Post-entry advancement of international service firms in Australia: A longitudinal approach

Abstract

Summary Post-entry resource commitments of international service firms entering Australia are investigated to identify different patterns in the internationalization of capital intensive service firms (CISF) and knowledge intensive service firms (KISF). Australia was chosen as the host market because it is a strong service economy. Addressing the lack of research on progression after entry, this study tests the applicability of the Uppsala model to service firms. A quantitative longitudinal research design is used to analyze the pace of irreversible investments and the findings suggest that KISF accelerate almost twice as fast in their market expansion as CISF. It is also found that KISF change their resource commitment in evolutionary fashion as compared to CISF which tend to adopt a revolutionary approach.