How does internationalization begin?: The role of age at entry and export experience in the early stages of the process

Jose C Casillas ^[1] ; Francisco J Acedo ^[1] ; M Ángeles Rodríguez-Serrano ^[1]
1. [1] Universidad de Sevilla
  
  Universidad de Sevilla
  
  Sevilla, España
Localización: Business Research Quarterly, ISSN 2340-9444, ISSN-e 2340-9436, Vol. 23, Nº. 2 (Special Issue: The internationalization of SMEs: Building models for long-term development), 2020, págs. 107-119
Idioma: inglés
Títulos paralelos:
- ¿Cómo comienza la internacionalización?: El papel de la edad de entrada y la experiencia de exportación en las primeras etapas del proceso
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Resumen
- This article deals with two important concepts in the prior literature on the internationalization process: age at entry and export experience. Against previous research, we analyze how both of them influence simultaneously international behavior in the early stages of the internationalization process as a trade-off. For that aim, we analyze the influence of both variables on international behavior in the early stages of the internationalization process, from a dynamic perspective, looking at initial export behavior and speed during this period. We analyze export development process of 106 Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), most of them international new ventures, in their first 8 years of export activity, combining the effect of age at entry and experiential learning during this period, finding that age at entry and export experience exert not only a direct effect but also a moderation influence on initial export development, observing a trade-off between such influence as experience grows.