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Drawing on the upper echelons theory and resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how SMEs' decision-makers can develop cultural intelligence to improve firms' adaptive capability and performance in foreign markets. The study addresses this need by using social cognitive theory as an appropriate tool to measure cultural intelligence development.

Using a sample of 244 Italian SMEs, data were collected through an online survey and analyzed with structural equation modeling techniques.

The results show that decision-makers of resource-constrained SMEs can rely on modeled behaviors to inform their decisions when dealing with diverse cultural contexts. The findings also reveal that the development of cultural intelligence can foster adaptive strategies and support SMEs in achieving superior performance outcomes in international markets.

Other variables can be taken into account to expand the model and recognize new determinants able to affect the link between the constructs. Other learning theories could provide additional interpretations of cultural intelligence development.

Social cognitive processes nurture cultural intelligence in helping SMEs' owner-managers become more flexible and adaptive in responding to the requests of local settings. When facing the uncertainties of foreign markets, decision-makers can effectively make inferences from the observation of successful modeled behaviors. This helps owner-managers better coordinate, recombine and allocate resources to address the needs of diverse cultural markets.

This study demonstrates that social cognitive theory is a relevant tool to measure cultural intelligence development in small business settings.

This paper investigates how to embrace an “either/and” logic, borrowed from the Yin-Yang epistemological system, to provide a different perspective to the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research and reframe its paradoxes and dilemmas.

The study adopts the duality map for paradox management, a tool designed to recognize and measure the threshold as a range within which opposite elements can be properly balanced for a healthy tension, to show that the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct can co-exist within the same organization depending on specific situations, contexts and time.

By using duality maps as working models, the study shows that, in real life, the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct co-exist in a healthy tension within the same organization and are managed in a constant process of dynamic balancing over time.

The present paper contributes to the EO research by providing a different perspective to the EO concept, thus filling the gap on how to go beyond the traditional polarized (“either/or”) paradigm that has dominated the EO literature since its origins.

EO is dominated by a polarized view that sees opposites as sharp dichotomies. However, the complexity and variability of today’s interconnected world are pushing scholars to move from this hegemonic Western perspective by adopting different cultural and philosophical approaches able to balance the inherent duality of the EO concept.

External and internal pressures are undermining the traditional bond between less significant financial institutions (LSFIs) and their local markets. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of service quality (SQ), motivation, satisfaction, and perceived value on customers’ behavioral intentions (BI) in LSFIs.

A conceptual framework of the relationship, either direct or indirect, between SQ, basic motivational determinants in consumers’ bank selection, satisfaction, and repurchase intentions of the customers is developed. The framework is tested with data from a sample of 600 customers of LSFIs in Italy. The hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling techniques.

Consumers’ decision-making process is a complex path and a more holistic view of its determinants should be considered to face those weaknesses that negatively affect a balanced management of LSFIs in the future.

The study is focused on a specific context, the Italian LSFIs’ sector, and the results from other countries or other banking sectors should be added before a generalization of the findings can be made.

The findings will be useful to policy makers and banks to improve strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction and purchase intentions in LSFIs. Adopting a simultaneous, holistic, and multivariate approach can also help LSFIs to better understand the main factors which are able to increase consumers’ purchase intentions.

This is the first study to examine customers’ BI in LSFIs even if they represent about 96 percent of the European banking industry.

Using retail banking as a setting and focusing specifically on elderly customers (i.e. individuals aged 60 or more), this study aims to deepen the current understanding of how the physical context and the need for human interaction influence elderly customers' attitudes toward self-service technologies (SSTs) and their behavior.

Using face-to-face questionnaires, a sample of 505 elderly bank customers was collected. Data were analyzed using a multi-method approach, combining a moderated mediation analysis with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The findings suggest that a pleasant retail space may result in a positive attitude toward SSTs, which increases their co-creation intention. It also highlights that need for interaction of elderly customers with employees has detrimental effects on their attitude toward SSTs.

The current analysis was carried out among Italian elderly banks' customers. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the context of the analysis. In addition, it does not consider the different degrees of knowledge and experience the elderly may have with technology.

This study suggests that providing access and support for using technology may be essential for banks to facilitate SSTs adoption in elderly customers.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of the physical context on elderly customers' attitudes toward SSTs and their consequent behavioral intentions. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of the human touch for these particular customers.

Drawing on Fang’s (2012) Yin Yang theory of culture while taking up the roadmap proposed by Li (2016) for applying the epistemological system of Yin Yang balancing to complex issues in management research, in general, and to paradoxical issues, in particular, the purpose of this paper is to explore how organizations and individuals in the West can balance cultural paradoxes and manage culture dilemmas through the lens of Yin Yang wisdom.

The paper is based on a qualitative case study. Data are gathered through interviews, documents, and field observations in four subsidiaries of an Italian insurance multinational corporation and were analyzed according to the three parameters, i.e., situation, context, and time (Fang, 2012).

The findings show how the integration and learning from seemingly opposite cultures and sets of values lead the organization and individuals to balancing cultural paradox and managing cultural dilemma effectively. With regard to situation, the authors find that both organizations and customers choose the most relevant value(s) to take advantage of specific events or circumstances, and that different value orientations can coexist. As for context, the authors show that organizations can adapt their values either through suppression and/or promotion, which can foster individuals to find new balancing within the paradox. In terms of time, the authors show that the process of learning from other cultures over time can play a role in the shift of people’s and organizations’ choices of attitudes and value orientations.

The paper suggests the relevance and usefulness of adopting Yin Yang wisdom to uncover the dynamic process of cultural learning in Western scenarios.