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The purpose of this paper is to provide a nuanced understanding of international marketing agility by connecting organizational capability literature with that of standardization and adaptation. The focus of the research is to clarify whether managing the tension between product standardization and service customization generates an extra premium in international markets.

Two disaggregated Chinese data sets, the Annual Survey of Industrial Enterprises and the China Customs Database, are used for developing an econometric model. Export quality improvement is the outcome variable in reflecting the effect of international marketing agility on performance.

International marketing agility is reached through upstream FDI intensity, particularly in the context of service FDI. Manufacturing sectors with higher service intensity have more agility, being more likely to generate export quality.

This study makes three theoretical contributions by clarifying the concept of international marketing agility as an organizational capability generated by manufacturing standardization and service customization; investigating the influence of upstream FDI intensity for export quality while taking into account the industry contexts; and obtaining an enhanced understanding of the service intensity of manufacturing firms on export quality.

The authors offer a nuanced and contextualized understanding of international marketing agility and explore the complex relationships between FDI, service intensity and export quality.

This paper aims to examine how integration modes impact the acquirer knowledge diffusion capacity of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) effected by emerging market firms and the role played by the global innovation network position of the acquiring firms in affecting this relationship.

Through the use of structural equation modelling and bootstrap testing, the hypotheses are tested by drawing upon a sample of 102 overseas M&As effected by listed Chinese manufacturing companies.

The results show that acquirers from emerging countries are unable to increase the knowledge diffusion capacity unless they choose the right post-merger integration mode. This paper also finds that the relationship between integration mode and knowledge diffusion is channelled through the centrality and structural holes of acquirers in the global innovation networks. When considering the combinations of different resource similarities and complementarities of the acquired firms, differences emerge in the integration model and network embedded path of acquirers in emerging countries.

Emerging market multinational enterprises should consider post-merger integration as a crucial facilitator to the crafting of global innovation network positions that promote knowledge diffusion. The choices of integration mode and brand management autonomy should be matched with the resource similarities and complementarities that exist between the acquirer and target firms.

Based on the resource orchestration theory and by focussing on network centrality and structural hole as the crucial links, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between post-merger integration and knowledge diffusion and sheds light on latecomer firms from emerging countries.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on emerging market companies that internationalize into advanced economies by means of acquisitions and to investigate brand management during post-acquisition integration from a multi-level perspective and to identify how a brand management strategy can be constructed. It takes into account the influences of country-of-origin image, corporate brand and brand portfolio to obtain a granular view of post-acquisition brand management.

A multiple case study approach was adopted. By using case studies and storytelling qualitative research methods, the empirical setting was related to the acquisitions undertaken by Chinese companies in Germany.

The authors identified three mechanisms for brand management in the post-acquisition integration of emerging market companies – namely, transferring, dynamically redeploying and categorizing – that underpin the interconnection and combined influence of country-of-origin image at the national level, corporate brand at the organizational level and brand portfolio at the product level.

Brand has been viewed as a strategic asset in Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Brand management is a dynamic process that involves learning and interaction between the acquirer and target. The research offers a practical guideline for both acquirers and targets in managing brand in the context of acquisitions undertaken by emerging market companies in advanced economies.

The findings provide important insights into the brand management strategies adopted in Chinese cross-border M&As in particular, and emerging market companies venturing into advanced economies in general. The interlinking of country, company and product levels introduces new ideas to the brand literature related to acquisitions, and the setting of Chinese companies acquiring German ones constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of the different ways in which companies from emerging economies may pursue branding strategies in the context of cross-border M&As.

This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the interconnection between hybrid product–service offerings and firms' internationalization strategies, focusing on market entry, export performance and subsidiary strategy development.

The approach involves reviewing and summarizing the existing body of research in the area. This is complemented by the analysis of the 10 published papers in the current issue.

The authors proposed a value-chain synergetic approach that ensures the international competitiveness of hybrid offerings. The authors’ conceptual framework encompasses four themes: (i) internal factors encompassing capabilities and governance, (ii) supply-side factors related to ecosystem formation, (iii) demand-side factors encompassing customization and co-creation and (iv) enhancing factors such as assets digitization. The authors’ analysis demonstrates how these synergistic value chain themes interrelate to empower hybrid offerings in the export market.

While the conceptual development presented in this paper is not exhaustive, the model highlights important research avenues in the internationalization of product–service hybrid offerings that need exploration.

The proposed framework hold practical implications for firms aiming to enhance their competitiveness in the export market through the integration of hybrid product–service offerings.

The authors’ framework bridges the gap in international marketing literature by focusing on the interplay between hybrid product–service offerings and internationalization strategies, providing valuable insights into the factors driving servitization-led innovations in foreign markets.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the mechanisms through which Chinese National Science Parks' (NSPs) services facilitate returnee entrepreneurs' (REs) acquisition of resources for their new ventures. Resource acquisition is crucial for new ventures, but it inevitably leads to significant costs increase. Although the NSPs offer various services to REs to reduce these costs, they still struggle to find the right mix of services.

From the transaction cost's perspective, an exploratory multiple-case study was conducted with data collected from six NSPs in China.

The results reveal that four types of NSP services (mentoring and training, social event, promotion of REs and accreditation of resource holders (RHs)) have both individual and joint effects on reducing REs' resource acquisition costs. Specifically, the “accreditation of RHs” service directly helps REs reduce search costs. The combination of “accreditation of RHs”, “promotion of REs” and “social event” services help REs and RHs to establish guanxi. Further, guanxi, working along with the “mentoring and training” service, helps REs to reduce contracting, monitoring and enforcement costs.

This study is among the first to explore the matching mechanisms between science parks’ services and entrepreneurs' cost reduction. This helps reconcile the inconsistent findings on science parks' effect by explaining why some NSPs are able to provide strong support to REs while others are less successful. In addition, the findings are useful for NSPs to develop the right mix of tailored services for REs. Finally, REs will find this study useful to evaluate which NSP is a more suitable location for their new ventures.

Recent research has recognised the importance of supply chains and ecosystems as key drivers of successful servitization strategies, especially in the context of inter-organisational relations (IOR). The body of knowledge has, however, become increasingly fragmented and diverse due to different disciplinary roots of both servitization and IOR research. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of current knowledge and to generate a set of future research directions for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research.

A systematic review methodology was applied. A thematic analysis was conducted on a sample of 34 papers in the period 2010–2021 to identify the key themes within the servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem literature.

The review revealed a limited, but expanding, knowledge base for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research. The findings provide insight into current trends across four thematic areas: theoretical orientation, methodological approaches, research context and research content. Within these themes, it was found that four main areas of research content have been studied (supplier relationships, risk perception and uncertainty, capability development and resource integration), with most research adopting case-based methodologies within three main industrial contexts: manufacturing, industrial and software. Finally, a broad range of theoretical orientations have led to an increasingly fragmented and diverse literature base.

This study is the first to review servitization-related supply chains and ecosystems. It contributes insights through an IOR lens to categorise and organise a core set of themes and concepts for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystems research. It identifies research gaps within the extant literature and presents a set of future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of transnational entrepreneurs in growing born global firms, with a focus on the growth process facilitated by collaborative entry mode.

The author chose the solar photovoltaic industry as the empirical setting. This industry is a particularly good context for the study because many firms in this industry sell knowledge-intensive products internationally from their inception. The primary data consist of 32 in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, industry association representatives, research institute scholars, and professional service firms.

The study highlights the importance of transnational entrepreneurs who develop born global firms to maturity by using their technological knowledge, international connections, and bicultural advantages to navigate and leverage institutional complexity. Collaborative entry mode with distributors enables born global firms’ high growth rapidly, whereas transnational entrepreneurs play a central role in building and expanding international network. Initial public offering in overseas stock exchange accelerates the high growth trajectory of born global firm by signalling its maturity.

The author took a process perspective by examining the growth and maturity of born global firms by collaborative partnership; the author’s focus on the role of transnational entrepreneurs highlighted entrepreneurs’ sensitivity to institutional complexity along the growth trajectory.

The author recommends both incumbent and entrepreneurial firms in developed economies collaborate with transnational entrepreneurs in various business areas. Industry firms may be able to cooperate on product and marketing development, and professional service firms can offer services to expand born global firms further, because transnational entrepreneurs follow the global “rules of the game”.

The author shed important light on the role of transnational entrepreneurs throughout the growth of born global firms via collaborative entry mode. Furthermore, the author develops a multilevel framework for analysing the combined influence of transnational entrepreneur and institutional complexity on the growth of born global firm.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations among soft skill, information technologies and Big Data for building a possible bridge able to link human and technology dimensions for increasing firm performance.

Using the Business-focused Inventory of Personality , work personality of 4,758 human resources engaged in 72 high-tech European firms has been analyzed and its relations with firms’ investment in Big Data and firms’ economic performance have been tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM).

The research shows the existence of strong relations between some elements of human resources’ personality such as the work motivation and the social competencies and the firms’ economic performance. At the same time, the research clarifies the mediated effect of firms’ investment in Big Data in the relations between human resources’ organizational behavior and the firms’ economic performance.

The paper extends previous managerial contributions about Big Data management and human resource management providing evidence on which build more effective managerial models in the era of digital transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer’s attitude towards cause-related marketing (CRM). In detail, it aims to assess the relationship between CRM and consumer’s brand loyalty, and whether this relationship is moderated by consumer’s perception of corporate social behaviours. Moreover, the research looks for differences in the above relationship on two samples of consumers born and living in different countries and therefore with different cultural backgrounds.

The research adopts a quantitative methodology using a survey conducted among Italian and Japanese consumers. Ordinary least square regressions models are developed to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this paper indicate a positive relationship between the consumers’ perception of CRM and their brand loyalty perception, regardless the country of origin. Accordingly, the authors found a similar pattern of CRM perception among Italian and Japanese consumers. In addition, the authors found that CRM and the consumers’ perception of corporate social behaviours are not complementary, in the sense their joint effect does not affect consumer’s brand loyalty.

This is one of the first studies addressing the issue concerning the CRM perception of people with in different cultures. In this regard, this study suggests that CRM impacts on brand loyalty regardless the country of origin (Italy and Japan), and consumers’ characteristics such as age, gender, background. In addition, the study indicates that the perceived corporate social responsibility does not increase the effect of CRM on brand loyalty.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The article “Born global firms’ growth and collaborative entry mode: the role of transnational entrepreneurs” by Yipeng (2017) provides a robust insight into how international entrepreneurs can shape and enhance the chances of success for born global firms when they explore international markets. Indeed, it is difficult to image how transnational entrepreneurs could be ignored when an organization sets its horizons beyond its national borders.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.