As digital platforms transform the global business landscape, international business (IB) research has increasingly gained interest in understanding the internationalization of digital platforms. Yet, current IB research tends to focus on the single conditions and constructs, such as firm-specific advantages, network effects and on isolated units of analysis, overlooking the complex interplay between conditions and levels of analysis that may drive or inhibit digital platform internationalization. To better understand the configurations that drive internationalization, we conduct a multi-level fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of 54 food delivery platforms. Based on prior qualitative case study work and theoretical insights from IB, entrepreneurship and strategic leadership literature, we consider seven conditions on market-, firm-, and individual-level to interplay in the internationalization of digital platforms. Results show that sub-platforms founded or integrated by pre-existing platforms backed by foreign venture capital reveal the highest potential for early internationalization. Moreover, we find that unfavorable market-level conditions can be offset by firm-level and individual-level conditions. We contribute to international business and management research by providing a more holistic, multi-level analysis on the drivers and configurations of digital platforms’ internationalization success and failure and suggest pathways for future research.
