Direct selling, defined as a sales channel without a fixed retail location, was built on the premise of leveraging an individual's social networks. This industry is being redirected by embracing social media; here, the challenge lies in providing the benefits of face-to-face selling, augmented by...

All executives would like their organizations to perform better, and most seek ways to make that happen. This paper focuses on how supply chains -- the series of activities through which products and services are created and then distributed to customers -- can enhance firm performance. For the...

Significant research has focused on the market orientation concept and its antecedents in recent years. Nevertheless, the market orientation research provides little information concerning the effects of national cultural values on the market orientation of companies. The conceptual framework...

The non-market environment exerts a tremendous influence on the ability of firms to operate effectively in international markets. This study investigates the relationship between market conditions and firm characteristics as predictors of specific firm-level political activities designed to...

The globalization forces engender companies to develop a new set of competencies that would enable the generation of abnormal returns in the global marketplace. This article reviews the extant literature regarding the effect of globalization on organizations and develops a conceptual framework...

International marketing research, in most cases, involves at least two levels (e.g., firms within countries) that make the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) a suitable data analysis technique. Due to its robustness, the use of HLM in the international business (IB) research has increased...

In the increasingly global environment, a fundamental question for many firms is whether to create a global strategy that will allow for the maximum use of existing product offerings and marketing activities through standardization, or to what extent unique adjustments are required for success...

Many executives and scholars have argued that effective strategy implementation is at least as important as--if not more important than--developing a brilliant strategy. While there are several extant viewpoints regarding what is required for successful strategy implementation, perhaps the most...