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This paper aims to explore the relationship between clustering and hotel competitiveness in emerging economy destinations by analyzing potential mediation of the management innovations implemented.

This empirical study is based on hotel-level information from a survey including 131 hotels in 2014. Colombia was chosen as a representative of Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa (CIVETS) emerging destinations. The relationships were analyzed by structural modeling and partial least squares.

Clustering has a positive direct impact on hotel competitiveness and innovation, and there is a positive effect of innovation on competitiveness. Therefore, the link between clustering and competitiveness is partially mediated through implementation of management innovations.

Hotels should actively participate in agglomerated destinations and build relationships with established firms by clustering. Interaction with related firms and implementation of management innovations will lead to increased levels of economic competitiveness. Public policymakers should foster collaborative strategic networking in the hospitality industry of emerging economy destinations.

This paper focused on separating the direct and indirect effects of clustering on hotel competitiveness. Implementation of management innovations was considered as an outcome derived from clustering in emerging tourist destinations, using the example of Colombia. Clustering stimulates and eases management innovations within the location, and that combination reinforces the role that cooperating while competing plays in hotel competitiveness for destinations with lagging innovation.

The purpose of this study is to examine how business group (BG) affiliation influences the export propensity of new ventures (NVs). To help address the inconsistency of past research on the value of BG affiliation for firms seeking to expand their business abroad, the authors provide a contingency perspective by exploring how organizational characteristics and BG characteristics condition the value of BG affiliation. The authors analyze the impact of BG affiliation on the export propensity of NVs, including the factors that condition this impact, by using a sample of 2,874 European NVs. The primary contribution of this study is to determine the impact of BG affiliation on the export propensity of NVs, including the moderating effects of firm size on the BG affiliation–export propensity relationship. The findings show that the export propensity of NVs affiliated with BGs is significantly higher than for stand-alone NVs. However, the findings demonstrate that the impact of BG affiliation on export propensity depends on the network characteristics of the BG in terms of the geographical dispersion of network ties. Consequently, the findings suggest that BG affiliation provides advantages for NV exporting only if it provides access to international inter-firm networks thus acting as a compensatory mechanism for liability of outsidership and liability of newness in foreign markets. In such cases, BG affiliation is a major resource capital that equipoises the somewhat limited financial resource provision for NV internationalization.

The purpose of this paper is to aim at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of strategic supply chain management and logistics (SCML) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM).

To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date across both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in SCML in global organizations from a human resource management (HRM) viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and Co-Evolutionary theory of global organizations were adopted.

Top management teams (TMT) are crucial to manage SCML successfully in today’s global organizations. Research on this intersection should draw attention to find antecedents, consequences and the process showing how those talented people grouped in dispersed teams can be a source of competitive advantage. Six different areas of research are proposed. It is proposed that future research should focus on the human capital (HC); meaning those key individuals of an organization that make things happen. In the near future, the global organization’s competitiveness will be shaped by how the organization manages its HC in SCML. Methodologies such as meta-analysis are suggested to summarize the extant literature on IHRM when applied to SCML in global organizations.

The search was conducted in SSCI-ISIWoK and Scopus databases. As a limitation, some articles and other scientific contributions not abstracted there were not included. Nevertheless, both searches enabled obtaining balanced results between scope and richness of content.

Only a marginal portion of literature reviews have been conducted by using mixed methods in the fields of IHRM and SCML. The results will be useful for scholars of both fields in their attempts to enlarge the knowledge boundaries in these areas. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, this research may provide an integrative framework for global organizations to build a competitive advantage based on managing HC and its SCML strategically.

In order to explain change and growth at the aggregate levels, three levels: macro, meso and micro must be taken into account. Applying the theories from Keynesian and post‐Keynesian economics (PKE) best explains the macro level and applying those from Schumpeterian and neo‐Schumpeterian economics (NSE) best explains the micro level. Besides this, the meso level can be further explained by merging both post‐Keynesian and neo‐Schumpeterian theories. Such a unifying approach has been missing from the literature so far. Bringing these schools of thought together is important for mutual learning and further development of innovation theory. This paper aims to effect this.

The paper presents a survey of the relevant secondary literature of the aforementioned schools of thought, identifying their methodological practice and key contributions to innovation theory.

A combination of these schools of thought offers a richer approach to studying innovation. It is found to exist in particular in the evolutionary, institutional and long‐run perspectives, in combination with emphasis on the role of finance in production.

One is invited to develop one's own theoretical and empirical approach that combines the advantages of all the schools of thought presented.

The paper is exploratory, as it reconsiders how a comprehensive approach to studying innovations can be built. It examines the existing literature. It will be of value to researchers in innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research agenda for qualitative studies in the field of strategic management (SM) in the Baltic area.

A total of 167 SM-related articles in this area between 2000 and 2013 were found. The content within title, abstract and authors’ keywords was analysed by means of a multiple correspondence analysis based on the HOMALS technique.

The intellectual structure of SM in the Baltic area is to some extent similar to the global structure of the field. Hence research on this topic in the Baltic area is well integrated in the field. Three topics of interest have been identified while the fourth seems to offer more limited opportunities for qualitative studies. These are: entry and competition; strategic behaviour and the micro-foundations of strategy; the growth-performance relationship; and global strategies.

Despite the modest number of articles in our sample, the findings are consistent with past research on the structure of the SM field. The classification of articles into qualitative- and quantitative-based methods helped provide a research agenda.

SM scholars in the Baltic area may find this paper as an interesting input to their quest for finding and justifying their own research path.

This is an original literature review. The use of a quantitative method in the literature review and the suggested matrix is a second original contribution to evolving methodologies for content analysis. The method allows the inclusion of large samples while limiting the use of scholars’ intuition.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the intersection of two literature streams: that of strategy and supply chain management (SCM). This review should create a better understanding of “strategic SCM” by focussing on relevant theories in the strategic management field and their intersection with SCM to develop a joint research agenda.

The authors conducted a correspondence analysis on the content of 3,402 articles from the top SCM journals. This analysis provides a map of the intellectual structure of content in this field to date. The key trends and changes were identified in strategic SCM research from 1990-2014 as well as the intersection with the key schools of strategic management.

The results suggest that SCM is key to a successful deployment of strategy for competing in the global marketplace. The main theoretical foundations for research in this field were identified and discussed. Gaps were detected and combinations of theoretical foundations of strategic management and SCM suggest four poles for future research: agents and focal firm; distributions and logistics strategic models; SCM competitive requirements; SCM relational governance.

Scholars in both the strategy and the SCM fields continue to search for competitive advantages. Much recent research indicates that strategic SCM can be a critical source for that advantage. One of the limitations of the research is that the analysis does not include every journal that published an article mentioning SCM. However, the 34 journals selected are reputed to be the most influential on SCM and focussed primarily on SCM.

The map of the intellectual structure of research to strategic SCM highlights the need to combine different theoretical approaches to the complex phenomenon of SCM. Practitioners should consider the supply chain as an informal organization and should devote time and resources to build a shared advantage across the supply chain. They should also consider the inherent benefits and risks that sharing.

The paper demonstrates that strategic SCM needs a balanced and rigorous combination of theoretical approaches to deliver more theory-driven evidences. The research combines both a qualitative analysis and a quantitative methodology that summarizes gaps and then outlines future research from a large sample of articles. This methodology is an original contribution to this field and offers some assistance for enlarging the sample of future literature reviews.

The purpose of this study is to explore the adjustment model of expatriates in overseas projects by studying two overseas projects of a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Based on the grounded theory, qualitative analysis was performed based on data compiled from 116 pieces of project briefings, 105 questionnaires answered by expatriate workers and 21 interviews conducted to those workers based on briefings and questionnaires.

The study found that the simulated home is a standard cross-cultural adjustment model for expatriates in Chinese engineering projects, which are project-oriented and often inattentive to employees' individual rights. The simulated home creates a unique work-place and social environment similar to that of expatriates' home country in the cultural setting of the host country, but it also establishes a cultural barrier, limiting the communication between expatriates and the local people, which is not conducive to the cultural exchange between the two sides, causing cultural clashes and consequently hindering the progress of projects.

This research puts forward the model of “simulated home.” And this study bears significance to the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate workers in Chinese overseas projects.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which main objective is to satisfy the basic needs of the entrepreneur, when geographically concentrated make up subsistence clusters. The purpose of this paper is to analyze collective efficiency in subsistence clusters as growth strategy and how is the process through which the relational capital and territorial proximity altogether improve performance of firms.

The research uses partial least squares techniques applied to a sample of 113 SMEs of wood industry in Oberá, Argentina.

SMEs in subsistence clusters can use relational capital and territory as resources to generate competitive advantages. These competitive advantages foster performance. In consequence, collective efficiency appears as growth strategy in subsistence SMEs.

Data are cross-sectional and in a conjuncture of economy expansion, future research should monitor the sample of firms using panel data to assess the development of relations. Sample is in a particular region and sector and generalizations should be done carefully.

SMEs probably should integrate and share industrial and business structures to develop systemic competitive advantages with a collective character. SMEs should leverage their spatial interaction to build trust and establish networks of cooperation that will be the source of their collective efficiency. These collaboration networks should base in the local knowledge.

Subsistence SMEs have strong impact on the most disadvantaged areas in developing countries. Growth strategies to professionalize these SMEs will have a major impact on the endogenous development of those territories.

The research provides a mechanism through which collective efficiency leads to better performance for subsistence SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the structure of knowledge networks and the geographical patterns of knowledge networking in mature industrial clusters. To such end, it is assumed that proximity is not really what matters in innovation, but rather the embeddedness of firms into localised networks, enhancing collective learning and knowledge diffusion.

The research is contextualized in the footwear industry and applies the microeconomics of innovation (grounded in the resource based view and social capital approach) and industrial clusters/districts as theoretical frameworks. Methodologically, the paper adopts an exploratory perspective and employs a qualitative approach to conduct a cross‐case analysis of the Leon‐Guanajuato cluster (Mexico) and the Vinalopo cluster (Spain).

Firstly, this paper endorses recent research trends suggesting that knowledge is unevenly and selectively distributed among clustered firms. Secondly, it evidences how internal resources determine a firm's access to valuable repositories of knowledge. Thirdly, key knowledge players are usually involved in extra‐clusters networking, indicating that mere reliance on localized knowledge may result in declining trajectories.

Because the case study approach and qualitative methodologies are used, readers are advised not to generalize the findings. The research on the subject matter is offered as a means to substantiate or refute the latest research premises, and provide evidence on the selected clusters.

This paper shows how knowledge networks differ depending on geographical specific characteristics and the resources of the main players. Managers‐owners should be conscious that being close to one another is not enough. It should be combined with both solid internal resources and access to repositories of knowledge outside the cluster. Policy makers should prepare customized public programs based on the particular structure of each cluster.