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Going back into previously exited markets is a significant management risk. But, how are re-entry risks managed? By adding strategic reference point (SRP) rationales to the risk management literature, this chapter examines re-entry after initial entry and divestment on a sample of 654 multinational enterprise (MNE) re-entrants. The authors move away from narrow risk management lenses according to which risks happen in isolation and theorize that MNEs simultaneously manage international risk by exploiting the trade-offs among external and internal sources of risk. The authors explain that, for re-entrants, exit may become the SRP for evaluating future strategic choices. The results suggest that re-entrants tend to manage re-entry risk by choosing partner-based modes that enable them to maintain strategic flexibility at re-entry. Surprisingly perhaps, market-specific experience acquired during the initial market foray does not provide strategic flexibility, in that highly experienced firms still experience risk trade-offs.

This study aims to understand the dynamics underpinning the exit and re-entry strategies adopted by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in an emerging market, Pakistan.

This study undertook an in-depth historical case study of Yamaha Motorcycles, which had initially entered Pakistan as a joint venture but had then exited and re-entered as a wholly owned subsidiary.

This study found that, despite its status as a market leader and one of the older players in the Pakistani market, changing market dynamics in the 2000s – especially the increased competition brought by more affordable (inexpensive) Chinese motorcycles and the weak enforcement of industrial policies – had pushed Yamaha Motorcycles to exit. Another factor that had contributed to its exit were differences in risk perception and strategies with its local joint venture partner (a Pakistani business group). Hence, both firm-level and institutional factors had played significant roles in Yamaha’s market exit. This study further found that re-entering in a wholly owned subsidiary operation mode had been beneficial for the firm, as it gained a significant market share due to its focus on innovation and on capturing a market niche, which had earlier not been its main focus. The findings also suggest that opportunity logics and multiple forms of learning can be important for a firm’s re-entry into a host market – such as experiential (i.e. learning from experience) and vicarious learning (i.e. learning from other organizations, including suppliers and competitors) in an emerging market context, in which institutions evolve amid political and policy uncertainty. Finally, this study found that exit and re-entry timing is an important factor for the development of competitive advantage in a host market.

This study is among the few to have investigated the exit and re-entry strategies of MNEs in emerging markets. The relatively short time during which Yamaha Motorcycles had been out of the market had benefited it on its re-entry, as the firm had been able to capitalize on its prior learning and ties to suppliers’ networks.

Current internationalisation and international business (IB) theories are silent on the intermittent internationalising experiences of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) from emerging economies (EEs). The aim of this chapter is to examine the role that networks play in facilitating SMEs from EEs subsequent behaviour following intermittent (exit and subsequent re-entry) internationalising experiences, and to build the theory of this process. Internationalisation of SMEs is a complex phenomenon. Utilising qualitative interview-based data from 15 Pakistani and Chinese SME entrepreneurs, industry experts and government representatives, this study concludes the following: SMEs from EEs continuously reconfigure existing products, resources and markets through networks while reducing and reviving levels of commitment with partners in international markets. Additionally, entrepreneurs from these markets proactively choose to dissolve existing relationships, withdraw from foreign markets to seek new partnerships and diversify resources to reduce foreign market uncertainty. However, some SME entrepreneurs seek to re-enter into previous markets utilising prior relationships and networks. Hence, successful management of network relationships over time is a challenge for internationalising SMEs.

Current conceptualizations of born‐globals lack a full theoretical explanation of strategic re‐structuring through the use of outward and inward‐oriented activity and the processes of de‐internationalization and re‐internationalization. Strategy and internationalization processes are created by entrepreneurial behaviour. If one wants to understand various international behaviours and strategic changes in firms one needs to focus on entrepreneurs – individual managers. The purpose of this paper is to unify the theoretical framework on born‐globals by addressing two questions. How do managers move through the de‐internationalization (exit) to re‐internationalization (re‐entry) process? How do they choose their patterns of internationalization?

To address these research gaps, this study draws on 26 in‐depth interviews with senior managers across nine Australian born‐globals.

Moving between outward and inward‐oriented activity as they de‐internationalize and re‐internationalize is used as proactive strategic re‐structuring by born‐global managers for survival during periods of global economic decline or changing competitive conditions.

This study provides new theoretical insights where the entrepreneur is central to the internationalization process and provides practical implications for those involved in international business and marketing.

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.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Yamaha found an entry route into the Pakistani motorcycle industry in the 1970s, but when exiting in the late 2000s due to corporate tensions, was able to find a new method of re-entry which ultimately benefitted the Pakistani economy and its workforce.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This chapter aimed to find out which factors affected three Estonian case firms’ serial nonlinear internationalization before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also studied how these firms responded to the pandemic and what they learned from their previous business experience. It contributed to the literature on serial nonlinear internationalization and to studies on the (potential) impacts of Covid-19 on firms’ local and international activities by showing that these case firms exited and re-entered foreign markets and experienced considerable export fluctuations before 2020, during and after it. Thus, serial nonlinear internationalization should be perceived as something normal, and it can be expected to occur both during stable and unstable times: it does not only characterize economic crises, and it should not be seen as a failure sign. The pandemic affected the case firms’ internationalization considerably – for instance, via demand fluctuations and travel restrictions – but it also created some additional business opportunities: for example, by creating demand for some additional products and by increasing some customer groups’ interest for some existing products. These firms’ (international) business experience acquired before Covid-19 was also useful during the pandemic as they continued with some previous expansion activities. On the other hand, they also tried something new. As a result, all firms’ total turnover increased in 2020, and it might also increase in 2021, despite some problems in the first quarter.

This study aims to systematize and analyze the internationalization of companies in an attempt to identify the main themes explored in the literature – What does the current state of the art tell us about the stimuli and barriers, failures and resilience in the internationalization of companies is what the authors set out to answer with this research.

This study offers a systematic review based on the bibliometric mapping techniques of 218 articles collected from the Web of Science database between 1996 and 2021.

Furthermore, contributing to literature by the logic of stimuli, barriers failure in internationalization companies. The main conclusion is that, from the analysis, the authors can see that the scientific production in this field of knowledge has intensified in recent years, but the centrality and the search density undergo major changes.

The main research contributions enable a better understanding of the involvement of failure and resilience in companies re-internationalization and suggestions for future studies in this field.

This study aims to evaluate the role of entrepreneurial ecosystems conditions (formal, informal and social capital) on different types of entrepreneurial re-entry at a global scale.

Given this phenomenon’s nature, this study builds a panel of data of 54 economies covering different (advanced and emerging) countries across the globe during the period 2004–2017 by mixing multiples sources of information (e.g. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund). The statistical analysis consisted of the fixed-effect dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation for panel data.

Three empirical insights emerge from the study. First, the entrepreneurial ecosystem’s formal conditions are mainly configured to support high-growth entrepreneurship ignoring re-entrepreneurs. Consequently, the formal conditions’ contribution is very limited in emerging economies. Second, the analysis of informal conditions revealed social media’s critical contribution for legitimizing entrepreneurship and supporting those entrepreneurs who want to re-enter the domestic or international market after a business failure. Third, social networks built during previous business angels or entrepreneurial experiences or with other entrepreneurs also play a crucial role for re-entrepreneurs to overcome the weaknesses in the entrepreneurial ecosystems’ conditions.

The study contributes to two ongoing academic debates among entrepreneurship scholars. The first is related to how the entrepreneurial ecosystem supports entrepreneurial activity in different economic contexts. The second is related to the study of the contextual determinants of entrepreneurial re-entry after a business failure.

This paper aims to examine the de-internationalization process to determine how different forms of attitudinal commitment influence the de-internationalization process.

Because of the exploratory nature of the study, a case study design is used. Two cases of Swedish companies, which de-internationalize from the French market, are studied.

Different commitment profiles influence the de-internationalization process. In particular, a general commitment profile, in which affective, normative, instrumental and continuance commitment play a role, influences the timing of de-internationalization, while the effort directed toward the execution of de-internationalization is mainly influenced by normative commitment and the extent of de-internationalization mainly by instrumental commitment.

By offering three propositions regarding the four types of commitment and the effects of these commitment types on the process of de-internationalization, the authors contribute to the literature on de-internationalization and the commitment literature.

The findings suggest that there is a risk that managers continue to commit resources to a market for a longer period without clear benefits because of affective and continuance commitment. As local employees persist in committing to the local market because of continuance commitment, offering viable alternatives reduces commitment to the foreign operations.

Distinguishing between different types of commitment, the paper builds on a more fine-grained typology of commitment than previous internationalization literature. Thereby, the paper opens up for new insights in the de-internationalization process.