Internationalization of firms: antecedents, speed, and performance implications : evidence from the German renewable-energy industry

Since the early stages of international business research, scholars have significantly advanced our understanding of drivers, processes, and outcomes of firm internationalization. Due to changes in the global environment and technological progress, internationalization patterns of firms constantly evolve and need to be addressed in scholarly work, to account for such changes. This thesis addresses shortcomings in existing literature regarding the subsequent international development of international new ventures (INVs) and the internationalization speed of INVs and traditional exporters. By conceptualizing internationalization speed along multiple dimensions, this work adds to a lack of empirical work in this emergent area. While previous international entrepreneurship literature has focused largely on the pre-internationalization period of INVs, this thesis analyzes the subsequent internationalization stage. This study provides a comprehensive conceptual framework depicting relationships of antecedents of INVs’ subsequent internationalization process and specifically analyzes the moderating impact of institutional distance. In addition, it empirically identifies INV antecedents of subsequent internationalization speed along its multiple dimensions. Moreover, different speed dimensions are assessed for their individual impact on international performance for INVs and traditional exporters. This thesis uses a multi-method approach consisting of conceptual and empirical work. Data for empirical analysis was collected from the German renewable-energy industry. A mixed-method approach was used consisting of a qualitative analysis to explore INVs’ antecedents of subsequent speed and a quantitative analysis to test hypotheses. Furthermore, based on a sample of 230 firms, this study employs structural equation modelling to test the impact of individual speed dimensions on international performance. This work is unique in that it sheds light on subsequent speed of INV internationalization and points out shortcomings in existing literature with regard to the speed-performance relationship and its conceptualization. The results of this study help managers to more effectively align their internationalization strategy and highlight the benefits and drawbacks of fast internationalization.