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This study investigates to what extent strategic flexibility of international strategic alliances (ISAs) affects export performance of emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises (ESMEs) via international marketing capability in crises. It also examines whether these ESMEs’ adoption of digital technology strengthens the impact of strategic flexibility of ISAs on international marketing capability.

Based on the international alliance and dynamic capability perspectives on strategic flexibility, the authors develop a conceptual model and empirically examine the mediation and moderation effects between strategic flexibility of ISAs, international marketing capability, export performance and adoption of digital technology. The authors collected survey data from 129 ESMEs located in Pakistan between May 2021 and August 2021 and tested the conceptual model with hierarchical-moderated regression analysis.

The findings suggest that strategic flexibility of ISAs positively impacts on export performance of ESMEs in crises. Moreover, the authors found that international marketing significantly mediates the relationship between strategic flexibility of ISAs and export performance of ESMEs. Also, the adoption of digital technologies significantly moderates the relationship between strategic flexibility of ISAs positively and international marketing capability.

The authors take strategic flexibility of ISAs in the context of the emerging market and how ESMEs enhance export performance in a time of crisis, which extends the prior ESMEs’ international marketing strategy and crisis management literature. In particular, the authors show that strategic flexibility of ISAs is a vital dynamic capability to enhance export performance of ESMEs via international marketing capability and adoption of digital technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the influence that nation-states can have on the engagement of international marketing activities. The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of the institutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic on international marketing activities and to highlight the need to formally incorporate institutional economics into the study of international marketing phenomena.

The paper uses institutional economics as the environmental element of the general theory of competitive rationality to present a foundation for understanding how state actions influence marketing and international marketing activities. Data are presented and empirically tested, demonstrating the heterogeneity of government influence on personal and economic freedoms during the pandemic, both of which influenced international marketing activities. To broaden the implications of this work, we also provide anecdotal illustrations unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the breadth of nation-state influence on international marketing activities.

Heterogeneity in nation-state formal and informal institutional elements influence international marketing activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, other incidents, unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrate the importance of contextualizing international marketing activities under a holistic institutional framework.

The paper employs the general theory of competitive rationality along with institutional economics to provide a theoretical foundation to better understand the differential impact on international marketing as a result of formal and informal institutional influences. This general framework can be employed to provide a holistic understanding of both international and cross-national marketing activities.

How higher education institutions (HEIs) approach the recruitment of international students is an area of global interest (James-MacEachern, 2018, Ross et al., 2013), but there is limited focus on how institutions in different parts of the world approach international student recruitment as an export marketing orientation (EMO). The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences of export marketing orientation amongst three higher education institutions.

This study uses export marketing concepts to compare three universities from Canada, Hong Kong and the UK to explore how institutions use international student recruitment as export marketing in international markets.

The study finds a number of similarities and differences in how HEIs react and respond to market and global environments, and responses impact the level of EMO. It argues that institutions rely differently on export marketing in their approach international students and highlights the need to understand how various factors such as national policy and institutional strategy impacts institutional adoption of an EMO in higher education.

By comparing HEIs from different parts of the world, this paper shows differences in export marketing orientation that are shaped by national policy frameworks and organizational culture. This is the first time three institutions from Canada, Hong Kong and the UK have been compared for EMO, and this study provides new insights into the factors that contribute or hinder EMO for HEIs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate international student recruitment from an institutional perspective and to consider institutional factors that may affect recruitment.

A qualitative study is undertaken in which education marketing practitioners are interviewed regarding aspects of international student recruitment at their institutions. Interview data are analysed by NVivo and categorized into four institutional factors: marketing department size, employee qualifications, institutional recruiting experience, and institutional focus.

Differences are found to exist between universities and secondary schools in terms of their current international education recruitment practices. The percentage of international student cohort appears to be largely responsible for sectoral differences.

Findings presented are from a sample of secondary schools and universities in Australia and New Zealand. Further research is required to determine applicability of the findings to other education sectors.

Implications are considered from the viewpoint of the international education marketing practitioner, education manager and policy makers. The theoretical contribution of the study is also discussed.

This paper fulfils an identified research and practitioner gap through investigating international student recruitment from an institutional perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities and challenges facing firms in this new digital era concerning their international marketing strategy and examine how international marketing practices can be revisited in the light of these developments. Consideration is given to a range of relevant issues involved in the design and deployment of effective international marketing strategies using internet-enabled technologies. Such factors relate to internal company requirements, the external environmental situation, foreign market selection and entry, international marketing mix programs, and strategy implementation and control aspects.

A conceptual paper identifies, structures and presents systematically factors influencing international marketing strategy, implementation and control using digital technologies.

The authors point to the relevance and potentially important role that the deployment of online organizational resources and capabilities play in influencing foreign market selection and entry decisions and international marketing strategy choices, implementation and control. The authors thus explain how the use of digital technologies can facilitate the firm’s foreign market choices and the adoption of effective marketing programs, and offer insights into the adoption of digital tools in more effectively implementing and controlling the firm’s international marketing strategy.

The originality and value of this conceptual study is reflected in the identification and discussion of factors comprising the organizing framework of an international marketing strategy using internet-enabled technologies and in the examination of fruitful avenues of future investigation as a result of the need to redesign international marketing strategies in a new digital era.

The primary objective of this endeavour is to form a retrospective overview of the International Marketing Review (IMR) and map its way forward.

A range of bibliometric techniques has been employed to analyse the performance of IMR and its stakeholders, map the evolution of its thematic and intellectual structures and analyse the factors driving IMR's academic influence and impact

IMR's academic contributions, influence and impact have grown progressively. The thematic structure of the journal has evolved into six clusters. Simultaneously, its research fronts have submerged to six bibliographic clusters, noted as marketing channels, cross-cultural impact on emerging markets, export performance, country of origin (COO), online consumers and global business environment. Among these, the first four are still evolving, suggesting scope for future submissions.

The limitation of this endeavour largely arises from its selection of bibliographic data being confined to Scopus.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first objective assessment of the journal, useful to its authors, readers, reviewers and editorial board.

The authors seek to show the extent and nature of qualitative research in international marketing in IMR (International Marketing Review) and then aim to understand and explain developments in this area. They explore the global coverage of extant qualitative work in IMR and reflect on the thematic focus, theoretical purpose, research design and transparency of methods prevailing in these studies.

The authors identify and content-analyze 79 qualitative international marketing-focused articles published in IMR from 1990 to 2010.

The analysis revealed several areas that can assist researchers in identifying gaps to be filled by future qualitative international marketing studies. These include: global coverage needs to be further developed; an increase in the number of comparative studies, yet insights from three or more countries remain scarce; extant qualitative studies seem to explore ten key themes; there is a growing trend in theory elaboration studies; interviews are still the most popular data collection method, yet the repertoire of methods is expanding; there is an upward trend in higher transparency in the description of data collection and analysis, but this needs further development.

The paper fosters the development of qualitative research in international marketing by: highlighting the value of qualitative research for advancing theory in this field; inspiring international marketing scholars to learn more about qualitative methods; and offering guidelines to researchers that seek to advance this field.

This paper examines the nature and extent of organisational adaptation of international marketing involvement. The domestic and international marketing strategies of firms are compared. The results demonstrate significant differences between the domestic and international marketing operations of firms, including the product market strategies and the commitment of human resources.

The purpose of this study is to systematically collate and scrutinize the state of the art on consumer cosmopolitanism (CCOS) from an international marketing perspective and to provide a foundation for future research on the subject matter to proliferate and prosper.

A systematic review of the extant literature was conducted focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles published in major marketing, international business and management journals.

A systematic analysis of 44 journal articles shows that CCOS research is a rapidly growing research stream in the international marketing field. However, at the same time, the results reveal a lack of coherent and consistent conceptual underpinning, conflicting empirical findings regarding the profile and behavior of cosmopolitan consumers, persisting knowledge gaps, as well as methodological and contextual weaknesses.

This paper is the first to consolidate the pertinent literature on CCOS. In doing so, it provides a roadmap for future research with reference to theory, context and methodology based on the research inconsistencies and knowledge gaps identified, contributing toward the development of this research area.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to publish scholarly works that extend knowledge on the drivers, consequences and boundary conditions of international marketing strategies employed by emerging market firms of all sizes and types; and to advance a narrative for future research on emerging market firms’ international marketing activities.

To achieve this agenda, the authors invited scholars to submit quality manuscripts to the special issue. Manuscripts that addressed the special issue theme from varied theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches were invited.

Out of 70 manuscripts reviewed, 7 are eventually accepted for inclusion in this special issue. The papers touched on interesting research topics bothering on international marketing practices of emerging market firms using blend of interesting theoretical perspectives and variety of methods. Key theoretical perspectives used include resource-based theory, internationalization theory, institutional theory and corporate visual identity theory. The authors employed unique sets of methods including literature review, surveys, panel data, and process-based qualitative and case-study enquiries. The authors used some of the most advanced analytical techniques to analyze their data.

This introduction to the special issue provides a review of the extant literature on the international marketing strategy of emerging market firms, focusing on summarizing key empirical contributions on the topic over the last three decades. Subsequently, the authors discuss how each paper included in this special issue helps advance the agenda to develop scholarly knowledge on emerging market firms’ international marketing strategy.