Platform-Based Internationalization of Smaller Firms: The Role of Government Policy

Governments are recognizing anticompetitive concerns and market distortions associated with the rise of e-commerce platforms. Thus, policies are being crafted to level the playing field between large platform operators and small platform sellers. In addition, policies mitigating barriers to internationalization associated with using e-commerce platforms are also being developed. This study aims to explore these policy actions impacting the platform-based internationalization of small and micro enterprises (SMEs). The case study method is adopted to provide rich insights into the Indian Government policy actions impacting the e-commerce platform-based internationalization of Indian SMEs. More specifically, this investigation analyzes the extent to which the Indian Government policy actions have mitigated the home market and industry-level barriers to export for SMEs leveraging e-commerce platforms for their internationalization efforts. Study findings provide rich policy implications and fodder for future empirical testing of key qualitative insights uncovered in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11575-022-00492-z.