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The Penrose effect, or the limitation of the growth rate during expansion due to managerial constraints, has been examined in the context of business diversification, withdrawal and MNE’s foreign direct investment, primarily in the for-profit sector. However, insufficient attention has been paid to its impact on professional service firms, particularly in the context of their expansion through service exports. The main purpose of this study is to examine the Penrose effect in the internationalization of professional service firms through service exports.

This study focuses on large Japanese patent firms as traditional professional service firms and constructs panel data for 48 large patent firms over the observation period from 2002 to 2010 to test our hypotheses.

Our results demonstrate a negative relationship between degree of internationalization and international business growth, thus confirming the Penrose effect. Furthermore, we found that the degree of internationalization has a curvilinear relationship with international business growth and that institutional distance does not have a negatively moderating effect on the relationship between the degree of internationalization and international business growth.

This study made a theoretical contribution to Penrose's growth theory and previous studies on international management and professional service firms and international management by showing that the Penrose effect can be observed in the international expansion of professional service firms through service exports. Moreover, this study identifies the factors that modify the Penrose effect, thereby making a significant theoretical contribution.

In 2019, the goal of developing a world-class open university through different stages was put forward by the Open University of China (OUC), which indicated that internationalization for Chinese open universities came to the agenda. However, international activities of open universities are different from those in conventional universities, and how to fulfill the goal of internationalization is a main issue faced by educators in Chinese open and distance education arena. This research aimed to identify ways of internationalization for the OUC system.

A survey was employed as a tool to get feedback from target audience. A questionnaire was released to academics, management staff and researchers to the 44 provincial open universities. A total of 501 samples were collected. Among them, 332 were from academics, which accounted for 66.27%, 152 were from school-level directors and 17 were from university-level leaders.

By analyzing the data collected in the survey, the study proposes four recommendations to fulfill the goal of internationalization for Chinese open universities and these include strengthening top-level strategies, building up professional teams, sharing learning resources and delivering upper-level programs.

The targets of this research were all staff at different levels in the central and local institutions; no students were included in the research. Therefore, this did not reflect a picture from the student perspective, and this will be improved in future research.

Since the establishment of the OUC in 1979, there has been no clear and systematic pathways for the development of internationalization of Chinese open universities. This research proposes a theoretical framework of internationalization for open universities and suggests a direction for future development.

This study investigates how the extant literature approached the issue of small firms’ international market entry enabled by digital platforms.

The paper presents a systematic literature review of the internationalization of small firms using digital platforms. It includes only empirical papers from Scopus and Web of Science databases, covering 2016 to mid-2023.

The study provides both (1) a descriptive analysis of the selected papers, encompassing their temporal and spatial distribution, methods, theoretical perspectives and the type of platform examined and (2) a qualitative analysis of the articles’ content in a narrative review structure, culminating in an integrated framework of key findings and suggested research questions on the role of digital platforms in small firm internationalization.

There is still a very limited number of studies addressing the phenomenon, with several scholars recently calling for further research. This paper compiles, synthesizes, analyzes and integrates the empirical literature on SME internationalization enabled by digital platforms, offering possible future avenues to advance research.

Past research has advanced a plethora of theoretical arguments on the effect of family ownership on firms’ international expansion and produced mixed empirical results. It is argued that the oversimplified way in which researchers have examined theoretically and tested empirically business families’ socioemotional priorities may explain the state of fragmentation in the literature. This study aims to investigate the differential effects of restricted (short-term and family-centric) versus extended (long-term and business-centric) socioemotional priorities on the extent of family firms’ internationalization to capture more nuanced aspects of the socioemotional wealth concept.

The authors test the hypotheses through OLS regressions on a sample of 287 family firms.

The authors find that restricted family-centric socioemotional priorities and extended socioemotional priorities related to the establishment of long-term relationships with business partners are negatively associated with the extent of family firms’ internalization. They also find that extended socioemotional priorities related to long-term orientation and transgenerational control intentions are positively associated with international expansion and that this effect is stronger for younger family firms.

This study disentangles the differential effects of two kinds of socioemotional priorities on family firms’ internationalization, thus developing more fine-grained theoretical arguments about the socioemotional drivers of family firms’ behavior. In addition, the authors directly measure socioemotional priorities instead of relying on indirect governance measures.

The aim of this study is to understand how digital platforms and context-specific characteristics of China – such as swift guanxi – affect opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) entering this market.

This study adopts a qualitative approach based on a multiple-case study of Italian SMEs in the wine industry that have activated international activities in China. Primary data consist of 32 interviews with SMEs’ managers, local consumers and other stakeholders involved in firm internationalization.

The findings of this study highlight that in SMEs’ internationalization, the process of knowledge/learning on digital platforms takes place in a bidirectional way thanks to the interactions among multiple stakeholders, which activate consumer education and knowledge sharing.

While previous research has emphasized firms' knowledge acquisition in the internationalization process, this study incorporates both the consumer perspective and the firm perspective, along with considering interactions with various stakeholders.

This study focuses on the triadic multilevel psychic distance (MPD) between the firm, target market and bridge-maker and its consequences for firm internationalization. Specifically, it spotlights the triadic psychic distance between firms, the levels of psychic distance in the target market (country and business) and the bridge-maker. Therefore, this study examines the triadic MPD among these three entities and its impact on firm internationalization.

This study uses qualitative and case study research approaches. It is based on 8 case companies and 24 internationalization cases. Secondary data were collected, and interviews with bridge-makers and industry experts were conducted.

The study found that MPD appeared in the triad. The MPD between firms and markets is related to country-specific differences and business difficulties. The MPD between the firm and the bridge-maker is based on the latter’s lack of knowledge vis-à-vis bridging the firm’s MPD. Finally, the MPD between bridge-makers and the market is based on the former’s lack of knowledge of the home country’s business difficulties.

This is the first study to develop and adopt a triadic multilevel psychic distance conceptualization that provides evidence for and sheds light on the triadic MPD and its effect on firm internationalization. This study identifies the reasons behind triadic MPD in connection to firm internationalization. Notably, firm internationalization is interdependent on the triadic MPD setting between the firm, bridge-maker and target market. It has theoretical value and contributes to the recent advancement in the understanding of MPD in international marketing literature.

This paper aims to critically investigate the past hype of internationalization of higher education institutions (HEIs) and its complex international, national and local processes under the influence of globalization.

In particular, the authors employed the knowledge–policy–power interface framework through a scoping review in order to reexamine the political dynamics among international, national and local higher education actors in driving the internationalization of HEIs in the context of South Korea between the 1990s and the 2020s. The perspective taken by this research brings much-needed nuance to the analysis by focusing on the complex dynamics of external factors and key actors and their responses in the process of internationalization.

This research found three characteristic dynamics of internationalization of Korean HEIs: uncritical acceptance of external pressures for internationalization; unbalanced formal and informal participation at the national level and different ways HEIs absorb change. In short, this research discussed how the powerful government, which has been stirred by external forces, shaped the limited knowledge discourse on internationalization while triggering power games among various HEIs. The research highlights that the characteristics of HEIs and the voices of all stakeholders should be better accounted for so that internationalization can proceed in diverse ways from the ground up to enhance and assure educational quality.

The research limits itself by analyzing the political dynamics in driving the internationalization of HEIs in the context of South Korea only through scoping review. However, the attempt to disentangle the underlying political dynamics through its original framework is worthy unlike previous more traditional models that cast policy-making as a uniform cycle proceeding rationally through the policy process regardless of the issue.

These findings enable a better analysis of the key dynamics of how HEI internationalization policies in Korea were understood, planned and implemented. Without examining the political dynamics among various factors as well as the responses of significant actors to HEI internationalization, the current challenges and remaining tasks in translating higher education policy into practice cannot be thoroughly assessed.

Most importantly, the multilayered political dynamics that come together to shape the content and directions of policies in a certain national context should be taken into account in the process of policy-making. Such recontextualization would provide a better understanding of the underlying dynamics that lead to certain consequences of and challenges in translating higher education policy into practice, especially for those who face the challenge of balancing between state-driven policies and ever-diversifying needs and demands of HEIs.

As there is a lack of understanding of the critical context of the knowledge–policy–power interface despite the significant influence of political dynamics in the process of internationalization, this research reexamined the internationalization of HEIs in Korea by providing a better understanding of the political dynamics between knowledge and power that influence the directions and contents of policy dialogues and documents.

This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a conceptual model that fuses institutional and resource-based theories to improve our understanding of firm internationalisation.

The study uses cross-sectional, national-level secondary data from the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute and World Economic Forum data sets on global entrepreneurship and competitiveness indices for 137 countries. The data is analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that national income, institutions, trade openness and availability of risk capital positively influenced firm internationalisation, while home-country networking had an inverse effect. However, home country infrastructure had no statistically significant effect on firm internationalisation.

The findings highlight the importance of considering home country attributes in understanding the internationalisation of firms.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the role of local factors on the internationalisation of entrepreneurial ventures. It also tests a novel conceptual model that integrates institutional and resource-based theories to explain the nuances of the internationalisation of business ventures globally.

Born-again global internationalization is a rarely researched topic. Especially process-oriented studies are largely missing. In loss modes concerning their socioemotional wealth (SEW), family businesses take more risks and can be informative examples of born-again global internationalization.

This article analyzes the process of born-again global internationalization of a mature family business triggered by succession in an SEW loss mode. The interplay of dynamic capabilities (DCs) as drivers and SEW preservation guides the in-depth analysis based on an interpretative single case study design.

The analysis reveals a model with (1) the personal and familial level of the business family, (2) the bonding and transfer level between the business family and the family business and (3) the organizational level as three levels of DCs as drivers of born-again global internationalization in family businesses and SEW preservation as a continuously influencing context.

The article contributes to push forward the fragmented level of knowledge in the field of born-again global internationalization of family businesses. It brings together the triggering phase of born-again global internationalization with the later phases (driving successful rapid internationalization). In particular, it explores how the triggering factors on the family level can be translated into the development of capabilities on the firm level to drive successful internationalization. Based on these insights, the article offers novel implications for research and practice.

The advance in higher education in Asian countries is of major interest because it reveals increasing global political and cultural influence in recent years. The review explores the characteristics of publications from 2013–2018 concerned with the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. The study aims to analyse the current trajectory, including the size, growth trends, and regional networking of this domain, with a goal of identifying the influential journals, authors, and documents, as well exploring the thematic structure and topical issues and trends of this domain.

241 Scopus-indexed documents were selected and reviewed using a quantitative descriptive way. These documents were analysed by VOS viewer software.

The results show the most topical issues and trends concern about “Asian immigration and mobility”, “transnational education”, “international students and acculturation”, and “international branch campuses”. Seven main schools of thought were identified and are clearly explained herein, which provides a baseline for future research for new scholars.

The present study suggests that trans-regional cooperation is the future of internationalisation in higher education. Asian scholars are recommended to increase cooperation and exchanges with each other, expand channels of contact, further understand and optimise their own advantages, achieve win-win cooperation and make Asia's voice heard in the world in higher education field.

This bibliometric review can predict the main trends in higher education internationalisation in the future and encourage implication of interdisciplinary research in higher education internationalisation.