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The purpose of this paper is to examine how network competence is related to the growth of domestic and international SMEs originating from the Nordic region. Business networks have been found to drive internationalization of SMEs in the Nordic context, but the impact of network-related organizational competencies on them has not been considered.

The authors apply regression analysis on a sample of 298 Finnish SMEs across five industry sectors, gathered via an online survey in 2008, and with the data having been updated for its financial indicators up to 2010.

The authors find that cross-relational network competence is a significant predictor of growth in internationally operating SMEs. This result is robust across measures among the firms. In comparison, the network competence of domestically operating SMEs is not related to their growth, and relationship-specific competence does not influence growth.

The study does not account for longitudinal aspect of competence development. Growth is measured by the growth in sales and assets, and there are other ways to measure organizational growth. A single-country context also extends some restrictions on the generalizability of the results, although they could be expected to hold across small, open economies similar to Finland and the Nordic area.

The results imply that the strategic aims of SMEs determine their need for network competence, those SMEs seeking internationalization and growth through geographic expansion come to benefit from developing certain types of network competence.

Policy implications arise where governments in Finland and in the Nordic area may aid SMEs’ internationalization efforts by enabling the growth-seeking firms with increased resources for competence development.

This is the first study to examine how the organizational competencies to develop and manage business networks, in particular dyadic and network-level competencies, come to determine realized growth outcomes in domestic and international SMEs. It contributes to the theory of SME internationalization and international entrepreneurship from the business network point of view, while providing further knowledge on internationalization of SMEs originating from the Nordic area.

The leaders of the future will have to lead with intercultural competence and with the ability to facilitate this development of competence in others. The development of skills in undergraduate students to meet this challenge is paramount to the establishment of effective leadership for the future. Within this study, researchers address the challenge by quantitatively examining intercultural competency outcomes students derive from leadership-based study abroad experiences. For five years, researchers utilized a pre-post intercultural competency survey of student participants in a leadership education study abroad program in Zambia, Africa. Using the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES), data was analyzed for seventy-eight students who participated in this five-week study abroad course. The results demonstrate statistically significant growth on students’ intercultural competency across all ten measures of dimensions and sub-scales. Recommendations provide a framework for leadership educators to employ pedagogies that influence intercultural development within study abroad as a means of developing global leadership in their students.

The authors examine the role of internationalisation at-home activities and an international classroom at a home institution to promote intercultural competence development during a study abroad.

The authors use large scale longitudinal data from the global mind monitor (GMM) (2018–2020) to examine change over time in both multicultural personality (MPQ) and cultural knowledge (CQ) among students in Dutch higher education institutions. The authors analyse the moderating effect of the preparation in the home institution by looking at the added value of both intercultural communication courses and international classroom setting for intercultural competence development during a study abroad.

The results show that particularly courses on intercultural communication significantly promote intercultural competence development during a stay abroad. Frequent interactions with international staff also seem to be beneficial for this development.

This study was conducted in the Netherlands, in one of the most internationalised educational systems in the world. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise these findings to other contexts before any further empirical research is conducted.

Based on the findings, the authors formulate practical advice for higher education institutions that aim to get the most out of the international learning outcomes of a study abroad.

This paper is the first to assess the moderating effect of preparatory internationalisation at home initiatives on the intercultural learning effects of international experiences later on in a study program. Other studies have proposed that these effects will exist but have not tested them empirically with longitudinal data.

This paper aims to explore the relationships among local food consumption experience, cultural competence, eudaimonia, and behavioral intention. Building upon acculturation theory, need hierarchy theory and self-determination theory, the current study develops a conceptual model of local food consumption as international tourists’ acculturation process.

This study collects data from 305 Chinese outbound tourists and uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling to examine the developed model.

The findings reveal a significant effect of the local food consumption experience, consisting of novel, authentic, sensory and social dimensions, on cultural competence, which subsequently evokes eudaimonia and behavioral response toward local food. The mediating effect of cultural competence is also confirmed.

Destination marketers and restaurant managers should recognize local food consumption as a meaningful tool that contributes to tourists’ cultural competence and eudaimonic well-being during travel. They should strive to craft an indigenous consumption setting and provide employee training on the history and culture of local food, helping tourists understand local food customs and embrace different food cultures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few studies have attempted to examine the meaningful consequences of local food consumption through the theoretical lens of acculturation. This study dives into international tourists’ local food consumption and pioneers a conceptual model to capture how local food consumption experience provokes their eudaimonia and behavioral desires through the mechanism of cultural competence.

This study aims to examine the influence of international business competence (IBC) on innovation performance of organizations activating in global markets. The study also explores whether ambidextrous organizational culture (AOC) acts as an antecedent of IBC and whether the environmental dynamism affects the IBC–innovation performance relationship.

The authors assessed the hypothesized relationships using data collected from a sample of companies operating in the Norwegian seafood industry. The direct, mediating and moderating effects were tested using partial least squares (PLS) with SmartPLS software application.

The empirical analysis revealed that AOC is positively associated with IBC, while IBC is a significant predictor of innovation performance. The findings also corroborated the proposed mediation effect of IBC, but refuted the moderating role of environmental dynamism.

This study contributes to the international business literature by suggesting that companies equipped with IBC can excel in innovative undertakings and that organizational culture can be effectively leveraged to develop such competences.

This paper relates the different motives for transferring employees internationally to the conduct of each major international strategy (multidomestic, global, and transnational), proposes seven hypotheses on these relationships, presents and discusses the results of a survey of heads of human resources or international operations in United States based companies, and concludes with theoretical and practitioner implications of the study and suggestions for future research. We found significant support for three hypotheses and directional support for two others.

Managing international and domestic diversity and learning to work with difference are increasingly becoming key managerial and organizational skills. Reviews the reasons for the growth of interest in this topic, critically analyses the claims made by practitioners in this area, and draws on two case studies of organizations attempting to develop their capabilities to work successfully with difference to develop a model of the key skills involved. Outlines some strategies by which such skills and capabilities may be developed.

Discusses the value, workings and effectiveness of international project teams. Proposes a model to enable the creation of an effective team and process. Points out the need to manage diversity, intercultural differences and different nationalities. Uses a case study from Raleigh International to illustrate.

As logistics talents in both Taiwan and Hong Kong are expanding their work area to Greater China, it is best to understand the competencies that logistics talents should possess. With this in mind, this study takes Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as the study scope, as well as logistics teaching and research experts and scholars as the study objects. The research findings can not only serve as informative references for universities intent on cultivating logistics talents, but as well as enhance the scope of both Taiwan and Hong Kong talents’ competence that can pave the way to the development of the logistics business in Greater China.

On the basis of three examples of intellectual capital statements that make the individual its central figure, this article discusses the role of individuals in knowledge creation. After all, it is often claimed that the individual is the “container” of knowledge and therefore, what it means to account for the individual is an issue. However, analysing these individual competence statements (intellectual capital statements), it is clear that the individual is never alone. It is always related to organisational purposes and the individual competency statement makes the individual an organisational entity because individual competency is related either to organisational bonus systems, to corporate revenues or to the organisational configuration of its knowledge resources. Through the individual competency statement, the individual is made an organisational entity.