다국적기업에게 있어 국제화란 기업의 성장과 성과를 위한 핵심전략이라고 할 수 있다. 국제화를 통한성장은 규모 및 범위의 경제 그리고 다양한 형태의 성장의 경제를 가져다준다. 반면, 국제화 수준이 높아 질수록 기업이 겪게 되는 복잡성의 수준 역시 높아진다. 따라서 다국적기업들은 국제화 수준과 관련한 전략적 딜레마에 종종 빠지게 된다. 이러한 국제화 수준이 기업성과에 미치는 영향에 대해 실증적으로 검증하고자 하는 시도는 많이 이뤄졌으나 연구결과는 여전히 일관적이지 못하다. 이는 국제화 수준과 기업성과의 관계가 지금껏 연구자들이 제기해온 것보다 훨씬 복잡하고 역동적이기 때문일 수도 있고, 또는 연구자들이 국제화의 수준에만 집중한 나머지 그 수준을 달성하기까지의 국제화 과정은 간과해왔기 때문일 수도 있다. 다시 말하면, 동일한 국제화 수준을 보이고 있는 다국적기업이라고 해도 국제화 전략을 실행함에 있어 서로 다른 과정을 거쳤다면 그들의 성과 역시 달라질 수 있다는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 국제화 과정을 속도, 범위, 규칙성이라는 세 가지 차원에서 접근하였으며, 이에 따라 국제화 수준과 기업성과의 관계, 그리고 이들 관계에 있어서 국제화 과정의 세 가지 변수가 가지는 조절효과 등 총 네 개의 가설을 제시하였다. 이러한 가설은 2009년 3월 현재 한국증권거래소에 상장된 218개의 제조기업으로 구성된 연구표본을 대상으로 분석되었다. 회귀분석을 실시한 결과, 국제화 수준과 기업성과 간에는 U자 형태의 관계가 발견되었다. 그러나 국제화 과정에 따라 이러한 관계의 형태가 달라질 수 있는데, 먼저 국제화의 속도는 국제화 수준과 기업성과의 관계에 정(+)의 조절효과를 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 즉 국제화 속도가 빠를수록 최적의 국제화 수준에 이르기 전까지는 기업성과가 더욱 악화되다가 정점을 넘어서부터는 국제화 수준에 따른 기업성과가 더욱 개선된다는 것이다. 한편 국제화의 규칙성 역시 조절효과가 검증되었는데, 국제화 과정이 불규칙할수록 국제화 수준과 기업성과의 관계가 U자가 아닌 역U자 형태로 바뀌는 것으로 나타났다.
In the globalizing market, internationalization is one of the core strategies that influence growth and performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The growth through international expansion brings economies of scale and scope. However, it is also well known that the growth adds complexity to a firm which is usually difficult to manage. MNEs, hence, are often faced with the strategic dilemma in regard to the degree of internationalization (DOI). The effect of DOI on firm performance remains unconfirmed in spite of many attempts to empirically examine it. The inconsistent results can be attributed to the point that the relationship is much more complex and dynamic than thought so far. It can also be because the researchers have overlooked possible effects of the internationalization process. In other words, the performance of MNEs with the same DOI might be different if they have gone through different processes in implementing their internationalization strategies. Therefore, we focus on the three aspects of internationalization process; how rapidly an MNE reaches a certain DOI (speed), how broad the business in which the firm operates is (scope), and how regular and rhythmical the international expansion is (regularity). In this regard, this study was conducted with the following objectives; (1) to examine the performancerelated consequence of DOI, (2) to explore the moderating effects of the three variables associated with the internationalization process and (3) to provide a more integrative framework that guides toward the optimal DOI and directs the process in which MNEs attain the DOI. For this research, four hypotheses were developed. First, the relationship between DOI and firm performance is expected to be inverted U-shaped. However, the relationship can be affected by the speed of internationalization process. If the speed is moderate, the MNE can achieve more benefits from international expansion before reaching the optimal point of DOI and avoid the sudden decrease in profitability of further internationalization beyond the point. On the other hand, when the speed is too high, the MNE may obtain less benefits and suffer from greater costs of international expansion. In addition, the performance effect of DOI can vary with the business scope an MNE operates. Finally, the irregularity of internationalization process is expected to negatively moderate the relationship between the DOI and firm performance. In other words, it would be better to continue the gradual expansion within a proper period, pause while it is adapted, and re-expand before it forgets what it has learned rather than to reach a certain DOI through sudden expansion and continued non-expansion. The hypotheses were examined with the research sample of 218 manufacturing firms which were publicly listed in the Korean Stock Exchange as of March 2009. The result of regression analysis shows the U-shaped relationship between DOI and firm performance, i.e., firm performance declines to the optimal point of DOI but starts to improve beyond the point owing to the scale economies and the learning effect. However, this U-shaped relationship is shown to vary with the characteristics of internationalization process. First, the internalization speed moderates the relationship between DOI and firm performance positively. Before reaching an optimal point, the speedier the internationalization process gets, the more negative the effect of DOI on firm performance gets. However, once DOI exceeds the optimal level, the speedier the process is, the more positive the performance effect of DOI is. Regularity of internationalization is also shown to affect the performance-related consequence of DOI. As the internationalization process gets irregular, the effect of DOI on firm performance shifts from the U-shaped to the inverted U-shaped. With the sudden radical expansion and the long-term inactivity, an MNE recognizes some difficulties in absorbing the knowledge and exploiting it in other market entries. Despite the implications of the research results, this study cannot be free from limitations; the research data which cannot provide the detail information about foreign market entry order and business diversification of the sample MNEs, the measurement of DOI which does not consider other aspects of internationalization, and the measurement of firm performance focusing only on the financial dimension. More meaningful results are expected if future studies address the limitations.