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The purpose of the study is to test if it, by the use of a survey methodology, is possible to measure managers' awareness on, and specifically if there exist preconceived beliefs on, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) results. The paper presents the design of the survey methodology as well as a test of the survey in one case company.

Actual OEE logs from a case company are collected and a survey on the data is designed and managers at the same case company are asked to answer the survey. The survey results are followed-up by an interview study in order to get deeper insights to both the results of the survey as well as the OEE strategy at the case company.

The findings show that the managers at this particular case company, on a general level, does not suffer too much from preconceived beliefs. However, it is clear that the managers have a preconceived belief that lack of material is logged as a loss much more often than what it actually is.

The test has only been performed with data from one case company within the automotive manufacturing industry and only the managers at that case company has been active in the test.

The survey methodology can be replicated and used by other companies to find out how aware their employees are on their OEE results and if possible preconceived beliefs exists.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt at measuring if preconceived beliefs on OEE results exist.

Management, over time, takes a series of specific strategic actions. As strategic actions we define actions aimed at influencing how the actor is related to other actors. We propose that when a strategic action is committed affects the outcome of the action. An important reason for this is that strategic actions over time can be regarded as interdependent sequences of actions. Timing and sequences may be more or less – or is not at all – preplanned by an actor. In a network perspective a focal actor is dependent on other actors that commit strategic actions. This creates interdependencies that vary over time, which a focal actor influences in a proactive, interactive and/or reactive way. The timing of strategic actions is a general, quite complex and elusive phenomenon to be handled in practice and theory. Despite its importance, very little research has been published.

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.

Contemporary public service innovations to an important degree are initiated and enabled by digitalization. Digitalization stimulates entry of new firms (start-ups) based on innovative implementation of digital technology for public services. The interwoven digitalization and innovation processes involve interaction and interdependencies between private business actors and public service providing actors. In this paper, the authors take the perspective of a start-up business actor that tries to develop and implement a viable business model in the very dynamic context of digital transformation of public education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the instability of a startup firm’s business model during public service innovation can be explained. The research question is: “How can business modeling by a start-up firm be explained by tensions between its business model and public service provision models?”

Based on an abductive logic, the authors choose a single-case study of a start-up firm’s development in 2010-2018 and its interaction with public actors. Information about the firm acquired in the first phase of the study showed that it frequently changed its business model. A general analytical framework was developed to aid in efforts to answer the research question.

The case showed that a business model could be seen as a temporary outcome of a business modeling process, and that also concurrently public actors change their public actors’ service provisioning models. Public-private interaction reveals tensions that drive business modeling.

The study contributes to empirical knowledge about private-public interaction in the dynamic and complex context in which digital transformation in society drives public service innovations. The conceptual contribution rests more generally in the analytical framework and how it frames public actor’s “service provision modeling” as a driver of business modeling.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual framework that reflects network dynamics in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled service innovation processes.

Based on literature on service innovations, business networks and IoT, dynamic concepts are selected. Aided by information about an evolving case “The connected vehicle”, propositions about interaction between the variables in the framework are formulated.

A conceptual framework consisting of four interacting variables: overlapping, intermediating, objectification of actors and business modelling is developed, linking several streams of research. Propositions are motivated and issues for further research questions formulated.

The framework may stimulate further research on IoT-enabled service innovations.

Understanding network dynamics for developing and implementing business models for service innovations.

The conceptual framework provides an original contribution to understanding IoT-enabled service innovations.

This study addresses the research question: How does the experiential knowledge, superstitious knowledge and the wisdom of CEOs influence the internationalization behaviour of SMEs?

An exploratory qualitative study is used. Longitudinal case studies of two Swedish life science companies are analysed.

An individual's prior experiential knowledge influence the newly started SME's market commitments and internationalization behaviour. Such prior experiences can enable early and rapid resource commitments in the newly started SMEs. Relying upon such prior experiential knowledge in deciding upon the company's market commitments however heightens the risk of superstitious learning. The findings illustrate how wisdom can work as an antidote to superstitious learning. Wisdom lures even experienced CEOs away from believing they know more than they actually know.

The study contributes to extend the Uppsala model by incorporating the role of individual-level experiential knowledge. The study also adds value to the literature on small firm internationalization by providing propositions for how the prior knowledge of individual key decision makers influences SMEs' internationalization behaviour. The propositions provide new input to the ongoing discussion in the literature and help to guide future research.

Given the fact that the Uppsala model is centred upon a firm-level view on experiential knowledge, our theoretical understanding is still limited regarding how individual-level experiential knowledge influences the internationalization behaviour of SMEs. This study addresses calls for research on how individuals' prior knowledge influences small-firm internationalization.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a bibliometric analysis of the evolution and structure of business model research in industrial marketing scholarship during the period between 2011 and 2020 and to discuss potential directions for future empirical research.

Bibliometric methodologies are deployed to objectively evaluate the business model research that has made the most impact within industrial marketing scholarship as well as the prominent scholars and key topics driving the discipline at points in time.

The findings demonstrate the formative but increasing engagement that industrial marketing scholarship has had with business model literature and the limited but increasing degree that business models have influenced industrial marketing literature. Potential directions for the empirical development of business model literature are argued to lie in the areas of collaboration and coopetition by examining the notion of value within the relationships, interactions and/or networks evidenced in European seaports business models.

Bibliometric analysis is retrospective in nature so developments in the literature appear only after some time has elapsed. Different keyword selection when formulating search strings for sampling may have brought some deviations in the analysis.

Research that investigates the link between business models and industrial marketing is still scarce. This paper is among the few that analyze objectively the evolution and structure of business model literature in industrial marketing scholarship from a longitudinal perspective with a particular emphasis on the period between 2011 and 2020.