Mid Sweden University

Relatively little is known about how born-global companies (BGs) innovate abroad during their lifecycle or about how the international innovation activities of BGs are related to their social capital. The network concepts of relational, structural, and cognitive social capital are almost completely neglected in the international business literature on BGs' innovation activities according to a dynamic approach. The aim of this research is to study the direct and indirect effects of structural, cognitive and relational social capital on BGs' product innovation by including the mediating role of market and technological knowledge acquisition. We develop a set of hypotheses that we combine and test in a structural equation model. We provide results with theoretical and practical implications for BGs in terms of both social capital and innovation abroad.

Market entry performance is critical during internationalisation; prevailing views suggest that firms need to carefully plan their entry before putting the plan into action. This article focuses on three attributes affecting the possibility and usefulness of making a pre-planned market entry: unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment. We develop six hypotheses tested on a sample of 250 entries; our main finding is that improvisation plays a mediating role in relation to performance in unpredictable markets. The analysis reveals that the relationship between unpredictability and network commitment is not significant, while the effect of unpredictability on market entry performance is negative. These findings suggest implications for internationalisation and international entrepreneurship theory. For managers and entrepreneurs, we show that unpredictability weakens market entry performance, a negative effect that can be mitigated if the entrant firm improvises.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand knowledge grafting through localized professionals in the internationalization of the firm. Knowledge grafting refers to firms increasing their knowledge stock by acquiring new staff, and while the concept is not new in studies on firms’ internationalization, there is little understanding of the characteristics of the individuals carrying the knowledge, the types of knowledge grafted and how it contributes to a market entry process. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an explorative study with a multiple-case research design and purposely selected five localized Swedish managers working for Russian subsidiaries of Swedish firms. Face-to-face interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on three types of knowledge: general foreign market knowledge, social network knowledge and professional knowledge. The authors also considered both private and professional ties. Findings: The findings show that characteristics of the localized professional and the firm can influence the type of knowledge grafted and how it is used. The findings also highlight the key role of the individual as knowledge carrier and show an alternative way to obtain knowledge in firm internationalization. Research limitations/implications: This study comes with limitations. Only Swedish firms entering Russia with wholly owned subsidiaries have been considered. Further studies comparing knowledge grafting with firms in different entry mode, varying stage of market entry, as well as other countries of origin can further enrich our understanding. Future studies can also focus on localized professionals to shed light on the knowledge transfer between them and other individuals within the firms and the potential impact of their departure on knowledge grafting. Practical implications: Internationalizing firms should pay attention to the opportunity of grafting knowledge by appointing localized professionals already living in the market. Governmental agencies in the host county can be a valuable source for identifying foreign nationals of the same origin as the firm. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the individual level of knowledge grafting and to examine how localized professionals acquire knowledge to support firms in internationalization. 

Opportunity seeking has become increasingly important for explaining firm internationalization, but our understanding of how opportunity is mediated within international networks is limited. This study probes the concept of network-mediated opportunities and attempts to identify what drives a firm's reception of new international opportunities. Based on the notion of opportunity in the entrepreneurship literature with the network view on internationalization, we bring together the concepts of relationships, networks, capabilities, and opportunity in a structural model, where we hypothesize that network-mediated opportunity is dependent on networking capability. This, in turn, is positively influenced by network closure and relational embeddedness. We test the model on a sample of 200 Chinese firms. The analysis partly supports the model, as we find that networking capability is a mediating factor between relational embeddedness and network-mediated opportunity, but does not mediate the relationship between network closure and network-mediated opportunity; on the other hand, we find a direct relationship between network closure and network-mediated opportunity. The paper ends with a discussion of the results and suggestions for future research.

By integrating social capital theory with a capability-based view on performance, this paper aims to examine the extent to which returnee entrepreneurial ventures (REVs) gain international performance advantages from the founding entrepreneurs’ experience with international networks. Using data on 200 Chinese REVs, the paper proposes and tests a structural model with a focus on the link between individual entrepreneurs and the subsequent development of firm capabilities. The results provide evidence that it is important that the returnee entrepreneurs have an international social network for the REV to develop an international network capability, which, in turn, mediates the effects on opportunity knowledge and the international performance of the REVs. The findings highlight the concurrent effect of the role of entrepreneurs and organizational learning in internationalization, and they provide an understanding as to the importance of the returnee-specific advantages for the international performance of these firms. 

The paper presents a processual analysis of international take-off episodes in Chinese SMEs. In considering the dynamics of pre-internationalization, the paper posits four temporally finer-grained, phases based on an actor's orientation towards international opportunities. Based on a sample of twenty Chinese SMEs, the paper theorizes 12 temporally fine-grained take-off episodes, or which appear in practice as a series of tactical moves through which Chinese SMEs advance through the four phases in the longer pre-internationalization of the process. By considering the multi-dimensional nature of social capital in international take-off, the findings contribute to a greater understanding of how forming international relationships work in the context of pre-internationalization in SMEs, also adding insights into the dynamics of internationalization as an entrepreneurial and networked endeavour.

This study aims to answer whether and how returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience and returnee entrepreneurial firms’ international market knowledge influence these firms’ internationalization. Anchored in a framework combining an entrepreneurial and knowledge-based view, we develop a model and four hypotheses on the relations between returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience, international market knowledge, international market commitment, and level of internationalization of the returnee entrepreneurial firm. Empirical evidence of the proposed model is derived from a recent sample of Chinese returnee SMEs in knowledge-intensive and high-technology industries. The main finding is that returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience nurtures international market knowledge of returnee entrepreneurial firms, which in turn has a positive effect on these firms’ international market commitment and level of internationalization. In terms of theory, the study extends our understanding of returnee entrepreneurial firms by uncovering the role of returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience and returnee firms’ international market knowledge during their initial and early international expansion.

Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a dataset collected on-site at 203 SMEs. The analysis reveals that (i) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, (ii) the earlier the point in time of start of internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, and (iii) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time of internationalization start. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed changes over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.