Digital Internationalization of Traditional Firms: Virtual Presence and Entrepreneurial Orientation

While digital technologies like the internet offer new and less cost-intensive ways to seize international opportunities, when it comes to traditional firms selling tangible products, little is known about their use of online channels for servicing foreign markets. This is especially the case for their choice between customized (active) or general (default) forms of corporate internationalization websites (viz. virtual presence modes). Building on the entrepreneurial orientation literature, we propose that firms that are more entrepreneurially orientated are more likely to capture internationalization opportunities with active internationalization websites. We further suggest that the threat of competitive pre-emption will moderate this relationship. Using a sample of Austrian SME exporters, we find support for the positive effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the use of active internationalization websites, but do not find a significant moderating effect of competitive pre-emption. In this way, we add to the growing research on digital internationalization by explaining the circumstances in which traditional firms choose between different internationalization website formats.