Purpose -Despite failure rates of around 30 per cent, international joint ventures (IJVs) continue to grow. It is argued that IJVs provide a platform for organisational learning, which facilitates organisational performance. Intuitively, IJVs that are learning oriented should have a positive impact upon organisational performance. However, it is unclear as to whether a firm in an IJV should focus more on being learning oriented, or market oriented. The paper aims to address this question. Design/methodology/approach -A survey of 168 senior managers involved in IJVs in Malaysia. Data were analysed using two-stage least squares estimators for latent variable models. Findings -Results suggest that for IJVs, a market orientation has a more positive impact on organisational performance than a learning orientation. The non-linear relationship between market orientation and performance suggest that larger gains in performance are achieved by firms who have low initial levels of market orientation. Thus, in the absence of one or the other, it is preferable for a firm in an IJV to have a strong market orientation. Practical implications -For managers of IJVs, the study would suggest that firms should concentrate on improving their organisations' overall level of market orientation if they are to improve the level of business performance. Originality/value -This paper is the first to examine the relative effects of a market orientation and a learning orientation in the context of IJVs.

Purpose Bahrain is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It is the third smallest country in Asia. Like its neighbours’, Bahrain’s economy is developing fast and the place of women in the work landscape is evolving. But few papers discuss the situation of women entrepreneurs in this country. The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of women entrepreneurship in Bahrain, a country in the midst of high transition. The research question is: How do Bahraini women cope with the evolution of their environment? And how far are they keen to develop their own businesses? Design/methodology/approach After a literature review, a qualitative research was conducted among 12 women entrepreneurs of 19 to 51 years of age. Findings The results show a new kind of female entrepreneurship in the Arab region based on the support of the sociocultural environment, which is in contradiction with the literature. Also, it seems that Bahrain women are more in pull, not push situation to entrepreneurship. However, they need a role model to achieve their goals, which is new to the literature about women entrepreneurship in general and that in the developing countries in particular. As regards the obstacles, some Bahraini women seem to suffer from a lack of experience and knowledge in setting a business online. However, the results show that the companies of these women are mostly small and evolving in the service sector, with a trend in online businesses. Research limitations/implications This study is limited by the number of persons interviewed, which does not allow the generalization of the results. Also, generalization to the whole region is not possible because each country of the GCC has its own rules and practices towards women. Also, this study has not investigated the attitude towards the risk and the balance between family and profession. Originality/value This paper is one of the few research studies on female entrepreneurship in Bahrain. The findings are in contradiction with the literature on women entrepreneurship in developing countries and more specifically in the GCC. This study offers many research perspectives and could help governmental and non-governmental institutions to empower and support women in their actions.

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Given the potential importance of technology parks, their complexity in terms of the scope of required investment and the growing interest of governments to use them as tools for creating sustainable development there is a pressing need for a better understanding of the critical success factors of these entities. However, Briggs and watt (2001) argued that the goal of many technology parks and the factors driving innovation success are still a mystery. It is also argued that the problem with analyzing technology parks is that recent studies analyze “the most celebrated case studies… to ‘explain’ their success”. This study uses intensive interviewing to explore critical success factors of technology parks. The study identified the following factors: a culture of risk-taking “entrepreneurism”, an autonomous park management, an enabling environment, a critical mass of companies, the presence of internationally renowned innovative companies, and finally a shared vision among the technology park stakeholders

Drawing on the strategy implementation approach and the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the relationships among competitive strategies (differentiation and cost leadership), responsive market orientation (RMO), proactive market orientation (PMO), learning orientation (LO) and organizational performance. The study used questionnaire survey of senior managers of 264 manufacturing and service companies in Jordan. The study employed partial least squares to test the hypotheses. Moderate but significant relationships are evident in the links between cost leadership and LO, and RMO and organizational performance. Strong and significant relationships are exhibited in the links between differentiation and RMO; differentiation and PMO; differentiation and LO and between LO and organizational performance. The results show that differentiation strategy is more important than cost leadership strategy and that LO is the most important factor for better organizational performance.