Reappraising International Business in a Digital Arena: Barriers, Strategies, and Context for Digital Internationalization

Born-digital firms face a new set of internationalization challenges. Despite their digital innovations being globally available, born-digital firms still need to satisfy diverse user preferences across countries and stand out against stiff competition to internationalize their digital innovations. Born-digital firms may overcome these challenges by strategically leveraging their users. In particular, acquiring users in certain lead markets can enable born-digital firms to spread global word-of-mouth or upgrade their digital innovations to appeal to users in multiple countries. Hence, born-digital firms should first expand to lead countries that could serve as springboards for global diffusion of their digital innovations.