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The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential and the challenges for different firms in adopting an AI-first strategy. The study attempts to discern if any company can prioritize AI at the forefront of their strategic plans.

Drawing from illustrative examples from well-known AI-leaders like Netflix and Spotify, as well as from upcoming AI startups and industry incumbents, the paper explores the strategic role of AI in core business processes and customer value creation. It also discusses the advent and implications of generative AI tools since late 2022 to firms’ business strategies.

The authors identify three types of AI-first strategies, depending on firms’ starting points: digital tycoon, niche carver and asset augmenter. The authors discuss how each strategy can aim to achieve data, algorithmic and execution advantages, and what the strategic bottlenecks and risks are within each strategy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to systematically describe how companies can form “AI-first” strategies from different starting points. This study includes actionable examples from known industry players to more emerging startups and industrial incumbents.

This paper aims to demonstrate how the new generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT changes knowledge work for individuals and what are the implications of this change for companies.

Based on 22 interviews from informants across different industries, the authors conducted an inductive analysis on the use and utility of ChatGPT in knowledge work. Based on this initial analysis, they discovered different ways in which ChatGPT either augments human agency, makes it redundant or lacks capability in that regard.

The authors develop a 2 × 2 framework of algorithmic assistance, which demonstrates four ways in which ChatGPT (and generative AI in general) interacts with knowledge workers, depending on the usefulness of ChatGPT in particular tasks and the type of the task (routine vs creative).

Based on the insights from the interviews, the authors propose a set of actionable questions for individual knowledge workers and companies from four viewpoints: skills and capabilities; team structure and workflow coordination; culture and mindset; and business model innovation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to identify and analyze the use of ChatGPT by knowledge workers across different industries.

This paper aims to analyse the role of market orientation in the internationalisation of small software firms.

The study combines qualitative case studies with quantitative data from the firms in question.

Market orientation in the internationalisation of knowledge‐intensive small firms consists of three elements: customer orientation, competitor orientation and value‐network coordination. Achieving a successful balance between these elements will considerably smoothen the internationalisation process.

The results of this study suggest that small companies should consider their market‐oriented behaviour in line with their value network. The role of market orientation may also vary according to market‐pull or technology‐push conditions.

This study is among the first empirical contributions to combine the internationalisation and market‐orientation approaches in studying SMEs. It also contributes to achieving a better understanding of the market‐orientation concept from the perspective of small high‐technology firms.

Mainly due to their size, SMEs in the ICT industry are often at a disadvantage in supplier evaluation and therefore in the MNC supplier selection process. This paper aims to illustrate how they have realised their weakness and have created innovative strategies for alleviating the uncertainties associated with SMEs and thus for overcoming these natural disadvantages.

The method of analysis could best be described as multiple‐comparative‐case analysis. The authors have based the paper on existing literature, which is then assimilated into the analysis in the process of theory fulfilment and refinement.

This paper offers both theoretical and managerial insight by showing that SMEs do not have to accept their weak position in supplier markets, and that they can change the status quo by adjusting their strategies. The findings show that innovative strategies potentially offset the disadvantages of supplier smallness in the ICT industry.

The authors chose a qualitative research method as it facilitates theory building and development in areas in which the extant theory seems inadequate or the phenomenon being examined is complex. Qualitative research also potentially enhances managerial knowledge by providing best‐practice information.

The authors provide insights that hopefully encourage SMEs in the ICT industry not to see their small size as weakness, but as a potential advantage in the form of increased responsiveness, flexibility, and service level compared to their larger rivals. However, to capitalise this advantage, the authors illustrate that SMEs in the industry should aim at increased focus on their core competences and simultaneously seek creative ways to remain competitive in the supplier markets.

Strategies aimed at fighting disadvantages as such have been addressed by marketing scholars only to a limited extent. The originality of this paper lies in its focus on identifying strategies that are aimed at diminishing the strategic weakness of the company rather than those aimed at building strategic strength.

Many national and regional governments and various trade associations have created and are currently developing services that aim to provide support for firms that have just begun to or which plan to operate in international markets. Consequently, the purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the role of various support services especially in the case of software small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to expand internationally and accelerate their international growth. In the empirical part of the chapter, the authors review the key support organisations Finland has for its software industry. Through a descriptive empirical survey (n = 25) of the industry, we illustrate the role of various support services that are especially targeted at firms aiming to accelerate their international growth, irrespective of the phase of internationalisation. Furthermore, the authors study the use, quality and effectiveness of the internationalisation of support services from the viewpoint of managers of Finnish software SMEs. Based on our results, it is easy and logical to argue that better targeted programmes should be developed for rapidly internationalising firms in the turbulent software market. However, there are already a few innovative and better targeted programmes being offered to Finnish software firms. According to our study, in the later phases of internationalisation, the key to success is more closely linked to the availability of external funding as well as knowledge and contacts provided by international consultants.

This paper addresses the strategic orientations (entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and market orientation) of rapidly internationalizing small software companies.

The empirical analysis is based on an intensive investigation of ten small Finnish software companies that have exhibited rapid and proactive internationalization behavior.

It is argued that the manifestations of the orientations evolve as the small company develops, and these concepts are thus strongly related to the internationalization process. Further, an entrepreneurial orientation, especially a strong desire to seek growth in international markets, must be embedded in the mindset of the rapidly internationalizing small company. However, It is argued that it does not have an effect on the success of the international venture if it is not combined with strong learning and market orientations.

This paper brings an evolutionary viewpoint to the existing academic debate of strategic orientations of companies. It is suggested that the current conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation should be developed to include also measures of market orientation.

It is suggested that the members of the management team of a small and global software company should not only possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset and previous experience of international operations, they should also show strong commitment to considering the customers the most important stakeholders of the company, and a willingness and ability to learn rapidly from all available information about global markets.

This is the first qualitative investigation of the strategic orientations during the internationalization process of small companies.