With the purpose to explore what characterizes established SMEs with growth ambitions, literature on growth and in particular growth ambitions was reviewed. Five dimensions of growth ambition were used: important to grow as regards turnover, important to take risks, prioritizes growth to profitability, prioritizes market share to profitability and prioritizes to reinvest to profit. Variables previously found to characterize fast-growing SMEs were included. A sample of 384 Swedish SMEs was used where growth ambitions were collected in 2011 and financial data was obtained for 2009 and 2013. Regardless of dimension, firms with the higher values had a 50 % higher increase employee growth. For most dimensions, a higher percentage of the turnover invested in completely new products and younger managing director/shorter managing director time with the firm and a stronger focus on increasing the domestic market share characterized the firms stressing growth in turnover and not prioritizing profitability.

Bundling is a term that refers to several products (goods or services) marketed and sold together; yet, each of the products should be able to sell to a market segment of their own. Bundling usually involves price bundling. The products in a bundle are often chosen such that the customer's needs are satisfied better or to provide better value to the customer. Bundling in the form of introducing a new product together with an established one is found to particularly facilitate the adoption of radically new products. It can also be used when disposing of lasting stock of a product that is to be taken off the market. Such bundling must be done with care so that the customer can make an informed choice. Whenever bundling, marketers must avoid creating bundles that may be seen as obstructing competition.

C2C (consumer‐to‐consumer) and C2B (consumer‐to‐business) are two ways of marketing enabled by the Internet and two‐way communication software. C2C concerns one customer marketing a product to another customer. It has evolved from “putting up notes” and personal selling to sometimes global web‐based sales facilitated secure transactions systems. Further growth was noted when blogs and personal webpages became commonplace, when also opinions about products were published. Such information about consumer opinions is increasingly seen as central to businesses. C2B is less common than C2B and involves a consumer marketing something to a business. An increase of this type is seen within product groups where there is a surplus in the market. One way to describe C2B is “reverse auctions.” Then the consumer states on, for example, a web site that he or she is interested in a product at a given price and a purchase will be made from the business willing to sell at this (or a lower) prize. A recent research interest involves the role of personal blogs in Internet‐based C2C marketing and personal brands.

With many manufacturing SMEs underperforming, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate which aspects of Open Innovation (OI) are applied and how these affect the performance of manufacturing SMEs. Using a set of 132 Swedish manufacturing SMEs, internal and external aspects affecting OI application were evaluated with regard how they affect OI performance. Two clusters were identified. One cluster had higher values on all variables except from supporting organizational structures, where the other group had the higher value. However, the variable with the strongest differentiating impact was by far strategic orientation. There was no significant difference in financial performance between the two clusters but several significant differences could be established regarding innovation performance measurements. 

Perceptual mapping is used to establish a product's or a brand's position and can provide a comprehensive picture of the competitive situation and how differentiated the product or brand is in the minds of the established target group. A perceptual map is a type of diagram, where the two axes depict the criteria, and their relative importance, the target group uses when selecting a product or brand to satisfy a certain need. Several maps must be drawn to get a full picture of how a certain product or brand is positioned. Any position is to be established in relation to any competitor, direct or one providing substitutes, satisfying the same need for the established target group. Market research (or otherwise obtained equal data) is required to find out the selection criteria – and their relative importance – of the target group. The position in perceptual maps is a relative one. To judge a position, the market share size for each competing product or brand should be included in the map. A product or brand with a small market share in the close proximity of a product or brand with a large market share should consider repositioning.

Price bundling involves selling a package of products (goods and or services) at a lower price than if the products were priced and sold separately. Price bundling is closely related to bundling and is a common means to differentiate a company's offerings, regardless of type of product. The assumption in marketing theory that there is perfect information, that is, both parties involved in a transaction share the same information, often is an unrealistic condition. More frequently there are imbalances or non‐perfect conditions allowing for price discrimination. Price discrimination, which can be classified as direct, semi‐direct, and indirect, can be related to bundling. Setting an appropriate price for a bundle requires in‐depth knowledge of customers' needs. If done appropriately, the utility will be optimized. To achieve this there may be a need for a decrease in price of a bundle to compensate the loss in value and need satisfaction if the bundle consists of products with unequal vale or need satisfaction.

Push/pull marketing strategy concerns how an organization offering products (goods and or services) views the market. Organizations can be found just about anywhere on a scale from a pure push marketing strategy to a pure pull marketing strategy. A push marketing strategy focuses on what resources, competences and capacity the organization has, while a pull marketing strategy focuses on the needs of the market. Most organizations apply a mix of push and pull marketing strategy. Any adaptation of offerings to customer needs must reasonably fit the competences and capabilities within the firm or its network or such competences and capabilities, which within a reasonable time and at reasonable cost, can be obtained. An organization thus balances between what it reasonably can offer (push) and what the market demands (pull). For several types of organization, in particular within fast‐moving consumer goods, the increased data on customers have aided a shift toward a more pull‐oriented marketing strategy. The risk with applying a total pull marketing strategy is that the company may listen too much to too many types of customer resulting in too low a ratio between revenue and the production cost of the offerings to remain in the market.

The term supply chain refers to all organizations involved in moving a product (good or service) from its initiation/birth until it reaches its final customer, be it a consumer or an organizational buyer. A channel of distribution is a special type of supply chain. Recycling is often made part of the supply chain. Quite often only parts of a supply chain are studied at one time and the study is made from one organization's perspective. When looking from an organization towards a supplier it is called to view the chain upstream, and downstream when the view is towards the customer. Studies of supply chains include besides raw material or supplies, various types of financial transactions, knowledge exchange, adaption and social relations. Due to various reasons, companies may choose to move, also called to integrate, up or down the supply chain. A move up the supply chain for a certain company involves taking over activities and responsibilities previously carried out by one or more suppliers. A move down the supply chain may involve making products more complete before moving them on to the next step.

The knowledge on manufacturing SMEs and Open Innovation (OI) is limited and therefore, this article describes and evaluates how manufacturing SMEs apply and benefit from OI. Based on a survey and additional financial data, 151 Swedish manufacturing SMEs were evaluated with regard to variables concerning OI application and financial performance. The conclusions are that SMEs are very open to and want to learn from new ideas outside of the firm, however mainly applying inbound OI activities. Medium-sized firms use innovation collaboration more and are less reluctant to IP appropriability regimes. Being part of a larger organization may help SMEs use patents and trademarks. Significant relationships were established between OI variables and firms with the highest and the lowest profitability. These had a common core labelled "aiming at maintaining technology leadership". Finally, no connection between applying OI activities and firm profitability could be established.

1. Study objective:To get a better understanding on how an interaction between small firms’ managerial intentions, competences, embedded networks and firms’ perceived opportunities from industrial and institutional environments formstheir internationalization pathway over the time.

2. A brief statement of method:Four longitudinal in-depth case studies were selected from 293 respondents to a survey in 2010 on SwedishSMEs’ China business experience and interest.

• Chosen cases are contrast in their previous interna-tional business experience and traits of product/ service offerings.

• The study uses a mixed method to collect primary data and the data are collected several rounds along tar-get market entry process.

3. A summary of results:In a case of small service firm without pre-international business, influences from domestic intermediate actors in professional networks play a big role in firm’s opportuni- ties discovery process.

Other cases show that an iterative learning process in emerging market entry. However, the opportunities searching process is triggered by internal motivations such as growth.

The study captures small firms changing managerial attentions under stimulations from external environment and internal motivations. The study shows that interac- tion between small firms’ internal means (resources) and attitude, and firms’ external environment plays a majorrole in forming a dynamic process of internationalization.

4. The conclusionsThe pattern of smaller firms’ internationalization processis dynamic and non-linear.In an exploration phase of internationalization pro-cess, external stimulators might impact a direction interms of market selection and entry mode.