Maturing international new ventures: Short- and medium-term Insights

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the decision to internationalize early in a firm’s life affects its later development in new and adolescent venture phases. To observe this post-entry evolution, this paper analyzes a set of Spanish firms (N = 106) from a longitudinal perspective (8-year panel data), trying to depict these firms’ short- and mid-term behavior in relation to their sales growth and export intensity. The results show that early internationalization among Spanish firms lead to positive sales growth and increased export intensity, but the “age effect” phases out soon, and many international new ventures (INVs) may stagnate. The paper contributes to the discussion of the learning advantage on newness in early and adolescent phases of internationalization and, subsequently, to the discussion about the role of time and experience in the internationalization process.