Abstract
Despite the importance of returnee entrepreneurs’ prior international experience (RIE), its conceptualisation and effect on firm outcomes is not comprehensively understood. The author draws insights from social and cognitive learning literature (De Cock et al., 2021; Endicott et al., 2003; Kolb, 1984; Maitland & Sammartino, 2015) whereby an entrepreneur’s prior experience host country is proposed to be a critical and intensive learning context. The author proposes that learning in the prior experience host country gives rise to two outcomes: content knowledge in specific domains and general cognitive development, which are imprinted by (1) the cultural distance between an entrepreneur’s prior experience host country and his/her home country (CD), (2) the cultural distance between an entrepreneur’s prior experience host country and his/her firm’s exporting country that is termed cultural irrelevance (CI), and (3) the cultural values of the prior experience host country.This dissertation examines the impact of culturally imprinted RIE on a firms’ EO, likelihood of becoming a BG (BG), and post-entry speed of internationalisation (PSI). Data from 216 Chinese exporting small-and-medium-sized enterprises show that the length of prior international experience positively predicts a firm’s likelihood of becoming a BG. While CD strengthens this effect, CI weakens this effect. The cultural values of the prior experience host country also moderate this relationship in ways that lower power distance and higher individualism strengthen this effect. Findings also show that entrepreneurs’ prior international experience influences a firm’s PSI directly and indirectly through EO, and this mediating effect is positively moderated by greater CD, lower power distance and higher individualism of the prior experience host country. Our findings align with the traditional views on the importance of pre-history knowledge prior to the founding of firms. Our research makes novel contributions to the theoretical conceptualisation of international experience and managerial implications for returnee entrepreneurship.
| Date of Award | 29 Feb 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Dimo Dimov (Supervisor) & Michael Mayer (Supervisor) |