Effect of Centricity on Mode of Choice of Entry to International Markets by Iranian Firms

Abstract

While many of the theories of internationalization have explored economic or structural reasons for firms' internationalization process, the effects of behavioral issues on making such decisions remain understudied. This study explores the effects of centricity on the internationalization decisions made by managers in a different geographic context, Iran, between 1995 and 2006. Following in the footsteps of a pervious study on Canadian managers conducted by Calof (1991), this research provides insight into the topic, focusing on a different context. The findings of this research show similarities in the behavior of ethnocentric and geocentric firms across the two settings and minor differences in the behavior of poly/regiocentric firms. The findings of this research lend further support to the effects of manager centricity on internationalization decisions found in past research and therefore, contribute to the external validity of previous theoretical propositions.