PurposeOver 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/approachThis 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. FindingsWe 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/valueThis 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.

The inherent rarity and inimitability of intellectual property (IP) has long been recognized as the foundation of The inherent rarity and inimitability of intellectual property (IP) has long been recognized as the foundation of its strategic value. These characteristics are compromised in markets with weak IP protection, where IP cannot be its strategic value. These characteristics are compromised in markets with weak IP protection, where IP cannot be leveraged to create sustainable competitive advantage. This presents significant challenges for internationalileveraged to create sustainable competitive advantage. This presents significant challenges for internationalization, and extant literature provides little guidance on how firms can mitigate this risk. From first principles of zation, and extant literature provides little guidance on how firms can mitigate this risk. From first principles of resource-based theory, we posit that service transition alleviates this loss of a strategic resource, representing a resource-based theory, we posit that service transition alleviates this loss of a strategic resource, representing a basis for reliable revenue generation that retains its rarity and inimitability across markets with varying levels of basis for reliable revenue generation that retains its rarity and inimitability across markets with varying levels of regulatory protection. Combining novel datasets on firms' foreign market activity and countries' IP rights, we regulatory protection. Combining novel datasets on firms' foreign market activity and countries' IP rights, we find that IP risk increases the volatility of revenues and consequently firm idiosyncratic risk, but that this can be find that IP risk increases the volatility of revenues and consequently firm idiosyncratic risk, but that this can be offset by (a) deriving a larger share of revenues from service-based business segments and (b) increasing the offset by (a) deriving a larger share of revenues from service-based business segments and (b) increasing the knowledge intensity of service offerings. Results from a 12-year panel of 2,716 firms across 223 industries offer knowledge intensity of service offerings. Results from a 12-year panel of 2,716 firms across 223 industries offer new insights into how the regulatory environment can erode the strategic value of resources and practical new insights into how the regulatory environment can erode the strategic value of resources and practical recommendations to mitigate the detrimental effects on firm-specific risk and market performance. recommendations to mitigate the detrimental effects on firm-specific risk and market performance.

Coopetition has become an inter-organizational engagement norm for firms seeking to achieve their strategic goals. Research in this domain has been well-established but has reached a point of conceptual ‘shakeout’. Signs of the next stage of development being theoretical fragmentation are apparent in ‘network coopetition’, which has stimulated burgeoning research opportunities. However, there is a dearth of research on the sustainability and ecological premises of coopetition at this network level. In this study, we build on the theoretical workbench established by business model innovation scholars to integrate coopetitive research insights with circular economy theorizing. In our endeavor to understand the Coopetitive Circular Business Model (CCBM), we are guided by three questions: (i) how can the literature on coopetition inform circular economy research and how can this knowledge synthesis inform the development of the CCBM; (ii) what theoretical lenses can be employed to understand the interfaces, dynamics, and outcomes of the CCBMs; and (iii) what are the future research imperatives underlying CCBM research? We address these questions, which form the basis of our contributions, and draw implications of our insights for future research on the: conceptualization of CCBMs; antecedents and consequences of CCBMs; innovation and execution practices underlying CCBMs; measurement and performance of CCBMs; research methods, design and empirics that can be employed to examine CCBMs; and future public policies related to CCBMs.

The performance benefits of functional capabilities in marketing, technology, and operations rely on their routinization in organizational processes, but these also require renewal in response to environmental change. This raises a fundamental tension: is it better to maximally develop functional capabilities that offer the highest contingent benefit in present market conditions, and/or to modify capabilities as conditions change? We propose two measures of a firm’s ability to renew its functional capabilities to align with market conditions: capability heterogeneity (variation in extant capabilities) and capability adaptability (selection among these strategic options). In a 20-year panel of 771 firms, we find environmental change increases the importance of these aspects of how capabilities are managed relative to what capabilities a firm possesses: In stable product-markets, capability heterogeneity and adaptability incur significant costs whereas functional capabilities improve profitability. In contrast, functional capabilities can be detrimental in fluid product-markets whereas heterogeneity and adaptability increase profitability. Notably, marketing capability remains beneficial across environments, acting as a profitable alternative to capability heterogeneity and adaptability when future conditions are uncertain. This evolutionary perspective contributes to ongoing theoretical debates on the conceptualization and consequences of capabilities, with practical implications for mitigating the risks of excessive inertia or change.

We draw on social categorization theory to explain how entrepreneurial teams focused on research and development (R&D) are configured to deliver successful new venture performance. Research on entrepreneurial teams tends to aggregate individuals to the team level, which helps distill the effects of complementarities among social categories of team members. Specifically, we examine how scientists and managers apply their unique profiles (i.e., accumulated skills and expertise) to execute their respective roles within entrepreneurial teams engaged in commercial scientific discovery. In line with the entrepreneurial team literature, we distinguish between “focused” and “diversified” social categorizations of principal scientists and managers. As such, we differentiate between individuals’ deep knowledge of a discipline and a background in two professional areas with relative expertise in each, likened to the “jack-of-all-trades”. We analyze how team profile-to-role configurations might result in different new venture outcomes being R&D performance and commercial performance. To examine our models, we use multi-source, longitudinal, secondary data drawn from 153 government-funded research-intensive ventures associated with the National Cancer Institute in the United States (U.S.). Our results reveal differential effects for R&D performance and commercial performance. We find that teams aiming to enhance their R&D performance should seek diversified principal scientists, whereas teams seeking commercial gains should appoint diversified managers. By the same token, diversified team members may bypass their own shortcomings and complement their strengths by attracting team members with focused social categorizations.

Despite the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in business, there is little research examining its effects on firm idiosyncratic risk (IR). This is an important issue for boards: as key conduits of firm–environment information flows via board interlock networks, traditional risk oversight functions are being increasingly augmented with strategic decision‐making and communications. Accordingly, we explore how AI and board interlocks independently and interactively affect IR, focusing on the heterogeneity of the board's network ties. We hypothesize these effects within signalling theory, positing that a firm's AI exposure and board network will differentially affect market perceptions of risk contingent on their perceived cost and relative signal strength under different environmental conditions. We find that while AI and board network heterogeneity both favourably affect risk, operating in a high‐AI industry while occupying a network position that spans industry boundaries mitigates these effects, leading to an increase in IR for firms in the most technologically advanced industries. Additional analyses of diversification corroborate these theoretical mechanisms: as a costly signal of competence across multiple domains, diversification enables firms to simultaneously engage with AI and diverse knowledge networks without market penalties. Our findings offer practical insights for directors and avenues for theoretical development.

This article addresses how core tourism research has influenced other cognate research disciplines through the diffusion of its knowledge structure and when, in the future, this diffused knowledge structure might evolve in terms of research expansion and contraction. Study 1 analyses 4,753 tourism research articles, revealing seven core clusters that represent the tourism discipline. The study then determines how this core influences other cognate research disciplines by identifying 14 clusters from 38,657 articles representing the diffused knowledge structure of tourism research. Diffusion is assessed within and among core and diffused knowledge structures. Study 2 forecasts when and to what extent citation patterns-in the form of research expansion and contraction-are likely to change.

A bibliometric analysis, spanning five decades of knowledge is employed with the aim of: (i) assessing core intellectual knowledge of international services research; (ii) examining the contribution of international services marketing to broader research disciplines; and, (iii) estimating forecasting trends for the most promising international services research directions

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.

Strategic emphasis is a critical decision reflecting a firm's relative proclivity toward value creation versus value appropriation. Despite the increasing role of the board in setting the strategic priorities of firms, there is a dearth of research examining board-level influences on strategic emphasis. Drawing on the cognitive perspective of corporate governance, we posit that exposure to external information via board interlocks provides competing incentives to pursue value creation and value appropriation strategies. We hypothesize that political ideological diversity among directors facilitates the utilization of external information for novel purposes, thus increasing firms' value creation focus. Combining data on directors' political ideologies with network analysis, we test these hypotheses in 584 large U.S. firms between 2000 and 2018. We find that political ideological diversity influences strategic emphasis both directly and in interaction with board interlock network centrality: politically ideological diverse boards exhibit a greater focus on value creation, and this effect is strengthened when the board is well connected to others. These results have implications for the director selection process, and for executives advocating for value creation strategies and the requisite R&D investments under differing conditions of board composition and information exposure.

The circular economy has attracted the interest of business leaders, policy makers and academics alike for its potential to contribute to a more resilient, prosperous and resource-efficient economy. The transition towards a circular economy requires new business models that challenge the linear logic of value creation that is still endemic across most industries. In turn, the transition from linear to circular business models involves the rethinking of strategic decision-making processes and the development of new organisational capabilities. This paper addresses these important strategic implications of the emergence and implementation of circular business models. Coupling business models with open strategy and dynamic capabilities, we develop a "three-pronged" strategy framework that advances the emerging field of circular business model research. Our contribution is crystallised into a series of propositions and future research questions for scholars working at the intersection of the circular economy and the strategy literature.

Purpose While the servitization concept has gained increasing attention in the domestic marketing literature, there is more limited knowledge with respect to its implications within the international context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the servitization concept in the international context considering its boundary conditions and its effects on firm performance. Relying on the resource-based view and the boundary conditions function, the authors aim to identify a set of research gaps focusing on how strategic resource decisions (i.e. slack resources and digital marketing capabilities) help industrial firms to provide different types of service offerings (i.e. services in support of product (SSPs) and services in support of client's actions (SSCs)) that leverage their performance in international markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors illustrate international servitization strategies and the boundaries of servitization activities that firms employ through a series of case vignettes. The authors derive a conceptual framework, serving as a guideline for future research endeavors. Findings The authors indicate the importance of servitization strategies in international markets and identify eight research gaps, which help to build an agenda for future research. Key differences between international servitization strategies and strategic resource decisions are addressed through illustrative case vignettes from different industries. Practical implications The insights from this work inform marketing executives about how international servitization strategies are influential in the context of overseas markets by characterizing the servitization concept and elaborating upon the specific resources and capabilities that underpin its execution in foreign markets. Originality/value This conceptual paper provides a comprehensive understanding of international servitization strategies in overseas markets and identifies several research paths that contribute to the complex nature of servitization in the international context and help scholars spot gaps and research questions worthy of investigation.

Digital transformation is a major organisational challenge for manufacturing firms due to the extremely low success rate of such transformations to date. Capability Maturity theory suggests that firms need to develop digital transformation capability incrementally by focusing on a ‘vital few’ improvement priorities for advancing progress. The practitioner literature lacks empirical studies that validate extant capability maturity models (CMM) for digital transformation despite their importance. Moreover, there is a lack of assessment methods, and those that exist do not specify improvement points explicitly, nor prioritise them. Our research aims to address this gap through a systematic, quantitative analysis of digital capability by understanding the deployment of IT-enabled resources. Based on a sample of 302 manufacturing firms, results indicate that the digital transformation stages are punctuated by various resource-capability combinations. Results highlight that strategy- and organisation-related IT-enabled resources are the key drivers of digital transformation. We also observe that as a firm’s digital capability grows at each maturity stage, successively greater IT-enabled resources are required to support this in a stepwise function. To succeed, firms should be incentivised and supported to think beyond technology and develop five specific digital capabilities simultaneously. We also indicate the limitations that underlie our empirical work.

We know little of why a minority of firms pursue counter-cyclical strategies and consequently outperform competitors during recessions. Based on the theory of institutional isomorphism, we hypothesize that these firms avoid the mimetic and normative pressures that promote strategic convergence during uncertainty. We demonstrate these effects at the board-level in a sample of 1,615 U.S. firms. Mimetic processes are evident, with firms' connectedness in board interlock networks attenuating profitability and decreasing firm value during recessions—a reversal of the positive effects during expansions. Normative pressures arise from homogeneity in directors' educational and professional experience, with greater consequences for long-term performance. Overall, recessionary performance is improved when firms occupy relatively isolated positions in informational networks and appoint directors from a range of backgrounds.

Research issue A consistent feature of social networks is homophily: the tendency for people to interact with similar others. Psychological and sociological research suggests that homophily is most pronounced along ideological lines, with conflicting evidence as to whether this tendency is higher among individuals who hold liberal or conservative beliefs. Based on this literature, we conduct the first study of ideological homophily in two key organizational networks: the intrafirm connections among directors on the board and the interfirm connections created by board interlocks. Research insights In a panel of 408 U.S. firms between 2000 and 2020, we find that liberalism increases homophily both within and between boards. Furthermore, we find that homophily has decreased over time but that this has been driven by conservative boards while the effect of liberalism has strengthened in recent years. These findings provide the first evidence for an ideological component in the composition of intra- and interorganizational networks. Academic implications Most research on director selection and interlock formation has focused on situational or demographic antecedents. Our findings contribute to the development of a broader theoretical framework that accounts for individual dispositional factors in these processes. Practitioner implications Our findings bring attention to the issue of ideological homogeneity in firms. Given the growth of homophilic tendencies among liberal directors in recent years, we suggest that it may be increasingly important for directors to become aware, and mitigate the effects, of their ideological biases in order to maintain cognitive diversity in information networks and decision making.

The authors investigate how strategic resource decisions—regarding slack resources and strategic marketing ambidexterity—influence the relationship between internationalization and firm performance of emerging-market firms. Drawing on the resource-based view, the authors synthesize two dominant, yet divergent, perspectives that explain the respective resource slack advantages and liabilities in the internationalization literature: the flexible capacity and the efficient capacity perspectives. They also explore the moderating role of strategic marketing ambidexterity, which comprises a bundle of marketing activities covering both exploitation-dominant actions and exploration-dominant actions. The authors empirically examine the hypothesized relationships with data from a sample of 1,683 firm-year observations for the period between 2005 and 2018 and find that distinct forms of resource slack have contrasting effects on the relationship between internationalization and performance. The results provide strong evidence for a positive moderation effect of unabsorbed slack resources and a negative moderation effect of absorbed slack resources on the internationalization–performance relationship. The authors also find a nonsignificant moderating effect of strategic marketing ambidexterity, demonstrating that internationalization results in higher firm performance regardless of the firm’s exploration-dominant or exploitation-dominant strategic emphasis in emerging economies.

Strategic flexibility (SF) is a concept that has evolved from strategy through other disciplines, including management, marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship and operations. However, despite attempts to consolidate the domain of SF, there remain theoretical and empirical tensions underlying its antecedents, the consequences and contingencies. Based on 106 independent samples reported in 98 different studies (n = 26,940 firms), we provide a meta-analytical examination of these tensions. We highlight and resolve several disagreements regarding the enablers, inhibitors and triggers of SF, and we reveal an adjusted mean performance effect of 0.24. We further find that the measurement of SF, as well as some, but not all, dimensions of the environment, moderate the performance effect. Finally, an explorative analysis reveals that innovation outcomes and market outcomes mediate the positive relationship between SF and financial outcomes, in addition to a negative direct effect. These insights provide a comprehensive and coherent understanding of the nomological network of SF and a stronger basis for further theorizing and conducting empirical research. Moreover, our findings help firms to refine their strategy by implementing the right enablers that drive SF and to understand how and when their investment in SF pays off.

Even when the research is completed successfully, the authors’ job is not done. They must craft the best possible manuscript for submission to a targeted journal, which will put the research into the best possible light and enhance the likelihood of eventual acceptance. This is the process of framing the manuscript, and for this chapter we sought the thoughts and opinions of experienced academic colleagues on how authors should optimally frame manuscripts for journal submission. Each contributor was asked to provide three to five pieces of advice for young scholars on this topic. Our objective is to provide some non-obvious recommendations to young scholars that would substantially improve the manuscript from the reviewers’ viewpoint. Our contributors present guidance on framing each section of the typical academic manuscript, from introduction to conclusion, as well as some suggestions for overall improvement. We conclude with summary remarks on the importance of putting in the time and effort to frame the manuscript effectively.