| dc.description.abstract | The determinants of international success have always been an issue of importance in
international business research. Firm level analysis enhances the understanding of
how firms compete in the international market place and what factors influence their
relative success. Given the liability of foreignness and the risks and costs associated
with doing business in foreign countries, researchers and practitioners have sought to
establish how best to successfully utilise and deploy resources and capabilities,
thereby contributing to success in international markets and enhancing firm
international performance. Building on existing theoretical frameworks and literature,
this research offers a firm level analysis of international performance antecedents for
developing economy firms. This study draws on a multidisciplinary integrated
Kenyan firm international performance framework that extends internationalisation
theory, the resource based view and institutional theory and aspects of their relevant
extensions in order to investigate the effect of firm level factors on international
performance. Specifically, the research focused on the effect of institutional capital,
management characteristics, organisational demographics, firm capabilities,
internationalisation orientation and degree of internationalisation on firm international
performance. The firm capabilities studied were organisational innovation intensity,
knowledge capability and adaptive capability. This research adopted a quantitative
approach based on a cross-sectional study of publicly quoted companies in Kenya. A
semi structured questionnaire was administered for data collection. Structural
equation modelling - Partial Least Squares analysis was used to analyse the survey
responses and to test the hypotheses. The structural model showed good fit and
possessed good reliability and convergent and discriminant validity and the results
supported to a great extent the developed and predicted model. The analysis revealed
that institutional capital, management characteristics, firm size, organisational
innovation intensity and internationalisation orientation were significant predictors of
firm international performance. The results indicated that institutional capital and
management characteristics have a positive and significant effect on firm capabilities.
Additionally, it was also found that the level of firm capabilities influences the effect
of institutional capital on international performance. The level of international
expansion, measured as the degree of internationalisation was found to influence the
effect of firm capabilities on the international performance of a firm as relates to
organisational innovation intensity but not for knowledge and adaptive capability. The
results also indicate that the internationalisation orientation of a firm moderates the
effect of organisation innovation intensity on international performance and the effect
of knowledge capability on degree of internationalisation of a firm. These research
findings provide information to developing market firms operating in the international
market place, and offers insights to management and policy makers by answering the
question, "What are the relative effects of firm level factors on the international
performance of publicly quoted companies in Kenya?" The outcomes of the study
contributes new perspectives to the existing body of developing economy
international business literature and suggests directions for future research, while
offering implications for academia, management and policy makers. | en |
