Strategic Alternatives of Marketplaces in Internationalization

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Currently entering the international domain is a necessary step for many companies in business development. Companies enter international markets in order to target new customers, to gain access to the development of a unique international business model, or to survive — leaving the local highly competitive market. The process of developing an internationalization strategy has been well studied; moreover, the existence of a large theoretical base (basic strategic alternatives models, analysis of the external and internal environment model for an organization) can simplify significantly this process. One of the business models for which internationalization is especially relevant — an electronic marketplace. Acting as an intermediary between buyers and sellers, a marketplace provides an internet-platform for efficient product exchange. A global market of marketplaces has been growing for the last several years due to different factors, including the pandemic, which leads to strengthening rivalry. This makes the development of international strategies for such a complex business model particularly difficult. This form of business has become notably popular due to the growth of online shopping, which occurred as a result of the recent-year events. For such a complex business model the development of international strategies is particularly interesting. In this article, the authors revealed that the international activity of any marketplace is based on two basic internationalization strategies, each of which, one way or another, manifests itself in these companies. The basic strategies are opposed to each other, which complicates the process of internationalization. To simplify this process, the authors suggested an algorithm for developing an international marketplace strategy. It is based on the AAA-framework model of strategic alternatives and the Double Diamond model of factor analysis of the international environment, which makes it possible to analyze systematically the internal and external environment of an organization and take into consideration strategic contradictions in the marketplace activities. In the future, this algorithm can be used not only to develop marketplace strategy, but also to evaluate competitors' strategies and conduct a case study, for further research in this direction.