Abstract The performance outcomes of retail internationalization have attracted considerable scholarly interest, but studies have offered differing perspectives and findings on this relationship. In an effort to fill this gap on the topic, we posit that the relationship between the degree of retail internationalization and performance exhibits an S-curve shape. Using a sample of 18 international retailers with operations on six continents for the period 2001–2015, we find evidence of the S-curve dynamic where international retailers tend to experience declining performance after initial expansion beyond the home market, improving performance with continued expansion, and declining performance with further international expansion. We also examine two moderating variables on this relationship—foreign market growth and store format diversification. Our findings show that foreign market growth reinforces the hypothesized S-curve relationship while store format diversification reverses it. We offer theoretical and managerial implications based on the results of our study.

中文翻译：

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国际零售商的绩效：S曲线关系的经验证据

摘要零售国际化的绩效结果吸引了相当多的学术兴趣，但研究对此关系提供了不同的观点和发现。为了填补这一空白，我们假设零售国际化程度与绩效之间的关系呈现出S曲线形状。我们以2001年至2015年期间在六大洲开展业务的18家国际零售商为样本，发现了S曲线动态的证据，即国际零售商在最初扩展到本国市场以外之后往往会经历业绩下降，随着不断扩展而提高业绩，并且随着国际业务的进一步扩展，业绩下降。我们还研究了关于这种关系的两个调节变量-外国市场增长和商店形式多样化。我们的发现表明，国外市场的增长加强了假设的S曲线关系，而商店形式的多元化则扭转了这种关系。我们根据研究结果提供理论和管理方面的建议。