Export promotion programs（EPPs）are widely used to support the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises（SMEs）, yet evidence on how firms at different export stages use specific services remains limited. This study examines heterogeneity in EPP usage and export-related capabilities using survey data from Japanese SMEs, classified into direct exporters, indirect exporters, and non-exporters. The results show that overall EPP usage is low across firms, with limited differences observed only for selected services. Non-exporters rely more on market-oriented seminars, whereas direct and indirect exporters make greater use of consultant services, indicating that EPP usage does not increase uniformly with export advancement. In contrast, exporters exhibit consistently higher international business knowledge, stronger executive commitment, and greater export-related production capacity. By including non-exporters and indirect exporters, this study shifts attention from program effectiveness to service-specific usage and capability alignment. The findings suggest that export-stage classifications alone provide an incomplete basis for policy targeting and under-score the importance of aligning EPP design with firms’ underlying capabilities and managerial engagement.

How do resource-constrained entrepreneurs secure investment without relying on economic signals? This study addressed the critical question through a systematic review: Specifically, focusing on legitimacy through storytelling and prosocial orientation, our review suggests 1） Entrepreneurs' storytelling triggers prosocial motivation in investors; 2）The warm-glow effect moderates investment decisions in ventures with ambiguous economic returns; 3）The difficulty of balancing entrepreneurs' prosocial orientation and economic signals in securing in-vestment. In prosocial contexts, overt economic signals may hinder investment acquisition. This suggests that in situations lacking strong economic signals, the warm-glow effect emerges as a moderator in investment acquisition, and entrepreneurs employ storytelling in legitimacy building. This paper offers a novel perspective on investor motivation and provides practical insights for entrepreneurs to build competitive advantage through prosocial and emotional appeals in the VUCA era.

This study aims to identify the factors that enable diversified firms with multiple unrelated core businesses to achieve high performance. Diversified firms benefit from advantages such as business scale expansion, risk diversification, and effective utilization of managerial resources, thereby contributing to high competitiveness and sustainable growth. Previous research suggests that, for diversified firms to perform well, it is important to strengthen a single core business and generate its synergy with non-core businesses. However, the discussion on unrelated core businesses is limited. Moreover, cases of diversified firms that maintain multiple unrelated core businesses while achieving high performance are rare. To fill the resulting gap in the literature, this study focuses on Company A, a diversified firm with two unrelated core businesses, and analyzes the reasons for its high performance. The analysis reveals that the coexistence of the two businesses is supported by their equal scale, distinct markets, core technologies, and each firm holding the largest global market share in their respective fields. Furthermore, the unification of control systems across businesses generates synergistic effects, contributing to superior company performance.