EXPRESS: Firm-Level Experience in International Markets A Systematic Literature Review and Reconceptualization

Despite the prominence given to firm-level foreign experience (IE), there is a dearth of comprehensive and unified conceptualizations of this concept in the literature. This problem necessitates a targeted study to investigate this notion, compile its common conceptualization methods, and integrate the existing literature with a new comprehensive approach. This study aims to achieve this by employing Dewey’s philosophy to define IE, reviewing 306 high-quality papers to extract extant approaches to the concept, and integrating these results to provide a new conceptualization. The study supports situations as generators of experience and demonstrates that previous approaches primarily focused only on some aspects of IE, overlooking the phenomenon as a whole. The new IE conceptualization is a seven-dimensional construct that includes length, breadth, depth, intensity, diversity, complexity, and echo. Additionally, the study discussed that IE can be analyzed at six levels depending on its origin (entry-mode specific, international marketing specific, or both) and geographical scope (regional vs. global). The results provide a robust foundation for scholars and managers aiming to investigate and explore the realm of experiential knowledge and learning.