Born Globals : Underlying Factors to Rapid Internationalization

Abstract The process of internationalization of firms has in the past been seen as something that is costly and time-consuming. For those reasons, companies took long before they started expanding internationally, growing strong in domestic markets first. However, now there are companies being started, that right from the outset start producing and selling on international markets. Companies that behave this way are a rather new phenomenon and are known as Born Globals. The purpose of our thesis was to increase the understanding of factors that are important for explaining Born Globals rapid internationalization, and also how these factors have affected the process. Most of the research done on Born Globals has been of high-tech companies. However, the phenomenon is not limited to them. Therefore we researched one high-tech company and one low-tech to see if there are similarities in the driving forces behind their rapid internationalization. Four factors have been addressed repeatedly when trying to explain Born Global’s behavior: Globalization, Industry, Entrepreneur and Networks. These factors were used as a theoretical framework for our thesis. However, our findings point out that to gain a deeper understanding, the interdependent relationship between the variables should also be taken into consideration. After gathering empirical data through interviews with key people in each company, our findings point out that access to complimentary resources and a possibility to control them efficiently was important in explaining both companies rapid internationalization. By focusing on the core competencies of the company and outsourcing other value-adding functions, companies are able to internationalize rapidly even with scarce resources. Access to resources through networks, as well as entrepreneurial ambition helped speed up this process. Keywords: Born Globals, Rapid Internationalizatio