Antecedents to the Internationalization of Service Firms: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The goal of this research is to identify antecedents that significantly contribute to U.S service firms' levels of global intensity. Six possible antecedents of global intensity are proposed and the relationships between the antecedents and global intensity are examined. The antecedents are firm size, management attitudes, barriers to entry, international scope, strategic motivation to internationalize, and market entry modes. The empirical results provide insight into the influence of each antecedent in predicting the global intensity of service firms. Management attitudes towards operating internationally are found to be the most important exogenous factor for predicting a service firm's global intensity.