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Is More Always Better? Risk Trade-Offs Among Internationalizing New Ventures, Stephanie Fernhaber, Patricia Mcdougall-Covin

Stephanie A. Fernhaber

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Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ventures manage the negative returns associated with higher levels of internationalization. Many new ventures are internationalizing to fully exploit new innovations and/or gain access to larger markets. Yet at some point the rising costs associated with internationalization outweigh any benefits, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between internationalization and performance.

Design/methodology/approach

– New ventures are theorized to better manage high levels of internationalization by limiting exposure to other sources of risk. This can be achieved by leveraging greater size and/or limiting simultaneous diversification efforts on product innovation. To test …

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