Per Servais

Born Global or Gradual Global?: Examining the Export Behavior of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Over the past decade, several studies have questioned the stage models of the internationalization process. Many of these studies concentrate on the exporting versus nonexporting factor, identifying an increasing number of firms that are active in international markets shortly after establishment. Limited empirical evidence exists as to whether this actuality indicates simply a reduced time factor in the preexport phase or an important change in the export behavior of firms. Using small and medium-sized exporting firms from Norway, Denmark, and France, the authors focus on the concept of gradual development. The results suggest that export intensity, distribution, market selection, and global orientation are not influenced by the firms year of establishment or first year of exporting activity. One-third of the firms sampled reported that the time period between establishment and export commencement was less than two years. In terms of export intensity, these firms outperform those that waited several years before exporting. The results indicate that the future export involvement of a firm is, to a large extent, influenced by its behavior shortly after establishment. The results further indicate that the development of resources in support of international market competitiveness may be regarded as the key issue and that the basic resources and competencies of the firm are determined during the establishment phase. The authors review how the management challenges differ depending on the type of firm (age and export involvement) in question.

An inquiry into born‐global firms in Europe and the USA

Companies that internationalise at or near their founding, “born globals,” are emerging in great numbers world‐wide. Characterised by a specific Gestalt of marketing‐related competencies, they are playing an increasing role in international trade. Born globals are investigated using data from case and survey‐based studies in Denmark and the USA. First introduces and describes the born‐global phenomenon. Then, hypotheses are developed and tested via a structural model that represents key factors in the international success of this important breed of firm. Results suggest that born‐global international performance is enhanced in the wake of managerial emphasis on foreign customer focus and marketing competence. Product quality and differentiation strategy also play important roles, particularly in the US firms. These and additional findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical implications.

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.

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

Cross-border entrepreneurship in a global world: a critical reconceptualisation

This article shows that international entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurship increasingly intersect in a global world. Both research streams address cross-border entrepreneurial activity in parallel to each other. International entrepreneurship focuses on outgoing entrepreneurial activity, while immigrant entrepreneurship mainly considers incoming entrepreneurial activity. The article critically discusses such a dichotomy, highlighting how differentiating immigrant entrepreneurs and international entrepreneurs perpetuates orientalist assumptions about cross-border business activity. Focusing on entrepreneurship as a behaviour, the article proposes an alternative perspective to cross-border entrepreneurship, discussing cross-border opportunity identification and exploitation between an entrepreneurs country of residence and a foreign country. This perspective provides a number of avenues for further research open for scholars in the field of entrepreneurship to investigate either alone or in collaboration with other disciplines.

Hybrid ways of organizing opportunities in international entrepreneurship

Twenty years ago Oviatt and McDougall suggested an international new venture (INV) to be a specific type of organization that is international from or near inception. The international entrepreneurship (IE) field has been widened to cover studies of entrepreneurial behavior on opportunities in other types of organizations, such as multinational corporations, micro-multinationals and re-internationalizing SMEs. The widening scope of organizational structures under study in the IE field, together with emergence of a variety of new ways of governing economic activities in present day business, opens up a question of the possible ways of organizing the opportunities in IE. In this study we aim to advance IE research that examines international entrepreneurial behaviors focused on international opportunities within various organizational settings and to question the taken-for-granted assumptions of organizing IE. The research question of this study is, how does the research in IE field uncover the varying forms of organizing international opportunities? In the search for an answer to this question, we review the forms of organizing in a set of IE articles published between 1989 and 2012. We find that, although IE research has extended its scope to cover a wider variety of firms and their sub-units, it is still limited in its acknowledgement and understanding of the more flexible organizing forms, such as network organization and various types of virtual and latent ways of organizing economic activities. Building on these observations, we articulate future research directions for study of the hybrid ways of organizing international opportunities in current global markets.

Learning in Various Types of New Ventures: The Role of “Incoming” Entrepreneurs

This chapter investigates different learning process in some specific types of international new ventures according to the founder’s previous experience and background, especially those of foreign outset (migrant, transnational) compared to domestic entrepreneurs. After a brief review of existing literature about entrepreneurial learning in the international context, this chapter proposes a framework where differences between the entrepreneurs’ and firms background and international experience shed further light on entrepreneurial learning. By identifying different types of founders with various backgrounds, the chapter thus offers the possibility for future research on the need for learning and the learning styles according to the different categories of new ventures.

Migration Perspective on Entrepreneurship

Migration- a form of globalization- influences new venture creation, internationalization and overall economic landscape. These global flows of people shift human capital, entrepreneurial ideas and activities across places, but little is known on the interconnectedness of migratory and entrepreneurial dynamics. Theoretical lenses, such as migration theories, epidemic dynamics, gravity laws and bandwagon effects, among other explanatory models, have not really diffused into explaining entrepreneurship. This chapter broadens the view and addresses migration dynamics implanting entrepreneurs into new contexts and between contexts, and discusses the types of entrepreneurs and businesses “in dispersion”. The chapter advances the understanding of the intertwined nature of these two dynamics and contributes to the analytical clarity of the terminology employing the idea of topology.