By presenting an investigation of the impact of international trade protectionism on the reconfigurations of the global value chains (GVCs), this paper challenges the perceived assumption of ongoing globalization and the free flow of goods and services. Building on the de-globalization and GVCs’ literature, we performed a historical content analysis on 174 articles from 2016 to 2020 published in leading and major national and international newspapers. Our findings suggest that international trade protectionism has altered the landscape of GVCs by causing widespread disruption to their functioning, thus making them prone to future external policy risks. Such disruption is having a varying impact on various industries, whereby it is causing greater harm to those industries that are more global in nature and thus rely on global suppliers. We draw implications of our findings for research and practice.

This paper examines the role played by strategic agility and gender diversity in enabling the creation of value for grand challenges (VCGCs) by small and medium‐sized enterprises originating from emerging markets (ESMEs). ESMEs face significant challenges due to the dynamic environments in which they operate and the limited support they receive from formal institutions. In such contexts, strategic agility enables ESMEs to drive VCGCs through responsible collaborative innovation. We further argue that gender diversity is an important boundary condition that influences the effect of strategic agility on VCGCs via responsible collaborative innovation. Utilizing 228 survey responses from ESMEs originating from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), our findings shed light on the vital role played by strategic agility in enhancing ESMEs' VCGCs. Specifically, our findings indicate that responsible collaborative innovation acts as an important mediating mechanism between strategic agility and VCGCs. In addition, gender diversity emerges as an important moderating factor in that, in the presence of more heterogeneous senior management teams, the effect of strategic agility on VCGCs through the mediating mechanism of responsible collaborative innovation is higher. These findings contribute to the literature on dynamic capabilities, upper echelons, and grand challenges by providing important insights into the mechanisms and boundary conditions of VCGCs in the context of emerging market firms.

Purpose: The resource-based view (RBV) emphasises the importance of resources for firm performance. However, recent research argues that the focus on firm performance should also be based on inside-out (IO) and outside-in (OI) capabilities. Specifically, we study the importance of resources on product development (an IO) and market driving (an OI) entrepreneurial marketing capabilities on entrepreneurial firm performance in an emerging market. The study further investigates the moderating effects of marketing agility on the relationship between resources and capabilities.Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on survey data of a multi-industry sample of 102 entrepreneurial firms in Pakistan.Findings: The results show that marketing agility moderates the relationship between resource-mix flexibility on product development and market driving capabilities, but it only positively moderates the relationship between resource-mix inimitability and product development capability. Marketing driving and product development capabilities play a role as parallel mediators between resources and firm performance.Originality/value: The study lies at the intersection of marketing and entrepreneurship literature by (1) providing a nuanced understanding of marketing agility as a boundary spanning factor for IO and OI entrepreneurial marketing capabilities; (2) integrating the resource types and product development from IO and market-driving from OI capabilities perspectives; (3) identifying the effects of IO and OI on firm performance providing guidance for entrepreneurs seeking improved firm performance.