The U.S. Craft Breweries Internationalization Process in China: The Effect of Corporate Entrepreneurship, Regulatory Focus and Institutional Context

Abstract

In the past two decades the Brewery Industry has experience many changes, reaching its maturity stage, with global players’ consolidation. However, the craft breweries segment, has been able to detect new opportunities and customers’ needs, offering innovative and experimental beer styles, and recognize a niche market. The U.S. craft breweries have been the pioneers in the product innovation, and from being limited to local niche markets, they have been able to reach international expansion. The global economic trends exhibit an increasing importance of Emerging Markets for the future growth of the industry, with a particular attention toward China, as the most promising market. However, little research has been investigating the internationalization of U.S. craft breweries, focusing only on the industry global players’ international expansion. This study aims at investigating the U.S. craft breweries internationalization process in China, guided by the application of the EIR framework. The variables tested consists of external factors, as the institutional context, and managers’ and firms’ internal factors, as the corporate entrepreneurship and institutional context. Based on the result of the empirical research, it is expected to detect the preferable internationalization process for U.S. craft breweries in China in terms of entry mode, level of commitment and managers’ decision-making processes.