Institutional and Economic Influences on Internet Adoption and Accelerated Firm Internationalization

Accelerated internationalization occurs when a firm engages in international business early in its life cycle or when it builds international business experience with great speed, perhaps incorporating international activities in more parts of the firm's value chain than has occurred historically. Such acceleration seems to have been occurring since the late 1980s, and evidence indicates that it is not a temporary or abnormal phenomenon (Organisation for Economic co-operation and development (OECD), 1997). Many firms around the world experienced an era of accelerated internationalization in the 1990s (OECD, 1997) and many are continuing to do so.