The past decade has seen a surge of interest in ‘born global’ firms which internationalise rapidly following their inception. While born global internationalisation paths are commonly associated with high tech firms, there has been some limited research suggesting that biotech ventures do not fit this model. My aim, therefore, was to contribute to international business research by investigating whether biotech firms internationalise as is suggested by born global scholars. Accordingly, my research focused on examining how the internationalisation of these small firms with radical innovations might best be explained. My research proceeded by means of a comparative case study of four Australian biotech companies, with their internationalisation histories forming the focal unit of analysis. The first contribution resulting from my cross-case analysis is to show that oversimplified measures of firm inception have led to ‘conceptual stretching’ of the born global category. This does not imply that born globals do not exist; rather; I argue that greater care needs to be applied when measuring inception. Ultimately, biotech firms do not fit easily into the born global category because the lengthy innovation process they undergo means they are likely to have strong pre-organisational roots extending far beyond their incorporation date. This pre-organisational history needs to be factored in because of its effects on firm internationalisation. My second contribution is to suggest a driver for internationalisation that to date has not been included in existing research into high tech firms: namely, the influence of the innovation process. The internationalisation decisions of the case firms could be explained to a large extent by the stage that their core technologies were at. The international partnerships that the firms signed were also very much affected by the uncertainties surrounding the intellectual property being exchanged. My contribution therefore lies in proposing that incorporating the innovation process can advance understanding of high tech internationalisation. I conclude by suggesting that theory development concerning high tech internationalisation should pursue further these linkages between innovation and internationalisation. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1349297 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, The Business School, 2008

<p> </p><h2>Sammanfattning</h2><p>I takt med att världen krymper och gränserna mellan världens länder suddas ut ökar möjligheterna för små- och medelstora företag att snabbt slå sig in på den globala marknaden. De företag som inom de närmaste åren efter sin etablering får en snabb tillväxt på internationella marknader brukar benämnas Born Global företag. Det är just denna kategori av företag vi har valt att undersöka. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka faktorer som gör det möjligt för ett Born Global företag att överleva en tidig internationalisering. De traditionella teorierna om internationalisering domineras av Uppsalamodellen som förespråkar att denna process sker gradvis hos företagen. Företagen ger sig in på nya marknader allt eftersom de får ny kunskap och information om de berörda marknaderna. Denna teori har på senare år blivit utmanad av Born Global fenomenet då Uppsalamodellen kan anses vara en föråldrad modell.</p><p> </p><p>En generell definition av vilka kriterier som ett företag ska uppfylla för att klassas som ett Born Global företag finns inte, utan varje författare har en egen definition. Vi har därför kombinerat olika författares definitioner för att få fram lämpliga kriterier. Ett Born Global företag ska enligt oss ha en export som motsvarar minst 25 % av deras omsättning och detta ska ha skett inom tre år efter starten. Dessa kriterier använde vi sedan för att välja ut lämpliga företag att undersöka. Efter att ha genomfört undersökningen kom vi fram till att de viktigaste faktorerna för att överleva en tidig internationalisering är att ha en unik produkt eller tjänst samt en internationellt driven entreprenör.</p><p> </p>

Sammanfattning I takt med att världen krymper och gränserna mellan världens länder suddas ut ökar möjligheterna för små- och medelstora företag att snabbt slå sig in på den globala marknaden. De företag som inom de närmaste åren efter sin etablering får en snabb tillväxt på internationella marknader brukar benämnas Born Global företag. Det är just denna kategori av företag vi har valt att undersöka. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka faktorer som gör det möjligt för ett Born Global företag att överleva en tidig internationalisering. De traditionella teorierna om internationalisering domineras av Uppsalamodellen som förespråkar att denna process sker gradvis hos företagen. Företagen ger sig in på nya marknader allt eftersom de får ny kunskap och information om de berörda marknaderna. Denna teori har på senare år blivit utmanad av Born Global fenomenet då Uppsalamodellen kan anses vara en föråldrad modell.   En generell definition av vilka kriterier som ett företag ska uppfylla för att klassas som ett Born Global företag finns inte, utan varje författare har en egen definition. Vi har därför kombinerat olika författares definitioner för att få fram lämpliga kriterier. Ett Born Global företag ska enligt oss ha en export som motsvarar minst 25 % av deras omsättning och detta ska ha skett inom tre år efter starten. Dessa kriterier använde vi sedan för att välja ut lämpliga företag att undersöka. Efter att ha genomfört undersökningen kom vi fram till att de viktigaste faktorerna för att överleva en tidig internationalisering är att ha en unik produkt eller tjänst samt en internationellt driven entreprenör.

The overall purpose of this paper is to explore the role of leadership, vision and motivation of the employees (empowerment) in order to get a better understanding of how the top manager of a Born Global company can develop the company. The study is based on two explorative case studies, where interviews have been conducted with both the top manager as well as the employees. This study is considered crucial in case of born global where the top manager spends maximum time in travelling. Top manager needs to integrate such a culture where employees are set in a framework wherein the operations are handled smoothly during the absence of top manager. In this era of global competition the key for a successful firm lies in the empowerment of employees with well defined boundaries. A qualitative strategy and a research design with two case studies on Swedish Born Global companies were used in reaching the purpose of this study. The primary empirical data were mainly collected from six interviews. Two interviews were conducted with top manager and rest with employees. Secondary data like general company information were gathered from the website of the companies prior to primary data collection to have a better understanding and preparation. The results of the study indicate that the vision is more important for the top manager compared to the employees working in a born global company. However, the vision manages to establish a supportive culture where their daily activities and decisions of the employees are in line with the vision of the company. We see that this has been possible due to the leadership style and motivational factors like delegation of responsibility and autonomy of work. Our findings indicate that empowering employees has a significant advantage supporting the growth and internationalization of the born global company. Based on these findings, practical and theoretical implications are presented and discussed in the paper.

Purpose This study explores the internationalization pathway of the Born Global, The Company, when entering the Mexican market. Background Companies have recently started realizing the importance of “being green” for their customers. Market demand shifts towards more natural and renewable materials that can prevent damage and enhance the well-being of individuals and societies.  Therefore, the market for biodegradable materials is growing and is full of possibilities. Today, many additives suppliers operate globally. Born Global firms stand out with their approach to the internationalization process. It is interesting to find out the uniqueness of the Born Global firm’s internationalization pathway, their motivation and behavior. Method  Qualitative data was collected through two in-depth semi-structured interviews with two top management team members of The Company behind the case study. Before the two main interviews, 4 pre-interviews took place, which helped the authors to become familiar with the environment and operations of the company.  This data was complemented with secondary data obtained though literature reviews.   Conclusion The authors were able to find several gaps in the Integrative Model of Small Firms Internationalization, by Bell et al. (2003). Firstly, they found that not all Born Global firms have a Home market to return to. Secondly, it was clear that the model was too rigid in its segmentation of types of Born Global firms. According to the research done by the authors, a firm can act as both an innovator and adopter, as a “Knowledge-intensive” and “Knowledge-based” firm, and can target both a niche and a mass market simultaneously.

Over the last two decades, the Born Global phenomenon has grown into a fascinating field of internationalization studies. Several perspectives have been studied to enrich this rather new area of business research, however little has been studied in context of the types of economies from where these firms emerge. More especially, insufficient amounts of literature cover the Born Global phenomenon from the emerging market context.   Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon from the emerging market context by investigating the factors that influence these born global firms to succeed in their international markets.   We conducted a case study of two companies one from Mexico and another from Ghana. We adopted a qualitative approach for the literature review, data collection and analysis during the course of the study. We also utilized theoretical concepts to build a conceptualized framework to guide our study. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in this research.   Our study revealed five main factors that influence born global firms from emerging economies to succeed in the international scene. These factors are both internal and external and are as follows; strategic management of the firm, networks, product differentiation, technology and markets. We found that the significance of each of the factors’ influence on the companies was specific to type of industry and product/service offering.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in the development of the nation's economy by providing employment and creating the economic growth. The management of the companies that are going international considers different motives before taking the step into the international market. The internationalization process involves risks and uncertainty significantly effected by challenges and barriers to SMEs from developing countries.

El objetivo del estudio fue determinar los factores que fueron influyen en la internacionalización del emprendimiento temprano del Perú en el año 2015. Es un estudio no experimental, correlacional causal de nivel explicativo aplicado a una población conformada por 474 emprendedores de pymes en etapa de emprendimiento temprano de la base Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015 Perú. Se encuentra entre los factores que se relacionan positivamente con la internacionalización dentro de los factores internos: producto innovador y expectativa de crecimiento; dentro de los factores de mercado y entorno: expansión de mercado sin tecnología; Factores del emprendedor: nivel educativo y actitud al riesgo. Una vez que se han encontrado factores que se relacionan positivamente con las pymes con exportaciones mayores al 25% (Born Global): factores internos: poca competencia; Factores del entorno o mercado: expansión con tecnología; Factores del emprendedor: edad. / The objective of the study was to determine the factors that were influencing the internationalization of early entrepreneurship in Peru in 2015. It is a non-experimental causal correlation study of an explanatory level applied to a population made up of 474 entrepreneurs of SMEs in the early stage of entrepreneurship. of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015 base in Peru. It is among the factors that are positively related to internationalization within internal factors: innovative product and expectation of growth; within the market and environment factors: market expansion without technology; Factors of the entrepreneur: educational level and attitude to risk. Once we have found factors that are positively related to SMEs with exports greater than 25% (Born Global): internal factors: little competition; Factors of the environment or market: expansion with technology; Factors of the entrepreneur: age. / Tesis

Much research has shown that Born Global firms are an important component of the global economy today. The Born Global firms bring innovations and welfare to the nations that they establish themselves in as well as make the world a more integrated place. Since these firms are important, they also face many difficulties on the global market, and in general the survival rate of these firms is considered lower, in comparison to the firms that use the more traditional way of internationalize. Therefore the motivations behind these firms can be useful to bring more welfare and development to the world market, as well as an understanding of the main factors behind the fast internationalization process. This thesis is based on the work of Andersson and Wictor (2003), model of the four influence factors governing Born Global firms; the globalization, the entrepreneur, the industry and the network. This thesis incorporates two other aspects of motivation, the resource perspective and the governmental, and has viewed four cases from four different industries in a qualitative case study.     This thesis demonstrates that there are two motivational factors which are above the others, The Entrepreneur(s) as well as the Industry and Market factors. Besides these two, three other sub - themes, the strategic alliances, the resource orientation as well as the knowledge as a resource of the entrepreneur, were found to be of importance. This thesis examines the main motivating factors of fast internationalization, as well as establishing the roles of the influence.

This study strives to investigate why some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Northeast Italy internationalize at inception and some internationalize gradually. The main literature regarding both, Born Globals and Stage-Models, were reviewed. In face of a high degree of fragmentation in the Born Global literature the study was developed through an abductive logic of reasoning. This basically means that we started by clustering already accepted internal and external factors, working then, towards a unified explanation. A qualitative study was developed with four SMEs. The main results show that no factor can singularly drive a company to internationalize at inception. Instead, the interaction of internal and external factors determines how SMEs internationalize. The findings provide empirical insights on the internationalization behavior of SMEs and redress the apparent theoretical gap in this field.