La internacionalización de la empresa como generadora de capacidades organizacionalesuna aplicación empírica al sector de la alimentación

Abstract

The internationalization of firms has been traditionally considered a powerful tool to increase their sales, diminish their risks, reduce their costs or in a general way, improve their performance. Recently, some works have started to raise whether internationalization also has a positive influence on the internal capabilities of firms. For this reason, the aim of this work is to analyze how the internationalization of firms enables them to develop innovation capability. To achieve this objective we use a sample of 155 Spanish firms in the food sector. The results of this work show that not all the dimensions of internationalization have a positive influence on the generation of innovation capability for the firm. Specifically, only the number of international geographic areas where firms act, the number of years that firms have been exporting and the satisfaction of managers with the knowledge that is acquired in internationalization have a positive influence on the innovation capability of firms. These results show that the diverse knowledge which is acquired by the firm through internationalization allows the generation of innovation capability for the firm. In the same way, the results show that there is a positive relationship between the level of satisfaction of managers with the knowledge that is acquired through the export activity and the innovation capability of the firm. This result shows the importance of the perception of managers to apply the knowledge which is acquired through internationalization toward the generation of innovation within the firm. However, other dimensions of internationalization, such as, the export tendency or the entropy rate in international markets, haven´t any influence on innovation capability of the firm. This work has some practical implications both for managers as well as for institutions that promote exportations. Taking into account that innovation has shown to be essential to face the current competitive environment, firms have to notice that diversify internationalization policy will not only allow to diversify the risk, but also have a positive influence on innovation capability of the firm. In the same way, institutions that promote exports should undertake supported measures which promote international diversification since this will improve the competitiveness of these firms.