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Using arguments from the upper echelons perspective this paper aims to examine the impact of CEO characteristics on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) equity foreign market entry mode choice and how these associations are jointly moderated by geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk.

The empirical analysis draws on data gathered from German SMEs testing triple-interaction effects between CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm (organizational level), and host-country political risk (environmental level).

Empirical findings validate that the influence of CEO’s age and firm tenure on SME foreign market entry mode choice varies by managers’ level of managerial discretion (i.e. latitude of action) as determined by the SME’s geographic experience and the level of political risks prevailing in the foreign market.

Empirical findings help SME owners and managers to understand how CEO’s age and firm tenure are related with individual’s risk-taking behavior and information-processing demands and how these contingencies vary by the context in which the individual CEO is nested.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature focussing on SME foreign market entry mode choice by emphasizing the important role of CEOs in the decision to internationalize. More specific, this study contributes by an examination of the interactive effect of CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk and, therefore, emphasizes the context and boundary conditions under which the association between CEO characteristics and foreign market entry mode choice is more or less pronounced.

Integrating network attributes from studies of social networks, business relationships and small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization, this study adopts a perceptual view of a firm’s focal “net” of relationships to examine foreign market entry mode choice. This study aims to examine how the interaction between knowledge-intensive service (KIS) firm’s network ties, embeddedness and position is related to choice of mode and subsequently the firm’s perceived insidership status within its focal net.

This research is based on qualitative interviews with 25 small- to medium-sized KIS firms engaged in direct exporting or foreign direct investment (FDI). This study derives an empirically grounded framework of four distinct network patterns of these KIS firms through an iterative process of triangulation between cases and theory.

The four network patterns illustrate the complex interaction between network attributes and entry mode choice by KIS firms. The findings suggest formal ties and centrality in closed network relationships provide the “central controller” firm discretion over their entry mode choice. Resource-intensive FDI by “opportunistic investors” proved essential to securing centrality through formal, institutional ties. Less optimal patterns lacking institutional ties and centrality, however, precluded choice of FDI by “specialized exporters” and “client followers.” The study finds that entry modes are less likely to be influenced by the firm’s embeddedness in open or closed network relationships, but rather by the desire to achieve a more central network position and legitimacy through more formal, less imitable ties.

The findings demonstrate the importance of network structure, a position of centrality, and strength of professional and institutional ties to small KIS firm internationalization. By adopting a more finely grained examination of the interaction between key attributes of the firm’s focal net, this study provides a valuable first step in conceptualizing the complexities associated with networking and adoption of export/investment internationalization modes.

There are a number of implications for the strategic and operational facets of smaller KIS firm internationalization. To avoid excessive network liability for resource-deficient SMEs, practitioners should consider network positioning as a strategic activity, with the costs associated with building and maintaining networks offset against economic- and resource-related returns.

The authors contribute to a better understanding of entry mode choices of KIS by taking a network perspective that accounts for the combined effects of different network attributes. The four network patterns identified extend current theoretical knowledge on the role of networks for entry mode choices of small KIS by highlighting that entry mode choices reflect the particular firm’s focal net and its attempt to achieve insidership status through high centrality and formal ties.

This paper seeks to challenge the traditional wisdom that sheds light upon sequential entry modes in developed countries by exploring the dynamic entry mode choice in sequential foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging economies.

A review of the literature on the entry mode choice is undertaken. Based on analysing two related theories consisting of the knowledge‐based theory of the firm and organizational learning theory, entry mode choices in sequential FDI in emerging economies are investigated using both an internationalisation process model and the capability‐developing perspective, and exclusive propositions are put forward accordingly. Then, these propositions are tested on the context of China with the methodology of paired‐samples t‐tests.

Based on macro‐level longitudinal data in China from 1979 to 2005, the choice of entry mode in sequential FDI in emerging economies is inconsistent with the capability‐developing theory of the firm, but is consistent with the international process model.

This study provides four practical implications. First, managers intending to invest abroad need to consider the cost and return of a specific entry mode. Second, knowledge about host markets has a more important effect on entry mode choice in emerging markets than MNCs' internal organizational capabilities. Third, MNCs adopt sequential investment in emerging economies, in which they adopt joint ventures in earlier entries and then shift to green‐field investment in later entries. Fourth, experiential learning, which consists of learning about host markets and local partners' skills, is emphasized in sequentially entering emerging markets.

This paper expands the research scope of previous studies that either explore a static choice of entry mode in foreign markets or only examine the entry mode choice in sequential FDI in developed countries. Taking into consideration the dynamic choice of entry modes, the paper studies sequential FDI in emerging economies, which throws light upon theoretical analysis of sequential FDI in China, and which has practical implications for foreign firms that are interested in China and planning to enter China's markets.

This study examines the entry mode and ownership strategies in China, South‐East Asia and Western Europe made by manufacturing firms in Taiwan. The results find that when the larger, high R&D and high advertising intensive Taiwanese manufacturing firms invest in China, South‐East Asia and Western Europe, they would be likely to choose the greenfield‐WFOE entry. On the other hand, when these firms have the most foreign investing experiences and the longest investing history in China, South‐East Asia and Western Europe, the acquisition‐WFOE entry would tend to be preferred. Finally, this study proposes relevant implications for practice in the conclusion.

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 paper is to use the theoretical perspective of structural inertia as a unique lens to study foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms.

It adopts quantitative analysis of a sample of 121 Chinese publicly listed firms with 564 foreign entry incidents in the 2001-2012 period to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results show that multinational firms have a tendency to adopt the same mode in the subsequent entry as the number of prior entry mode choice of a given type (joint venture (JV) in this study) increases. The results support the theoretical prediction that organizations repeat their past activities due to structural inertia. Moreover, such an inertia effect in foreign sequential entry mode choices becomes stronger for older multinational firms, larger multinational firms and state-owned multinational firms.

Consistent with existing research, this study focuses on the entry mode choice between JV and wholly owned subsidiaries. However, it is better to examine the relationship identified in the study for different types of entry mode choices to assess result generalizability.

It reminds managers of multinational firms that they should be cautious to the influence of structural inertia that can be a barrier to strategic flexibility when they make entry mode choices.

The main contribution of this study resides in introducing structural inertia perspective to help understand the determinants of foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms.

Focuses on characteristics of a host country′s market that influence a firm′s entry mode choice of exporting versus producing in that foreign country. A survey was conducted among US manufacturers who exported a given product to one country and locally produced the same product within another country. The host country′s market characteristics were described in terms of their business environment, production factors, and competitiveness of local competitors. The hypotheses tested indicated that the level of competitiveness of local competitors and availability of local production factors have a greater impact on the firm′s entry mode choice than a host country′s business environment factors.

This paper delves into the mechanism of the contingency framework for foreign entry mode decisions and identifies two essential tasks that jointly determine the outcome of the entry mode decision. It then recognizes a critical weakness in previous research pertaining to the comparison of entry modes along a key decision criterion, the degree of control. Existing studies generally treat equity involvement as the only source of entrant control, while largely ignoring non‐equity sources of control (i.e., bargaining power and trust). Non‐equity sources of control, when underutilized, amount to missed opportunities, increased resource commitments, and heightened risk exposures in foreign markets. Drawing from a pluralism perspective in transaction and relationship governance, the author presents a more integrative method for the ranking of entry modes along the degree of control. The central message is that companies entering foreign markets should make an earnest effort to identify trust and bargaining power situations and fully utilize their control potential in making entry mode decisions.

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 purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that three sets of variables – derived from transaction cost theory (TCT), the resource‐based view (RBV), and institutional environment – have on choice of entry strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) from an emerging market.

The sample consisted of 819 Taiwanese firms which were investigated using a national survey, and logistic regression analysis was used for testing the hypotheses.

The empirical findings confirm that the following factors affect this decision: firm‐specific assets, international experience, whether a firm is investing abroad in pursuit of a particular customer, whether a firm seeks complementary assets abroad, and the perceived institutional differences (PEDs) between a firm's home country and the host country. The findings also suggest that PEDs have a moderating effect on foreign market entry.

As MNCs from emerging markets make the decision of entry mode strategies, they must carefully consider not only the related variables in terms of TCT and the RBV, but also the influence of institutional factors in host countries.

This paper explores the modes of entry chosen by Taiwanese firms investing in China on the basis of TCT, institutional environment, and the RBV.