Abstract
Do high-performing entrepreneurs in the technology sector in emerging economies have more, or different, transnational experience than the founders of high-performing non-technology businesses? Employing Vietnam as a case study, we find that they do; the founders of high-performing technology-oriented businesses are 15 times more likely to have transnational experience in the U.S. compared to their non-technology peers, and are 35 times more likely to be graduates of American universities compared to founders of high-performing, non-technology-oriented business. The founders of high-performing non-technology businesses are more ‘place-based’, as they have predominantly lived and studied in Vietnam. Our data and methods are comprised of a logistic regression analysis of the biographical details of Vietnam's 143 highest-performing entrepreneurs; the founders of the 76 Vietnam's (non-technology-based) companies with the highest market capitalizations and the 67 founders of Vietnam's highest performing technology-oriented companies, in terms of private equity fundraising, as of April 2020. The paper's theoretical contribution is the advance it makes in analytical explanations of why technology-based entrepreneurs have more transnational experience, especially in the U.S., than high-performing founders of businesses in other sectors; this helps extend theory on the relationship between social and human capital and entrepreneurial performance, specifically in the technology sector.
Highlights
High-performing, technology-enabled entrepreneurship in emerging economies has been found to be associated with higher rates of trans national experience, with the founders completing university studies abroad, especially in the U.S In their studies of Chinese, Indian and Taiwanese technology entrepreneurs, Kenney et al [1] and Batjargal [2] found that returnees who studied at American universities constituted a significant share of the entrepreneurs who founded high-performing technology companies
We offer an advance for studies of the role of social and human capital as a determinant of entrepreneurial performance, especially in emerging economies
We have shown differential rates and directions of transnational experiences underpinning two sets of Vietnam’s highestperforming entrepreneurs; those who founded the country’s highestperforming non-technology-oriented companies, in terms of market cap, and those whose technology-focused businesses have raised the largest amount of private capital
Summary
High-performing, technology-enabled entrepreneurship in emerging economies has been found to be associated with higher rates of trans national experience, with the founders completing university studies abroad, especially in the U.S In their studies of Chinese, Indian and Taiwanese technology entrepreneurs, Kenney et al [1] and Batjargal [2] found that returnees who studied at American universities constituted a significant share of the entrepreneurs who founded high-performing technology companies. Drawing on theory on the relationship between social and human capital and entrepreneurial performance, in this paper we offer: (1) novel empirical evidence of the transnational experience of Vietnam’s highest-performing entrepreneurs, and (2) appreciative theory to un pack why technology-based entrepreneurs have more transnational experience than high-performing entrepreneurs in other sectors. We extend the theoretical tools for conceptualizing and testing how highperforming, high-technology entrepreneurship may be distinct from high-performing entrepreneurs operating in other sectors, in terms of the transnationally-derived social and human capital of the founders This approach is novel, as existing research [1,2] has not compared technology sectors to high-performing entrepreneurs in other sectors. We conclude the paper with a discussion of scholarly and policy implications, the study’s lim itations and avenues for further research
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