Strategic entry and operational integration of emerging market firms: The case of Cemex, Beko and Tata Steel in the UK

Past, ongoing, and future debate on the interplay between internationalization and digitalization

“…In summary, innovations in digital technologies are completely reshaping the business environment and providing firms with new opportunities. Distinctive types of digital technologies, such as information and communication technology (ICT), the internet, e-commerce, social networking, the Internet of Things, data and analytics, robotic systems and additive manufacturing, allow firms to obtain competitive advantages (Lee and Falahat 2019); reduce transactional costs and information asymmetries (Yamin and Sinkovics 2006); improve productivity, integration, interaction and knowledge sharing inside and outside the organization (Alberti-Alhtaybat et al 2019;Andersson et al 2016;Coviello et al 2017;Zaheer and Manrakhan 2001); expand connectivity among firms, suppliers and clients, as well as the discovery and exploitation of new business opportunities, reducing physical distance and location dependencies (Jean et al 2010;Kim et al 2018;Özcan et al 2018;Sinkovics et al 2011Sinkovics et al , 2013Strange and Zucchella 2017); accelerate knowledge creation (Foss and Pedersen 2004); facilitate vertical disintegration and specialization (Alcácer et al 2016;Langlois 2002); allow for entry into new markets (Chen and Kamal 2016;Watson et al 2018); and generate new business models (Frank et al 2019), altering the physical boundaries (Chen and Kamal 2016) and tasks of firms and where the activities are located, shifting the frontiers of automation toward knowledge workers, and encouraging the emergence of a new "chapter" for firms (Charalabidis et al 2015). In this "chapter", special attention will be devoted to sustainability (Ghobakhloo 2019;Parida et al 2019) and the servitization of manufacturing (Luz Martín-Peña et al 2018).…”

“…We also find papers that acknowledge the importance of virtual teams in globalization (Gilson et al 2015). Conversely, some papers explore the critical role of the international supply chain and information technology in allowing firms to control, integrate, and consolidate their operations abroad (Gooris and Peeters 2016;Kim et al 2018;Özcan et al 2018). The nonempirical research developed in this period focuses on the effect of digitalization at more macro levels (Cano-Kollmann et al 2018;Edwards et al 2017), while the empirical research investigates the effects of digitalization on firm-level internationalization strategies (e.g., Wentrup et al 2019) and analyzes the trust-building mechanisms that are implemented between the platform and its digital employees during entry into a foreign country.…”

“…First, the current IDI research is clearly weak in explaining "what causes what". Particularly, internationalization has been seen as a context, for example, considering multinational firms and their approaches to digitalization (e.g., Mikalef and Pateli 2017;Özcan et al 2018;Schu et al 2016), as a moderator (e.g., Luo and Bu 2016), or very often as an outcome, i.e., considering the benefits of digitalization for internationalization strategies (e.g., entry mode choices and market selection) (e.g., Chen and Kamal 2016;Mozas-Moral et al 2016;Paniagua et al 2017) and their success (Cheng and Yang 2017;Mathews et al 2016;Peña-Vinces et al 2012) but only very implicitly as a possible key driver of digitalization. Some possible hybrid frameworks of IDI (where the elements of digitalization and internationalization seem more intertwined and the traditional cause-effect approach is abandoned) have, however, begun to emerge (e.g., Molodchik and Jardon 2017).…”

“…Recently, the international business research has recognized that digitalization represents a primary antecedent and critical factor of internationalization (Joensuu-Salo et al 2018;Kotha et al 2001;Singh and Kundu 2002). During the last three decades (and especially the most recent one), great innovations in digitalization have reshaped the task environment and redesigned international strategies: innovative technologies have facilitated firms in reducing their transaction costs (Yamin and Sinkovics 2006), favoring communication, carrying out information interchanges and integration among partners, suppliers, customers and distributors (Alarcón-del-Amo et al 2018;Kim et al 2018;Özcan et al 2018;Vasilchenko and Morrish 2011), reducing distances (Liu et al 2016;Sinkovics et al 2011), supporting the emergence of synergies in production (Jean et al 2010), reshaping firm boundaries (Chen and Kamal 2016), and reconfiguring operations and the supply chain by reducing location dependencies (Jean et al 2010;Strange and Zucchella 2017). Moreover, digitalization has permitted the identification of new market opportunities (Chen and Kamal 2016;Watson et al 2018) and allowed for easy access to resources, capabilities and knowledge in foreign countries (Charalabidis et al 2015;Coviello et al 2017).…”

Do information and communication technologies affect the performance of a supply chain? Pieces of evidence from the Tunisian food sector

“…Supply chain management (SCM) deals with the effective management of supply chain activities to ensure and maximize customer value and achieve a competitive advantage ( [30], [34]). Organizations need to modernize their supply chains and increase their efficiency through a continuous integration of information and communication technologies ([14]; [1]; [52]).…”