IE Articles 2017

International Business Review – Volume 26, 448–460

Born Globals—Is there fire behind the smoke?

 Eliane Choquette, Morten Rask, Davide Sala, Philipp Schröder

  • Are Born Globals really different from firms with other start-up histories? We address this question based on a unique longitudinal data set that tracks all Danish manufacturing start-ups founded between 1994 and 2008 (23,201 firms). This novel application of register data allows us to provide the first detailed account of Born Globals compared to proper control groups of other start-ups. Chiefly we investigate firm performance, which in turn permits interference on socioeconomic impact. We find that the occurrence of BGs is not specific to certain sectors, nor does their frequency change in light of rapid ICT progress. However, we find that Born Globals have significantly higher turnover and employment levels as well as job growth rates. Moreover, they show a considerably wider market reach, but little to no productivity advantage compared to firms with less or later internationalization. Thus, Born Globals are special in some but not all aspects.

International Business Review – Volume 26, 527-543

Marketing capabilities, positional advantage, and performance of born global firms: Contingent effect of ambidextrous innovation

 Silvia L. Martin,   Rajshekhar G. Javalgi, Erin Cavusgil

  • Research on international entrepreneurship field is still in its infancy, where innovation is particularly emphasized in the pursuit of opportunities. The literature exhibits considerable gaps related to how newly born international firms, known as born globals, can overcome their asset-constrained conditions to enhance performance. In this regard, numerous scholars have proposed controversial arguments, such as that born global should leverage the highest levels of innovation for superior performance. However, innovation is asset-consuming and born global firms are asset-constrained. Drawing from the competitive advantage theory, we develop and test an original framework exploring the role of a balanced innovation approach, the ambidextrous innovation of born global firms. Our study reveals how the moderation effect of ambidextrous innovation could strengthen the link between marketing capabilities and positional advantage. Also, our findings suggest that positional advantage has an important mediating role in the relationship between marketing capabilities and export venture performance. Likewise, positional advantage mediates the relationship between competitive strategy and export venture performance. Additionally, we propose that competitive strategy mediates the relationship between marketing capabilities and positional advantage. This study presents valuable managerial implications to monitor closely ambidextrous innovation as key decision-making input for performance enhancement of born global firms. The empirical context for the study is a sample of high-technology born global firms from Mexico—an important emerging market yet relatively understudied.

European Journal of International Management – Volume 11, 262-279

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

 Julie Emontspool, Per Servais

  • 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 entrepreneur’s 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.

European Journal of International Management – Volume 11, 365-382

International entrepreneurship of small firms and their export market performance

 Aytug Sozuer, Gultekin Altuntas, Fatih Semercioz

  • This study investigates small firms’ international entrepreneurship as a predictor of their export market performance in an emerging country context. Built on resource-based view and prior empirical work, the research proposes that international entrepreneurship, as an organisational culture and a distinct competence, positively relates to export performance of small firms. Evidence from a cross-sectional survey of 326 firms in Turkey reveals product and customer focus can potentially explain foreign market success. The findings also encourage authors to speculate on a higher-order construct and coin ‘new offer orientation’, which is composed of innovation propensity, market orientation, and employee motivation directed to international markets. Moreover, it is inferred that risk assessment and business networking across borders can be complicated for small firms within the scope of this research