Conference Agenda

Despite decades of research, we know little about how managerial mindsets influence SME export channel choice decisions and how these decisions are altered by the local conditions of a foreign target market. Managerial mindsets are the cognitive mental model managers rely on for processing and evaluating information and making decisions. In this paper we develop and test the notion that, in addition to the influence of transaction cost factors, the global mindset of top managers has a significant impact on the export channels that SMEs use. We also suggest that this relation is sensitive to the level of political instability in the target market. A multinomial regression analysis was used to analyze the responses of a sample of 208 Chinese SMEs. The two hypotheses of the study were supported. In this way we contribute to a better understanding of how managerial thinking can influence the strategic choices that are made and the boundary conditions that exist when SMEs expand abroad.

This study contributes to international business literature by exploring how seven Finnish micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) define and measure success and failure in their export performance using an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. Through in-depth interviews, the research identifies several core themes, including growth, innovation, sustainability, digital readiness, agility, resilience, and customer satisfaction. Success in international markets was assessed by the capacity to broaden market reach, preserve brand integrity, and adapt to local markets. The findings highlight the importance of high standards in supplier and buyer relationships, emphasizing dependability, quality, and sustainability. The study concludes that Finnish MSMEs perceive success as a holistic integration of growth, customer engagement, innovation, and environmental responsibility, aiming for long-term sustainability and resilience in a dynamic business environment.

This paper aims to find out how the decision-making logic of Italian micro exporters evolved in the turbulent business environment. It focuses on the dynamics of decision-making in a matched-pair case study of two Italian micro exporters active in the medical diagnostics industry, encompassing the period before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic as it is a suitable example of the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) in the business environment that reflected in managerial decision-making. The paper found that in turbulent times (but also before) both firms used a combination of decision-making logics: they mixed causal and effectual decision-making. The two logics developed parallelly to each other: the use of some elements of both effectual and causal logics increased or decreased at the same time.

SMEs and their ability to

internationalize and innovate are critical drivers of sustainable growth. This Systematic Literature Review

(SLR) delves into how inter-firm cooperation shapes innovation and collaboration among SMEs across

diverse regions.

This SLR will investigate the dynamics and implications of interfirm cooperation between SMEs in

Latin America (LAC) and regions and other regios. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature on cooperation patterns, case studies, and

empirical evidence, the research to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities for interregional

collaboration as driver of innovation.

In particular the methodology of SLR employs a multi-step approach to explore the impact of international

collaboration on innovation and technological development in LAC SMEs. First, clear inclusion and

exclusion criteria will be established to ensure the selection of relevant, high-quality studies. Whit a thematic analysis will synthesize the

extracted data to identify recurring themes and patterns, ultimately providing a nuanced understanding of

the research topic.

That provide insights and tendencies as main drivers on international collaboration for SMEs

innovation and technology crucial to understand the dynamic and complexity of the topic and main

concepts as innovation process, entrepreneurship and regional development investigation lead to

contributions on the field.

The market entry in Japan has always been perceived as challenging, especially by western

companies. Specific market entry barriers, such as keiretsu structures as well as access to local

distribution channels and to the local work force, prevented MNCs from succeeding in the

Japanese market. Due to these radical changes during the last 30 years, foreign companies are

expected to have adapted their market entry strategies. More precisely, the need to develop

experiential knowledge, as described in the Uppsala model, should have been decreased,

resulting in a turn away from internationalization patterns such as the establishment chain. An

empirical study has been conducted, including 38 German companies that had entered the

Japanese market. Against the expectations of changed market entry forms and subsequent entry

forms, the market commitment has been generally low, making mostly use of exporting

activities. However, in line with the theoretical foundation of timing strategies, pioneers show

superior performance effects compared to following companies.

The growing number of studies at the intersection of business model (BM) research and international business (IB) predominantly look at various change processes within BMs of internationalizing firms. We find this emphasis on change relevant but overgeneralized as it overlooks stability that is essential for staying competitive in new foreign markets. Hence, we

aim to examine BMs of international firms and identify changing and stable BMs elements as

well as the inter-relations between these elements. We conduct a longitudinal qualitative study

of three international firms from Finland. We build on the framework by Onetti et al. (2012) and recognize the changing BM components of focus, modus, and locus. However, we identify a stable core and unchanging element of BM nucleus. We provide a model that depicts how stable nucleus bounds and enacts changes in focus, modus, and locus of a BM of an international firm. These results provide important theoretical implications both for BM research in IB and for BM research in general.