Imprinting effects of exposure to the Indian independence movement on export intensity of firms

Abstract

Extending the concept of historical imprinting and organizational learning, we propose that the prior exposure to the Indian independence movement negatively influences the export intensity of firms. Firm-specific characteristics such as business group affiliation and entrepreneurial orientation act as dynamics of amplification and encourage to utilize the organizational learning gained from the historical imprinting. Business group affiliation strengthens the negative relationship between prior exposure to the Indian independence movement and export intensity. Entrepreneurial orientation strengthens the moderating effect of business group affiliation and prior exposure to the Indian independence movement on export intensity resulting in a three-way interaction effect. We test the hypotheses using panel data of 1,817 Indian firm-year observations for 309 firms from 2007 to 2016. We also discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.