The effect of awards on product internationalization and market-entry mode

Purpose Awards such as the Oscars, the Grammys or the Game of the Year are highly relevant in many creative industries. In this paper, we investigate how publishers (e.g. movie studios, music labels or board game publishers) design internationalization strategies for “awarded” products (compared to “non-awarded” products). Design/methodology/approach A sample of board games (and their publishers) is used to test the hypotheses. Most data was extracted from BoardGameGeek and ranges from 1991 to 2021. In order to avoid biased caused by endogeneity issues, we created a matched sample of 358 games (179 awarded games and 179 matched games). Findings We find that awards increase both product internationalization and the number of alliance partners involved in product internationalization, with the former increasing more strongly than the latter. In other words, publishers enter international markets with awarded products more often alone (i.e. not in a cooperative market-entry mode). Research limitations/implications The study contributes to the internationalization literature by demonstrating the signaling value of awards in international relationships. Moreover, we show that signaling processes affect market-entry-mode decisions. Additionally, the study indicates that higher product quality leads to the usage of more cooperative entry-modes, over go-alone strategies. Among others, a limitation of the study is that it empirically builds on the adaption of new languages for market-entries, which is suitable for our context but not necessarily transferable to other industries. Practical implications We assume that our findings are somehow generalizable for publishers in other creative industries (e.g. movie studios or music labels). Young publishers without substantial internationalization capabilities should actively seek to win awards for their products, as the reputations of awards can help to boost their internationalization efforts. Originality/value This study explores the role awards play for international market entry strategies.