Timing is everything? Curvilinear effects of age at entry on new firm growth and survival and the moderating effect of IPO performance

Theory suggests that an earlier age at international entry results in improved growth but also decreased survival chances. Empirical studies tell a different story, providing mixed and equivocal results that challenge the tenets of extant theory. To begin to bridge the gap between theory and results, we develop theoretical explanations for curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationships between age at entry and both firm growth and firm survival as well as the moderating impact of resource-providing initial public offering (IPO) on the resource-intensive internationalization process. Our findings support the inverted U-shaped relationships and that IPO performance steepens the growth curve and flattens the survival curve. Taken together, our study enhances understanding of the effects of age at entry, bridges the IPO and international entrepreneurship literatures, and offers avenues for extending the micro-foundations of the development of capabilities for new foreign market entry. In doing so, we advance knowledge about the conditions under which earlier or later internationalization leads some firms to thrive while others fail.