The internationalization Process of Online Service Providers – Geographical Perspectives on the Emerging Online Economy
Abstract
This study is a compilation thesis consisting of an introduction and five separate
articles. It explores the process of internationalization for Online Services Providers
(OSPs) and its effect on the economic geography in terms of production and users of
online services. OSPs are firms that provide services through the Internet. This type
of firm is becoming increasingly important in the economy, and is claimed to be one
of the building blocks of an emerging online economy. The aim of this thesis is to
contribute to the theory of how OSPs internationalize and to extend the knowledge of
the places where online services are produced and used.
The thesis emphasizes the importance of the balance between a firm’s offline
commitments vis-à-vis its online commitments in the internationalization process. It
has been argued that the variances in the way OSPs internationalize are an effect of
their “onlineness”. Onlineness is defined as the dependence on offline resources for
the OSPs’ service and business model. An OSP with a high degree of onlineness
could enjoy a rapid and geographically vast internationalization process, referred to as
‘online spatial overreach’ in the thesis. Although such a pattern could have positive
effects in terms of reduced time to market, it could also backfire, leaving the OSP in a
situation without any real contact with the international market.
The findings show that OSPs internationalize through controlled modes of entry, but
are sometimes combined with viral marketing and codevelopment. In general, OSPs
internationalize faster in comparison to traditional export firms. The OSPs from
Sweden and Morocco studied in the thesis primarily expand regionally. For OSPs
originating from the Global North, this means that existing geographical trade routes
are reinforced, but for OSPs in the Global South the regional internationalization
pattern could strengthen the heretofore underdeveloped intra-regional trade, for
example in Africa.
From a geographical perspective, the main conclusion is that the internationalization
of OSPs contributes to the heterogeneity of the online economy, mainly due to
underpinning economic inequalities. OSPs are dependent on offline resources, which
in turn are anchored in geographically bound and sticky networks. This heterogeneity
is manifested by a maintained, or even increasing, digital divide, which can be seen as
a contingency of economic inequality. In the close future, unless radical changes are
made in Internet policy, we can expect further online gaps to emerge on the usage
side (online usage gap), on the production side (online entrepreneurship gap), and also
in terms of internationalization (online internationalization gap) between the Global
North and the Global South.
Parts of work
R. Wentrup, The online–offline balance – internationalization for Swedish Online Service Providers, Journal of International Entrepreneurship 2016, doi:10.1007/s10843-016-0171-2 R. Wentrup and P. Ström, Going viral across borders – the case of a Swedish Online Service Provider (manuscript not yet published) R. Wentrup, P. Ström H. R. Nakamura, Digital oases and digital deserts in Sub-Saharan Africa, Journal of Science & Technology Policy Management, Vol.7 No. 1, pp. 77-100, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTPM-03-2015-0013 R. Wentrup, H. R. Nakamura, P. Ström, Online services – an equalizing force between the Global South and the Global North?, Book chapter published 2016 in Globalisation and Services- Driven Economic Growth Perspectives from the Global North and South, ed. by Niels Beerepoot, Bart Lambregts, Jana M Kleibert, Robert Kloosterman, doi: 10.4324/9781315585055 R. Wentrup, P. Ström, H. R. Nakamura
Title: Online entrepreneurship in the Global South – the case of Morocco (manuscript not yet published)
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
University
Göteborgs universitet. Handelshögskolan
Institution
Department of Business Administration ; Företagsekonomiska institutionen
Disputation
Torsdagen den 12 januari, kl. 13.00 i CG-salen, Vasagatan 1
Date of defence
2017-01-12
robert.wentrup@handels.gu.se
Date
2016-12-08Author
Wentrup, Robert
Keywords
internationalization
internet
Online Service Providers
online economy
Global South
Global North
Publication type
Doctoral thesis
ISBN
978-91-629-0040-3
Language
eng