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Both small and large businesses are of critical importance to the performance of the economy. It is useful however to draw a distinction between entrepreneurial ventures and individual and corporate entrepreneurship since they serve different economic functions and their potentials for innovation and growth are different. In this paper, drawing upon entrepreneurial strategy formation perspective, entrepreneurial marketing, and value innovation logic for high growth, a model of a transitional entrepreneurial mode for the behaviour and the strategic approach of the entrepreneurial venture is introduced. It is proposed that a shift into the entrepreneurial mode is instrumental in planning and initiating new ventures, and, in achieving a forward leap in the growth trend at any point in the life of ongoing ventures. The study of the franchised business, the business format franchisor and their partnership as examples of individual, corporate and collective entrepreneurship contributes to the domain of entrepreneurship research. The growing appreciation of franchising as an entrepreneurial endeavour presents us with a multiple disciplinary perspective is attracting the attention of marketing, management, entrepreneurship and small business researchers. The roles of the franchisor and the franchisee in business format franchising are discussed in order to demonstrate the limitations of small business in adopting an entrepreneurial mode.

Traditional market selection analysis relies on purely macroeconomic and political factors and fails to account for an emerging market's dynamism and future potential. The objective of this paper is to present a tool composed of four criteria specific to the preliminary assessment of emerging markets (EM) as international expansion opportunities.

Based on the literature pointing out the limitations of international market selection (IMS) models and the need for a specialized approach, additional criteria are introduced to assess emerging market potential. Review of prior work on internationalization, EM and market selection provided the rationale for the selected criteria. Using secondary data and primary data from a sample of 500, the proposed criteria are applied to the assessment of an emerging market for US apparel specialty retailers.

Assessment of the emerging market with the criteria introduced revealed growth and sourcing opportunities that might otherwise have been overlooked. Case application exposed strong future market potential, manageable level of cultural distance, supportive and developing local industry and positive customer receptiveness for foreign products and business. The findings illustrate the need to improve and supplement assessment criteria of traditional analysis for EM.

Follow‐up studies validating, integrating and determining the relative importance of the criteria introduced will contribute to the development of an assessment model for EM.

A useful complementary tool for international marketers.

The paper develops the body of knowledge on IMS by addressing the shortcomings of traditional analysis and expands the two prior studies on emerging market potential.

This paper has two overall goals. The first is to serve as a broad overview of the literature on the subject theme, with three main objectives in mind: to highlight the complexities of international market selection or segmentation as a field of study and as a strategic decision by international firms; to explore the various ways and perspectives from which this area has been studied; and to suggest areas for future research by drawing on the preceding discussion. The second goal of the paper is to act as an introduction to the IMR special issue on the title theme, by outlining the special issue's objectives and the contributions to it.

Drawing on the relevant literatures, the paper begins by outlining the factors that make the field complex in both theoretical and applied terms, moves to consider the research streams that comprise its main components, and concludes by drawing conclusions and implications for future research.

A large part of the complexity characterizing this field arises from the fact that it is closely intertwined with the broader area of internationalization and a number of other decisions related to it, such as the “go/no‐go” decision and the firm's choice of mode of entry. From the research perspective, theory development has been impeded by a high degree of fragmentation, which has resulted in various different streams studying the same general issues from widely different perspectives.

The paper identifies a large number of directions for potential future research, not the least of which is the need for integrative research that addresses the fragmentation identified in the study.

Although this is primarily a theoretical paper directed at researchers, practitioners can gain useful insights from it by examining the various factors that have a bearing on their internationalization decisions.

The objectives of the main part of the paper will have been met if it succeeds in stimulating interest in further research and discussion on the core issues. The second part summarizes the contributions to the special issue and draws attention to the main message that each aims to convey.

It is understood that the personality traits and intelligence levels of the tourist guides directly or indirectly affect their ability to solve the problems they encounter on tours. This study aims to test whether emotional intelligence has an intermediary effect on the problem-solving skills of professional tourist guides with perfectionist personality traits.

Field research was conducted within the study to analyze suggestions on the interaction of variables on an empirical basis, and data were collected using interview, document review and survey technique. Thus, the mixed-methods approach was used in the study. Within the scope of this study in which 410 professional tourist guides were surveyed, a substantial part of the research data was obtained through the application of the survey technique. Besides, interviews were carried out with 12 professional tourist guides. The clues obtained by the qualitative study were transformed into hypotheses within the scope of the quantitative study, and the intermediary effect was tested.

A relationship between the main themes, sub-themes and codes was determined within the framework of the qualitative method. As a result of the mediation test, it has been revealed that emotional intelligence has an intermediary role in the relationship between perfectionism and problem-solving skills. According to the results of bootstrapping, the indirect effect of emotional intelligence on perfectionism and problem-solving skills was found out to be significant.

The study acknowledged that positive perfectionism, high emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills contributed to the professional tourist guides being willing to provide better service. In tune with the assumption that the more the quality of the tours carried out through agencies increases, the more satisfied tourists are; the study implicated that it would be advisable for agencies to prioritize the trainings provided for their tour guides to enhance their positive perfectionist, emotionally intelligent personalities and problem-solving skills. Given that professional tourist guides may create a positive country image with the quality service they provide, the significance of such trainings stretch beyond the benefits of such organizations.

Relevant variables were analyzed with a mixed method and applied on professional tourist guides.