International Ventures Research Articles

Outward foreign investment by transnational entrepreneurs: Insights from emerging economies

AbstractThis research considers how transnational entrepreneurs in emerging economies identify and develop opportunities for investment into international ventures. Specifically, this study seeks to identify common drivers for outward investment by transnational entrepreneurs from their country of origin (Brazil and India) to their adopted country (the US). Findings indicate three common drivers of this type of internationalization: formal education, effectual logic, and the leveraging of perceived market differences. Furthermore, the data show that entrepreneurs prefer a gradual process of investment rather than a large‐scale initial investment during the exploitation of international opportunities in the adopted country. The results of this study have important practical implications and are valuable additions to the scholarly understanding of the growing field of transnational entrepreneurship.

Anywhere in the World? The Internationalization of Small Entrepreneurial Ventures using a Social Media Platform.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11575-023-00510-8.

Speed of internationalization of new ventures and survival in export markets

Speed of internationalization may refer to how early a new venture goes abroad as well as how fast it expands its activities post-entry. The present paper incorporates both aspects and analyzes to what extent several dimensions of speed influence the ability of new ventures to survive in export markets. Based upon extant theories, two perspectives are deduced – a Learning perspective and a Resource perspective – leading to partly contrasting hypotheses. The hypotheses are tested based upon a unique data set consisting of all new ventures established in Norway a specific year that started to export goods in the following nine years. Among the findings are that survival rates increase when ventures go international immediately after inception and when they expand rapidly into new countries rather than focusing on expanding their export share in a limited number of markets, thus lending support to the Resource perspective.

Born global in 1847: International entrepreneurship at Siemens

AbstractThe early internationalization of new ventures has been described as a contemporary phenomenon enabled by globalization and digital technologies. However, today's multinational enterprise Siemens, founded in 1847, fits extant definitions of born globals. Based on this historical case, this study seeks to answer the question: What are enduring and contextually invariant aspects of early internationalization processes? An abductive analysis of the company's first 3 decades finds six relevant and emergent themes. We contribute to international entrepreneurship research by presenting evidence that early internationalization is not a new phenomenon, showing support for multiple extant findings, and providing new insights for otherwise underexplored themes. We also provide future research directions regarding personal‐level processes in international new ventures based on the analyzed 30 years.

The digitalisation as gender equaliser? The import and export of digitally delivered services in shaping female entrepreneurship in European countries

PurposeThe article examines whether cross-border trade in digitally delivered services (DDSs) has an influence on European female entrepreneurship. Two research questions were asked to assess the potential impact of trade in DDSs both on the import and export sides.Design/methodology/approachTo answer the research questions, the panel data for 26 European countries for the years 2008–2019 were implemented to estimate panel regression models. Based on the results of variance inflation factors (VIFs) and Breusch–Pagan and Hausman tests, the estimations of panel models were conducted for female entrepreneurship as a dependent variable and measures of import and export of digitally delivered services as independent variables.FindingsThe imports of digitally delivered services positively affect female entrepreneurship in European countries, whilst the impact of the export of digitally delivered services is statistically insignificant. The possibility of being a customer of digitally delivered services through its import may become a gender equaliser in entrepreneurship. However, as differences in digital competencies and growth intentions prevent women from acting as the providers of digitally delivered services, the export of DDSs can sustain the existing gender gap in entrepreneurship.Practical implicationsThe research findings provide the added value in the field of female entrepreneurship, referring to institutional theory and human capital theory. The import of DDSs seems to support female entrepreneurs through the reduction of cultural distance, whilst the human capital theory gains the perspective of limited digital competencies needed to export DDSs as a pathway to the internationalisation of women's ventures. The practical implications for trade policy, digitalisation and gender equality should aim not only at supporting women's export propensity, but should also focus on the development of their digital competencies.Originality/valueInstead of commonly used perspective of international entrepreneurship, the authors implemented the lens of cross-border trade to check whether there is a linkage between internationalisation, measured by imports and exports of DDSs and female entrepreneurship. Trade economists neglect the gender dimension in their studies of pro-growth internationalisation. In contrast, research on female entrepreneurship does not consider the potential of cross-border trade in DDSs as a gender equaliser.

Youth and internationalism in the twentieth century: an introduction

ABSTRACT This essay introduces a special issue on the complex and contradictory ways in which young activists and youth organisations have encountered and experienced internationalism. It argues for the need to pay greater attention to the ambiguous encounters – involving seemingly benevolent aims but also blind spots and prejudices – that were created by transnational youth mobilities and by young people’s participation in international ventures. We first consider meanings of ‘youth’ within different twentieth-century contexts and comment on the transnational mobilities in which young people participated. We then outline how youth-based internationalism took different shapes, discussing its left-wing and Christian manifestations in particular, and noting how internationalism was articulated through different forms of collective action. The essay makes a case for combining perspectives from social and transnational history to demonstrate the complex character of internationalism, which different groups of young people experienced as both empowering and exclusionary.

Internal Venture or External Founding? Organizational Determinants of Gender Differences in Technology Enterprise

Internal Venture or External Founding? Organizational Determinants of Gender Differences in Technology Enterprise

Leveraging the Lab: How Pre-Founding R&D Collaboration Influences the Internationalization Timing of Academic Spin-Offs

Research shows that early internationalization is more likely when founders have international and business-related experience. But what if experience was obtained in other ways? We study the scientist-founders of 149 academic spin-offs (ASOs), using cognition theory to argue for a curvilinear relationship between breadth of pre-founding R&D collaboration and internationalization timing. Our longitudinal study combines survey and patent data to show that increased breadth of collaboration with international scientists increases and then decreases the likelihood of early internationalization. The results are similar but less robust for collaboration with industry partners. Our findings suggest that studies on experience in new venture internationalization underestimate the role of R&D collaboration and the research-based heritage of many new firms.

Business group affiliation and internationalization of new ventures: Moderating role of industry and liberalization

Internationalization of new ventures (INV) has been the interest of inquiry for more than three decades. Though many researchers have looked at different factors and their impact on the speed, scope, and intensity of internationalization in new ventures, this stream of research requires more attention in the context of emerging economies. The study examines the role of a firm’s business group affiliation and its impact on internationalization of new ventures in emerging economies. It also explains how industry concentration and liberalization of the economy change the relationship between business group affiliation and internationalization. Based on a dataset of new ventures from 67 industries founded in India during the period of 1996 to 2014, our results suggest that ventures with business group affiliation focus on the domestic market, and the focus changes from the domestic market to international when there is high industry concentration and with the liberalization of the economy.

Measuring Collaborative Synergies with Advanced Real Options: MNEs’ Sequential Acquisitions of International Ventures

This paper aims to extend the real options theory valuing strategic collaborative synergies by advanced real options with changing volatility and contributes to the international business literature on MNEs’ sequential acquisitions of international ventures. The proposition is that collaborative synergies can be valued with advanced real options with changing volatility when an MNE is pursuing the sequential acquisition of an international venture and the MNE’s stock volatility is changing at the time of deciding on a full takeover. The paper discusses how recombining and non-recombining lattices with constant and changing volatilities can be employed to value the collaborative synergies of sequential international acquisitions. The theoretical proposition has been justified with the explanatory case study: Natura Cosméticos S.A.’s (Brazil) sequential acquisition of the Aesop brand (Australia). In conclusion, the paper discusses its findings, contributions, limitations, and future work.

Digitalization, institutions and new venture internationalization

This study examines the effect of digitalization on the internationalization of new ventures and further investigates the influence of a home country's presence of institutional voids and digital infrastructure on the extent of internationalization by new ventures, with the prediction that a home country's institutional voids and a weak digital infrastructure strengthen the positive relationship between new ventures' digitalization and internationalization. Applying multilevel modeling on a sample of more than 6000 entrepreneurs from 62 countries the study offers empirical support for these predictions. The findings are robust to alternative specifications. Entrepreneurs using the internet to sell their products and services are more likely to focus on customers in foreign markets when they face institutional voids and a lack of digital infrastructure in their home countries. The study contributes as follows: From a theoretical view, it provides a better understanding of the boundary conditions of the digitalization-new venture internationalization linkage. From a practical perspective, the findings of the study suggest the complementary roles of institutional voids and digital infrastructure at home to help entrepreneurs grow domestically and facilitate their internationalization.

E-commerce Policy Environment, Digital Platform, and Internationalization of Chinese New Ventures: The Moderating Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic.

Drawing on institutional theory, this study investigates how institutional pressure can affect digital platform risk. Specifically, it examines whether two types of institutional pressure - domestic market e-commerce policy uncertainty and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty - affect the perceived digital platform risk for international new ventures (INVs) and its relationship with their scope of internationalization. The recent crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has further impacted this new phenomenon, thus we examine its effects on the relationships between/among domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainties, digital platform risk, and the internationalization scope of INVs. We conduct four waves of a survey to test the Covid-19 effects as well as to minimize common method bias, analyzing the final sample of 394 responses from 260 Chinese INVs using structural equation modeling. The results show that domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainties positively affect the digital platform risk for INVs, with foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty having a stronger positive impact. Moreover, we find that the Covid-19 pandemic interacts asymmetrically with the relationship between domestic vs. foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty and the digital platform risk for INVs. In addition, the pandemic strengthens the negative relationship between digital platform risk and the internationalization scope of INVs. This research broadens and strengthens our understanding of e-commerce policy and international business in the context of INVs' internationalization.

Institutional support for entrepreneurship and new venture internationalization: Evidence from small firms in Ghana

Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that emerging market new venture internationalization is impacted by the entrepreneur-institution fit (the compatibility between home institutional support for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial alertness, and political ties). Using two sets of primary data from 203 and 194 Ghanaian new ventures respectively, we tested our three-way interaction model. Our results show home country institutional support for entrepreneurship has a positive relationship with new venture internationalization. This relationship appears the strongest for founders with higher levels of entrepreneurial alertness and weaker political ties. This paper enriches the literature of international entrepreneurship and institutional theory by (1) introducing an overlooked entrepreneurship factor, entrepreneurial alertness, to the international entrepreneurship literature; (2) context-theorizing the construct of emerging market new venture internationalization; and (3) drawing upon the context-relevant formal institution (institutional profile for entrepreneurship) and connecting it with the informal institution (political ties) to investigate their impacts on new venture internationalization.

Transnational Success Made in Spain

Police dramas are one of the most important genres on television, both to represent social issues and reflect ideological changes. Spanish crime dramas peaked in the 2000s and boasted huge, home-grown success stories, achieving higher ratings than US imports. However, after the economic crisis in 2008 and subsequent cuts to television budgets, Spain’s TV producers had to seek international opportunities. Creating a virtue out of necessity, an increasing number of drama producers were going global and beginning to reap the rewards of international ventures. One such venture is <em>Los misterios de Laura/The Mysteries of Laura</em> (2009–14), a wonderfully light-hearted crime comedy about Police Inspector Laura Lebrel, a divorced mother of twins with a chaotic personal and professional life. This article examines the Televisión española and the American NBC productions <em>Los misterios de Laura</em> and <em>The Mysteries of Laura</em>, respectively, in order to explore the dis/continuities of this transnational success formula, focusing on three key issues: female police officers, office politics, and working mothers. Central to my discussion will be the significance of humour in the workplace as a meaning-making cultural practice. I use humour theories from TV and Critical Management studies to ascertain the main and sometimes subtle differences in the representations of a working mother’s life.

The impact of entrepreneurial team experience on the speed of new venture internationalization

The impact of entrepreneurial team experience on the speed of new venture internationalization

Impacts of managerial capabilities on perceived international performance: mediating role of international opportunity-driven behavior

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between managerial capabilities, international opportunity-driven behavior and perceived international performance at an individual-level analysis.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model is tested using data collected from 190 managers of international ventures from Colombia, an emerging economy in Latin America. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings reveal that international opportunity-driven behavior of individuals becomes a mediating managerial capability to achieve international performance under evolving and changing conditions. The results show three managerial capabilities are key drivers when pursuing international opportunities. Different from what the internationalization research claims, this study reveals that some hypotheses about the relationship between some managerial capabilities and perceived international performance are not confirmed in the context of an emerging economy.Research limitations/implicationsThe specific limitations of the study open avenues for future research. However, the authors propose five research avenues to improve the generalizability of the results.Practical implicationsThis study provides managers, entrepreneurs and policymakers suggestions. Thus, the authors offer a repertoire of managerial capabilities that emerging market entrepreneurs should develop to pursue opportunities across borders and achieve international performance.Social implicationsManagers should develop social capital capabilities by establishing networks with other relevant organizations and business partners, both in the domestic and international markets, to leverage enough knowledge that helps them to overcome the liability of newness and foreignness.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the knowledge by examining international opportunity-driven behavior at an individual-level analysis and bringing emerging economies as new contexts that may enrich the international business and international entrepreneurship literature.

Institutional Support for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Internationalization

We build on institutional theory to predict that (1) home country institutional support for entrepreneurship promotes new venture internationalization, (2) entrepreneurial alertness positively impacts this relationship, and (3) political ties negatively impact the moderating effect of entrepreneurial alertness. We confirm our hypotheses with two sets of primary data collected in the emerging economy of Ghana. We conclude that home country institutional support for entrepreneurship exhibits the strongest effect on new venture internationalization for founders with higher levels of entrepreneurial alertness and weaker political ties.

Institutional Dependence and Capability Erosion in New Venture Internationalization

Entrepreneurial startups may opportunistically leverage supportive institutions to overcome liabilities of newness and even undertake risky international business venturing. Nonetheless, they may become overly dependent on revenue from these institutional sources and slide into “institutional dependence.” We situate our analysis in this context as most of the leading exporting economies have adopted tax rebate policies to promote exports. We hypothesize that the degree of profit dependence on tax rebates negatively affects technological innovation in the entrepreneurial firms. Empirical analyses based on a large panel dataset of Chinese manufacturing startups provide support for our hypotheses. This study contributes to the strategy literature by identifying the counterintuitively erosive effects of seemingly supportive institutions.

Better disagree? Corporate Venture Evolution and Motives among Parent Firm and Corporate Ventures

The strategies of internal corporate ventures generally evolve as these new businesses explore their business environments. Parent firms and venture’s motives guide corporate venture strategic evolution. Deviating from common belief on the merits of consensus, our research uses a dialectical process theory lens on strategic change and hypothesizes that venture founding motive divergence influences corporate venture strategic evolution. Our empirical findings on dyadic data from parent firms and from their corporate internal ventures reveal contextualized effects about how venture founding motive divergence is associated with the degree to which ventures strategically evolve. We reveal that the advantages of motive divergence depend on dynamism of the environment into which the venture is launched as well as the venture’s level of operations autonomy.

Categorizing and Crowdfunding Vegan Ventures: An Empirical Enquiry on Nascent Market Categories

Resource acquisition for new market categories is an imposing challenge, and entrepreneurs overcome this by establishing legitimacy for the category and their ventures within. In the rising vegan food movement, to become a legitimate mainstream food offering, rather than a niche category, while moral legitimacy is a given to the believers, it requires cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy to be acquired through the cognitive and agentic roles of category entrepreneurs, through non-vegan practices. Utilizing narratives of 645 vegan ventures on Kickstarter, our study reveals the nuanced relationship of claims of cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy with the narrative distinctiveness leading to successful financial resource acquisition. We propose that the cognitive role of nascent category entrepreneurs draws upon internal venture development activities that can be identified across three primary phases of development – ideation, prototype, and commercialization, which they seek to build into their narratives as claims of cognitive legitimacy. Our study has both theoretical and practical implications for new market categories, particularly with strong cultural norms.