Investigating MNC’s patterns of learning in international expansion
Abstract
This study examines the application of learning when firms go internationally. From a qualitative approach based on the investigation of the market entry process, the author finds that the market entry process of a firm into a new foreign market contains two sequential stages with respective learning patterns. In the initial stage, as the firm's knowledge of the local market is limited, the firm tends to utilize exploitative learning to replicate its original advantage from its home country and exploratory learning to acquire knowledge of the local market; after that when the firm's local market knowledge is enhanced, the firm mainly utilizes exploitation and exploration to reconfigure its resources and competences and transform them into new resource reconfigurations to adapt to the local context.
Moraref