Digital institutions and virtual involvement of born-digital firms
Born-digital firms increasingly pursue virtual involvement, a digital market-entry strategy that prioritizes iterative data collection and algorithmic adaptation over physical expansion. We measure virtual involvement by the number of unique digital advertisements and define it as the intensity of a firm’s digital experimentation to collect user data, train algorithms, and enable continuous learning through a recursive feedback loop. Using a novel panel dataset covering 194 US and Chinese born-digital firms across 33 countries from 2016 to 2022, our empirical analysis finds that stringent host-country digital privacy regulation significantly reduces virtual involvement. This negative influence is weakened in larger digital markets, for firms from home countries with robust digital regulatory regimes, and when firms receive positive public sentiment. These results extend institutional theory and non-traditional entry mode research by introducing virtual involvement as a new dimension of international strategy under regulatory constraints. For policymakers and managers, our study offers actionable guidance: strict privacy rules protect user welfare, but supportive market conditions and regulatory experience are critical to sustaining data-driven innovation. Policymakers should balance user protection with market dynamism, while firms should leverage large markets and positive sentiment to maintain their virtual involvement.
2025.11.18