The Anatomy of a Pivot and Dynamic Capabilities in an Early Stage Internationalization

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how early stage born globals pivot to survive, struggling as they do to overcome inherent liabilities of newness and foreignness. I employ a strategy-as-practice perspective to conduct an autoethnography on a born global in Mexico and Canada. The findings present micro-foundational insights on a sequence of pivots that changed the business model radically. The pivots are an outcome of the entrepreneur’s internal strategizing. The paper contributes to the dynamic capabilities literature by illuminating the process of strategizing as recursive and consisting of imagining, abandoning and reconstituting strategy. Additionally, for the strategy-as-practice literature, the paper contributes needed research on the domain of individual and macro levels of praxis.