International market information infusion: Data acquisition behaviour in Norwegian exporters

The ‘process’ internationalisation model provides the conceptual framework for a study of overseas market information acquisition in 32 Norwegian exporters. The research results do not support some important elements of the ‘process’ model. Particular areas where empirical support was not apparent relate to the evolutionary thrust of the 'process' model and the 'psychic' distance construct. Information acquisition activity in the survey firms is much more heavily influenced by the relative importance of exporting and management's export commitment than temporal factors or the scale of overseas business. Experiential knowledge was also valued less highly than expected. The results confirm the importance of personal contacts as information sources and indicate a high propensity to access sources which are readily available and inexpensive.