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The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospection on the importance, origins and development of the research programs in the author’s career.

The study uses an autobiographical approach.

Most of the articles, research monographs and books that constitute this research and publishing efforts can be categorized into seven distinct, but related, research programs: channels of distribution; marketing theory; marketing’s philosophy debates; macromarketing and ethics; relationship marketing; resource-advantage theory; and marketing management and strategy. The value system that has guided these research programs has been shaped by specific events that took place in the author’s formative years. This essay chronicles these events and the origins and development of the seven research programs.

Chronicling the importance, origins and development of the seven research programs will hopefully motivate and assist other scholars in developing their own research programs.

The academic inquiry of operational capabilities (OCs) has claimed focal interest in mainstream strategy research. Recent theoretical advances suggest these capabilities are a fundamental trigger to the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, the extant literature has been, at best, partial with regard to empirical insights that integrate OCs with entrepreneurial opportunities. Addressing this theoretical lacuna from the standpoint of organisational learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interplay between OCs and entrepreneurial opportunities and their overall impact on exporting SME’s growth.

To realise the empirical aims a descriptive research design employing a survey methodology was used. The authors are generated data from a sample of 117 exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Croatia. Ordinary least squares regression was employed to test the conceptual model and five derived hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that market-sensing capabilities are vital in enhancing exporting SME’s opportunity recognition capacity and the rate of international opportunity exploitation that leads to increased firm growth. Also, study findings show that the link between the increased rate of international opportunity exploitation contributes more to the growth when exporting SMEs have highly developed adaptive and innovation capabilities.

This study brings to surface some novel insights about how exporting SMEs can better design their export marketing strategy. The results suggest, OCs occupy key role in the exporting SMEs international venturing efforts by delivering higher growth.

The study contributes to the export marketing strategy field by offering empirical evidence that both capability and opportunity-based views should be assessed simultaneously in explaining exporting SME’s competitiveness. Finally, we offer valuable theoretical and practical implications as well as avenues for further research that should extend our knowledge in the field.

The extent of national export volume attributable to the small firm sector within the UK does not compare favourably with that of certain other European countries/ particularly Germany and Italy. In an attempt to enhance the export competitiveness of this firm sector recent policy, research and management attention has been devoted to influences underlying export development. This article contributes to this knowledge by reviewing extensive research studies that have reported on one aspect of this topic: the international orientation of the decision maker within the small firm.

While the servitization concept has gained increasing attention in the domestic marketing literature, there is more limited knowledge with respect to its implications within the international context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the servitization concept in the international context considering its boundary conditions and its effects on firm performance. Relying on the resource-based view and the boundary conditions function, the authors aim to identify a set of research gaps focusing on how strategic resource decisions (i.e. slack resources and digital marketing capabilities) help industrial firms to provide different types of service offerings (i.e. services in support of product (SSPs) and services in support of client's actions (SSCs)) that leverage their performance in international markets.

The authors illustrate international servitization strategies and the boundaries of servitization activities that firms employ through a series of case vignettes. The authors derive a conceptual framework, serving as a guideline for future research endeavors.

The authors indicate the importance of servitization strategies in international markets and identify eight research gaps, which help to build an agenda for future research. Key differences between international servitization strategies and strategic resource decisions are addressed through illustrative case vignettes from different industries.

The insights from this work inform marketing executives about how international servitization strategies are influential in the context of overseas markets by characterizing the servitization concept and elaborating upon the specific resources and capabilities that underpin its execution in foreign markets.

This conceptual paper provides a comprehensive understanding of international servitization strategies in overseas markets and identifies several research paths that contribute to the complex nature of servitization in the international context and help scholars spot gaps and research questions worthy of investigation.

The half‐life of management practices since the 1980s is shorter than ever, and these ideas are being replaced by more models and methods, coming at an exponential rate, that seek to serve some pressing organizational agenda for improvement. This paper looks at the drivers that create this need for change and the need to improve management and business practices, with emphasis on the information and communication technology issues that concern all organizations.

In order to fully appreciate the issues within this paper, a definitive framework is necessary so as to ensure clear semantic interpretation. Estate refers to property, possessions, capital or the collective assets and liabilities of a person and refers to large landed property. Investment is the giving up of a capital sum now in exchange for benefits to be received in the future. These will usually take the form of an income flow and/or capital gain (Enever, 1989). Real property is by definition essentially tangible. It is a legal interest in land and buildings classified as residential, commercial and including land (Littlefair, 1991).