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How Product Attributes Influence Internationalization: A Framework of Domain- and Culture-Specificity

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Abstract

This paper introduces two dimensions of product attributes in the context of internationalization: domain- and culture-specificity. Products can be high or low in domain- or culture-specificity, thereby being one of four broad categories in a two-by-two matrix. This framework of product attributes helps explain a series of gradations on how cultural difference influences the difficulty of selling a product internationally. By examining four cases, one from each of these categories, this paper shows that different product attributes affected the difficulty or ease with which the products of these firms were internationalized. While all four cases were able to derive international sales, the domain- and culture-specificity of their products constrained the international markets these products could feasibly enter into, and how soon this could take place. In general, more culture-specific products face higher hurdles in a culturally dissimilar international market compared with the home market. However, given products of similar culture-specificities, highly domain-specific products tend to have less difficulty in selling to a culturally different international market than products that are not domain-specific.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers at Management International Review for their helpful comments in significantly strengthening this paper. The authors also thank comments from participants at an Academy of International Business Annual Conference. Cate Pattison’s excellent research assistance is gratefully acknowledged. This research project was funded in part by Singapore Management University research grants C207/MSS7B016 (OR Ref: 08-C207-SMU-010) and C207/MSS5B003 (OR Ref: 05-C207-SMU-043) as part of the Ministry of Education Academic Research Tier 1.

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  1. Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore

    Terence Ping-Ching Fan

  2. UWA Business School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Alex Tai Loong Tan

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  1. Terence Ping-Ching Fan
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Correspondence to Terence Ping-Ching Fan.

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Fan, T.PC., Tan, A.T.L. How Product Attributes Influence Internationalization: A Framework of Domain- and Culture-Specificity. Manag Int Rev 55, 53–76 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-014-0229-0

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