Unlocking International Performance through AI Focus: The Moderating Role of Firm Capabilities
(A2026-133604)

AUTHORS

Selahattin Onur Karlık, Luiss Guido Carli University; Nilay Bıçakcıoğlu-Peynirci, University of Sussex Business School, University of Sussex

ABSTRACT

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool to enhance firms’ overall domestic performance, its impact on international performance remains underexplored. Grounded in the Dynamic Capabilities View, this study investigates how AI focus influences international performance and the moderating role of firm capabilities. Analyzing 24,786 firm-year observations from 3,923 US firms (2015–2024 fiscal years), we examine how R&D and marketing capabilities moderate the relationship between AI focus and international performance. The present study is expected to reveal that AI focus will have a positive and significant effect on international performance, and this relationship will be positively moderated by marketing and R&D capabilities, which enable firms to effectively sense, seize, and reconfigure AI-driven opportunities.