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Strategy and marketing scholars look at strategic issues from different points of view and attempt to explain strategic choice and performance from their unique perspectives. This paper combines these perspectives in the context of international ventures and develops a conceptual framework integrating international marketing strategy decisions with entry mode decisions. The resulting contingency framework extends the hierarchical entry‐mode decision model and allows for a better specification of the strategy‐performance relationship in international business.

The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how small technology start‐ups learn about a key customer in the context of B2B relationships, and to propose a model of interfirm learning with customers.

Using a qualitative case‐based approach, the authors immerse themselves in the development of three learning alliances between technology startups and industry leaders, two successes and one failure, to gain an in‐depth understanding of the dynamics involved. Data were collected on both sides of the alliance dyad.

The paper delineates four learning cycles: alliance inception, joint‐learning, specialization and discovery. These learning cycles constitute sequences of increasing understanding, cooperation, and higher order learning between the partners; evolving from an exchange of existing knowledge to the joint development of new knowledge.

This study contributes to an integration of the alliance and marketing literatures by offering empirical evidence of a different type of alliance, namely the reciprocal learning alliance. It also contributes to broadening our understanding of market orientation in inter‐organizational settings. In the context of business‐to‐business relationships, the study has identified four critical dimensions of learning alliance success, and proposed how they could be measured: Learn about customers; Interact with customers; Customer‐specific investments; and Co‐develop breakthrough innovations. Finally, the study demonstrates the significant role played by “committed champions”.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for clarifying and extending the concept of inter‐firm market orientation (IMO) and to complement the relatively small body of literature related to this concept.

The conceptual framework is informed by empirical research based on a longitudinal multi‐case study.

This research identifies a nexus linking IMO with value creation in inter‐firm partnerships. The findings also suggest that IMO has an impact on companies' performance in terms of knowledge transfer, innovation and market access.

IMO contributes to value creation processes in the context of strategic networks.

A discussion of these findings, together with implications for practice and proposals for further research, is provided.

Relatively few comparative studies have examined how perceptions across cultures might converge or diverge regarding careers in general and new venture careers in particular. Our research addresses this gap by providing a comparative study of career perceptions among undergraduate business students in three countries with different levels of experience with capitalism: Ukraine, South Korea, and the United States. Results suggest both surprising differences and interesting similarities between undergraduate students in the three countries with regard to how they perceive characteristics associated with entrepreneurial careers. Findings are discussed in the context of distinct differences and commonalities across cultures and implications for future research provided.

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) on the individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) by considering the innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking dimensions of undergraduate students and the role of these dimensions on the relationship between program inspiration (PI) and entrepreneurial intention (EI).

This study uses a pre- and post-test analysis with data from 1,423 undergraduate students from two emerging countries in Latin America: Colombia and Ecuador. To verify the effect of the EEP on innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking at two-time points, the analysis of median for the difference of two paired populations (Sign Test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test) was used. In addition, structural equation modeling analysis under the covariance and multigroup approach was applied to test the relationship between PI, IEO and EI.

The results of this study show that the EEP enhances innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking whose effects are more prominent in Ecuadorian students. Equally importantly, the EEP benefits represented in PI translate into higher EI through the mediating effect of the IEO dimensions for both the Colombian and Ecuadorian contexts, where the findings suggest no significant differences between two groups.

The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of entrepreneurship education's role in entrepreneurial competence's development and intention by revealing the role of IEO dimensions. This study is one of the first studies that applies the IEO to contribute to the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention from an emotional entrepreneurial perspective.

This study examined perceived brand attractiveness of and identification with fashion luxury brands given different levels of sexuality in advertisements. Sex in advertisements has become increasingly more common to generate attention and interest in fashion luxury products, with limited research on its influence on the consumer. However, the use of sexuality in luxury advertisements may counter the ethical expectations of brands by the current consumer in the United States.

A sample of 1,266 males and females completed a survey on brand attractiveness and identification after examining an advertisement of a luxury fashion product. Participants were assigned an advertisement that featured a same-gendered model at one of four levels of sexuality (fully clothed to nude). IBM SPSS Statistics was used to analyze the data which included descriptive statistics and a two-way multivariate analysis of variance followed by an analysis of variance.

The results indicated that less sexuality in luxury advertisements was better in generating attractiveness to and identification with the brand. The advertisements with models fully clothed were rated highest on brand attractiveness and identification. These relationships were statistically significant among groups of men and women.

These findings are important to scholars and marketers of luxury brands as sexuality in luxury brands continues to increase and becomes more provocative, as well as socially conscious.

This paper attempts to shed light on the effect of educational programmes aimed at entrepreneurs on innovation and business success.

We use as theoretical framework the theory of planned behaviour. We use a sample of 354 entrepreneurs from Castile and Leon, Spain. To estimate the model we use a path analysis (AMOS 7).

Individuals who are concerned about further management education and entrepreneurship education show themselves to be more innovative. Moreover, indirectly, by means of the relationship between innovation and success, specific entrepreneurship education contributes to obtaining better business results. However, to have reached high levels of formal education makes entrepreneurs less conformist regarding the activity of innovation. The existence of a direct effect of innovative behaviour on business success is confirmed.

The limitations which our study presents are principally related to the measurement of the variables. Some of the characteristics of education should be studied more deeply.

The results obtained lead us to recommend that the educational centres and institutions which organise the programmes should give preference to specialised education and less to entrepreneurship education when seeking to reinforce the innovative spirit of the entrepreneurs.

The debate concerning the effectiveness of entrepreneurship educational programmes is still undecided, so much so that both supporters and detractors of entrepreneurship education exist. For that reason, this paper aims to shed some light on the effects of the educational programmes aimed at the entrepreneur.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the non-linear aspects of the asymmetry-performance relationship under varying conditions of trust and innovation. Its novel approach is useful for addressing the strategic elements of supply chain management (SCM) relationships based on trust and innovation decisions.

Results are based on a study of 90 managers from small- and medium-sized firms in Spain. Instead of a classical linear relationship analysis, the authors performed a non-linear analysis, using polynomial modeling and Warp 3 partial least squares method, which provides a more nuanced view of the data and constitutes an original approach to empirical research in SCM.

This study adds a new viewpoint on SC relationships by suggesting that not all trust and innovation development leads directly to performance improvement. The principal finding is, in varying trust and innovation contexts, that the influences of asymmetry on performance have uneven characteristics and follow non-linear paths.

This study focuses on only one particular institutional environment in one country. The data are also cross-sectional, which makes it difficult to empirically test causality.

The findings provide rational insights to managers on when it is appropriate to reduce (or not) asymmetric relationships with partners.

Trust and innovation are important and ones of the key requirements of supply chain relationships in any environment, this study argues that the interactions of key SCM elements that drive members to better performance are more complex and non-linear.

This study aims to assess the essential elements of internal organisational capability that influence the cybersecurity effectiveness of a construction firm. An extended McKinsey 7S model is used to analyse the relationship between a construction firm's cybersecurity effectiveness and nine internal capability elements: shared values, strategy, structure, systems, staff, style, skills, relationships with third parties and regulatory compliance.

Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study collected data through a cross-sectional survey of professionals working in the construction sector in the United Kingdom (UK). The collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

The findings underlined systems, regulatory compliance, staff and third-party relationships as the most significant elements of internal organisational capability influencing a construction firm's cybersecurity effectiveness, organised in order of importance.

Future research possibilities are proposed including the extension of the proposed diagnostic model to consider additional external factors, examining it under varying industrial relationship conditions and developing a dynamic framework that helps improve cybersecurity capability levels while overseeing execution outcomes to ensure success.

The extended McKinsey 7S model can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the organisation's internal capabilities and evaluate the effectiveness of implemented changes. This can provide specific ways for construction firms to enhance their cybersecurity effectiveness.

This study contributes to the field of cybersecurity in the construction industry by empirically assessing the effectiveness of cybersecurity in UK construction firms using an extended McKinsey 7S model. The study highlights the importance of two additional elements, third-party relationships and construction firm regulatory compliance, which were overlooked in the original McKinsey 7S model. By utilising this model, the study develops a concise research model of essential elements of internal organisational capability that influence cybersecurity effectiveness in construction firms.