Purpose: Industry 4.0 (I40) is an open window of opportunity for Turkey, a developed country, to eliminate technological dependence and produce with maximum productivity. However, I40, which corresponds to the fourth wave of industrial revolutions, brings both opportunities and challenges. In this context, this study aims to reveal the foresight of managers in the Turkish white goods industry (TWGI) regarding the advantages and challenges of I40 and compare them with the literature.

Design/methodology/approach: The Delphi method was used for the study. Data were collected from managers of companies that are members of the White Goods Suppliers Association (BEYSAD). Seventy managers from 55 companies participated in the first round, and 19 managers participated in the second round of Delphi.

Findings: The results show that the most frequently cited advantages are productivity/resource efficiency, data and information-enabled effectiveness/productivity, quality 4.0 and competitiveness/strategy. The most frequently mentioned challenges are financial resources/investment, employee qualification/training, technical/processual challenges and organizational transformation/leadership.

Research limitations/implications: The sample was limited to the managers of the TWGI.
Practical implications: Players in similar ecosystems and policymakers should consider the advantages and respond to potential challenges when creating roadmaps, taking the necessary steps and positioning themselves in the marketplace. In particular, the TWGI – Turkey’s showcase in international markets – should consider the undeniable benefits of the I40 transition to increase innovation.

Originality/value: The findings for the first time highlight the advantages and challenges of I40 in an industry in Turkey, and they will benefit the TWGI, which is among the leaders in Turkey in terms of digital maturity and innovation in its journey to I40.

Purpose: The 21st century has witnessed an explosive growth of both South Korean popular culture (K-pop) and automobiles (K-car) in Western societies. However, K-pop appears to maintain its success better than K-car. This paper will evaluate the origins of K-pop and K-car and determine the distinguishing factors that led to continued K-pop compared to K-car success.

Design/methodology/approach: Suggested claims of artistic/cultural and social/industrial traditions unique to South Korea as causes of the growth in K-pop and K-car success in literature will be evaluated based on historical growth in sales of both products in the US market. Factors of continued success will be evaluated based on how well both industries have been able to maintain their (perceived) brand authenticity, which emphasizes ‘Korean’ cultural values.

Findings: Unlike claims regarding the importance of traditional culture in shaping business success in emergent states, this paper shows that the success of Korean music and cars is not due to artistic/cultural values. Rather, while optimally identifying progress within industries such as digitization in music, South Korea’s unique ability is to deploy its industrial machinery to transform bolder performances and designs originating elsewhere into inoffensive forms with broad cross-cultural appeal. Especially, K-pop’s continued success can be explained through better attention to perceived authenticity, without distinguishing its products too much from known, Western perspectives. Results
also indicate that Korean products do not perform well when companies attempt to take on a leadership role in the industry or develop bold new designs that deviate strongly from Western principles.

Originality/Value: The paper provides unique insights in the similarity of product design and branding, providing tools for evaluating perceived authenticity of a brand and its potential impact on sales. It shows that attention to traditional cultural values may not be a (sufficiently) appropriate strategy for international success. From a Central European perspective, lessons learned by the Korean car and culture industries may lead to new strategic uses of branding and marketing local products and of different forms of governmental/industrial structures to emerge out of the periphery.

Purpose: This article aims to assess strategy and technology as key drivers of Greek businesses’cdigital transformation and compare the results to those of international studies and sources.

Methodology: A research was conducted on 124 Greek businesses from different sectors and industries with the use of an anonymous questionnaire from December 2019 to January 2020. Greek businesses were categorized as early, developing, and maturing according to their perceptions about the level of their digital maturity, and differences were identified. The results were finally compared to an international relevant survey.

Findings: Several differences were located among the Greek businesses of the three digital maturity categories as formulated after their self-evaluation, and evolution has been identified on their perceptions about their digital strategy, its existence, objectives, and structure, which can be seen developing and expanding from the lowest to the highest levels of digital maturity.

Originality: The findings can be useful in creating an initial picture of the perceptions and practices applied by Greek businesses to their use of digital technologies. They can also become a measure of comparison for the self-evaluation of Greek businesses in their efforts to digitally transform.

Purpose: Strategy determines the patterns of internationalization. The speed, scale, and scope of
internationalization are important dimensions from the perspective of firms’ behaviors and activities.
The aim of the article is to identify and verify the relationship between the international
strategy and its impact on three dimensions of the studied phenomenon.

Methodology: The article uses a quantitative approach. The survey was conducted on a sample of
355 internationalized firms from Poland, varying in size.

Findings: The analysis with t test and U test (ANOVA) shows a correlation between a company’s
international strategy as a planning instrument and the speed and scope of internationalization.

Research limitations/implications: While considering a firm’s development, especially its international
growth, one should plan the activities related to entering into foreign markets. The results
presented in this article are just a starting point for further analyses. In an attempt to eliminate its
limitations, further research should focus on building a comprehensive model that includes the
remaining components of international strategy and other categories that stimulate internationalization
processes.

Originality: The originality of this article lies in three elements: (i) the article comprehensively
captures the scale, scope, and speed of internationalization at the same time, (ii) the strategy is
introduced as a determining factor of the scale, scope, and speed of internationalization, and (iii)
the article enriches empirical studies about emerging markets such as Poland.

Purpose: The article discusses the pace of internationalization by empirically verifying the speed of internationalization of Polish international firms and identifying which pattern is more frequently used by international startups from Poland: born global or born regional.

Methodology: The article employs a quantitative approach. It builds on a sample of 355 international businesses from Poland (CATI survey).

Findings: By using t test, U test, and ANOVA, the analysis showed a correlation between the compa-ny’s international strategy as a planning instrument and the speed and scope of internationalization. Research limitations/implications: Based on prior studies from other parts of the globe, we assume that among Polish companies the number of born regionals – i.e. businesses that are international from their inception – is growing, while their activity is mainly restricted to the European Union. Among Polish international firms, there are many born global. In the studied sample (selected randomly), the share of born globals was 61.5%, and global startups 43%, which is a very high rate. The results enable to adopt a hypothesis that the number of Polish-born regionals is relatively high in comparison with the traditional path and born globals.

Originality/value: The article describes one of the first studies to (i) capture the phenomenon of born regionals in Poland and (ii) enrich empirical studies on emerging markets such as Poland.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to better understand why some SMEs who pursue a niche strategy on the international scale are more effective with a differentiation via innovation while others with marketing differentiation.

Methodology: Therefore, the paper studies the effectiveness of different points of differentiation (innovation, marketing) of hidden champion type of companies: (1) from the perspective of the unknowns of the key success factors in the specifc market segment, and (2) from the perspective of the professional mindset/education of the strategist.

Findings: The results show that differentiation via innovation positively impacts frm performance when there are many market unknowns over key success factors, whereas marketing differentiation positively impacts frm performance when there are few market unknowns over key success factors. On the other hand, when top management earns a business education, the impact of marketing differentiation on frm performance is signifcant, positive, and strong. The effectiveness of differentiation via innovation does not depend on education.

Research limitations/implications: These results mostly consider the hidden champion type of companies, which prefer not to reveal themselves or their data to the public. The transferability of this research is thus limited.

Originality/value: This paper studies the hidden champion type of companies, which usually receive little attention from researchers, through the lens of differentiation via innovation and marketing differentiation as two distinct ways of competing as their effectiveness is contingent on the market unknowns.

Purpose: This article provides an understanding of international retailers’ successes and failures when expanding in the Polish market. Accordingly, the objectives of this article were to define and identify what are the critical factors of success and failures of international retailers’ strategies while expanding in the Polish market according to the retailers themselves.

Methodology: Adopting an interpretative research approach, this article elaborates a multiple explanatory case study design to discover how existing theory on internationalization compared to how internationalization is experienced and conceptualized by practitioners in their natural contexts.

Findings: Twenty cases were studied among which were found four successful retailers and two who had failed. Coding of categories highlighted five critical success factors and five critical failure factors. Pricing strategy, necessity of adapting operations to local market, learning by doing, e-commerce and early entry timing appeared as factors of success or at least as “facilitating factors.” Choosing the inappropriate entry method, underestimating competition, developing the retail network and retail environment at a slow pace and not giving enough means of abnegation led to failures in Poland.

Originality: This article contributes to filling two main gaps identified in the literature review. Many different theoretical approaches exist but no conclusive framework has emerged. Besides, most concepts were developed and tested on western European countries and nothing proved adequate to the specific retail landscape of eastern Europeans countries such as Poland.

Purpose: There have been numerous studies analyzing the role of psychic (and cultural) distance in the internationalization process focused on relationships between distance and market selection, entry mode, or subsidiary performance. Still, cumulative findings of this body of research are mixed and inconclusive. Thus, this review aims for a rigorous presentation of past research on psychic distance, with particular focus on the aspects of international business operations affected by psychic distance in the light of empirical studies.

Methodology: This review encompasses 55 papers, both empirical and conceptual, published between 1990–2015 in top IB, international marketing, and management journals. In general, the papers under review were published in 27 journals, with the vast majority of them being published in 2005 or later. The vast majority of reviewed papers are of empirical character (47 papers), while eight are conceptual.

Findings: Since 2005, the number of articles published in top academic journals that featured the term “psychic distance” in the title has quadrupled. Common research topics include not only the core domain of internationalization process and performance, but also focus on understanding the concept of psychic distance, analyzing its antecedents and coping modes. Other studies have addressed the performance implications of psychic distance in conjunction with variables like strategy adaptation to foreign markets.
Research limitations/implications: While the present review is limited in the number of papers taken into account, it does provide an initial overview of the structure of the field. However, the comparability of findings of different studies is limited by factors such as firm samples or presence of multicultural nations. In terms of directions for further research, promising topics include the relationship between perceived and ‘real’ distances or the effectiveness of different coping modes.

Originality/value: The present paper identifies key research streams related to psychic distance and its role for international business. Based on an analysis of their content, it outlines several avenues for further investigation.

Purpose: To explain the conventions and conditions for implementing internationalization of a university as a strategic course for its development, as well as to provide universal strategic scenarios for expansion of the university abroad as well as to outline the factors contributing to success.

Methodology: The paper while conceptual in nature, is based on the diagnosis and analysis of the market for university education in Poland. Studies of specialized literature highlighted the main phenomena conditioning performance and trends in higher education which constituted the general background for deliberations and detailed projections.

Conclusion: The author underscores strategic conditions and decision-making procedures for a University’s expansion into foreign markets of higher education. He emphasizes the major opportunities and risks associated with the university going international. The proposals are not only cognitive but also can be the basis for application in the realism of Polish universities.

Originality: The activities of foreign universities in the domestic higher education market is a fact which is existent in many countries. This paper proposes a general concept for the internationalization strategy of a University in conjunction with a scenario accompanied by a detailed analysis and decision-making procedure. In the literature, this aspect of development of the university has been expanded in accordance with the objectives
international marketing.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ownership structure and the level and scope of internationalization of Polish listed companies.

Methodology: The analysis is based on quantitative methods (regression analysis).

Findings: The study revealed that there is no statistically signifi cant relationship between concentration of ownership and the internationalization of companies. However, there is a relationship between ownership category and internationalization.

Research implications: The research results suggest that the organizational context (and especially ownership structure) should be taken into account in resource-based theories of internationalization.

Originality: The paper makes three important contributions in the fi eld of International Business. Firstly, it incorporates the organizational context into the resource-based models of internationalization, thus contributing to the debate on the role of ownership structure in the internationalization strategy (Tihanyi et al., 2003) by showing the specifi c context of an emerging economy at an early stage of its investment development path. Secondly, it is probably the fi rst attempt to analyze the relationship between ownership structure and the internationalization of Polish companies. Thirdly, it presents the results of one of the few research studies conducted in Central and Eastern Europe regarding the specifi c population of publicly-listed companies.