Search results

The purpose of the paper is to identify learning points and inspirations from two different approaches by examining how education for sustainable development (ESD) initiatives are delivered in the University of X in the UK and Tongji University in China.

Through comparison of case studies, the pros and cons of each approach are made clear. The paper adopts semi-structured interviewing among staff and group interviewing among students as its main data collection methods. A snowball sampling strategy is employed to select potential interviewees in addition.

Learning points are drawn from each institution which could be useful in informing the strategy of other higher education institutions. The main learning points for UoX are: first, engage as many students as possible through linking extra-curriculum activities back to the curriculum and offer opportunities for students to take part in campus operations. Second, a project-oriented approach could be employed to enhance interdisciplinary cooperation. The main learning points for Tongji are: pedagogic changes are required to realize a transformative education and additions of more active learning into the curriculum are needed. Third, policy support is necessary to promote the ESD agenda but only when the top-down approach mixes with a bottom-up approach significant changes will happen.

ESD is transformative education rather than traditional education. It will guide students to study and live in a more sustainable way, which is promoted in both the formal curriculum and informal areas (including campus greening and extra-curriculum activities) in UoX as a model for developed countries and Tongji as a model for developing countries. As a dynamic whole, both of them comprise students' learning and living experiences in a microcosm of a pilot sustainable community through inter-disciplinary approaches.

Little comparative and international research has been done in the field of educational ESD. The research seeks to address the deficiency by comparing the ESD approaches in one British and one Chinese university.

This study aims to examine how international small and medium-sized enterprises (ISMEs) improve adaptive marketing capabilities (AMCs) through exploration, exploitation and ambidexterity (EEA) and thereby increase exporting performance. In addition, the present study attempts to examine conditions under which EEA can more effectively improve AMCs.

The theoretical model was tested by using survey data collected from 119 ISMEs based in the U.S. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was deployed to analyze the data.

The results show that exploration increases ISMEs’ performance through improving AMCs while ambidexterity reduces ISMEs’ performance through weakening AMCs. However, the negative influence of ambidexterity on AMCs attenuates in a dissimilar host country where ISMEs can conveniently learn new information. Finally, when ISMEs pursue exploitation in an either similar or dissimilar host country, their AMCs do not improve.

We provide empirical evidence of SMEs increasing AMCs and firm performance via EEA within the context of exporting. However, we did not collect objective financial performance of ISMEs.

Our findings provide guidance for ISMEs’ marketing managers to build AMCs by learning something new. Moreover, the findings help ISMEs effectively identify and select the most appropriate international marketing strategy depending on the similarity between host and home countries.

Our findings contribute to the literature by explicating how ISMEs can heighten marketing capability to build competitive advantages in global markets through exploration. However, ISMEs should be cautious when pursuing ambidexterity, which may weaken AMCs and finally decrease firm performance. In addition, we identify external factors that influence effectiveness of EEA in building AMCs. By doing so, the findings help ISMEs understand how to increase AMCs so as to improve competencies in fast-changing global markets.

Examines the determinants of International Joint Venture marketing performance in Thailand. Uses the results from a survey of 1047 Thai‐foreign IJVs in Thailand from firms that were mainly engaged in agriculture, metal working, electrical and chemical industries. Applies exploratory factor analysis and discriminant analysis to identify these critical determinants as market characteristics, conflict, commitment, marketing orientation and organisational control.

Customer orientation (CO) means meeting customers’ needs better than competitors. Competitor orientation means using and acting upon the knowledge of competitors. Thus, the main aim of this study is to analyze the effects of environmental competitiveness on export performance by examining the moderating roles of these variables.

Based on data from 5,000 firms from a survey run in 2021 in Turkey facilitated by the Chamber of Commerce, the authors tested their hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling and correlation analysis.

The results show that competitor orientation positively affects the relationship between a competitive environment and export performance. However, the authors do not find evidence of a significant effect on CO.

Service sector managers should sacrifice customers to gain export market share in favor of superiority with competitors.

Prior research has yet to emphasize the importance of competition intensity in export performance for service-logistics firms. However, the environmental competitiveness–performance relationship is better explained with the help of these test results and the two additional moderators suggested in this work. Moreover, the export performance indicators were gathered from an independent source.

Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior, the main purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cognitive factors on the intention of a small and medium size enterprise (SME) manager to pursue the expansion of their firm’s export activities.

The authors created a research model and collected empirical data among owners and top managers of 127 Costa Rican SMEs. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques to reveal the relative significance and strength of the effects of every hypothesized relationship.

The results suggest that the perception of benefits and self-efficacy influence managers’ intentions to expand export activity. Managers’ intention to expand export activity, in turn, is associated with the levels of export commitment exhibited by the SMEs. None of the control variables seem to impact managers’ intentions.

The findings of this study underline that the export development of a SME is to a large extent only possible if the manager’s perception of control over the export achievements is perceived to be high. SME managers need maximize their perceived level of controllability over firm’s export operations and achievements. This study relied on self-report data. Self-reports are the conventional method for assessing constructs regarding beliefs, and motivations of an individual. Its use in entrepreneurship research is proved to be reliable. However, the authors have to acknowledge that using self-report data carries the risk of common methods bias.

SMEs managers might benefit from strengthening the sense of self-efficacy regarding international business based on the results of this study.

This study provides empirical evidence suggesting that a manager’s cognitive characteristics play a crucial role in understanding export expansion of a SME. The results encourage future research to incorporate cognitive theoretical frameworks to examine factors determining international entrepreneurial intentions.