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PurposeUsing behavioral theory of the firm, the purpose of this paper is to examine how a small firm’s performance relative to historical and social aspirations is related to its international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO). This study also explores two environmental factors, liability of foreignness (LoF) and host-country market potential (HMP), as the moderators for the relationship of performance and IEO.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses survey for data collection from Canadian small firms and employs regression models for data analysis.FindingsThe results show that small firms demonstrate stronger IEO when their performance is below aspirations, but their IEO diminishes when their performance exceeds aspirations. The authors also found that a small firm’s LoF does not moderate the impact of its performance feedback on IEO. However, the authors found HMP plays a moderating role when a small firm’s performance is below aspirations.Originality/valueThis study investigates the relationship of IEO to aspiration and found that this relationship is moderated by HMP. The study advances our knowledge on small firms’ international behavior.

Influenced by the concept of the strength of a force in physics, access to markets has since the 1940s been evaluated by indicators of ‘potential’, measured as a sum of a distance-weighted of population or market size of foreign or external territories. Later development of the New Economic Geography (NEG) by Paul Krugman did not solve the problem of calculating internal market size in a way that can be used to add it to calculations for external market potential. This paper analyzes the consequences of geometrical justifications in measuring internal market potential. For a sample of European regions, the paper concludes that the literature should be more explicit about historical processes of agglomeration and methods of calculating internal market size.

This paper suggests an optimal control formulation of a diffusion model to determine the optimal advertising and pricing policy for a new product in segmented market involving price dependent market potential where total potential market is a decreasing function of price. We assume that sales rate is proportional to the number of adopters and evolved under the joint effect of a single advertising channel and segment specific advertising process that affect sales rate in unsaturated market. Single channel advertising with a fixed spectrum is available for each segment in whole market while segment specific advertising process can reach each target segment individually. The optimal dynamic price and advertising policies are obtained by applying Pontryagin’s maximum principle. Finally, numerical examples of two cases for a discrete version of the proposed control problem are provided to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed method

PurposeThis paper aims to propose the concept of market potential analysis, which is commonly applied in economics, as a method to enable these investment decisions to be based on sound evidence.Design/methodology/approachThe markets for Olympic awards, i.e. medals (top three places) and diplomas (i.e. top eight places) are compared in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country, speed skating, freestyle skiing, short track and snowboarding from 1992 to 2018.FindingsThe most notable changes are identified in cross country (2002), biathlon (2006), freestyle skiing (2014), snowboarding (2006 and 2014) and speed skating (2018).Originality/valueIn spite of the evidence of nations investing strategically in their elite sport systems to produce Olympic success, there is a lack of knowledge on how national-level decision makers can use a strategy to analyse the competitive environment concerning sports contested in the Olympic Winter Games.

Green hydrogen will play a crucial role in the future of emission reduction in air traffic in the long-term, as it will completely eliminate CO2 emissions and significantly reduce other pollutants such as contrails and nitrogen oxides. Hydrogen offers a promising alternative to kerosene for short- and medium-haul flights, particularly through direct combustion and hydrogen fuel cell technology in new aircraft concepts. Against the background of the immense capital-intensive infrastructure adjustments that are required at airports for this purpose and the simultaneously high future hydrogen demand for the shipping industry, this paper analyses the emission savings potential in Europe if airports near seaports would switch to hydrogen-powered flight connections.

Poultry meat production has shown growth over the past 10 years. Russia is ranked 4th in the world for this indicator. The study was conducted using general scientific and statistical-economic research methods. The results of the study of the market potential of poultry meat indicate the existence of opportunities to expand this target segment. Broiler meat has been established to have a significant share in the structure of poultry meat balance and that meat from alternative poultry species is a niche. There are unfilled niches in the assortment portfolio as well. The market potential of poultry meat was also analysed by region, based on the criterion of the level of self-sufficiency in this type of product. A decrease in imports and an increase in exports can be observed in relation to export-import operations. At the same time, it is necessary to continue increasing the export potential both through permanent importers of poultry meat and processed poultry products and through its geographical expansion. Thus, the results of poultry meat market potential analysis have identified relevant niches, namely increasing the volume of meat production from alternative species of agricultural poultry, increasing the self-sufficiency of poultry meat in some regions of the country, ensuring per capita poultry meat consumption based on global trends, diversification of the product portfolio based on deep poultry meat processing, increase in functional and organic poultry meat products, increasing the volume of poultry meat export Based on these results, a scheme for expanding the market potential of poultry meat is proposed and its forecast for 2030 is given.

Home health monitoring of the elderly has grown in recent years and the context of pandemic has facilitated its evolution, offering the opportunity for medical service providers to expand and improve the quality of eHealth systems and products. A major market potential is represented by the field of eHealth – in this case the home health monitoring of the elderly, the context of the pandemic being a decisive factor in the exploration of this potential. The need to design viable solutions geared towards a target market becomes an inevitable challenge to improve profitability and therefore stakeholder value. The paper presents in detail a SWOT analysis highlighting the key points of eHealth monitoring systems, identifying the optimal potential of these solutions. The case study presents a viable eHealth solution highlighting a competitive advantage in personalised home monitoring for the elderly as well as a financial projection.

Purpose Recognising the high numbers of unbanked and financially excluded adults in Nigeria, this study aims to position chatbot as a digital transformation tool to radically change business model, improve customer experience and enhance financial inclusion in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach The Search-Access-Test (S-A-T) model was adopted to understand how Nigerian banks are adopting chatbots. Findings A majority of Nigerian banks now have chatbots that enhance customer engagement and financial inclusion. WhatsApp was the most frequently used platform. Chatbots were often branded and presented with female gender identification. The chatbots were less responsive beyond their predefined path. While Nigeria is a multilingual country with English being the original language, none of the chatbots used any of the Nigerian’s local languages. Practical implications Brands need to re-evaluate their chatbots with regard to responsiveness, predefined questions, verification and privacy. There are also possibilities of branding the chatbot and developing content creation strategies for proper engagement. Beyond English, the integration of African languages into chatbot is essential for digital transformation. Digital literacy and skills, particularly in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, should be supported to equip future developers and create more jobs. Originality/value While many theoretically based models for investigating the adoption of digital technologies have often placed focus on users’ ability to engage, this study takes an alternative perspective; by using the S-A-T model, it lays the responsibilities on the banks and chatbot developer to ensure that their chatbots are secure, responsive and able to meet the needs of the customers.

The objective of this paper is to reveal the impact of spatial concentration of business in the Russian citieson enterprise productivity. The hypotheses are the following: urbanization level and home market potentialpositively affect enterprise performance; localization economies are positive and start decreasing aftersome point due to congestion and excessive competition; regional transport infrastructure, business climateand human capital positively affect enterprise performance. We use firm level data augmented with city andregional data. Fixed effects are applied in order to deal with endogeneity. Agglomeration economies are consideredin the light of opportunities for knowledge spillovers, input sharing and labor market pooling. Our resultsconfirm that agglomeration economies and home market potential are important for the enterprise performance.We find positive urbanization and diversity economies, while localization economies have an invertedU shape. Results can be used to improve regional policy. For instance, significance of home market potentialemphasizes the importance of transport infrastructure. Significance of agglomeration effects impliesthat if a sufficiently large number of firms work in a city, performance of each firm improves.

The paper provides an overview of biocosmetics, which has tremendous potential for growth and is attracting huge business opportunities. It emphasizes the immediate need to replace conventional fossil-based ingredients in cosmetics with natural, safe, and effective ingredients. It assembles recent technologies viable in the production/extraction of the bioactive ingredient, product development, and formulation processes, its rapid and smooth delivery to the target site, and fosters bio-based cosmetic packaging. It further explores industries that can be a trailblazer in supplying raw material for extraction of bio-based ingredients for cosmetics, creating biodegradable packaging, or weaving innovation in fashion clothing. Lastly, the paper discusses what it takes to become the first generation of a circular economy and supports the implementation of strict regulatory guidelines for any cosmetic sold globally.