The standalone and resource-bundling effects of government and nongovernment institutional support on early internationalizing firms’ performance

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Purpose – This study aims to analyze the individual and joint effects of institutional support bygovernment and nongovernment institutions on early internationalizing firms’ (EIFs) performance. It alsoinvestigated the moderating impact of firm age and size on the institutional support-firms’ exportperformance relationships.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 705 EIFs in the apparel industry ofBangladesh and analyzed with hierarchical regression.Findings – The positive influence of institutional support on exporting firms’ financial performance isstronger for the joint effect of government and nongovernment assistance than the individual impact. Firms’size positively moderates the impact of individual government and nongovernment assistance, while agepositively moderates their resource-bundling effect.Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest the necessity of integrating resources fromdiverse but complementary sources of institutional support for superior export performance. The findingsalso show the presence of the liability of smallness and liability of newness in the standalone and jointinfluence of institutional support, respectively.Practical implications – Firms need to bundle resources obtained from the government (unrequited) andnongovernment (reciprocal) institutional support to overcome the liability of smallness they might encounterwhile availing of support from only one source.Originality/value – Distinguishing between government and nongovernment institutional support, thispaper sheds light on exporting firms’ resource-bundling mechanism for these two sources of support in thebackdrop of an emerging economy. It also offers fresh insights into the critical role of the liabilities of newnessand smallness in early internationalization, especially with regard to the home-country institutionalenvironment.