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This paper seeks to discuss the history of real estate marketing in the USA and to assess the future impact of direct marketing on that country's real estate set‐up.

The paper chronicles the history of real estate marketing in the USA and describes the present situation vis‐à‐vis direct marketing.

The paper finds that home buyers prefer online direct marketing to the traditional process of physical involvement and personal inspection.

The paper promotes the advantages of direct marketing as the future of residential real estate in that it offers lower prices, direct participation in the process and better access to information.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a powerful multivariate statistical technique that requires careful application. The use of SEM in international business research has substantially increased recently, necessitating a critical evaluation of its use in the field. Through an analysis of 148 articles in the international business (IB) literature, we detail the state of current use of SEM in IB research and compare its use to the established best practices. In many instances, SEM's use in IB has been faulty, suggesting that authors may have drawn incorrect conclusions. To expand the IB field's knowledge base, methodological accuracy is essential. Based on our review of the technique's use in IB research coupled with the established practices in the social science literature, we provide practical suggestions for better applying SEM in the IB literature.

Film provides an alternative medium for assessing our interpretations of cultural icons. This selective list looks at the film and video sources for information on and interpretations of the life of Woody Guthrie.

Looks at consumer research in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Maps out the contributions within this area and guides future research. Examines the state of the art over the 1979‐97 period, with particular emphasis on the topics that have been researched, the extent of the theory development in the field and the methodologies used in conducting research. Uses content analysis to review 75 relevant articles. Suggests that, while a considerable breadth of topics have been researched, there remains much to be done, there is further room for theoretical development in Chinese consumer behaviour studies; and the methodologies used need improvement and further refinement.

The theory of investment valuation does not address the issue of what should be done about income for part‐years, restricting itself instead to cases where the lengths of time involved are whole numbers of years. The market, on the other hand, does appear to have a way of dealing with this problem, although it disguises the reality of what is actually happening. This article examines the logic of the device employed (rent apportionment) and discusses its role in preserving the distinction between capital and income.

This research was undertaken to further understand a “values” based taxonomy designed to assess the “cultural and business suitability” of managers for appointment to cross‐border business and management roles. In particular, this paper aims to explore the extrapolative and interrelated nature of a two‐dimensional bipolar taxonomy of value orientations; as well as the nature and strength of the relationship between the model's predictors.

A sample of 262 cross‐border managers working for a large transnational American owned logistics firm responded to this study. The group completed a questionnaire based on a two‐dimensional taxonomy of value orientations. The dimensions tested were first a manager's values viz., their potential “National Identity”. Secondly, a manager's values vis., their potential “Cross‐Border Business Focus”. Factor analysis and canonical correlations were employed to identify key factor constructs and then to evaluate the measurement fit between the constructs; also to examine any significant relationship between the identified constructs.

Results support both the extrapolative and interrelated nature of the taxonomy with significant results (p<0.05) confirming the strength of the relationships between the identified constructs as potential predictors of “cultural and business impact” and hence “individual suitability” for cross‐border assignments.

Whilst the research is limited to one large US‐owned transnational logistics firm, the diversity of respondents with respect to cultural background; age, gender and amount of experience has not impacted results. Results suggest that awareness of both a manager's “National Identity” and “Cross‐Border Business Focus”, may provide useful additional information vis., a manager's cultural and business impact and hence assist in the selection of managers for cross‐border assignments.

Results appear to provide useful insights into the potential “cultural and business suitability” of managers; as well as the early identification of managers, for important cross‐border business and management assignments.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the existing research on the intersection between war and international business (IB) and to map out a future research agenda.

Drawing on corporate examples and extant literature within IB, political science and international relations, the paper provides an introduction to the main concepts of war, a review of the IB research on war and provides a critical future research agenda.

The review of the multiple strands of war-related research in IB generally reveals an understudied area. Among other biases, prior research has focused on inter-state wars and has relatively unexplored foreign direct investment (FDI) and non-FDI within civil wars. Furthermore, previous studies offer little attention to how IB and multinational companies contribute to the emergence and development of wars.

The paper develops an analytical and critical research agenda for future research to examine the relationship between war and IB. This includes a set of questions for each of the three major phases of war: pre-conflict, armed violence and post-conflict. To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done before in the context of IB research.

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership, employee engagement and service orientation, specific to the private service sector organizations in India. The paper also explores the ability of leadership style and engagement to predict service orientation in the given cross section.

The paper has used a single cross-sectional descriptive design. Purposive sampling has been used to identify respondents who are managers in the private service sector organisations in India. A valid sample size of 106 has been used for the analysis. Instruments used for perceived leadership style are as follows: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X short form); Employee Engagement E3 (DDI) and Service Orientation (Frimpong and Wilson, 2012).

Service orientation is found to be strongly correlated to employee engagement and employee engagement is a strong predictor of service orientation. The other relationships which are significant and moderately correlated are that of transformational leadership and employee engagement and also of transformational leadership and service orientation.

The study highlights the importance and significant role of leadership and employee engagement for higher service orientation in the given cross section. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques.

The research emphasizes that organizations need to focus on employee engagement as much as they focus on customers. The differential advantage to organizations will come through the employees and their behaviors towards customers. Appropriate leadership styles that drive engagement and service-oriented behaviors can be fostered in organizations to drive service performance. The mediating impact of employee engagement of the leadership style and service orientation relationship could be further explored through path analysis or structured equation modeling techniques.

The research is focused in the private service sector organizations in India and data and results support the need to focus on employees for higher scores on customer parameters. The respondents are from a cross section of service organizations and, hence, emphasizing the interplay of the three variables across organizations. The paper supports the critical role of leadership and employees in creating a higher service orientation.

A great deal has been written recently in the practitioner press about the strategic importance and usage of social media. However, as practitioners only release limited information about the internal advantages such a tool provides, research in this emerging field remains extremely limited about its usage in the sales area. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically assess a model of social media usage among business‐to‐business (B2B) salespeople.

A survey of 273 B2B salespeople was conducted and then analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results support the hypothesized model suggesting that age negatively affects social media usage, while social media norms positively affect it. Social media usage positively affects sales performance. Customer‐oriented selling was not found to be positively related to social media usage, but does have a positive effect on sales performance.

This study was conducted by e‐mail, and as a result, there might be an existing bias towards respondents who already embrace some usage of an online communication method, indicating overall usage, acceptance, and application of social media may be lower than reported. A potential research agenda offers opportunities for both theoretical development and empirical assessment in social media research.

The findings provide an important foundation to advance academic sales research and demonstrate a needed understanding of how to operationally utilize social media to improve outcome performance.

This is one of the few studies empirically examining social media usage among B2B salespeople.

Drawing on the bribery literature, this paper aims to examine the effect of bribes paid in the home country on firms’ decision to internationalize through exports from transition economies. It also investigates whether the effect of home country bribery may vary from new ventures to established firms, and from those firms that operate in an environment with high to low informal competition.

This paper tests several hypotheses using a panel data with fixed effects based on a sample of firms in transition economies from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey.

First, home country bribery in transition economies can make domestic markets more lenient and dampen firms’ motivation to seek opportunities abroad. Second, new ventures have a higher motivation to focus on their domestic markets after paying bribes. Finally, despite the benefits accrued in the home country through bribery, firms that face a higher level of informal competition in the home country are more likely to seek opportunities abroad.

Managers in transition economies should consider their home country bribery activities in their evaluation of foreign market opportunities. Firms that use money to influence home country government officials, especially new ventures, are advised to have a more holistic view in evaluating foreign market opportunities so they will not miss out on new opportunities.

This paper advances literature on home country institutions and the research on firm global strategies. Moreover, it also highlights several contingencies that shape the effect of home country bribery on firms’ foreign market focus.