Internationalisation at Home: Exploiting the Potential of the Non-nationals' and Expatriates' Community

Abstract

Objective: The paper explores the first-time internationalisation strategy and discusses whether firms could actually begin internationalisation at home without crossing the border by approaching the international expatriates’ community in the home city/market. Research Design & Methods: The concept of internationalisation at home is studied through the case study method. An example of a public company from the creative industry in the capital city from the Central and Eastern European region is studied. Findings: The expatriates’ community, so far often neglected market segment, has a rising potential in several European cites. The results highlight a positive impact on performance after approaching the expatriates’ community. Organisational learning effects result in improved and stabilised sales and strengthened firm-specific advantages. Implications & Recommendations: Internationalisation at home is disruptive innovation, especially appropriate for enterprises under high resource constraints. It is fast, cost efficient and has positive externalities. The international expatriates’ community in the home city/market offers fast organisational learning and a testing area for enterprises. Contribution & Value Added: Internationalisation at home adds to the existing understanding of internationalisation. The findings that firms could begin the organisational learning process of internationalisation before or even without the first foreign entry and proposals for the integrating expatriates’ community into the marketing strategy may influence future internationalisation paths.

Keywords

• internationalisation at home
• international strategy
• expatriates' community
• market segmentation
• cross-national consumer