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This chapter complements the one that appeared as “History of the AIB Fellows: 1975–2008” in Volume 14 of this series (International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First 50 Years and Beyond, Jean J. Boddewyn, Editor). It traces what happened under the deanship of Alan Rugman (2011–2014) who took many initiatives reported here while his death in July 2014 generated trenchant, funny, and loving comments from more than half of the AIB Fellows. The lives and contributions of many other major international business scholars who passed away from 2008 to 2014 are also evoked here: Endel Kolde, Lee Nehrt, Howard Perlmutter, Stefan Robock, John Ryans, Vern Terpstra, and Daniel Van Den Bulcke.

For this paper, the authors focus on Porter’s competitive advantage. Hybrid strategy refers to how a firm creates value vis-à-vis competitors by simultaneously relying on lower costs and greater differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage. This strategy emphasises both and aims to provide much more monetary value to customers through the combination of reduced cost and a higher rate of differentiation. In addition, this research focuses on family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), because they have particularities arising from the incorporation of family members both as owners of the SME and in managerial positions. The porpose of this study is to analyse whether the existing differences produced by the role of the family in strategic decision-making and the concentration of family power have a higher impact on performance and innovation than non-family SMEs.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. This study randomly selected SMEs operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

SMEs are facing new challenges, and this has led to the emergence of new competitive strategies. Companies have started to combine differentiation strategies with cost strategies to achieve superior performance and better adapt to these changes. This study confirms a positive relationship between the adoption of hybrid strategies and market performance in SMEs. In addition, hybrid strategy reinforces innovation, which has a mediating role between hybrid strategy and market performance. Finally, the findings indicate that family SMEs achieve a greater impact of hybrid strategy on innovation than non-family SMEs. Moreover, innovation plays a mediating role only in the case of family firms, which enhances the relationship between hybrid strategy and market performance.

For SMEs to survive in turbulent environments, this study proposes the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies. The novel model links hybrid strategy (as opposed to “stuck in the middle”), innovation and market performance. The research is valuable for owners and managers of family SMEs because this study finds differences in the relationships studied compared to non-family SMEs.

This article focusses on the hybrid strategy, a simultaneous combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The study aims to examine the impact of hybrid strategy on firm performance through its anticipated positive effects on process and product innovation. In addition, we study the moderating role of adaptive capacity in the direct relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 1,842 Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. We randomly selected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

We found that hybrid strategy is positively related to firm performance and to process and product innovation. Additionally, in firms implementing hybrid strategies, process innovation fostered firm performance. Finally, adaptive capacity strengthened the relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation. This sheds light on how and when hybrid strategy is most effective in fostering SME performance.

We highlight that SMEs need to establish strategies that use diverse resources and capabilities and not just generate competitive advantage using one strategy (cost leadership or differentiation strategy). This requires an agile and flexible systems and structures.

Our research provides novel results by proposing the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) as a way for SMEs to survive during crises. Unlike “stuck in the middle” strategies, our study demonstrates the importance of hybrid strategies in a comprehensive model that links them to innovation and firm performance, with adaptive capacity being a determining factor.

Purpose – One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) and there are two million TB-related deaths worldwide every year. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, migration patterns, and reduced access to health care contribute to high rates of TB. Delayed diagnosis of TB, the focus of this chapter, increases the likelihood that a patient will progress to more advanced stages of the disease and heightens the risk of TB transmission to others as patients are contagious for longer periods of time.

Approach – Despite the seriousness of these consequences, few sociological studies have examined delayed diagnosis of TB and why people affected by TB symptoms delay care. Because of this, we take a health narratives approach to understanding the experiences of 15 TB patients of Mexican descent in a high-risk border community (e.g., El Paso, Texas) in order to discover why delayed diagnoses happen and how they impact patients.

Findings – Fourteen of the fifteen patients experienced delayed diagnosis. Analysis of these fourteen narratives revealed two broad themes: (1) provider lack of awareness, including repeated misdiagnosis and TB test errors, and (2) patient disadvantage, including fear of U.S. immigration authorities and few economic resources for care.

Implications – Findings from this study suggest that prompt diagnosis of TB could be achieved if providers were more cognizant of TB and its symptoms and public health policies increased access to health care regardless of immigration status or socioeconomic status.

This paper studies the determinants of the debt maturity of Mexican-listed companies by analysing the effects on the extensive (issuing or liquidating debt) and the intensive (debt maturity renegotiation) margins.

This study, using a Tobit model for panel data and measuring maturity as a time variable, shows that size, liquidity and leverage, among other firm characteristics, as well as the market interest rate, explain debt maturity. Additionally, the study employs the McDonald and Moffitt decomposition to determine whether the explanatory variables of maturity have a more significant effect on the decision to issue or liquidate debt or on debt maturity renegotiations.

The results obtained highlight that the market interest rate negatively affects debt maturity. On the other hand, variables like size, liquidity, collateral and leverage demonstrate a positive relationship with the dependent variable. In addition, the extensive margin has a higher impact on corporate debt than the intensive margin, suggesting that firms prefer to liquidate or issue new debt rather than renegotiate preexisting contracts.

The main limitation of this study is the use of an unbalanced panel. The lack of data limits the application of specific methodologies suggested by the literature as a way to test the robustness of the estimates.

First of all, this study adds empirical evidence of debt maturity decisions by publicly traded firms in a middle-income country such as Mexico to the existing literature on maturity choice. Second, the study treats debt maturity as a time-censored, limited variable. Finally, the authors have used the McDonald and Moffitt (1980) methodology to decompose the effect of each independent variable into extensive and intensive margins.

This study provides an up-to-date review of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and guidance for selecting the most appropriate ones for specific applications, taking into account the main features, strengths, and limitations of the existing options.

A literature review on AM technologies was conducted to assess the current state-of-the-art. This was followed by a closer examination of different AM machines to gain a deeper insight into their main features and operational characteristics. The conclusions and data gathered were used to formulate a classification and decision-support framework.

The findings indicate the building blocks of the selection process for AM technologies. Furthermore, this work shows the suitability of the existing AM technologies for specific cases and points to opportunities for technological and decision-support improvements. Lastly, more standardization in AM would be beneficial for future research.

The proposed framework offers valuable support for decision-makers to select the most suitable AM technologies, as demonstrated through practical examples of its utilization. In addition, it can help researchers identify the limitations of AM by pinpointing applications where existing technologies fail to meet the requirements.

The study offers a novel classification and decision-support framework for selecting AM technologies, incorporating machine characteristics, process features, physical properties of printed parts, and costs as key features to evaluate the potential of AM. Additionally, it provides a deeper understanding of these features as well as the potential opportunities for AM and its impact on various industries.

Most countries often have public companies with large controlling owners, typically a family. This empirical evidence aims to contrast with the classical view of the largest dispersed firm presented by Berle and Means and challenge the findings by Bhattacharya and Ravikumar, who predict that the shares held by families will decrease if an efficient financial market is put in place. Therefore, family firms represent an important group in the stock market today. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the family as a controlling owner on firms' performance, valuation and capital structure.

The paper reviews the current literature related to how family (taking into account specific governance characteristics such as family ownership, family control and family management) affects firms' performance and value.

The literature review showed that founder family control and professional (outside) management increase performance, whereas excess control via control enhancing mechanisms (such as dual class shares and pyramidal structures) and descendent management produce both lower valuation and performance. This evidence suggests that families have the incentives and the power to systematically expropriate wealth from minority shareholders.

Previous research shows that family firms on average perform better than non‐family firms. But this is a non‐linear relation due the fact that the relationship between family ownership and performance cannot be identified without distinguishing between control and cash‐flow rights. Thus, the literature review as a whole emphasizes that the incentives for the controlling shareholder to engage in expropriation are a function of the institutional framework in which the firm operates. So, for further research, it is important to investigate how family firms perform in different corporate governance systems. A policy implication is the necessity to improve minority shareholders' protection from the risk of expropriation by large shareholders.

This study explores how physical factors foster a supportive and welcoming atmosphere conducive to learning and personal development. The research highlights the relevance of “spatial belonging” as a novel concept associated with the materiality of buildings in higher education institutions, explaining how the physicality of architectural space directly impacts students’ success and learning experience.

The research methods included the use of cartographies created by undergraduate students, which provided a platform for them to articulate their perspectives on the educational spaces within their school.

The findings show a relationship between well-designed educational spaces and students’ heightened sense of belonging. Implications for educational policy and campus design are included as areas for future research, emphasizing the need for architects, educators and policymakers to collaborate in creating spaces that meet functional academic requirements.

Spatial belonging has been studied through the architectural student perspective, however, there should be a different approach toward materiality from students of different disciplines. The study could be replicated in different institutions and multiple career paths.

Spatial design for higher education has been a matter of importance especially after COVID-19, since the sudden change of educational learning migrating to online platforms, the meaning and value of space should be revisited. HEIs should be prepared for multiple events that our society and environment may experience in the foreseeable future. Guidelines of spatial design for belonging and well-being should be at hand of educators and stakeholders.

Spatial design is involved with psychological processes where emotions are being experienced in different places. A physical space should provide students with what they need in order to fulfill their needs as human beings who are experiencing multiple changes in their academic and personal life. Moreover, as seen in previous research, through the pandemic many students presented anxiety and depression which was related to isolation. Therefore, their life in campus is important not only for their academic development but for personal reasons.

The concept of sense of belonging has been studied through the perspective of psychology, geography, education and multiple disciplines. However, there is a lack of research that relates sense of belonging with materiality and architecture. The relationship physical spaces, has not been considered as essential for the development of basic tasks. Who designs the spaces we inhabit? Why are they designed in that particular way? Why are people not involved in the design of the spaces they work and live? Space is essential for social relationships to be developed, and at the same time social relations create different spaces, therefore, architecture supports the way we experience these spaces and promotes different relationships where there are no hierarchical levels but every aspect rather spatial or social have the same level of importance.