The Role of Knowledge Acquisition in Internationalization: A dual case study of Swedish digital SMEs

Sammanfattning: This paper investigates the role of knowledge acquisition in the internationalization of digital small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). An organizational learning perspective is adopted by examining how each of Huber’s (1991) five knowledge acquisition types are used in firm internationalization. An extensive overview of literature on the topic is provided, and additional insight is provided through case studies of two Swedish digital SMEs. Findings indicate that while the case firms did not internationalize immediately upon founding, reliance on a wide range of knowledge sources has enabled them to expand in a non-incremental manner, deviating from the incremental internationalization path. During their early internationalization, both case firms used mainly vicarious learning to compensate for lack of experiential knowledge. This knowledge acquisition type also remained impactful in the firms’ later internationalization. For one firm, experimentation and grafting were also important, whereas congenital learning was more impactful for the second firm. Searching and noticing took a supplementary role. Additionally, findings suggest a potential positive impact of experiential learning on other knowledge acquisition types.