Entrepreneurs’ new ventures pursue different strategies in international markets; some are more committed to the foreign markets than others. Existing international management studies largely use entrepreneurs’ conscious rationale, such as profitability, risks, resource limitations, country-specific knowledge, and personal values, to explain the commitment diversities. Drawing from achievement motivation theory and cognition theory, this study adds entrepreneurs’ unconscious motives and differentiates between implicit and explicit achievement motivation as important forces driving the diversities of the commitment. Evidence collected in this study suggests that both conscious and unconscious achievement motives are related to the commitment but the relationships are moderated curvilinearly by overseas operation complexity and overseas competition intensity respectively. The findings of this study have important implications for entrepreneurs managing international business.

企业家的新事业在国际市场上奉行不同的策略；有些公司比其他公司更致力于国外市场。现有的国际管理研究在很大程度上利用企业家的意识基础（例如盈利能力，风险，资源限制，针对特定国家的知识和个人价值观）来解释承诺差异。借鉴成就动机理论和认知理论，本研究增加了企业家的无意识动机，并在隐性和显性成就动机之间进行区分，这是驱动承诺多样化的重要力量。这项研究收集的证据表明，有意识的和无意识的成就动机都与承诺有关，但两者的关系分别通过海外业务的复杂性和海外竞争强度的曲线而缓和。这项研究的发现对管理国际业务的企业家具有重要意义。