Other publication
Influence of Firm’s History on its Internationalization Strategy
Authors: Innan Sasaki
Conference name: Joint Meeting of the Business History Conference and the European Business History Association
Publication year: 2015
Book title : 2015 BHC-EBHA Meeting
Web address : http://thebhc.org/influence-firm%E2%80%99s-history-its-internationalization-strategy
The goal of this paper is to concretely formulate why and how firm’s history matters to today’s business activities. More specifically, positioning theoretical background of the study to the resourced based view of the firm, and through logical argument and theoretical conceptualization, this study intends to answer the research question: ‘how does firm’s longevity in resources and capabilities influence today’s internationalization strategy?’ The study is cross-disciplinary as it draws ideas and theories from the field of International Business and Business History. Discussion is developed by categorizing the ‘longevity of resources and capabilities’ of firms. On foundation of extensive literature review, firm’s longevity in resources in operationalized into: family, product and location specific advantages. Firm’s longevity in capabilities is operationalized into: long-term commitment to preserve resources and flexibility to leverage resources. Consequently, several theoretical propositions are suggested, and testable conceptual model is proposed. The paper provides fresh theoretical as well as managerial implications on: the role of firm’s history on internationalization strategies, and the debate of ambidextrous organization.