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During the past decade, the Regional Bell Operating Companies have been confronted with continuing deregulation and new internationalization opportunities. We suggest that their strategic moves regarding internationalization are linked to specific internal and external contingencies. A pooled time series approach is employed to analyze the effects of the composition of the board of directors (insiders versus outsiders), core business home regulatory environment, and core business growth on the respective internationalization strategies of these firms. A stringent regulatory environment was found to be significantly associated with increased internationalization. Contrary to expectations, inside board members were also significantly associated with increased internationalization. Theoretical explanations and management implications are discussed.

Those who would establish high-growth businesses (HGBs) in rural settings face significant challenges. We report findings from more than 80 in-depth interviews regarding the obstacles that rural HGBs face and identify approaches for overcoming these obstacles. First, interviews confirm the need for improved access to a full range of financing options to support HGBs across different development stages. Second, HGBs need in-depth, sophisticated technical assistance, which is generally unavailable in rural areas. Finally, cooperation among financial and technical service providers is vital to program success. Based on these findings, a model is proposed for successful development of HGBs in rural areas.

Like other public and nonprofit leaders, academic librarians face multiple challenges (McGregor, 2000) such as tight and declining budgets, technology-savvy users, higher performance expectations from clients and overseers, complex production networks, rapid technological change, and increased competition (Stoffle, Allen, Morden, & Maloney, 2003). These challenges require new leadership roles, skill sets, and techniques for academic librarians, as well as restructuring the library organization. A discussion of their changed roles and organizations contextualizes the discussion of how academic librarians should meet the challenges of a changed service environment (Stoffle et al., 2003). However, a void in the discussion is the failure to suggest a leadership role best suited to governing complex academic libraries, as well as the lack of a coherent strategic framework to guide academic librarians in formulating, implementing, and assessing strategy to create additional value (Gilreath, 2003).

Melissa Cox Norris is the Director of Library Communications at the University of Cincinnati. She is a founding member of the OhioLINK Marketing Task Force. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati in 2002, she worked for three years at the University of Virginia Library as the Director of Communications and Publications.

Organizational researchers have long recognized the important role that top managers play within entrepreneurial firms (Ireland, Hitt and Sirmon 2003). Utilizing Covin and Slevin’s (1989) conceptual framework, the current study explores three key entrepreneurial characteristics of top managers and the impact these characteristics have on firm performance. Specifically, we argue that top managers with a high tolerance of risk, those who favor innovative activities and those who display a high degree of proactiveness will positively impact firm performance. In addition, this study examines the influence of top managers’ prestige, structural and expert power on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. We conclude the study with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our findings and suggestions for future research in this area of study.

A recent national survey of the US workforce suggests that adult attention related disorders are producing a wide range of negative outcomes in the workplace. The symptoms typically associated with the disorder (difficulties with activation, concentration, effort, emotional interference and accessing memory) suggest that team work may represent a problematic situation for adults with the disorder. Subjects were one hundred and fifty‐five student teams (subjects=628) from universities in both Canada and the United States. The study begins by confirming a hypothesis arising out of previous qualitative research that team members with adult attention deficit have relatively greater difficulty with necessary but uninteresting tasks. The hypothesis that team members with the disorder will be extraordinarily reliant on their teammates was also supported. The need to secure situations of particular fit, and to do so without undermining the support of fellow teammates, suggests that cooperative conflict management styles are especially important for clinical AAD vs. non‐clinical team members. The specific hypotheses, that cooperative styles (problem solving and compromising) are especially important for producing positive team experiences/expectations and efficacy for working in teams, were supported. Future research needs to sample more workplace teams.

Few studies have explored the direct influence of social networking websites (SNWs), and to the best of our knowledge, none have examined the indirect influence of SNWs on users and how that indirect influence leads to word‐of‐mouth related behaviors in SNWs. This study employs the theoretical framework of the third‐person effect theory, which is grounded in psychology, to examine the indirect influence of SNWs and how that indirect influence may potentially contribute to marketing research and practice. Davison’s (1983) third‐person effect (TPE) theory proposes that individuals tend to expect mass media to have a greater effect on others than on themselves. After the analysis of survey data, the current research first explores whether a third‐person effect exists in the SNW context and if it does, how it differs from that in traditional media context. Based on theory and numerous empirical findings, the current research also investigates how the thirdperson effect varies with different referent “others”. Finally, based on the theoretical propositions of previous studies, this study links third‐person effect to behavioral consequences related to word‐of‐mouth communication via SNWs. The results support all hypotheses. This work contributes to consumer psychology and word‐of‐mouth communication research, and generates implications for marketers targeting young consumers and/or those interested in stimulating word‐of‐mouth communication in the SNW context. Limitations are also addressed.