Title: Social ties, foreign market attractiveness and trust

Authors: Maher Al Sayah; Charbel Salloum; Jacques Digout; Catherine Mercier-Suissa; Hajer Jarrar

Addresses: Finance Department, USEK Business School, P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon ' Finance Department, USEK Business School, P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon ' Executive Education Department, Toulouse Business School, Paris, France ' Executive Education Department, IAE Lyon School of Management, Lyon, France ' Finance Department, USEK Business School, P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon

Abstract: Throughout history, civilisations have expanded their territories in the search for wealth and enrichment. Hence, foreign expansion has always been perceived as a way of increasing and acquiring resources, crafts, knowledge and markets. In our days, foreign expansion is mostly executed by firms driven by the same reasons. The foreign market attractiveness theory stands as a reference for any multinational entrepreneurial expansion and related foreign venturing prospects. Our approach tests the validity of the theory's constraints when subjected to social ties and relations. The research analyses how entrepreneurs weigh information of a foreign market opportunity transmitted through socially tied sources. We found that the trust factor between the entrepreneur and his socially tied source of information negatively influences the foreign market entry attractiveness theory. Additionally, entrepreneurs with strong social knowledge base and bonds investigate any information communicated to them by a socially tied source.

Keywords: social tie; entrepreneur; foreign venture; social capital; opportunities; source of information.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2020.106171

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2020 Vol.12 No.2/3, pp.83 - 108

Received: 29 Apr 2019
Accepted: 01 May 2019
Published online: 01 Apr 2020 *

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