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This article reports the findings of an investigation into pricing and financing practices of exporting firms. The research addressed the relationship between commitment to exporting and level of export achievement with the uses of various tactical options in the area of pricing and finance. Firms in the machine tools industry in two countries were studied so that country of origin effects could be examined. Results show that commitment and success are strongly associated while there is some variability in the use of pricing and financing practices by the country of origin of the exporting firms. Commitment is shown to have some influence on relationships between (1) country of origin and financing practices and (2) financing practices and success.

Managers' perceptions of exporting are shown to have a critical influence on firm export performance in this study of machine tool manufacturers in the US and Canada. Of special importance are managers' perceptions of the advantages of exporting over domestic sales, especially perceptions of export‐related growth opportunities. Perceptions of the complexities associated with exporting and managers' work experience overseas are also shown to be related to the percentage of sales a firm obtains by exporting. Possible explanations of these findings are suggested and several implications are discussed.

Internationalization has usually been depicted as an incremental process of limited commitment in the face of high uncertainty. Yet in recent years, a number of major changes — ranging from industry deregulation to newly opened markets to the revolution in information technology — have transformed the context for international growth. The result is two-fold: on one hand, firms face lower barriers to international growth, meaning that more firms, smaller in size and fewer in resources, can expand internationally; yet precisely because of the resulting surge in international growth, firms face a need to internationalize more rapidly than before. The result is a new set of imperatives for successful internationalization, stressing entry mode versatility and the simultaneous use of resources.

Firm internationalization or the degree of internationalization (DOI) has both been viewed as a critical dimension of company strategy and linked with enhanced firm performance. This research reports a theoretical postulation based on a conceptual synthesis and an empirical assessment, of this relationship among Chinese firms. Based on the economies of scale, market seeking, risk reduction and experiential learning benefits and possible threshold effects due to learning and accumulation, it is hypothesized that there is a curvilinear relationship between DOI and firm performance and furthermore firms in open or more marketized regions of China will benefit more from their internationalization efforts because of the supportive institutional environment. Multiple regression models employing a large data set of Chinese firms provided supportive empirical evidence. Theoretical and practical implications and research directions are considered.

This paper deals with the effects of firm age on export behavior and performance for small exporters. Using market and technology trends from the last decades, we have classified three generations of small exporters: the traditional, the flexible specialists, and the Born Globals. Building upon a sample of Norwegian exporters these three generations of exporting firms are compared using competitive advantage, manager orientation, export motives, and export strategy. The results revealed several significant distinguishing features between the generations. Important differences were the strong technological competitiveness, niche focus and widespread use of advanced communication technology in the two groups of recently established exporters compared to the older, traditional exporters. The study also showed that the various generations of firms had different export performance antecedents. Key factors for the Born Globals were found to be technological advantage and niche focus combined with strong customer orientation. Among both the other groups — traditional exporters and flexible specialists — marketing advantage, product quality, and various manager orientation factors were important performance determinants. It seems that firm behavior and performance are partly contingent upon the environmental context in existence during the firm's year of establishment, which results in systematic differences between the generations of exporting firms. As the firm's year of establishment has often been a neglected variable in international marketing research, these results suggest we should pay more attention to firm age in future studies, as both export behavior and performance determinants vary between different generations of exporting firms. This study further concludes that we can now distinguish a new generation of exporters; the Born Global firms. One of the most important characteristics of these firms is their speed of internationalization; just a few years after establishment the Born Global firms achieve considerable sales in a number of export markets.

The internationalization process of Brazilian firms was examined using the case study method of research, in order to determine whether existing theories could explain the Brazilian experience. Ten in-depth case studies were conducted. All companies studied were involved in foreign direct investment (FDI) at the time of data collection, and, with the exception of one, had started their internationalization by exporting. Motives to internationalize and to establish subsidiaries abroad were investigated. Typical patterns of motives to invest abroad and common sequences of entry modes were identified. The choice of foreign markets for FDI seemed to be associated with perceived psychic distance as postulated in the literature. The ownership structure, however, did not seem to follow the patterns identified in other studies. The study confirmed the proposition that inspired leaders play a major role in the initial steps of the internationalization process. Following network theory, personal and professional networks were determined to be of paramount importance in this process. Concluding, a framework is proposed for the study of the FDI decision of firms from emerging countries.

This paper analyzes theory development over the last fifty years. It identifies strands of research, the origins of theories and the ways in which theories complement and conflict with each other. Using the framework of Larry Laudan's model of scientific method, it questions to what extent this theory development process is rational and has led to scientific progress. It concludes that, since the research tradition has enabled scientists to find solutions to problems, there has indeed been progress. Thus, according to Laudan's criteria, this construction of a foundation of solved problems is a rational process.