The Services Internationalization Process: An Exploratory Investigation of Australian Service Company Internationalization to China

Service companies possess different characteristics from non-service-based companies, affecting their process of internationalization. This article examines the internationalization of service organizations using case studies of 23 Australian service organizations internationalizing to China. It finds that the internationalization process is influenced by the type of service the organization produces. The Uppsala internationalization model partially explains internationalization for companies producing exportable services but did not explain internationalization for companies, which produce nonexportable services (services that must be located within the market). International experience, government regulations and capital intensity were influential for internationalization. The findings develop a model for service organization internationalization.     

The role of incubator organizations in the founding of growth-oriented firms

The role of incubator organizations, those organizations where entrepreneur work before starting their own firms, is examined. Using a sample of 161 new, growth-oriented firms, the relationships of the new companies to their incubator organizations are considered, as well as the characteristics of the incubator organizations. 5The findings have implications for prospective entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in most industry categories do not change geographic location and, in most technical industries, usually start businesses related to what they did before. An individual's decision to join a particular organization results in a particular geographic location and in knowledge about a particular industry. The would-be founder located in an unpromising geographic area and getting experience in an industry offering few opportunities for company start-ups is unlikely to be able to start a growth-oriented technical firm, regardless of personal motivation. However, the prospective founder of a nontechnical firm appears to be less tied to the experience gained in an incubator organization.There are also implications for regional economic development. Because technically oriented start-ups are tied closely to the business of their incubator organizations and because most entrepreneurs don't move when starting, the possibilities for high-technology start-ups may be very limited in many geographic regions. There have been no studies, to date, on why some founders move when starting. Programs to attract entrepreneurs at the time of start-up may have promise, but, at least to date, there is not much evidence of entrepreneurs being mobile at this stage of their careers.Local and regional programs to attract branch facilities of larger corportions have a long history. The emphasis is usually upon attracting facilities that will offer the maximum number of blue-collar jobs. In contrast to this traditional approach, it might be beneficial to shift the emphasis to those facilities most likely to function as incubators. The greatest benefits might come from laboratories or divisions that would “seed” a region with people learning about promising technologies or industries.The role of universities in this process appears to be less direct than is often assumed. Based upon our sample, it appears that software and biotechnology/medical firms often have spun-off from universities or hospitals. However, in other industry categories, it is business firms that have primarily served as incubators. There are currently many experiments underway to create university-affiliated innovation centers or incubator centers intended to help aspiring entrepreneurs. Whether these will enable universities to function more effectively as incubators, spinning off students and faculty who start growth-oriented firms, remains to be seen.     

Firm-specific assets and the internationalization–performance relationship in the U.S. movie studio industry

We study the role that firm-specific assets (FSAs) play in the processes underlying the internationalization–performance relationship. International business scholars have begun studying the interrelationship between FSAs, internationalization, and performance; however, this research is still emergent, and has produced inconclusive results. We believe that this may be due, in part, to research designs involving the same FSAs across many industries, even though individual industries may rely on different FSAs in their internationalization strategies. We address this issue in a single industry study of U.S. movie studios, which typically rely on blockbuster production capabilities as FSAs in their internationalization efforts. We show how these FSAs co-evolve with firms’ degree of internationalization, and how each factor mediates the positive effect of the other on performance. Our results highlight the importance of studying specific industries and their salient FSAs when assessing their role of such resources in the internationalization–performance relationship.     

Internationalization journey of healthcare providers: The case of Turkish Acıbadem healthcare group

The advances in technology and global deregulation have led to the progressive internationalization of professional services, notably, the healthcare industry. The present case study examines the remarkable internationalization journey of Acibadem Healthcare Group (AHG) by scrutinizing the dynamics and outcomes of the agile and innovative strategies which propel their achievements. The case of AHG shows that successful internationalization in the service industry, in general, and healthcare, in particular, is not solely in the domain of large, established companies from advanced economies, but those ventures with liabilities of origin, newness, and size can also succeed with smart strategies and resourceful leveraging of their competitive advantages. The study provides unique insights on strategic management for successful internationalization of the healthcare services within an emerging market context and suggests future research avenues in this fast-growing field of inquiry.     

Verbund von Industrie und Dienstleistungen wird enger

Structural change in highly developed countries is characterized by the increasing importance of the tertiary sector — especially production oriented services — at the expense of the secondary sector. The present paper analyzes the kinds of linkages between service industries and manufacturing branches using the results of a survey of firms carried out in parts of the German Rhineland. The results show that knowledge intensive services in particular help to strengthen the regions’ export bases. Furthermore, service industries and manufacturing industries are closely and increasingly linked to each other. In this process manufacturing industries demand highly specialized services while service industries give innovative impulses, helping to increase industrial firms’ competitive capability. Thus the importance of the manufacturing industry in this network is higher than statistical analysis is able to show. Regions are well advised, therefore, not to neglect the locational requirements of manufacturing industries.     

Product bundling strategies in Swedish markets: links to business orientation and perceived effects on consumer influence

Product bundling is an increasingly important marketing strategy within many industries, and consumer influence on companies' ranges of product bundles is, thus, becoming an important issue. The aim of this study was to investigate product bundling strategies consumers are exposed to by some selected companies in the Swedish automobile, travel and banking industries. Bundling strategies were considered in relation to business orientation as well as the consumer's potential to influence the product bundles offered by these companies. Fourteen qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with senior representatives from the three sectors. Interview respondents were selected in cooperation with their respective companies. Results underwent interpretative analysis, and the findings indicated that business orientation is linked to product bundling techniques and to the type of customer influence on product bundling. Consumers were exposed to mixed and complementary bundling strategies, and customers of companies that apply a market orientation were found to have greater opportunities to influence product bundles directly, whereas companies that apply a production‐oriented approach were less able to respond to their customers' wishes. Consumer influence on the product bundles of production‐oriented companies was found to be of a more indirect nature.     

基于组织间供应链网络的民营企业境外拓展能力分析——以浙江省为例

本文在对企业组织间供应链网络及企业国际化文献的研究基础上,提出有关民营企业基于组织间网络的境外拓展能力的假设。在经验研究部分,以浙江省为例,对已经开展境外拓展的民营企业进行问卷调查并检验这些假设。研究结果表明,当前,浙江省民营企业在境外拓展中遇到的障碍依其重要性依次为贸易壁垒、市场信息匮乏和产品缺乏竞争力,而资金匮乏不是其境外拓展中的主要障碍。民营企业在境外拓展过程中应该加强培育和构筑网络关系,而非仅仅依赖企业自身的力量,其中行业组织这一网络成员的作用尤其重要。     

A Marriage of Large and Small: R & D for Healthcare Products

The most critical factor for success in the pharmaceutical industry is the discovery of novel drugs that treat major illnesses for which there had been, up to then, only inadequate kinds of treatment. Until a decade or so ago, most drugs were discovered through the in-house research of major pharmaceutical companies. But now these major companies are increasingly relying on small firms and academia for drug discovery, while concentrating on their core competences of drug development and marketing. A similar pattern is emerging in other parts of the healthcare industry. This article discusses the synergy between small and large firms in healthcare and suggests that this pattern may become a general one for all innovative industries.     

Sluggish giants,sticky cultures,and dynamic capability transformation

Using a theoretical framework derived from contemporary literature this paper investigates whether large and culturally dominant firms can transform their capabilities over time. Strategic capabilities, as articulated in theory, include resource accumulation and resource configuration. To these is added the capability of resource utilization which comes about because of tacit and inimitable intra-firm coordination skills and is a key performance measurement metric. This article evaluates whether large firms in the U.S. telecommunications industry have been able to effect a transformation in their strategic performance over a 16 year period of time: 1975 to 1990. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s many measures have been undertaken to restructure the industry environment, and these culminated in the 1984 divestiture by AT&T of this 22 Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) to seven Regional Holding companies (RHCs). Simultaneously a series of steps opened competition in many markets for not only the RHCs but for the other local operating companies, of which there are approximately 25 large ones, which in many cases are bigger than some of the companies belonging to the RHC fold. The local operating companies have faced a major transformation in their environment in the last 10 years. Once protected monopolies, they now face increasing competition in many market segments, which were once their profit sanctuaries enabling them to cross-subsidize many unprofitable operations. For the larger operating companies once owned by AT&T there was the shock of divestiture and re-birth, providing them an opportunity to engage in entrepreneurially oriented behavior. Thus, the U.S. telecommunications industry provides a useful laboratory within which to analyze performance and capability transformation. Additionally, one of the key issues that the literature is concerned with is the transformation in the performance of existing organizations. This article provides evidence on the key issue of corporate performance transformation for the principal firms that comprise one of the most important industries of contemporary times. It is a transformation that continues at an even faster pace today.The results show that in a dynamic setting size no longer materially influences negative performance. Inertia arguments about the ability of large firms to effect change are not validated in the context of a dynamic U.S. telecommunications industry. With a larger variety and pool of resources available, larger firms can undergo transformation through a process of dynamic learning as effectively as smaller firms. The relative transformation of the erstwhile Bell Operating Companies is a testimony to this assertion. The results have some implications for downsizing. Received wisdom means that less is better and smaller is swifter. Downsizing means dispersal of assets and resources, particularly human resources which embody firm-specific skills and knowledge. Which types of resources are lost in this process is critical to the eventual success of such endeavors. With downsizing, the ability of large firms to transform themselves via internal learning may be lost. Dynamic learning implies information scale economy exploitation, and to the extent that critical mass is reduced through downsizing there is lesser diffusion of information and knowledge. As a qualitatively important part of this human capital mass is reduced, there is less impact of future learning as firm-specific knowledge, which could be combined with emergent information to create new capabilities disappears. In such circumstances whether large firms can transform themselves successfully is a salient issue that ought to be further evaluated.     

以另一种方式来思考运动：切沃维罗纳足球俱乐部

全球化正影响着我们的日常生活.工作中,当地的企业越来越需要和外国企业一起合作;在学校里,学生至少需要学习一门外语;在城市中,来自不同国家的人们生活在一起.这些都是全球化的产物,而在体育界我们也容易找到同样的例子：比赛越来越国际化,大众的参与度也越来越强烈.     

Strategic changes in purchasing: Two main tracks

Purchasing is going through an extensive process of change, and facing several challenges. In this study two important strategic tracks are identified and the underlying causes analysed. The first track entails an increased degree of purchasing, following from make-or-buy decisions: so-called outsourcing. The second tract entails decentralization of and coordination within the purchasing function. In three case studies, these two tracks have been found to be dominant aspects of change. They can be implemented simultaneously, but their driving forces are different. The companies examined have been chosen to make comparisons between a company within the automobile industry and two prominent companies within other engineering industries. Comparisons show that automobile manufacturers have unique prerequisites for going very far along the outsourcing track, owing to a combination of mass production and an end-product that contains many modules or subsystems. In terms of decentralization of and coordination within the purchasing function, the companies have more similar conditions and changes are more alike.     

Internationalization in different industrial contexts

The important questions in a firm's internationalization strategy deal with which national markets they should enter and the order in which the chosen markets should be entered. Different theoretical scenarios provide a range of answers to these questions. In this article, it is argued that the appropriateness of the theories depends on the industrial context to which it is applied. The international development of some Swedish firms in mature and high-growth industries is discussed. Whether a theory is appropriate depends on the firms' degree of internationalization and whether the industry is mature or growing. International entrepreneurship literature has been shown to enhance understanding of the early stages of a firms' internationalization in growing industries.     

The internationalization of small firms: The relationship between the global mindset and firms’ internationalization behavior

Some firms in internationally oriented industries are internationalized while other comparable firms in the same sector or industry do not. Observing this difference in strategic behavior among small firms led us to consider how differences in CEOs’ attitudes, international orientation, and mindset might explain it. Therefore, this study adopts a cognitive perspective on management to explore the formation of the global mindset and the relationship between the global mindset of small-firm decision makers and their firms’ internationalization behavior. A theory-based conceptual model and measurement instrument are developed and—using structural equation modeling—the model is estimated based on empirical data from cross-sectional samples of small Norwegian and Portuguese firms. The study finds: (1) a strong causal relationship between the global mindset and firms’ internationalization behavior; (2) the combination of the findings and substantive theory indicates that the main driver of firms’ internationalization operates through the global mindset. This study also covers the factors that strongly influence the formation of a global mindset, especially the decision makers’ work experience and personal characteristics in terms of propensity to interdisciplinary collaboration, cognitive flexibility, and networking capability. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for policies that can foster the internationalization of small firms.     

The role of the entrepreneurial team and the board of directors in the internationalization of academic spin-offs

This study addresses the roles of the entrepreneurial team and the board of directors in the internationalization of academic spin-off companies. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of 109 spin-offs from Norwegian academic institutions. The findings suggest that academic spin-offs are more likely to achieve both international strategic alliances and international sales with entrepreneurial teams having industrial experience that is both highly homogeneous (where each member has work experience in the same industry) and highly diverse (where each member has work experience in different industries) and board members that have diverse functional backgrounds. Firms that are less dependent on networking by board members to increase legitimacy and build relationships with potential foreign customers are more likely to achieve international sales.     

International advertising campaigns in fast-moving consumer goods companies originating from a SMOPEC country

A particularly interesting area of research concerns how international fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies from small and open economies that operate in turbulent markets plan successful advertising campaigns for international markets. The objective of this research was to determine how they are planned and what factors affect this planning. The theoretical part of the study reviews literature related to the internationalization of firms, international advertising campaigns, and standardization versus adaptation of international advertising. Based on the literature, a theoretical framework and propositions regarding the international campaign planning process for FMCG companies were developed. The empirical part uses the multiple-case study method to examine four FMCG companies that were founded in Finland. The empirical results show that five stages are especially important in the international campaign planning of FMCG companies. Moreover, the companies need to consider a number of factors when deciding on international adverting campaigns. The study presents a number of theoretical contributions and managerial implications. A novel finding relates to the importance of understanding the impact of the internationalization/globalization phase of the company. During internationalization often within the home continent, companies increasingly adapt advertising campaigns to different countries, whereas globalization to other continents calls for increased standardization across countries. Another interesting finding was that FMCG companies from small and open-economy (SMOPEC) countries often use innovative non-traditional campaigns to overcome the resource limitations.     

The founding rate of venture capital firms in three European countries (1970–1990)

In this article, the sectorial and environmental forces that facilitate or inhibit the creation of venture capital companies are studied in the three European countries where the industry is most developed: the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. The focus is on the start-up phase of the industry, the period from 1970–1990. The founding of firms can be studied on four different levels: entrepreneurial, organizational, population, and macroeconomic. In this study, a population approach is taken; this implies that we do not attempt to explain any single founding, but rather the aggregate number of foundings that occur in an industry in a certain period in a certain country.According to the organizational ecology theory, the population density (i.e., the total number of organizations in a population) is the major environmental factor that affects the founding rate through two processes. Initially, when the density is low, each founding eases new foundings, because the simple prevalence of a form tends to give it legitimacy (thereby spurring imitations), the training ground for qualified personnel grows and the supporting networks are widened and strengthened. The legitimation process does not grow forever: once enough organizations of a certain kind exist, legitimation attains a ceiling. As the number of organizations increases, the second process becomes dominant: the competition for resources (raw material, personnel, customers, capital) grows, leading to a negative relationship between the density and the founding rate, everything else being equal. Thus, the founding rate declines as the number of organizations increases, once a threshold is reached. The major hypothesis that is tested here is that the population density has an inverted U-shaped effect on the founding rate of venture capital organizations.In addition, the effect that the venture capital firms of the three countries have on each other is studied. Two populations are said to interact when the populations affect each other's growth rate, but the interaction need not be symmetrical. The second hypothesis, tested in this study, is that populations in different countries have a positive effect on each other and not a competitive effect because the legitimating effect does not halt at geographical borders. Yet, the competition for resources (capital, people, deals) among geographically different populations is limited in this industry.This study is valuable because until now, the existing ecological studies focus on long-established industries. Testing, the theory in a young industry that emerged only in the seventies (in Europe) has merits in its own right, because the technological progress after the Second World War has altered the organizational environment tremendously. The communication and transportation revolutions may have especially influenced the way in which organizations interact with each other and with the environment. The venture capital firms are furthermore special in the way they are organized with the dual structure of management company and investment fund(s). If the theory holds in this young industry, important additional evidence will be given that the theory is truly applicable to “populations of all types, in any time period, and in any society” (Carroll 1988, p. 18). Finally, this study extends the theory by giving evidence on how industries in different countries may interact upon each other.We show empirically that the major factor that influences the overall founding rate in each of the three countries is the density of the industry, i.e., the number of organizations that already exist in the industry; this confirms the population ecology theory. When the density is low, adding a new organization to the industry raises the probability of a subsequent founding; when the density is high, the contrary is true. The institutional changes considered here, such as the establishment of tax transparent legal entities or state guarantees against losses (in the Netherlands) and the establishment of secondary stock markets, do not significantly influence the founding rate in any of the three countries. Moreover, the Dutch foundings are positively influenced by the British density and the French foundings by the Dutch density; the British foundings are, on the contrary, negatively influenced by the Dutch density. The competitive effects between the Netherlands and the U.K. are thus more important than initially thought.The relationship between the density and the founding rate is the strongest, most consistent, and most significant relationship found in this study. Thus, the number of organizations that already exist in an industry is very important in explaining the founding of organizations, apart from, for example, the personality of the entrepreneur or from the networks in which he or she is involved. This indicates that, when trying to explain the founding of organizations, the industry structure, and more specifically the number of organizations that exist at the moment of the founding, cannot be ignored.     

The internationalization of an Arab bank: The case of Ahli United Bank of Bahrain

Ahli United Bank of Bahrain (AUB) has “leapfrogged” over early stages of internationalization by means of multiple rapid acquisitions of competitors. Use of this high‐cost, high‐risk strategy is well known among companies with the resources to invest in international expansion, but its application has not yet been studied in depth among companies based in the Middle East. This theory‐driven case study examines the growth record of AUB, its place in the regional banking industry in the Gulf, and its successful internationalization as an Arab bank. The article concludes with a detailed assessment of managerial and theoretical implications arising from the case study, and proposes further research to understand better the process of internationalization by companies expanding from a base in the Middle East. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Internationalization of Clustered Companies and the Influence of Resources: A Case Study on Wine Clusters in Brazil and France

Although the importance of local/regional factors in firms' international competitiveness has been increasingly recognized, few studies have investigated the relationship between clusters and the internationalization process of clustered-firms. This theme assumes special relevance for industries that are predominantly organized in territorial agglomerations, or clusters, as is the case of the wine industry. The objective of this paper is to identify the resources generated by the cluster and analyze their influence in the internationalization process of clustered companies. A case study was carried out on two wine clusters: Provence, in Southern France, and Serra Gaúcha, in Southern Brazil. Resource-based theory provides the underlying analytical framework. Both theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Identity and social responsibility policies: Six large corporations examined

Managers in all industries reach a time in their careers when they must answer certain questions about their firms. They are required to deal philosophically with the questions of social responsibility and identity; failure to do so may limit the firm's growth. The author examines management strategies and policies related to responsibility and identity as they have been resolved in six large firms, all highly oriented to consumer products. The firms include Ashland Oil and Refining Company, Standard Oil of Ohio, General Electric, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, and Federated Department Stores. Each has a special identity and egocentrism. Guidelines established by these six companies may help other businessmen and managers in reaching decisions for themselves and their organizations.     

The internationalization of soft-services: entry modes and main determinants in the Spanish hotel industry

This article addresses the internationalization of soft-services. These types of services require major local presence than other industries as production and consumption occur simultaneously. In particular, the study attempts to analyze those factors that might influence the entry mode choice and reflect the specific nature of the hotel industry, which shows an important increase of their operations overseas in recent years. Based on a sample composed of more than 1,200 entry operations in the Spanish hotel industry, our results suggest that determinant factors of entry mode choice in manufacturing firms cannot be directly transferred to the internationalization of soft-services firms. Some variables which were generally analyzed as determinant factors of control decisions in the manufacturing sector are not significant or present different results in the hotel industry. Moreover, this study enhances knowledge on internationalization based on countries other than the most developed.