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This paper aims to explore the benefits of a regional internationalization strategy and investigate how a rapidly internationalizing SME’s development of market knowledge relates to this strategy.

After a brief overview of the literature on international SMEs, the internalization approach and the IP-approach, a case study is introduced and analyzed.

The case findings illustrate that market knowledge steers the investigated firm to follow a regional approach of operations. The regional strategy lessens perceived risks, saves costs and generates sufficient knowledge about one market at a time.

It is important for managers in rapidly internationalizing SMEs and for policymakers to recognize the benefits of supporting regional orientation initiatives for enhancing these firms’ internationalization.

This paper presents a longitudinal case study that contributes to further the understanding and insights into the operations of born regionals. By probing deeper into the ideas provided by the internalization approach, the IP-approach and research about international SMEs, the study contributes with a unified framework for understanding the benefits for rapidly internationalizing SMEs to operate on a regional scope.

This study aims to examine how geographic diversification affects firms’ risk by introducing the franchising strategy as a moderator.

The panel regression analysis was conducted with a sample of US restaurant firms. Specifically, a two-way random (or fixed) effects model clustered by firm was used to test hypotheses.

Findings show that geographic diversification does not significantly affect restaurant firms’ risk. However, franchising aggravates the negative effect of geographic diversification on restaurant firms’ risk, which contradicts the traditional theories of franchising.

The results are expected to contribute to the diversification literature in the hospitality management by providing in-depth evidence for the effects of geographic diversification strategies on firms’ risk. Specifically, the study provides relevant theories for explaining the effect of geographic diversification in the restaurant context by examining franchising, a prominent strategy in the restaurant industry.

The results encourage restaurant firms to improve their managerial capability to react to changes in a geographically wider scope of markets and develop franchising contracts specifically to prevent misbehavior and moral hazard on the part of franchisees.

Considering the lack of research on the effect of geographic diversification on restaurant firms’ risk, this study examines not only the link between geographic diversification and firms’ risk but also a contingent factor, franchising.

Investigates the influence of market concentration, market diversification and internationalization strategies on the performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Using a sample of 450 large, medium and small MNEs, and three alternative definitions of market concentration and market diversification, results indicate that market diversification strategy produces better performance results for MNEs than market concentration strategy. In addition, MNEs using market concentration‐low internationalization strategy performed better than those using market concentration‐high internationalization strategy, and MNEs using market diversification‐low internationalization strategy performed better than those using market diversification‐high internationalization strategy. Discusses implications of the study′s findings for improved MNE performance.

Literature on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has so far produced limited evidence on how these firms pursue their organizational flexibility with information and communication technology (ICT) and ad hoc work practices. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature by focusing on how SMEs use flexible work practices that provide latitude with respect to when employees work, where they work and via which communication medium. Specifically, the authors analyze how such practices are related to the conditions that SMEs face in reference to their competitive environment and their patterns of ICT usage.

A survey was conducted on 304 Italian SMEs, with the aim of identifying the contextual dimensions where flexible work is chosen and the different typologies of flexible work implemented by companies.

Flexible work in SMEs is chosen for different reasons associated to different conditions in the competitive environments and in ICT usage where SMEs operate. In general, SMEs use flexible work when they are more capable of improving their external orientation toward suppliers, customers, and the entrance in new markets with ICT. This duality is more likely in the competitive environments where external orientation and information processing is more needed, namely, environments that are uncertain and complex for product and breadth of the geographical complexity (scope) covered.

In this paper, the authors offer an analysis on the contextual characterizations of flexible work practices. Future studies should disentangle more in depth the ways these characterizations are related to different ICT usages.

In uncertain and complex environments, SMEs should increase their external information processing with ICT and organizational practices that support the latitude of employees involved in boundary spanning with respect to where, when, and how they work.

This paper offers an interpretation of flexible work as an organizational mechanism used to cope with uncertain and complex environments where more external orientation is needed. This paper also shows that there are four different typologies of flexible work implemented by companies, namely, flexible work for cheaper input costs, flexible work for operational drivers, flexible work for strategic drivers, and flexible work for individual motivations, and that in some cases the conditions under which they are chosen are different.

Asks what really has changed for and what to expect from future supply chains. Most surveys rank activities related to sourcing, operations, customer services and marketing in terms of their importance to, or degree of hindrance for, successful supply chain management (SCM). In this explorative study, analyzes the change of SCM both in terms of operational practices and organizational capabilities in some industrial companies. A focused survey traces the development of supply chains and networks over two decades. Observes the expected growth in use of supporting IT systems, extent of information sharing and scope of coordination efforts. Characterizes the different stages supply chain evolution on the basis of supply chain integration and changing roles and responsibilities of the companies. It seems that due to the continuous structural change of the business environment the very concept of supply chain, let alone the best practice of managing one, should be subject to re‐examination in a wider context. In order to reach the current ideal of SCM practices, the strategic preconditions for innovative networking also need to be in place.

This paper aims to explore the ambiguity and limitations of measuring firm-level multinationality (FLM) using theoretical and empirical comparisons of existing methods. The paper puts forward a list of five key aspects that collectively serve as a tool for researchers to select the most appropriate method for future research and as a basis for the future development of methods.

Firstly, the author reviews existing methods of measuring FLM and consolidates findings into five key aspects. Secondly, the author uses the aspects to compare existing methods theoretically, and subsequently, the author groups them into three distinct streams. Thirdly, the author compares existing methods across a sample of the 35 largest European MNEs by sales in 2020 to identify and demonstrate the ambiguity and limitations of these methods.

The author identifies the five key aspects of measuring FLM: framework, aggregation, segmentation, metrics and indicators. Using empirical comparison, the author empirically confirms the limitations highlighted in the literature and shows the differences and inconsistencies among methods, which cause confusion rather than clarity in the extant literature. Additionally, the author emphasises that three distinct streams further drive the debate on the regional/global nature and present further limitations of methods not mentioned in the literature to date.

This paper provides the most comprehensive review of the existing literature on FLM, resulting in five novel aspects of measuring FLM. The analysis of a sample of 35 European firms demonstrates and identifies the ambiguity and limitations of FLM-measuring methods.

In order to achieve a desirable level of market efficiency, regulators need to identify the strategic groups within an industry and understand the way the constituent groups relate to one another. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In the current study, factors that may lead to strategic group formation were developed and used as clustering variables in a k-means cluster statistical analysis to categorize the firms into strategic groups. The factors used are entry costs, timing of entry, technology type and scope of operations. In addition, the number and type of competitive actions employed by the firms in the industry were identified by structured content analysis of a public source. The competitive actions were used to examine the dynamics of the resulting groups within the context of competitive behavior, resource and scope commitments and corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. In addition, χ2 analysis was employed to ascertain the likelihood that actions of a firm will be responded to by firms from the same group or from outside the group.

License fees was found to be the most significant clustering variable. The study also showed that groups with significantly higher license fees carried out considerably more competitive actions, had higher resource and scope commitments and executed more CSR actions. In addition, the study revealed significantly more competition within strategic groups than between groups.

The absence of financial records for firms in the sample necessitated the use of CSR activity as a measure of firm performance. Some empirical studies have shown strong links between CSR and firm performance.

The study revealed high mobility barriers which prevent ease of movement of firms in the industry from one strategic group to the other. Therefore regulators who wish to promote competition must do so by identifying the strategic groups with significant market power and permitting entry not by lowering entry barriers but by allowing the entry of firms with proven resources similar to the firms in those groups and to stipulate similar commitments in entry conditions. The results also offer management practitioners an insight into competitive behavior in the industry.

The study utilized a unique data set (competitive actions of firms in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry as reported in the media) in contributing to empirical studies on competitive dynamics and strategic group literature.

Executives are often faced with the challenge of making sound decisions regarding the product and geographic markets into which the company should diversify. This situation is even more glaring with respect to construction companies, owing to the volatile nature of the construction market. The purpose of this paper is to present empirical results on the impact of geographic diversification on the performance and risk profiles of construction firms in the UK.

Published financial data of construction firms covering the period 1995‐2004 are employed in the paper. From this data, extent of geographic diversification, performance, and risk are computed. Firms are grouped based on the extent of diversification into undiversified, moderately diversified, and highly diversified. Performance of these groups is then compared using the t‐statistic based on return on equity (ROE), return on total asset (ROTA), return on capital employed (ROCE), and profit margin (PM).

The results show that firms that remain focused within the UK market outperform those that expand into international markets on PM only. There is no significant difference in performance based on ROE, ROTA, and ROCE. However, as expected, highly diversified firms are found to exhibit the best risk profile.

These results are invaluable to managers in strategic decision making. They also provide a first step to understanding the nature of the relationship between geographic spread and performance of UK construction firms.

The impact of e‐commerce on the business environment is often praised but seldom analyzed with scrutiny. In this paper we try to depict the underlying logistically relevant aspects of e‐commerce and their impacts on logistics service providers. This seems to be of considerable importance, as logistics is seen as the back‐bone of e‐commerce operations. However, the firms specializing in this field are commonly neglected. We argue that the logistical implications of e‐commerce can be differentiated into two main categories: the rise of e‐marketplaces; and the elimination of supply chain elements (disintermediation). By analyzing these two categories and their major logistical implications in detail we deduct strategic consequences for logistics service providers.

Proposes that large national markets, which have consumer research dissimilarities, can be subdivided into regional markets dominated by key consumer preferences. States that because business grows more intricate and new requirements are imposed on managers, an orderly approach to problem solving is very important. Posits that with the growth and importance of international markets, a multinational enterprise is now the keystone of successful worldwide operations. Sums up by stating there are various problems faced by transnational enterprises and many challenges that confront their top management. Concludes that opportunities presented by world markets today, and the ways to solve problems connected with entry into these markets while simultaneously importing some knowledge, research and new techniques to host companies, provide the greatest challenge to managers with multinationals. Adds that management of multinationals has a major role to play.