How Should Firms Configure IT, R&D and Advertising Expenditures for High Foreign Profits and Revenues?

How should firms leverage and configure their IT, R&D, and advertising investments to achieve high foreign revenues and profits? We answer this important question using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which identifies successful configurations of investments and assets with equifinal solutions. Our results show that while no single condition is necessary for high firm performance, several different combinations of these conditions will likely lead to high firm revenues and profits in US-based organizations that operate on a global scale. Our findings suggest that in general, sufficient configurations for high foreign revenues and foreign profits include high investments in IT, with R&D and/or advertising, but some configurations for high foreign revenues are achievable with high investments in IT alone. We discuss the implications of our configurational recipes for theory building and practice.