Internationalization paths of fruit export companies from emerging economies

Abstract

There is a continuing debate regarding firms' internationalization pathways and the approaches used for firm categorization, resulting in controversial identification of the degree of firms' globalization. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to examine the changes in the internationalization strategies of agricultural export companies from emerging economies over time. Thereby seeking to identify conceptual and empirical differences in what is known of export firms acting in non-agricultural sectors in industrialized countries. The matrix of multi-nationality developed by Aggarwal et al. (2011) is extended and tested to classify 233 Chilean fresh fruit exporters according to their internationalization strategies. A longitudinal analysis is conducted over a seven-year period (2009-2015) to explore the dynamics on that internationalization process. Most firms are "transregionally" (65.12%) and "globally" oriented (16.06%), mainly following a linear internationalization path in terms of number of markets but acting more as "born-global" firms in terms of psychic distance. This study provides a more inclusive and nuanced framework than those used in previous studies to classify the level of firms' internationalization. It also contributes to existing literature by studying companies from the agricultural sector in Chile longitudinally, as a prime example of emerging economies from Latin America. AbstractThere is a continuing debate regarding firms' internationalization pathways and the approaches used for firm categorization, resulting in controversial identification of the degree of firms' globalization. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework to examine the changes in the internationalization strategies of agricultural export companies from emerging economies over time. Thereby seeking to identify conceptual and empirical differences in what is known of export firms acting in non-agricultural sectors in industrialized countries. The matrix of multinationality developed by Aggarwal et al. (2011) is extended and tested to classify 233 Chilean fresh fruit exporters according to their internationalization strategies. A longitudinal analysis is conducted over a seven -year period (2009-2015) to explore the dynamics on that internationalization process. Most firms are "transregionally" (65.12%) and "globally" oriented (16.06%), mainly following a linear internationalization path in terms of number of markets but acting more as "born-global" firms in terms of psychic distance. This study provides a more inclusive and nuanced framework than those used in previous studies to classify the level of firms' internationalization. It also contributes to existing literature by studying companies from the agricultural sector in Chile longitudinally, as a prime example of emerging economies from Latin America.

Public-private strategies to establish a successful avocado export cycle: cases from Colombia

“…In this study we examined two distinct business models to approach the international avocado market. One consists of agri-businesses with enough financial muscle to integrate vertically along the value chain such as Arcángel Miguel, a company that could be considered to have been born-global (Losilla et al. , 2019).…”

“…Business strategies: associativity vs capital In this study we examined two distinct business models to approach the international avocado market. One consists of agri-businesses with enough financial muscle to integrate vertically along the value chain such as Arc angel Miguel, a company that could be considered to have been born-global (Losilla et al, 2019). These businesses focus on becoming reliable suppliers to their customers by controlling all nodes of the supply chain to guarantee high product quality, thus capturing a large portion of value and profits in the supply chain.…”

The agribusiness sector as a regional export opportunity: evidence for the Vojvodina region

“…According to Losilla et al (2019), developed countries have shaped the trend of globalization through their participation in international markets. Since 2000 Serbia has had preferential status for exporting products to the EU market, with the exception of certain product groups such as sugar, veal, fish and fishery products and wine, whose exports are determined by export quotas.…”

Dinámica De Las Exportaciones Frutícolas Chilenas Desde Una Perspectiva Regional (2008-2018)

“…La importancia de las exportaciones frutícolas ha conllevado un amplio interés en su análisis; principalmente desde una perspectiva nacional (López-Campos et al, 2019;Losilla et al, 2019). Sin embargo, ha sido mucho más escaso su estudio de manera desagregada a partir de las dinámicas de unidades territoriales más específicas como son las regiones; y los existentes se han centrado en ciertos productos y zonas concretas (Almonacid, 2018;Jara-Rojas et al, 2018).…”