External barriers facing internationalising sharing economy companies: A study of European and American sharecoms

Abstract

This paper examines the external barriers that sharing economy companies face when internationalising and how the challenges affect their internationalisation process. A critical realism research approach is used to position the research in the literature and develop a conceptual framework to guide a qualitative study, which establishes a strong connection between this study and extant research. Data is collected through interviews with Founders/CEOs/Head of Marketing of entrepreneurial sharecoms1 and triangulated with secondary data. The most prevalent external barriers found were government and legal, geographical distance, and networks. Culture was the most prominent aspect of the psychic distance barrier. These factors seemed to impact differently based on the industry of the sharecom. Networks were an important resource in surmounting the barriers. The results propose a framework of external barriers facing internationalising sharing economy companies and how the barriers interact with each other.