The phenomenon of Born Globals in particular to the internationalization process has been highlighted by many scholars. The insufficient of the existing researches to the ability of Born Globals going international since their inceptions with limited resources encouraged us to study more in-depth. Resource-based View (RBV) and firm‟s competitive advantage are chosen as the theoretical framework. Three Swedish Born Globals were chosen as case studies, the data was collected by semi-structure and e-mail interviews which within-case and cross-case analysis were applied. The empirical data and analysis draws us to the conclusion that human resource especially entrepreneurs and network are the key firm resources that significantly contribute to Born Globals‟ establishment, internationalization and competitive advantage. However, the finding is highlighted that entrepreneur has a crucial role to both establishment and internationalization stages. Entrepreneur‟s personal network has high contribution when Born Globals is started up while firm‟s network plays more important role at the internationalization stage. By using network, Born Globals gain an easier way to find financial and operating resource. Moreover, entrepreneur‟s capability is the main key resource that creates competitiveness to Born Global firms. Future research suggestions and implications are discussed in the conclusion.

International entrepreneurship is a prominent phenomenon in contemporary research, because of the ease of internationalisation for companies. Start-up hubs in Europe are booming and especially web-based tech companies internationalise quickly. This new type of company, which internationalises almost immediately after foundation, is called born global. Research showed that despite the interest in born global tech start-ups, there is no representative model visualising the process of their internationalisation. Therefore, secondary research is conducted, as well as empirical research in the form of qualitative interviews with three representative, successfully internationalised tech start-ups from Europe. These companies are the music streaming service Spotify, social marketing SaaS Facelift and business management SaaS Ivy. The internationalisation factors resulting from this research can be divided into a preparation phase, possible strategy development and an implementation phase. Within these phases, factors are separated into company- internal and external influences. Based on these findings, a new model on the internationalisation process of web- based tech start-ups is developed. / Internationell entreprenörskap är ett framstående fenomen inom modern forskning eftersom det blir enklare för företag att expandera över nationsgränserna. Startup-hubbar växer fram överallt i Europa och framförallt webbaserade techbolag är snabba med sin internationaliseringsprocess. Det handlar huvudsakligen om en viss typ av företag som kallas för born global, vilket innebär att bolaget börjar sälja sina produkter eller tjänster internationellt direkt efter grundandet. Forskning kring ämnet visar att det finns ett stort intresse för denna typ av företag men inga representativa modeller som visualiserar processen bakom deras internationalisering. Därför genomfördes sekundär forskning samt empirisk forskning i form av tre kvalitativa intervjuer med representanter från framgångsrika och internationella tech startups från Europa. Undersökningen ledde till upptäckten av olika faktorer som påverkar internationaliseringsprocessen. Dessa faktorer kategoriseras som interna eller externa påverkningar på företaget. Internationaliseringsfaktorerna kan delas in i tre faser - förberedelse, möjlig utveckling av strategi och implementering. Baserat på dessa resultat har en modell om internationaliseringsprocessen för born global tech startups utvecklats.

An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expand their businesses into foreign markets. Some SMEs begin to operate abroad soon after their establishment. These so-called born globals demonstrate a more rapid internationalisation compared with other SMEs. This thesis develops a deeper understanding of the internationalisation process of SMEs, by studying how born globals and other SMEs develop foreign market knowledge during the international expansion. The internationalisation process is divided into three phases; the pre-firm internationalisation phase, the initial internationalisation phase and the continued internationalisation phase. Based on a qualitative study of 14 biotech SMEs and a questionnaire survey of 188 SMEs from various industries, new insights on the internationalisation process of SMEs and born globals are presented. By extending the analysis of SMEs’ internationalisation to a phase prior to their establishment and by continuing to follow these firms during their operations in foreign markets, the findings of this thesis show how the knowledge and personal networks of key individuals relate to the firm’s development of foreign market knowledge. The thesis also advances the understanding of how an SME develops foreign market knowledge from its business network relationships. In summary, the result of this thesis shows that a rapid expansion in several foreign markets can hold back an SME’s development of foreign market knowledge and lead to difficulties in developing the firm’s operations in the continued internationalisation phase. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009. Sammanfattning jämte 6 uppsatser

The subject of internationalization of Born Global small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that start cross-border business operations shortly after the company’s foundation has received growing scholarly attention in the last decades. Although the research of the influence of the market knowledge - information a firm has about a specific foreign market, on internationalization decisions was developing rapidly to account for the challenges of the established internationalization theories, multi-factor comprehensive analysis of the influence of all the interlinked factors of the market knowledge remains overlooked by research. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the impact of foreign market knowledge on the decisions of business-to-business (B2B) Born Global SMEs regarding when, where to, and how to internationalize, and concerning the ways of operating in the foreign market(s). To fulfill the purpose of the paper, the authors carried out a qualitative multiple case study with six Born Global SMEs working in the deep tech industry which has started international operations up to one year after the establishment. Fieldwork consisted of 14 virtual interviews with the Marketing Managers and Founders of the firms. The results of this study show that the process through which the studied B2B Born Global SMEs internationalize is very similar among all companies: it starts between a few weeks up to one year after the inception of the company, and it follows a typical progressive process (first, the firms have one of their employees or external representatives physically going to the foreign market of interest; then establish the partnerships with local companies; later appoint a local representative to the market, and lastly establish a subsidiary company). Next, the research illustrates that the studied Born Global SMEs acquire foreign market knowledge from external parties by the method of grafting. Furthermore, the study also concluded that there are three groups of factors of the foreign market, which are categorized based on the firms’ perception of the factors’ influence on decisions of B2B Born Global SMEs about when, where to, and how to internationalize. These groups are: important (economic opportunities, networks, political context), disregarded (language, culture, and legal regulations) and overlooked (political context, legal regulations, and language) factors. Lastly, such foreign market knowledge factors were found to influence the decisions of B2B Born Global SMEs’ about ways of operations in the foreign market(s): political situation, economic opportunities, and legal regulation impact the companies’ decisions about operations in the foreign market(s).

Submitted by Mia Saetre Bernhardsen (21288@novasbe.pt) on 2016-11-30T12:04:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI Thesis Mia Bernhardsen.pdf: 945739 bytes, checksum: 2dd70ca4ba46c57038cd5d7107f42d03 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josineide da Silva Santos Locatelli (josineide.locatelli@fgv.br) on 2016-11-30T13:53:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI Thesis Mia Bernhardsen.pdf: 945739 bytes, checksum: 2dd70ca4ba46c57038cd5d7107f42d03 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-30T17:27:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI Thesis Mia Bernhardsen.pdf: 945739 bytes, checksum: 2dd70ca4ba46c57038cd5d7107f42d03 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-03 / Within the field of international business and entrepreneurship, the following project investigates an underexplored topic, namely the post- establishment performance of maturing Born Globals relative to younger Born Globals in Hispanic America. The scope is delimited to viewing performance as of sales growth in the manufacturing sector. A quantitative approach is applied, where firm- level secondary data from 14 Latin American countries is analyzed using multiple regression with interaction terms. The results illustrate that maturing Born Globals tend to have lower sales growth compared to younger Born Globals, while failing to detect that product innovation affect younger and maturing Born Globals differently. Access to finance as a moderator appear to be insignificant in the full sample, while the findings in the Peruvian context illustrate that the sales growth of maturing Peruvian Born Globals is more negatively affected by difficulties in obtaining finance relative to their younger counterparts. / No âmbito dos campos de conhecimento -negócios internacionais e empreendedorismo- o seguinte projeto visa investigar um tema pouco explorado: o desempenho pós-estabelecimento de Born Globals maduras em relação com o de empresas Born Globals jovens na América hispânica. O escopo é limitado ao crescimento de vendas na indústria manufatureira. Foi utilizada uma abordagem quantitativa com informacão de 14 países latino-americanos ao nivel secundário das empresas, a través de regressao multipla com interação de termos. Os resultados mostram que Born Globals em maturidade tendem a ter um crescimento de vendas menor em comparação com jovens born globals. No entanto, não foi detectado uma evolução diferente no que toca a inovação do produto entre as empresas anteriormente referidas. O acesso a financiamento como um moderador parecem ser insignificantes na amostra total, entretanto os resultados no contexto peruano ilustram que o crescimento das vendas dos Born Globals em maturidade é afetado de forma negativa por dificuldades na obtenção de financiamento em relação às contrapartes jovens.