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This paper aims to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by buying centers in small and medium enterprises (SME) manufacturing companies in view of recent technological changes and the virtualization of communication.

This study uses a qualitative approach with multiple case studies to portray complex realities within the buying centers in the manufacturing SME context. The authors selected five Italian companies to portray the diverse characteristics, practices and policies of relevant stakeholders before reaching saturation with the issues explored.

The authors find that interactions among buying center members are more effective with greater collaboration and exchange (as opposed to competition and a struggle for power). Virtual/hybrid relations require greater intra-group cooperation, whereas diverse backgrounds and collaborative interactions help the flexibility and performance of the buying center. Greater use of technology produces certainty and automation, but it may also cause overload and biases that can be solved with the ability to analyze and clear responsibility for decisions.

The authors studied only five Italian companies in this study. Future research in other countries with diverse cultural and socio-economic conditions and methods would help extend this research.

The findings would improve the understanding of the challenges of adopting new purchase process technologies that would help automate routine tasks, produce useful data and support decision-making.

Unlike prior studies, this study uses an exploratory design to study the evolution of buying centers in SMEs to seek deeper insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by SMEs because of the growing use of emerging technologies.

In order to analyze the level of independent controllability and its evolution of high-end equipment manufacturing industry from Jiangsu Province, this article introduces the dual-excitation control line method to construct a comprehensive evaluation model for independent controllability.

Through the collection of information of high-end equipment manufacturing industry's independent and controllable capabilities on different indicators, the three aspects of advancement, autonomy and controllability, an empirical evaluation of 10 enterprises in the high-end equipment cluster in Jiangsu Province was conducted in terms of advancement, autonomy and controllability.

It effectively reveals the area and evolution characteristics of the “reward” and “punishment” of different indicators of each representative enterprise and reflects the development status and different characteristics of each representative enterprise on the three indicators. The research results provide decision-making guidance for enterprises in the management and control of advanced manufacturing systems with independent and controllable capabilities.

Existing research focuses on the evaluation of enterprises' independent controllability only on a single angle or index. This paper maps the dynamic evaluation problem of multiple time-point data to the evaluation problem of single time-point multi-index data and investigates the fluctuation of the performance of the same enterprise under different indexes, so as to comprehensively evaluate the independent controllable level of high-end equipment manufacturing industry and analyze the reasons. Further, this paper first establishes an evaluation index system of independent controllable level of high-end equipment manufacturing industry and quantitatively measures the advanced, independent, controllable and other aspects of typical enterprises in this industry by constructing a double incentive control line evaluation model.

There has been limited research that has explored the connection between digital supply chain (DSC) and SC innovation and SC dynamic capabilities. This paper aims to examine the mediating effect of SC innovation on the relationship between DSC and SC dynamic capabilities.

The research model and hypotheses were tested, employing (Statistical Package of Social Sciences) SPSS 25.0 and (Analysis of Moment Structures) AMOS 24.0 on data drawn from the Chinese manufacturing enterprises.

The study reveals that DSC has a significant positive effect on SC innovation and SC dynamic capabilities. SC innovation also has a significant positive effect on SC dynamic capabilities. Besides, the authors' research illustrates that SC innovation partially mediates the relationship between DSC and SC dynamic capabilities.

Since the results are derived from the data collected from China, it may not, therefore, be generalized to other settings. Moreover, future research could consider other contextual variables such as “environmental uncertainty” and “Government's Reward-Penalty Mechanism,” which may influence SC dynamic capabilities.

The study provides practical insights for senior executives and managers in the manufacturing industry. Managers should emphasize the investment of advanced digital technologies and tools (DTTs) and improvement of SC visibility and collaboration. In the digital age, companies should pay attention to the introduction of advanced technologies, tools and processes and focus on cultivating an innovative spirit to promote SC dynamic capabilities, thereby enhancing competitive advantages.

The paper illustrates that DSC is of great significance to improving SC dynamic capabilities. This study reveals compelling insights for firms to enhance SC innovation and dynamic capabilities by using DSC as an enabler.

In recent years, organizational agility (OA) has garnered significant attention from the academic community. Despite a substantial rise in the academic literature on OA, the nuanced understanding of OA among academicians, practitioners and policymakers is limited. To address this research gap, the current study attempts to synthesize the academic literature on organizational literature, understand the evolution of OA literature and state the potential research gaps that may open multiple research avenues.

The current study critically evaluates academic literature published in peer-reviewed journals using the bibliometric approach to map the intellectual structure of identified 224 articles on published literature on OA between 2001 and 2022.

The findings outline OA's evolutionary trend, most prolific authors, journals, affiliations and countries. Further, network analysis is deployed to unearth prominent OA themes. After that, four key themes of OA from each cluster have been identified and evaluated.

The study is based on the literature drawn from the SCOPUS database. Although the SCOPUS database is one of the largest databases, the authors believe that the SCOPUS does not contain some publications that might have offered some different insights. Secondly, the bibliometric analysis does not offer the opportunity to provide critical insights into published literature, which is one of the main limitations of bibliometric-based studies. However, despite some of these limitations, the authors believe that the study is a useful guide for scholars, practitioners and policymakers who do not have much information related to OA literature.

This article provides a pioneering review of the OA literature using bibliometrics and network analysis. The results and potential directions for further research may assist researchers in increasing the relevance of OA in the current uncertain and ambiguous environment.

Rapid changes in technologies and customer preferences are increasing market uncertainty. Hence, despite the benefits of reactive and adaptive marketing in the industrial market, such marketing is sometimes insufficient for suppliers to survive and succeed. This phenomenon is prevalent among the small and medium-sized suppliers (SMSs) who fail to build technological capability. This suggests that SMSs should be entrepreneurial to survive and succeed in today’s environment. Against this backdrop, the purposes of this study are to understand the process by which entrepreneurial marketing of SMSs enhances their technological capability and to explore factors that stimulate SMSs to implement entrepreneurial marketing.

Based on a survey data set on 249 industrial SMSs in South Korea, the authors test the hypotheses formulated in this work using structural equation modeling.

Based on effectuation theory, this study conceptualizes entrepreneurial marketing as a process by contrasting entrepreneurial marketing with reactive and adaptive marketing. The results show that proactive market orientation and subsequent exploratory market behavior enhance technological capability, and proactive market orientation is stimulated by relational satisfaction and perceived technological turbulence.

This study advances effectuation theory in the industrial marketing literature by exploring the value of entrepreneurial marketing in today’s industrial market. Further, this study extends the entrepreneurial marketing literature by conceptualizing and testing the process by which entrepreneurial marketing of SMSs enhances their technological capability.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative picture of the state of the art of the literature on digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an enabler for their internationalisation process and as a comprehensive view of the specific domains impacted by digital technologies as well as their repercussions on the international outreach.

A systematic review which leverages a descriptive analysis of extant literature and an axial coding technique has been conducted to shed light on the current knowledge and to identify primary research areas and future research lines.

The research indicates that digitalisation impacts the internationalisation of SMEs in three specific domains: (1) internationalisation through the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) technologies and e-commerce platforms; (2) international expansion through the digitalisation of value chain activities and (3) international outreach through knowledge acquisition on digital platforms.

The value of this study is threefold. First, the authors attempt to systematically review the literature on SMEs digitalisation and internationalisation and provide a holistic perspective on the intertwining of these two research streams. Second, the authors propose a novel conceptualisation on the dimensions of SMEs digitalisation as enablers to internationalisation. Third, the authors put forward promising future lines of research.

1. Digitalisation represents a pivotal strategy that allows companies to build new strategic capabilities and is a propeller for SMEs internationalisation.

2. Through e-commerce, SMEs could compete at the same level of multinational companies but enduring lower costs of expansion.

3. Digital platforms allow SMEs to enhance the learning processes about international markets through an immediate access to relevant information.

4. Digital entrepreneurship has enabled SMEs to develop new configurations of value chain activities, evolving their business model or reaching new markets.

5. SMEs are changing the “business as usual” paradigm offering digital tools to build modular architectures that are scalable and agile in their evolution ability.

Digitalisation represents a pivotal strategy that allows companies to build new strategic capabilities and is a propeller for SMEs internationalisation.

Through e-commerce, SMEs could compete at the same level of multinational companies but enduring lower costs of expansion.

Digital platforms allow SMEs to enhance the learning processes about international markets through an immediate access to relevant information.

Digital entrepreneurship has enabled SMEs to develop new configurations of value chain activities, evolving their business model or reaching new markets.

SMEs are changing the “business as usual” paradigm offering digital tools to build modular architectures that are scalable and agile in their evolution ability.

This paper first aims to examine associations between factors involved in business-to-business complaints management and results (satisfaction and loyalty) and analyses three types of distributors based on their cultural profile (domestic, low context and high context). Second, the paper investigates whether the identified associations remain stable over time.

Data from a sample of distributors for a manufacturing company were gathered during two periods of time. A factorial analysis of correspondences and a cluster analysis were carried out to visually represent the associations among clients, complaints and results in the associations among clients, complaints and results. The stability over time of these relationships was also analysed by calculating the correlations between the Euclidean distances on the two maps (one per year) and their mobility ratio.

The authors found significant evidence that clients from different cultures are associated with varying profiles of complaint and different result types and that certain associations remain stable over time.

While many studies have analysed complaint behaviour in business-to-consumer contexts, there is a lack of research from an international business-business relations point of view, leaving questions virtually unexplored. Second, the last phases of supply chain management, specifically complaints management, have been undeveloped, limiting the cultural factor to the general scope of negotiation. In this vein, this paper compares different complaint profiles and results, comparing culturally different customers/distributors. Third, research has mostly referred to a single period, while this paper investigates two different periods of time for the same company (and their distributors) to analyse the relevance of the stability (or not) over time of the associations identified.

This study aimed to explore the antecedents of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization and to compare the different resources required to enter different geographical regions. This study adds to the discussion on internationalization from a resource-based view (RBV) and a focus on dynamic capability, especially the linkage with resources such as digital capability, domestic industrial networks and the business-to-business (B2B) model.

This study used secondary data collected by an SME association in 2020, using a logistic regression model to examine the hypotheses. The respondents were selected according to stratified random sampling.

Digital capability and the B2B model significantly and positively affect the likelihood of internationalization by SMEs, while domestic industrial networks were negatively correlated with this process. In addition, Taiwanese SMEs with high digital capability tend to expand to North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Smaller firms tend to develop in Southeast Asia, whereas larger firms opt to establish business in Oceania.

A research limitation is the generalizability of the sample. Findings could be enhanced if future studies include more industries and draw comparisons among different industries or countries. Future studies could explore digital entrepreneurship from a global perspective.

Managers need to emphasize better the development of digital capabilities and skills for SMEs. With limited financial resources and workforce, SMEs can strengthen the competence in international markets by adopting a suitable business model. When SMEs join an association to expand SMEs foreign networks, the study suggests that SMEs carefully evaluate the characteristics of each industrial association first, given that some associations are domestic-oriented. As for public policymakers, a project grant can be used to provide digital capability training for SME employees and owners or promote building a B2B model when internationalizing.

The authors' findings fill the research gaps in RBVs of internationalization, especially in linking resources such as digital capability, domestic industrial networks and the B2B model. The outcomes of this research serve as a reference not only to policymakers for improving the current SME ecosystem, but also to business practitioners positioning themselves in this system.

This study aims to integrate the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory into a meta-analytic framework to synthesize green consumption literature.

By integrating the findings from 173 studies, a meta-analysis was performed adopting several analytical methods: bivariate analysis, moderation analysis and path analysis.

VBN- and TPB-based psychological factors (adverse consequences, ascribed responsibility, personal norms, subjective norms, attitude and perceived behavioral control) mediate the effects of altruistic, biospheric and egoistic values on green purchase intention. Further, inconsistencies in the proposed relationships are due to cultural factors (i.e. individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity, short- vs long-term orientation and indulgence-restraint) and countries’ human development status.

The authors selected papers published in English; hence, other relevant papers in this domain published in other languages might have been missed.

The findings are useful to marketers of green offerings in designing strategies, i.e. specific messages, targeting different customers based on countries’ cultural score and human development index, to harvest positive customer responses.

This study is the pioneering attempt to synthesize the TPB- and VBN-based quantitative literature on green consumer behavior to resolve the reported inconsistent findings.

This study aims to investigate how companies’ understanding of the business network influences the creation of value in business-to-business relationships. The authors do this by analysing dimensions in actors’ “network pictures” and illustrating how value perception and network understanding influence actors’ mutual effort to create value. Approaching relationship value from the point of actors’ cognitive understanding of their business network has so far been largely overlooked in relationship value research.

This study applies a qualitative case study methodology whereby dyadic data from a well-established business-to-business relationship is collected from 18 company representatives through personal interviews and group interviews supplemented by participant observations and company data.

The findings contribute with new insight into how companies’ understanding of their surrounding network influence (facilitates or limits) relationship value creation. The authors find that companies continuously reflect on changes in their networks and the related changes in partners’ value perceptions. Through value articulations, companies seek to explicitly express their value perception. Value reflections and value articulations create a dynamic process formed not only by the individual actor but also through their relationship and engagement in their network environment. This requires companies to develop their networking capabilities.

This paper presents findings, insights and contributions limited to a case study of a particular business relationship within an industrial setting. Although the findings and contributions are valid and in line with the criteria for rigorous qualitative research, the authors advocate and call for additional studies that investigate relationships value creation and address the interplay between actors’ network understanding and their actions and behaviour. One way to approach this would be to test the four propositions derived and presented as part of the present study.

The findings imply that management needs to be aware not only of the value created and delivered to a specific partner but also of how the partner’s understanding of the wider network will influence the value delivering and capturing process.

This study contributes to the growing literature on relationship value creation by outlining a dynamic process where relationship partners reflect upon and articulate value. Such activities are influenced by the partners’ network understanding and form the basis of the mutual relationship value creation effort. The findings also contribute to the network pictures literature by emphasizing insights into the formation of value perceptions through actors’ understanding of their surrounding networks.