Tópicos (10)

Mais alguns tópicos interessantes para investigação colocados por Olli Kuivalainen no International Marketing Review.

«After more than two decades of research on the internationalization of small firms and new ventures, the literature characterizes several stereotypical patterns (or paths or pathways) of SME internationalization with respect to timing of entry, geographic range and intensity of commitment to foreign markets. [...] Within the field of international marketing, the origin of literature on internationalization patterns is the notion of 'stage models', which characterize internationalization as an incremental and linear trajectory during which firms progress from limited exploration of international markets through various stages of increasing commitment as they learn and gather resources (e.g., Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul 1975; Johanson and Vahlne 1977, 2009). This incremental model describes one possible internationalization path. The phenomenon of 'born-global' firms or other types of international new ventures, in which firms commit to international markets soon after founding, is frequently posited as a challenge to traditional stage models (e.g., Oviatt and McDougall 1994; Knight and Cavusgil 1996) and may be seen as another internationalization path. From an international marketing perspective the choice between these two-ends-of-the continuum is clear: a firm either concentrates first on a few markets and conducts marketing activities in those markets, or it rapidly diversifies into a large number of markets and conducts marketing activities in all of them (Mas et al. 2006). However, internationalization is more complicated than a simple process of market selection: the level of internationalization does not necessarily steadily increase. Firms can retrench or 'de-internationalize' (c.f. Benito and Welch 1997), they can internationalize rapidly after a long period of domestic focus (c.f. Bell et al. 2001), and there may be several episodes of internationalization that eventually emerge as a long-term pathway of internationalization (c.f. Jones and Coviello 2005). The longitudinal development of internationalizing SMEs, and the performance implications of different internationalization pathways, is under-researched. Zahra and George (2002), for example, in their review focusing on international entrepreneurship, pose the question of 'what happens after the internationalization' and conclude that only a few studies look at this issue. There is still a paucity of empirical research on whether accelerated internationalization (or other internationalization path) does, in fact, play a role in determining long-term survival, success and/or growth. The few studies that have been conducted often report findings that are contradictory or ambiguous (e.g., Bloodgood et al. 1996) or are based on small samples (e.g., Gabrielsson et al. 2008). Consequently, the objective of this special issue is to present studies that explicitly deal with the internationalization patterns (or paths/pathways) of internationalizing SMEs (e.g., international new ventures, born-global firms, born-again global firms), and to consider the antecedents and consequences / performance outcomes of internationalization patterns.»

Tópicos, sugestões de investigação nas áreas de interesse do editor deste blogue.