A springboard to foreign markets : A multi-case study on Swedish international new ventures

Internationalization is a strategy which is regarded as a trend where firms expand their business globally to achieve competitive advantages, especially for firms with limited resources. International new ventures are firms that are international from inception, con- nected to them is a certain failure rate. Further, entrepreneurial orientation is seen as a strategy for firms to implement risks-taking attitudes, proactiveness and innovativeness within such firms. Different scholars also show the importance of strong personal and business networks for international new ventures. The three dimensions of international entrepreneurial orientation can aid a firm to prepare themselves to the international envi- ronment. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to analyze the influence of international entrepre- neurial orientation and networks on the performance of international new ventures. How- ever, emphasis on specific kinds of networks or performance has been left out. The dif- ferent theories have been investigated separately and in correlation to each other to pre- sent what research has shown so far. To portray how the different theories are correlated a conceptual framework derived from the literature has been developed. This research has been conducted following the abductive approach, since there is a short- age of research concerning the Swedish context and the combination of the three theories. To enable the investigation of these relationships, semi-structured interviews with differ- ent Swedish international new ventures operating in different industries have been con- ducted. In order to be able to see similarities and differences between the cases a cross- case analysis has been applied. One of the results of the study have found that the effect of networks on performance of international new ventures come in different forms. The findings also show that interna- tional entrepreneurial orientation has a mostly positive impact to different extends on performance. However, the outcomes in relation to international entrepreneurial orienta- tion have presented other factors, which are not included in the concept of international entrepreneurial orientation, having a positive impact on performance. The study under- lines the importance of having both constructs in order to enhance the performance of international new ventures