Entrepreneurial and market orientations: the moderating role of social networks on post-entry performance of international new ventures

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurial and marketing orientations (respectively EOs and Mos) impact – individually or collectively – international new ventures’ (INVs’) post-entry performance growth. Furthermore, we investigate whether such relations are moderated by the foreign social networks, both formal and informal, of international new ventures. Using a survey, we test our hypotheses on a sample of Italian high-tech INVs located in a cluster near Rome. A quantitative analysis is used to test the hypotheses. We found that EOs and MOs positively impact the post-entry international performance growth of INVs. Moreover, while informal foreign social network ties significantly moderate the impact of EOs and MOs, formal foreign social network ties do not have a significant moderating effect. Many theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the paper

Health Perception and Behavior Changes in Survivors of the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a severe illness with a 40% mortality rate. Improvements in care have reduced deaths but led to an increasing number of survivors who experience chronic adverse effects. However, there are no published studies that have evaluated changes in health perceptions and behavior in ARDS survivors. We sought to determine changes in health-related perceptions and behaviors in ARDS survivors. A sequential mixed methods study was conducted to examine changes in health perceptions and behaviors in ARDS survivors. Respondents were registrants at the ARDS Foundation, a non-profit patient support and education organization. Findings from interviews conducted with ARDS survivors during the initial qualitative phase were used to construct a quantitative survey instrument, which was completed by 229/513 (45%) registrants. Changes were reported in the following behaviors before and after ARDS: diet (34% and 31% consumed more fruits and vegetables, respectively, now than before ARDS, while 4% and 6%, respectively, said they consume less), physical activity (64% exercise now vs. 50% before, p\u3c0.01), alcohol use (2.3+7.6 drinks/week now vs.4.2+10.6 before, p\u3c0.001), and medical care needs (10.6+15.5 doctor visits now vs. 3.7+6.8 before, p\u3c0.001). ARDS survivors reported mostly positive health perception and behavior changes after their illness.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1012/thumbnail.jp

Il back-reshoring manifatturiero nei processi di internazionalizzazione: inquadramento teorico ed evidenze empiriche

Obiettivo del paper. Il paper si prefigge di inquadrare il fenomeno del back-reshoring manifatturiero - ovvero la rilocalizzazione nel paese di origine delle attivit\ue0 produttive precedentemente delocalizzate all\u2019estero -nell\u2019ambito dei processi di internazionalizzazione dell\u2019impresa. Metodologia. L\u2019approccio metodologico utilizzato \ue8 di tipo esplorativo, data la mancanza di una letteratura consolidata specifica. In particolare si \ue8 fatto ricorso a dati secondari raccolti in maniera originale attraverso una pluralit\ue0 di fonti. Risultati. \uc8 stata identificata una definizione operativa di back-reshoring inserendo tale fenomeno in un framework teorico rappresentativo del processo evolutivo di internazionalizzazione dell\u2019impresa. Sulla base delle evidenze empiriche, sono state proposte delle direttrici di sviluppo per future attivit\ue0 di ricerca. Implicazioni manageriali. Sono state evidenziate le conseguenze che il fenomeno pu\uf2 avere sulla competitivit\ue0 e le performance economica delle imprese che adottano strategie di reshoring. Originalit\ue0 e limiti della ricerca. Il principale elemento di originalit\ue0 del lavoro \ue8 rappresentato dall\u2019utilizzo di una metodologia di ricerca esplorativa che ha coniugato l\u2019analisi della letteratura di International business e quella di Supply chain management con l\u2019analisi di evidenze empiriche raccolte in maniera originaria. Le scelte metodologiche effettuate rappresentano anche il principale limite del contributo, le cui conclusioni non sono generalizzabili ma costituiscono la base per ulteriori approfondimenti del dibattito scientifico, per i quali si sono identificate delle specifiche direttrici

An Experimental Methodology for Industrial Redundancies: the Human Capital Map.

Facing redundancies is a recurrent issue in contemporary societies. Businesses have entered a regime of continuous restructuring in which the reorganization of production and labour is no longer a cyclical occurrence in the context of economic hardship or paradigmatic change: restructuring is an integral part of normal corporate activity, implemented also as a pro-active strategic choice to realign and improve organizational efficiency. From a policy perspective, coping with lay-offs is highly problematic and so is for the workers involved. In this context, the EU urges for anticipation. Based on a fieldwork in 35 companies of the Abruzzo region (Italy), this article presents an experimental methodology aiming to concur to the re-employment of laid-off workers. The Human capital map, enabling the analysis and classification of the skills and competencies that belong to differentiated job positions and to ascertain their similarity (or not) to the requirements of other jobs, is deemed to be an innovative instrument to be used, among the others, to anticipate and ease situations of redundancies. The findings show a high potential for job transfers both within and across industrial sectors

Industry 4.0 technologies and manufacturing back-shoring: A European perspective

Over the last two decades, companies have increasingly been re-evaluating their off-shoring strategies and implementing decisions on relocations of second degree (RSD). In some cases, the RSD decision has been implemented through back-shoring. The topic has attracted the attention of several scholars, some of whom have specifically investigated the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in the backshoring decision-making process. This paper aims to shed new light on the role that Industry 4.0 technologies play as a driver or an enabling factor for companies that are evaluating RSD alternatives. A two-step explorative approach has been used for this research. In the first step, a theoretical approach has been followed by developing a structured literature review based on 115 Scopus-indexed journal articles. The second step of the methodology is based on the empirical evidence of European countries using the UnivAQ manufacturing reshoring dataset. The collected data provides evidence of the growing interest of scholars in this issue; however, attention has mainly been focused on two single technologies, production automation and additive manufacturing. The empirical data offers interesting findings in terms of industry and geographic characterisation

The capabilities of the transnational firm: Accessing knowledge and leveraging inter-firm relationships

The nature of competition imposes a fundamental re-examination of strategies, both at the corporate and business level. Observation of a large number of firms reveals changes aimed at creating more permeable boundaries for breaking down costs, while increasing efficiency in product innovation and manufacturing. What appears to be relevant in many of these efforts is the emergence of transnational organisational architectures (TOA) in which the value-generating activities are distributed among different countries and actors, and then recomposed at the corporate level without losing efficiency. In this paper, we put forward the proposition that relational capability represents a distinctive competence for the transnational firm. The ability to access new knowledge or complementary capabilities, and to leverage inter-firm relationships and opportunities wherever they arise emerges as a critical factor for success on a global scale