International entrepreneurship research in emerging economies: A critical review and research agenda

This article systematically reviews and critically examines international entrepreneurship research in emerging economies (IEEE research), and articulates its importance, timeliness and relevance in consideration of the growing influence of emerging markets in the global economy. A systematic analysis of eighty-eight journal articles published over the last two decades reveals that IEEE research is a vibrant and rapidly growing stream of the broader international entrepreneurship (IE) domain, and that it is methodologically and topically diverse. Our review also shows that IEEE research has a limited presence in premier journals, is highly skewed in its geographic coverage, and is somewhat fragmented. We therefore inventory and critically evaluate the extant IEEE research with the aim of increasing its quality, coherence, scope, and impact. On the basis of our critique, we develop an ambitious research agenda that addresses a number of emergent global phenomena and raises exciting new questions for scholars in entrepreneurship, international business, and other related disciplines.     

Culture and International business research: A review and research agenda

This study explores the role of culture and international business in internationalization outcomes through a systematic review and analysis of articles published between 2009 and 2019. By mapping the current research domain, this review reflects the avenues for future research in theory development, context, characteristics, and methodology (TCCM) in eight research clusters identified as national culture, external uncertainty avoidance, knowledge transfer & collaboration, HRM & management practices, international diversification research, entrepreneurial mindset, interaction, and firm performance. The clusters were grouped into independent factors and internationalization outcome factors. This framework provided deeper insights into the theoretical implications which will lead to further advancement in these research areas.     

International strategy and business groups: A review and future research agenda

Motivated by the growth and internationalization of business groups, this paper reviews the business group literature and presents a future research agenda, highlighting their implications for international strategy. The paper identifies theoretical tensions and empirical ambiguities around three key business group features—corporate governance, internal markets, and corporate strategy—and three key outcome variables—performance, economic impact, and innovation—that have generated significant debate. We conclude with three methodological concerns relevant to these debates: generalizing business group research across countries, endogeneity in business group research, and performance measurement in business groups.     

Changes in foreign operation modes: A review and research agenda

This paper addresses the growing but fragmented research area of changes in foreign operation modes. Previous research claims this field to be under-researched and at the same time more complex than hitherto assumed. Moreover, a majority of studies investigating mode change include the topic rather inexplicitly. In consequence, literature on mode change is fragmented across different research streams and is characterized by incoherent nomenclature, a variety of research foci as well as results that are hard to compare. By conducting a structured literature review we consolidate existing findings, provide a deeper understanding of firms’ foreign operation mode change, related theoretical perspectives, and its antecedents and consequences. Based on our findings we discuss relevant areas for future research in this research field.     

Home country institutional environments and foreign expansion of emerging market firms

We propose that home country institutional environment shapes emerging market firms’ foreign expansion. We argue that better-developed home country institutional environment promotes emerging market firms’ expansion to foreign markets more advanced than the home country, while institutional instability in the home country reduces this propensity. We further hypothesize that the effects of home country institutional environment are contingent on firm-specific government ownership. Data on the foreign expansion of 921 Chinese firms in the period of 1996–2000 provide strong support for the effects of home country's institutional development and institutional instability. We also find that a high degree of government ownership weakens the positive effect of home country's institutional development on emerging market firms’ propensity to expansion to more advanced markets.     

The determinants and performance of early internationalizing firms: A literature review and research agenda

As scholars have examined the antecedents, processes, and performance of early internationalizing firms in the past three decades, the domain has become a full-fledged research field. However, extant reviews have not yet provided a comprehensive picture of the determinants of early internationalizing firms and their performance although it is a relevant topic in the literature. In response, this paper seeks to systematically review and synthesize extant research on the determinants and performance of early internationalizing firms. The authors critically assess and examine 167 articles that have appeared in 28 academic journals over the last three decades. This study contributes to extant literature by highlighting the determinants of early internationalizing firms and their performance with a focus on the entrepreneur, firm, and environment factors. Furthermore, an integrative framework has been developed to account for the relationships among determinants, early internationalization, and outcomes. Finally, this paper reveals some significant gaps to advance an important research agenda for future research.     

Corruption in international business: A review and research agenda

We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international business. Firms must also consider corruption when formulating strategies to increase operational efficiency and performance. Finally, corruption challenges some key assumptions of existing theories of management. Scholars need to test and expand these existing theories by considering corruption as an important issue in international business.     

Agility and flexibility in international business research: A comprehensive review and future research directions

This study explores 134 articles on agility and flexibility research published in the top-nine international business (IB) journals. Accordingly, we critically analyze, map and structure flexibility and agility research in IB, and synthesize the findings into an integrative framework. The paper identifies a wide range of definitions of the concept and a lot of work on its conceptualization. However, studies at the individual and institutional levels of analyses are scarce, and the concept is under-theorized, as there is a dearth of real theoretical underpinnings in this research stream. Thus, in addressing this gap, more qualitative and interdisciplinary research is needed.     

Nurturing International Business research through Global Value Chains literature: A review and discussion of future research opportunities

This article offers a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on Global Value Chains (GVCs). The GVC framework has received growing attention in the last decade, providing theoretical concepts and analytical tools to understand and assess patterns of value creation in view of the new international division of labour. In this area, a broad overlap of research interest exists with the international business (IB) literature. Yet, few interactions between the two fields of study have been recorded so far. Performing a quantitative content analysis on all academic publications on GVCs in the period 1994−2018, this paper describes the evolution of GVC studies, emphasizing points of contact and potential synergies with the IB literature. It also identifies research opportunities along the four key dimensions of the GVC framework: geographical and industrial scope, governance, upgrading, and institutional context.     

Emerging market multinationals’ firm-specific advantages,institutional distance,and foreign acquisition location choice

How do emerging market multinational enterprises’ (EMNEs’) firm-specific advantages (FSAs) drive their foreign acquisition location choice? We theorize EMNE FSAs as important contingencies influencing the effect of institutional distance (ID) on EMNE foreign acquisition location choice. As a baseline main effect, we expect ID to positively influence EMNE location choice, as well-developed institutionally distant host-country environments are attractive to EMNEs. This effect is reduced by EMNE FSAs shaped by home-country conditions, such as success in navigating institutional voids and superior human resource management, which are more competitive in institutionally closer countries. Conversely, this effect is heightened by EMNE FSAs shaped by investment choices for knowledge and for international venturing. Based on analyses of 278 EMNE acquisitions by EMNEs from nine emerging markets, our findings largely support our hypotheses. Our study extends research on EMNE FSAs, which often have been compared only with those of developed-country multinational enterprises.     

Conceptualizing cross-country analyses of family firms: A systematic review and future research agenda

The national context in which family firms operate influences their behavior and firm-related outcomes. Especially how and why family businesses differ across contexts has therefore received growing interest. Yet, the insights on family businesses across countries remain fragmented and lack integration, especially regarding how the cross-country context is operationalized. Building on comparative cross-national research, this review aims to bridge the disciplines of international business and family business. I analyze the current field of cross-country family business research building on a systematic literature review of 105 peer-reviewed studies in the period 2000–2020 with the goal to collect and structure the current body of knowledge and build a future research agenda. The findings highlight different approaches that family business research utilizes to operationalize “cross-country” elements, outlining how research applies direct comparisons between countries and comparisons based upon theoretical perspectives. Building upon this conceptualization of cross-country operationalizations, the study provides several new avenues for future research.     

Emerging markets research: Trends, issues and future directions

We survey recent research on emerging markets (EM) within the fields of economics, finance, international business and management. To do this, we reconfigure the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification system to provide a comprehensive list of the topics that have been studied, and we combine it with the main journal ranking methodologies to identify the journals in which significant contributions to EM research have been disseminated. We highlight the areas of greatest interest and those that have received relatively little attention to date. The suggested topics for future research include: Data and methods; market efficiency, risk-adjusted returns and risk premia; exchange rate volatility and firm-level exposures; classification systems, clusters and networks; firm-level internationalisation; international business strategy; attracting and benefiting from FDI; corporate and institutional governance; and behavioural perspectives, culture and the demise of the representative agent.     

Experience and a firm's performance in foreign markets: A commentary essay

Wu and Lin (2010) extend several prominent themes in the experience and subsidiary performance literature in their empirical examination of the foreign expansion of Taiwanese MNEs. This commentary essay considers the themes in Wu and Lin (2010) against the backdrop of the considerable volume of research that has been conducted on experiential learning and firm performance in both the international business and strategy literatures. Five weak axioms about the relationships between experience, foreign market entry strategy, and performance emerge in this review. Based on these weak axioms, the commentary concludes that scholars need to concentrate future research on understanding the management and process-related issues that concern the effective management of a firm's experiential learning processes to foster better capability and knowledge development from a firm's experience, as well as translate such developments into improved performance prospects for a firm.     

Global cities: A multi-disciplinary review and research agenda

Multinational enterprise (MNE) location decisions are central to international business (IB) scholarship and research shows that global cities are key MNE investment locations. Despite growing awareness of their importance to MNEs, most literature on global cities resides outside the IB domain. To provide IB scholars with a foundation to advance global city research, we conduct a multi-disciplinary review of top journal articles organized into three themes: the nature of global cities, MNE strategic decisions in global cities, and outcomes of MNE investment in global cities. We use this framework to synthesize findings, discuss theoretical implications, and provide future research directions.     

Demarketing for sustainability: A review and future research agenda

In the context of emerging sustainability challenges, demarketing has continued to draw the attention of academicians and practitioners globally over the past few years. It is interesting to note that demarketing is as old as marketing itself, yet its application and scope have grown from the past two decades only. Kotler and Levy, (1971) has defined demarketing as “that aspect of marketing which deals with discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on a temporary or permanent basis”. This systematic literature review attempts to enrich the discussion on demarketing research through a systematic and comprehensive review of 64 articles published between 2000 and 2022. Using TCCM framework, we present relevant theories, research contexts, study characteristics, and methodologies used in demarketing research. Our review (1) Presents a systematic and comprehensive overview of the research in demarketing over the last two decades (2) Examines studies in demarketing within the framework of ‘triple bottom line’ approach for sustainability (3) Suggests a suitable definition of demarketing considering its exorbitant application within the sustainability context (4) Identify gaps and sets agenda for future research. Our systematic literature review found that research in demarketing has been growing considerably over the past two decades, twice as much in the last decade compared to the previous decade with spill-over to new sectors. The literature review, through the lens of ‘triple bottom line’ approach, is able to establish that demarketing can be employed to effectively address the sustainability challenges encountered by policymakers and practitioners.     

Ecotourism experience: A systematic review and future research agenda

This study presents a systematic review of the last 25 years' literature and offers a comprehensive understanding of the ecotourism experience. The study uses a Theory-Context-Characteristics-Method (TCCM) framework, offering insights that ecotourism experience research has advanced beyond ecotourism sites and resources to a multi-stakeholder approach. As a result, we have developed a conceptual framework illustrating three consumption stages of ecotourism, that is, pre-visit, on-site and post-visit. The study concludes by identifying some neglected areas and suggesting some future research directions in ecotourism experience field. Lastly, several theoretical and practical implications are presented that could aid the ecotourism industry in overcoming ecotourists' inertia toward site visits.     

Foreign market entry mode choice of small and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic review and future research agenda

Despite significant differences between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large multinational enterprises (MNEs), the majority of extant foreign market entry mode choice literature has focused on MNEs. The current state of knowledge regarding SME foreign market entry mode choice is equivocal. The present paper reviews the current state of SME foreign market entry mode choice literature and maps future research directions. To this end, we systematically analyze 33 relevant journal articles for their theoretical frameworks and contextual dimensions. Based on this review, we identify gaps in the literature and develop an agenda to guide future scholarship in this important domain of research in taking SME-specific characteristics into consideration.     

Riding the waves of family firm internationalization: A systematic literature review,integrative framework,and research agenda

Despite the proliferation in research efforts, family firm (FF) internationalization scholarship suffers from fragmentation, theoretical limitations, and empirical indeterminacy, leaving important facets unexplored. This article’s purpose is to unpack how this body of research has evolved over time and interfaces international business (IB) theory. We conduct a systematic literature review of relevant theoretical and empirical studies covering the last 30 years of research and comprising 134 articles. Our study contributes to this corpus of knowledge by identifying and discussing four evolutionary waves of FF internationalization research. We further advance an integrative framework that offers a comprehensive understanding of the state-of-the-art as well as promising avenues for future research at the intersection of IB and FFs.     

Blockchain application in consumer services: A review and future research agenda

The potential of blockchain technology (BCT) to modify and innovates established business structures and frameworks has received widespread attention. Academia and businesses are becoming increasingly curious about how this technology could be used to improve and refine consumer services and operations. Despite the growing popularity of blockchain research in consumer services, there remains a dearth of detailed summaries in the literature. Hence, this bibliometric analysis, combined with a systematic literature review (SLR) using SPAR-4-SLR protocol with the theories, characteristics, contexts, and methods framework (A hybrid review), aims to convey qualitative and quantitative knowledge on the ever-evolving subject of blockchain application in consumer services in an organized manner. Specifically, this article analyses: (1) the current publication trends in studies devoted to blockchain-based applications for consumers, (2) the most important publications and themes of research in this field, (3) the evolution of blockchain in consumer service over the years, and the most current trends in this field, (4) the advantages and challenges of incorporating BCT into consumer services, (5) gaps in the existing literature that future researchers should investigate. In addition, this review also describes the widely used theories, characteristics, and methods in the application of blockchain in consumer service research by examining the most applied theories, methods, constructs, and study contexts and paving the way for new research directions. The review includes 417 documents after searching for scholarly publications in two databases (Web of Science and Scopus) and choosing documents based on their relevance to the stated goals.