Pre-Entry Experience, Postentry Adaptations, and Internationalization in the African Mobile Telecommunications Industry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jahanbakht, Mohammad; Mostafa, Romel; Veloso, Francisco
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Arlington; Western University (University of Western Ontario); Imperial College London
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2021.1470
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 969-990
• 关键词: pre-entry experience; postentry adaptation; entrepreneurial leadership; INTERNATIONALIZATION; mobile telecommunications

摘要

We study the evolution of the African mobile telecommunications industry from its effective beginning and explore the sources of ownership advantages among indigenous firms, by assembling historical qualitative and quantitative firm-level data. Our historical qualitative findings suggest that a few start-ups gained industry-specific knowledge through their pre-entry experience, directed their postentry development of capabilities toward adaptations to challenging market and operational conditions, and leveraged their adaptive capabilities to enter and compete in other African countries. Using our quantitative panel data, we show that these firms successfully internationalized across the continent. In particular, compared with other start-ups, they had higher rates of foreign entry in African countries that had relatively weaker rule of law, and greater market reach in African countries that had relatively larger low-income consumer segments. These patterns corroborate that their capabilities for overcoming the industry's challenging market and operational conditions were their key ownership advantages. Through our triangulated analysis, we show that inherited industry knowledge provides a foundation for postentry capability development, and entrepreneurial leadership guides this process to create ownership advantages for regional internationalization.