1. ¹Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment, RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2. ²Department of Organisation and Strategy, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
3. ³Department of Technology and Innovation Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
4. ⁴Department of Management, London School of Economics, London, UK

Correspondence: Anna Nadolska, Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment, RSM Erasmus University, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 10 4082151; Fax: +31 10 4089013; E-mail: anadolska@rsm.nl

Received 24 November 2005; Revised 2 October 2006; Accepted 19 June 2007; Published online 27 September 2007.

Abstract

We argue that firms engaged in international acquisitions can benefit from foreign acquisition, domestic acquisition, and international joint venture experiences, but that their learning process is prone to biases. Only once companies learn what part of their knowledge about national cultures and entry modes can successfully be applied to new settings will they become truly successful abroad, in terms of both the rate and the frequency of their foreign acquisitions. The hypotheses were tested using negative binomial regression and hazard rate models on data on 1038 foreign acquisitions of 25 firms over a period of more than three decades.