ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we focus on the rationale of internationalization. Particularly, we examine why Indigenous businesses internationalize and we analyze the influence of networks, motivations and identity on the degree, scope and speed of internationalization. We employ a novel survey data of a random sample of Indigenous businesses based in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. We compare our results of Indigenous businesses with a sample of non-Indigenous businesses. Our main findings reveal that Internet, labor seeking, technology seeking and market seeking positively affect the degree and scope of internationalization of Indigenous businesses. Our results also show that personal networks have a negative effect on the degree and scope of internationalization of Indigenous businesses. Our findings show that all motivations to internationalize influence internationalization only in the sample of non-Indigenous businesses and as expected by theory. These findings contribute to the international business literature and have policy implications.
