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Exploring the antecedents of born-global companies’ international development

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Abstract

In recent years the emergence of so-called born-global firms -firms which start their international activities from their start up- has challenged traditional theoretical assumptions about the incremental process of internationalization, giving birth to the development of a new stream of studies. In order to give a contribution to this area of studies, the purpose of this paper is to empirically test a model to explain how well some factors are able to explain the level of international development of born global companies. A mail survey was conducted within a sample of born-global Italian companies, belonging to the most representative industries for the Italian economy (metal products and machinery equipment; furniture; chemicals and food). Findings support the validity of a model including five significant predictors: uncertainty and dynamism in the firm’s industry, operating in niche-based industries, markets’ and segments’ knowledge held by the founder/managers, product innovation and firms’ innovativeness, access to networks. Findings are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, University of Bergamo, Via dei Caniana, 2, 24127, Bergamo, Italy

    Gianpaolo Baronchelli & Fabio Cassia

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  1. Gianpaolo Baronchelli
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  2. Fabio Cassia
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Correspondence to Gianpaolo Baronchelli.

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Baronchelli, G., Cassia, F. Exploring the antecedents of born-global companies’ international development. Int Entrep Manag J 10, 67–79 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-011-0197-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-011-0197-9

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