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The purpose of this paper is to address internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by specifically focussing on collaborative entry modes. Despite significant research done on market entry and internationalisation strategies of firms, the use of collaborative entry modes by SMEs during internationalisation has not received a lot of attention. The authors contribute to foreign market entry studies by analysing the influences of cognitive dimensions on collaborative entry mode choice (equity vs non-equity modes) of SMEs in their international markets.

The authors analyse the influences of cognitive dimensions on the choice between equity-based vs non-equity-based collaborative entry modes. The empirical sample consists of internationalisation strategies of 345 Italian SMEs, where the authors used a questionnaire to collect the data. The authors use structural equation modelling to analyse influences of factors like asymmetric information, informal institutional distance, time trends of country, perception of size and resources of potential host country partners, and perception of host country partners’ power on this important market entry mode.

The results show that high informal institutional distance leads to preference of non-equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. The authors also find that positive time trends of the host country, positive perception of size and resource of the local partner, as well as the local partners’ power leads to preference of equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs.

This study focusses on an ignored aspect of market entry strategies, i.e., equity vs non-equity collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs. The authors use insights from resource-based view and cognitive dimensions literature, to address the influences of five cognitive dimensions on the collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs during their internationalisation.

This paper delves into the mechanism of the contingency framework for foreign entry mode decisions and identifies two essential tasks that jointly determine the outcome of the entry mode decision. It then recognizes a critical weakness in previous research pertaining to the comparison of entry modes along a key decision criterion, the degree of control. Existing studies generally treat equity involvement as the only source of entrant control, while largely ignoring non‐equity sources of control (i.e., bargaining power and trust). Non‐equity sources of control, when underutilized, amount to missed opportunities, increased resource commitments, and heightened risk exposures in foreign markets. Drawing from a pluralism perspective in transaction and relationship governance, the author presents a more integrative method for the ranking of entry modes along the degree of control. The central message is that companies entering foreign markets should make an earnest effort to identify trust and bargaining power situations and fully utilize their control potential in making entry mode decisions.

The alliance governance – whether equity or non-equity based – through which an alliance is governed serves as a mechanism to protect a firm from partner's opportunistic behavior, manage resource dependence and facilitate knowledge sharing. Alliance governance structure also reflects the risk, reward and control that partners perceive in a relationship. In light of the conflicts and instabilities reported in strategic alliances, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interorganizational domain that affects the endurance and continuity of collaboration and explain how the alliance interface contexts determines the structuring of alliance governance.

An empirical examination of 179 strategic alliances, using survey and archival data conducted to test the hypothesized relationship between the choice of governance structure and the complexity of alliance task, balance of power and competitive scope between partners.

A multinomial logistic regression of the hypothesized variables revealed that the complexity of alliance task, balance of power, and competitive scope between partners are significantly related to the mode of alliance governance – whether non-equity, minority-equity, or joint venture.

This study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the relationships between the contextual factors such as the alliance task, power dynamics, and competitive scope that shape the collaboration and structuring of appropriate alliance governance mode. Results of the study provide strong evidence for the hypotheses that the greater the task complexity, and greater the balance of power and scope of competition between partners, the alliance governance tends to be equity or joint venture based. Consistent with recommendations of several organizational scholars that the theory of alliance governance and performance must shift from individual partner firm to interaction domain and interface contexts (Luo, 2002; Gray and Wood, 1991; Oxley and Sampson, 2004), this study integrally examined the dyadic issues such as balance of power, task complexity, and the competitive scope and the dynamic role they play in decisions pertaining to alliance governance. While many extant studies on the choice of alliance governance structure have employed secondary data sources, the study employed data from survey measures (Gulati, 1995; Teng and Das, 2008; Oxley and Sampson, 2004) enhancing the validity of the results.

This chapter contributes to the existing literature on institutional theory and international business research by integrating the concepts of polycentrism and institutional learning to examine how MNEs from emerging economies invest in developed countries. We argue that equity-based market entry modes and non-equity-based modes create different needs for learning about economic, regulatory and political institutions; entry modes with or without local partners lead to different levels of institutional embeddedness and institutional learning speeds. Finally, the content of institutional knowledge also determines its transferability and adaptability. We emphasize the importance of recognizing the integrated nature of economic, regulatory and political institutions from a polycentric perspective and discuss their change in different situations.

The purpose of this paper is to consider competitive strategy choices of Turkish manufacturing firms operating in EU markets and their action programs in responding to emerging opportunities and threats led by recent developments in Turkey‐EU relations.

Drawing on a sample of 79 large size Turkish manufacturing firms, the relative use of competitive strategies and action programs by sample firms operating in EU markets was examined by undertaking both descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses.

The most heavily used competitive strategy choices were found to be growth strategies aiming to extend current product lines with related products through enabling standardization and technology sharing. The highest ranked action programs implemented by Turkish manufacturing firms focused on enabling integration. The findings of the study indicated that the relative use of competitive strategy options varied to a certain extent between the market entry modes of Turkish firms (equity based and non‐equity based) serving the EU markets. However, no variation was found between the implementation level of action programs and the choice of a particular market entry mode by sample firms.

While the variation in the implementation level of several of the competitive strategies appears to be readily justifiable, the reason for the variation is not always clear. It is also necessary to extend the analysis to consider the relative use of strategy options and action programs along with other variables, such as the governance and transaction cost variables.

Based on a sample of large size manufacturing firms, this study is the first attempt to identify, classify and explain the key competitive strategy choices and action programs implemented by Turkish firms in EU markets.

Using arguments from the upper echelons perspective this paper aims to examine the impact of CEO characteristics on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) equity foreign market entry mode choice and how these associations are jointly moderated by geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk.

The empirical analysis draws on data gathered from German SMEs testing triple-interaction effects between CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm (organizational level), and host-country political risk (environmental level).

Empirical findings validate that the influence of CEO’s age and firm tenure on SME foreign market entry mode choice varies by managers’ level of managerial discretion (i.e. latitude of action) as determined by the SME’s geographic experience and the level of political risks prevailing in the foreign market.

Empirical findings help SME owners and managers to understand how CEO’s age and firm tenure are related with individual’s risk-taking behavior and information-processing demands and how these contingencies vary by the context in which the individual CEO is nested.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature focussing on SME foreign market entry mode choice by emphasizing the important role of CEOs in the decision to internationalize. More specific, this study contributes by an examination of the interactive effect of CEO’s age, firm tenure and international experience, geographic experience of the firm and host-country political risk and, therefore, emphasizes the context and boundary conditions under which the association between CEO characteristics and foreign market entry mode choice is more or less pronounced.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically assess the empirical support for central relationships in the empirical literature on foreign market entry mode. The reviewing method overcomes methodological limitations in past reviews.

This review provides a systematic assessment of empirical support through a simple quantitative procedure using transparent criteria for article selection. In total, 1,217 statistical tests from 119 studies published in 44 different scientific journals in the period 1997-2013 are examined across a range of dimensions.

Findings question the frequent use of commonly used measures (e.g. advertising intensity) and control variables (e.g. firm size) and suggest that statements about the importance of mode choice for subsidiary performance may be premature. Methodologically, this study identifies critical issues with regard to interpretation of interactions and the entry mode choice set.

This study limits itself to study the direction of relationships and does not analyze effect sizes. Further, future research may benefit from broadening the entry mode choice by extending the use of multiple outcome models as well as implementing the correct interpretational tools when investigating interactions.

The review is relevant to researchers seeking an overview over the research literature or practitioners interested in the link between mode choice and subsidiary performance.

Three‐hundred‐and‐fifty‐nine of the world′s largest MNCs were surveyed to determine signficant conflict areas. The findings are summarised in terms of ownership entry modes, nationality and age of MNC and pointers for MNC management and firms contemplating internationalisation are suggested.

This paper reviews extant contemporary literature in the area of entry mode choice in service firms and analyzes 14 empirical studies conducted in the area. The review is limited to articles which focus specifically on entry mode choice and the determinants of such a choice. The publication time frame covers the period from 1977 to 2003. The review observations in relation to factors such as the origin of the research, the theoretical frameworks underpinning existing entry mode research, methodological approaches and other relevant patterns are presented. The analysis highlights the paucity of empirical research in the area, which in turn has been largely fragmentary and exploratory in nature. It suggests that research sites need to be extended into Europe, alternative research designs need to be considered and the opportunity to conduct some form of collaborative research warrants exploration.

Managers involved with export marketing are concerned first with entry mode decisions for their foreign expansions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors that influence the exporting firm's foreign market entry mode choice. It aims to test empirically the hypothesized relation between three kinds of determinants – i.e. transaction costs, export behavior, and channel environment – and the likelihood of selecting an integrated as opposed to an independent mode.

Through an analytical review, research hypotheses were built. An empirical investigation was carried out among 420 exporting firms, which were surveyed to explore the determinants of their entry mode choice decision. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are employed to extract and test key influential factors on the basis of the data of this sample. Then, logistic regression models are used to determine the likelihood relationships between the exporting mode and the declined variables.

The results show that not all constructs hypothesized with the entry mode relationship were introduced into the model, and only three variables were retained that were significant in predicting the entry mode choice: two transaction costs variables and one export behavior variable. None of the channel environment variables was maintained by the main effects model; they constituted only pure moderators of the relationship between the transaction costs factors and the entry mode choice decision.

Although probably classified within the category of classical research, the paper can easily contribute to the current literature in more than one way. But the research does contain certain limitations, mainly with sampling procedures. The main limitation is that the sample was one of convenience and did not respect the heterogeneous character of the subjects, with the result that the different empirical tests are not easily generalizable.

This research should help managers to identify some of the circumstances under which direct exporting modes might be deployed to enhance international marketing performance in foreign markets. Direct exporting should be considered in the area of small and medium‐sized exporting firms at the outside of a new industrialized economy. It might be concerned within an adaptive marketing approach where the environment pressures have only moderating effects.

The paper offers interesting insight into the decision tools in international marketing. Principally, the empirical study makes a major contribution to the limited body of empirical knowledge on entry mode choice for the exporting activities of small and medium‐sized enterprises in the context of an emerging economy. It points out the fundamental value of the transaction costs approach and verifies the theoretical assumptions of the moderating effects of the environment variables.