If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine two predominant export decision-making orientations emanating from normative and descriptive decision theory, namely planning and improvisation and their coexistence within exporting firms. In addition, contingencies under which one may be more appropriate than the other for optimal performance consequences are identified. Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative study was conducted with UK exporters by way of in-depth interviews. The results were analyzed using within-and cross-case displays of in-vivo and literature-based codes, based on Miles and Huberman's recommendations. Findings -The study reveals widespread use of improvisation in export functions, and its co-existence with export planning for enhanced decision-making. In addition, resource-and capabilities-based moderators are identified that may affect the ways in which planning and improvisation are related to export performance. Research limitations/implications -This is a preliminary study which addresses the two export decision-making orientations together for the first time. Further quantitative research is needed to formally test the conceptual model developed. Practical implications -Export decision-makers often feel guilty about improvising, believing that planning is the accepted norm. Avoidance and covert use of improvisation, however, are not necessary. Indeed, export improvisation can have many positive consequences for the export function, especially when combined with export planning. Originality/value -Research on export decision-making has tended to focus on normative decision theory (from which planning emerges), largely overlooking descriptive approaches which identify improvisation as a valid decision-making orientation. However, in today's global and competitive environment, better performance consequences are increasingly to be found in the faster and more creative export decisions that improvisation can afford. This study addresses for the first time how benefits can be drawn from employing a combination of export planning and improvisation.

Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jim.14.0071Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Surprisingly, planning and improvisation have historically been viewed as opposite poles of the same continuum, and therefore mutually exclusive (Moorman and Miner 1998), rather than as decision-making approaches, which can potentially be used simultaneously. Very little research has attempted to examine how both can be used within the same context, in a bid to maximize performance. When used alone, formalized (and inherently more rigid) planning undermines the decision-maker's ability to deal with unexpected opportunities and threats in a timely manner. By the same token, if managers rely exclusively on improvisation, there is a danger that decision-making will become chaotic (Brown and Eisenhardt 1998). This may go some way towards explaining discrepancies in export planning research. Specifically, it is likely that the drawbacks of planning and improvisation could be cancelled out when the two approaches are applied together, with their combined application possibly resulting in better outcomes for companies (Slater, Olson, and Hult 2006). The third research gap identified, therefore, concerns the dearth of theoretical and empirical information on the outcomes of 5 combining planning and improvisation within the export context. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the value and use of improvisation in exporting, and the extent to which the interaction of planning and improvisation is related to export responsiveness and performance.The theoretical contributions of this study address the research gaps identified above. Firstly, we complement the literature on antecedents to export performance by examining, not the substantive export decisions that are made, but how these are made. In so doing, we bring decision theory to the realm of export marketing research, thereby ensuring theoretical rigor to the conceptual development. Secondly, we introduce the concept of improvisation to the export decision-making field, in a bid to provide a more holistic perspective on export decisions. We anchor our export improvisation research in preliminary fieldwork, constituted of in-depth interviews with export decision-makers, thus ensuring the direct relevance and applicability of our work. Finally, previous studies on planning and improvisation have typically focused on the effects of either planning or improvisation on performance, a...

Although there is some recognition that agility is advantageous for a born-global firm, the concept of agility is underexplored in the management and marketing literature. Little is known about the ability of born-globals to become agile and under what conditions agility can lead to better market performance. In this investigation the exploratory qualitative research was conducted using the data of fifteen in-depth interviews with managers and experts in Tech City in London, UK. Firstly, the findings show that creativity and informal planning are the main decision-making drivers of agility in born-global firms. Secondly, the study reveals that agility is more likely to be positively related to international market performance when key decisionmakers have certain skills, including knowledge of the market, international experience, learning orientation and ambiguity tolerance.

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Spontaneity and International Marketing PerformanceAbstract Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how today's international marketers can perform better on the global scene by harnessing spontaneity.Design/methodology/approach -We draw on contingency theory to develop a model of the spontaneity-international marketing performance relationship, and identify three potential moderators, namely strategic planning, centralization, and market dynamism. We test the model via structural equation modeling with survey data from 197 UK exporters.Findings -The results indicate that spontaneity is beneficial to exporters in terms of enhancing profit performance. In addition, greater centralization and strategic planning strengthen the positive effects of spontaneity. However, market dynamism mitigates the positive effect of spontaneity on export performance (when customer needs are volatile, spontaneous decisions do not function as well in terms of ensuring success).Practical implications -Learning to be spontaneous when making export decisions appears to result in favorable outcomes for the export function. To harness spontaneity, export managers should look to develop company heuristics (increase centralization and strategic planning). Finally, if operating in dynamic export market environments, the role of spontaneity is weaker, so more conventional decision-making approaches should be adopted.Originality/value -The international marketing environment typically requires decisions to be flexible and fast. In this context, spontaneity could enable accelerated and responsive decisionmaking, allowing international marketers to realize superior performance. Yet, there is a lack of research on decision-making spontaneity and its potential for international marketing performance enhancement.

As the business arena becomes more global and therefore dynamic, organizations must balance their capabilities with the demands and the conditions of the international marketplace. This leads firms to trade off the development of more capabilities with the identification of core capabilities which can best improve export competitiveness and performance. Based on the Dynamic Capabilities Approach (DCA), we develop a model of four export capabilities, namely adaptability, innovativeness, unpredictability, and task-flexibility, aimed at achieving competitive advantage in foreign markets and enhance export performance. Based on a survey of 213 Chinese exporting organizations, we find out that innovativeness, unpredictability and taskflexibility are positively related to competitive advantage, while adaptability is negatively related to it. Moreover, we uncovered that in the cases of adaptability, innovativeness and taskflexibility their impact on competitive advantage diminishes under higher levels of competitive intensity, however, for unpredictability this impact becomes negative. We also confirm the necessity of addressing competitive advantage separately from firms' performance.