International Journal of Export Marketing (4 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Does Risk Tolerance Behaviour of Entrepreneur Affect the Growth of Entrepreneurial Firms through the Mediation of Effectuation Decision-making Approach?  
  by Imtiaz Masroor, Md. Nur Alam 
  Abstract: Risk tolerance behaviour is a cognitive variable that helps the entrepreneur to estimate risk which in turn helps to make decisions. This is why risk tolerance behaviour can be helpful to explain decision-making techniques adopted by entrepreneurs. Decision-making approach is a crucial factor as it impacts the growth of entrepreneurial firms. This paper develops and investigates the relationship between five cognitive variables on the firm performance drawing from cognition and entrepreneurship theories. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 158 IT SME decision-makers during April-June, 2016. The relationship between different variables is measured using univariate General Linear Model (GLM). This study found statistically significant relationship amongst entrepreneurial inclination, risk-tolerance behaviour, effectuation and firm performance. However, the mediation effect of effectuation on risk tolerance behaviour and firm performance is found to be statistically insignificant. This study links entrepreneurial cognition with firm performance showing decision-making logic as a mediator.
  Keywords: Effectuation; Entrepreneurship; Cognitive Variable; Mediation; Growth of SMEs; Risk Tolerance.
  
  
• A systematic approach to international market selection: measuring the attractiveness of emerging economies in the case of the timber industry  
  by Ali Ahi, Olli Kuivalainen, Mohammadreza Bahreinian 
  Abstract: Managers need to screen and evaluate foreign markets before deciding on market entry and subsequent entry modes. Therefore, international market selection (IMS) has been the topic of much research in the international business domain. However, surprisingly few researchers have empirically studied the IMS process by providing detailed descriptions of how this process is conducted. Reviewing the literature on the subject, this paper aims to look at IMS from a practical point of view. Accordingly, the paper introduces a model, which includes the IMS criteria, with their relevant weights, needed to assess emerging markets for doing timber business. The Delphi method was used to gain the opinions of the experts in the field to develop a model that can assess the market attractiveness of a country for a firm in the timber industry looking to enter new markets.
  Keywords: International market selection; Emerging markets; Timber business; Delphi method.
  
  
• Informal institutions and international performance of Ghanaian small exporting firms: moderation role of formal institutions  
  by Prince Kwarteng Oppong 
  Abstract: This paper accentuates the conviction that institutions play significant role in SMEs internationalisation. Informal institutional mechanisms have been notable in localities in the African setting. However, most studies in the business research have been focused on formal institutions. The role of informal institutions in the international performance of SMEs demand to be understood with more cases. This paper argues that the two dimensions of institutions do not work in isolation but complement each other to provide the desirable results in SMEs international performance. We analyse the complementation role of formal and informal institutions in the internationalisation of small exporting firms. This study is based on primary data collected through a survey of 134 small exporting firms from different sectors in Ghana and analysed with multiple regression in SPSS. Findings revealed that not every aspect of the informal institutional mechanism is relevant for superior firms international performance. Formal institutions complement informal institutions in order to function effectively.
  Keywords: Institutions; formal Institutions; Informal Institutions; Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); Internationalisation.
  
  
• Pitfalls in writing a good paper in international business and export marketing: The case of International Journal of Export Marketing  
  by Dafnis N. Coudounaris 
  Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the main reasons for the rejection of manuscripts submitted to one specific journal, namely, International Journal of Export Marketing (IJEXPORTM) published by Inderscience publishers. In this article, the author presents data on the rejections by reviewers from the International Journal of Export Marketing (IJEXPORTM) (n=18). Initially, there is a standard survey comprising 14 questions used by Inderscience publishers for the reviewers of IJEXPORTM. Additionally, the data collection was focused on the qualitative data based on the reviewers' comments for IJEXPORTM. The total sample of 34 reviews was analyzed, using the software NVivo 12-Plus to make decision on the main themes for rejection of the 18 papers. Analysis of the input of 34 reviewers of the 18 rejected papers in Table 2 and Figure 1 reveals eight important reasons for the rejection, i.e. the likelihood of passing the "test of time", completeness of the work, organization of the manuscript, originality of the work, acknowledgment of the work of others through references, clarity in writing, tables, graphs and illustrations, subject relevance and professional/ industrial relevance, which were involved in the survey of reviewers by Inderscience. In addition, as shown in Table 2 and Figure 2 there was another reason why the majority of the 34 reviewers recommended that the manuscript was not acceptable. In addition, there were two reasons given by the majority of reviewers, namely that the technical treatment was not plausible and had technical errors, and the equations and/or statistics were not checked. In comparison to the 29 reasons for rejection found in this study, there were three further reasons given by a few reviewers, who stated that they were aware of the prior publication or presentation of the work, the paper was too long, or the manuscript included commercialism. Also, in Table 3 and Figure 3, based on the analysis of qualitative data provided by the reviewers and the 18 rejected papers, there are 9 categories of the 145 reasons of rejection, namely topic, abstract, introduction, literature, method findings, conclusions and references. Furthermore, the study reveals 9 reasons for rejection through a survey by Inderscience and another 29 sub-categories of reasons for rejection through analysis of the qualitative data collected through the 34 reviewers. The most frequent reasons are in particular the literature review, which was not extensive and thorough enough, or not up-to-date; other important problematic areas were the introduction and the methodology. The first lacked identification of a research gap, aim of the manuscript and specific objectives, whereas the latter lacked sufficient content, a satisfactory sample and data collection techniques, and reliability/validity measures. There were various additional problematic issues such as the contribution of the study being missing; the paper was not sent to be edited by a copy editor; the manuscript did not conform in terms of format, style, and language, and there was a lack of novelty in the study. Furthermore, the hypotheses were not logical and not well-reasoned, the results did not conform to previous studies, and a central conclusion was missing. Apart from above, the study reveals 13 categories of rejected manuscripts (Table 4), the most frequent of which dealt with export promotion, export performance, international brands and IJVs. Finally, the majority of the 18 rejected papers were rejected by at least two reviewers (Table 5), indicating that the final decision was made based on a clear rejection by the reviewers. Other ways of rejection were based on the editor's decision-making, the reluctance of the authors to revise and resubmit, and the authors' withdrawal from the review process. In terms of originality and value-added the study reveals that among the 43 reasons examined, 9 were found through the survey of the Inderscience team and another 29 reasons through the qualitative analysis of 145 phrases of the reviewers comments. All 38 reasons were mainly responsible for the rejection of the 18 papers by IJEXPORTM. Conclusion, implications, limitations and future research are discussed.
  Keywords: Factors for rejection of manuscripts; international business; export marketing; International Journal of Export Marketing.