 Multilevel psychic distance and its impact on SME internationalizationAswo Safari and Sylvie Chetty International Business Review, 2019, vol. 28, issue 4, 754-765 Abstract: We expand the conceptualization of psychic distance and use a multilevel framework by studying it as a founder’s psychic distance in the pre-entry phase of entering a specific foreign market, and the SMEs (firm) psychic distance in the post-entry phase of entering that specific foreign market. Based on qualitative research involving six SMEs’ with 18 internationalization events, we found that psychic distance at country and business levels causes difficulties for SMEs in the post-entry phase because of their lack of knowledge. Bridge-makers possessing knowledge about target markets help SMEs to overcome psychic distance challenges. Trust in the relationship with the bridge-maker is an important ingredient to gain knowledge that alleviates the SMEs’ psychic distance challenges. Finally, we go beyond country-business levels of psychic distance by showing that psychic distance also matters at bridge-maker level. This relates to their lack of knowledge about the target market and SMEs’ routines. Keywords: Psychic distance; Trust; Knowledge; Multilevel; Founder level; Country level; Business level; Bridge-maker level; SME internationalization (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iburev:v:28:y:2019:i:4:p:754-765 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.03.001 Access Statistics for this article International Business Review is currently edited by P. Ghauri More articles in International Business Review from Elsevier |
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