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This paper aims to study the learning-by-exporting effect among small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors propose a dynamic perspective and suggest that learning-by-exporting is duration-dependent and contingent upon the born global internationalization strategy. In earlier phases of export activities, exporting has had a strong positive effect on SMEs’ innovations, which, however, diminishes over time. This inverted U-shape effect is even more distinct for born global firms.

The authors used longitudinal data with 1,689 Canadian SMEs to test their hypotheses. A two-stage instrumental approach is used to take into account the endogeneity of the born global international strategy on new product innovations.

Born globals learn faster at the early stages of exporting but also restrain their innovations more strongly than gradual internationalizers in the longer run, leveling out the initial learning advantages of newness. Thus, this study suggests that born globals have a significantly different learning trajectory than gradual internationalizers.

To maximize the benefits of exporting on innovation, managers should focus on learning during the initial years of exporting. However, once this period has passed, it is advisable for managers to invest in research and development as well as other innovation activities to complement the learning effect of exporting. Born global firms experience more rapid learning at the initial stage of exporting, but such learning effects wear off quicker later than gradually internationalized firms. For SME managers, this study helps draw their attention to the learning benefits of exporting in the initial years of export participation.

This study corroborates recent studies arguing for a “learning-by-exporting” effect. Providing longitudinal firm-level evidence, the authors also forward a dynamic perspective and show that learning by exporting is duration dependent and contingent upon the market entry strategy pursued by SMEs.

This paper aims to explore the moderating effect of human capital in the form of a CEO’s educational background and firm age at the time of internationalization on growth and survival.

The research study is based on primary data gathered from 102 internationalized small and medium enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the engineering industry in Bangalore district, Karnataka, India.

The results reveal that human capital significantly improves sales growth but had no impact on the survival of internationalized SMEs.

The paper includes practical implications for the CEOs of SMEs to successfully strategize their efforts towards growth and survival in the international market.

This research study enhances the importance of human capital and its impact on the growth and survival of internationalized SMEs in the context of an emerging economy where research studies are limited and largely unexplored till date.

The study explores the decision-making logics driving the usage of social media among internationalising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and how it supports entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. The author draws on qualitative data from four internationalising firms all of which had adopted social media. The findings show that causal decision-making logic is the main element driving the initial usage of social media (i.e. pre-adoption). Concerning ongoing usage, the author found evidence of both causal and effectual logic; the choice being dependent on the firm’s resources. The findings also show that both drivers of social media users have a paramount role in entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.

Deglobalization and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have severely hindered multinational enterprise (MNE) investment. At the same time, digital technology is seriously challenging it with traditional production factor flows. Few studies have realized that the impact of digitalization is not limited to either transaction costs or the location-boundness of firm-specific advantages (FSAs), but extends to profound changes in the fundamental essence of MNEs. There is still limited understanding of this body of knowledge as a whole, including how its subtopics are interrelated. This study took the production factor change perspective to review MNE theory in the digital era. Therefore, this study aims to identify any upcoming and undeveloped themes in order to provide a platform suited to direct future research.

This paper presents a summary and a review of 151 articles published between 2007 and 2020. Such review was conducted to systematically explain the connotations and influential mechanisms of digital empowerment on MNE theory. This was achieved by using the CiteSpace citation visualization tool to build a keyword co-occurrence network.

The research findings pertain to how digitalization expands, breaks through, and even reshapes traditional MNE theory from four distinctive angles: the influential factors of internationalization, the process of internationalization, competitive advantage, and location choice. The findings are followed by the presentation of future research directions.

This paper presents an examination of MNE theory in the digital era from the perspective of production factor change. In doing so, it identifies significant theoretical innovation opportunities for future scholarly research priorities.

Applying the internationalization process model (IPM) and the strategic fit perspective, this research aims to test the effects of firm age on Chinese firms’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in developing and developed countries.

Using data on some Chinese firms, this study applied the zero-inflated negative binomial model and Heckman two-stage model to do the analyses.

This research found that firm age has different effects on Chinese firms’ OFDI in developed and developing countries. State ownership and industry munificence independently and jointly can moderate these effects.

This study contributes to the IPM and solves the theoretical conflict about the firm age–OFDI relationship.

This paper contributes to studies on the relationship between dynamic capabilities (DCs) and performance by showing how domain-specific DCs – international dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMCs) – affect the international performance of exporting firms in the context of extreme environmental dynamism – during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors focus on a sample of 277 exporting manufacturers from the post-transition economy of Poland. The authors use hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test this study's hypotheses.

This study's findings show that deployment of IDMCs by export manufacturers in the context of environmental jolts contributes to better performance, and this relationship is mediated by adaptation to foreign markets and product development capability. Additionally, this study's results reveal that the significant and positive indirect effect of IDMCs on international performance (through mediators) is, however, weakened under conditions of extreme environmental dynamism.

The limitations pertain to the cross-sectional nature of this study and the research sample, characterised by the dominance of export manufacturers of final products, the dominance of manufacturers operating in the business-to-business sector, or in the business-to-business and business-to-customer sectors simultaneously.

The study provides suggestions to managers on how to build resilience in international markets during turbulent times. These activities involve investments in IDMCs that support activities centred around product development and adaptation to foreign markets.

The novel construct of IDMCs is introduced and operationalized. The study empirically tests the direct and indirect relationship between IDMCs and performance contingent upon extreme environmental dynamism. The results demonstrate the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of these domain-specific DCs in such a research setting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between technology orientations and export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. The paper formulates hypotheses from the literature review. These hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling with data collected from 231 SMEs in Uganda. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and AMOS.

The findings of this study showed technology orientation has a positive and significant relationship with the performance of Ugandan SMEs and that supply chain agility moderates technology orientation and export performance.

The study discusses the findings, advances limitations and managerial implications. It also suggests future research avenues. It proposes some recommendations to help Ugandan SMEs to form flexible supply chains, use the latest technology and create strong relationship ties with their partners in the supply chain.

The study suggests that managers of Ugandan SMEs should use the latest technology in production, marketing, logistics and supply chain management which will enable them to respond quickly to customer tastes and preferences leading to higher levels of export performance.

This study contributes to the literature on strategic management showing the reliability of scales used and the confirmatory of the factor structure. This study shows that in strategic management technology, orientation is critical in increasing export performance. This study has extended the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities theories.

The authors seek to advance the understanding of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization at the regional level and examine the role of home market institutions in this process.

The authors analyze hypotheses with data from SMEs in five country markets and from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. A cluster analysis establishes the regional diversification patterns (based on regional diversification scope, speed and rhythm) and a multinomial regression tests the effect of home market institutions on their adoption.

The results offer a refined picture of SME regional diversification by revealing three patterns: intra-regionally focused firms, late inter-region diversifiers and early inter-region diversifiers. They also suggest that the adoption of these patterns is determined by SMEs' home market institutions.

The authors develop a nuanced understanding of SME internationalization by building upon and expanding the regionalization rationale in the internationalization patterns literature. Additionally, the authors address the acknowledged, yet rarely investigated, country-level determinants of internationalization patterns.

Capturing consumers’ notice by differentiating a product from competing brands in attaching an affixed label featuring product claims, as an alternative front-of-package (FOP) cue, has been widely used in fast-moving consumer goods retailing. This paper aims to apply perceived product newness as the basis for examining how affixed labeling, manipulated in terms of design features and message claims, can impact consumer evaluation.

Four between-subjects experiments examined the persuasive impact of the use of affixed labels. In particular, how product evaluation, in response to affixed labeling, varied as a function of its shape (Study 1a), location (Study 1b), the combination of shape and location cues (Study 1c) and the strength of message claims conveyed by such labels (Study 2). Perceived product newness is assessed as a mediator for all studies.

The results show the power of affixed labels in persuasion. Specifically, consumers tend to perceive the item as newer, achieving persuasion, when the affixed label has a distinctive shape or location. Yet, incorporating several unusual design components fails to trigger an elevated result if a singular visual stimulus serves as a cue for an item’s newness. Further, the strength of claims highlighted in an affixed label correlates to positive impact on evaluations.

This study offers an empirically based examination of consumers’ responses to affixed labeling and identifies perceived product newness as a mediator of the observed effect.

A salient, affixed label enables a credible cue for product newness, therefore, driving evaluation.

This paper contributes to understanding the influence on the persuasion of FOP labeling, with salience to retail promotional and sales messaging tactics.

This chapter explores authentic leadership at the ‘edge of chaos’ – a transitional period from one kind of stability to another triggered by the emergence and implementation of newness. The authors argue that continuous, abrupt or unpredictable change at the edge of chaos impacts authentic leadership, resulting in the development of new values, new perspectives on legitimacy and new identities. Kinyanjui and Turcan identify four leader legitimation strategies, when introducing newness at the edge of chaos: feedback loop; conformance; familiar cues; and consistency and repetition. Kinyanjui and Turcan call for future research into the co-emergence of newness at the edge of chaos to equip decision-makers and policy-makers with a better understanding of legitimation strategies in the implementation of newness.