When does prior experience pay?

Conventional wisdom says that repetition leads to efficiency. The firm that produces 1,000 widgets should be more efficient at making widgets than the firm that only makes 100. We’ve seen this paradigm applied to many aspects of business over the last 30 years, including the internationalization of multinational corporations.  Some maintain that the more countries a firm enters, the more efficient it is and the better its chances of success. However, in a recent study