New venture internationalization and performance: the role of founding team and alliances

Abstract

Internationalization is an important strategic option for new ventures by providing growth opportunities. This study firstly examines how founding team, alliances and license strategy influence new venture internationalization, and then explores whether new venture internationalization affects its performance. Using panel data of 4,928 new ventures between 2007 and 2009 from the Kauffman Firm Survey, the study finds that the number of active founders and foreign founders, alliances with university and other firms, and license-out strategy are positively related to new venture internationalization. More importantly, it is found that new venture internationalization helps increase revenues. This finding advances a better understanding of why many new ventures go international in their early stage though facing various resource constraints.