Programa del congreso

Goals: A somewhat dogmatic assumption in international business is that firms learn from international experience. Our goal is to disentangle the potential inefficiencies that happen in that organizational learning process during the initial years of early internationalization. We address this by exploring the risk inefficiency within the Uppsala-Model risk formula using stochastic frontier analysis with time-varying inefficiency.

Theoretical framework: We propose to approach this by analyzing how early exporters control the initial risk increase after the first international market entry. We propose to explain this by using the absorptive capacity construct and learning to deploy.

Methodology: We used the Battese and Coelli (1995) Stochastic Frontier Analysis model, which includes time-varying inefficiency term with some variables explaining the heteroskedasticity. We analyzed a panel data of 672 early internationals that went international when they were 6 or less years old and tracked them during the initial 7 years after the first internationalization.

Results/implications: We found evidence of several inefficiencies that can explain the experiential learning process during these initial years of internationalization, which is one of our contributions. Our study is among the first in testing the UM risk formula. We provide hints for managing risk during the first years of internationalization.

This qualitative study explores how relational capital fosters resilience in Ukrainian exporters through anticipation, coping, and pre-adaptation during wartime. Based on 19 in-depth interviews with Ukrainian exporters and 7 follow-up interviews conducted a year later, our findings reveal a gap in risk assessment and contingency planning, underscoring the importance of proactive strategies for facing complex crises. Communication, mutual commitment, and trust emerge as key relational mechanisms that enable exporters to manage cross-border challenges effectively in high-risk environments. We further identify cooperation as both a coping strategy and a driver of strategic adaptation, with exporters who adopt cooperative approaches better able to adjust business models, enter new markets, and maintain competitiveness amid ongoing conflict. This study highlights the critical role of international partnerships in resilience-building and provides valuable insights for SMEs facing crises.

• Goals: Despite its potential for theorizing, qualitative research has been criticized for a lack of rigor. Hence, researchers have attempted to increase the legitimacy of qualitative research, and in particular case study research, by developing and applying templates. However, qualitative scholars have sometimes applied templates with little to no reflection about ontological and epistemological orientations, such that the uniqueness of qualitative research and its paradigmatic diversity have been jeopardized.

• Theoretical framework and methodology: In this methodological paper, we develop the different philosophical paradigms existing in research and we use an empirical case study example from the International Business (IB) field to showcase how such paradigms lead to different methodological decisions – which may, or may not, imply applying a template. In doing so, we first describe the methodological steps taken under positivistic assumptions. Then, we provide an overview of the application of a social constructivist perspective to the same example to highlight the differences between the two opposing approaches.

• Implications: With this paper, we warn qualitative researchers about the blind use of qualitative boilerplates while calling for greater pluralism in case study research in IB.

Due to the international uncertain business landscape de-internationalization strategies are in vogue, finally freed from the prejudice of being a failure business strategy. Previous literature has devoted attention to host country’s difficult situations as precursors of de-internationalization strategies, but much less empirical work investigates what are the firm barriers impeding a de facto de-internationalization. As extant literature requires better examination of the mismatch between the willingness to de-internationalize and the possibility of doing so in this paper we explore what those barriers look like at the firm and value chain level. Our sample consists of 240 Spanish international SMEs, all of which have had part of their production process offshored for several years. The findings are striking, as they indicate that the barriers to de-internationalization vary within this group of firms, with global value chain (GVC) stickiness playing a central role in the feasibility of de-internationalization. From an academic perspective, we contribute by identifying these barriers and challenging the assumption that firms can easily de-internationalize at will. From a policy-making standpoint, we disentangle the firm-level characteristics that may be preventing the return of activities to the home country, particularly in sectors where more extensive reshoring is expected.