Navigating windows of opportunity: The role of international experience

Scholars have noted that pronounced changes in consumer demand and technology often offer firms temporary opportunities to strengthen their performance vis-à-vis rivals. This article contributes to the literature on windows of opportunity from an organizational learning perspective. It investigates whether the depth and breadth of a firm's international experience with pronounced changes in demand conditions (demand windows) and technologies (technological windows) affect its ability to take advantage of such changes within a country to increase its market share. The results, based on a sample of 615 telecommunication companies competing in 124 countries, suggest that mainly two out of four dimensions of international experience help firms to exploit windows of opportunity in a country.