Abstract:

How does artificial intelligence (AI) reconfigure firms’ internationalisation in the digital era? We conduct an integrative review of 62 peer‑reviewed studies that examine AI in relation to cross‑border expansion, foreign market entry, and multinational governance. We argue that AI is best understood as the next phase of digital transformation in international business because it alters the informational basis of internationalisation and not merely the cost of coordination. Our synthesis identifies three recurring mechanism clusters. First, AI compresses experiential learning by producing quasi‑experiential knowledge through continuous data capture, prediction, and simulation, reshaping the timing and sequencing assumptions in process models of internationalisation. Second, AI weakens the primacy of the country as the default unit of analysis by enabling granular demand inference and “virtual localisation,” while relocating where country matters to data access, infrastructure, and regulatory regimes. Third, AI augments foreign entry and governance decisions by changing search, evaluation, contracting, monitoring, and coordination, reframing entry‑mode/internalisation choices and introducing new liabilities of opacity, bias, and accountability in cross‑border settings. We consolidate these insights in an AI-Internationalisation Mechanism Framework and derive a research agenda.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: International Business and International Management

Keywords: Internationalization: theories;Internationalization: strategy;Internationalization: process;International: business;International: ICT and digitalization

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Ms. Zixuan Shi