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The purpose of this study is to unfold the role of managerial characteristics in developing the dynamic capabilities necessary to serve foreign customers and compete in export market ventures.

The authors test their proposed model using path analysis with data collected from export managers working in 204 small- and medium-sized Turkish exporters operating in various sectors.

The findings suggest that the positive effect of export managers’ process thinking skills on dynamic capabilities increases when the export managers’ learning and avoid orientations are low and prove orientation is high and export venture experience (duration and scope) increases. In addition, it has been found that export managers’ process thinking skills have an indirect effect on export performance through export venture dynamic capabilities.

This study makes three contributions. First, the authors conceptualize and operationalize dynamic capabilities in the context of exporting. The authors empirically validate export venture dynamic capabilities as a higher-level construct composed of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring elements pertinent to the firm’s export market operations. Second, based on the micro-foundations approach of competitive advantage, the authors study managers’ process thinking skills in exporting firms and how these abilities support dynamic capability development in export ventures. Finally, the authors investigate how the impact of export managers’ process thinking skills on export venture dynamic capabilities is influenced by their goal orientations and certain objective exporter characteristics pertaining to different aspects of export venture experience.

Drawing on the organizational learning and relational governance literature, this study aims to advance a theoretical model to explain the export performance of emerging market export ventures.

This study selects quantitative methodology because the main objective of this study is to explore the role of export ventures’ performance (past) on guanxi networking, co-creation marketing strategies and present performance.

The empirical evidence suggests that guanxi networking and co-creation strategy can mediate the relationship between export venture performance in the preceding year and export venture performance in the following year. In addition, this study also provides some guidance for emerging market export ventures on how to build a strong guanxi networking and create opportunities for collaboration when the effect of export performance in the preceding year on current performance is absent.

The authors propose the inclusion of strategic guanxi networking-related factors (e.g. top executives’ ties with business-to-business customers, such as distributors in the host market) in the prior performance-current performance paradigm. The outcomes of this study also contribute to extant organizational learning theory research by integrating preceding performance research with the co-creation theory. The study offers new insights into organizational learning and relational governance from the emerging market perspective.

This paper contributes to studies on the relationship between dynamic capabilities (DCs) and performance by showing how domain-specific DCs – international dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMCs) – affect the international performance of exporting firms in the context of extreme environmental dynamism – during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors focus on a sample of 277 exporting manufacturers from the post-transition economy of Poland. The authors use hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test this study's hypotheses.

This study's findings show that deployment of IDMCs by export manufacturers in the context of environmental jolts contributes to better performance, and this relationship is mediated by adaptation to foreign markets and product development capability. Additionally, this study's results reveal that the significant and positive indirect effect of IDMCs on international performance (through mediators) is, however, weakened under conditions of extreme environmental dynamism.

The limitations pertain to the cross-sectional nature of this study and the research sample, characterised by the dominance of export manufacturers of final products, the dominance of manufacturers operating in the business-to-business sector, or in the business-to-business and business-to-customer sectors simultaneously.

The study provides suggestions to managers on how to build resilience in international markets during turbulent times. These activities involve investments in IDMCs that support activities centred around product development and adaptation to foreign markets.

The novel construct of IDMCs is introduced and operationalized. The study empirically tests the direct and indirect relationship between IDMCs and performance contingent upon extreme environmental dynamism. The results demonstrate the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of these domain-specific DCs in such a research setting.

This paper aims to study the learning-by-exporting effect among small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors propose a dynamic perspective and suggest that learning-by-exporting is duration-dependent and contingent upon the born global internationalization strategy. In earlier phases of export activities, exporting has had a strong positive effect on SMEs’ innovations, which, however, diminishes over time. This inverted U-shape effect is even more distinct for born global firms.

The authors used longitudinal data with 1,689 Canadian SMEs to test their hypotheses. A two-stage instrumental approach is used to take into account the endogeneity of the born global international strategy on new product innovations.

Born globals learn faster at the early stages of exporting but also restrain their innovations more strongly than gradual internationalizers in the longer run, leveling out the initial learning advantages of newness. Thus, this study suggests that born globals have a significantly different learning trajectory than gradual internationalizers.

To maximize the benefits of exporting on innovation, managers should focus on learning during the initial years of exporting. However, once this period has passed, it is advisable for managers to invest in research and development as well as other innovation activities to complement the learning effect of exporting. Born global firms experience more rapid learning at the initial stage of exporting, but such learning effects wear off quicker later than gradually internationalized firms. For SME managers, this study helps draw their attention to the learning benefits of exporting in the initial years of export participation.

This study corroborates recent studies arguing for a “learning-by-exporting” effect. Providing longitudinal firm-level evidence, the authors also forward a dynamic perspective and show that learning by exporting is duration dependent and contingent upon the market entry strategy pursued by SMEs.

This study explores the influence of informal “psychological contracts” (PCs), (as opposed to formal contractual relationships) on exporter–distributor relationships.

Data were obtained from a sample of 127 exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand. The authors employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for analyzing the measurement and structural models.

Psychological contract fulfillment (PCF) enhances affective commitment and calculative commitment. Moreover, affective and calculative commitments mediate the relationship between PCF and export venture performance (EVP). The authors also find that institutional distance (ID) weakens the relationship between PCF and both affective and calculative commitment. Additionally, ID moderates the strength of the mediating mechanism for affective commitment; thus, the authors present a moderated-mediation model.

To date, international relationship marketing (IRM) literature has focused on PC breach, and business-to-business (B2B) marketing literature has focused on the effects of PCs on affective/relational commitment. This study offers novel insights by demonstrating the positive indirect effect of PCF on EVP via the mediating variables – affective and calculative commitment. The authors' findings also present a conditioning role of ID on the micro-level relationships of PCs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of international networking in the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization using evidence from exporting SMEs in Uganda.

This study adopted a cross-sectional research design. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 206 exporting SMEs that are members of the Uganda Export Promotions Board. Data was analysed using SPSS and SmartPLS.

The study established that international networking mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and SME internationalization. This suggests that international networking is a conduit through which entrepreneurial mindset relates to SME internationalization.

This study was conducted within the particular national context of Uganda. Replication of this research within other settings is needed to cross-validate the present findings. The study reveals that the entrepreneurial proclivity of managers and owners of exporting SMEs in Uganda can be enhanced through establishing networks in foreign markets to realize international expansion. SMEs should therefore initiate, build and strengthen partner relationships in foreign markets for successful international expansion.

The study reveals that the entrepreneurial proclivity of managers and owners of exporting SMEs in Uganda can be enhanced through establishing networks in foreign markets to realize international expansion. SMEs in Uganda should, therefore, strive to support entrepreneurial-oriented individuals to initiate and establish foreign market partnerships for successful international expansion.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mediating role of international networking in the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and SME internationalization from a developing country of Uganda.

This paper aims to give an overview of the literature on Central and Eastern European (CEE) firms’ successful internationalization: different authors’ understanding of success, and, thereafter, these firms’ internationalization processes, external factors, internal motivators and actions that affect successful internationalizers’ initial and subsequent foreign activities, and, finally, internationalization outcomes.

This is a systematic-narrative hybrid literature review paper that focuses on CEE firms’ successful internationalization.

This paper concludes that CEE firms’ “success” is understood and measured differently, successful internationalizers can experience various internationalization paths, they are affected by a large number of external impact factors, internal motivators or actions and their internationalization outcomes vary considerably. Thus, there is no “ideal” type of successful internationalization: as different CEE firms can be called “successful”, they also follow different trajectories to achieve success.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first literature review paper that gives an overview on how success has been defined in studies about CEE firms’ internationalization, if some types of internationalizers have been considered more successful and if there are any important CEE-specific contextual factors or not.

This paper examines how soft skills training for owner-managers affects the financial performance of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the authors examine the differential influence of specific owner-manager skills, such as “team working skills”, “technical skills” and “leadership skills”, on performance.

The paper utilises the Longitudinal Small Business Survey, which is a nationally representative employer dataset of UK SMEs with up to 249 employees, including those with no employees. The dataset contains information on firms' turnover, export status of goods or services and training provision for employees or owner-managers.

The results suggest that owner-manager's training has a positive effect on turnover in non-exporting firms. Moreover, a combination of soft and hard skills is associated with higher turnover in exporting firms. Amongst the specific skills of owner-managers, training on “team working” has the most significant impact on exporting SMEs' performance.

The authors' findings imply that managerial training to develop soft skills such as leadership, decision-making and communication is a worthwhile investment. The knowledge that owner-managers acquire through soft and hard skills training enables them to develop essential internationalisation competencies. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that teamwork is a significant predictor of performance.

The authors contribute to the literature by examining the role of owner-managers' training in shaping internal systems, structure, processes and internationalisation strategies, thus affecting SMEs performance. The authors' also provide a nuanced analysis of how various types of soft and hard skills underpin the successful implementation of internationalisation initiatives.

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.

This study investigates to what extent strategic flexibility of international strategic alliances (ISAs) affects export performance of emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises (ESMEs) via international marketing capability in crises. It also examines whether these ESMEs’ adoption of digital technology strengthens the impact of strategic flexibility of ISAs on international marketing capability.

Based on the international alliance and dynamic capability perspectives on strategic flexibility, the authors develop a conceptual model and empirically examine the mediation and moderation effects between strategic flexibility of ISAs, international marketing capability, export performance and adoption of digital technology. The authors collected survey data from 129 ESMEs located in Pakistan between May 2021 and August 2021 and tested the conceptual model with hierarchical-moderated regression analysis.

The findings suggest that strategic flexibility of ISAs positively impacts on export performance of ESMEs in crises. Moreover, the authors found that international marketing significantly mediates the relationship between strategic flexibility of ISAs and export performance of ESMEs. Also, the adoption of digital technologies significantly moderates the relationship between strategic flexibility of ISAs positively and international marketing capability.

The authors take strategic flexibility of ISAs in the context of the emerging market and how ESMEs enhance export performance in a time of crisis, which extends the prior ESMEs’ international marketing strategy and crisis management literature. In particular, the authors show that strategic flexibility of ISAs is a vital dynamic capability to enhance export performance of ESMEs via international marketing capability and adoption of digital technologies.