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The objective of this study is to analyze how cross-functional integration contributes to the development of market-oriented strategies in the context of food and beverage manufacturers in Latin America.

A multi-case study was conducted in two multinational companies in Costa Rica and Brazil. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers, leaders and supervisors.

The results showed four market-oriented processes: product launch, product delivery, customer complaints solution and improvement and innovation projects. Within these processes, 12 integration factors that impact market orientation were characterized. They also indicate that the concepts of market orientation and cross-functional integration should be integrated in the organizational culture to facilitate the understanding of the different needs and levels of urgency.

The studied literature does not emphasize the way integration is operationalized to allow organizations to be market oriented. According to our findings, responsive strategies depend on the integration of various internal functions to generate market intelligence. Managers must realize that when the workers are motivated and informed, they become more willing to take on a group vision and commit to organizational goals. This paper presents seven propositions on the operationalization of market orientation through cross-functional integration.

The global financial crisis of 2007/2008 interrupted the process of financial integration observed in the European Union since the beginning of the 2000s. This paper empirically analyzes whether financial integration resumed, focusing on the period 2002–2015 and employing the indicators of the speed and the level of integration. The analysis covers four financial markets (the money, foreign exchange, bond, and equity markets) of the selected inflation-targeting Central European economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland), representatives of new euro area countries (Slovenia and Slovakia) and the selected advanced Western European economies (Austria, Germany, Portugal) with the euro area. The results reveal that the global financial crisis caused mainly a temporary price divergence of the financial markets in the analyzed countries vis-à-vis the euro area. By 2015 the situation on the financial markets returned gradually to the pre-crisis degree of integration with the euro area for most of the countries and markets; however, there are signs of fragmentation on the government bond markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine operational-level implementation issues regarding mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in general, and resource combination and integration at the functional marketing level in particular.

The paper introduces four factors (i.e. collaboration, interaction, marketing synergy, and the realignment of marketing resources) that support successful M&A marketing integration and enhance overall M&A performance.

The results indicate that marketing synergy and the realignment of marketing resources contribute significantly to the extent of integration. At the same time, the authors find a significant but negative relationship between the interaction dimension and the speed of integration.

The cultural integration of firms that feature different management styles and organizational cultures has been recognized as a particularly challenging aspect of cross-border M&As. This study explains factors that contribute to effective marketing integration in M&As.

This paper contains an empirical analysis of determinants of international integration projects over the time period 1995-2010. After a broad discussion of the existent literature, the investigation combines a large number of potentially relevant determinants for the explanation of whether stock exchanges are participating in formal integration projects. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The methodology is based on multistage statistical data analysis, using correlation and cluster analyses to investigate the presence of integration trend between existing stock exchange projects, while multivariable logit regression examines the determinants of stock exchange integration.

The paper confirms empirically the set of drivers of financial integration. Moreover, the paper provides quantitative estimations of probability of stock exchange integration estimated for different explanatory variables. The paper demonstrates that financial harmonization, cross-membership-agreements, for-profit corporate structure, trading engine and regional integration are important drivers of stock exchange integration. By contrast, high size of stock exchange market has negative impact on the likelihood of successful merger. This result is, especially, important in terms of financial regulation.

Results highlight the importance of stock exchange market in terms of exposure to systemic shocks and the linkages with the overall size of the economy.

The paper contributes to the existing literature and extends the analysis of determinants of stock exchange integration. In particular, the existence of de jure stock market integration projects suggests to design a special regulatory framework in order to benefit the important consequences of the integration phenomenon and to decrease the risk of financial contagion.

This chapter measures financial integration in 10 industries over 4 different periods. We use two robust measures of integration: (i) the Pukthuanthong and Roll (2009)’s multi-factor R-square and (ii) the Volosovych (2011)’s integration index. Both measures, based on PCA, indicate that the difference between the level of integration over the period 2009–2012 (“Post-Lehman” era) and the level of integration over the period 1994–1998 (“Post-Liberalizations” era) is relatively high. In addition, the level of financial integration across international equity markets decreased during the late 1990s. This suggests that de jure integration does not necessarily improve de facto integration. Overall, our findings give rise to a “diversification benefits-insurance benefits trade-off.”

Islamic capital markets, i.e. ICMs, featured as socially responsible investments, less levered and more reflective of the real sector, are a recent development in financial markets showing an impressive growth and offering the potential for portfolio diversification benefits. The purpose of this study is to understand the long-run integration of ICMs in the Asia/Pacific region.

This sample includes ICMs of Asia/Pacific region (such as Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) for 280 weeks between 2011 and 2016. Selected indexes are FTSE Islamic except for Pakistan and Indonesia. Evidence was obtained through the application of correlation, unit root, Johansen cointegration and Granger causality tests.

This study documents the results of the integration of ICMs based on developmental stage, geographic location, economic cooperation and shared religious beliefs/civilization. Partial support was observed for all hypotheses: integration of markets based on economic grouping, location, economic treaties and shared civilization. The Japanese market was the most integrated, while the Indian and Malaysian markets are the least. Evidence supports the shift of leadership role from advanced markets to emerging markets.

Selected diversification opportunities are available for global Islamic as well as conventional investors. This study recommends closer cooperation among Muslim majority countries of the region, as well as the effective use of economic cooperation treaties for joint economic growth and prosperity.

This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence on the integration of ICMs in an economically important region (Asia/Pacific) that is witnessing an increasing role in the global gross domestic product and international trade.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and integration of Islamic stock markets across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5) countries for economic community (AEC) development.

Using samples of daily closing prices from 2009 to 2014 across ASEAN-5 countries, co-integration and Granger-causality tests were applied.

This research finds that Islamic capital markets across ASEAN-5 countries remain highly integrated despite the global financial crisis of 2008, and it also finds the integration strength between Jakarta Islamic Index -Indonesia and Bursa Malaysia Emas Sharia-Malaysia Islamic capital markets to be the most influential across ASEAN-5 countries, while MSCI-Philippine Islamic capital market is the most vulnerable across ASEAN-5 Islamic capital markets.

The overwhelming benefit of Islamic stock market integration across ASEAN-5 countries, and, even in a broader context, awaits further inquiry.

Islamic capital markets across ASEAN-5 countries are integrated regardless of the post-global financial crisis. This contributes to confirming cross-border integration policies, especially for AEC development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the co-movements among emerging markets. The authors, additionally, investigate the driven force of the within emerging markets integration. The authors provide evidence of volatility clustering, leverage effect and time-varying integration of emerging markets.

The study used dynamic conditional correlation techniques to estimate the time-varying conditional correlations among emerging markets. The cross-sectional and time series variations in the within emerging markets correlations are then described by various market and economic factors.

The authors show that investment, domestic credit to the private sector and import of financial services have a positive relation within emerging markets co-movements. However, claim on central government, current account balance and financial services exports have a negative relation with the integration among emerging markets. Evidence is also provided that liquidity and market depth explain the correlation between emerging markets.

The findings show that emerging markets ability to convert domestic assets into investments appears to be the single most important factor influencing with in emerging markets integration. The findings indicate that across-emerging markets diversification potential exists.

This paper takes an exploratory approach towards understanding the applicability of established theoretical frameworks for cross-functional integration in different global environments. In particular, the role of culture is considered as its impact on organizations may affect the ability to create a global generic model for cross-functional integration in product development. In order to achieve this aim, the paper will explore two cases from different cultural environments, namely that of Slovenia and the UK.

The authors compare two different companies, based on their case profile and cultural background. Both are heavy engineering companies involved in product development, one originating in the developing economy of Slovenia, the other from the developed UK economy. The authors have employed a mix methodology, including literature and documentation analysis, questionnaire surveys and interviews.

Combining organizational climate and consequently informal cooperation with formal organizational schemes, when allowing moderate levels of authority, can be beneficial for NPD success and R&D-marketing integration. These findings confirm the theoretical principles of Gupta et al., but are to some extent actually directly connected to NPD success, rather than to the R&D-marketing interface. The framework might be valid when exploring a large sample of companies at national levels, but needs further specifications and expansion when employed in a single case company. Furthermore, the two studied cases show that special care needs to be placed on taking account of cultural differences, when employing NPD in different locations/international business units.

The paper presents a case comparison of cross-functional integration in two different cultural contexts. From this exploratory research, the main contribution highlights the key role of cultural context in developing effective cross-functional interfaces in product development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of integration of emerging markets with the world market and amongst them. Further, the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) on and structural breaks in the degree of integration are explored. The paper, additionally, analyses the behaviour of the level and the rate of change of the degree of integration around the period of the GFC.

The paper relies on the R² from a single factor world and the incremental R² from a two-factor world and emerging market models as proxies for the global and emerging markets degree of integration, respectively. Relying on the Quandt test for unknown structural breakdates, the paper examines structural breaks in the degree of integration.

The degree of global integration of emerging markets exceeds their degree of integration with themselves, particularly in the recent period. Additionally, the GFC is a significant driver of the recent increase in world market integration. We observe significant structural shifts in both the degree of the world and emerging markets integration measures. The breaks in the world market integration largely coincide with the GFC, whereas that of the emerging market integration is dispersed. Also, the level of the world market degree of integration has reversed recently, although, the degree of world market integration remains above pre-crisis point.

There exist high country-specific components in emerging market returns that are not accounted for by the world and emerging market factors despite the recent increase in global integration. Thusly, portfolios that diversify across emerging markets appear to have a high diversification potential. Additionally, substantial diversification gains may be realised with the inclusion of emerging market assets in global portfolios.

The paper shows that the emerging markets respond similarly to common global, although, diversely to emerging markets events. Additionally, evidence of the impacts of the GFC on the degree of global integration of emerging markets is presented.