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This paper seeks to examine the effects of communications infrastructure and other traditionally‐investigated, market‐related factors on net investment inflows into developed versus emerging markets.

Hypotheses are developed and tested empirically using auto‐regression analysis. Data are used from 38 countries (19 developing and 19 developed) over a ten‐year period (1995‐2004).

Findings are consistent with the view that research models of the drivers of investment inflows should consider markets' levels of economic development, different time frames, and macro‐economic changes in the global market.

Communications infrastructure influences a country's ability to attract foreign investment. Extrapolation of the results to other places and times should be done with caution.

Managers should carefully examine the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure before investing in foreign countries to determine suitability to supporting achievement of company objectives. Policy makers that wish to attract foreign investment should strengthen country ICT capacity and, especially for emerging economies, complementary capabilities and telecommunications utilization.

The research highlights the importance of communications infrastructure for attracting inward foreign investment and suggests that technological infrastructure and human utilization of communications impact investment inflows, but only during a certain time frame in the development process of market economies.

The eclectic paradigm is one of the most enduring frameworks in international business today. It is difficult to find a major area of international business thinking and research that has been unaffected, either directly or indirectly, by Dunning’s articulation of the nature of multinational enterprise (MNE) production and the factors affecting the distribution of MNE activity. His structuring of the factors underlying the choice of production location and internalization of intermediate product transactions laid the foundation for much of the research conducted over the last three decades on the distribution and character of the global operations of multinational corporations. More indirectly, the deeper questions raised by Dunning’s work, as well as the criticisms leveled at it, have spawned an ever widening array of research thought. The continuing importance of this work can be seen in the fact that, today still, even the earliest work on the eclectic paradigm continues to be cited by scholars at a fairly steady rate (see Chandy & Williams, 1994; Phene & Guisinger, 1998).¹

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to increased understanding of the concept agile and its potential for hospital managers to optimize design of organizational structures and processes to combine internal efficiency and external effectiveness.

An integrative review was conducted using the reSEARCH database. Articles met the following criteria: first, a definition of agility; second, descriptions of enablers of becoming an agile organization; and finally, discussions of agile on multiple organizational levels. In total, 60 articles qualified for the final analysis.

Organizational agility rests on the assumption that the environment is uncertain, ranging from frequently changing to highly unpredictable. Proactive, reactive or embracive coping strategies were described as possible ways to handle such uncertain environments. Five organizational capacities were derived as necessary for hospitals to use the strategies optimally: transparent and transient inter-organizational links; market sensitivity and customer focus; management by support for self-organizing employees; organic structures that are elastic and responsive; flexible human and resource capacity for timely delivery. Agile is portrayed as either the “new paradigm” following lean, the needed development on top of a lean base, or as complementary to lean in distinct hybrid strategies.

Environmental uncertainty needs to be matched with coping strategies and organizational capacities to design processes responsive to real needs of health care. This implies that lean and agile can be combined to optimize the design of hospitals, to meet different variations in demand and create good patient management.

While considerable value has been paid to strategies to improve the internal efficiency within hospitals, this review raise the attention to the value of strategies of external effectiveness.

Purpose – We delineate how the concept of reputation has been used in different literatures. We develop some formal definitions of observers and reputation that bring together the different literatures. We then ask how noncooperative or “bad” reputations might be repaired. Based on the developed definitions and past research, we suggest some possibilities for reconciliation. We also work on developing an experimental paradigm to investigate reputation.

Methodological/Approach – We review research from different disciplines, develop definitions, and design an experiment.

Findings – We suggest that, under certain conditions, group reconciliation can occur. However, these conditions are quite specific.

Practical Implications – When the goal is to solve a social dilemma, reconciliation is an important part of the process. Without reconciliation, group integration is problematic.

Social Implications – Reconciliation can be a powerful process that encourages cooperation. We suggest some ways that reconciliation might be possible.

Originality/Value of the Chapter – This chapter suggests a new formalization to connect different conceptualizations of reputations.

The objective of this study was to examine the trends in the specialty chemical industry that have led to the rising number of agile practices and “virtual” organizations. The current state of the industry is also presented. An agile company can be defined as an enterprise that is capable of operating profitably in a competitive environment of continually, and unpredictably, changing customer opportunities. The five most prevalent agile practices in the specialty chemical industry can be summarized as, entering niche markets through custom chemicals manufacturing, improving relationships with suppliers (also, a lean manufacturing practice), formation of strategic partnerships, adaptation of advanced technology/research, and the emergence of “virtual” firms. Examples and case studies from other authors are cited and commented upon with respect to these five agile practices. In addition, actual results from the study of a small specialty chemical firm have been used to ascertain the level of agility that this firm utilizes. A comparison of this manufacturing company's practices with the case studies from the literature reveals how a small‐intermediate size manufacturer can properly implement many agile manufacturing practices and position itself for growth and competitiveness in its category and class.

The purpose of this paper is to further advance an existing supplier evaluation model for the purpose of identifying those supplier relations which predominantly threaten or worsen a company's performance. A defined basic set of parameters to determine complexity facilitates the identification of critical locations within a supply network (SN) under certain business conditions.

This paper is based on a structured literature review in scientific periodicals in logistics/supply chain management between 2000 and 2009. Articles are analysed based on a structured framework and the identified complexity parameters are operationalised using quantitative and summable measures. The conceptual model is applied within a multiple case study in the Austrian agricultural industry.

This paper illustrates how complexity in SNs can be operationalised in a company‐specific configuration in order to achieve concrete managerial recommendations. Hence, the model allows evaluating SN‐partners based on selected parameters to determine the contribution of a single partner to the overall complexity.

Due to the literature review executed and the case study approach chosen, the research may lack generalisability. Therefore, continued validation by means of implementing a greater amount of use cases in other companies and industries is advisable.

Applying the model, a company is able to determine tier‐1 to tier‐n suppliers which are predominantly affecting its business from a complexity perspective.

Unlike typical current complexity evaluation approaches, the proposed model respects rapid and continuous applicability, profound conceptualisation and practical feasibility.

Some scholars imprint an academic discipline by their contribution to the manner in which people think and research, namely, by putting forward novel concepts and insights. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Sumantra Ghoshal's work on the study of subsidiaries and multinational enterprises and organizational formats for foreign operations.

A bibliometric study focused on Bartlett and Ghoshal's well‐known book Managing across Borders: The Transnational Solution is performed to assess its impact in international business (IB) research. The entire record of publications in the top leading IB journal, Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS ), is examined.

Theoretically supported, Ghoshal's work was keenly influenced by his corporate experiences and his constant questioning of the dominant theories and assumptions. The analyses in this paper show the impact of the work on the “transnational solution”, namely, on the understanding of multinationals and subsidiaries, thus being one of the most notable contributions for IB research over the past 20 years.

The empirical analysis is limited to one, albeit the leading, journal, and to articles published, not including books, theses and other documents, perhaps under‐representing Ghoshal's full impact.

Useful for graduate students and in writing a literature review, this paper presents an interesting manner to examine a scholar's and a theory's impact on a discipline.

This paper presents an extensive bibliometric analysis of research published over a time‐span of 22 years in international business studies.

The Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has only recently included investment liberalization on its agenda. A review of actions since the Bogor declaration of 1994 reveals that critical components of an investment liberalizing strategy are already being assembled within APEC. For example, an investment experts group has been meeting regularly and it has undertaken work on impediments to investment and on implementing the non‐binding investment liberalizing procedures endorsed by members at Bogor in 1994. Investment is also now a required component of each member's annual individual action plan. It would be useful to formalize this process and then move towards adoption of the rules‐based investment provisions of NAFTA, especially the national treatment principle. Then the process developing within APEC to liberalize investment as well as trade by 2020 would help to speed up the economic integration of APEC.

The purpose of this paper is to present a concise status of niche marketing research and thereby provide a basis for further scholarly enhancement and insights for practitioners.

This paper takes the form of a literature review.

Reasons for why and when to pursue niche marketing, key success factors for implementing niche marketing and the potential problem areas are identified. Avenues for advancing knowledge about niche marketing are discussed.

Practitioners benefit from this comprehensive review of findings and insights from previous research. Scholars benefit from this review, as it summarizes and identifies key areas for future niche marketing research.

There has be no known scholarly article assessing the status of niche marketing research since Dalgic and Leeuw's seminal work.