The Importance of Resources in the Internationalization of Professional Service Firms: The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly

Abstract

To further knowledge about the bases of internationalization, we examined the importance of two firm resources: human capital, and relational capital derived from relations with corporate clients and foreign governments. The results show that human and relational capital generally had a positive effect on internationalization; however, corporate client relational capital was only positive teamed with strong human capital. Additionally, human capital positively moderated the relationship between internationalization and firm performance, but neither form of relational capital moderated that relationship. Although corporate client relational capital had a strong, positive effect on firm performance, foreign government relational capital had a negative effect on performance.