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This study investigates how small firms develop preferences for varying levels of alliance partner diversity by applying a behavioral perspective.

Data were collected via an original survey administered by the Swedish National Bureau of Statistics (SCB) of 1,026 Swedish firms with 50 employees or less. Hypotheses were tested by specifying a series of fractional response regressions.

The results show a U-shaped relationship between experienced and preferred alliance partner diversity in small firms and further show moderating effects of firm age, prior growth and environmental dynamism. The findings suggest that preferences towards diverse alliance portfolios in small firms may arise, not only from well-informed deliberate strategic thinking based on prior experience, but also as a consequence of cognitive bias.

The findings suggest that (1) small firms considering a wide variety of alliance partners should carefully investigate whether they are, in fact, capable of mastering a highly diverse alliance portfolio or if they are overconfident novices. (2) Holders of homogenous alliance portfolios should recurringly investigate whether homogeneity is due to informed strategy or inertia.

This study contributes to the literature on alliance partner diversity and behavioral alliance portfolio configuration by shedding light on the learning mechanisms that shape alliance portfolio strategies of small firms by explicating the complexity of how different experience levels of partner variety affect current alliance portfolio preferences.

This paper draws attention to the fact that impulse buying is common behaviour among modern shoppers and that a consumer's impulse purchases of items such as clothes may be a result of the retailers' promotional activities. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how promotion through channels such as direct-mail marketing, TV commercials and special in-store displays affects consumers' impulse purchases of clothes.

Data for the testing of five hypotheses was collected by distributing a questionnaire to randomly selected households in North Western France and Northern Sweden. The data collection rendered 493 complete questionnaires, of which 332 were from France and 161 from Sweden. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) is the principal estimation technique.

The results suggest that shoppers with a positive attitude towards direct-mail marketing and TV commercials also respond positively to in-store promotion. Hence, there are interactive effects between the three promotional channels that increase shoppers' general impulse purchase tendency. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that the frequency of exposure to in-store promotion has a significant effect on this tendency.

This paper contributes to extant knowledge on impulse buying behaviour by examining the product-specific impulse tendency, which is defined as the degree to which consumers make impulse purchases of a particular product category.

The purpose of this paper is to identify similarities and differences with regard to factors affecting consumers' impulse purchases of groceries in France and Sweden.

Data were collected by a random survey of 202 Swedish and 368 French households. MANCOVA is the principal analytical technique.

The analysis indicates that, while Swedish shoppers make more impulse purchases, the French consumers appear to be more attentive to special in‐store displays and two‐for‐the‐price‐of‐one offerings. Contrary to expectations, the impulse purchases of French and Swedish shoppers are not predicted by gender.

Further studies should incorporate situational variables such as outline of stores and supermarkets and the specific country's food culture, since these factors affect shoppers' choices and shopping habits.

The findings help practitioners to understand how market‐specific factors affect shoppers' impulse purchases. These insights are important in the light of the increased internationalization of the supermarket chains' operations.

This study contributes to the current knowledge on consumers' impulse purchase behavior by demonstrating that, although the behavior as such is universal, there may be differences between countries with regard to the number of impulse purchases that shoppers make and how they respond to special in‐store displays and discount offerings.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new research paradigm that can assist in preventing unethical behavior from strengthening its grip on the global economy.

The paper discusses examples of corrupt acts, which affect companies' competitive positions in the global economy. The examples draw upon media reports of unethical behavior in Swedish companies and observations made when conducting field studies in Russia and the Ukraine.

This paper identifies what is to be observed and analyzed at close range in companies with regard to corrupt acts. Furthermore, this paper highlights unethical behavior manifested in reward cultures and earnings manipulation in Western companies, which are problems that threaten fair competition.

The paper highlights critical areas of investigation with regard to studies of corruption and other forms of unethical behavior which have a detrimental effect on the development of the global market.