Search results

Current internationalisation and international business (IB) theories are silent on the intermittent internationalising experiences of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) from emerging economies (EEs). The aim of this chapter is to examine the role that networks play in facilitating SMEs from EEs subsequent behaviour following intermittent (exit and subsequent re-entry) internationalising experiences, and to build the theory of this process. Internationalisation of SMEs is a complex phenomenon. Utilising qualitative interview-based data from 15 Pakistani and Chinese SME entrepreneurs, industry experts and government representatives, this study concludes the following: SMEs from EEs continuously reconfigure existing products, resources and markets through networks while reducing and reviving levels of commitment with partners in international markets. Additionally, entrepreneurs from these markets proactively choose to dissolve existing relationships, withdraw from foreign markets to seek new partnerships and diversify resources to reduce foreign market uncertainty. However, some SME entrepreneurs seek to re-enter into previous markets utilising prior relationships and networks. Hence, successful management of network relationships over time is a challenge for internationalising SMEs.

The study this chapter reports focuses on how network theory contributes to the understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs and measures the effect of network capability on performance in international trade and has three research objectives.

The first objective of the study relates to providing new insights into the international market development activities through the application of a network perspective. The chapter reviews the international business literature to ascertain the development of thought, the research gaps, and the shortcomings. This review shows that the network perspective is a useful and popular theoretical domain that researchers can use to understand international activities, particularly of small, high technology, resource-constrained firms.

The second research objective is to gain a deeper understanding of network capability. This chapter presents a model for the impact of network capability on international performance by building on the emerging literature on the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. The model conceptualizes network capability in terms of network characteristics, network operation, and network resources. Network characteristics comprise strong and weak ties (operationalized as foreign-market entry modes), relational capability, and the level of trust between partners. Network operation focuses on network initiation, network coordination, and network learning capabilities. Network resources comprise network human-capital resources, synergy-sensitive resources (resource combinations within the network), and information sharing within the network.

The third research objective is to determine the impact of networking capability on the international performance of SMEs. The study analyzes 11 hypotheses through structural equations modeling using LISREL. The hypotheses relate to strong and weak ties, the relative strength of strong ties over weak ties, and each of the eight remaining constructs of networking capability in the study. The research conducts a cross-sectional study by using a sample of SMEs drawn from the telecommunications industry in Ireland.

The study supports the hypothesis that strong ties are more influential on international performance than weak ties. Similarly, network coordination and human-capital resources have a positive and significant association with international performance. Strong ties, weak ties, trust, network initiation, synergy-sensitive resources, relational capability, network learning, and information sharing do not have a significant association with international performance. The results of this study are strong (R2=0.63 for performance as the outcome) and provide a number of interesting insights into the relations between collaboration or networking capability and performance.

This study provides managers and policy makers with an improved understanding of the contingent effects of networks to highlight situations where networks might have limited, zero, or even negative effects on business outcomes. The study cautions against the tendency to interpret networks as universally beneficial to business development and performance outcomes.

This study aims to investigate how international entrepreneurial firms (IEFs) successfully commercialise innovative products/services internationally. In doing so, the authors examined the role played by the international dynamic marketing capability (IDMC) in the relationship between explorative and exploitative innovation and commercialisation. In addition, the authors also evaluated how the breadth and depth of international networks facilitate IEFs in upholding the effects of the IDMC to influence commercialisation.

To test the research model, structural equation modelling is used based on time-lagged survey data drawn from 201 Malaysian IEFs. To validate the results, additional robustness tests and endogeneity analyses have been performed.

The findings show that the IDMC positively mediates the relationship between explorative and exploitative innovation and commercialisation. Furthermore, the finding exhibits that the effects of the IDMC on commercialisation are positively moderated by the breadth and depth of international networks.

Given the fragmented and general nature of the extant marketing research on the IDMC, the study contributes to the international marketing literature by providing rich and nuanced pertinent knowledge. This study advances dynamic capability theory in relation to IEFs by establishing the IDMC as a functional capability suited to enable them to successfully commercialise the products/services resulting from explorative and exploitative innovation.

International entrepreneurship and marketing research reports the impact of effectual decision-making logic on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) international performance. How the effectual logic of decision-making enhances the overall performance of SMEs in international business-to-business markets remains a puzzle in the field. The purpose of this study is to investigate the concept of networking capability as an important SME capability translating effectual decision-making into international performance.

The authors examine the model presented in this study using quantitative data from 153 founders or managers in charge of international business at SMEs throughout New Zealand. The authors also used 142 open-ended responses to provide post hoc exploratory analysis.

The findings of this study suggest that networking capability is a mechanism through which the logic of decision-making enhances the international performance of SMEs.

This study bridges between international marketing and entrepreneurship by investigating how the networking capability of internationalizing SMEs translates their founders’/managers’ effectual logic into a successful performance in international business-to-business markets.

The authors aimed to contribute to the interface of comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing by exploring the micro-foundations and micro-processes of network bricolage aimed at international market entry among the entrepreneurs of small biotechnology firms. The research questions of the study are (1) How do the international entrepreneurs of small firms act and use their domestic and/or international networks for new market entry? (2) How are the micro-foundations and micro-processes of networking similar or different between individuals from different countries?

A qualitative research design was used to investigate six cases from different countries of origin, looking at the micro-foundations and micro-processes underlying international market entry undertaken by entrepreneurs from Canada, Finland and New Zealand.

The micro-foundations for network bricolage by international entrepreneurs were taken to involve features of the country of origin, including market size and location, and the usefulness of the official language of the nation. The micro-processes were taken to involve the international entrepreneur’s network bricolage actions (i.e. collaborating and generating, obtaining and applying, reaching and maintaining, and seeking and reviewing), while encompassing also the location of their networks (domestic and/or international) and the operational domains these belonged to (R&D, funding, sales channel and customer). The study categorised three types of international entrepreneurs undertaking new market entry, illustrating cross-national differences: (1) sales-channel-oriented seekers, (2) funding-oriented riders and (3) customer-oriented hunters.

The study contributes to research on comparative international entrepreneurship and international marketing. This findings show that national-level micro-foundations influence the actions of network bricolage, the importance of various operational domains and the location of the network ties used. This main contribution is a conceptual model based on our cross-national investigation of international entrepreneurs’ networking actions. The authors reveal the micro-foundations and micro-processes relevant to international entrepreneurs’ network bricolage for new market entry, and present examples of international entrepreneur types emerging from our cross-national setting.

By applying upper echelons perspective to the choice of full or shared control entry modes, this study aims to explore the moderating effect of interorganizational network on the top management team (TMT) characteristics and entry mode choice relationship. Existing studies on TMT’s demographic characters’ influence on entry mode choice remains inconclusive. The implicit assumption in extant literature is that firms share similar network structural advantages. This study integrates the largely ignored, network structural concept with entry mode to show how firm-level decisions are the outcome of interaction between internal and external environment.

The interorganizational network is modeled using board interlock data. The moderating effect of network is modeled on network size, centrality of the firms and density of ties, considering tenure and international experience of the upper echelons. The hypotheses are tested based on a sample of 83 publicly listed Indian firms from 2012 to 2015.

The findings indicate that despite a high international experienced TMT’s preference of full control entry mode, the high central position of the firm can influence the decision against full control entry modes. However, the choice of full control entry mode is also enhanced by the density of firm’s network. Similar evidence is also observed with tenure variable as well where the moderating variables showed a trend toward influencing the entry mode choices.

Thus, this study attempted to reconcile the inconsistencies prevalent in the relationship between TMT variables and choice of entry mode by introducing the contextual factor of interorganizational networks.

This study aims to explore the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) behaviour of Swedish born globals entering the Chinese market through their international networks. Drawing from the network theory of small firm internationalisation, this study is positioned in the domain of EM, and thus captures the relevance of EM behaviour to explain how born globals internationalise through their networks.

A qualitative case study approach of two Swedish born global companies active in the Chinese market is used. The network theory helps analyse the data in the three phases of firm internationalisation processes.

The study shows the importance of networks for the enactment of EM for born globals. The study traces the evolution of network development in the market entry process of born globals and highlights the importance of aligning network leverage with contextual factors for market performance.

The generalisation of the findings is limited due to the exploratory nature of the study and the size of the research sample.

Management of different types of networks is essential in the entry process and further growth of born globals in the Chinese market. In addition, born globals operating in psychically distant and complex institutionally contexts can especially gain support from intermediary networks.

This study extends knowledge of international entrepreneurship by demonstrating that born global managers can enact EM behaviour by leveraging networks to gain rapid entry into the Chinese market. It further highlights the role of firms’ networks in the EM activities in their internationalisation. The conceptual underpinnings of EM and network theory provide greater understanding of how born globals enter and grow their psychically distant markets.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of family firms’ types of social networks on internationalisation. By investigating the mechanisms and the process and complexity regarding the operation, function and impact of social networks, this paper aims to gain insights and understand the dynamism concerning the content, and process as well as build rich and detailed construct analysis.

This study used a qualitative case study as a research strategy to examine the impact of social networks on family firm internationalisation. A qualitative research strategy was used as the impact of networking relations and structure is challenging to be measured statistically.

The findings suggest that family firm internationalisation was gradual and characterised by an incremental learning process. This process facilitated the networking relations and structures that helped firms improve their quality, product diversification and set competitive prices.

This study’s first limitation is that it focused mainly on low technology manufacturing firms. This paper recommends examining how high technology firms maximise social networks. Secondly, this paper examined family firms; therefore, this paper recommends comparing and contrasting networking relations and family and nonfamily firms' social structure. Thirdly, being limited only to social networks, this study did not focus on the impact of ownership; this paper suggests future studies to examine family ownership and involvement in firm internationalisation.

Understanding how firms’ social network types influence family firms’ internationalisation in a transition economy is critical to ensuring family businesses’ expansion. This study explains how family firms use social networks to internationalise, extending the current understanding of family business literature in transition economies. It also provides implications for policymakers and family firms managers for improving the growth prospects of family businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how some born global firms can leverage the rich social capital in their local (home country) horizontal network for accelerated international market entry and growth. Horizontal networks warrant separate attention from their vertical counterparts, which, along with those focussed on external international contexts, dominate most network studies in the realm of born global research.

The study utilises a multi-level qualitative approach in the study of a multi-firm population of animators in Ireland that, due to the small domestic market for their product, needed to pursue global customers from inception. The case study domain was purposely selected as a critical exemplar of a local horizontal network operating in a highly globalised industry. The authors collected data through in-depth interviews with 16 company founders. This primary interview data were complemented by interviews with staff at the apposite industry association and triangulated with secondary data on the local and global industry conditions, members’ international successes and awards.

The results demonstrate how active membership of a local horizontal network can be leveraged for the acquisition of international market knowledge and customers for born global ventures. This arises from the sharing of collective market knowledge and communal global customer information within the network to mutual benefit.

Although limited by the specific conditions in this highly globalised, non-competitive industry context, this study is unique in that it finds that cooperative interpersonal and inter-firm relationships embedded in a local horizontal social network, and mediated in part by an institutional support actor, emerge as important levers for a born global’s accelerated acquisition of foreign market knowledge and of global customers.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.