Colin Wheeler

Adolescent drinking ‐ the role of designer drinks

Shows that adolescent drinking varies considerably between the ages of 12 and 17, with 14 and 15‐year‐olds marking a key group whose members are keen to test their limits with alcohol and drink to intoxication but who do not necessarily enjoy the process of drinking. They dislike the taste of alcohol and the amount which needs to be drunk to reach intoxication. Designer drinks have particular characteristics that meet the needs of this group by minimizing the costs and maximizing the effects of drinking. The brand image of designer drinks matches the perceptions and expectations of 14 and 15‐year‐old drinkers, while 16 and 17‐year‐olds view these drinks as “immature”. Furthermore, consumption of these drinks is linked to heavier drinking. Concludes that these results have implications for health promotion at an individual and environmental level, with a need to educate young people about the hazards of designer drinks, address the semiotic implications of designer drinks and lobby against these drinks.

Governance Mechanisms of Small and Medium Enterprise International Partner Management

We examine how small and medium enterprises manage their international partners across different market servicing modes, namely exporting, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries. The international business literature has placed emphasis on soft issues of international partner management (such as trust, cultural sensitivity etc.) in each mode category independently. Since network arrangements and knowledge sharing are involved in all these modes, we contribute to the literature by providing evidence on the mechanisms of international partner management across market modes. Specifically, based on agency and knowledge-based theories, we seek to understand the extent to which small and medium enterprises assign rights to make decisions to partners abroad, and the types of incentives and performance monitoring schemes they use. These mechanisms are drawn from agency theory. In-depth case studies were carried out in 14 Greek small firms that employed different modes to collaborate with their partners abroad. Seven of these firms had high levels of international performance while the other seven had low levels. We identify two distinguishable combinations of governance mechanisms being implemented by these two sets of firms: high performers pursue situational decision-making with outcome-oriented incentives/performance monitoring schemes, whereas low performers pursue centralized decision-making with behaviour-oriented incentives/performance monitoring schemes.

Market entry modes and channels of distribution in the UK machine tool industry

Explores explanations for the continuance of agents or distributors and sales subsidiaries as international market entry and development modes and channels of distribution in the machine tool industry in the UK, and for entry mode evolution. Data were collected by in‐depth interviews with machine tool importers, interpreted qualitatively and related to conventional theoretical approaches. Results reveal, on the one hand, the progression of agents and distributors through acquisition to create foreign‐owned sales subsidiaries, and, on the other, regression back to the agency form. They also reveal a long‐standing persistence of a single channel of distribution.

Export Market Development: Planning and Relationship Processes of Entrepreneurs in Different Countries

This article makes an initial exploration of whether and to what extent different national values may affect the development of export markets through business to business relationships between entrepreneurs in different countries. It does this by specifically examining the trust between people and the nature and role of business planning in the export market development process. To do this, different modes of both planning and relationship development are first distinguished, based on two separate research traditions. Notions of national values developed in previous research are outlined and used to develop formal tabulated propositions regarding how national values might influence business planning and trust formation. The relevance and applicability in understanding different approaches to business development in different countries is then explored. The discussions of three matched case entrepreneurs from different countries are examined in terms of the propositions detailed by means of verbal protocol analysis. This exploratory study helps concrete propositions to be suggested why and how national values influence export market development processes through the development of theoretical typologies. Planning and relationship processes were both important but the relationships came first, in all three entrepreneurs. Different types of trusting relationships were sought and required by the individuals examined, however, that largely concurred with national values stereotypes. These, in turn, led to different approaches to the timing, role, and nature of export planning. It is hoped that the article contributes an understanding of how different national values might lead to different roles for planning and relationships in export market development.

International entrepreneurship in the life sciences

Contents: Introduction: International Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences Marian V. Jones, Colin Wheeler and Pavlos Dimitratos PART I: NEW VENTURE ATTRIBUTES AND DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES 2. Assessing the Internationalization Capabilities of Life Science New Ventures Marian V. Jones, Colin Wheeler, Pavlos Dimitratos and George Vlachos 3. Differences in the Strategic Orientations of Nordic and US-based Young Biotechnology Ventures Maija Renko 4. Small Pharmaceutical Firms Building Capabilities to Compete Along the Global Research and Development Pipeline Lisette Pregelj, Martie-Louise Verreynne and Damian Hine PART II: THE ROLE AND ESTABLISHMENT OF PARTNERSHIPS 5. Partnership Formation in Small Biotech Companies Niina Nummela and Outi Nurminen 6. Collaborative Entrepreneurship and Internationalization in Life Sciences: Global Growth through Collaboration in Italian Biotech Firms Antonella Zucchella and Diala Kabbara 7. Alliance-driven Governance in the Scottish Life Sciences and its Contribution to Regional Development Kean Birch and Andrew Cumbers PART III: DEVELOPING CAPABILITIES AND COMPETENCIES FOR INTERNATIONALIZATION 8. Sub-suppliers in the Life Science Industry: The Case of Two Danish University Spin-offs Erik S. Rasmussen, Martin Hannibal, Rene Lydiksen and Per Servais 9. Rapid Internationalization and Sustained Competitive Advantage in US and UK Life Science International New Ventures: A Resource-based View Karl Warner and Jon Carrick 10. Intellectual Property Protection: The Case of Three Swiss Life Science SMEs Marcus Matthias Keupp, Sascha Friesike and Oliver Gassmann PART IV: GROWTH, PERFORMANCE AND INTERNATIONALIZATION 11. Performance Trade-offs: Success, Revenue and Profitability Colin Wheeler, Marian V. Jones, George Vlachos and Pavlos Dimitratos 12. Internationalization of Life Science Firms: Dynamics in the Interaction between Networks, Innovation and Export Performance Vandana Ujjual 13. Firm Growth and Performance in Biotechnology: Financial Facts or Wishful Thinking? Malin Brannback, Alan L. Carsrud and Niklas Kiviluoto 14. A Model of Decision-making Processes in Internationalized Life Science Firms Pavlos Dimitratos, Marian V. Jones and Colin Wheeler 15. Towards a Research Agenda for International Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences Marian V. Jones, Colin Wheeler and Pavlos Dimitratos References Index

Micromultinationals: Transcending Resource Challenges in International Business

Micromultinationals (mMNEs) are a recently identified category of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are defined not by their speed of internationalization, as is the case with the increasingly ubiquitous ‘born globals’, but by their use of advanced market servicing modes in controlling and managing value-adding activities (VAA) across international markets (Dimitratos, Johnson, Slow and Young, 2003; Ibeh, Johnson, Dimitratos and Slow, 2004). This recourse to advanced foreign market servicing modes sets mMNEs apart from the other types of internationally active SMEs that dominantly employ the export modes (see Borchert and Ibeh, 2006, for typical differences between mMNEs and other types of internationalized SMEs). It also suggests that they have the ambition, strategic intent and potential to develop into more substantial international players, much in the manner of the conventional MNEs. This observed high growth potential and future impact (Dimitratos et al., 2003; Ibeh et al., 2004) may account for the growing recognition of mMNEs within the academic and research communities (Allison and Browning, 2006; Mathews and Zander, 2007). Although mMNEs share several behavioural characteristics with conventional MNEs (see Table 6.1), their limited resource position, or liability of smallness, typically restricts them to having a smaller degree of international value-adding activities represented by physical assets, and to managing and controlling foreign operations without necessarily owning these (Dimitratos et al., 2003). Stated differently, mMNEs tend to transcend size-related limitations on their global ambitions by exploring and embracing feasible strategic options, including resource-augmenting collaborations and alliances (Gomes-Casseres, 1997; Lu and Beamish, 2001). Their emergence in recent years reflects a new found resolve among smaller firms to capitalize upon the opportunities presented by the modern, global marketplace to transform themselves into more substantive international players, with greater local market presence.

Marketing of alcohol to young people: a comparison of the UK and Poland.

This paper takes an international perspective on the marketing of alcohol to young people by examining case studies of the marketing of alcohol in the UK and Poland. It is suggested that marketing is a powerful mechanism for attracting young consumers. The alcohol industry is an innovative industry able to use a wide variety of marketing tools to achieve success in the market-place. It is important to recognise that the marketing activities of the industry are becoming increasingly transnational and that policy response has to be equally transnational.

Exploring advertiser's expectations of advertising agency services

Advertisers have expectations about what they will receive from an advertising agency. These expectations are about the future service they believe the agency will deliver and influence the satisfaction/dissatisfaction the advertiser has of agency performance. Using an expert sample and a native categories approach, the study explores advertisers expectations of agency services at the selection stage. The paper makes three main contributions to our understanding of agency selection. First, we provide insight into what advertisers seek to gain from an agency in future service delivery. Second, we identify four categories of expectations: craft, affinity, functionality and perspective. Third, we illustrate the nature of these expectations and provide evidence that some expectations are less precise than others. We consider the implications of the findings for the agency selection literature and agency management.

Issues influencing marcoms in a global context

The marketing methods, strategies, and tactics deployed by global, multinational, and domestic firms are undergoing rapid and consistent change. The break-up of old style mass markets, new technological developments, international and national economic fluctuation, and the proclaimed emergence of global markets which indicates global competition, are impacting strongly on the ways firms develop and apply marketing and, within the domain of marketing-marketing communications. We have identified seven overarching developments with respect to marketing communications. These developments are discussed in turn in this conceptual paper and are in line with organizational changes typified by writers such as Toffler and Toffler (1990), McKenna (1991), and Hammer and Champy (1995). The discussion then focuses on development of an integrating structure that attempts to draw together the growing caucus of knowledge concerning database marketing, integrated communications strategies, and multinational marketing, illu...

A framework for understanding the website preferences of Egyptian online travel consumers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding issues affecting Egyptian online travel website preferences. Design/methodology/approach – Grounded theory was selected due to its suitability in generating frameworks from data gathered plus existing theory. Findings – The research describes the development of the electronic cultural adaptation framework (E-CAF), which consists of six theoretical dimensions that allow both researchers and practitioners to comprehend how Egyptian cultural values can affect their online travel shopping behaviour, in particular website design preferences. Research limitations/implications – The construction of the E-CAF is based on research into Egyptian online travel consumers. Development of the E-CAF could be expanded using participants from different cultural groups and other shopping domains. Practical implications – This research will help practitioners to understand how Egyptian cultural values can affect online behaviour and assist in de...