Introduction to the Special Issue: “The age of digital internationalization—Strategic capabilities, cultural distance and customer value”

Abstract

This article develops a more fine-grained understanding of the relevant interfaces between firm digitalization and internationalization. Based on the close observation of the peculiarities of the digital age and its effects on the application of the extant international business theories and approaches, as well as the content of the papers contained in this issue, we take the view of "digital internationalization". We provide an original definition for digital internationalization and introduce a digital internationalization interpretive framework encompassing its three key constituents (i.e., strategic capabilities, cultural distance and customer value) and the unifying mechanism (i.e., generativity rule) to achieve firms' digital internationalization. This framework bears, in our understanding, a bouquet of implications helpful not only to scholars and researchers, but also to managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors operating in profit and non-profit organizations.

The contribution of digitalisation, channel integration and sustainability to the international performance of industrial SMEs

“…We did confirm a direct effect of SME digitalisation on sustainability (H5) that coincides with previous findings reported by Del Rio Castro et al (2021), Jayashree et al (2022) or Guaita Mart ınez et al (2022). However, we were unable to confirm the existence of a mediating relationship of sustainability between digitalisation and international performance in industrial SMEs, despite the fact that Dagnino and Resciniti (2021) recently stated that sustainability aspects will become increasingly important for digitalised companies seeking to internationalise their activities.…”

Anywhere in the World? The Internationalization of Small Entrepreneurial Ventures using a Social Media Platform

“…Digitalization has promoted radical changes in business operations, such as changes related to reducing intermediation, interacting with business partners, facilitating transactions, and promoting knowledge generation and dissemination (Stallkamp & Schotter, 2021 ; Thomas & Autio, 2020 ). In the global arena, digitalization has the potential to provide additional benefits, including identifying international business opportunities (Song & Wu, 2021 ), accelerating the speed and broadening the scope of internationalization (Dagnino & Resciniti, 2021 ; Hervé et al, 2020 ), reducing distance (Bergamaschi et al, 2021 ) and decreasing or eliminating geographic barriers (Nambisan et al, 2019 ), and facilitating interactions with different business actors regardless of where in the world they are located (Dagnino & Resciniti, 2021 ; Hervé et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2022), while lowering the costs and perceived risks of doing business abroad (Nambisan et al, 2019 ). However, despite its potential to foster internationalization, the interplay between digitalization and internationalization is considered “a fairly new domain of study” (Bergamaschi et al, 2021 , p.1006), with few empirical studies having examined the phenomenon (Ojala et al, 2022 ).…”

A Influência Das Redes Sociais No Comportamento Exportador De Empresas Brasileiras Na Pandemia Do Covid-19

“…Somam-se a este cenário circunstancial as tendências já em progresso quanto ao uso da internet, com utilização crescente das redes sociais para comunicação entre indivíduos (NOWLAND et al, 2018) que, por vezes, podem preferir as redes sociais à interação física, sentindo-se mais seguros e confortáveis tendo as telas por intermediárias (CACIOPPO; HAWKLEY, 2009;CACIOPPO, 2010;WHITTY;MCLAUGHLIN, 2007). Tais tendências se potencializaram ainda mais durante a pandemia, mantendo-se no cenário pós-pandêmico (DAGNINO; RESCINITI, 2021).…”

“…Uma das oportunidades que o uso de plataformas digitais gera é a conquista de consumidores de outros países (SONG; WU, 2021), uma vez que as plataformas facilitam a rápida internacionalização das empresas, por não serem limitadas pela geografia (DENG et al, 2022;HERVÉ et al, 2020), efetivamente "revolucionando as formas pelas quais as empresas entram em mercados globais e operam internacionalmente" (OJALA et al, 2022, p.12). O termo "internacionalização digital" se refere especificamente ao modo pelo qual empresas de qualquer tamanho aplicam processos e instrumentos digitais para competir em mercados estrangeiros (DAGNINO; RESCINITI, 2021).…”

“…Em sua recente revisão de literatura, estes autores argumentam que a digitalização exerce papel fundamental para reduzir os custos de transação incorridos pelas firmas em mercados estrangeiros, favorecer comunicação e aquisição de conhecimento, facilitar a interação com parceiros no exterior e identificar oportunidades internacionais, além de reduzir distâncias e dependência de localização. No entanto, a internacionalização digital também leva a empresa a se expor a uma série de riscos, tais como a compressão do tempo, gerando a necessidade de resposta imediata; a maior possibilidade de comportamentos oportunistas de terceiros; ou mesmo a falta de competências para atuação no ambiente digital (BERGAMASCHI et al, 2021;DAGNINO;RESCINITI, 2021).…”