Impact of expertise in standardization on business internationalization

The European Union (EU) Strategy on Standardization stressed that Europe’s competitiveness will depend on how successful European actors are in standardization at the international level. It follows that companies with strong standardization-related skills and competencies may be more competitive in such competitions and eventually become more internationalized. Although the interplay between expertise in standardization and business internationalization seems to be evident, the literature still lacks a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the expertise in standardization on business internationalization. The study aims to address three research questions: (1) How does the expertise in standardization impact business internationalization? (2) How does the company size moderate the relationship between expertise in standardization and business internationalization? and (3) How does the country of origin moderate the relationship between expertise in standardization and business internationalization? We conducted a survey among owners and managers of European companies and applied the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis. Our results showed what is changing and what benefits European companies are not only standardization-related competencies; experience in developing standards makes a difference. Large companies from countries more active in standardization will create more advanced market entry strategies and use export and non-export entry modes more intensively.