Internationalization Drivers of Early-stage Entrepreneurial Firms: Resources and Institutions

Abstract

This study builds a multilevel model to examine how country-level institutional dimensions impact the resource-based factors on the level of internationalization of entrepreneurial activity. It proposes and tests an integrative framework. It combines the resource-based theory and the institutional theory to develop a model of internationalization and empirically tests this model on a representative sample of nascent entrepreneurs using a multilevel estimation design. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys, the final sample consists of 144,066 individuals from 56 countries. Cross-level (random-effects) moderation analysis is used to explicate the influence of a country's institution on the effects of the resource-based determinants (entrepreneurial, organizational, and technological resources) on internationalization by early stage entrepreneurs, and this method enables the study of country-level growth slopes. The results of empirical research confirm the roles of resource-based...