Internationalization of digital firms: A systematic review and research agenda

Bo Yang, Wensong Bai, Yantai Chen and Ke Rong

Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 189, issue C

Abstract: Digital firms, emerging entities in the digital era, are fundamentally reshaping the global business landscape due to their novel characteristics and far-reaching influence. Given their intrinsic transnational characteristics, the international expansion of digital firms has become a focal point in fields like international business and international entrepreneurship. However, research in these fields is currently fragmented, uses a limited number of theoretical perspectives, and lacks integrated frameworks. We apply an organizing framework that centers around four key aspects of digital firm internationalization – drivers, strategies, outcomes, and contexts – to synthesize the contributions of the literature on digital firm internationalization and identify opportunities for future research. Additionally, we examine how the internationalization of digital firms extends traditional international business theories and elucidates emerging theoretical perspectives. Our study advances a comprehensive understanding of the field, identifies research gaps, and proposes future avenues for advancing knowledge on digital firm internationalization.

Keywords: Digital economy; Digital firms; Internationalization; International business theory; Digital ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324006283
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:189:y:2025:i:c:s0148296324006283

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115124

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().