Journal of World Business — Volume 59, Issue 3, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101531
Dynamic improvisation capabilities as a learning mechanism in early internationalizing firms
Sylvie Chetty, Peter Gabrielsson, and Mika Gabrielsson
Our study addresses an inconsistency in the literature on whether a lack of knowledge in early internationalizing firms is an obstacle or an advantage. We integrate learning, capabilities, and improvisation literature to reveal how case firms from New Zealand and Finland internationalize early under uncertainty and time pressure. We develop a process model and propositions to show how firms develop improvisation capabilities and subsequently rapidly acquire the international business knowledge that can explain early internationalization. Improvisation and the associated rapid learning complement the learning advantage of newness with an alternative explanation for early internationalization.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-05-2023-0560
Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms – how effective is effectuation?
Pinnock, S., Evers, N. and Hoholm, T.
The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector. This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months. We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.