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

April 2010
International Journal of Information Management 30(2):162-173

April 2010
30(2):162-173

DOI:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.07.005

Authors:

José C. Casillas

Universidad de Sevilla

Francisco J. Acedo

Universidad de Sevilla

José L. Barbero

Universidad Pablo de Olavide

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.

Proposed model and hypothesis.

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International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Information Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijinfomgt

Learning, unlearning and internationalisation: Evidence from

the pre-export phase

José C. Casillasa,1, Francisco J. Acedoa,∗, José L. Barberob,2

aUniversity of Seville, Departamento de Administración de Empresas and Marketing, Avda Ramón and Cajal, 1, 41018 Seville, Spain

bEscuela de Organización Industrial, Entrepreneurship Department, C/ Leonardo da Vinci, n◦12, 41092 Isla de la Cartuja (Sevilla), Spain

article info

Article history:

Keywords:

Learning

Unlearning

Pre-export

Export

Export intention

Entrepreneurship

Information

Network

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.

1. Introduction

During the last decades, the process of business international-

isation has been described as a process of learning under which

a business increases its commitment in overseas markets as the

company acquires knowledge on new markets and on the nature

of the process itself (Eriksson, Johanson, Majkgard, & Sharma, 1997;

Johanson & Vahlne, 1990; Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975;

Walters, 1996). Likewise, a line of research, the school of innovation,

defends that international behaviour can be assimilated to a pro-

cess of innovation (Bilkey & Tesar, 1977; Cavusgil, 1980; Czinkota,

1982; Reid, 1981). From both points of view, internationalisation

is described as a path-dependent process in which the business

learns through its own behaviour abroad, and this learning pro-

cess is the main determinant of its future behaviour (Johanson &

Vahlne, 1990). The new line of research on international new ven-

tures (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994) also insists on the importance of

learning as an explanatory factor of the fast internationalisation

of the born-global ﬁrms. Nevertheless, this trend incorporates the

idea that it is important, along with the experience of the business,

the learning accumulated by the founders and owners of the busi-

∗Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954 55 44 32; fax: +34 954 55 69 89.

E-mail addresses: casillas@us.es (J.C. Casillas), fjacedo@us.es (F.J. Acedo),

joseluisbarbero@eoi.es (J.L. Barbero).

1Tel.: +34 954 55 44 56; fax: +34 954 55 69 89.

2Tel.: +34 954 46 33 77.

ness (Rialp, Rialp, & Knight, 2005; Zahra & George, 2002), as well as

of the one obtained by the active participation in different types of

social and organisational networks with customers, suppliers, insti-

tutions, competitors, etc. (Etemad & Lee, 2003; Johanson & Vahlne,

2006).

All the perspectives discussed grant great importance to

knowledge as a key resource in the process of business inter-

nationalisation (Blomstermo, Eriksson, & Sharma, 2002; Casillas,

Moreno, Acedo, Gallego, & Ramos, 2009). In fact, according to

the leading literature, the internationalisation process must be

understood as a learning process through individual managers

experiences (Athanassiou & Nigh, 1999, 2002; Reuber & Fischer,

1997), the international experience developed by the company

(Eriksson et al., 1997; Eriksson, Majkgard, & Sharma, 2000), and

learning derived from the participation in social and institu-

tional networks (Etemad & Lee, 2003). However, even though

the role of knowledge on the process of internationalisation is

receiving a growing attention by a number of researchers (Autio,

Sapienza, & Almeida, 2000; Blomstermo et al., 2004; Casillas et

al., 2009; Malhotra, 2003), little is known on how the process

occurs, this is, how do new knowledge acquisition processes occur,

how is such knowledge integrated into the existing knowledge

and what is the role of the learning context in such process.

The integration of the learning context can help to better under-

stand not only how the internationalisation learning process

occurs but how fast it occurs. Hence, several works propose

that the effective incorporation of new knowledge requires a

context of unlearning ineffective and obsolete knowledge and

doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.07.005

J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173 163

routines (Cegarra-Navarro & Rodrigo-Moya, 2005). Finally, from

a managerial perspective, the model developed in this paper

can contribute to information systems design and implement

in the future in order to help the internationalisation process

decision making by implementing better environmental scanning

systems.

Thus, the purpose of this paper is to incorporate the unlearning

context into a learning model of the internationalisation process.

The present research argues that the unlearning context play an

important mediating role between existing knowledge of the inter-

nationalisation process and the active search of new knowledge, in

conjunction with the intention to export. A better understanding

of this learning–unlearning processes in the internationalisation

processes open a new opportunity to develop and use new infor-

mation and communication technologies into this area Thus, the

theoretical model presented defends the mediator role of two vari-

ables. The ﬁrst one is the intention to export, as a behavioural

dimension. In this sense, diverse authors defend the intention

to export and the international orientation of the business is

motivated by the existence of certain knowledge of the overseas

markets, proceeding both, from the individuals that participate in

the organization—founders, owners and executives (Athanassiou &

Nigh, 2000; Reuber & Fischer, 1997), and from the organization’s

own experience (Eriksson et al., 1997; Johanson & Vahlne, 1990),

as well as the experience of other businesses, customers, suppliers,

competitors, etc. (Coviello & Munro, 1995; Etemad & Lee, 2003).

The second mediator variable is the unlearning context. According

to a body of research, innovation implies the execution of new tasks

that require new knowledge and capabilities. The development of

this new knowledge and capabilities can collide with the organisa-

tional routines developed throughout the years by the organization,

which makes it necessary to generate a process of unlearning (De

Holan & Phillips, 2004; Hedberg, 1981; Starbuck, 1996).

The structure of this paper is as follows. In the next section, we

provide a theoretical review of the role of knowledge, the learning

process and the unlearning process under the two dominant foci in

the internationalisation process context: the stage model approach

and the international entrepreneurship approach. Subsequently,

in the third section a theoretical model is proposed under which

four research hypothesis are developed, based on the integration

of the literature on the process of internationalisation and on the

organisational learning process. The fourth section is devoted to

the description of the methodology—sample, variables and statis-

tical method. The ﬁfth section describes the results obtained. The

discussion of the results is addressed in the following section, which

describes the main conclusions, limitations and proposals of future

lines of work.

2. Learning, unlearning and internationalisation

Both, knowledge and learning constitute two of the most

studied dimensions, in general, within the management ﬁeld,

and speciﬁcally within the International Business ﬁeld. However,

no consensus exists on a clear deﬁnition of both. As Schneider

(2007) points out, the deﬁnition of the concept of knowledge does

not have an easy solution. However, according to the resource-

based view of the ﬁrm, most of the literature considers that

knowledge constitutes a resource, while learning constitutes a

capability (Hsu & Pereira, 2008). Hence, Huber (1991) defends

the idea of organisational learning as a construct composed of

four dimensions: knowledge acquisition, information distribution,

information interpretation, and organizational memory. Knowl-

edge and learning constitute therefore two related concepts. Hence,

we think it is convenient to clarify what we will understand for

each in the next lines. In the present work, following Huber (1991,

p. 89) we understand knowledge as the interpretation of a set of

information, beliefs on cause-effect relations or know-how, devel-

oped through time by the organisation in a path-dependent way.

We understand learning is the process of acquisition, integration,

interpretation of new knowledge with the objective of a later use.

Hence we have distinguished in our work between existing knowl-

edge, such is, that knowledge available to the company in a speciﬁc

moment generated through time (prior business and individual

experiences) and search of new knowledge, as the activities a com-

pany implements in order to acquire and integrate new knowledge

not existing previously in the organisation. In addition we under-

stand unlearning context as the context in which a company is

ready to dispose of that knowledge (information, routines, beliefs,

...) that may be an obstacle to learning and which implies a hinder

to the achievement of the organisational goals (De Holan & Phillips,

2004).

Literature on the business internationalisation process has given

the concept of knowledge a predominant role, regardless the

diversity of focus under it has been studied (Autio et al., 2000).

Thus, from the sequential theory, the process of internationalisa-

tion is understood as a process of learning, not always rational,

in which businesses acquire knowledge as new successive deci-

sions are taken and pass in the process from one stage to the

other (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977, 1990; Johanson & Wiedersheim-

Paul, 1975). For example, Wiedershein-Paul, Olson, and Welch

(1978) examined the information acquisition processes in the

pre export phase. Such perspective, however, has been shown

to be insufﬁcient to explain international new ventures and the

born-global ﬁrms, businesses that initiate its internationalisation

process almost from inception (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994; Zahra

& George, 2002), which has favoured the development of a new

body of research known as international entrepreneurship. Nev-

ertheless, within this new focus, learning maintains its key role

as a necessary dimension to understand the fast internationalisa-

tion process of these businesses (Oviatt & McDougall, 2005; Rialp

et al., 2005), although explained with different arguments. In the

next part we are going to describe the role of learning according

to the two perspectives mentioned—sequential perspective and

international entrepreneurship—which constitute the dominant

paradigms in the study of the process of business internationali-

sation.

2.1. Stage-theory, learning and unlearning context

The sequential focus has its origin in two parallel schools:

the school of Uppsala (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977, 1990; Johanson

& Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Welch & Luostarinen, 1988) and

the school of innovation (Bilkey & Tesar, 1977; Cavusgil, 1984;

Czinkota, 1982; Reid, 1981). The ﬁrst one considers the process of

internationalisation as a gradual process of learning, while the sec-

ond assimilates such process to innovation. Both schools coincide

in describing the process of internationalisation as a stage process,

composed of a series of incremental decisions whose main obsta-

cle is the absence of knowledge (Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul,

1975). Businesses acquire this knowledge through their own expe-

rience, as businesses begin their internationalisation gradually, ﬁrst

in countries culturally and geographically close to the country of

origin (Benito & Gripsrud, 1992; Benito et al., 1993; Davidson, 1980;

Johanson & Vahlne, 1977) and subsequently in far away countries.

Likewise, the ﬁrst decisions to enter a new geographic market are

carried out in ways that require a smaller commitment of resources

(Johanson & Vahlne, 1990), and, to the extent that the business

acquires sufﬁcient knowledge, it will tend to substitute this par-

ticular strategy rather than increase its commitment and degree of

control (Root, 1987).

164 J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

The internationalisation process, under this perspective, is

described as a path dependent learning process in which the acqui-

sition of knowledge and the commitment of resources are fed

back mutually (Andersen, 1993). In this process of learning it is

possible to identify three types of knowledge acquired (Eriksson

et al., 1997; Eriksson, Majkgard, & Sharma, 2000; Walters, 1996;

Yu, 1990): (1) market/business knowledge, which is based on

experience with customers, the market and competitors; (2) inter-

national institutional knowledge, based on experience within the

institutional, government, legal and moral framework; (3) inter-

nationalisation knowledge, which is based on the experience of

the company’s resources and abilities to work in foreign markets.

Nevertheless, in spite of offering learning a star role, the sequen-

tial perspective does not deal with the processes of unlearning and

relearning.

2.2. International entrepreneurship, learning and unlearning

context

Since the start of the international entrepreneurship trend,

learning constitutes a central element in order to explain inter-

national new ventures (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994; Zahra & George,

2002), although using different arguments. From this perspective,

knowledge and its acquisition inﬂuences the age of entry in interna-

tional markets through three different processes, each one related

to three levels of different analysis (Rialp et al., 2005): individ-

ual, organization and networks. On an individual level, Oviatt and

McDougall underline the importance of knowledge contributed

by its founders and acquired before the creation of the busi-

ness. According to different authors, when businesses are created

they inherit the experiences and knowledge accumulated by their

founders (McDougall, Shane, & Oviatt, 2003). At an organisational

level, diverse authors argue that young businesses possess certain

advantages by virtue of being new (Autio et al., 2000). Thus, the

absence of routines practiced through the years, allows young busi-

nesses to learn faster than businesses with an extensive history

(Barkema & Vermeulen, 1998). Finally, at a supra-organisational

level, fast internationalisation businesses are characterized by an

active participation in social and institutional networks, both at an

international and domestic level (Etemad & Lee, 2003; Johanson &

Vahlne, 2006). The participation in these networks provides access

to new knowledge and abilities which facilitates taking on the inter-

national markets (Lindsay, Chadee, Mattsson, Johnston, & Mollet,

2003).

As opposed to the sequential focus, the international

entrepreneurship perspective underlines the “learning advan-

tages of newness” (Autio et al., 2000). These advantages enable

us to explain the fast internationalisation of young businesses.

Nevertheless, according to the same argument, it is supposed

that mature businesses with a long history, need unlearning

processes prior to venturing into new international markets. In

this sense, Autio et al. (2000, p. 911) state that “acquiring foreign

experiential knowledge involves new ways of thinking in the

face of strong inertial force to continue in old patterns”. In this

sense, those authors suggest that mature companies have more

difﬁculties in acquiring and integrating new knowledge given

they possess a bigger stock of knowledge as a consequence of the

routines and knowledge generated through past experiences of

the organisation. Hence, companies with a longer history need to

abandon previous routines and forget knowledge existing within

the organisation if they wish to learn faster. In other words,

the bigger the existing knowledge stock, the more difﬁcult to

acquire and integrate new knowledge. As a consequence, mature

organisations need a context of unlearning in order to acquire and

integrate new knowledge.

Fig. 1. Proposed model and hypothesis.

3. Model and hypothesis

Starting from the ideas developed by the two dominant the-

oretical perspectives on the process of internationalisation and

of the theory of organisational learning, we propose a model in

which four constructs are related: (1) Prior Knowledge, as the

storage of existing knowledge in the organization, and devel-

oped through individual, organizational and vicarious learning;

(2) Export Intention, that is, the expectations of the ﬁrms about

their future export activities in the short term; (3) the unlearning

context, as the process of forgetting obsolete routines and prior

knowledge existing in the organization; (4) the search for new

knowledge, the activities developed by the ﬁrm related to search,

acquisition, and integration of the new knowledge related to inter-

national market. The model that we propose is based on the planned

behaviour literature. This approach describes behaviour as a con-

sequence of intentions, and it has been extensively applied into

international business ﬁeld (Lim, Sharkey, & Kim, 1993). Follow-

ing this perspective, we propose a model as a process composed of

three stages. In the ﬁrst stage, the available knowledge (knowl-

edge stock related to the international markets) inﬂuences the

intention to export; subsequently, this intention evolves into a

need to initiate a proactive process for the search of new knowl-

edge, directly oriented to convert the initial intention into real

action and so, it may be necessary to cast aside traditional rou-

tines through a process of forgetting ineffective knowledge in an

unlearning context. Fig. 1 graphically represents the model pro-

posed.

3.1. Sources of knowledge and export intention

As described in the previous section, the literature on the

process of internationalisation in general and on the pre-export

behaviour particularly, states that any advance within the pro-

cess of international expansion is favoured by a prior learning

that provides certain types of knowledge to the business. Cohen

and Levinthal (1990) argue that the new capability to absorb new

knowledge is determined by the existence of prior knowledge and

by ﬁtting existing knowledge and new knowledge together. Three

sources of knowledge are considered in the literature: (1) individual

knowledge; (2) organisational knowledge; (3) supra-organisational

knowledge.

3.2. Individual knowledge

The role of individuals in the decision making process has

been analysed extensively during the last decades. Many of these

works have focused on the inﬂuence of social-demographic traits

(Athanassiou & Nigh, 1999, 2002; Sambharya, 1996; Tihanyi,

Ellstrand, Daily, & Dalton, 2000). Among these characteristics, the

international experience of the executives has been proven to be

determinant trait in the actual internationalisation of the business

J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173 165

(Athanassiou & Nigh, 2002; Reuber & Fischer, 1997), as well as other

characteristics such as age, tenure, etc. (Carpenter, 2002). Never-

theless, from the international entrepreneurship perspective, not

only the individual role of the executives is important (Harveston,

Kedia, & Davis, 2000), but also that of the founders and owners.

Businesses are not born without a history, they are the fruit of the

initiative of entrepreneurs that bring all their professional and vital

experience to the new venture. Huber deﬁnes this knowledge as

“congenital knowledge”, suggesting that the individuals who create

new organizations possess knowledge related to the initial environ-

ment of the new organization and of the processes that these new

organizations can develop to meet their objectives (Huber, 1991,

p. 91). In summary, executives and owners contribute knowledge

sourced from their life and professional experience which has been

developed both, in the business itself and outside the business.

This individual learning inﬂuences the vision of the current busi-

ness so that it is expected that those owners and executives with

more intense international experiences will demonstrate a greater

international orientation.

3.3. Organisational knowledge

Beyond individual knowledge, the organization learns through

the aggregation and integration process of such individual knowl-

edge, as well as through its own organisational behaviour (Cohen

& Levinthal, 1990). In the environment of international business,

numerous works have described the process of internationalisa-

tion as a process of learning based on the gradual accumulation

of external experiences by the business (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977;

Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975). The experiential knowledge

constitutes the main determinant of the future decisions related

to the international expansion of the business, in relation to the

different environments. According to this focus, the internation-

alisation of the business constitutes a path-dependent process

through which the business expands its international commitment

when and if it acquires and accumulates experiential knowledge

throughout its business life (Andersen, 1993; Eriksson et al., 1997,

2000).

3.4. Supra-organisational knowledge

The role of networks as a source of learning has been con-

sidered by literature as one of the main aspects involved in

the revitalization of the internationalisation of the new ven-

tures (Etemad & Lee, 2003). Individuals and organizations learn

from their customers and suppliers through direct contact with

them (Johanson & Vahlne, 2006), as well as from their com-

petitors and from other similar businesses (Lindsay et al., 2003).

The international experiences of customers, suppliers, similar

businesses or competitors imply an incentive for the decisions

related to the internationalisation of the business. Businesses do

not only learn from their own experiences, but also from the

experiences of other businesses, developing a mimetic behaviour,

according to the institutional perspective (DiMaggio & Powell,

1983).

In summary, the business obtains knowledge on internation-

alisation through very diverse sources at a supra-organisational,

organisational and individual level (Huber, 1991). All these sources

of learning generate a base of knowledge that promote the devel-

opment of a favourable attitude at the start of the international

expansion of the business, so that, in accordance with the argu-

ments stated, we propose a ﬁrst hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1. The possession of knowledge originated from

supra-organizational, organisational, and individual sources will be

positively related to the exporting intention of the business.

3.5. Export intention, exploration and unlearning context

The possession of knowledge, abilities and experiences related

to the internationalisation are incentives that promote the

intention of developing growing activities in an international envi-

ronment. Nevertheless, the process of internationalisation is itself

a process of learning and, therefore, it is not possible to under-

stand such process by analyzing only the sources of knowledge that

motivate the initial decisions of internationalisation. Diverse works

propose that the decisions of internationalisation are the result of

a process of acquisition, assimilation, and interpretation of knowl-

edge related to the new markets (Knight & Liesch, 2002). Thus, once

the business has detected the opportunity that implies an interna-

tional expansion, the intention to exploit such opportunity requires

the proactive search of new knowledge, in this case a speciﬁc

knowledge, oriented to the characteristics of its objectives of inter-

nationalisation. This new knowledge will tend to complement the

knowledge previously acquired (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). Hence,

we propose a second hypothesis.

Hypothesis 2. The intention to develop export activities will be

positively related to the search and exploration of new knowledge

oriented to the business internationalisation.

According to the organizational learning literature, learning is

a dynamic process in which moments of new knowledge acqui-

sition are superimposed (learning) to contexts of forgetting and

disposal of routines and organisational practices (Hedberg, 1981).

In this sense, De Holan and Phillips (2004) defend that the organi-

zations need to abandon certain knowledge and routines previous

to the acquisition of new knowledge. This process of unlearning,

understood as the dynamic process through which the organiza-

tions identify and eliminate knowledge and obsolete routines, is

often, from this perspective, a precondition for the acquisition and

assimilation of new routines and knowledge related to the process

of internationalisation. Learning is, therefore, built on an initial base

of necessary and useful knowledge for the absorption of the new

knowledge (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) and on the abandonment of

useless knowledge not ﬁt to the new strategic orientation of the

organization (Nystrom & Starbuck, 1984).

This unlearning context has been analyzed in relation to the

information acquisition processes relative to the markets (Sinkula,

1994, 2002), and from different levels of analysis—individual (Day

& Nedungandi, 1994), groupal (Becker, Hyland, & Acutt, 2006), of

innovation (Akgün, Lyn, & Byrne, 2006), competitive (Lei, Slocum,

& Pitts, 1999; Sinkula, 2002), etc. Though there exist no work on

this subject, it is expected that this process of unlearning-learning

will be applicable also to the process of internationalisation of

the business, given its similarity to the processes of innovation

(Bilkey & Tesar, 1977; Knight & Cavusgil, 2004). Thus, businesses

that wish to initiate a process of internationalisation, usually

through exports, perceive that the start of this process imply a

change in the way they develop their activities, and that this

change will implies the abandonment of certain organisational

practices and the learning of new forms of organization. Hence,

in relation to the exposed arguments we propose the following

hypothesis.

Hypothesis 3. The intention to develop export activities will be

positively related to the need to unlearn routines and knowledge.

3.6. Unlearning context and exploration

The ﬁnal consequence of the described process is the acquisi-

tion, assimilation and integration of new knowledge on the base

of the pre-existing knowledge, giving rise to a process of learning.

The unlearning context make no sense if the main purpose is not

166 J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

to incorporate new knowledge and routines that substitute them.

Such is a continuous process of relearning in which two processes

are combined: unlearning and learning (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).

From our point of view, and following the learning literature, the

unlearning context is an intermediate process between the inten-

tion of developing a behaviour (exporting in this case) derived from

the existence of a stock of prior knowledge, and the active search

of new knowledge. For these reasons, we propose the fourth and

last hypothesis.

Hypothesis 4. The need to unlearn routines and knowledge will be

positively related to the search and exploration of new knowledge

oriented to the internationalisation.

4. Methodology and results

4.1. Sample

To verify the hypothesis, we needed to ﬁnd a sample of busi-

nesses that were not situated in the export stage, although such

export activities ﬁtted in with its plans. This aim prevented

researchers from conducting a massive questionnaire and thus,

we tried to identify a sample of homogeneous businesses in rela-

tion to the stage in the process of internationalisation; our interest

was mainly in businesses in the pre-export stage. We contacted

businesses that were participating in the training programs of

the agency of international promotion (EXTENDA) of the Junta

de Andalusia (Regional Government of Andalusia). Such training

is provided for professionals of various sectors. These businesses

declared an interest in export activities although they hardly had

any experience in developing activities internationally. The use of

a single respondent derives from the fact that, usually, the courses

are attended by the person responsible for making decisions in this

area, typically, the CEO, president, owner or the responsible of the

export activity, due to the fact that for SMEs, the decision making

competence on internationalisation falls on only one person (Gray,

1997).

One hundred and twenty questionnaires were sent out in total

through different editions of these programs and in different loca-

tions, out of which only one hundred and three were valid for the

analysis. The 23% of the ﬁrms were service oriented, whilst the rest

was production oriented. The average age of the ﬁrms was 18 years

(s.d. 20.145) and 318.84 employees as an average (s.d. 1786.318)

with only 5 ﬁrms with more than 500 employees.The researchers

realised the impact the timing of the questionnaire could have on

responses by participants to export intention questions; question-

naires administered at the end of the course could modify export

intention of the respondents. We wanted to rule out any poten-

tial inherence from the course on respondents’ replies. For such

purposes, the questionnaire was administered early on the course.

A typical EXTENDA internationalisation course runs from October

to March; the questionnaire was administered at the end of Octo-

ber, and all the questionnaires were collected by the beginning of

November.

Based on an in-depth study of the aforementioned literature,

a questionnaire (see Appendix I for a detailed description of the

items) containing questions regarding the knowledge available at

the ﬁrm, the intention towards the exporting activity, the disposi-

tion to unlearn and the willingness to search for information related

to exporting, was designed. The questionnaire was administered in

Spanish, so we asked a professional to translate it into Spanish and

then a bilingual speaker to translate it inversely ﬁnding no differ-

ences in the translation. The items were marked in a likert-type

scale ranging from 1: totally disagree to 7: totally agree. Due to the

lack of literature regarding unlearning context in the international

management ﬁeld we borrowed the scale proposed by Cegarra and

Table 1

Correlations of latent variables.

Knowledge Intention Unlearning Knowledge search

Knowledge n.a.

Intention 0.441 0.8704

Unlearning 0.124 0.206 0.8054

Knowledge search 0.473 0.507 0.292 0.8733

Note: Numbers of the diagonal represent the average variance extracted square root.

Dewhurst (2006) in spite of the fact that it is not oriented to the

international activity.

In relation to the questions that try to identify knowledge at dif-

ferent levels (individual, organisational and supra-organisational)

the main sources of acquisition were identiﬁed (Eriksson et al.,

1997, 2000; Hadley & Wilson, 2003; Huber, 1991; Presutti, Boari, &

Fratocchi, 2007; among others) and respondents were questioned

on its use.

In order to complement the quantitative analysis, some inter-

views were carried out at the end of the course in order to enrich

the analysis of the questionnaires.

4.2. Data analysis and results

A Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) methodology, speciﬁ-

cally Partial Least Squares (PLS), was used in order to assess the

relationships between the constructs together with the predictive

power of the research model due to the small sample available.

This study uses PLS-Graph software version 03.00 Build 1130 (Chin

& Frye, 2003). This methodology has been previously adopted in

international management literature (Holzmüller & Kasper, 1991;

Naor & Punj, 1984; Stöttinger & Holzmüller, 2001). The use of the

PLS technique is justiﬁed because it is deﬁned as an analytical alter-

native for situations where theory is weak and where the available

manifest variables or measures are likely not to conform to a rig-

orously speciﬁed measurement model, not being necessary for the

scales to ﬁt a certain distribution (Fornell & Bookstein, 1982, p. 311).

For these reasons, PLS procedures have recently gained acceptance

(Chin & Gopal, 1995; Hulland, 1999; Julien & Ramangalahy, 2003).

The stability of the estimates was tested via a bootstrap re-sampling

procedure with 1000 sub-samples.

The analysis and interpretation of a PLS model is a two-stage

process: First, the reliability and validity of the measurement model

are evaluated, and second, the assessment of the structural model

itself is. This sequence ensures that the constructs’ measures are

valid and reliable before attempting to draw conclusions regard-

ing relationships among constructs (Barclay, Higgins, & Thompson,

1995). Thus, the measurement model in PLS is assessed in terms of

individual item reliability, construct reliability, convergent validity,

and discriminant validity. Table 1 represents the correlation matrix

of constructs.

In order to evaluate formative constructs, the elimination of

items is not recommended (Bollen & Lennox, 1991) due to infor-

mation loss, despite some authors preferring to drop the very weak

items (Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2006). The main concern for for-

mative constructs is that of multicollinearity (Diamantopoulos &

Winklhofer, 2001). For this purpose, the variance inﬂation factors

(VIF) must be calculated, and it needs to be observed whether the

items show values over the commonly threshold of 10.

For those constructs with reﬂective measures (latent con-

structs), the loadings must be examined in order to depurate the

scales. Individual reﬂective item reliability is considered adequate

when an item has a factor loading that is greater than 0.7 on its

respective construct (Carmines & Zeller, 1979). However, various

researchers have argued that this rule of thumb should not be so

inﬂexible (Barclay et al., 1995; Chin, 1998). To ensure reliability

J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173 167

Table 2

Cross loadings.

Unlearning Intention Knowledge search Knowledge

U1 0.980 0.034 −0.063 0.034

U2 0.982 0.052 −0.049 0.032

U3 0.937 0.017 −0.098 0.019

U4 0.914 0.055 −0.132 0.044

I1 −0.007 0.970 0.125 0.228

I2 0.226 0.708 −0.025 0.062

I4 0.211 0.670 −0.025 0.067

Ce1 −0.080 0.190 0.909 0.068

Ce2 −0.011 0.140 0.944 0.115

Ce3 −0.072 0.066 0.930 0.079

Ce4 −0.133 0.157 0.965 0.085

Ce5 −0.075 0.000 0.713 −0.029

Ce6 −0.006 0.141 0.957 0.122

Ce7 −0.058 0.026 0.936 0.083

Ce8 −0.112 0.005 0.690 0.067

Ce9 −0.065 0.101 0.718 0.066

Owner −0.111 0.041 0.070 0.329

TMT −0.085 0.082 0.189 0.497

Experience −0.026 0.193 0.171 0.859

Other ﬁrms −0.008 0.195 0.160 0.833

in all the used scales, items that did not fulﬁl the aforementioned

threshold were left in the model only if the rest of the reliabil-

ity criteria (composite reliability and average variance extracted)

were fulﬁlled. The cross loadings that asses the discriminant valid-

ity of the measures also show adequate values as can be seen in

Table 2. The loadings and the depurated items can be observed in

Appendix II.

In addition, the sources of knowledge have been operationalised

as a molar approximation, which does not take into account the

interdependencies of the variables, the ﬁrst order constructs act-

ing as factors or forming variables (Chin & Gopal, 1995), being

necessary to apply the approximation in two steps. The next prop-

erty to be analyzed is the construct reliability. It is assessed using

the composite reliability (c) as a measure of internal consistency.

We can use the guidelines offered by Nunnally (1978) who sug-

gests 0.7 as a reference for a ‘modest’ reliability applicable in early

stages of research and 0.8 as a high reliability. To assess discrimi-

nant validity—i.e., that the constructs analyzed are different—AVE

should be greater than the variance shared between the construct

and other constructs in the model (the squared correlation between

the two constructs). For adequate discriminant validity, the diago-

nal elements should be signiﬁcantly greater than the off-diagonal

elements in the corresponding rows and columns (Barclay et al.,

1995). All of our constructs satisfy this condition.

Fig. 2 shows the variance explained (R2) in the dependent con-

structs and the path coefﬁcients (ˇ) for the model. Following Chin

(1998), bootstrapping was used to generate standard errors and t-

statistics. This allowed us to assess the statistical signiﬁcance of the

path coefﬁcients. The ﬁrst one of the results worth mentioning is the

Fig. 2. Estimated casual relationships in the structural model. *p< 0.05; ***p< 0.001

(based on t(999), one-tailed test).

level of variance explained in the dependent variable (R2= 0.294).

For the total of the variance explained, we observe that the hypoth-

esis presented has become signiﬁcant after its contrast, though the

levels of signiﬁcance of two of them (p< 0.05) is smaller, which

requires a greater deepening in these relations.

It is interesting to observe that those relationships with smaller

signiﬁcation are those that act as mediator in the mode. The medi-

ator effect of the unlearning context was addressed, in the ﬁrst

place, following the established steps: (1) the independent vari-

able signiﬁcantly affects the mediator, (2) the independent variable

signiﬁcantly affects the dependent variable in the absence of the

mediator, (3) the mediator has a signiﬁcant unique effect on the

dependent variable, and (4) the effect of the independent variable

on the dependent variable decreases when adding the mediator

to the model. However, following recent works, we evaluated sta-

tistically using the Solbel test (Bontis, Booker, & Serenko, 2007).

Although several alternatives exist to statistically evaluate the

effect there is convergence with samples including more than 50

registers. The test results showed a reduced moderator effect and

slightly signiﬁcant (z= 1.3227, p< 0.1).

As previously discussed, we have opted to build an index con-

centrating the different types of knowledge. The results divide the

four types of knowledge into two groups, one integrated by the indi-

vidual sources by the owner and the management and the other

combining the knowledge accumulated in the ﬁrm and the one

obtained at the supraorganizational level. This type of knowledge

and more speciﬁcally that obtained from other agents as discussed

by literature (Acedo & Casillas, 2007) are observed as the ones that

provoke a faster acceleration in the SME process of internationali-

sation.

4.3. Some illustrative cases

As aforementioned, in order to complement the quantitative

analysis implemented in the prior section, some interviews were

carried out with the course participants. Despite this it cannot be

considered an orthodox case study, we would like to highlight

three cases that reveal some key insights which helped interpret

our quantitative results. We discuss below the insights revealed in

discussions with three of those companies.

4.3.1. Firm A

One of the ﬁrms interviewed was a company operating in a fast

growing technology industry with sales of over D1M. The interview

was with the CEO and owner of the ﬁrm. The company is a manufac-

turer of an electronic device which scans products subject to quality

control. The scanner detects impaired products at high speed in

order to separate defective products from “zero defect” ones. Its

customers are manufacturers from diverse industry sectors.

In the interview, the CEO explained how export intention was

originally driven by supra-organisational knowledge (a major cus-

tomer). The product supplied was valued by the customers. One

important customer, a much bigger size company, was involved

in a process of international expansion, due to competitive pres-

sures in its home country. As this customer was operating abroad,

it required ﬁrm A to help it in setting up operations abroad. The

failure to internationalise by ﬁrm A could have lead to potential

problems and a signiﬁcant fall in sales for the customer. Hence ﬁrm

A started considering not just helping the customer to globalise but

also to become global itself, as globalisation would carry its own

beneﬁts.

The decision to satisfy the customer in their internationalisa-

tion efforts was crucial, with the owner being personally involved

in obtaining information related to how the internationalisation

of high tech companies operates. To achieve that aim, the owner

decided to enroll on one of the EXTENDA internationalisation pro-

168 J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

grammes. During the course of the programme, the owner realized

that internationalisation could lead to numerous beneﬁts for his

organisation (as mentioned by the CEO, internationalisation could

lead to a reduction in competitive pressures, a growth in less

mature markets and diversiﬁcation into different markets). The

organisation was, therefore, entering into a cycle in which the

intention to internationalise led to knowledge seeking which in

turn led to export intention. Moreover, the CEO also decided to

course—another loop in the intention-knowledge cycle. The CEO

has also hired the services of some export consultants to acquire

knowledge which will help him reduce risk in a potential interna-

tionalisation process.

In this case, the leading factors producing the intention-

knowledge loop seem to be crucial and associated with

entrepreneurial orientation and opportunity recognition. Once a

company starts perceiving there are opportunities in the interna-

tional arena for growth, diversiﬁcation, the organisation increases

the export intention and this drives the organisation to seek new

knowledge which would in turn help conﬁrm the extent of the

international opportunities. Information is dispersed but the organ-

isation seeks knowledge in order to reduce uncertainty (Akerlof,

1970; Dew et al., 2004) through a looped process.

In the short term, the fact that customers are operating abroad

implies that an opportunity to follow exists for ﬁrm A. Before

entering and derived from the fact that an opportunity exists, the

company needs to start re-thinking some of the processes, rou-

tines and systems in place. The fact that the company equipment

can be sold abroad implied that new systems to operate such

equipment would be needed. The company started to re-think its

technology in order to operate it remotely. For such purposes,

the company needed to start re-thinking human capabilities so

that operators with mechanic capabilities gave way to operators

with computer knowledge. The company engaged in a process of

unlearning mechanic capabilities to acquire technological capabili-

ties, as once the new form of service is operating all equipment sold,

located domestically or internationally, will be operated remotely.

Old mechanic capabilities needed to be erased from organisational

memory to give way to improved environmentally adjusted com-

puter capabilities. The stock of knowledge the organisation owned

needed to be modiﬁed by a process of unlearning.

Other areas where the company export intention has prompted

an unlearning process are logistics and communications. Argentina

is one of the countries where their customer is selling quality con-

trol equipment for agricultural purposes. Transportation to some

agricultural regions of Argentina is a challenge and equipment can

be damaged. This is far from the current context in which the artiﬁ-

cial vision company operates, as equipment is transported in Spain,

where modern logistics function throughout the country. The pro-

duction department is unlearning the former packaging system in

order to re-design a packaging system which is capable of trans-

portation where equipment damage is an element to be taken into

account. Old processes and routines need to make room for new

systems. In order to unlearn prior knowledge, the company needs

to be involved in a new search. The company has been in con-

tact with top university research groups at engineering schools to

enable them to start collaborating and building a partnership that

could help them avoid equipment damage.

4.3.2. Firm B

Another one of the ﬁrms that responded to the questionnaire,

was a young company operating in the health sector. The company

produces instant locators for patients with mental health prob-

lems, through mobile phone technology. The company operates

on a national level and only has a website in Spanish. A journalist

of an international technology online journal discovered the com-

pany website and was surprised by the novelty of the product, so

he wrote an article about this superb proprietary technology. Dis-

tributors and manufacturers of technology health companies from

abroad started to contact the local company in order to ﬁnd out

about distributing the proprietary technology. The local company

realised that its technology was innovative but did not know that

there could be a global market for the product. In this case, potential

customers triggered the export intentions of the company. Again,

knowledge was generated supra-organisationally.

As a local company it was not looking to expand its market but

decided to start thinking about the idea of exporting. Given that the

company’s intellectual property was only protected in the Euro-

pean Union, the company thought about seeking information on

patent protection in those countries showing interest where its

technology was not protected. Export intention derived initially

from supra-organisational knowledge which drove the knowledge

search and exploration. At some point, the company contacted

EXTENDA which informed them of the course. The company was

mainly interested in ﬁnding information on—out of the many dis-

tributors from different countries which contacted them—which

country was more optimal to internationalisation. The employee

attending the course started seeking information on country size,

per capita income, which would help them to take a decision on

whether to export or not and which country to target. The greater

knowledge the company sought on Scandinavian countries, the

higher the intention to export was. These countries had large pub-

lic health budgets which could be drawn upon by the company.

Knowledge leads to export intention, which itself leads to the

search and exploration of new knowledge. Iterations of the cycle

reinforced export intention and the stock of knowledge the com-

pany owned.

Finally, the company needed to start an unlearning process. The

company had a series of systems to test models domestically only.

The product was tested technically and design-wise. The company

was aware that if the company were to internationalise, products

would need to be adapted to global markets. The company started

to research whether the technology developed was compatible

with international mobile phone systems operating abroad. Testing

technology for use abroad was a different process and set of skills

from local testing, as it involved dealing with international oper-

ators rather than local ones. The engineering department had to

unlearn local mobile system technology in order to acquire knowl-

edge of the different mobile technology systems in other countries.

The company also had to unlearn the process of testing the

design locally to be replaced by knowledge of how to test prod-

ucts internationally. To ﬁnd out whether the product was really

appealing to an international customer base, the company tested

the product design through an online questionnaire which global

communities responded to. Local testing was unlearned (group

dynamics, one-on-one concept testing). Search engine knowledge

had to be unwinded in order to ﬁnd out whether the opportunity

was in place by developing international search engine capabilities

(access search engines with international reach, engine key words

appealing to different geographic markets). Unlearning in order to

gain new skills became a must for the company.

4.3.3. Firm C

The sole owner of a D9M turnover cosmetics company is also

one of the alumni of the EXTENDA course. As part of our qualitative

analysis he was interviewed, conﬁrming some insights highlighted

by our quantitative research. The cosmetics company manufactures

two lines of products: perfumes and cosmetics. The intention to

internationalise arose from the owner’s personal knowledge. The

company margins were rather low and he decided to raise them

by growing sales; an increase in sales would distribute ﬁxed costs

among a larger sales base. Domestic markets were saturated and

J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173 169

the only form of growth with the existing line of products was to

initiate an internationalisation process.

The company did not have sufﬁcient product information on

what would be successful foreign markets. The company initiated

commercial contacts with Morocco to identify opportunities, due to

the country’s geographic proximity to Spain. Contacts with poten-

tial Moroccan sales representatives conﬁrmed there could be a

market as competition in the country was very limited in both prod-

uct lines. After some discussions, contacts also conﬁrmed that the

product line to sell in Morocco was perfume; sales of cosmetics

would be low in the country as women’s use of cosmetics was

limited due to the veil wearing tradition. As the new pieces of

knowledge were gathered, the opportunity became clearer, and the

export intention of the company, represented by the owner, grew.

As the opportunity emerged, the resources and capabilities of

the organisation changed. The company opted for a sales depart-

ment model under which sales representatives would be locals

with foreign language skills. The sales department instigated a pro-

cess of unlearning as the structure and new skills required were

more oriented towards a multi-language and multi-cultural depart-

ment. The process accelerated when the crisis bit and the company

intention to export increased in order to compensate for the domes-

tic sales slump by increasing sales abroad. As new markets were

being opened (Bulgaria and Peru), one employee identiﬁed how the

company could cut costs by shifting perfume and cosmetics produc-

tion to Morocco. The company entered a new process of unlearning

old systems and routines and re-learning in areas such as interna-

tional supply chain, logistics in foreign countries, taxation (foreign

taxes and custom levies), communications, etc.

5. Discussion

The model proposed integrates the arguments proposed from

the international business literature, according to which the pro-

cess of internationalisation can be described as a process of learning

(Andersen, 1993; Johanson & Vahlne, 1990), analogous to the pro-

cesses of innovation (Knight & Cavusgil, 2004; Reid, 1981), and the

proposals of the organizational learning literature which defend

that the acquisition and integration of new knowledge previously

requires a unlearning context of routines and obsolete knowledge

(Hedberg, 1981; Starbuck, 1996). Following both lines of research,

we propose a model that relates, through a series of interme-

diate variables, different sources of international knowledge—at

an individual, organisational and supra-organisational level—with

the search and exploration of new knowledge related to the

overseas markets. These intermediate variables are the intention

to export, as a behavioural variable and the context of learn-

ing. This model is speciﬁed in four hypotheses. The ﬁrst one

suggests a positive relationship between the three sources of ini-

tial knowledge—individual, organizational and network—and the

intention to export; the second hypothesis relates the intention to

initiate the export process with the need to explore and to seek

new knowledge; the third hypothesis refers to the intention in

the unlearning context; the fourth and last hypothesis relates this

unlearning context with the exploration of new knowledge.

In relation to the ﬁrst hypothesis—the relationship between

sources of knowledge and export intention—the results are signif-

icant with a sufﬁciently high ˇcoefﬁcient. These results conﬁrm

the ﬁrst hypothesis, reinforcing the idea that the possession of

knowledge is positively related to the favourable attitude to initi-

ate a process of internationalisation through exports. Nevertheless,

we are not only interested in knowing this global relationship

but we are also interested in knowing the relative inﬂuence of

each one of the different sources of knowledge on the export

intention—individual, organisational and supra-organisational. For

such purposes, the weights of each one of the constructs can be

observed. Thus, it is observed that it is the experiential knowl-

edge of the business and knowledge originated in the experiences

of other businesses—network knowledge—the ones that exercise a

stronger inﬂuence on the intention to export. These results show

that the collective knowledge has a more intense inﬂuence than the

individual knowledge in motivating attitudes towards the start of

the process of internationalisation as suggested by the investigators

linked to the international entrepreneurship perspective (Coviello,

2006). The qualitative information gathered conﬁrms the idea that

knowledge mainly originates from supra-organisational sources.

Collective knowledge seems to be more important in an interna-

tional context, where the individual search for information is more

difﬁcult.

The second hypothesis relates the intention to initiate the

exporting activity and the need to seek and to explore new knowl-

edge in order to prompt the process of international learning. Again,

the results permit to conﬁrm Hypothesis 2, given that such a rela-

tionship has proved signiﬁcant in the proposed sense (ˇ= 0.4631;

p< 0.001). The results seem to conﬁrm that the process of inter-

nationalisation, at least in its initial phases, is developed through

a process of learning so that the knowledge base promotes a

favourable attitude towards international expansion and that this

attitude promotes the search of new knowledge, a process that is

repeated in an iterative mode (Knight & Liesch, 2002). Cases have

helped highlight reasons why this happens. In the ﬁrst place, as

companies spot potential new opportunities in the international

arena, export intention is reinforced. Knowledge of the opportunity

is initially scant. Organisation improves the knowledge search pro-

cess and enables the discovery of further information motivated by

the existence of an opportunity. Later, as the opportunity continues

to be conﬁrmed, the organisation needs to search for information to

further reduce uncertainty that will be created by the potential new

opportunity. As the opportunity becomes clearer, operating abroad

implies a new environment which is totally unknown. New knowl-

edge needs to be acquired in order to determine how uncertainty,

derived from operations abroad, can be reduced.

Hypothesis three proposes a positive relation between the

export intention and the need to create a unlearning context. The

results support this hypothesis, although with a more reduced level

of signiﬁcance. Nevertheless, the ˇcoefﬁcient, somewhat smaller

than in the previous case, continues to be sufﬁcient to maintain

the conﬁrmation of this hypothesis (ˇ= 0.2403; p< 0.05). As a con-

tinuation of the previous argument, the fourth and last hypothesis

refers to the context of learning and the search for new knowledge.

Again, the results are similar to those obtained in Hypothesis 3. The

relation is shown to be signiﬁcant and in the sense proposed in the

hypothesis. Nevertheless, both, the level obtained by the ˇcoefﬁ-

cient, and the degree of signiﬁcance (ˇ= 0.2081; p< 0.05) are not as

high as that obtained by the direct relationship between intention

and exploration, proposed in Hypothesis 2.

Qualitative information helps us understand conﬁrmation of

Hypotheses 3 and 4. Export intention leads to a search for new

knowledge as the stock of capabilities required by such an inten-

tion is different. Executives realize environmental conditions in

other countries are different and are driven to build a new set of

capabilities upon internationalisation. Very often the capabilities

developed when the company operates domestically are incom-

patible with the capabilities needed when the company has the

intention to operate internationally. A new breed of capabilities

needs to be developed. Such a process of capability modiﬁcation

has to be built around unlearning processes.

In summary, the results allow us to conﬁrm the four proposed

hypothesis although differences are observed in the ˇcoefﬁcients

and in the levels of signiﬁcation, mainly in relation to the interme-

diate role of unlearning context between the intention to export

and the search for new knowledge.

170 J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

6. Conclusion

During the last decades, the dominant theoretical perspectives

of the process of internationalisation of the business have under-

lined the importance of learning as an explanatory factor of such

process (Andersen, 1993; Benito et al., 1993; Eriksson et al., 1997;

Johanson & Vahlne, 1990; Walters, 1996), hence the own process

of internationalisation is described as the result of the adoption

of an innovative behaviour (Bilkey & Tesar, 1977; Cavusgil, 1980).

However, there are few empirical works that analyze how such a

process of learning develops in relation to the internationalisation

decisions. The present work aims to add some knowledge to this

subject, proposing 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 knowl-

edge related to the start of the exporting activity. Despite of being

a preliminary study, by 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 unlearning context.

The empirical work has been developed from a sample of 103

SMEs in the pre-exporting phase. All these businesses are found

to be interested in acquiring knowledge to initiate a process of

internationalisation but none of them can be considered a reg-

ular exporting company. This homogeneity in the sample, with

respect to the stage in the process of internationalisation, allows

them to deepen the characteristics of the learning that they are

developing.

The results obtained support several of the arguments proposed,

in the theoretical environment, from the process of international-

isation literature and from the organisational learning literature

and that, to date, has barely been tested empirically. In general, the

results obtained support the conception of the process of inter-

nationalisation as a process of learning (Sharma & Blomstermo,

2003; Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) under which a prior

base of knowledge is combined with periods of unlearning and

a search for new knowledge. Likewise, the predominant role

of the organisational (Eriksson et al., 1997, 2000) and supra-

organisational learning (Etemad & Lee, 2003; Johanson & Vahlne,

2006) is observed, originating in the participation in networks and

in the experiences of other businesses, as determinants of the gen-

eration of an attitude prone to export, set against the role of the

knowledge originating from the individual, either owner, founder

of member of a TMT. Finally, it is observed that the relationship

between the favourable attitude to export and the new decision

to explore knowledge related to such a decision is not always

obstructed through in an unlearning context, but that, to a certain

degree, it is developed directly.

Nevertheless, the work presents certain limitations, among

which we emphasize the following ones. In the ﬁrst place, the

research has been conducted from a medium size sample. Also

those businesses belong to the same geographical area. These both

can constitute an obstacle to the generalization of the results to

other different settings in the economic and cultural environment.

In the second place, we have developed a transversal empirical

research. In this sense, we agree with those authors that defend

the need to explicitly incorporate the time of the moment in order

to understand dynamic phenomena as the learning process (De

Holan & Phillips, 2004). The use of qualitative information helps

us to depict the reality faced by the ﬁrms, but further and more

in depth qualitative analysis should be carried out. Finally, we are

aware that the model proposed can be completed with new vari-

ables, relations and processes that we tried to avoid for reasons

of carefulness in the research. Nevertheless, a good part of these

limitations opens the doors to new works and lines of investiga-

tion. The incorporation of the time by means of longitudinal models

or the incorporation of new dimensions, related to the behaviour

or the results, are some of them. Likewise, it would be interest-

ing to deepen our understanding of certain relationships related

to the absorption capacity of new knowledge, to know the deter-

minants and effects of the unlearning context on the behaviour in

general and the international results to a better degree, as well as

to apply the model in other more advanced stages of the process

of internationalisation (agreements of international cooperation,

direct investments abroad, etc.). We believe that the present inves-

tigation opens up new ways to advance in the knowledge on

both the process of internationalisation of the business and the

processes of learning, unlearning context and relearning in the

organisations.

Appendix I. Questionnaire

Knowledge

Owner:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to the proprietary/shareholders of your busi-

ness before such was founded (1: totally disagree; 7: totally agree)

Ca1 They worked for a multinational

Ca2 They worked for an export company

Ca3 They worked abroad

Ca4 They worked for companies with large international

network

Ca5 They studied abroad

Ca6 They participated in international cooperation networks

Ca7 They travelled extensively abroad

Ca8 They had great language skills

Top management team:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to managers/executives the company you

work for before such was founded (1: totally disagree; 7: totally

agree)

cb1 they worked for a multinational

cb2 they worked for an export company

cb3 they worked abroad

cb4 they worked for companies with large international network

cb5 they studied abroad

cb6 they participated in international cooperation networks

cb7 they travelled extensively abroad

cb8 they had great language skills

Firm experience:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to the experience on international activities of

the company you work for (1: totally disagree; 7: totally agree)

Cc1 The company has a large international experience

Cc2 The company is regularly involved in export activities

Cc3 The company regularly attends international commercial

fairs and missions

Cc4 Products and services offered by the company are accepted

by customers abroad

Cc5 The company has a large experience in searching for

partners abroad

Cc6 The company has a large experience in negotiating abroad

Cc7 The company has a large experience in international

contract activities

Cc8 The company has available some employees/team in order

to travel and contact customers and partners abroad

Cc9 Management continuously reﬂects on possibilities to

expand the business internationally

Cc10 Management continuously discusses possibilities to

expand the business internationally

Cc11 Most of the customers in my company are foreign

Cc12 Most of the suppliers in my company are foreign

Cc13 Most of the competitors in my company are foreign

J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173 171

Experiences of other ﬁrms:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to the experience of other companies on inter-

national activities (1: totally disagree; 7: totally agree)

Cd1 The company knows a large number of similar competitors

which have started a process of international expansion

Cd2 The company knows a large number of similar companies

operating in the domestic market which have initiated a

process of international expansion

Cd3 Management follows similar companies which are

growing internationally

Cd4 Management has frequent contact with managers/owners

of other local companies which are setting up international

operations

Cd5 The company often attends fairs with companies operating

internationally

Cd6 The company has often contact with international

customers/suppliers

Export intention:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to your intention to export:

EI1 Have a great interest in export activities (1: No interest; 7

maximum interest)

EI2 Probability you will be involved in export activities (1

Highly unlikely; 7 Very likely)

EI3 How long will it take for you to be involved in export

activities (1 Unlikely; 7 will take place during the next 6

months)

EI4 The probability that the search for new opportunities will

involve export activities (1 not interested; 7 very

interested)

Unlearning context:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to the company you work for:

Ec1 The company is ready to change the way it operates

Ec2 New forms of facing problems are taken into account

Ec3 Employees wish to work with one another to solve common problems

Ec4 Employees are willing to assume risks

Knowledge search:

Please indicate to what extent are the following afﬁrmations

correct with respect to the company you work for:

Ce1 The company is constantly aware of the opportunities that

international markets offer

Ce2 The company has persons and means available for the

search of opportunities abroad

Ce3 The company has systems to gather information and deal

with it on foreign markets

Ce4 The company actively searches for all kinds of information

on possible opportunities abroad

Ce5 The company continuously searches for information on

speciﬁc countries

Ce6 The company continuously searches for information on

potential customers/distributors in some countries

Ce7 The company continuously searches for information on

potential partners in some countries

Ce8 The company frequently contacts public agencies for

export activities (EXTENDA, ICEX, ...) to request

information on markets abroad

Ce9 The company continuously reﬂects on the results of the

activities abroad

Appendix II. Construct reliability

Construct/dimension/indicator Weight Initial loading Final loading Composite reliability (CR) Average variance extracted (AVE)

Knowledge (formative) 2nd order n.a. n.a.

Owner −0.143

Ca1 0.651 –

Ca2 0.698 0.669

Ca3 0.849 0.848

Ca4 0.840 0.821

Ca5 0.703 0.729

Ca6 0.785 0.802

Ca7 0.814 0.839

Ca8 0.817 0.842

TMT (reﬂective) −0.578

Cb1 0.710 0.702

Cb2 0.720 0.713

Cb3 0.812 0.814

Cb4 0.826 0.822

Cb5 0.809 0.814

Cb6 0.784 0.785

Cb7 0.824 0.828

Cb8 0.826 0.831

Experience (reﬂective) 0.565

Cc1 0.836 0.834

Cc2 0.804 0.813

Cc3 0.807 0.820

Cc4 0.830 0.840

Cc5 0.803 0.812

Cc6 0.849 0.853

Cc7 0.856 0.862

Cc8 0.829 0.840

Cc9 0.740 0.742

Cc10 0.706 0.708

Cc11 0.735 0.725

Cc12 0.473 –

Cc13 0.607 –

Other ﬁrms (reﬂective) 1.019

Cd1 0.831 0.831

Cd2 0.799 0.798

Cd3 0.830 0.830

Cd4 0.866 0.866

Cd5 0.782 0.782

Cd6 0.788 0.788

172 J.C. Casillas et al. / International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 162–173

Appendix II (Continued )

Construct/dimension/indicator Weight Initial loading Final loading Composite reliability (CR) Average variance extracted (AVE)

Intention (reﬂective) 0.904 0.758

I1 0.858 0.867

I2 0.886 0.880

I3 0.163 -

I4 0.862 0.864

Unlearning (reﬂective) 0.878 0.649

U1 0.911 0.914

U2 0.918 0.919

U3 0.734 0.726

U4 0.626 0.623

Knowledge search (reﬂective) 0.967 0.763

Ce1 0.833 0.807

Ce2 0.888 0.881

Ce3 0.844 0.851

Ce4 0.929 0.925

Ce5 0.926 0.936

Ce6 0.898 0.908

Ce7 0.867 0.863

Ce8 0.773 0.803

Ce9 0.862 0.876

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Jose C. Casillas is Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Mar-

keting, University of Seville (Spain). His research interests are internationalization,

family business and estreprenurship. He is Director of Santander Family Business

Chair of University of Seville.

Francisco J. Acedo is Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Organi-

zational Behavior at the University of Seville (Department of Management and

Marketing) and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Internationalisation and

Enterprise Research (University of Glasgow, UK). His current research focuses on

international entrepreneurship, internationalization process and small ﬁrm inter-

nationalization.

Jose L. Barbero is a Assistant Professor at EOI Business School and at Pablo de Ola-

vide University, Seville (Spain). He holds a degree in law and masters in Business

Administration (ESADE) and ﬁnance (London Business School). He has received a Ful-

bright scholarship to study at Harvard Law School. Dr. Barbero is the author of two

books and has served as a Visiting Scholar and Researcher at New York University

(NYU).

Acknowledgment : This research was supported by the Ministerio de

Ciencia e Innovación (Ministry of Science and Innovation), Spain (grant

no. ECO2009-12742).

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Product innovation integrates technology, knowledge, management practices, and market innovation, making it essential to gain a competitive advantage. Effective management of dynamic knowledge, which is the foundation of and driving force for product innovation, is a powerful tool that allows a firm to successfully innovate, adapt to environmental changes, and improve its competitiveness. In the “nanosecond age,” unlearning and learning in an organization is crucial to a firm’s ability to promptly update its organizational knowledge and maintain innovation vitality. Based on the dynamic knowledge management perspective, this study integrates and constructs a theoretical model with environmental dynamism as the moderating variable, discusses the impact of organizational unlearning on product innovation performance, and empirically analyzes 208 valid questionnaires in the Yangtze River Delta using the multiple regression method. The results show that organizational unlearning shares a positive relationship with dynamic capabilities and product innovation performance. Dynamic capability is positively related to product innovation performance and has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. Environmental dynamism shares a positive moderating effect on the relationship between organizational unlearning and product innovation performance. This study deepens the existing research on the factors that influence product innovation performance, which may help firms improve their dynamic knowledge management and product innovation performance.

Doubting leadership: principals shaping a school doubting process within a national curriculum reform

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

Success of curriculum reforms calls for both collaborative learning and unlearning processes. Focusing on the latter, school doubting process, an innovative term, is used in this paper as an active framework for organisational unlearning through which educators question their existing mind-sets and unfreeze old approaches to teaching and learning. This qualitative study explores how high school principals shape a school doubting process during the implementation of a national curriculum reform. The study analyses qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 22 Israeli high school principals who have implemented a national curriculum reform from all school districts. The findings indicate two major themes and sub-themes: (1) Nurturing a collective unlearning culture: (a) restructuring school thinking; and (b) creating safe time and space for school doubting; (2) Building school capacity: (a) creating collective opportunities for knowledge and skill development; and (b) encouraging shared responsibility for innovation.

The Effect of Cross-border Acquisition Experience on Subsequent Cross-border Acquisitions: A Test of the S-shape Hypothesis

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Mar 2024
J INT MANAG

The literature generally supports the linear effect of cross-border acquisition (CBA) experience on subsequent CBA behaviour. We draw from the extended organisational learning perspective to propose an S-shaped relationship between CBA experience and subsequent CBAs. We hypothesise that the number of CBAs decreases at a low level of CBA experience, increases at a moderate level of CBA experience, and decreases again at a high level of CBA experience. Based on a sample of 1675 observations from 205 Indian MNEs, we find support for our hypothesis. Our findings contribute to the CBA literature, specifically in the context of emerging economy multinational enterprises.

DO ORGANISATIONS REFLECT THEIR UPPER ECHELONS WHILE RESPONDING TO DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION?

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023
Int J Innovat Manag

Purpose Utilising the upper echelon theory (UET), the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of dynamic managerial capabilities (i.e., managerial human capital, managerial social capital (MSC), and managerial cognition (MC)) on organisations’ response strategies to disruptive innovation, under the mediating role of unlearning. Design/methodology/approach Following a deductive approach, quantitative methodology and survey strategy, data was collected through an online questionnaire from (491) managers and top executives of PSF operating in Dubai-UAE and analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling. Findings The findings revealed that dynamic managerial capabilities played mixed role in predicting firms’ response strategies to disruptive innovation. MSC and MC played a significant role with unlearning as a partial mediator, while managerial human capital did not. Practical implications The findings are important to managers, practitioners, and policymakers, shedding light on which dynamic managerial capabilities is of significance if creative economy is being pursued through adaptive response strategies to disruptive innovation.

The Partial Least Squares Approach to Structural Equation Modeling

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1998

Provides a nontechnical introduction to the partial least squares (PLS) approach. As a logical base for comparison, the PLS approach for structural path estimation is contrasted to the covariance-based approach. In so doing, a set of considerations are then provided with the goal of helping the reader understand the conditions under which it might be reasonable or even more appropriate to employ this technique. This chapter builds up from various simple 2 latent variable models to a more complex one. The formal PLS model is provided along with a discussion of the properties of its estimates. An empirical example is provided as a basis for highlighting the various analytic considerations when using PLS and the set of tests that one can employ is assessing the validity of a PLS-based model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The Location of Foreign Direct Investment Activity: Country Characteristics and Experience Effects

Article

Jun 1980

William H. Davidson

This article reviews the role of host country characteristics as determinants of foreign direct investment location patterns. It then analyzes the effects of corporate experience on location decisions. Prior experience in a host country is found to increase the firm's priority for projects in that country relative to other investment options. In addition, the experience level of the firm influences the relative importance of different country characteristics in determining location patterns. Inexperienced firms exhibit greater preference for near, similar markets than firms with broader international operating experience.

Managerial Representations of Competitive Advantage

Article

Apr 1994
J MARKETING

Managers use mental models of markets to simplify and impose order on complex and ambiguous competitive environments and isolate points of competitive advantage or deficiency. In this study of senior managers of 190 businesses, the authors found four different types of mental models or representations of competitive advantage, varying in the emphasis placed on customer or management judgments about where and how competitors differ. These representations were influenced equally by pressure points in the environment and choice of strategy. The type of representation was also strongly associated with constrained patterns of information search and usage, raising the possibility that the necessary simplifications and narrowing of perspective may come at the cost of myopia and insensitivity to challenges from unexpected directions. There was also a strong association between the completeness of the managerial representation and relative financial performance, which supports related studies on the profitability of a market orientation.

Market Information Processing and Organizational Learning

Article

Jan 1994
J MARKETING

James M. Sinkula

Our understanding of how organizations process market information can be advanced substantially on the basis of principles derived from models of organizational learning. Accordingly, the author examines the extant literature on organizational learning, proposes a hierarchy of market sense making, and provides research propositions that will enhance marketers’ understanding of information processing and knowledge creation in organizations.

International Expansion Through Start-Up or Acquisition: A Learning Perspective

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Feb 1998

International Entrepreneurship: The Current Status of the Field and Future Research Agenda

Chapter

Aug 2017

With the globalization of the world economy, interest in international entrepreneurship has increased rapidly over the past decade. One of the most important features of today's global economy is the growing role of young entrepreneurial new ventures. Through the 1990s, researchers' attention has centered on exploring the motivations for, the pattern of, and the pace of internationalization by new ventures (i.e., firms eight years old or younger). Invoking multiple theoretical perspectives, some researchers suggest that new ventures frequently become active players in the global economy soon after the birth of these firms. More recently, however, researchers have focused on examining the entrepreneurial activities of established companies (i.e., firms older than eight years), aiming to uncover the key patterns of innovative activities associated with successful internationalization. By doing so, researchers have sought to explain how international entrepreneurship may lead to superior financial performance among established firms.

Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies

Article

Feb 1999
STRATEGIC MANAGE J

John Hulland

Advances in causal modeling techniques have made it possible for researchers to simultaneously examine theory and measures. However, researchers must use these new techniques appropriately. In addition to dealing with the methodological concerns associated with more traditional methods of analysis, researchers using causal modeling approaches must understand their underlying assumptions and limitations.

Organizational learning: The contributing processes and literatures

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Jan 1996

Psychometric Theory

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Jan 1994

A comparative analysis of two structural equation models: LISREL and PLS applied to market data

Article

Jan 1982

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

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