ارتباط با مشتری و وابستگی متقابل در فرایند بین المللی شدن شرکت Customer relationships and interdependences in the internationalization process of the firm

Introduction A number of scholars concede that networks matter in the internationalization process of the firm (Hohenthal,Johanson, & Johanson, 2014; Johanson & Vahlne, 2009), be the firm a bornglobal (Zander, McDougall-Covin, & Rose, 2015), a small or medium-sized firm (Hilmersson, 2013) or even a multinational corporation (Johanson & Kao, 2015; Vahlne & Johanson, 2013). For instance, Figueira-de-Lemos, Johanson and Vahlne (2011) suggest that networks lessen the risks associated with foreign expansion. Kontinen and Ojala (2011) and Chandra, Styles and Wilkinson (2012) put forward that networks are positively correlated with sensing and seizing international opportunities whereas Johanson and Mattsson (1988) advance the idea that domestic networks can be used as bridges to foreign networks. Networks are usually heterogeneous (Ranganathan & Rosenkopf, 2014; Shipilov & Li, 2012). Here this means that the network benefitsthat accrue to the internationalizing firm are contingent on the types ofrelationshipsthatformthe network.As a result, it is likely that differences arise between interpersonal and interorganizational relationships in the internationalization process of the firm (Ellis, 2011). Likewise, relationships with customers are likely to provide benefits that are hardly sourced from relationships with suppliers (Andersen & Buvik, 2002; Blomstermo, Eriksson, Johanson, & Sharma, 2001). We then select interorganizational relationships between the firm and its customers for closer scrutiny (Oberg, 2014; Zhang, Zhong, & Makino, 2014). Research on the internationalization of the firm has long highlighted that this type of relationship, henceforth customer relationships, can pull the firm into foreign markets through the client-followership mechanism (Kipping, 1998; Majkgård & Sharma, 1998). Customer relationships are also suggested to influence the choice of foreign markets (Axelsson & Johanson, 1992; Hilmersson & Janson, 2012). Moreover, they are usually viewed as the most important source of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process of the firm (Coviello, 2006; Sandberg, 2014), thus positively affecting the development of the firm in a particular foreign market (Figueirade-Lemos et al., 2011; Johanson & Vahlne, 1977, 2009).