How do internationalizing firms emerge?

Abstract

Entrepreneurship today is truly global: international sources of supplies, services, and customers are available to anyone online, and large-scale operations are no longer required to take advantage of global talent, supply, and distribution networks. Yet we do not have a comprehensive understanding of how international firms emerge. Building on previous research at the intersection of entrepreneurship and international business, we propose a theoretical framework for identifying and examining entrepreneurial emergence that is international from the start. This framework builds on the four well-known qualities of emerging organizations (boundaries, resources, intention, and exchange), and three key aspects of international business operations (speed, scope and intensity of internationalization). The resulting model has the potential to help researchers refocus their attention on everyday forms of emerging international firms that are ubiquitous, yet seldom explored.