On the performance of platform-based international new ventures : The roles of non-market strategies and managerial competencies

The implications of non-market strategies have gained considerable attention in recent international business and strategy research. However, an in-depth understanding of these strategies and their underpinning mechanisms in platform-based international new ventures (INVs) remains underexplored. To close this gap, this study investigates the drivers and performance outcomes of non-market strategies embraced by internationalizing platform-based firms. We propose that non-market strategies mediate the relationship between managerial competencies and international performance. We also theorize that perceived domestic institutional voids (PDIVs) would have a full strengthening effect on the proposed model. We tested our conceptualization using a unique sample comprising 181 platform-based INVs whose headquarters are based in an institutionally precarious sub-Saharan African country-Ghana. While the results confirm most of our predictions, counterintuitively, our analysis provides no support for the moderating effect of PDIVs on the relationship between non-market strategies and international performance. Together, these findings offer important theoretical and practical implications for the IB and strategy research, especially for platform-based INVs.