Context-dependence of dynamic capabilities in small, entrepreneurial firm internationalization

Abstract

Our study replicates a US study and an Australian study in the Italian context to address whether the home- country context influences the nature of dynamic capabilities (DCs) that are developed and deployed in small, entrepreneurial firms for these firms to internationalize. We measure a suite of dynamic capabilities and relate these to innovation in the firm which is put to internationalization. The Italian findings portray two logics, a dominant entrepreneur’s logic and a lesser significant entrepreneurial logic. The entrepreneur’s logic is centered on the entrepreneur and their vision and is dominant in the Italian model. The entrepreneurial logic, based on the bundling of DCs to learn from internal and external environments, is represented in all three countries. Our three-country comparison illustrates that dynamic capability development and deployment is indeed context-dependent. Notwithstanding contextual differences across Italian and Anglo-Saxon countries, which present spatial boundary conditions, the theoretical configuration of DCs, innovation and internationalization we replicated is retained, suggesting that it has potential to be developed further into an actionable theory of DCs for the small, entrepreneurial firm that internationalizes.