Editorial

Abstract

The concept of ‘international entrepreneurship’ (IE), as one can assume, was used for the first time in the doctoral dissertation of Tomas Otto Kohn in 1988 at Harvard. It is most probable that it was published for the first time in the work by John F. Morrow in the same year. A year later, this notion appeared in scientific publications by various authors, including
Patricia P. McDougall (at present McDougall-Covin), who together with Benjamin M. Oviatt developed this theory in the following years. It can therefore be assumed that the current international entrepreneurship as an area of research is only 25-30 years old, although its intensive development occurred only in the first decade of the 21st century, that is, de facto, a few years ago. IE has been developing very intensively, however it must be admitted that, apart from some elements of this school, it is still quite a promising field of research.

Thematic articles in this issue include 7 texts from different parts of the world (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Mexico, Serbia) to explore entrepreneurial internationalisation of modern businesses.

Yonni Angel Cuero Acosta, Richard Adu-Gyamfi, Md. Noor Un Nabi, and Utz
Dornberger in their article entitled Analysing the Role of Framework Conditions Influencing International Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification Process analyse the framework conditions which affect the entrepreneurial opportunity while acting on the international market. The Authors help us to understand how context interacts with the entrepreneurial opportunity identification process on international markets.

Lidia Danik, Izabela Kowalik, Petr Král, and Hana Řezanková in their article entitled Antecedents of Accelerated Internationalisation of the Polish and Czech Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises focus on relations between accelerated internationalisation descriptors and antecedent firm– and entrepreneur–related factors in the SME sector. They empirically investigate the concept of a global vision among Polish and Czech born global companies in a cooperative perspective.

Based on primary data gathered in the course of interviews with founders and senior managers of British born globals, Paweł Capik, and Andreas Brockerhoff in their article entitled Role of Strategic Partnerships in Internationalisation of British Small Born Global Firms reveal that next to serendipitous opportunities, the motivation and opportunity recognition of the founder/manager play a vital role in firms’ early internationalisation.

Cezary Kochalski and Magdalena Łuczak-Trąpczyńska in their paper entitled Determinants of Controlling in Foreign Subsidiaries of MNEs: On the Explanatory Potential of the Institutional Perspective identify gaps in extant literature on controlling in MNEs, in particular factors affecting related managerial decisions. They try to investigate the relevance of the institutional perspective in the context of explaining the design of controlling in foreign subsidiaries.

Marta Gancarczyk, Jacek Gancarczyk, and Joanna Bohatkiewicz in their article entitled SME Roles in Modular Value Chains: Perspectives for Growth and Innovativeness contribute to the current state-of-the-art by identifying the roles which SMEs can play in modular value chains and by identifying governance arrangements which SMEs apply to accomplish innovation and high growth.

Nikola Radovanović, Veljko Dmitrović, and Nevenka Žarkić Joksimović in their article entitled From Knowledge to Innovation and Back: Empirical Testing of Knowledge-Intensive Industries in Serbia suggest that implemented innovation correlates with the use of knowledge in organisations and that an increase in research and development activities, as well as in patented and non-patented products or services will likely lead to an increase in the volume of internal knowledge use by employees.

Martha Cantú Cavada, Vito Bobek, Anita Maček in their article entitled Motivational Factors for Female Entrepreneurship in Mexico on the basis of in-depth interviews try to identify key determinates which stimulate women in Mexico to start their own business. They prove that women are motivated by a combination of push and pull factors, and the majority of the factors are pull factors.

As usual, there are also 4 other papers in this issue, which are off-topic and which deal with various general issues in economics and management.

Christiane Naumann in her article entitled Entrepreneurial Mindset: A synthetic Literature Review presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in research on entrepreneurial mindset. The paper identifies past, current and future research areas in the context of entrepreneurial mindset.

Witold Nowiński, and Miklós Kozma in their article entitled How Can Blockchain Technology Disrupt Existing Business Models? provide an overview of the key literature on business models and business model innovation, indicating, among others, that new technologies may be one of the drivers to business model innovation. Additionally, the paper focuses on blackchain technology and its influence on business model.

Angga Pandu Wijaya in the article entitled Role of Experience in Customer Self Congruity to Maintaining Loyalty: A Study on Fashion Store analyses interrelationship between three customers’ features (experience, self-congruity and loyalty) in the fashion industry. The Author suggests that customer experience plays a significant role in moderating the effect of self-congruity on customer loyalty.

Babatunde Akanji in the article entitled A Case Analysis on the Adequacy of Work Life Balance Practices in UK Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises using a qualitative design states that the Informal nature of human resource management policies is one of the constraining forces impeding work-life agendas in SMEs and causing low staff retention in the UK.