No abstract

No abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign market entry modes and hard‐ and soft‐service firms. The paper investigated which foreign market entry modes service firms opt for, and if this is influenced by systematic differences between types of service industries. A secondary purpose is to test the generalizability of the research findings from manufacturing sector to service sector firms.Design/methodology/approachOur sample consisted of 140 Swedish service firms. These firms were investigated using a mailed questionnaire survey, and logistic regression analysis was used for testing the hypotheses.FindingsThe statistical analysis shows that, in general, soft‐service firms are much more likely than hard service firms to choose a high control entry mode over a low control entry mode. Furthermore, as cultural distance increases, the likelihood of this choice increases even more.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications are that while hard service suppliers can learn from the experience of manufacturing firms going abroad, soft services are unique. Given the importance for soft‐service suppliers to interact with their foreign customers, they should opt for a high degree of control over their foreign market entry mode. In future research on foreign market entry mode selection in service firms more attention should be given to social processes that exercise control.Originality/valueThe findings enhance knowledge on foreign market entry by service firms.

This paper is based on behavioral theory on internationalization, examining the effect of firms operations in the domestic market on experiential knowledge development in the internationalization of the firm. Five hypotheses are developed on the effects of business operations in the domestic market on: internationalization knowledge, business knowledge and institutional knowledge. The LISREL analysis of 206 firms shows that domestic operations effect the accumulation of experiential knowledge in internationalizing firms. We found that it is harder for a firm with long domestic experience to change their mental models and processes in the internationalization process.

This article analyzes the relation between time and experiential knowledge development in the internationalization process of firms. Based on the international marketing literature, international business literature and learning literature, this article critically reviews the relationship between time and firms' learning process. We define time as the time spent in foreign operations, which we will call duration. We conclude that time is important in internationalization process models. However, there is no uniform treatment of time in the current literature. Our literature review shows that the current knowledge of time and its relationship to knowledge accumulation in internationalizing firms is over-simplistic. Other researchers have presumed a linear and continuous relationship between time and knowledge accumulation in firms. We argue that the above relationship is more likely to be non-linear and discontinuous. We conclude that more research is required on the effect of time on knowledge accumulation in internationalizing firms.