Conference Agenda

In the business context, the concept of networks has been defined by Brass et al. (2004) as a set of nodes (two or more) connected through a set of ties. Research on international business has long recognised networks as an important means for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to enter and operate in international markets (Sharma and Blomstermo, 2003; Li and Fleury, 2020). With the rise of MNEs from emerging markets, more research attention has been attracted to the internationalisation process of EM MNEs and how they overcome the latecomer disadvantages and resource limitations (Luo and Tung, 2007; Ge and Wang 2003). To shed light on the potential relationship between networks and the internationalisation performance of EM MNEs, this research tends to discover the network attributes of EM MNEs and explore their internationalisation process, using a sample of MNEs from China. Additionally, the key proposition of this study is that the dynamic capability mediates the network impact on internationalisation performance for EM MNEs. This study aims to make a valuable contribution to the theories of network and internationalization. Specifically, it seeks to deepen our understanding of how networks can enhance the internationalization performance of EM MNEs by improving their dynamic capabilities.

Much of the theory about multinational enterprises (MNE's) competing in forgein markets has been focused around MNE's entering developing and emerging markets, however the reverse relationship has not been explored to the same length. Innovation has also served as a substitute for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNE's) when competeing in developed markets. This research will explore how innovation has been used by Chinese multinational retailers to compete with incumubents in the international retail industry.

Family firms exhibit variability in the extent to which they detrimentally prioritize family-centric interests (i.e., bifurcation bias), leading to diverse internationalization endeavors. However, extant research treats family firms as a homogeneous group in the context of internationalization, neglecting the variations in their noneconomic goals. Whereas certain noneconomic goals detrimentally prioritize family-centric interests, others complement the family firm’s financial objectives. Based on the attention-based view and motivated reasoning literature, this study proposes a cognitive mechanism linking noneconomic goals to family firms’ susceptibility to fall for the bifurcation bias in internationalization, mediated by managers’ information search. I argue that noneconomic goals represent situational characteristics, offering cues to managers about whether internationalization contradicts or aligns with the firm’s strategy. Ultimately, these cues influence managers’ information search (i.e., situated attention) and subsequent internationalization decisions. I aim to test the proposed cognitive mechanism with an experimental vignette study embedded in MouselabWeb with family firm managers. This method allows for tracing participants’ information search and provides causal inferences about the mediation relationship. This study therefore enriches the field's understanding of managers’ decision-making by shedding light on their situated attention. Further, it overcomes distinctions among family and non-family firms, providing insights into the heterogeneity among family firms.

In recent years, despite the benefits associated with internationalisation, there has been a notable upswing in de-internationalization within the global business environment, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This trend has led to a growing cohort of SMEs endeavouring to re-enter foreign markets, particularly in emerging economies with prevalent resource constraints. Leveraging the Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT), this study investigates

1 What are the critical firm-specific factors that aid Nigerian SMEs in re-internationalising within one year of their exit?

2 Do SMEs that re-internationalise within one year of their exit achieve higher export sales post-re-internationalisation?

This study contributes to the international business literature by introducing a temporal dimension to the concept of re-internationalization speed and meticulously scrutinising the impact of the re-internationalization process on firm performance. It provides industry-specific insights into the indispensable factors for facilitating a swift return to foreign markets within one year of exit.

The significance of digital technologies in internationalisation has been widely discussed in many research works. Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)can benefit from these digital technologies to capture new markets at any stage (pre-internationalisation, internationalisation, post-internationalisation, de-internationalisation, and re-internationalisation stage) of their internationalisation process. SMEs are peculiar cases as they are characterised by inadequate resources, and low networks in comparison to multinational enterprises (MNEs) seeking a share of the market. With technological advancement, there is an increase in questioning by researchers of the traditional approach to internationalisation, as firms utilise digital technologies as an enabler, seeking an understanding of the process and outcome in the interplay between digitalisation and internationalisation. Also, much literature on the study of digital internationalisation decries the low volume of research works coming from emerging economies.

This study differs from the existing or past perspectives as it elucidate the process of digitalisation and understand the key digital capabilities/skills that SMEs need to possess to boost their internationalisation process (Born digital, platform-based business-to-business SMEs) through the lens of Process theory and Dynamic Capabilities theory; it will verify if findings from emerging economies are consistent theoretically and practically with those of the developed economies' counterparts.