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This paper reviews an underexplored dimension in strategic management namely, the strategic fit between various types of innovation and their corresponding product-market strategies.

The article is prepared by reviewing the relevant literatures on innovation and product market strategies and comparing and contrasting the common characteristics to attain a fit.

The paper presents the criteria for distinguishing the different types of innovation vis-a-vis the product market strategies, along with a tabular frame of reference that fits a particular type of innovation with its corresponding product market strategy.

Further the article provides an action framework that characterises the product market strategies along with the benefits that accrue on adopting a particular type of innovation for the corresponding product market strategy. That way, the probability of firms, failing due to the launch of an inappropriate innovation in an inappropriate market, will be less.

This brief article presents an original framework, with significant practical applications, in a succinct manner. The frameworks will provide a guide to the top management on market or domain identification, resource allocation and launching and fitting an appropriate innovation in an appropriate market.

Inniskillin Winery is at the forefront of an expanding wine tourism region in the Niagara Peninsula. This paper focuses on Inniskillin's efforts to adopt consumer‐led strategies to market Icewine to increasing numbers of Japanese tourists. Produced after the grapes have frozen on the vine, Icewine is an exclusive premium product. In a society where the price of the gift has become a barometer of the sender's sincerity, Icewine is well suited for the traditional Japanese custom of gift giving. This paper examines how Inniskillin's customer‐led marketing strategy matches with the psychological background of the Japanese target segment enabling the winery to sell 80–90% of all Icewine produced to its Japanese tourists.

Market dynamics are generating rapid product change and increasing the uncertainties of product management. As a result, the need for product adaptability has never been greater. Yet marketing managers lack a framework for evaluating product adaptability. Examines product adaptability in terms of two underlying dimensions: product domain (single versus multiple product) and performance criteria (internal versus external). This results in a framework that includes four basic types of product flexibility: acceptability (single‐product flexibility based on external criteria, e.g. customer acceptance); modifiability (single‐product flexibility based on internal criteria, e.g. production efficiency); leveragability (multiple‐product flexibility based on external criteria); and compatability (multiple‐product flexibility based on internal criteria). Using this framework, identifies specific factors that lead to product adaptability and proposes a method for product assessment.

An important managerial task in business‐to‐business marketing is the strategic management of supplier‐customer relationships, which is concerned with a portfolio of relationships. A review of existing customer portfolio theories reveals that: most of the portfolio dimensions have not yet been empirically validated; the theoretical base of relevant dimensions may be conceptually inadequate in terms of strategy analysis; and the link between customer portfolio dimensions and customer performance has not yet been examined. Attempts to address these gaps in the literature by studying customer portfolios of large UK‐based banks. The main results indicate that the common industrial organization perspective may only give a short run picture of customer performance. Suggests that long run positioning value of a customer portfolio can be accounted for by resource‐based analysis and strategic approach to customer portfolio analysis. Concludes with a discussion of the results and implications.

This paper aims to investigate Thai stakeholders’ perceptions of developing a destination for international retirement migration (IRM). Increasingly, residents of developed nations such as Japan who retire from work are choosing to live in Thailand or other less-developed countries.

Qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through focus groups and in-depth interviews in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Content analysis technique was used to analyze data after completing the interviews of 35 industry participants.

It was found from the participants that considerable new real estate development and services specifically for these retirees has been created in recent years, but that there is a lack of stakeholder collaboration in catering to this market. Moreover, local resident knowledge of the retirees’ culture and language is lacking, along with a need for policy and planning support from government.

A limitation of this study is that it explored only the perception of business stakeholders involved with Japanese IRM, a group of importance to the Thai Government due to their increasing numbers. Further study could look at local community attitudes toward IRM and how a community adapts to this new phenomenon.

This study provides guidelines for stakeholders, government and local communities. Especially, the role of government is to provide support with clear information about the visa process and legal documents.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge of destination development strategy for a specific international retirement tourist group.

The idea of developing and preparing international managers to face the intensifying global competition poses new challenges for trainers and educators. Discusses an innovative approach of strategic alliance among business, Government and university in providing hands‐on management development programmes. Case examples highlight the effectiveness of the approach in creating a win/win situation for all the participants.

This paper aims to highlight a typology of small firms which, beyond the criteria of size or industrial field, makes it possible to distinguish the quality of firms according to their internal organisation and the type of market on which they act with the objective of reducing the capital gap and credit rationing.

Based on a global approach using qualitative and quantitative data.

Still at the experimental stage, this method of assessing the ability of small firms to access financing from their various external partners could, if widely used, offer a means of increasing the transparency of small businesses and thereby enhancing their positioning and their chances of survival.

The research is at an early stage and needs to be validated empirically.

While this paper describes a method of assessing an economic policy intended to benefit SMEs in France, its main purpose is to show how such a tool can help to target assistance and financing for small businesses more effectively.

The notion that firms have demand chains as well as supply chains is one that is gaining currency. It is suggested that taking a broad perspective of the demand chain as all those processes in the firm which interact with and translate customer requirements throws a new light on how a firm's value chain operates as a whole. Looking at some retail examples, including McDonald's in particular, it is argued that managing the interaction of a firm's supply chain and its demand chain is critical to the effectiveness of that entities business model. This interaction involves a fusion of processes in what is termed a Value Catalyst. This catalysis effect involves interaction costs and tension as processes continually bundle and unbundled. It is argued that while the deliberate creation and purposeful management of tension may seem odd, it in fact accords with day‐to‐day management reality and is a potential source of dynamism within the firm.

Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities and exploration literatures, the purpose of this paper is to simultaneously investigate the impact of outside-in (OI) and inside-out (IO) strategic approaches on international strategic performance.

A survey-based quantitative study was used. The final sample consisted of 202 internationally active SBUs of Israeli firms. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling.

OI approach to strategy enhances international performance more than IO does. OI is antecedent of exploratory marketing capabilities (MCs), while IO is antecedent of exploratory technological capabilities (TCs). The direct positive effect of exploratory MCs on performance is twice as strong as exploratory TCs are. Additionally, exploratory MCs positively impact performance through product adaptation.

To enhance international performance, managers should devote attention to an OI approach by incorporating a market orientation with responsive flexibility. Managers should be aware that exploratory MCs are more important in an international context than exploratory TCs are. Stakeholders such as venture capitalists can use the OI–IO model to predict which international venture is more promising.

This paper contributes to the international marketing field by shedding light on the OI–IO debate, its transformation into exploratory capabilities and how it relates to the standardization–adaptation debate. New and broad OI–IO’s conceptualizations are developed and new viewpoints for understanding how international marketing should work and what motivates firms to adapt are offered. Overall, an OI–IO typology helps to bring order to an otherwise confusing conceptual landscape.

By standardizing the marketing effort over similar worldwide segments and differentiating it across dissimilar worldwide segments, the international marketing manager is able to reap the advantages of both standardization and customization. The choice of the variables by which to segment the global market is crucial. Traditionally, purely environmental bases (geographic, political, economic, and cultural) were used as bases for international market segmentation. Proposes that international marketers group relevant markets based on both environmental as well as marketing management bases. The marketing management bases are classified as: (1) product‐related; (2) promotion‐related; (3) price‐related; and (4) distribution‐related. Derives number of propositions with direct implications for international marketing strategy and segmentation with respect to these bases. Highlights the managerial implications of the variables encompassed by these bases. Proposes the empirical investigation of the derived propositions as a research agenda for the future.