Acceleration and Deceleration in the Internationalization Process of the Firm

By adopting a processual and dynamic view on internationalization, we develop the concepts of acceleration and deceleration, providing analytical tools to enhance our understanding of the non-linearity and multidimensionality of internationalization. We argue that acceleration and deceleration are embedded in the internationalization process and are a consequence of the firm’s capability to absorb and integrate acquired knowledge, and to find and exploit opportunities. In addition, we advance the idea that changes in speed are further influenced by how the firm integrates and coordinates the resources it has deployed within and across various internationalization dimensions. Thus, it emerges that the overall evolution of commitment to internationalization is more complex than received theories tend to present; therefore, empirical studies should aim to include a wide set of international activities and processes embedded in time

Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: internalization theory and business history

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global firms operate in recent decades, but this article shows it has never been true historically. Using longitudinal data on individual firms from the nineteenth century onwards, it reveals evidence of how entrepreneurs and firms with multinational activity faced with market imperfections changed the design of their headquarters and their organizational structures

The interplay between HQ legitimation and subsidiary legitimacy judgments in HQ relocation : a social psychological approach

This paper marks a departure from the focus on external stakeholders in much research on legitimacy and multinational corporations, adopting a social psychological approach to study how MNCs build internal legitimacy for controversial decisions with their subsidiaries. We explore this through a longitudinal, real-time qualitative case study of a regional office relocation, since office relocations represent rare yet significant strategic decisions. We analyze the interplay between the legitimation strategies of senior managers and subsidiary legitimacy judgments, based in instrumental, relational, and moral considerations, and how the relationship between the two develops over time. From this analysis, we derive inductively a process model that reveals the dynamics of building internal legitimacy with subsidiaries, and how an MNC moves on even in the absence of full legitimacy, when dealing with controversial MNC decisions. The model highlights two important dynamics. The first is a dynamic between legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments and how this is influenced by local subsidiary contexts. The second is a temporal dynamic in how both the legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments evolve over time. Our model contributes to research on legitimacy in MNCs, what we know about tensions that characterize MNC–subunit relationships, and research on headquarters relocation

Leveraging the advantage of early entry: proprietary technologies versus cost leadership

This research develops the relationships between the "early mover advantage" and a firm's market share. It tests hypotheses relating a firm's strategic choices and order of entry to market share on a cross-sectional data set of 1042 French manufacturing companies. The results support the persistence of an advantage for early movers. Furthermore, the development of proprietary technologies, considered as a capability to protect in-house knowledge from competition, has a leverage effect on the advantage of early moving. Finally, if cost leadership is a relevant strategy to gain market share, it is mostly beneficial for late entrants. (C) 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Growth Patterns and Trajectories of New ventures

International audienceIn line with the work of Delmar and Davidsson, (1998) which examines the types of distinct growth patterns that high-growth firms exhibit and how these growth patterns and corresponding firms differ from each other in terms of their demographic affiliation, this paper discusses the existence of different growth trajectories of start-ups. Using financial data from all firms created from 1992 to 2002 in Belgium (N=152064), we identified all those that had grown in less than 10 years above micro-firm level. We developed a data set (N=741) and used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify emerging clusters of trajectories. Overcoming the limitations of the existing literature identified by Delmar et al (2003), the contribution of this research is that it combines going beyond traditional sector-based approaches and using a composite, multi-indicator measure of growth

Growth Patterns and Trajectories of New ventures

International audienceIn line with the work of Delmar and Davidsson, (1998) which examines the types of distinct growth patterns that high-growth firms exhibit and how these growth patterns and corresponding firms differ from each other in terms of their demographic affiliation, this paper discusses the existence of different growth trajectories of start-ups. Using financial data from all firms created from 1992 to 2002 in Belgium (N=152064), we identified all those that had grown in less than 10 years above micro-firm level. We developed a data set (N=741) and used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify emerging clusters of trajectories. Overcoming the limitations of the existing literature identified by Delmar et al (2003), the contribution of this research is that it combines going beyond traditional sector-based approaches and using a composite, multi-indicator measure of growth