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This study aimed to identify a specific taxonomy of entry modes for international construction contractors and to develop a decision-making mechanism based on case-based reasoning (CBR) to facilitate the selection of the most suitable entry modes.

According to the experience orientation of the construction industry, a CBR entry mode decision model was established, and based on successful historical cases, a two-step refinement process was carried out to identify similar situations. Then the validity of the model is proved by case analysis.

This study identified an entry mode taxonomy for international construction contractors (ICCs) and explored their decision-making mechanisms. First, a two-dimension model of entry mode for ICCs was constructed from ownership and value chain dimensions; seven common ICC entry modes were identified and ranked according to market commitment. Secondly, this study reveals the impact mechanism of the ICC entry mode from two aspects: the external environment and enterprise characteristics. Accordingly, an entry mode decision model is established.

Firstly, sorting out the categories of entry mode in the construction field, which provide an entry mode list for ICCs to select. Secondly, revealing the impact mechanism of ICC entry mode, which proposes a systematic decision-making system for the selection of ICC entry mode. Thirdly, constructing a CBR entry mode decision-making model from an empirical perspective, which offers tool support and reduces transaction costs in the decision-making process.

The study on entry modes for ICCs is still in the preliminary exploratory stage. The authors investigate the entry mode categories and decision-making mechanisms for ICCs based on Uppsala internationalization process theory. It widens the applied scope of Uppsala and promotes cross-disciplinary integration. In addition, the authors creatively propose a two-stage retrieval mechanism in the CBR model, which considers the order of decision variables. It refines the influence path of the decision variables on ICCs' entry mode.

Engaging in international business (IB) is a particular challenge to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), representing a condition to ensure growth and longevity. Due to their limitations of tangible resources, these companies make use of their levels of knowledge and capabilities to reach new markets. This study seeks to ascertain the role, the typologies of the knowledge and capabilities required for access to IB, and how benefits may arise for SMEs from their international experience.

To achieve these objectives, the authors ground the insights on a qualitative study that gathered data from ten semi-structured interviews with leading entrepreneurs engaged in IB. The data were analysed resorting to the QSR Nvivo software.

The results demonstrate how (1) knowledge and the development of dynamic capabilities all represent determinant facets to engaging in IB and that (2) the knowledge and learning capabilities acquired and developed in IB context also result in positive returns in domestic markets.

Despite the rising of IB studies, the interaction between knowledge and capabilities from the perspective of accessing international markets has not received attention enough from scholars. The authors argue that both constructs must act together to reach and maximize the IB of SMEs and provide evidence that engagement abroad brings several other advantages beyond economic returns.

The authors revisit the traditional OLI paradigm with the objective to allocate politics within the set of internationalization advantages by building on the political strategy literature. The authors outline the specific role of political advantage that facilitates and propels the international expansion of state-owned multinational enterprises (SOMNEs) from emerging markets.

A conceptual paper which explains the role of political advantage in the internationalization of SOMNEs. The authors expand the scope of the OLI to capture the impact of firms' home governments' policies and relationships with host countries which are leveraged by SOMNEs in their internationalization.

The authors define political advantage as a new type of advantage which depends on and is sourced from external actors. The authors argue that P-advantage is a multifaceted and unstable part of POLI composition, which is contingent on political shifts and may be leveraged by various firms. The authors also assert that political capabilities have limitations in sustaining political advantage, which may be compensated via enhancing the political activity of firms.

The authors conceptualize the POLI-advantages paradigm for the internationalization of SOMNEs by proposing that in addition to the traditional ownership, location, and internalization advantages, firms can capitalize on their political advantage to enter markets where internationalization might have been difficult without their political connections.

In recent decades, emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) have predominantly adopted a big step internationalization strategy to expand their business overseas. This study aims to examine the effect of big step internationalization on the speed of subsequent foreign direct investment (FDI) expansion for EMNEs. The authors also investigate the potential boundary conditions.

The authors use the random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression following a hierarchical approach to analyze the panel data set conducted by a sample of publicly listed Chinese firms from 2001 to 2012.

The findings indicate that implementing big step internationalization in the initial stages accelerates the speed of subsequent FDI expansion. Notably, the authors find that this effect is more pronounced for firms that opt for acquisitions as the entry mode in their first big step internationalization and possess a board of directors with strong political connections to their home country’s government. In contrast, the board of director’s international experience negatively moderates this effect.

This study provides insights into our scholarly and practical understanding of EMNEs’ big step internationalization and subsequent FDI expansion speed, which offers important implications for firms’ decision-makers and policymakers.

This study extends the internationalization theory, broadens the international business literature on the consequences of big step internationalization and deepens the theoretical and practical understanding of foreign expansion strategies in EMNEs.

The purpose of this study is to address why managers enter the excessive market. A comparison of the facts and perceptions of entrants relative to success in the market shows that many entrants are confident about the viability of their businesses and enter the market. Accordingly, the authors simulate market entry decisions to detect behavioral biases.

The authors adapted the entry decisions simulation method, which is supported by the theoretical foundations of signal detection theory (SDT) and signaling theory. The simulation model is implemented on the Anaconda platform and written in Python 3.

The results of this study suggest that overestimation relates to excess market entry. Also, the proportion of excess entry under difficult conditions is always higher than under easy conditions.

This research helps managers and firms think about their and their competitors' abilities and evaluate them before entering the market. Policymakers and practitioners can also design programs such as experiential learning to help entrants assess their skills.

So far, no research has investigated the role of overconfidence under different market conditions. Accordingly, this study contributes to the current market entry literature by disentangling the debate between absolute and relative confidence and by considering the role of task difficulty.

This study aims to explore the dynamic interplay of key resources (i.e. research and development (R&D), advertising and exports) in affecting the performance of USA manufacturing firms. Specifically, the authors examine the dynamic impact of joint resources and predict differential effect scales contingent on firm capabilities.

This study presents a combined multiple regression analysis (MRA)-multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network modeling and investigates the complex interlinkage of capabilities, resources and performance. As an innovative approach, the MRA-MLP model investigates the effect of capabilities under the combinatory deployment of joint resources.

This study finds that the impact of joint resources and synergistic rents is not uniform but rather distinctive according to the combinatory conditions and that the pattern is further shaped by firm capabilities. Accordingly, besides signifying the contingent aspect of capabilities across a range of resource combinations, the result also shows that managerial sophistication in adaptive resource control is more than a managerial ethos.

The proposed analytic process provides scientific decision support tools with control mechanisms with respect to deploying multiple resources and setting actionable goals, thereby presenting pragmatic benchmarking options to industry managers.

Using the theoretical underpinnings of the resource-based view (RBV) and resource orchestration, this study advances knowledge about the complex interaction of key resources by presenting a salient analytic process. The empirical design, which portrays holistic interaction patterns, adds to the uniqueness of this study of the complex interlinkages between capabilities, resources and shareholder value.

This study aims to provide a detailed characterization of Argentinean exporting wineries using a new rich firm-level data set to understand how capabilities and business strategies differ among firms with different levels of involvement in the export market.

A survey was distributed among all wineries along all wine regions of Argentina; the 45-min questionnaire was answered by 230 wineries, a representative sample with a response rate of 26.3% of the total population of Argentinean wineries. The survey assessed the interaction between wineries’ dynamics and characteristics and their participation in export markets. In the comparative analysis, the results are presented by dividing the sample into four categories according to the export intensity of the wineries.

High-intensity exporting wineries in Argentina differ from other Argentinean wineries in several dimensions. In particular, the most internationalized Argentinean wineries are the most endowed with higher capabilities; they follow a specific business model emphasizing product differentiation, quality upgrading, brand building and the development of distribution channels. Exporting wineries from Argentina adopt business practices that differ from those that prevail among wineries that only target the domestic market. They have developed firm capabilities such as human capital and technology to play a critical role in quality upgrading for their participation in global wine markets.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the Argentinean exporting wineries using a firm-level sizeable representative sample.

This study aims to explore how subsidiary capabilities collectively configure for performance. Additionally, it seeks to examine whether these configurations of capabilities can provide equifinal solutions through developing a comprehensive research framework that focuses on subsidiaries in China.

With a data set collected through a questionnaire from 172 Korean multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, this study used a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to detect the capability conditions and configurations. These configurations represent combinations of various subsidiary capabilities linked to high performance.

This study identified several complex pathways with distinct configurations for high subsidiary performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of configurations over individual conditions. Thus, the results highlight that the effectiveness of diverse capabilities, which are widely believed to singularly contribute to the high performance of MNE subsidiaries, depends on how each combines with other capabilities. Overall, the findings provide a richer and fine-grained understanding of the role and relative importance of various forms of MNE subsidiary capabilities and how the joint effect of these subsidiaries contributes to high performance.

This study suggests that MNE managers should comprehensively understand how subsidiary capabilities are configured to produce subsidiary performance outcomes. This specifically illustrates the importance of understanding the mutually conflicting yet collectively exhaustive results of multi-selective solutions and aims to align with China’s industrial and regional heterogeneity.

By examining the role of MNE subsidiary capability configurations, which may collectively influence the subsidiary’s performance, this study contributes to the literature. It elucidates how MNE subsidiaries may achieve superior performance by developing and possessing various capabilities tailored to the local context.

This study aimed to explore the antecedents of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization and to compare the different resources required to enter different geographical regions. This study adds to the discussion on internationalization from a resource-based view (RBV) and a focus on dynamic capability, especially the linkage with resources such as digital capability, domestic industrial networks and the business-to-business (B2B) model.

This study used secondary data collected by an SME association in 2020, using a logistic regression model to examine the hypotheses. The respondents were selected according to stratified random sampling.

Digital capability and the B2B model significantly and positively affect the likelihood of internationalization by SMEs, while domestic industrial networks were negatively correlated with this process. In addition, Taiwanese SMEs with high digital capability tend to expand to North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Smaller firms tend to develop in Southeast Asia, whereas larger firms opt to establish business in Oceania.

A research limitation is the generalizability of the sample. Findings could be enhanced if future studies include more industries and draw comparisons among different industries or countries. Future studies could explore digital entrepreneurship from a global perspective.

Managers need to emphasize better the development of digital capabilities and skills for SMEs. With limited financial resources and workforce, SMEs can strengthen the competence in international markets by adopting a suitable business model. When SMEs join an association to expand SMEs foreign networks, the study suggests that SMEs carefully evaluate the characteristics of each industrial association first, given that some associations are domestic-oriented. As for public policymakers, a project grant can be used to provide digital capability training for SME employees and owners or promote building a B2B model when internationalizing.

The authors' findings fill the research gaps in RBVs of internationalization, especially in linking resources such as digital capability, domestic industrial networks and the B2B model. The outcomes of this research serve as a reference not only to policymakers for improving the current SME ecosystem, but also to business practitioners positioning themselves in this system.

The study aims to analyze factors impacting firms’ success and persistence in a digital platform competition using the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) framework. The study also includes real-life cases that are beneficial to academicians and practitioners to understand and develop strategies for success and persistence during uncertainty.

A literature review to identify the factors that impact success and persistence in a digital platform competition was conducted following Webster and Watson (2002). Findings were integrated into a SCP framework to examine and understand the identified factors’ relational impact.

While analyzing factors under the SCP framework, all factors were divided into three categories: those impacting positively, those impacting negatively and those with ambiguous impact on the success and persistence in digital platform competition. Digital platform firms can exploit the positively impacting factors to increase market share by being distinctive from other digital platform firms and becoming dominant by withstanding competition. On the other hand, negatively impacting factors increase barriers to entry, intensify competition and reduce the distinctiveness of digital platform firms. Lastly, a few factors may have either a positive or a negative impact depending upon the particular characteristics of the firm/industry.

The study opens the scope for future research on empirically testing the developed conceptual framework and relationships by developing propositions to posit the possible impact of these factors on digital platforms’ success and persistence.

The study contributed to the existing literature by using SCP framework to analyze the factors affecting firm’s success and persistence in a digital platform competition. Also, the study has discussed the relational impact of factors rather than their impact in isolation.