This research examines the influence of government financial support on new firms' performance. Extant empirical research on the topic has found mixed results, which warrants an exploration of the theoretical basis for the impact of support policies on new firms' performance. Grounding the theoretical model in the resource-based view and institutional theories, this study contends that performance outcomes – e.g. revenues or profits – should not be the first outcomes of public policies to be examined. Instead, competitive advantage formation is suggested as a link between support policies and new firms' performance. Using new firms from the USA, we examine the impact of government financial support measures – government loans, guarantees and government equity – on firms' overall competitive advantage and more specific types of competitive advantage based on innovation, licensing-in, marketing and human capital. Controlling for family funding, bank financing, equity of business angels and venture capitalists, industry, size as well as entrepreneur's characteristics, the results reveal that government guarantees and government equity have a direct effect on new firms' competitive advantage and only an indirect impact on performance. Our results suggest to policy-makers to focus on helping new firms build the necessary capabilities to compete successfully in the marketplace.

This research focuses on a major concern for marketers addressing the claims of inefficiency of spending on advertising. We examine whether the Internet can help increase overall advertising efficiency. Using a sample from the Spanish automobile industry, we combine a nonparametric method—Data Envelopment Analysis—with recent important insights from statistics and econometrics studies, and find that online advertising improves the efficiency levels and that this effect is more pronounced in the long-term temporal framework.

Market segmentation is an important topic for higher education administrators and researchers. For segmenting the higher education market, we have to understand what factors are important for high school students in selecting a university. Extant literature has probed the importance of rational factors such as teaching staff, campus facilities, and quality of education. Less attention has been devoted to the relevance of emotional factors such as personal values. The aim of this paper is to suggest a segmentation approach based on integrating rational and emotional factors that prospective students value when selecting a university. We gather information from 21 focus groups and develop a survey applied to a sample of high school students. We find six segments characterized by distinct rational and emotional underlying factors that lead to a particular composition for each segment. The factors discussed in this research can be used as a guide for higher education managers to develop segmentation and communication plans.

This article examines whether male- and female-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt different strategic directions when internationalising. We build on the notion of gendered socialisation and the resource-based view examining gender differences in international entry modes. We also analyse several contingencies in the relationship between gender and internationalisation. Findings indicate that female-led SMEs are more likely to internationalise via export than foreign direct investment (FDI). The results challenge conventional wisdom on the role of resources and capabilities accumulated with manager age in the process of internationalisation; younger female chief executive officers are more likely to internationalise via FDI. The results offer novel insights to the literature on internationalisation of SMEs calling for more attention towards the interplay of social norms and gendered structural arrangements, on the one hand, and entrepreneurial agency, on the other, for a better understanding of the internationalisation of female-led SMEs.