Journal of International Business Studies – Volume 51, pp. 11-22.
Born digitals: Thoughts on their internationalization and a research agenda
Sinéad Monaghan, Esther Tippmann, Nicole Coviello
Johanson and Vahlne (2009) articulate various theoretical mechanisms underpinning the internationalization process; mechanisms they suggest are pertinent across firm type. Their argument builds on their earlier publications and, in this spirit, we consider Johanson and Vahlne (2009) in the contemporary context of digital firms. In particular, we revisit their theorizing as it relates to firms that had only begun to emerge when Johanson and Vahlne published their award-winning paper: born digitals. We address how technological affordances, especially direct engagement with stakeholders, automation, network effects, flexibility and scalability, affect the internationalization of born digitals. We also develop a future agenda for international business research on born digital firms.
Journal of Business Research – Volume 105, pp. 359-369
Strategic choices: Accelerated startups’ outsourcing decisions
Carla V. Bustamante
By integrating transaction costs, the resource-based view, and institutional theories, this study illuminates the relevance of contracting capabilities and institutional distance in shaping insourcing versus outsourcing decisions. Combining different data sources, we create a panel that includes 405 startup-accelerator meetings held by 261 domestic and foreign startups participating in an international acceleration program. We learn that institutional distance and contracting capabilities shape the assessment between transaction and bureaucratic costs for a startup. Interestingly, we find that startup growth decisions differ between international and domestic startups. Our findings suggest that beyond considerations at the transaction level of analysis, firm and country-level characteristics are relevant predictors of governance decisions, and that capabilities and institutions deserve additional consideration in the study of firms’ strategic choices related to growth.
Journal of International Entrepreneurship – Volume 17, pp. 494–519
Founder non-international experience and venture internationalization
Anne Domurath, Holger Patzelt
Generating international sales with high intensity and at an early point in time can significantly enhance a new venture’s performance and growth potential. This paper draws on human capital theory to develop and empirically test a model proposing that entrepreneurs’ prior founding experience enhances new ventures’ international sales intensity, while their prior domestic work experience diminishes such sales intensity. Further, our model proposes that prior founding and domestic work experience delay rather than speed up first international sales. Survey data on 100 international new ventures reveals that entrepreneurs’ prior founding experience postpones first international sales and that prior domestic work experience is negatively associated with ventures’ international sales intensity. Our findings illustrate the downsides of experience for new venture internationalization and indicate a greater need to consider types of experience outside the internationalization domain to understand important venture outcomes.