Matthew J. Robson

Purpose: This study investigates how temporal changes in manufacturer monetary incentives influence reseller behavior within manufacturer–reseller relationships. We theorize, using agency theory, and examine empirically how the manufacturer's incentive changes have complex and unintended effects on the reseller's shirking, ultimately shaping the manufacturer's economic performance. Design/methodology/approach: We test our hypotheses on the effect of incentives using data from two successive surveys of exporting manufacturers in partnerships with foreign resellers, together with archival sources. Findings: We observe a U-shaped relationship of monetary-incentive changes with shirking. The results reveal that when monetary incentives are decreasing (left-side of the U), their effect on reseller shirking is negative, but when they are increasing (right-side of the U), they can have a positive effect on shirking. The U-shaped relationship steepens when import market GDP growth is high. Practical implications: Manufacturer managers should scrutinize and even resist reseller requests to increase monetary incentives because in most cases, the intended positive act of boosting incentives leads to an unintended increase in reseller shirking and a reduction in manufacturer performance. Originality/value: We adopt a novel approach that examines intertemporal changes in monetary incentives within manufacturer–reseller relationships. Our findings add to modern thinking on agency theory, which views the level of convergence between the principal's and the agent's economic interests as a dynamic process shaped by wider considerations pertaining to relationship status.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the satisfaction of entrepreneurs' psychological needs affects venture growth beliefs and perceived financial performance under conditions of harmonious and obsessive passion. Design/methodology/approach: Through the integration of self-determination theory and the dualistic model of passion, a research framework is developed and quantitatively tested among 255 Latvian small- and medium-sized enterprise entrepreneurs, as well as replicated among 205 Russian entrepreneurs, with the utilization of EQS and SPSS software. Findings: We reveal that satisfaction of entrepreneurial psychological needs facilitates the emergence of positive venture growth beliefs, which in turn improves financial performance. Additionally, harmonious passion positively moderates the link between entrepreneurial need satisfaction and venture growth beliefs, while obsessive passion negatively conditions the relationship of entrepreneurial need satisfaction with perceived financial performance. Research limitations/implications: This research is limited by the cross-sectional design of the study and the self-reported nature of the construct measurements. Practical implications: The results can help entrepreneurs reflect on whether their need satisfaction at work is high enough to productively make venture-related decisions, act upon identified opportunities and expand their business horizons, as well as encourage them to be more passionate yet balanced in their entrepreneurial efforts. Originality/value: Scant research attention has been given to the examination of how satisfaction of psychological needs affects entrepreneurial attitudes, beliefs and actions, and in turn, firm performance. This research responds to a call for more studies on cognitive and behavioral entrepreneurship.

Despite its practical relevance for internationalizing firms, organizational ambidexterity has received limited attention in international marketing research. Existing literature largely focuses on ambidexterity within a single functional domain and reports inconsistent evidence regarding its performance outcomes. The authors of this article advance knowledge by capturing contingent performance effects of exporting firms’ ambidexterity in both market and product development domains. The authors test sequential forms of ambidexterity and their effects on performance using firms’ self-reported ambidexterity measures and lagged, objective performance data. The findings reveal that market ambidexterity enhances product development ambidexterity, which subsequently contributes to return on sales (ROS) but not to sales growth. Interestingly, market ambidexterity has a direct negative effect on ROS but a positive indirect influence through product ambidexterity, indicating a suppression effect. Knowledge leverage capability strengthens the relationship between market and product ambidexterity. Additionally, the performance impact of product ambidexterity is contingent: Perceived market opportunity prevents it from eroding sales growth, while the degree of internationalization amplifies its contribution to ROS. These findings underscore the complex, domain-specific, and conditional nature of ambidexterity's performance implications in export settings.

Purpose: Over the past five decades, international market entry has been a focal point of research across business, marketing, entrepreneurship and management. With rising de-globalization and geopolitical shifts, scholarly attention has expanded to encompass firms' international trajectories and de-internationalization. Yet, there remains a limited understanding of how these behaviors inform and are shaped by adjacent domains and how key themes interact across these areas. Therefore, this study seeks to review the literature on market entry, exit and re-entry and examine knowledge diffusion patterns across adjacent intellectual domains. In so doing, we derive five theoretical implications that we suggest should underpin future research endeavors. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports two interrelated studies. The first one employs bibliometric methods with a hierarchical clustering approach to map the intellectual landscape of the core literature and evaluate its influence and permeability across adjacent fields. The second adopts advanced polynomial forecasting to identify emerging research trajectories signaling promising directions for future inquiry. Findings: We report our findings derived from bibliometric analyses of 822 publications encompassing 21,613 citations in 43 leading academic journals on international market entry, exit and re-entry, over the past five decades. The literature mapping revealed six core themes: ownership and governance in internationalization, market exit and re-entry dynamics, early and rapid internationalization, foreign market entry modes, internationalization challenges and responses and internationalization in the digital era. Additional analysis identified that the impact of the core themes has dissipated into fifteen diffused themes, reflecting the field's permeability and broader influence beyond myopic disciplinary boundaries. Findings based on forecasting research trends for the next five years highlight untapped and emerging research opportunities pertaining to an integrated approach to studying international market dynamics; with particular emphasis on family firm-focused internationalization, the role of ownership, control and governance in internationalization decisions, performance and operating risk management. Originality/value: This study distinguishes itself from prior reviews by employing novel bibliometric techniques to comprehensively map the international market entry and exit (and re-entry) (IMEE) domain, explaining both core and diffused knowledge structures. This is the first attempt to interdependently review and map IMEE research using empirical methods. Combining data-driven analyses with forecasting methods, we reveal novel thematic connections and provide predictive validity to emerging research trajectories that provide valuable priorities within this domain.

Scholars and practitioners concur on the importance of involving business customers in the development of new products as a viable solution to suppliers’ need for continuous improvement in innovation and enhanced performance. Yet, under certain circumstances, the difficulties of involving customers as co-developers in collaborative innovation projects can outweigh the benefits. We adopt the social context and task experience sub-dimensions of organizational learning theory to investigate whether and under what conditions customer involvement as co-developer (CIC) improves or impairs the supplier’s market-based, new product performance. Using quasi-longitudinal, lagged survey data from 217 Chinese manufacturing suppliers, we find that CIC has an inverted U-shaped relationship to new product performance. Trust negatively and shared vision positively moderate this relationship, while social interactions do not significantly influence the effectiveness of CIC practices. Finally, market experience negatively moderates the inverted U-shaped link between CIC and new product performance.

This study examines new product development (NPD) processes in high‐technology new product ventures in the emerging market context. Drawing upon the knowledge‐based view and the capability‐based view, we propose a model that characterizes relationships between NPD process execution stages and product competitive advantage, and accounts for the moderating effects of NPD integration mechanisms on these relationships. Our model also explains how pricing capabilities can become a liability that undermines how product advantage impacts new product performance. We test this framework within an emerging market context that has been notably absent from the literature. Our data are generated from 187 new product projects and a follow‐up of 83 projects, from Chinese high‐technology ventures. We identify important theoretical interdependencies within our structural model results. Specifically, marketing–technical integration positively moderates the relationship between product development and testing capability and commercialization capability, while new product implementation capability positively moderates the relationship of commercialization capability and product competitive advantage. Yet, penetration pricing capability negatively moderates the link between product competitive advantage and new product performance.

Building on insights from the strategic management and marketing literatures, we look at how corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy is internalized as a core business area within international organizations, by employing an approach that simultaneously addresses the domains of strategy and social responsibility. Extant research is almost exclusively dominated by studies attempting to confirm the link between social responsibility and financial performance, in domestic settings. We depart from this debate to look at how CSR strategies are made in international contexts (i.e., multinational enterprises), together with their antecedents and consequences. In doing so, we start by outlining circumstances in which CSR can be called strategic, and then move on to develop propositions and a conceptual framework that can guide the CSR strategy-making process. Our conceptual study contributes to the international CSR literature by providing much needed clarifications on the ways in which CSR strategies are not only formulated, but also implemented and adjusted over time.