In recent years the emergence of so-called born-global firms -firms which start their international activities from their start up- has challenged traditional theoretical assumptions about the incremental process of internationalization, giving birth to the development of a new stream of studies. In order to give a contribution tothis area of studies, the purpose of this paper is to empirically test a model to explain how well some factors are able to explain the level of international development ofborn global companies. A mail survey was conducted within a sample of born-global Italian companies, belonging to the most representative industries for the Italian economy (metal products and machinery equipment; furniture; chemicals and food).Findings support the validity of a model including five significant predictors: uncertainty and dynamism in the firm’s industry, operating in niche-based industries,markets’ and segments’ knowledge held by the founder/managers, product innovation and firms’ innovativeness, access to networks. Findings are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.
Exploring the antecedents of born-global companies’ international development
CASSIA, FABIO
2014-01-01
Abstract
In recent years the emergence of so-called born-global firms -firms which start their international activities from their start up- has challenged traditional theoretical assumptions about the incremental process of internationalization, giving birth to the development of a new stream of studies. In order to give a contribution tothis area of studies, the purpose of this paper is to empirically test a model to explain how well some factors are able to explain the level of international development ofborn global companies. A mail survey was conducted within a sample of born-global Italian companies, belonging to the most representative industries for the Italian economy (metal products and machinery equipment; furniture; chemicals and food).Findings support the validity of a model including five significant predictors: uncertainty and dynamism in the firm’s industry, operating in niche-based industries,markets’ and segments’ knowledge held by the founder/managers, product innovation and firms’ innovativeness, access to networks. Findings are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.
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