Internationalisation by Idiosyncrasy: Resource Commitments and Competencies for Professional Service Firm Internationalisation

Using a behavioral process approach within the field of international business theory, this study adopts a resource based lens to examine an area exhibiting exceptional growth, the internationalisation of professional service firms (PSFs). An in-depth qualitative study of the internationalisation process of five architectural firms expanding to multiple international markets was conducted. The paper’s main contribution is the identification of the interplay between the learning process and resource commitments for internationalisation. We reveal how these PSFs can be classified along a continuum whereby they adopt either a project learning or a market learning approach which drives the development and acquisition of either reputational capital or relational capital. Implications for PSFs when developing an approach to internationalisation are discussed.