The novel The Ugly American published in the late 1950s depicts the blunderings which can take place when decision makers are overly ethnocentric. Happily, in interpersonal dealings, executives are becoming more accepting of the ways of other people. Anthropologists such as Edward T. Hall have...

The study of international business has become increasingly important in recent years. So important that the American Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has called for the internationalisation of business curricula. In 1992 and beyond, successful business people will treat...

Refines and operationalizes the globalization of markets theory. Although cultural evolution tends to be homogenizing many of the world′s tastes and wants, such trends are far from universal. Realizing that the globalization of markets theory, as it now stands, is over‐simplified, enhances...

The topic of this article provides a discussion on the importance of well‐defined concepts and approaches used by scholars and by practitioners in various contexts. It is troublesome when the use of a concept or an approach is ambiguous and confusing. The discussion focuses on, and is...

Based on the practical experiences of the authors through their work on a LEONARDO project, this paper focuses on the internationalisation process within small and medium sized enterprises and in particular, the key role of the attitudes and behaviour of the owner‐manager. The paper argues...

Purpose – Many, if not most, small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are subject to the impacts of globalisation. This article seeks to explore the extra dimension of challenge to their already difficult environments when they have to venture into the world‐trade system....

The relevance and importance of the high technology small firm sector to economies has been discussed by a number of authors and new technology‐based firms (NTBFs) have been viewed as having a very important role to play in job creation and as the seedbed of emerging industries. This paper...

This paper is concerned with the learning needs of managers in SMEs that seek to become progressively international. A particular focus of attention is the informal learning practices that occur within the economic and social networks utilised by managers in this sector. Using both qualitative...

Services account for over 50 percent ($3.6 trillion) of the 1997 gross domestic product for the USA, and more than 25 percent of world trade. However, information technology and the Internet are causing fundamental changes in the economics of service industries as new, network‐based, global...

Purpose – To highlight the relative importance of service‐specific export performance drivers that help successful exporting. Design/methodology/approach – A gap between the antecedents of manufacturing and service firms was identified via an extensive review on the export performance as...