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New Venture Internationalization and the Cluster Life Cycle: Insights from Ireland’s Indigenous Software Industry

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The Changing Geography of International Business

Part of the book series: The Academy of International Business ((AIB))

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Abstract

The internationalization of new and small firms has been a long-standing concern of researchers in international business (Coviello and McAuley, 1999; Ruzzier et al., 2006). This topic has been re-invigorated over the last decade by the burgeoning literature on so-called ‘born globals’ (BG) or ‘international new ventures’ (INV) — businesses that confound the expectations of traditional theory by being active internationally at, or soon after, inception (Aspelund et al., 2007; Bell, 1995; Rialp et al., 2005). Until quite recently, this literature had not really considered how the home regional environment of a new venture might influence its internationalization behaviour. However, a handful of recent studies have shown that being founded in a geographic industry ‘cluster’ can positively influence the likelihood of a new venture internationalizing (e.g., Fernhaber et al., 2008; Libaers and Meyer, 2011).1 This chapter seeks to build on these recent contributions by further probing the relationship between clusters and new venture internationalization. Specifically, taking inspiration from recent work in the thematic research stream on clusters (which spans the fields of economic geography, regional studies and industrial dynamics), the chapter explores how the emergence and internationalization of new ventures might be affected by the ‘cluster life cycle’ context within which they are founded. This issue is examined through a revelatory longitudinal case study of Ireland’s indigenous software cluster. The study investigates the origins and internationalization behaviour of ‘leading’ Irish software ventures but, in contrast to many existing studies, it seeks to understand these firms within the context of the Irish software cluster’s emergence and evolution through a number of ‘life-cycle’ stages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

    Mike Crone (Senior Lecturer in International Business)

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  1. Mike Crone
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool Management School, UK

    Gary Cook (Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics and Head of Economics, Finance and Accounting) & Jennifer Johns (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics and Head of Economics, Finance and Accounting) &  (Senior Lecturer)

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© 2013 Mike Crone

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Crone, M. (2013). New Venture Internationalization and the Cluster Life Cycle: Insights from Ireland’s Indigenous Software Industry. In: Cook, G., Johns, J. (eds) The Changing Geography of International Business. The Academy of International Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137277503_14

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