Fredrik Nordin and Jessica Lindbergh
The purpose of this paper is to offer an integrative model of foreign market learning, including different learning processes, antecedents and outcomes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an integrative model of foreign market learning, including different learning processes, antecedents and outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper makes a critical review of the relevant literature, drawing on a keywords-based search of three major databases and a range of other published work for a broader perspective on the subject.
Findings
The resulting integrative model shows in a number of ways how companies can learn and benefit from differences in foreign markets and what results this can lead to.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of subject-specific contributions to the literature may have been insufficient, and a wider selection of keywords to identify them might have captured a richer variety of concepts and opinions.
Originality/value
The integrative model contributes to the literature on foreign market learning and innovation and serves as a basis for future studies and current management strategy.
Details
Keywords
Reinout Kleinhans, Nick Bailey and Jessica Lindbergh
Community-based social enterprises (CBSEs), a spatially defined subset of social enterprise, are independent, not-for-profit organisations managed by community members and…
Abstract
Purpose
Community-based social enterprises (CBSEs), a spatially defined subset of social enterprise, are independent, not-for-profit organisations managed by community members and committed to delivering long-term benefits to local people. CBSEs respond to austerity and policy reforms by providing services, jobs and other amenities for residents in deprived communities, thus contributing to neighbourhood regeneration. This paper aims to develop a better understanding of how CBSEs perceive accountability, how they apply it in the management and representation of their business and why.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine case studies of CBSEs across three European countries (England, the Netherlands and Sweden) are analysed, using data from semi-structured interviews with initiators, board members and volunteers in CBSEs.
Findings
CBSEs shape accountability and representation in response to the needs of local communities and in the wake of day-to-day challenges and opportunities. Apart from financial reporting, CBSEs apply informal strategies of accountability which are highly embedded in their way of working and contingent upon their limited resources.
Originality/value
Although research has shown the complex governance position of CBSEs, their application of accountability to target communities and other stakeholders is unclear. The paper coins the term “adaptive accountability,” reflecting a relational, dialectic approach in which formal, costly accountability methods are only applied to legally required forms of accounting, and informal practices are accepted by funding agencies and governments as valid forms of accountability, assessing CBSEs’ societal value in more open terms.
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Keywords
Jessica Lindbergh and Birgitta Schwartz
The aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses, which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses, which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth constraints of artisanal logic. The study answers the research question of, how and when do the artisanal entrepreneurs respond to tensions between the small-scale craftsmanship logic and the business growth logic?
Design/methodology/approach
This study consists of two cases of artisanal food entrepreneurs situated in rural regions of Sweden. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations and secondary sources. The analysis consists of two steps: a narrative analysis and a categorization of institutional logics using Pache and Santos (2013) framework.
Findings
Our findings show that the artisanal food entrepreneurs used several types of response to the tensions between the two institutional logics. As businesses grew, business growth logic increasingly penetrated the companies' operations. They responded by combining and blending the two logics and avoided growing too large themselves by collaborating with suppliers and local farmers. In addition, other activities needed to be compartmentalized and hidden since these activities could threaten their business images and their own criteria for small-scale food artisans.
Originality/value
Much work on how different institutional logics affect businesses have been on a structural level. This study answers the call on that more research is needed on an individual level by studying how individuals interpret logics and use them in their business activities.
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Keywords
This part contains four papers. Even though this volume of AIM primarily concerns exporter–intermediary relations, the first two contributions deal with channel choice and partner…
Abstract
This part contains four papers. Even though this volume of AIM primarily concerns exporter–intermediary relations, the first two contributions deal with channel choice and partner selection. The first chapter by Kent Eriksson, Jukka Hohenthal and Jessica Lindbergh, “SME export channel choice in international markets”, tests some of the fundamental factors proposed by the IP model explaining choice of entry mode (accumulation of knowledge of foreign markets determining foreign operation modes). Later developments of the model claim that experience and knowledge of local business relationships are also essential elements of the IP model. Whereas the IP model has been found to hold well for incremental resource commitments, it has – in contrast to transaction-cost theories – produced mixed results concerning its ability to explain operation modes. The authors present findings from research in 494 firms from Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand: factors included in the initial explanation of the IP model explain choice of channel, but later developments of the model do not. Implications are that the foreign market knowledge is, and that more incremental experiential knowledge accumulation is not relevant for export channel choice as regards integrated or non-integrated channel. The results show that for Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMEs), expected market growth lead to use of integrated channels. Integrated channels make it possible to reap more of the profits from a growing market and to learn faster about what is going on in the market. They also found that use of integrated channels is correlated with cultural distance, contradicting the findings of Johanson and Vahlne (1977) and Kogut and Singh (1988). The IP model therefore offers a rather weak explanation of choice of integrated channel.
Jessica Lindbergh, Karin Berglund and Birgitta Schwartz
Entrepreneurship is recognized by many as a solution to environmental and social challenges of today’s society. However, it has also been criticized since it may maintain the…
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is recognized by many as a solution to environmental and social challenges of today’s society. However, it has also been criticized since it may maintain the capitalistic demands of growth and efficiency in an unsustainable way. In this chapter, we challenge the current conception of entrepreneurship that aims for societal change by tracing what, how, where, and with whom such entrepreneurship is performed. Furthermore, we take inspiration from the idea of diverse economy by Gibson-Graham and introduce the concept of alternative entrepreneurship to explore how it takes shape, changes its contours, and both challenges and propels contemporary capitalism. In this chapter, we present three ethnographic cases of the unfolding of diverse entrepreneurial activities: (1) the case of Oria, who contributes to social justice through fair trade; (2) the case of artisan food producers who contribute to biological diversity and a rural livelihood; and (3) the case of the DiE project/NEEM NGO, which contributes to social inclusion through entrepreneurial empowerment and the development of a microcredit program. We find that the alternative entrepreneurs are not constrained by organizational forms or by a limited number of economic and non-economic activities that target societal challenges. The alternative entrepreneurs move between different organizational forms such as non-profit and for profit, as well as, undertaking business and voluntary practices to achieve societal change. Finally, we conclude that the ethnographic tracing of alternative entrepreneurship allows previously unsighted activities to become more visible and brings attention to possibilities of creatively destroying overly narrow conceptions of entrepreneurship.
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Kent Eriksson, Jukka Hohenthal and Jessica Lindbergh
Determining market channels is usually considered a discrete decision made by the expanding firm (e.g., Anderson & Coughlan, 1987; Bello & Gilliland, 1997; Solberg & Nes, 2002)…
Abstract
Determining market channels is usually considered a discrete decision made by the expanding firm (e.g., Anderson & Coughlan, 1987; Bello & Gilliland, 1997; Solberg & Nes, 2002). In reality, this decision is often limited by knowledge constraints and customer demands. We find an example of this in Gamma's attempt at entering the Italian market (Hohenthal, 2001).
Angelika Lindstrand and Jessica Lindbergh
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether banks are needed as partners for internationalising small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and, if so, in what ways they…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether banks are needed as partners for internationalising small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and, if so, in what ways they affect SMEs. The purpose can, in a wider sense, shed light on institutions' intermediating functions for transactions in the economy, both locally and internationally.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was distributed to Swedish SMEs involved in international activities. A sample of 318 SMEs was used. The results are presented as descriptive statistics and by using t‐tests.
Findings
The findings show that banks are the least used source of information for internationalising SMEs. The results also show that banks do not participate in SME business networks when SMEs are internationalising. SMEs that have been dependent on banks when developing their international business relationships, however, tend to have previously depended on the bank when conducting business.
Practical implications
It is believed there is much to be gained, both for SMEs and banks, in developing their business exchange and reciprocal understanding. The bank can make SME international operations and financial situations flow more efficiently. This in turn may improve SME growth, thus creating more business opportunities between banks and SMEs.
Originality/value
The study fills a gap in the literature and knowledge concerning banks' effects on SMEs' internationalisation.
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Jessica Lindbergh, Ruth‐Aïda Nahum and Sofia Sandgren
This paper seeks to shed light on the challenges and opportunities demographic transitions bring about to the banking sector. Increasing life expectancy, coupled with an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to shed light on the challenges and opportunities demographic transitions bring about to the banking sector. Increasing life expectancy, coupled with an increasing old age dependency ratio has implications for the demand for financial services. This opens a window of opportunity for the banking sector to adjust its services so as to meet these changes and reap the benefit of demographic changes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses demographic forecasts made by the United Nations Population Division, to which are applied established economic models on life cycle behaviour. Based on the findings, light is shed on potential scenarios that banks may encounter.
Findings
The life cycle models predict a higher overall asset accumulation level and a higher savings level, at least initially, in an ageing population. Other life cycle behaviour models point out that individuals' risk aversion increases with age, while evidence shows that population ageing exposes individuals to greater risks. This increases the need for households to appropriately diversify and manage the risks they face, and encourages the development of products that are better tailored to these growing needs.
Originality/value
The paper proposes that banks can contribute to creating financial stability. Banks can participate in financial education and consequently increase households' motivation to save more and in better ways. Consumer demand encountered by banks is shifting from credit products to savings products. The investment packages currently offered by banks need to adapt to changing needs: combined annuity and life insurance packages are one option.