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The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business process innovativeness in the networking-export performance relationship in a developing country low-tech industry setting. Most innovation research in international business and entrepreneurship is conducted on high-tech industries in developed countries. Less research has focused on the low-tech industry context. This study bridges this research gap by testing whether international new ventures’ (INVs) networking resources impact their export performance through business process innovativeness.

The study tests the link between low-tech INVs’ networking, business process innovativeness and export performance using a sample of 647 export start-up apparel firms in Bangladesh, the second largest apparel exporter in the world.

The results recognize that an INV entrepreneur’s personal and inter-firm networking are directly and positively related to business process innovativeness and export performance. The findings also indicate that business process innovativeness acts as a mediator only between an INV’s inter-firm networking and its export performance.

The study was undertaken in a Bangladeshi low-tech industry setting-the apparel sector; thus, future research may include data collection from a range of industries across countries. Data collected for the purpose of this study used a cross-sectional research design, and this may only have confirmed the relationships in the model and not causality between the constructs.

The findings highlight that low-tech INVs should focus more on leveraging their personal and inter-firm networking resources, as this should result in improved export performance. The results also provide directives for INVs in regard to improving their business process innovativeness to achieve increased performance.

The study is not only carried out in the context of low-tech early internationalizing firms (i.e. INVs), but also contributes to theory and practice by testing whether INVs’ networking resources (personal and inter-firm) have an impact on business process innovativeness, which in turn leads to improved performance.

Exploring the mechanisms through which social capital (SC) operates in organizations is highly important for both researchers and practitioners. As a theoretical concept, the role and functions of SC in organizations are framed in various ways but not clearly enough. Practitioners would like to understand how relationship intensifies performance; the purpose of this paper is to better understand the mechanisms through which SC influences performance in organizations.

A conceptual framework for different levels of SC in organizations has been developed and presented, as well as propositions regarding the suggested impact of each level on performance have been stated.

Drawing on a variety of literatures, it is argued that there are three levels of SC in organizations – personal, intra-organizational, and external; each level has unique features and benefits, and also, each level holds different risks. It is suggested that every SC level strengthens other components of performance.

Organizations strive to improve their performance and to create a better working atmosphere for their employees; nurturing SC properly helps in achieving these goals. This paper promotes understanding of the benefits and risks of SC, how to avoid these risks, and how to improve personal and collective performance and organizational outcomes.

This study examines the role of anxiety in kaizen behaviour and performance by empirically testing the influence of personal anxiety (state and trait) on individual kaizen behaviours (rule adherence, initiative and perseverance of effort), which, in turn, affect individual kaizen performance.

The data were obtained from a survey of 552 employees of four companies in Japan and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that state anxiety has a significantly positive effect on rule adherence and kaizen performance. Trait anxiety positively influences employees' initiative and perseverance but has a significant negative effect on kaizen performance.

This study contributes to kaizen and continuous improvement theory by focussing on individual kaizen, which is considered to be as important as organisation-level kaizen and investigating the relevance of personal anxiety in individual kaizen behaviours and kaizen performance.

Personal branding becomes a new in-demand skill for all professionals today. To be well-known helps to achieve success in the networked business environment. Personal relationships and a good reputation in the reality of network economy help young artists and art designers move up the career ladder. This paper aims to discuss a problem of artists who often find it difficult to define their artistic and self-distinction identities. The concept of personal brand and branding seems quite irrelevant, especially in reference to their own selves. People usually associate branding with marketing, which in our minds is usually the same as “pushy” and aggressive sales practices. Their find problematic to promote themselves. The purpose of this paper is to highlight that, based on existing theories, artistic identity creation in connection with the skill of personal branding is crucial for personal success in the profession of today’s young artists and art designers.

The study was conducted based on the data originally collected among artists, designers, architecture professionals and students. The data have been analyzed with the equal structural equation modeling method.

This paper presents empirical evidence that if artists view themselves as personal brands, it affects their personal performance in a positive way.

Authors claim that a teaching curriculum for young adult artists should include a personal branding program, to help them find and support their artistic identity and express their personal values and self-brand distinction, and leverage them to build their professional career.

This is one of the first studies to quantify the self-brand performance of young art designers as a benefit of being self-brand oriented.

This study aims to test and analyze the effect of continuous commitment, task complexity, competence and personal value on employee performance millennial intervening job satisfaction.

This research method is quantitative with a sequential explanatory design, then data collection through a questionnaire, with a sample of 205 respondents—data analysis using Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the software Linear Structural Relationship (LISREL).

The results of research on the performance of millennial employees with intervening work satisfaction showed that continuous commitment (2.49), task complexity (2.74) and professional competence (2.0) had a significant effect. This means that the performance of millennial employees will increase if they get job satisfaction. With satisfaction, the commitment and competence of millennial employees are high. While the research results for the performance of millennial employees have a direct influence, only professional competence (2.27) and task complexity (4.06) are significant. This means that as high as professional competence is characterized by intellectual, emotional mood and attitude, owned by millennial employees, the resulting performance is increased even with complex tasks.

The findings of this study have significance for enhancing organizational performance so that businesses can maximize the performance of millennial employees by paying attention to job satisfaction, professional competence and personal values.

This research's contribution to millennial workers is to help them improve and develop their performance, allowing them to compete more effectively. The findings of this study have significance for enhancing organizational performance so that businesses can maximize the performance of millennial employees by paying attention to job satisfaction, professional competence and personal values.

The digital transformation is dramatically changing the business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, challenging long-standing views regarding the critical competencies required of salespeople. This paper aims to explore the personal traits associated with sales performance in a digital selling environment.

Using template analysis, the researchers captured and coded over 21 h of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior sales leaders from various industry sectors, exploring their perceptions of the personal traits now required of B2B salespeople in the digital landscape.

The research identifies three high-level trait types critical to sales success within a digital selling environment: “analytical curiosity” – the natural motivation and ability to gather and synthesize sales-related knowledge, “empathetic citizenship” – the ability to establish initial rapport while building long-term trust and “disciplined drive” – the exertion of selling effort in a highly focused and methodical manner across all stages of the sales process.

The present data came from interviews with sales leaders in Canada. A more global sample may lead to additional insights. Moreover, the sample was drawn from long-cycle B2B sales environments; conclusions may differ for short-cycle or business-to-consumer markets.

This paper presents a framework for hiring and developing salespeople in the digital sales environment, identifying personal trait types that sales leaders should look for when hiring: analytical curiosity, empathetic citizenship and disciplined drive. The paper identifies how these trait types influence sales success, suggesting that sales leaders could coach and educate their teams to make the best use of them.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for hiring in the digital sales environment and introduces the trait of analytical curiosity not previously discussed in the literature.

This study aims to analyze the effects of microentrepreneurs’ knowledge transfer (KT) on personal improvement (PI) and business improvement (BI).

The study was developed in two stages: a literature review based on KT and the learning process in microenterprises to have managerial competence and PI and BI to acquire the managerial competence that entrepreneurs need. The second stage was constructing a structural model based on 107 questionnaires and bootstrapping of 5,000 replications of microentrepreneurs who went through a training program (quantitative) and a focus group (qualitative). This study had a mixed approach, exploratory scope and experimental design.

The research showed real evidence about the performance level of microentrepreneurs when they passed through the process of KT and its impact on PI and BI. This research considers their managerial competencies, and the findings show a relationship between the theory of individual and organizational learning.

This study considered Peruvian microentrepreneurs who participated in a virtual training program that included several courses related to their current environments and topics of interest. The analyzed period covered the years affected by COVID-19.

The model reveals that KT is relevant to PI and BI. Performance was measured regarding growth, income, innovation, productivity and responsibility before and after the program.

This research analyzed the need for training microentrepreneurs for personal and private reasons under a COVID-19 scenario to foster their businesses and assume financial responsibilities. This study considered Peru’s reality, a country in which 94.9% of companies are microenterprises. The study revealed that microentrepreneurs improved their personal and professional lives and addressed relevant social problems that affect their environments because of the KT effects.

This study bridges the gap in the literature on how the theory of KT can be applied to entrepreneurs. This study revealed significant findings in terms of PI and BIs. The impact of KT indicates the relevance of managerial competencies related to the performance level obtained in terms of growth, income, innovation, productivity and responsibility.

Multinational corporations operating in Greater China need to continue improving employee performance levels, but Western style performance appraisals might not be the right answer. This paper examines some of the differences in the ways that Chinese and Western managers view performance in order to determine the appropriateness of Western appraisal techniques. Using a sample drawn from Hong Kong, significant differences between Hong Kong Chinese and UK managers are found, particularly in the role that trait attribution plays in the appraisal process. The paper concludes by considering the implications that these observed differences have for both performance appraisal research as well as for practice.

This paper is concerned with the challenge posed by the management of customer relationships in services. The focus is on banks, although similar service businesses (with long‐term customers) may be expected to encounter like challenges. The relationship approach for businesses is discussed and is judged to be quite fundamental with wide‐ranging implications. The paper considers the appropriateness of the relationship approach for retail banking given the prerequisite conditions suggested by the literature. The personal banker strategy is considered as a means to implementing the relationship approach in retail banking. Empirical findings from a study examining the role of personal bankers in New Zealand are presented. It is concluded that a relationship strategy can be a double‐edged sword: implemented well it can have the desired effects; implemented badly it can have a negative impact that will leave the organization with more problems than if they had done nothing at all.

This study aims to analyze the effects of goal-directed feelings on student’s performance in marketing simulations. Calculating path coefficients from data collected at two points in time, the authors tested a model consisting of four constructs personal stakes, anticipatory emotions, volitions and goal-directed behavior. The results suggest that positive and negative anticipatory emotions mediate the relationship between personal stakes and volitions and determine student motivation, behavior and actual performance independently from simulation design, simulation environment and cognitive personality characteristics of the participants. Implications for educators include the need for active pursuit of anticipatory emotion development.

The model consists of the four constructs: personal stakes, anticipatory emotions, volitions and goal-directed behavior. Personal stakes determine involvement and are perceived based on an evaluation of the degree of potential impact of one’s performance on one’s personal well-being. Anticipatory emotions, as explained before, are affected by personal stakes and can be either positive or negative. They influence volitions or wills; these are intentions consisting of both directive components (for example, strategy planning and approach selection) and motivational components (for example, the commitment to a necessary effort). Volitions are the mediators that transform anticipatory emotions into goal-directed behaviors. These goal-directed behaviors comprise the fourth construct, consisting of mental and physical efforts aimed at accomplishing a specific objective.

The hypotheses were tested calculating path coefficients. All hypotheses were supported and statistically significant (p < 0.01; one-tailed significance test). With regard to H1, personal stakes were positively related to both positive and negative anticipatory emotions, with a particularly strong relation to positive emotions. Consistent with H2, anticipatory emotions were strongly related to volitions and, thus, heavily influencing the extent to which students would engage in planning and compare their own effort against that of their fellow students. Fueled by the anticipatory emotions, the volitions, in turn, were strongly related to the actually exhibited behavior, supporting H3. In other words, the students put their intentions into practice and engaged in careful simulation planning as well as in an effort that they perceived to be superior to the one of their peers. It is then no surprise that H4 was also supported. The more the students attempted to be carefully prepared and the harder they tried to outperform their fellow students, the more likely the achievement of the desired objectives became. Finally, H5 was supported, even though only weakly with regard to negative outcome emotions. This indicates that successful performance leads to positive emotions, but a failure in the marketing simulation (measured by a non-achievement of objectives set) does not necessarily make the students feel bad.

In conclusion, the study provides the rising number of marketing educators using computerized simulations with an approach to increase student motivation and performance. It has become obvious that personal stakes alone are not sufficient to fully develop commitment on the side of students. Rather, anticipatory emotions serve as the mediator between those stakes and students’ volitions.