Learning Processes During Re-internationalization: A Case Study of Chinese SMEs

Abstract

Understanding how and why firms behave differently during re-internationalization has increasingly been at a premium in international business research. The authors conducted a case study of 11 Chinese international small and medium-sized enterprise and explored how they learned and recovered from involuntary de-internationalization. From case data, the “complete” re-internationalizers learned the lessons of foreign market exits more proactively than “partial” re-internationalizers. The complete re-internationalizers adopted internal and external sources of knowledge acquisition, “middle-up-down” information distribution and ambivalent information interpretation, while the partial re-internationalizers relied on internal sources of knowledge, “top-down” or “bottom-up” information distribution and univalent information interpretation. This study contributes by identifying the crucial role of learning processes to complete re-internationalization, which is absent in existing re-internationalization research.

Citation

Yu, H., Fletcher, M. and Buck, T. (2022), "Learning Processes During Re-internationalization: A Case Study of Chinese SMEs", van Tulder, R., Verbeke, A., Piscitello, L. and Puck, J. (Ed.) International Business in Times of Crisis: Tribute Volume to Geoffrey Jones (Progress in International Business Research, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1745-886220220000016010