Modes of international entry: the advantages of multilevel methods

Lecture with Jean-Luc Arregle (EDHEC) arranged by SMG

ABSTRACT: International strategy empirical research on the mode of entry has typically overlooked the multilevel nature of this question and relied on non-multilevel quantitative methods. This creates important conceptual and statistical limitations. We examine such drawbacks by explaining the multilevel nature of this research question and the necessity to use multilevel methods. As an illustration, we develop a multilevel model and run a multilevel Bernoulli analysis to analyze the determinants of modes of entry, using a dataset on Japanese Foreign Direct Investment. Its results are compared to those of the dominant statistical method used in International Management for this topic: logistic regression.