The role of prior domestic experience and prior shared experience in young firm internationalization

Abstract

This article examines how the prior domestic experience of a founding team influences an entrepreneurial firm’s ability to grow international sales. We argue that such experience leads to domestic mind-sets, which limit a team’s ability to perceive and interpret international stimuli and impact negatively upon international sales growth. Previous studies have overlooked the shared component of such experience. Prior shared experience allows ventures to learn faster from internationalization as a result of team familiarity and transactive memory systems. In uncertain environments, such as geographically distant regions, ventures that have founding teams with prior shared experience are able to outperform those without such experience.