Sustainable international business model innovations for a globalizing circular economy : a review and synthesis, integrative framework, and opportunities for future research

The global imperative has increased in recent years for international firms to respond to major threats such as unintended environmental, social, and economic problems arising from ecological destruction, population growth, and economic activity. To respond to this confluence that has created an emerging existential crisis, we identify that a globalizing circular economy (CE) is required and subsequently define a new construct: sustainable international business model innovations. In doing so, we introduce circular inputs, sharing platforms, product as a service, product use extension, and resource recovery as business models that contain the potential to reply to these grand challenges. Based on CE principles, the innovations and designs introduced are contrasted with the traditional linear economic model and are presented as actionable standardization/adaptation alternatives for companies responding to differing informal and formal international institutions. Based on the theoretical underpinnings of the resource-based, dynamic capabilities, and international business model innovation perspectives, we introduce an integrative framework that is accompanied by a series of detailed research questions to provide future research opportunities for the domain. This conceptual approach holds that international resource design influences marketing capabilities adaptation which, in turn, impacts international performance and offers a foundation from which to build the literature.© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

An Assessment of the Exporting Literature: Using Theory and Data to Identify Future Research Directions

Exporting research is an established facet of the field of international marketing. That stated, the radical increase in recent export activity necessitates a sustained research effort devoted to the topic. In this article, the authors provide a qualitative review of the core theoretical exporting areas and evaluate the exporting domain quantitatively over six decades (1958–2016). For the quantitative analysis, they use multidimensional scaling and apply established bibliometric principles to offer an understanding of the field and to provide suggestions for future exporting research. For the evaluations, the authors used data from 830 articles with 52,191 citations from 35 journals. Using cocitation analysis as the basis to evaluate the data, they propose a series of intellectual structure implications on exporting that relate to internationalization process stages, dynamic capabilities, knowledge scarcity, social networks, export marketing strategy, absorptive capacity and learning, and nonlinear performance relationships involving marketing channel relationships

Using bibliometric research to advance the business-to-business sustainability literature : Establishing an integrative conceptual framework for future application

With 4,249 articles and 245,255 citations, this study identifies four important research topics for three time periods spanning five decades (1971–2020) in business-to-business (B2B) sustainability research: stakeholder orientation and corporate social performance, environmentally-focused resources and their influence on competitive supply chains, internal organization and relational contracting, and trust and commitment. Based on established theory identified in this evaluation of the B2B sustainability literature, an integrative research framework is introduced for future consideration by the domain. The model possesses three components of a firm’s strategic focus (partnership type, stakeholder orientation, and sector emphasis) that affect its supply chain collaboration. A greater understanding of the company’s supply chain collaboration lies in how the influence of its relationship stage, sustainability capabilities, and channel pressure can impact different sustainability performance outcomes – be they social, environmental, or economic. Additionally, we identify internal (top management initiatives and sustainability investments) and external (economic, technological, and market uncertainties) non-channel drivers and barriers as critical in their moderation of the proposed framework to provide considerable opportunity for future B2B sustainability research endeavors.©2022 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The structure of JIBS's social network and the relevance of intra-country variation: A typology for future research

We examine articles published in the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and introduce a typology to support the relevance of intra-country variation in international business (IB). Based on social network theory, our analysis uses multidimensional scaling to study 53,203 citations from 1158 qualifying JIBS articles to determine the journal's social structure. The results indicate that three current research clusters (multinational enterprise knowledge development, foreign entry and cultural effects, and the internationalization process and national culture) are based on established IB theory. Then we respond to calls in the literature to improve research concerning intra-country variation, and propose a typology of three dimensions (social, demographic, and geographic) to study the diversity of individual, firm, and economic activity in a country. The social dimension evaluates the importance of modernist and traditionalist values, the demographic dimension proposes differences between urban and rural settings, and the geographic dimension discusses the relevance of border and interior locations. We suggest a nested typology that unifies these three dimensions for continued use in IB. Future research opportunities related to JIBS's social structure and the intra-country variation typology are recommended.

Domestic alliance network to attract foreign partners: Evidence from international joint ventures in China

Partner selection is a critical issue in building international joint ventures (IJVs). We argue that foreign firms are more likely to select local firms with unique network structural advantages within a local alliance network. We frame structural advantages as two network position traits: centrality and brokerage. Specifically, network centrality acts as a stronger network trait than brokerage in attracting foreign IJV partners. However, such a relationship may be moderated by foreign firms' local experience and perceived capabilities. We contend that when foreign firms have a high level of local market experience and perceived capabilities, they may prefer a local broker over a centrally located local firm. Data on the domestic alliance network in China's electronics and information technology (IT) industries largely support our hypotheses. We conclude that as foreign investors become strategic insiders, they may not only seek a local partner's capability attributes, but also more critically pay attention to a local partner's domestic network

An assessment of the measurement of performance in international business research

A sizeable body of international business (IB) research is devoted to building knowledge about the determinants of organizational performance. A key precursor to accurately diagnosing why some organizations succeed in the international marketplace while others struggle is operationalizing performance appropriately. Yet, to date, no systematic investigation has considered how well IB research measures performance. We examine the measurement of performance in 96 articles published in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Science, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal between 1995 and 2005. The findings reveal that most studies do not measure performance in a manner that captures the multifaceted nature of the construct. We describe the implications of these results, and offer suggestions for improving future practice. Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 1064–1080. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400398