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

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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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhard Swoboda & Carolina Sinning, 2022. "Effects of Internationalization Rhythm and Speed on E-Commerce Firms’ Growth and the Role of Institutional Distances," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 169-201, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:62:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11575-022-00463-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-022-00463-4
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