Digital platform attention and international sales: An attention-based view

Digital platforms, which play increasingly important roles in today’s digitally connected world, are technologically complex and financially costly undertakings. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) devote substantial efforts to deploying and maintaining digital platforms. In this study, we examine the overall time and effort spent by MNEs to develop and operate digital platforms, which we call digital platform attention (DPA). Building on the attention-based view, this study explores the impacts of three distinct dimensions of DPA: intensity, persistence, and scope. Our results suggest that MNEs with more intensive and persistent DPA are more effective in reaching global customers and achieving better international sales, whereas MNEs with a more diversified (i.e., scattered) DPA scope suffer from constrained international sales. The positive impact of DPA intensity and the negative effect of DPA scope on international sales are both weakened when MNEs have geographically remote subsidiaries. Through this research, we enrich the attention-based view literature by not only examining different dimensions of attention but also investigating the interactions between different attention allocation directions. Our research adds novel insights and findings on the role of digital platforms in international business.