Department of Business Administration invites to a public research seminar.
Thursday, 7 May 2026 at 13:00-14:30 in room SOC-356 / MS Teams
A presentation by Aditi Sarkar Sengupta, PhD (Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Administration of TalTech SBG).
📝This study revisits the “added distance” concept in international business by examining whether the negative performance effects identified in earlier research also apply in a different context. Using a Penrosean perspective and data from 109 Indian firms over periods of 6 to 31 years, the authors find that moderate increases in added distance during international expansion can improve firm performance—but only up to a certain threshold. Beyond this point, cumulative expansion creates managerial strain and reduces organizational coherence, as executives tend to underestimate the combined complexity of multiple foreign investments. The findings suggest that firms must carefully balance international growth with managerial capacity and highlight the importance of considering cumulative, rather than purely dyadic, distance measures in research. Overall, the study provides new long-term empirical evidence on how overly ambitious international expansion can harm multinational enterprise performance.
Aditi Sarkar Sengupta, assistant professor at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology. Her research interests are mainly related to services marketing, consumer behaviour, and business growth strategies.
The seminar is in English. Further information: [email protected]