Going global – iBusiness firms from India

The dynamic world we live in requires that traditional international business (IB) theories be revisited to obtain insights into the internationalization of emerging market ibusiness firms (EMIFs). Although scholars widely agree that ibusiness firms’ internationalization process is distinct from traditional brick and mortar firms, yet research on ibusiness firms from emerging markets is rare. Further, it is unclear how EMIFs internationalize and become dominant global players within a short period despite being late arrivals in the market and having fewer resources. Drawing on insights from the linkage, leverage, and learning (LLL) framework, we adopt a multiple case study–based approach whereby we conducted multiple in-depth interviews with 14 Indian ibusiness firms. This study contributes to the extant literature on ibusiness internationalization by developing a framework for advancing our understanding of the internationalization process for EMIFs. Moreover, we contribute to the LLL framework by extending it to the ibusiness firms and providing insights to all the three dimensions of linkage, leverage, and learning.