Abstract
This study was developed under the scope of a Portuguese project focused on the entrepreneur’s perspective and perception on the internationalization process of his company: more specifically, about the factors that enhanced the company entry into foreign markets as well as the constraints found in this process. This work focuses on the importance of using digital transformation to integrate technological tools in international business practice and strategy and the obstacles encountered with introducing these new technologies. This study aims to determine the relationships between technology categories and obstacles. The final goal is to assess the impact of these characteristics of the companies by the sector of economic activity, size, and percentage of profits resulting from international expansion. A questionnaire was designed and sent by email to 8183 companies from the AICEP database, distributed by three main activity sectors. A total of 310 valid answers were gathered from the Portuguese internationalized companies. The research limitations are related to the reduced number of interviews. These interviews showed that managers were not aware of the concept of digital transformation and misunderstood the use of digital technologies in the internationalization process of the business. This limitation can add some bias to the qualitative results. In addition to these limitations, the number of responses per sector was also not homogeneous. The practical implications of this study are that managers and top-level executives can use that to better understand how companies could use digital tools and what obstacles they should avoid when they want to internationalize their business. This paper is one of the first research contributions to analyze the impact of digital transformation in the internalization of Portuguese companies.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThe internationalization of companies is increasingly dependent on their digitalization.Since companies started dematerializing borders and reducing costs with the usage of e-commerce, they have changed how business is conducted Gregory et al [1]
digital transformation (DT) to integrate technological tools in international business practice and strategy and the obstacles encountered with introducing these new technologies
In order to obtain information about the feeling of entrepreneurs concerning business digitalization, the first objective (RQ1) of this study was to classify their emotions regarding the question, “Digital transformation (DT) was important? How?”, from the sample constituted by the 12 interviews
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThe internationalization of companies is increasingly dependent on their digitalization.Since companies started dematerializing borders and reducing costs with the usage of e-commerce, they have changed how business is conducted Gregory et al [1]. The development of automation enabled by robotics and artificial intelligence brings the promise of higher levels of productivity and better efficiency, security, and convenience described by Company and Manyika [21], as well as, according to Valenduc and Vendramin [22], transforming the world of work, creating new types of digital or virtual work. The same author uses the term “digital disruption” to describe the transformational impact of digital technologies and infrastructures on how the business, economy, and society operate This digital disruption creates opportunities for small medium enterprises (SMEs) to grow and internationalize. If they do not follow the digitalization trend, they will fall behind their competitors, eventually leading to their closure, for example, with Kodak
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
