Market entry performance is critical during internationalisation; prevailing views suggest that firms need to carefully plan their entry before putting the plan into action. This article focuses on three attributes affecting the possibility and usefulness of making a pre-planned market entry: unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment. We develop six hypotheses tested on a sample of 250 entries; our main finding is that improvisation plays a mediating role in relation to performance in unpredictable markets. The analysis reveals that the relationship between unpredictability and network commitment is not significant, while the effect of unpredictability on market entry performance is negative. These findings suggest implications for internationalisation and international entrepreneurship theory. For managers and entrepreneurs, we show that unpredictability weakens market entry performance, a negative effect that can be mitigated if the entrant firm improvises.

中文翻译：

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中小企业市场进入中的业务不可预测性、即兴性和业务网络承诺

在国际化过程中，市场进入绩效至关重要；普遍的观点表明，公司需要在将计划付诸实施之前仔细计划其进入。本文重点关注影响进行预先计划的市场进入的可能性和有用性的三个属性：不可预测性、即兴发挥和业务网络承诺。我们开发了六个假设，测试了 250 个条目的样本；我们的主要发现是，在不可预测的市场中，即兴发挥在绩效方面起着中介作用。分析表明，不可预测性与网络承诺之间的关系不显着，而不可预测性对市场进入绩效的影响为负。这些发现暗示了国际化和国际创业理论的意义。对于管理者和企业家来说，