The Relationship between Extent of Internationalization and Firm Performance (Taiwan 1992–2017)

The purpose of this study was to discuss the impact of the extent of internationalization on firm performance measured for firms with a high Tobin’s Q (firms with good operating performance), a median Tobin’s Q (firms with average operating performance), and a low Tobin’s Q (firms with poor operating performance). In addition to discussion on the impact of internationalization on firm performance, this study also discussed the impact of corporate proprietary assets (using assets, R&D, marketing, and management-related variables as moderating variables) and control variables (scale of company, debt-asset ratio, firm age, board structure, and proportion of pledged shares by directors) on firm performance. The research results showed that there is an S-shaped relationship between extent of internationalization and firm performance. However, further discussion found that there is an S-shaped relationship between extent of internationalization and performance for firms with a high Tobin’s Q but a slight decline in the middle of the S-shaped curve, as well as a general linear negative correlation between extent of internationalization and performance for firms with a median Tobin’s Q and an inverted U-shaped correlation between extent of internationalization and performance for firms with a low Tobin’s Q