Professor Svante Andersson, Halmstad University, presented this lecture "The Born Global Firm – a challenge for theory and policy" as part of the Whitaker Institute's Distinguished Lecture Series at NUI Galway on 2nd March 2016.

1. The Born Global firm – a
challenge for theory and policy
Svante Andersson
Halmstad university
NUI Galway
2 March 2016

2. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from
creative industries

3. Stage models/ Uppsala model
• Differences between countries
• Hard to understand differences
• Learning by experience
• Slow incremental internationalization
Johanson, J. and Vahlne, J-E. (1977) ‘The internationalization process of
the firm – a model of knowledge development and increasing foreign
market commitments’, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 8,
pp. 23–32.

4. Increasing export involvment on
single markets
• No regular export
• export via independent representatives or
agents
• sales subsidiaries
• production/manufucturing plants

5. Managing Internationalization Processes 5
Psychic Distance
1 Denmark
2 Norway
3 Finland
4 West Germany
5 Great Britain
6 Netherlands
7 Belgium
8 USA
9 Switzerland
10 Canada
11 Austria
12 France
13 Italy
14 Spain
15 Portugal
Factors preventing or disturbing the flows of information between firm and market.
Examples of such factors are differences in language, culture, political systems,
level of education, level of industrial development, etc.
(Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975, p. 308).

6. New situation
• Trade barriers are lower
• Information and communication technology
has made internationalization easier
• People are more global/international

7. Some firms internationalize fast to
many countries
• Mckinsey study 1993 coined the term Born
Global
• The “born global” firms – began exporting,
on average, only two years after their
foundation an achieved 76 percent of their
total sales through exports…their average
age is only 14 years

8. International new ventures
• We define an international new venture as a
business organization that, from inception,
seeks to derive significant competitive
advantage from the use of resources and the
sale of outputs in multiple countries. (p 49)
• Oviatt, B. M., McDougall, P. P., (1994). Toward
a theory of international new ventures. Journal
of International Business Studies 24, 45-64.

9. Born Global
• The Born Global (BG) is defined as a company
which, from or near its founding seeks to derive a
substantial proportion of its revenue from the sale
of its products in international markets (Knight,
1997, sid 1)
• Knight, G.A . (1997). Emerging paradigm for
international marketing: The born global firm, Ph D
Dissertation, Michigan State University. Dept. of
Marketing and Supply Chain Management.

10. Different definition and
operationalizations
• We define born globals as business
organizations that have a global mindset
from inception and aim to derive significant
competitive advantages from the use of
resources and the sale of outputs in
multiple countries spanning the three
economic trading blocs of NAFTA, EU and
Asia-Pacific. (Andersson, Evers & Griot,
2013, p 869)

11. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from creative
industries

12. Definition of international
entrepreneurship
• International entrepreneurship is the
discovery, enactment, evaluation and
exploitation of opportunities – across
national borders – to create goods and
services (Oviatt and McDougall, 2005, p.
540).

13. Development of a new field of
research
• McGill International Entrepreneurship
Conference started 1998 – Hamid Etemad
• 2017 NUI Galway
• 2018 Halmstad University
• In 2003, the Journal of International
Entrepreneurship was launched to provide
a forum for research specific to IE

14. Entrepreneurial Internationalization:
A bibliometric analysis (1989-2012)
• Vinciane Servantie, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
• Mathieu Cabrol, Université de Savoie, France
• Gilles Guieu, Aix-Marseille Université , France
• Jean-Pierre Boissin, Université Pierre-Mendès-France , France
Santiago de Chile, Sept 2-5

15. Main Journals

16. Chronological evolution of the
publications
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1989 1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Internationalisation entrepreneuriale Comparaison internationale de l’internationalisation entrepreneuriale Revues de Littérature et conceptuels
Nature of the paper
1989-
1999
2000-
2006
2007-
2012
Total
Papers with
empirical data
Entrepreneurial internationalisation 32 109 236 377
Comparative entrepreneurial
internationalisation 13 21 34
Papers without
empirical data
Literature review and conceptual papers
on entrepreneurial internationalisation
2 16 22 40

17. Origin of contributions
Continent
Number of
contributions
%
Europe 581 56,0%
America 323 31,1%
Oceania 73 7,0%
Asia 56 5,4%
Africa 5 0,5%
Total 1038

18. Origin of contributions by country
47 countries 1989-1999 2000-2006 2007-2012 Total contributions % Cumulative %
United States 30 90 146 266 25,6% 25,6%
United Kingdom 8 60 86 154 14,8% 40,5%
Finland 6 31 85 122 11,8% 52,2%
Spain 10 46 56 5,4% 57,6%
Sweden 3 23 28 54 5,2% 62,8%
Australia 1 17 33 51 4,9% 67,7%
Canada 9 13 26 48 4,6% 72,4%
Denmark 2 5 20 27 2,6% 75,0%
Germany 2 23 25 2,4% 77,4%
Italy 24 24 2,3% 79,7%
Norway 2 6 16 24 2,3% 82,0%
New Zealand 1 12 9 22 2,1% 84,1%
China 2 16 18 1,7% 85,8%
Netherlands 1 13 14 1,3% 87,2%
Switzerland 3 3 7 13 1,3% 88,4%
Ireland 2 10 12 1,2% 89,6%
Greece 2 9 11 1,1% 90,7%
Malaysia 1 8 9 0,9% 91,5%
Belgium 3 6 9 0,9% 92,4%
France 8 8 0,8% 93,2%
27 pays Between 1 et 7

19. Most productive universities
Universitiy
1989-
1999
2000-
2006
2007-
2012
Number of
signature
Country Authors affiliated*
Lappeenranta University of Technology 15 34 49 Finland
17 authors, including Saarenketo
(13) and Puumalainen (9)
Georgia State University 7 11 9 27 US
9 authors including McDougall
(18), Zahra (14), Cavusgil (6)
University of Strathclyde 1 19 4 24 UK
11 authors, including Jones (9)
and Dimitratos (9)
University of Texas 1 22 23 US 18 authors, including Khavul (6)
Helsinki School of Economics 3 9 9 21 Finland
11 authors, including M.
Gabrielsson (9)
University of Ulster 1 10 10 21 UK
7 authors including Bell (9) and
Loane (7)
University of Southern Denmark 3 16 19 Denmark
10 authors, including Servais (7)
and Madsen (6)
Indiana University 5 13 18 US
7 authors, including McDougall
(18)
Stockholm School of Economics 1 4 13 18 Sweden 13 authors
University of Seville 1 17 18 Spain 6 authors, including Acedo (7)
Halmstad University 9 7 16 Sweden
4 authors, including Andersson
(12)
Norwegian University of Science and
Technology
6 7 13 Norway
4 authors, including Moen (7) and
Aspelund (6)
University of Glasgow 4 9 13 UK
5 authors, including Jones (9) and
Dimitratos (9)
Universitat Jaume I 12 12 Spain 5 authors, including Ripollés (5)
University of Giessen 12 12 Germany 3 authors
University of Pavia 12 12 Italia 6 authors, including Zucchella (5)
University of Minnesota 5 5 10 US
2 authors, including Zahra (14)
and Sapienza (6)
Florida State University 1 6 2 9 US 2 authors, including Knight (8)

20. Contributions per publication
Number of
signatures per
publication
Number of
publications
%
Number of de
collaboration
6 1 0,2% 6
5 4 0,9% 20
4 43 9,5% 172
3 128 28,4% 384
2 181 40,1% 362
1 94 20,8% 94
total 451 100,0% 1038

21. The most productive authorsAuteur 1989-1999 2000-2006 2007-2012 Articles publiés
McDougall 7 5 6 18
Oviatt 5 5 4 14
Zahra 1 8 5 14
Saarenketo 5 8 13
Andersson 7 5 12
Bell 1 6 2 9
Coviello 2 4 3 9
Dimitratos 5 4 9
GabrielssonM. 4 5 9
Jones 1 5 3 9
Puumalainen 4 5 9
Crick 6 2 8
Knight 1 6 1 8
Kuivalainen 2 6 8
Acedo 1 6 7
Loane 4 3 7
Moen 4 3 7
Servais 1 2 4 7
Young 6 1 7
Aspelund 2 4 6
Cavusgil 1 2 3 6
Evers 6 6
Khavul 6 6
Madsen 1 2 3 6
McNaughton 5 1 6
Prashantham 1 5 6
Sapienza 1 4 1 6
Zhou 6 6
10 auteurs 5
More than
25% of
producción

22. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from
creative industries

24. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from
creative industries

25. Swedish study on globals
• Measuring performance five years after
firm foundation, born global firms are found
to have higher growth in employment and
sales per employee but no such effect is
found when performance is measured by
profitability or labor productivity.

26. Born global firms – do they perform
differently? Halldin (2012)
• The study investigates whether born global
firms perform differently compared to other
newly founded manufacturing firms.
• The dataset stretches from 1997-2008
• All new started manufacturing firms in
Sweden
• Measuring performance five years after
firm foundation (Employment and sales
growth, profatibiity, labor productivity)

27. Conclusions
• Born global firms prioritize growth in
employment and sales. Short-term profits
seem to be secondary to these firms.
• No significant differences in profitability and
labor prouctivity
• More born globals leads to economic and
employment growths
• Few born globals

28. Halldin’ definition
• 1. Stringent definition: New firms with at least 25
percent of sales in exports within two years from
inception (abbreviation used below: BGF 2:25)
• 2. Modest definition: New firms with at least 10
percent of sales in exports within five years from
inception (abbreviation used below: BGF 5:10)
• 3. Alternative definition: New firms with at least an
average of 25 percent of sales in exports for three
consecutive years no later than year two, three and
four after firm foundation (abbreviation used below:
BGF 3ma:25)

29. Statistics

30. Results
• Manufacturing high-tech and low tech firms
• Still quite few born globals 1-6 % of
population
• The number of born globals are not
growing

31. IE research in different industries
(Peiris et al, 2012.)

32. Industry factors influencing the INV
internationationalization process
(Andersson, Evers & Kuvalainen, 2014)

33. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from
creative industries

34. Policy suggestions
• Business and entrepreneurship courses need
to include internationalizaton opportunities
• International experience can lead to Born
Globals – promote international exchange and
studies abroad
• Promote technology development connected
with internationalization knowledge -
Digitalization and automatization make it
possible to insource activities to developed
countries - technology development (Axelent)

35. Policy suggestion
• Support systems need to be simplified an
co-ordinated
– Business Sweden, Swecare, regional support,
European Support
• Support for companies need to be targeted
toward different types of firms
– New growing industries (e. g creative
industries computer games, music, fashion)

36. Disposition
• Background, Traditional theories
• The rise and development of Born Global
and International Entreprenurship research
• Factors influencing the Born Global
• Example from Swedish study
• Implications for policy
• Future research with examples from
creative industries

37. Sweden’s Top 10 Exports (2014)
• Machines, engines, pumps: US$25.4 billion (15.5% of
total exports)
• Electronic equipment: $17.6 billion (10.7%)
• Vehicles: $16.1 billion (9.8%)
• Oil: $13.3 billion (8.1%)
• Paper: $10.2 billion (6.2%)
• Pharmaceuticals: $7.6 billion (4.6%)
• Iron and steel: $6.8 billion (4.1%)
• Plastics: $5.9 billion (3.6%)
• Wood: $4.7 billion (2.8%)
• Medical, technical equipment: $4.5 billion (2.7%)

38. Swedish largest exporters (2014)
• 1 Ericsson , Telefon AB LM 113 734 000 SEK
• 2 Volvo, AB 78 174 000
• 3 Preem AB 53 863 000
• 4 SSAB AB 39 568 000
• 5 AstraZeneca AB 39 130 000
• 6 Sandvik AB 26 000 000
• 7 BillerudKorsnäs AB 18 120 000
• 8 LKAB 15 900 000
• 9 Tetra Pak, AB 15 000 000
• 10 Saab (koncernen) 12 000 000
• 11 Södra Skogsägarna ek. för. 10 932 000
• 12 IKEA AB 9 500 000
• 13 Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB 9 218 958
• 14 Husqvarna AB 9 000 000
• 15 SCA, Svenska Cellulosa AB 8 500 000

39. • First released in August 2003, Skype was
created by Swedish Niklas Zennström and
Danish Janus Friis, in cooperation with Ahti
Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn,
Estonians who developed the backend that
was also used in the music-sharing
application Kazaa. In September 2005,
eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion.
(Wikipedia)

40. Mojang
• Mojang AB (Swedish: [mʊˈjɛŋː] "gadget") is a
Swedish video game developer founded in
May 2009 under the name Mojang
Specifications by game programmer Markus
Persson, best known for creating the popular
independent game Minecraft, a sandbox
game. It is currently updating two games
frequently: The game Scrolls, and indie hit,
Minecraft. Mojang's company headquarters is
in Stockholm. Microsoft acquired Mojang in
2014 at valuation of $2.5 billion. (Wikipedia)

41. • Spotify is a Swedish commercial music streaming, podcast and
video service that provides digital rights management–
protected content from record labels and media companies. It
is available in most of the Americas, Western Europe and
Oceania.[Music can be browsed or searched by artist, album,
genre, playlist, or record label.
• Spotify was launched in September 2008 by Swedish startup
Spotify AB. As of June 2015 Spotify had more than 75 million
active users, including about 20 million paid users. Spotify Ltd.
operates as the parent company, headquartered in London,
while Spotify AB handles research and development in
Stockholm. (Wikipedia)

42. Swedish Music Export
• ABBA to MAX MARTIN
• Martin Karl Sandberg (born February 26, 1971), known professionally
as Max Martin, is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. He rose
to prominence in the mid-1990s after making a string of major hits for
artists such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and NSYNC.
Some of his earlier hits include "I Want It That Way" (1999), "...Baby
One More Time" (1999) and "It's My Life" (2000).
• Since 1999, Martin has written and co-written 21 Billboard Hot 100
number-one hits (most of which he has also produced or co-
produced) in the United States, including Katy Perry's "I Kissed a
Girl" (2008), Pink's "So What" (2008), Britney Spears's "Hold It
Against Me" (2011), Maroon 5's "One More Night" (2012), Taylor
Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (2012), "Shake It
Off" (2014), "Blank Space" (2014), "Bad Blood" (2015). Martin is the
songwriter with the third-most number one singles on the chart,
behind only Paul McCartney (32) and John Lennon (26).[2]

43. Future research
• New technology (Internet, automatization
etc) challenge theory, practice and policy
for firms’ internationalization.
• New knowledge and research are needed
to facilitate decisions in different industry
contexts.

44. Thank you very much!
Questions and
Comments?