Disentangling the effects of domestic corporate political activity and political connections on firms’ internationalisation: Evidence from US retail MNEs

Scholars are increasingly investigating the implications of firms’ domestic corporate political activity (CPA) and connections on their internationalisation prospects. In this paper, using insights from resource dependence theory, we argue that CPA developed within home country have contrasting effects international expansion, such that, while CPAs (mainly, lobbying campaign contributions) facilitate internationalisation, deter internationalisation. We also relationship is moderated by experience product diversification. test our hypotheses a panel dataset comprising 38 retail Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) originating in United States (US) whose activities traced over 16-year period 2003−2018. Our findings support hypotheses.