Effects of Internationalization Rhythm and Speed on E-Commerce Firms’ Growth and the Role of Institutional Distances

Bernhard Swoboda () and Carolina Sinning ()
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Bernhard Swoboda: Chair for Marketing and Retailing at the University of Trier
Carolina Sinning: Chair for Marketing and Retailing at the University of Trier

Management International Review, 2022, vol. 62, issue 2, No 2, 169-201

Abstract: Abstract In an increasingly digitalizing economy, e-commerce firms are known to internationalize faster and more irregularly than offline firms. However, it is important to analyze how e-commerce firms benefit from time-based internationalization decisions and whether they are still limited by institutional distances that are said to lose relevance, which we do not believe. We propose a theory-based framework to analyze the effects of e-commerce firms’ internationalization rhythm and speed on their sales growth. Importantly, we apply multilevel modeling with cross-level interactions to provide insights into the role of institutional moderators, i.e., regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive distances. We use data from 228 e-commerce firms that are operating Europe’s leading online shops and 1702 market entries over 21 years. The results show that e-commerce firms exhibit stronger growth due to their irregular and fast internationalization process. However, this relationship changes depending on certain institutional distances, and different explanations regarding country-specific variances are provided. The findings have direct implications for managers interested in how online internationalization processes affect firm growth in light of the differing degrees of cross-country contextual differences among common institutions.

Keywords: E-commerce firms; Online internationalization; Internationalization rhythm; Internationalization speed; Institutional distances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s11575-022-00463-4

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