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This article suggests that dynamic capabilities can give the firm competitive advantage, but this effect is contingent on the level of dynamism of the firm's external environment. A nonlinear, inverse U-shaped moderation is proposed, implying that the relationship between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage is strongest under intermediate levels of dynamism but comparatively weaker when dynamism is low or high. This proposition is tested using data on alliance management capability and new product development capability, two specific dynamic capabilities widely recognized in prior research. Results based on longitudinal key informant data from 279 firms support the account that these dynamic capabilities are more strongly associated with competitive advantage in moderately dynamic than in stable or highly dynamic environments.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of the development of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) organizational capabilities and their contributions to export performance by incorporating two antecedents: one from the internal environment (international entrepreneurial orientation) and another from the external environment (domestic market competition). Design/methodology/approach A proposed framework built on resource-based view and contingency theory was tested using partial least squares with data collected from 470 Korean SMEs. Findings International entrepreneurial orientation and domestic market competition both prompted SMEs to develop their technological and marketing capabilities, leading to enhanced performance in international markets. Full mediating effects of technological and marketing capabilities were discovered between international entrepreneurial orientation and export performance. Practical implications Given the direct effect of organizational capabilities on export performance, SMEs should facilitate the spirit of international entrepreneurial orientation and heightened managerial awareness of domestic market competition to efficiently cultivate organizational capabilities. Originality/value Unique findings indicate that SME capabilities can be optimally cultivated under the coexistence of an internal impetus (i.e. international entrepreneurial orientation) and a harsh external environment (i.e. domestic competition), demonstrating the significance of context in developing organizational capabilities.

Although the use of mobile payments has become increasingly prevalent, understanding the factors that persuade users to continue to rely on the transaction method remains limited. This study applied the Uses and Gratifications Theory and a contingency perspective to examine the relationship between personalized artificial intelligence and users’ intention to continue using mobile payments. Drawing on the contingency perspective, we also assessed four moderating factors: age, educational level, social network, and technological diversity. Using survey data collected from 515 Chinese users and applying hierarchical regression analysis, our results reveal that personalized artificial intelligence significantly enhances users’ intention to continue using mobile payments. Educational level, social network, and technological diversity also have a positive influence but age has a deterring effect. Our empirical findings constitute an academic contribution to a deeper understanding of the dynamics that persuade mobile payment users not to change their routine.

Purpose Marketing and branding literature has provided important insights into the context, environment and individual factors that shape customer brand experience. However, a holistic view on context and environmental influence on enhancing brand experience, specifically in the online social media network context, has not been considered. In addition, main focus of the previous research is on antecedent and consequence of brand experience rather strategy for enhancing brand experience. This paper aims to propose a contingency model for enhancing brand experience to provide a more holistic framework in the uncertain and complex nature of online social media network. Design/methodology/approach The proposed framework is based on previous literature that is identified and integrated to propose effectiveness of the contingent determinants on brand experience in different interactional circumstances. Findings The proposed framework implies that brand characteristics and interactive complexities of online social media networks cause contingency to the marketers or brands’ strategic attempt in delivering superior brand experience in online social media network context. These forces are as follows: online social media network characteristic (interactivity); brands’ co-creation characteristics (consumers’ and stakeholders’ participation); brand’s technical and operational competency (brands’ knowledge, ease of interactive platform); internal human resource characteristics (employees’ behaviour, brands culture, brands reputation); and customer interactive characteristics (customer demographic characteristics, customer motivation, customer attitude). These identified forces can be optimized to formulate strategies in the interactive medium for enhancing brand experience. Research limitations/implications This paper proposes a contingency model as well as research propositions that need to be validated and confirmed empirically. While narrowing down the current identified gap in brand experience literature by proposing a novel perspective to the concept, this research broadens and deepens understanding of the concept of brand experiences, how it is linked to the context and contextual factors. This contingency framework elucidates the resources that marketers, practitioners can use to enhance, limit or maintain all the dimensions within brand experience. Originality/value A holistic view on context and environmental influence on enhancing brand experience, specifically in the online social media network context, has not been considered so far. Although literature demonstrates the positive outcome of brand experience, little attention has been paid to enhancing customer brand experience, specifically in the context of online social media networks with various complex forces acting and influencing the way customers experience a brand.

The nature and scope of changes in organizations’ external environments is without precedent due to planetary shifts, or major changes in earth’s biophysical systems. Our theories of organizational adaptation lack the capacity to explain what will be needed on behalf of business organizations, and their strategists and managers, to adjust to these shifts. In this essay, we review organizational adaptation theory and explain why it falls short of offering adequate explanations in an era of planetary shifts. We then draw on ecological theories of adaptation, with their focus on social-ecological systems and panarchy, to suggest ways to advance organizational adaptation theory for our times.

Most research on business models lies in the literature on strategy and competitive advantage and focuses on their role as descriptors of actual phenomenon, often by reference to taxonomic categories. In this article, we explore how business models can be seen as a set of cognitive configurations that can be manipulate in the minds of managers (and academics). By proposing a typology of business models that emphasizes the connecting of traditional value chain descriptors with how customers are identified and satisfied, and how the firm monetizes its value, we explore how business model configurations can extend current work on cognitive categorization and open up new possibilities for organization research.

Prior studies have shown that institutional hazards in the form of formal governance deficiencies and informal cultural distance are both negatively related to the amount of foreign multinational activity in countries. We argue that the strength of these negative relationships varies systematically with the type of foreign activity (horizontal or vertical) and the type of institutional hazard (governance or cultural). Because institutional hazards striking vertical affiliates generally also have negative consequences for other parts of a multinational enterprise (MNE) while those striking horizontal affiliates do not, we hypothesize that institutional hazards are more negatively related to vertical foreign activity than to horizontal foreign activity. Since cultural hazards can generally be reduced or resolved once they materialize while governance hazards cannot, we also hypothesize that the impact of governance hazards on each type of foreign activity is more negative than the impact of cultural hazards on that type of activity. A panel data analysis of sales by US foreign affiliates to affiliated and local unaffiliated customers over the period 1996-2004 lends support to these hypotheses. Our findings thus show that the impact of institutional hazards on foreign MNE activity is more complex than previously assumed.

PurposeAlthough extant research has provided vast knowledge on the determinants of new product development (NPD) success, prior work is generally bounded to the framework of developed economies. Thus, research dealing with NPD, specifically in the emerging-market context, is still in its infancy. The purpose of this paper is to advance our current understanding on the determinants of NPD performance of emerging-market multinationals (EMMs) by exploring how international knowledge exploration plays a part in the international NPD performance of these firms. Furthermore, it examines how such contribution is contingent on EMMs’ international networking effectiveness and environmental dynamism that draws on the “fit” concept.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically test the theoretical model, the authors draw on a sample of 179 high-technology firms from China, which is the world’s largest emerging market.FindingsResults strongly support the hypothesis that international knowledge exploration positively affects international NPD performance. The analyses of moderating effects indicate that EMMs that are more effective in networking with global network partners and experience a low level of environmental dynamism are likely to achieve better financial performance in NPD.Originality/valueThis study advances our understanding on how and under what conditions EMMs can overcome their knowledge-disadvantaged position and achieve NPD success in global markets by highlighting the important role of international knowledge exploration and possible contingencies. Thus, it contributes to the literature on EMM and innovation.

Although the characteristics of top managers is an important factor associated with competitive advantage, and managerial resources are recognized as a firm’s major resource, there is limited research concerning the role of top manager’s capabilities in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and international performance. Based on the upper echelons perspective and resource-based view, the present study aimed to analyze top manager’s cultural intelligence as an internal contingency of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and international performance. The study’s theoretically derived research model was tested using survey data obtained from 206 small- and medium-sized enterprises. The findings suggested that the extent to entrepreneurial orientation was related to a firm’s international performance was contingent on the level of three dimensions of cultural intelligence (metacognitive, cognitive, and motivational). Furthermore, as the level of all four cultural intelligence dimensions of top managers increased, the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and international performance increased in strength. The implications of the present findings for future research and practice were discussed.