Erik Stavnsager Rasmussen

The founding of the Born Global company in Denmark and Australia: sensemaking and networking

Attempts to consider how a founder has reduced equivocality in relation to support networks and reducing risks, especially in an international environment. Presents the case studies of five Danish and Australian born global companies. Considers different global models and their limitations. Presents the findings of recent surveys in this area. Concludes that internationalization has not been the primary objective in the founding process and gives direction for further research.

Differences and Similarities Between Born Globals and Other Types of Exporters

This paper examines the characteristics of the so called Born Globals and compares them with other types of exporting companies. Born Globals are defined as firms that were established after 1976 and have reached a share of foreign sales of at least 25% after having started export activities within three years after their birth. A total of 272 Danish exporting, manufacturing companies are analyzed out of which 47 can be categorized as Born Globals according to these criteria. The contribution of the paper is empirical and descriptive; the literature has not yet shown a large scale study with similar comparisons. As shown below, Born Globals have a distinctive profile: they have a high share of foreign sales (almost 70%) and resemble the most internationally oriented exporters with respect to internal capabilities and competitive platform (specialized production) as well as their geographical scope. However, because of their small size and limited resources they often operate at arms length in foreign markets, sometimes even more so than very inexperienced exporters.

Small Manufacturing Firms’ Involvement in International E-business Activities

E-business is an important business tool, and the increasing presence on the internet reflects this fact. For small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) interested in internationalizing, their internet offers some advantages, because, with e-business, borders between countries are becoming less relevant, and more direct interaction between business entities is made possible. In this article, we unravel the use of internet usage of different types of firms. First, we present a categorization of different local and international firms, and, second, we focus on the internet usage by born global firms compared to the other types of firms. We conclude that born global firms use the internet to convey their market presence, but only to a limited extent do they sell their products via the internet. Instead, they use the internet to support the already existing relationships by describing their products on web pages, offering services related to their products via the internet, facilitating product development via the internet, and building and maintaining relations to foreign customers. We also stress the importance of further research on how born global firms adapt to the internet in practice.

Contextualising case studies in entrepreneurship: A tandem approach to conducting a longitudinal cross-country case study

Using predictive and effectuation logics as a framework, this research note explains how case study research was conducted to demonstrate rigour and relevance. The study involves a longitudinal cross-country case study on small and medium-sized firm growth and networks undertaken by research teams in three countries (Finland, Denmark and New Zealand) involving 33 firms. This research note outlines the implications of this research and provides valuable guidance and reflections upon opportunities for future research regarding the conduct of contextual studies in entrepreneurship without compromising validity and reliability.

Managing Inter-Firm Collaboration In The Fuzzy Front-End: Structure As A Two-Edged Sword

Literature on innovation emphasises the potential for organisations to collaborate and network instead of carrying out innovation individually. Integrating suppliers, customers and other organisations into the innovation process is perceived as a key to success in innovation management (Chesbrough, 2003). Furthermore, the management of the initial phase of the innovation process has proven vital to the overall innovation success (Kim and Wilemon, 2002a,b). Although the merits of network-based innovations are widely acknowledged, the managerial challenges of the initial integration of external organisations in an innovation network are somewhat neglected in the literature. The aim of this paper is hence to address the challenges that an organisation faces when integrating a plurality of suppliers, customers and other organisations into the Fuzzy Front End of the innovation process.

LEAN AND GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY START-UPS: LINKING THE TWO RESEARCH STREAMS

In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of the lean global start-up (LGS) as a way of emphasising the problems for new technology start-ups when dealing separately with business development, innovation and early internationalisation. The paper has two components — an introductory conceptual part and an empirical part that should be considered as basis for the preliminary validation of the conceptual insights. The research sample includes six firms — three from Canada and three from Denmark. Two different early internationalisation paths have been identified: Lean-to-global (L2G start-ups) and lean-and-global (L&G start-ups). Both types of start-ups were found to have faced significant problems with the complexity, uncertainties and risks of being innovative on a global scale. They have however found ways of addressing these problems by a disciplined knowledge sharing and IP protection strategy and the efficient use of business and supporting and public funding mechanisms. The Danish firms have pivoted around the ways of delivering their value proposition and not around the specific value propositions themselves. The Canadian firms have actively pivoted their value proposition motivated by the degree of innovativeness of their products and the insights from business supporting organisations. The analysis of the results justifies the introduction of the LGS concept and opens the opportunity for future research focusing on the articulation of more practical LGS entrepreneurial frameworks.

Current issues in international entrepreneurship

Contents: PART I: INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: DEVELOPMENT, LEADERSHIP AND NETWORKS 1. Revisiting Aspects of Born Globals: Young Canadian SMEs Growing Rapidly and Becoming Born Globals 2. Leadership and Organisation in Born Globals 3. Social Networks and Inter-organizational Ties of Knowledge Intensive Firms (KIFs) 4. The Process of Commercializing a Medical Technology Innovation for an INV through International Trade Fairs - Combining a Network with a Practice View PART II: INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EMERGING ECONOMIES 5. International Entrepreneurship from Emerging Economies: A Meta-analysis 6. Internationalization of SMEs from Transition Economies: Institutional Perspective 7. Entrepreneurship and the Institutional Context - Dynamic of Development of the Locally Owned Generic Pharmaceutical Industry in Bangladesh 8. The Role of Key Foreign Employees in Successful Development: Do We Need a Wider Research Scope for Internationalization Studies? PART III: INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: FAMILY, GENDER, AND INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATIONS 9. The Role of Female and Male Specific Traits in Entrepreneurial Activities 10. Toward an Understanding of How Entrepreneurs Access and Use Networks/Social Capital to Internationalize: A Gender Perspective 11. Analyzing Impacts of the Economic Crisis on the Pre-start-up Process of Business Students in Germany 12. Conclusion

Business plan basics for engineers

This chapter focuses on the nature of business planning activities from an engineering entre-/intrapreneurial perspective. It is therefore not limited to technology start-ups or newly created engineering firms but equally relevant for established firms investing in projects that assemble and deploy highly qualified human resources and heterogeneous assets that are intricately related to advances in scientific, engineering, and technological knowledge for the purpose of creating and capturing value for the firm. After discussing the unique characteristics and challenges of technology-driven business environments that are the typical business playgrounds for engineering professionals, the chapter focuses on describing the two key components of the business planning process: the articulation and the development of a viable business model, and managing the scaling up and the growth of the business. The description does not pretend to exhaust the topic and continuously refers to several excellent recent publications that could complement the learning process of young and advanced engineering professionals interested in knowing more about the business planning process.

Digital Entrepreneurship in a Traditional Production Firm: A Longitudinal Case Study

Through a longitudinal case study this paper explores the repercussions from introducing a mobile commerce platform as just another instrument in the marketing toolbox in a traditional sales-oriented firm. Findings suggest that the implementation of the M-platform in addition to its intended purpose spawns a digital business model that allows the company to change its relations to distributors, retailers and customers enabling access to direct communication with end-users. However, the emerging new business model has the potential to change the organization entirely. This paper argues that although the emerging business model was indeed a success seen from a sales-, marketing-, innovative-, and relational perspective, it was perceived as a disaster from an organizational perspective. Consequently, top management abandoned the new platform. The paper highlights the importance of not underestimating resistance in an organization when implementing a new marketing instrument such as M-commerce platforms.

Introduction: the emergence of international entrepreneurship (IE) and its agents - selected issues

The popular emergence of the concepts ‘Born Global’ and ‘International New Ventures’ can be traced back to business and consulting reports in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the decade of the 1980s, the richness, diversity and appeal of international markets to smaller and younger firms became apparent and the report of their efforts appeared in the popular business press. For example, the business press featured articles on smaller American firms surging ahead in international markets or small firms and big exports in the early 1990s (Loane 2005). A consulting study for the Australian Manufacturing Council (McKinsey & Co. 1993) pointed to a pattern of systemic international activities of a large number of smaller Australian exporters and Rennie (1993) reported on a large number of smaller Australian firms that had engaged in substantive exporting in the early stages of their lifespan and called them ‘Born Globals’, which is viewed as a conceptual milestone. In an editorial piece, Cavusgil (1994) referred to the ‘Born Global’ phenomenon as a ‘quiet revolution’ in scholarly international business. The early contributions of Oviatt and McDougall (1994), Knight and Cavusgil (1996) and Knight (1997) introduced and examined some aspects of the emerging phenomenon of smaller firms’ internationalization. These early reports indicated that smaller firms had been expanding abroad rather than growing in the home market in the early stages of their lifespan; although they did not report on the distribution of age, size and speed or scope of these firms’ internationalization. Early internationalization by smaller and younger firms was already a substantive conceptual and also a practical deviation from the state of received theory of international business at the time, at least in the following aspects: