Revisiting the Internationalization of Services: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

The growing importance of services in the global economy and international business practice has attracted the attention of international business scholars, policy-makers, as well as the business community. Yet previous research has shown that research-based knowledge of the field is limited and does not reflect the global economic importance of services. Building on previous research on the internationalization of service firms and activities, we review the development from 2008 until 2013. We review articles published in five leading international business journals, including a total of 1,237 articles. Our study assesses extant literature on services internationalization, which we synthesize into an integrating framework. We find that papers increase their impact when considering differences between service and manufacturing, thus advancing our understanding of the service sector dynamics in the context of the international business environment. We extend recommendations for future research to address the robustness of existing definitions and classifications of industries, and to involve more the new institutionalism perspective. We conclude that there are many underexplored questions, yet encouragingly scholarship in the field is not winding, but appears to advance to take a more significant role in the IB literature.