Learning, unlearning and internationalisation: Evidence from the pre-export phase

  • Authors:

  • José C. Casillas;Francisco J. Acedo;José L. Barbero

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Seville, Departamento de Administración de Empresas and Marketing, Avda Ramón and Cajal, 1, 41018 Seville, Spain;University of Seville, Departamento de Administración de Empresas and Marketing, Avda Ramón and Cajal, 1, 41018 Seville, Spain;Escuela de Organización Industrial, Entrepreneurship Department, C/ Leonardo da Vinci, n 12, 41092 Isla de la Cartuja (Sevilla), Spain

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
  • Year:
  • 2010

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The internationalisation process has been described as a process of learning under which a business increases its commitment abroad as the company acquires knowledge on new markets and on the nature of the process itself. The present work proposes a model that relates the possession of a base of knowledge originated in supra-organisational, organisational and individual sources, as the actively new decision of seeking knowledge related to the start of the exporting activity. Integrating the literature on the pre-export behaviour of the business and the theory of organisational learning, we propose that such relationship is influenced by two dimensions: the export intention and the context of unlearning. The sample included 103 SMEs in the pre-exporting phase. Results support the conception of the process of internationalisation as a process of learning under which a prior base of knowledge is combined with periods of unlearning and a search for new knowledge.