Internationalization Strategy and the Home-Regionalization Hypothesis: The Case of Australian Multinational Enterprises

Abstract

In this study, we set out to, first, replicate the classification of multinational enterprise (MNE) types proposed by Rugman and Verbeke in the Australian context. Second, we explore how a firm’s international experience influences the degree of its home regionalization and how industry affects the international experience–home regionalization relationship. We find that while home regionalization is still a dominant regionalization strategy for Australian MNEs, the proportions are different from those of Rugman and Verbeke. In particular, the share of home-regional firms is less pronounced and the share of host-regional firms is higher than Rugman and Verbeke’s findings. We also find that a firm’s international experience is negatively related to home regionalization, and that this relationship is further moderated by the firm’s industry. Our findings suggest that more attention be devoted to uncovering both home-country effects and the differential impact of international experience on home regionalization across industries.

Keywords: Home-country effect, home regionalization, host regionalization, industry, international experience, regionalization strategyL25