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The Japanese approach to product development emphasizes continual technological improvement aimed at making an already successful product even better for customers. Is it time for U.S. companies to take some lessons from Japan?

This study examines the diffusion process of corporate sustainability (CS) in the global automotive industry. It discusses the different roles played by the automakers, as the industry’s focal firms, in diffusing CS strategies throughout their respective supply networks. Studies have explained this phenomenon as being the result of the higher levels of stakeholder exposure faced by focal firms, which generate higher levels of supplier sustainability risk. In this context, the authors examine the effects of three network-related firm characteristics – resource dominance, resource substitutability, and network centrality – in determining the effectiveness of a firm in diffusing CS in its network. For that purpose, we present a theoretical framework from which we derive a set of hypotheses and test them on a sample of the global automotive supply network containing 10,726 firms linked by 45,044 inter-firm relationships. The results lend significant support to the argument that these network-related firm attributes are crucial mechanisms to the process of diffusion of CS strategies in a supply network, thus contributing to extant literatures in strategic management, international business, and sustainable supply chain management.

Global procurement of service activities has received an increasing amount of managerial attention in recent years. Service firms seem to have begun sourcing part of their service activities from abroad in much the same way as manufacturing firms have sourced components and finished goods in the past 30 years. However, little is known about the nature of service global sourcing strategy. In this study, we examine the differences in the characteristics of core service activities provided by service firms that market pure service activities versus those service firms that market service activities which involve tangible goods, and the extent to which both types of service firms engage in internal and foreign sourcing of core service activities before the service activities are provided to their customers. The results show, among others, that the level of inseparability of core service activities performed and/or sourced by “pure” service firms is significantly higher than that of “non‐pure” service firms and that “non‐pure” service firms consider foreign sourcing drivers as much more important factors in influencing the decisions in selecting potential suppliers for core service activities. Managerial and theoretical implications are explored.

Based on the US Department of Commerce′s survey data of US direct investment abroad for 1977 and 1985, this study examines the shift in global market share of US multinational manufacturing firms for the 1977‐1985 period. Consolidated global market shares of US multinationals for 26 industries are estimated for 1977 and 1985. The shift in their global market share is analysed from a perspective of three alternative, if not independent, strategic thrusts: namely, home market orientation, export orientation, and foreign production orientation. Contrary to the commonly stated claim that the competitiveness of US manufacturing firms has been declining, findings of this study indicate that, on average, US manufacturing multinationals have maintained global market share on a consolidated basis fairly well.

Reports the results of a study that examined industrial salespeople′s perceptions of organizational fairness (a measure of perceived equity) across the United States, Japan and Korea. Prior research has found that employees′ perceived equity is associated with several job‐related responses, such as worker job satisfaction, absenteeism and turnover. Preliminary evidence suggests that perceived equity may be culturally based. Findings of the investigation indicate that salesperson perceptions vary across the three countries. Discusses the implications of the findings.

This paper examines the statistical relationship between outbound Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and firm performance. We focus on how the link is influenced by sector-specific differences and geographical factors.

We compile a time-series cross-sectional dataset that includes financial variables and FDI activities of South Korean firms between 2005 and 2008 from the DART, a financial statement database. Then, we fit our data against the linear regression models that we designed to identify FDI-performance relationship in different subsamples. Our measurement of firm performance is specifically constructed to reflect excess returns in the stock market.

We found compelling differences in the degree of FDI-performance relationships across different industries. In manufacturing sectors, the flow of direct investment is more heavily associated with firm performances than accumulated stock of direct investment, and vice versa in the service sector. The impact of China factors toward performance aspects of Korea’s outbound FDI which also differs across sectors as well.

Although there have been extensive research efforts on this subject in general, our paper addresses an increasingly significant class of FDIs that have received relatively less attention, that is, direct investment originating from developing economies. Also, our analysis adds a sectoral dimension that contributes to more comprehensive understanding of a multinational-performance relationship.

We examine whether firms’ multinationality leads to better performance and what the role of R&D investment is in the multinationality performance linkage. Unlike the previous studies, we employ both accounting‐ and market‐based measures of firm performance for a large sample of U.S. manufacturing firms. Our results show that the empirical relation between multinationality and performance is not monotonic but varies with the phase of a firm’s multinationality, starting with a negative relation initially, followed by a positive one, and then again a negative one. This horizontal S‐shaped curvilinear relation of multinationality is more pronounced for the market‐based performance measure and is supportive of the three‐stage theory of internationalization. We also find that a firm’s multinationality is related to greater firm performance when the firm possesses R&D investment, and that the effect of R&D increases with the extent of a firm’s multinationality. These results lend strong support for the Internalization theory and the resource‐based view of firms’ international expansion. Our results are robust to different model specifications with an alternative measure of multinationality.

Through a comprehensive literature review and data analysis, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a multi‐perspective interrelation of different dimensions of existing theory to eventually bridge the fields of political and business marketing, identify the underlying causes of voter behaviour, and distil the critical factors of small political parties' (SPPs') strategic marketing communications (MCs) success. The research finally develops a preliminary conceptual strategic MCs model for SPPs that fits the context of developed countries and concentrates on the strategic aspects of MCs.

The paper is largely conceptual and is based on an extensive literature review and secondary data; strengthened through additional and focused quantitative and qualitative data.

The findings indicate an increasing association between business and political marketing, an environmental context that stimulates and nurtures a symbiotic relationship between parties and voters, an enhanced role of “perception management”, and substantial divergence of SPP reality from classical theory.

Further and focused primary research is required towards model testing.

A scientific basis is provided for practical strategic implementation of MCs by SPPs.

The research value stems from its focus on SPPs, its contribution to the generic discussion on business marketing theory applicability to politics; its reinforcement of existing research on the subject through further data and analyses; and additionally to existing researches' focus, its concentration on the strategic aspects of the subject and its contribution to literature of an analogous strategic political marketing model.

States that researchers in marketing have called for investigations concerning personal selling and sales management in the international arena. Examines the influence of organizational formalization on work alienation through role stress and organizational commitment in industrial salesforces in the USA, Japan and Korea. From surveys of salesforces selling electronic products and components, reveals inter‐country differences and highlights the importance of conducting cross‐national studies on salesforce issues.