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This paper aims to provide a wide picture of studies on heuristics for international decision-making with a focus on foreign market entry. This paper systematically reviews studies published in the international business and international marketing domain to examine heuristically based decisions for foreign market entry.

This paper proposes a systematic literature review and an in-depth analysis of 32 papers published between 1997 and 2021 dealing with foreign market entry and the use of heuristics for international decision-making.

Even if the marketing and management literature is in many ways permeable to the debate around heuristics developed in experimental psychology and cognitive science, international business and international marketing studies on the one hand recognize that international decision-making, especially when dealing with foreign market entry, is strongly characterized by uncertainty, on the other hand, there isn’t a developed and systematized literature about it. This paper shows key topics and areas fundamental to foreign market entry in which heuristics are applied by decision makers and their effectiveness.

A systematic review of the use of heuristics for foreign market entry decision-making can represent a useful step for a more organic development of knowledge about the more general use of heuristics for international decision-making. Understanding the decision-making process on the modes of entry in foreign markets is a key topic for international marketing and international business scholars and practitioners.

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.

Increasing rates of change in technologies, markets, and other environmental factors make time a valued resource in marketing decisions. When decisions are made and implemented requires explicit managerial attention. Increased pressures on managers to develop profitable streams of new products make new product entry one of the more important marketing decisions affected by timing—especially in a rapidly changing environment. To improve the management of this decision, time‐based competitive entry strategies are considered, along with an approach for making the timing decision. The approach is based on a case study. Implementation aspects of the market entry timing decision are also considered.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interaction between a profit maximising mortgagor and a newcomer to a mortgage market with Bertrand competition where the newcomer has a populistic entry strategy and undercuts mortgage market rates. The intention of the paper is to relate the populistic entry strategy to mortgage market characteristics and the strategic market position of both the established mortgagor and the newcomer in question.

The paper analyses a mortgage market by combining the behaviour of a profit maximising mortgagor with that of a newcomer to the mortgage market which has a populistic entry strategy and does not maximise profits. The short-run market solution provides comparative statics on the strategic market position of both the established mortgagor and the newcomer to the mortgage market during the entry phase both related to product differentiation and to price mirroring and undercutting of mortgage rates.

The model finds a mortgage market solution where a lower mortgage rate helps the newcomer gain a customer base. As the newcomer's strategy to mirror prices makes it unable to pass-through funding cost to its mortgage rate, the strategy is unsustainable over time. The established mortgagor has a strategically beneficial position as the mortgage market rates only relate to its funding cost. Unless the newcomer has a funding cost advantage, the established mortgagor has a higher interest rate margin. Differentiation impacts the newcomers’ interest rate margin positively. If the newcomer lacks a funding cost advantage, there is a critical mirroring rate that ensures it a higher interest rate margin. The higher the newcomers’ own funding cost, the higher is the upper bound for price mirroring, relating market entry to a small undercutting of mortgage rates and a mortgage market with weak competition. The funding cost of the established mortgagor pulls pricing in the opposite direction, allowing for a lower mirroring rate and tougher mortgage market competition during entry.

The paper aims to contribute to the understanding of market equilibrium in the absence of profit maximising behaviour. Framing a mortgage market in terms of a duopoly where a newcomer enters with a populistic entry strategy offering a lower mortgage rate and a mortgage product with a different loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, a novel mortgage market case comes about. The populistic entry strategy produces an augmented reaction curve, crucial for the mortgage market rates.

This paper aims to examine whether order and scale of market entry influence a new product's market and financial performance, and how marketing and R&D resources strengthen or weaken these effects.

Through a mail survey, data were collected on a sample of 136 product launches by Spanish manufacturing firms. A moderated hierarchical regression analysis enabled the assessment of the relevance of order and scale as well as their interactions with marketing and R&D resources to explain a product's competitive position. Moreover, a mediation analysis allowed us to determine whether market entry strategy (indirectly) affects financial performance.

The analyses show that pioneering firms and those entering the market with a full‐scale launch achieve advantages in terms of competitive position, and that this variable mediates the relationship of order and scale with profitability. The empirical results also reveal that such advantages are conditioned by the availability of marketing and R&D resources.

The decisions regarding order and scale of market entry are contingent. Managers involved in the planning of a new product launch should be knowledgeable about their firm's resources and capabilities before determining when and how to enter the market.

Many papers study the effects of order‐of‐entry on market share, but other dimensions of a new product launch strategy, such as scale, have largely been ignored. The research examines the effects of both variables on competitive position and profitability. This is also one of the first studies that explores the moderating effect exerted by resources and capabilities in the launch strategy‐performance relationship.

While much prior research has focused on Japanese multi‐national corporations’ (MNCs) marketing strategies, little is known about the factors that influence Japanese MNCs’ foreign market entry mode choice. In this study, a survey of Japanese MNCs is conducted in order to assess the factors that are the most influential in the foreign market entry decisions of Japanese MNCs. Using bargaining power theory, eight factors are identified in the study. The findings indicate that five of the eight factors (stake of the host country, need for local contribution, riskiness of the host country, resource commitment, and host government restrictions) are significant predictors of Japanese MNCs’ entry mode choice and that bargaining power theory is of value in predicting the entry mode choices of Japanese MNCs.

This paper aims to present a new framework that describes the relationship among market entry order and timing, the advantages accruing to first-movers and late-movers, entry timing premium (ETP), marketing strategy and enduring market performance of the firms. The framework, empirically tested using data from 241 business executives, expands extant research into new territory beyond first- and late-mover advantages in an attempt to reconcile a few streams of research in the area and provides an entry related, strategic assessment tool (ETP) for the managers. Contribution to marketing strategy theory and managerial implications are also presented.

Participants included informants in a firm’s strategic business unit who were the most familiar with a new product’s commercial launch, market condition at launch, competitor offerings, marketing activities and capabilities and eventual integration into or withdrawal from the product’s portfolio. Therefore, for the survey, the study targeted chief executive officers, vice presidents of marketing or sales, product or sales managers, general managers and regional managers. Both preference bias (Narus, 1984) and survivor biases among the respondents were addressed.

The research result of this study reveals two very significant aspects of marketing and marketing strategies. First, the importance of financial, pricing and cost strategies further attests to the fiercely competitive nature of the global market today and the tendency for firms to commoditize most products and services. An effective financial and pricing strategy, coupled with a higher level of ETP, is capable of leading a firm to initial market success in the product-market in which it competes. Both ETP (a positional advantage and resource of the firm) and financial and pricing strategies (a deliberate strategic decision of the management) are important to achieve this goal.

This study is limited in several ways. The effects of entry order and timing on market performance could be dependent on the types of industries and types of product categories involved. However, as the hypotheses were well supported, the “industry specific” factors would provide “fine-tuning” in the future study. Second, the nature of the product (goods or services) may also present varying effects on the relationship studied (for differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, see Song et al., 1999). Services’ intangible nature, difficulty in protecting property rights, high involvement of boundary-spanning employees and customers, high reliance on delivery and quality, and ease of imitation may alter the proposed relationships in the model and the moderating effects. Third, although this study used a “retrospective” protocol approach in the data collection by encouraging respondents to recall market, product and business information, this study is not longitudinal. Lack of longitudinal data in any study involving strategic planning, strategy execution and the long-term effects is no doubt a weakness. In addition, due to peculiarity and complexity with regard to regulation and other aspects in pharmaceutical and other industries, the theory might be limited to a certain extent.

In all, the integrated framework contributes to the understanding of the intricate issues surrounding first-mover advantage, late-mover advantage, entry order and timing and the role of marketing strategy. The framework provides practitioners guidance as to when to enter a product-market to gain advantageous positions and how to maintain that advantage. Firms that use a deliberate late-mover strategy could also benefit from the research finding in mapping out their strategic courses of action.

This study believes that the halo effect surrounding first-mover advantage may have obscured the visions of some researchers and managers, and the pursuit of a silver bullet has led to frenzied interests in becoming a “first-mover” or a deliberate “late-mover”. The theoretical framework, which is substantiated by empirical testing, invalidates the long-held claim that entry of a particular kind (first-movers or late-movers) yields any unique competitive advantage. It is a firms’ careful selection of marketing strategies and careful execution of the strategies through effective operational tactics that would lead to enduring competitive advantage, under an adequate level of ETP.

In this paper, we analyze the influence of the environmental conditions and firm capabilities on the time of entry. We find significant direct and interaction effects. Furthermore, we show that firms develop a pioneer behavior not only when they have the suitable capabilities to take advantage of the perceived opportunities in the industry but also when these firms have key capabilities to maintain their first‐mover advantages, given the perception of unfavorable conditions in the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theory‐based framework that informs a fashion retailer's entry mode choice into a foreign market.

Aspects of transaction cost, bargaining, resource based, and internationalization theories were integrated to develop a conceptual framework for fashion retailers determining the best entry mode to foreign markets. Propositions were developed, which serve as bridge laws, bridging the gap between the theories and the investigation of fashion retailers' entry mode choice. A case study was used to demonstrate applicability of the developed propositions.

Three groups of factors were identified that influence entry mode choice in the fashion retail market: firm‐specific factors of asset specificity, brand equity, financial capacity, and international experience; country‐specific factors of country risk, cultural distance, and government restrictions; and market‐specific factors of market potential and market competition. Nine propositions were generated, positing how each of the factors may influence a fashion retailer's entry mode choice.

The conceptual model and propositions require further empirical investigation. Future research also needs to systematically explore the interactions or trade‐offs between different determinate factors.

A fashion retailer can use the framework and propositions to systematically evaluate the company's case to justify an entry mode decision for a specific foreign market.

This is the first paper to describe the integration of theories to help explain factors affecting fashion retailers' entry mode choice.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the main market entry barriers confronted by the new operators in liberalized railway freight market (Poland and Sweden), as well as to analyze the inaugurating market of Finland.

Swedish and Polish markets were scrutinized utilizing qualitative case study, implemented through semi‐structured theme interviews. Among primary observations, numerous second‐hand sources were used to gain triangulation. Research was conducted during early 2009. The Finnish material was collected with Delphi technique‐based questionnaires in 2005.

The main findings support previous studies arguing that the main barriers to entry are rolling stock acquisition, needed investments and bureaucracy. In Sweden, companies were start‐ups established on the grounds of the incumbent. The Polish market obtained new operators via vertical integration with a significant competitive presence of a governmental operator. Inaugurating Finnish market is identified as a combination of these two. Therefore, it is easier to understand why new entrants are not operating in the Finnish market.

The research contributes novel, first‐hand data to the subject, which earlier have been studied mostly via second‐hand data and literature analyses.