Social Media Firm Specific Advantages as Enablers of Network Embeddedness of International Entrepreneurial Ventures

Combining internalisation theory and internationalisation networking literature we study how international entrepreneurial ventures use social media to internationalise. Our qualitative study reveals the governance mechanisms and learning that are part of a dynamic process. We explain how firms leverage their own social media capabilities and bundle them with the capabilities of foreign partners, which they leverage to create new social-media capabilities to grow internationally. Firms leverage social-media capabilities to become embedded within emerging and strategic networks, a position that is central for firms to mitigate threats of opportunism and bounded reliability and to overcome liabilities connected to smallness, newness, and foreignness.

Automated summary

This study explores how international entrepreneurial ventures utilize social media to internationalize by integrating internalisation theory and internationalisation networking literature. The qualitative research reveals the importance of governance mechanisms and learning in this dynamic process. Companies leverage their own and foreign partners' social media capabilities to create new ones for international growth, becoming embedded in emerging and strategic networks to overcome various liabilities.