The Internationalization of B2B Digital Platform Providers : The Role of Cross-National Distance and Digital Characteristics

Abstract

Digitalization offers new opportunities and changes how firms can explore and enter new markets. Current literature has deepened our understanding of the internationalization process of digital-based firms, but it provides very little guidance on how the specific characteristics of digital artifacts enable and accelerate internationalization or of the role of crossnational distance and cultural difference. We use a longitudinal single-case approach to explore how a Business-to-Business (B2B) platform provider internationalized its operations from inception. The case study illustrates that the ongoing development of the digital service and the integration with new devices played an important role in the firm’s internationalization and expansion into new markets. We also observed that cross-cultural distance and cultural differences played an unexpected role. Finally, we propose avenues for future research.