Title: Impact of innovation and international networking on firm openness to foreign markets strategy in Middle East and North Africa: individualism' moderating effect

Authors: Abderrahim Barakat; Najlaa El Cati; Meriem Filali

Addresses: Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco ' Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco ' Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco

Abstract: Firms are constantly looking for ways to succeed, exporting seems to be one of the most efficient means to do it. So as we can say exporting has a double aim, from a microeconomic point of view, it allows the firm to find new opportunities and from a macroeconomic point of view, it increases the growth level. This article main question treats the effects of innovation, international networking and socio-cultural differences within countries on the entrepreneur's decision to adopt or neglect exporting strategy. To do this, we used a linear hierarchical model based on 8,605 firms from 15 different countries in the MENA region, the data comes from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. This study brought some interesting results, in which we conclude on the moderating effect of individualism on networking, in the main time we've demonstrated that innovation and individualistic culture are positively linked to exporting decision-making.

Keywords: export; innovation; international networking; individualism; MENA region.

DOI: 10.1504/MJCCM.2020.112233

MENA Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 2020 Vol.1 No.1, pp.101 - 122

Received: 29 Jun 2019
Accepted: 08 Jan 2020
Published online: 05 Jan 2021 *