Purpose This paper aims to investigate customers' motives to engage with electronic word of mouth (eWOM), as well as the effect of eWOM on customer behavior, both at the purchase and post-purchase stages. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted, consisting of 30 semi-structured interviews with Thai consumers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings Information validation, product evaluation, purchase and post-purchase validation are key motives for consumers to search for eWOM. Furthermore, eWOM quantity, eWOM credibility and attitudes toward eWOM play a critical role in evaluation of information usefulness and adoption. Moreover, five different types of shoppers were identified according to their purchase behavior after adapting eWOM: prompt shoppers, in-store shoppers, promotion shoppers, conservative shoppers and remedy shoppers. Originality/value While the implications of the adoption of eWOM have been explored in previous research, there is limited understanding in terms of the impacts of eWOM on the customer journey. This study addresses this research gap by investigating not only customers' motives to engage with eWOM but also its effect on their behavior at the purchase and post-purchase stages.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and journal reviewers with guidance regarding the appropriate level of analysis when developing and testing theory on export performance determinants. The authors' focus is on the implications this has for the measurement of export performance. Design/methodology/approach -The paper takes the form of an essay. Findings -Researchers should measure export performance at the level at which the theory is developed. Most export performance theory developed is inherently export function level theory, requiring export function level measurement of performance. Less commonly, researchers may develop theory at the intra-firm level, which requires performance data from multiple export ventures within firms for theory testing purposes. Researchers rarely have cause to collect data from a single export venture from firms, since data at this level are unlikely to generalize to the firm as a whole, and may lead to a biased picture of the determinants of overall export performance. Originality/value -Researchers sometimes find that their passage to publication is blocked by reviewers who insist that measurement of export performance should occur at an incorrect level. Typically, the reviewer demands export performance assessment at the export venture level when the theory being tested is inherently an export function level theory. In this paper, the authors hope to correct poorly informed opinion regarding the use of venture level export performance measures, and encourage the use of measures of export performance that match the theory being tested.

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.

This study examines quadratic effects of three export decision-making approaches (planning, creativity and spontaneity) on innovation orientation, and the direct effect of innovation orientation on export market performance. The model, anchored in decision theory and dynamic capabilities, is tested on a sample of Chinese exporting firms using structural equation modelling. Findings indicate that while a greater proclivity to innovate is beneficial for export market performance, a more complex web of relationship is revealed between the three export decision-making approaches and innovation orientation, providing insights on the operationalization of a dynamic decisionmaking capability. Specifically, while an increasing level of export planning reduces an exporter's capacity to innovate, creativity has a positive direct effect on exporter's innovation orientation, which also benefits from extreme spontaneity in export decision-making. We discuss theoretical contributions and export managerial implications of this dynamic decision-making capability for industrial marketing management.

Practitioners and scholars point out that firms are increasingly dispersing their capabilities across organizational functions. However, it is not clear whether all forms of dispersion, of any function, result in the same consequences. This study initiates investigation into the link between the cross-functional dispersion of influence on export marketing decisions (export dispersion) and export performance. Drawing on data from a sample of 225 UK exporters, the findings support the argument that active participation of non-export functions in export-marketing decisions affects export success. However, those performance consequences are dependent on internal and external contingencies. Export dispersion is beneficial for export performance when the export customer environment is more turbulent and, simultaneously, the export technological environment is more stable and the firm has lower levels of export information sharing. In all other scenarios examined in this study, greater levels of concentration of export decision-making (i.e. lower levels of export dispersion) appear to be more beneficial for export performance. Our findings imply that the management of the firm's level of export dispersion is a complex task, whereby the degree of export dispersion pursued needs to match external environmental and internal firm factors.