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Despite voluminous research on barriers to exporting, knowledge on the inhibiting role of specific obstacles confronted by firms when exporting via cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) is virtually absent. Using data from a cross-industry sample of 1256 firms located in 25 different European countries, we shed light on this issue by examining the organizational determinants and performance outcomes of CBEC barriers. The results revealed these barriers are more evident in the case of firms with smaller size, lacking experience, and having no affiliation with other companies. It was also found that all different types of CBEC barriers, namely financial complexities, coping with foreign markets, supplier restrictions, technical difficulties, and product limitations, are negatively affecting online export performance. Finally, both the home country’s level of digital infrastructure and the foreign market’s Internet penetration rate exhibited a strong moderating effect on the association between CBEC barriers and export performance.

Building on Emotion Regulation Theory, we examine the role of an exporter's emotional intelligence (EI) in enhancing the quality and boosting the long-term orientation of the working relationship with its import buyers. Using data gathered from 262 Greek exporters, we confirm that the proper use of EI helps to improve trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction in the relationship with their importers, which subsequently contribute to its long-term orientation. This favorable effect of EI on relationship quality dimensions is amplified when exporters deal with importers located in countries with cultures characterized by low power distance, low individualism, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, and high (national) long-term orientation.

© 2019, The Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science of the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University. Ground heat exchangers in conjunction with shallow geothermal energy system applications have received significant attention in the case of renewable energy. Soil thermal properties such as thermal conductivity and specific or volumetric heat capacity are important aspects for the design of such systems, affecting the performance. They can be obtained with the use of empirical prediction models, laboratory tests and/or in situ tests. Laboratory tests can be performed either under steady-state or under transient conditions and have the advantage of requiring small volumes of soil and producing fast results. There are many types of heat probes commercially available, with limited—though—comparative assessment available in the literature. The current paper deals with the assessment of ground characteristics of seven samples of soil and rock collected from a certain area in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Such properties are the thermal conductivity, the thermal diffusivity, the volumetric heat capacity, but there are some other physical properties also. The laboratory testing was done under transient conditions and included measurements taken by two needle probes and one surface probe from two different commercial apparatuses. Comparison of the obtained results for the thermal properties of the samples was made and was also supported by numerical simulations using the COMSOL Multiphysics software through a finite element analysis method on the convection–diffusion equation for heat transfer. Laboratory testing on physical properties of the samples such as moisture content, specific gravity, permeability and particle size distribution was also performed, yielding useful results related to the assessment of the thermal properties.