Social Ventures’ Vicarious Learning to Do Business in Foreign Markets: Propositional Development and Managerial Guidelines

Purpose: Even though social ventures are comparatively insufficient in resources such as knowledge of potential host countries that may be accumulated from experiential learning, some social ventures have substantially expanded their businesses into foreign markets. Advocating the notion that vicarious learning would be able to contribute to explaining this phenomenon, the present research sought to explore whether and how learning from competitors, business partners, and leaders enables social ventures to substantially expand their operations into international markets. Research design, data, and methodology: Employing the knowledge-based theory of the firm and the contingency theory as fundamental frameworks, the current work generated a model that might explicate the impact of vicarious learning and contingency forces on international prosperity in the setting of social ventures. The current research developed an empirically testable model. Results: The results of the study suggested that a social venture should be learning significantly from its business partners and its leaders in order to prosper in the economy as well as learning systematically from foreign, domestic, and global competitors that possess experiences in the target economy. In addition, the results suggested that both advanced-economy institutions and indirect internationalization may lessen the influence of vicarious learning in promoting social ventures’ international prosperity. Implications: The present study may contribute to knowledge extension of two basic research areas-social ventures’ internationalization and organizational learning?by placing an emphasis on the value of vicarious learning in terms of social ventures’ international prosperity. This article is finalized with a rich discussion of theoretical and practical implications and future research directions in addition to the current research limitations.