs) and the contribution of these studies to extant literature.

The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature. A total of 73 articles were identified from key management, international business and international marketing journals published between 2000 and June 2015. Articles were analysed according to the theory(ies) used, thematic area, methodology, home/host countries studied and findings.

Despite the great interest around the topic of how the antecedents and outcomes of EMMs’ international entry mode strategies may challenge and amend existing theories, the findings that come out of this research mirror patterns observed in the entry mode literature in general. Whilst traditional perspectives such as internalisation theory and the OLI paradigm remain prevalent, a growing number of studies draw on institutional theory and combine multiple theoretical perspectives. Newer theories developed specifically to study EMMs (e.g., the springboard perspective) are used in only five studies and challenged to differentiate their theoretical underpinnings from extant literature. Overall, the theoretical contribution of EMM studies is simply a change in emphasis from the role of firm-specific factors towards the influence of home country institutions on entry mode strategies. The authors conclude that the literature has only made tweaks at the edge of theories with no significant changes to extant theorisations.

This is the first systematic review of the literature focusing specifically on the international equity-based entry mode strategies of EMMs.