Journal of International Marketing

In this article, a conceptual model is developed that places internationalization and key process dimensions into a longitudinal strategy context. The model follows the internationalization literature with its emphasis on internal organizational processes (such as learning and network development) that drive foreign market expansion, but are also outcomes of it. These internal processes (which feed into the so-called strategic foundation) are linked to the company's strategy mechanisms, thus tying internationalization and strategic management into an interrelated cycle. Networks are analyzed as a subset of the conceptual model, illustrating many of the challenges of taking a strategic approach to internationalization. Although the paper is exploratory in nature, managerial implications of the model in terms of effective servicing of foreign markets are discussed.

International countertrade is an unconventional marketing strategy used widely to promote global business transactions. A mail survey involving 108 countertrade practitioners from 23 countries suggests that marketing motives influence the importance of countertrade, frequency of countertrade use, firm-specific longitudinal change in countertrade sales volume, and orientation towards international countertrade.

Information use within an export setting has been neglected in most studies’ they focus instead on the acquisition of information rather than its use. Knowledge use as a topic, however, has been under investigation in the social sciences since the mid-1970s. Various conceptualizations have been developed, and emphasis has been placed upon the multidimensional nature of knowledge use. This article reviews the literatures on export information and general knowledge use, and integrates them into a model of export information use. Specifically, different types of information use are distinguished, their antecedents are identified, and their effect on export decision making and ultimate export success is indicated. A number of propositions to guide further research are also developed.

Exporting has become a popular means for businesses to augment sales and profitability and for countries to improve their gross domestic product and balance of trade. As a complement to export selling, high-level government officials increasingly are providing export promotional assistance to their nations’ industries. Much of what is known about this “high-level government selling, “ however, is based on conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence. This article reports the results of a study that examined non-U.S. politicians’ export selling efforts. Data were obtained from surveys of foreign embassy diplomats in the United States. Findings offer insights into what government officials are doing to stimulate sales of their countries’ exports.

The globalization of business education involves much more than the inclusion of more international business courses in the curriculum and the infusion of more international materials into all business courses. Like their corporate counterparts, business schools themselves need to become global institutions with operations in various parts of the world to enable faculty, students, and executive clients to gain international expertise and to provide regular and diverse global inputs into the educational process. Since most schools lack the resources to achieve a global reach by themselves, the best course generally involves the establishment of strategic alliances with foreign business schools. This article examines the nature of these alliances and suggests the many joint activities in which alliance partners can engage.