Understanding Earliness of Internationalization and Its Impact on Postentry Geographic Diversity of International Young Ventures

Early and rapid internationalization has emerged as an established phenomenon of research, yet several fundamental issues remain to be studied. In this research, the authors aim to analyze the link between earliness of internationalization—a temporal dimension of foreign market entry—and the geographic diversity of international expansion, as well as the contingent nature of the relationship. They test their hypotheses with empirical data collected in a survey among international young ventures in China. The results show that while earliness of internationalization does not directly lead to the geographic diversity of a venture's international expansion, its impact becomes salient as the venture gains international legitimacy and strategic flexibility. Furthermore, the moderating effects of international legitimacy and strategic flexibility vary according to the type of the venture's first foreign market (regional vs. global). This research advances the knowledge not only of the important role of early foreign market entry but also of the strategic factors for paths created by accelerated internationalization. It potentially contributes to the emergent research on foreign market entry timing/speed of internationalization and performance implications of international young ventures.