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This chapter aims to shed light on the role that a sustainable orientation plays in strengthening the relationships between global consumers and online brands. Despite many previous studies about the importance of sustainability considerations for national consumers’ brand commitments and purchase intentions, there is a lack of empirical studies focussing on this relationship from a global consumer perspective. A pre-study (consisting of focus group discussions) and a widely distributed international survey with responses from 74 countries show mixed results. Whereas the results from the focus groups imply that a sustainable orientation influences both global consumers’ purchase intentions and brand commitments towards online brands, the survey results imply that global consumers’ sustainable orientations do not affect purchase intentions directly, even though they influence brand commitments. An implication of these results is that an international online brand’s possibility to portray a sustainable orientation plays an important role in strengthening the relationship with global consumers, especially regarding brand commitment.

This paper focuses on financial (bank) firms’ internationalization. We utilize and integrate literature from international dynamic marketing capability with business network theory. Financial firms in their internationalization quest need to offer competitive services to local customers but local regulations, lack of knowledge of local culture, and language, and other business-level obstacles such as the lack of knowledge about customers and the competitive environment of the target market hamper the path to be able to do so. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how a firm develops international dynamic marketing capability and penetrates foreign markets and networks by absorbing local capabilities into their organization. Based on qualitative case study research. We found that the focal firm already has different marketing capabilities but utilizing their business networks also can absorb local capabilities that enhance their international dynamic marketing capability and penetrate foreign networks. 

Previous research has called for an enhanced understanding of the dynamic and interactional aspects of board work in public sector governance. Using a longitudinal case study of Robotdalen, this paper attempts to meet this call through a processual and qualitative study of board work in public organisations. The aim of the paper is to enhance our understanding of the human side of governance and the interactions between a board, the management in the governed organisation and other stakeholders. We do this by addressing the theoretical concept of an expec- tations gap. The results demonstrated how funding regimes in uence governance functions, structures and practices at the organisational level, and how internal actors such as managers also carry out governance functions. Moreover, the results show how an expectations gap shifts and changes over time. In this way we have contributed a more nuanced theoretical understanding of how the governance func- tion is co-produced and the importance of understanding the expectations gap to further understand the dynamics of public sector board work.

The aim of this paper is to study the fluctuation of trust in a context of interaction between a board and a governed organization in the public sector. This paper is a response to the recent call on qualitative studies for understanding the complexity of interaction between boards and their governed organization and calls for adopting trust in this setting for understanding board efficiency and organizational performance. Based on empirical findings, we introduce and advance the fluctuation of trust in the public sector literature. This paper shows that trust is a complex and multidimensional concept. The types of trust discussed in this paper are cognitive, affective, contractual, competence and goodwill trust. The paper adds knowledge on how trust fluctuates and changes facets in the interaction process between a governing board and a governed organization. The multidimensionality of trust and its fluctuation effects captures the complexity in the interaction process and shows the importance of developing different types of trust for the benefit of organizational performance. We believe that trust fluctuation has the potential to advance our knowledge on the strength of different types of trust at different occasions in the interaction process.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study how different types of trust develop and change over time in the collaboration between an organization and its board.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a response to a recent call to apply the concept of trust in understanding the collaboration between a public organization, its board, and other stakeholders. Here, the authors study a single case, and based on a longitudinal in-depth case study method covering the period of 2003–2015, the authors have conducted 27 interviews, including the CEO and all the board members.

Findings

The authors introduce and advance the concept of trust in the public sector literature on board work. This paper shows that trust is complex and multidimensional at different units of analysis. The types of trust discussed in this paper are cognitive, affective, contractual, competence, and goodwill. Different types of trust are developed to make the collaboration between a governed organization and its board to work.

Research limitations/implications

Because this paper uses the case study method and only studies one single case, the findings of this paper might be questioned on the issue of generalization.

Originality/value

The authors conceptualize and adopt trust as a multidimensional, dynamic concept, and with different units of analyses, capture the nature of the collaboration between a public organization and its board, and its complexity.

This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on consumers’ online purchasing behavior as an international phenomenon. Specifically, to address consumers’ Internet skills, website perceived ease of use, and website trust as antecedents of purchase intent. With a crossnational dataset of 788 consumers from different countries, five hypotheses are tested, and a model is suggested. The findings highlight that consumers’ Internet skills and website perceived ease of use positively impact purchase intent. Interestingly, trust in the website does not. To overcome the cases where consumers feel a lack of trust, this study highlights the need for website usability and adapting to consumers’ Internet skills. The findings also illustrate that online shopping is a global phenomenon, a finding that was made possible by analyzing a large international dataset. Future studies can benefit from an online international purchasing approach, which takes the internationality of consumers’ purchasing into account.

Consumers shop increasingly on-line without thinking of national borders. This circumstancehighlights the need to increase the understanding of consumers’ cross-national purchasing and e-commerce. This study focuses on consumers’ online purchasing behaviour, studying consumers’ internet skills, website perceived ease of use and web-trust as antecedents of purchase intent. By analysing a cross-national data set of 788 consumers from different countries, the results show that consumers which make online-purchases are skilled internet- users. Moreover, the lack of trust that consumers may feel when making online-purchases, canbe lessened by a website’s perceived ease of use. The results have implications for future studiesabout e-commerce as an international phenomenon.

Purpose

This study focuses on the triadic multilevel psychic distance (MPD) between the firm, target market and bridge-maker and its consequences for firm internationalization. Specifically, it spotlights the triadic psychic distance between firms, the levels of psychic distance in the target market (country and business) and the bridge-maker. Therefore, this study examines the triadic MPD among these three entities and its impact on firm internationalization.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses qualitative and case study research approaches. It is based on 8 case companies and 24 internationalization cases. Secondary data were collected, and interviews with bridge-makers and industry experts were conducted.

Findings

The study found that MPD appeared in the triad. The MPD between firms and markets is related to country-specific differences and business difficulties. The MPD between the firm and the bridge-maker is based on the latter's lack of knowledge vis-a-vis bridging the firm's MPD. Finally, the MPD between bridge-makers and the market is based on the former's lack of knowledge of the home country's business difficulties.

Originality/value

This is the first study to develop and adopt a triadic multilevel psychic distance conceptualization that provides evidence for and sheds light on the triadic MPD and its effect on firm internationalization. This study identifies the reasons behind triadic MPD in connection to firm internationalization. Notably, firm internationalization is interdependent on the triadic MPD setting between the firm, bridge-maker and target market. It has theoretical value and contributes to the recent advancement in the understanding of MPD in international marketing literature.

The marketing literature has conceptualised exchange as transactional and relational. The aim of this article is to outline the differences between transactional and relational exchange in the B2B context and clarify why relational exchange theory should be adopted in the B2C context. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper contributes with and argues for a relational exchange view in a B2C context. However, the relational exchange view in a B2C context is different from a B2B context. The core differences are that relationships in B2C contexts are related to lower levels of adaptations, lower levels of social interactions, and high levels of switching behaviour because of lower switching costs.

We expand the conceptualization of psychic distance and use a multilevel framework by studying it as a founder's psychic distance in the pre-entry phase of entering a specific foreign market, and the SMEs (firm) psychic distance in the post-entry phase of entering that specific foreign market. Based on qualitative research involving six SMEs’ with 18 internationalization events, we found that psychic distance at country and business levels causes difficulties for SMEs in the post-entry phase because of their lack of knowledge. Bridge-makers possessing knowledge about target markets help SMEs to overcome psychic distance challenges. Trust in the relationship with the bridge-maker is an important ingredient to gain knowledge that alleviates the SMEs’ psychic distance challenges. Finally, we go beyond country-business levels of psychic distance by showing that psychic distance also matters at bridge-maker level. This relates to their lack of knowledge about the target market and SMEs’ routines.

This study focuses on enhancing the understanding of how firm internationalization is triggered by investigating how firms cope with the lack of knowledge and networks when entering a foreign market. More specifically we are interested in answering the following research question: How do firms enter foreign markets without market-specific knowledge and market-specific network insidership? To this end, the present study implements a case study of 12 Swedish firms internationalizing into emerging markets. The study found that firms “graft” expert individuals to help firms penetrate foreign markets where they have no prior history or experience. Further, we observed the qualities of a specific type of actor we refer to as a “graftee” by describing grafting actions and showing how these graftees help firms acquire experiential knowledge and network insidership. Our empirical evidence shows that grafting impacts the form and process of internationalization, sometimes enabling an effectuation-driven market entry while, at other times, enabling a causation-driven process. 

There are two different types of firm online internationalization retailers, default, and active online retailers. Previous research has shown that it mostly is mangers who decide if firms participate in international markets as a default or an active online retailer. There are, however, a lack of previous studies about the development processes of international SMEs that move from being default into becoming active online retailers. Therefore, this paper studies this process by analyzing a case-study from the Swedish retail industry. The results imply that an international retail SMEs that wants to change from being a default into becoming an active online retailer needs to develop an online marketing capability. International retailing SMEs need an online marketing capability to develop the kinds of websites and business concepts that they need to support their internationalization journeys.

There are two different types of firm online internationalization retailers, default, and active online retailers. Previous research has implied that managers decide if a firm participates in international markets as a default or an active online retailer. However, there is a lack of previous studies about the development processes of international SMEs that move from default into becoming active online internationalization retailers. Therefore, this paper examines this process by analyzing a case study from the Swedish retail industry. More specifically, the aim of this paper is to narrowly study the process of how an international SME can transform from being a DOI into becoming an AOI retailer. The results imply that an international retail SME that wants to change from being a default into becoming an active online internationalization retailer needs to develop an online marketing capability. Internationalizing retailing SMEs need an online marketing capability to develop the online shops and business concepts they need to support their continuous internationalization journeys.

Structured Abstract

Purpose: To investigate, through a multidimensional approach, how an internationalizing e-tail SME cultivates certain capabilities that enhance its e-commerce and performance.

 Design/methodology: The paper is based on longitudinal, single-case data from an internationalizing electronic retail (e-tail) SME in Sweden.

 Findings: The findings imply that while capability development, in general, is important for e-tail SMEs, the development of digitalization and marketing capabilities have the most significant impact on overall performance for these kinds of retailers.

 Originality: By extending knowledge about how three types of capabilities (internationalization capability, digitalization capability, and marketing capability) can be developed in tandem, this study contributes to international marketing research on how e-tail SMEs can work with capability development to boost their performance.

Purpose: To investigate, through a multidimensional approach, how an internationalizing e-tail SME cultivates certain capabilities that enhance its e-commerce and performance.

Design/methodology: The paper is based on longitudinal, single-case data from an internationalizing electronic retail (e-tail) SME in Sweden.

Findings: The findings imply that while capability development, in general, is important for e-tail SMEs, the development of digitalization and marketing capabilities have the most significant impact on overall performance for these kinds of retailers.

Originality: By extending knowledge about how three types of capabilities (internationalization capability, digitalization capability, and marketing capability) can be developed in tandem, this study contributes to international marketing research on how e-tail SMEs can work with capability development to boost their performance.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the concept of strategic consensus and its development connected to digital transformation for firm internationalization. Based on one in-depth case study we show that strategic consensus develops over time among top managers. Once strategic consensus has been achieved among the top management team (TMT), the work to implement the strategic consensus among the other organization members remains. This paper sheds light on the importance of resource-commitment in achieving strategic consensus, especially connected to digital transformation and internationalization. Resource-commitment is necessary to convince and motivate organizational members to partake in digital transformation processes, which often will have strong implications for the continued internationalization of firms.