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Analyses the problems faced by foreign investors in the Japanese internal marketplace. Relates these difficulties to the structure of the country's distribution system. Draws on the results of interviews with senior executives from more than 30 major foreign companies operating in Japan to identify common barriers to successful market growth – including Japanese culture, political influences, border arrangements and purchasing characteristics. Concludes that while successful entry into a national market is always difficult for any foreign investor, the limited success of overseas firms in Japan indicates that this particular market is more troublesome than most. Asserts that while Japan continues to suffer from lower levels of overall economic growth, the obstacles for foreign companies will remain.

The success of a firm's export operation will depend to a great extent on the quality of the middlemen involved in the distribution of its products in the overseas market. Whether or not the exporter will be able to achieve his goals depends to a great extent on how thoroughly, and how well, he has carried out his analysis of which firm will do the best possible job for him in a particular market.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

This article examines the structure of the Japanese distribution channels for consumer products. It highlights the unique characteristics of the distribution process on both the wholesale and retail levels and shows how historical factors have contributed to these developments. Based on this information, recommendations are made to the importer of consumer products into Japan in order to aid in successful market penetration.

It is now common for finance textbooks to discuss the concepts of the CAPM, diversification benefit, and systematic risk, as measured by beta. The purpose of this paper is to clarify aspects of these concepts and make the textbooks readers aware of them. In particular, this paper seeks to: (1) clarify the notion that “diversification reduces risk,” (2) provide geometric expositions and algebraic expressions of portfolio benefits in the context of both total risk and market risk, and (3) improve the interpretation of beta.

Although organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is widely known to have a positive ethical impact in work organizations, the causal antecedents that influence the likelihood of such behaviors among employees is understudied. We addressed this gap by examining the influence of visual images of people on relevant work-related behavior in a work-like setting using the theoretical frame of the social identity perspective. We found that students in a university setting, who were exposed to religious-themed student images, exhibited slower helping behaviors toward the organization than those who were exposed to organizational-themed student images. The results of the current study provide the first-known experimental confirmation of organizational identity as a causal antecedent of OCB.

Studies conducted on advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems have found problems in the marginal or negative returns from APS systems when they are implemented in manufacturing planning and control processes. The purpose of this study is to examine what problems exist in the onward and upward phase of the APS system implementation and how the individual, technical and organizational (ITO) dimensions in the implementation phases influence the problems in the onward and upward phase.

Three different manufacturing companies using a supply chain planning module to support their tactical manufacturing planning processes were chosen and their APS system implementation phases were studied. Interviews with the project members and the end-users, and on-site visits, were conducted. Internal company data and presentations were collected and analyzed according to four implementation phases and the ITO dimensions.

Three types of problems were identified in the onward and upward phase: process-related problems concerning difficulties to move forward; dependency on a consultancy firm; and too much time spent in the system. System-related problems include the usage of parallel systems and inadequate usage of the appropriate potential of the APS system. Plan-related problems regard an incorrect production plan. Different relationships between the ITO dimensions in the implementation process and the problem type were proposed.

The relationships identified in this paper are of important knowledge for companies who are implementing, or are in the process of implementing, APS systems.

There has been little written about the implementation issues of APS systems. The practical use of APS systems in the tactical planning is also relatively low. It is not known what problems to expect and how the ITO dimensions influence the problems during implementation. The findings this paper discusses fill some of these gaps.

This scoping review discusses how bug-in-ear (BIE) technology has been used to coach teachers and pre-service teachers in special education, general education and initial teacher education (ITE). The purpose of the review is to identify the range of practices in implementing BIE technology and the potential impacts on teachers, learners, coaches and professional learning and development (PLD) providers.

The PRISMA framework guided the structure of the scoping review. Four leading educational database searches informed initial results. Peer review ensured that inclusion and exclusion requirements were rigorously followed. Two screenings, a hand search and snowballing found 20 relevant studies for review.

BIE coaching is a cost-effective approach to support the development of teachers and pre-service teachers, with the potential to improve learner outcomes. Delivering coaching remotely yields the widest range of benefits for PLD providers. Technology issues persist; therefore, simple approaches work most effectively. There are opportunities to explore coaching attributes required for BIE coaching and how BIE feedback can differ from in-person feedback.

PLD should be based on available resources; however, it is possible to train participants to use BIE in a short amount of time. Pre-determined prompts should be co-constructed between the coach and the teacher. Prompts should be delivered within 3–5 s of the teaching behaviour and consist of positive, corrective, questioning and goal-orientated statements.

This is the first evidence-based review of BIE coaching that highlights effective practices in special education, general education and ITE. This review also explores how BIE coaching is used with teachers, which has not been covered in detail.

The authors probe the relationships between country institutional support for entrepreneurship and new venture survival. Specifically, the authors unpack the nuanced influences of entrepreneurs' perceived environmental uncertainty and their subsequent entrepreneurial behavioral profiles and how this particularly bolsters venture survival in contexts with underdeveloped institutions for entrepreneurship.

Coleman (1990) ‘bathtub’ framework is applied to develop a model and propositions surrounding how and when emerging market entrepreneur's perceptions of their countries institutional support toward entrepreneurship can ultimately enhance new venture survival.

Entrepreneurs' interpretations of regulatory, cognitive and normative institutional support for private enterprise helps them embrace uncertainties more accurately reflective of “on the ground” realities and stimulates constructive entrepreneurial behaviors. These are critical for increasing survival prospects in characteristically turbulent, emerging market contexts that typically lack reliable formal resources for cultivating nascent ventures.

This paper has implications for international policymakers seeking to stimulate and sustain entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets. The authors shed light on the practical importance of understanding the social realities and interpretations of entrepreneurs in a given country relating to their actual perceptions of support for venturing—cautioning a tendency for outsiders to over-rely on aggregated econometric indices and various national ‘doing business' rankings.

This study is the first to create a conceptual framework on the mechanisms of how entrepreneurs in emerging economies affect new venture survival. Drawing on Coleman's bathtub (1990), the authors develop propositional arguments for a multilevel sequential framework that considers how developing economies' country institutional profiles (CIP) influence entrepreneurs' perceptions of environmental uncertainty. Subsequently, this cultivates associated entrepreneurial behavior profiles, which ultimately enhance (inhibit) venture survival rates. Further, the authors discuss the boundary conditions of this regarding how the national culture serves to moderate each of these key relationships in both positive and negative ways.