A wealth of research in the past decades has examined born globals or international new ventures, which are firms that from inception view the whole world as a market and as a source to access resources. Many of these firms build their competitive advantage on high-tech knowledge. However, although many studies have shown how born globals can achieve success if they access resources through their relationships from actors in their networks, few studies have explored the relationship between born globals and universities. Universities are important actors in creating new technology knowledge, and many studies have shown how new firms, or so-called university spin-offs (USOs), are formed around universities. The current study explores why some USOs are successful in their international growth strategy and discusses the factors that influence and facilitate the internationalization process. The study investigates 10 USOs around the newly established Halmstad University in Sweden and finds that universities have a positive effect on firm creation and initial international growth. The regional competence base increases from the establishment of a local university, primarily by strengthening the regional human capital and by increasing university research. This study shows that researcher entrepreneurs’ ventures start as born globals, but that these firms do not continue to grow. Born global business models, per se, do not lead to competitive advantage and successful internationalization. Instead, a strategy built on customer focus and an ability to adapt to different customer demands lead to growth, and the location of growth is dependent on the size of the home market. This study also shows that student entrepreneurship can be a successful growth strategy for USOs focusing on both international and local markets. © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

This article aims to advance theoretical knowledge of the international opportunity recognition in international new ventures (INVs) from a dynamic capabilities perspective with particular focus on the emergent perspective of dynamic managerial capabilities. Building the extant literature on international opportunity recognition, dynamic capabilities theory, this paper presents a conceptual framework explaining how dynamic capabilities of the firm can be created and enacted through the entrepreneur’s dynamic managerial capabilities and actions for international opportunity identification for international firm growth. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities theory and more recent dynamic managerial capabilities perspective, this article enriches understanding of how opportunities are identified for the venture’s international development and growth. The article concludes with theoretical and research implications. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

The main question raised in this article is whether there are any differences between the work activities of managers in small firms primarily operating on an international market and those managing firms doing business on a domestic market. If so, what are these differences, and what do they tell us about the internationalization of small firms? The comparative method used here is based on multiple approaches including interviews, diary studies, and direct observations. The conclusions indicate that managers in small international firms are more proactive in their networking behavior, delegate operative activities and devote more time to planned strategic activities connected with their international expansion than managers in other small firms. 

During the past few years, the phenomenon of Born Globals has been highlighted in many studies. Such firms adopt a global approach right from their inception or very shortly thereafter. This behaviour challenges the traditional internationalisation models of slow and gradual development with respect to geographical markets and market entry modes. In this paper a conceptual framework is developed from earlier research and includes the factors: globalisation, entrepreneurs, networks, and industry. A survey showed that Born Globals were still very uncommon in Sweden. However, four Born Global firms were identified and analysed with the framework. It was concluded that the ongoing globalisation has made it easier to conduct Born Global strategies. However, active entrepreneurs, who recognised the global opportunities, were crucial for the implementation of these strategies, in which personal networks were used as tools.

This article explores the roles of leadership, vision, and empowerment in two Swedish born global companies. Using case studies and interviews with employees and managers, the article examines how managers can lead their companies by creating a vision and empowering their employees. The findings indicate that a company vision should reflect a culture that supports the employees’ daily activities and decisions. A leadership style that features delegation of responsibility and recognition of employee work autonomy empowers employees in a way that can advance the development and internationalization of the born global company, especially in situations when top managers are often away from company headquarters. © 2017 The Author(s)

This special issue presents an opportunity to explore the international aspects of academic and university based international entrepreneurship. Over the last decades much research attention has been focused on university spin-off firms (USOs) on issues such as, creation, risk, strategies and performance (see Druilhe and Garnsey, 2004; Link and Scott, 2005; Lockett and Wright, 2005; Walter et al, 2006; Wright et al., 2006). There has been a dearth of studies that have examined the international dimensions and aspects of university-based spin-off firms. The six articles presented in this special issue point towards interesting future research agendas at the interface between academic and international entrepreneurship. Three core themes emerge from this special issue: Context, Emergence and Actors. In sum, this special issue pinpoints: firstly, specific features of universities and research organizations as contexts for international technology entrepreneurship; secondly, the process of organizational emergence and entrepreneurial cognition; and thirdly, insight into learning processes of USOs and the role of non-academic actors. Our article concludes by identifying future avenues of research. © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

This article examines how market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) relate to international performance in small firms. Empirically, the article draws on survey data from 188 Swedish SMEs. Results show that strategic orientations have a very limited influence on international performance in these firms. Proactiveness and, to some extent, a market orientation proved positively associated with international performance, while innovativeness and risk taking show no such relationship. Our findings highlight the problems associated with using “traditional” MO and EO constructs in an SME setting and point to the need of developing more appropriate constructs tailored to this context. We also note that the MO construct was developed from a “causal view” of marketing, while successful small international firms rely more on effectuation logic. The article also contributes to the debate between the two dominant perspectives that address firms’ early internationalization processes: the process theory of internationalization and the international new venture perspective, where our results are in favor of the latter.

Extant research suggests that the founder’s activities and interactions are considered pivotal in driving the opportunity recognition process leading to international new venture emergence. This paper aims to explore the opportunity recognition process and international new venture emergence in the context of university hightechnology spin-offs that are internationally market driven from inception. University spin-offs (USOs) are defined as ‘new firms created to exploit commercially some knowledge, technology or research results developed within a university’ (Pirnay et al., Small Bus Econ 21:355–369, 2003). To address this inquiry, this study imports theory from the entrepreneurship literature on organizational emergence, opportunity recognition, effectuation and the principle of individual self-efficacy. Drawing on empirical case data from four case USOs from Denmark and Ireland, this paper finds that the inventor-founders are typically engaged in opportunity recognition processes that are characterized as creative, driven by scientific innovations. It is indicated that the process of USO emergence and continuous development involves activities and interactions similar to typical international new ventures. The scientific knowledge that created opportunities for the emergence of INV-USOs across our cases endorses the view that innovation and internationalization are strongly correlated. Insights are provided on inventor-founders’ entrepreneurial intention demonstrated through activities and interactions in the on-going processes of creating the USO. Findings further highlight that self-efficacy of the inventor-founder(s) and access to specific resources (means at hand) are salient determinants for international new ventures to materialize. The study concludes with a proposed conceptual framework for further research on the creation of INV-university spin-offs. Conclusions and implications are drawn at the end of the article. © Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

International opportunities are the catalysts of SME internationalization. Our knowledge regarding the role of international opportunities in internationalization is undisputable, yet our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of international opportunity development remains inadequate. In this paper, we seek to address this shortcoming in the literature by answering the following research questions: how do internal and external factors influence the international opportunity scouting of SMEs, and what are the effects of the international opportunity scouting strategy in the internationalization of the firm? From a case study of nine Swedish SMEs, the authors develop propositions on the interplay between the theoretical constructs: international experience, network structure, international opportunity scouting, and international opportunity novelty. We propose that the greater the international experience of the SME, the more systematically the SME will scout for international opportunities; the more closed the network the SME is embedded in, the more systematically the SME will scout for international opportunities; and the more systematically the SME scouts for international opportunities, the lower the novelty of the opportunities identified by the SME. These findings come with implications for theory as well as for SME managers. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

During internationalisation, international new ventures in the life sciences industry face distinct challenges. For example, high product development costs push companies into early internationalisation to increase sales turnover and recover investments. At the same time, financial and managerial resource limitations and the demand to adjust to local regulations render internationalisation difficult. To date, relatively little is known about how different industry contexts influence new venture internationalisation processes. This paper presents an in-depth case study of the internationalisation process of a Swedish new venture from the life sciences industry to fill this gap. The findings outline factors in the industry context that affect the internationalisation process, with specific emphasis on entrepreneurs and their networks, leading to several propositions and a model of life sciences new venture internationalisation.

Studies on the relationship between level of internationalization and performance of new ventures show conflicting results indicating a need for more in-depth understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship. This study draws on dynamic capability theory and extends the understanding of the issue. The study contributes to international entrepreneurship literature by developing a proposed model built on analyses of event histories of US operations of three Swedish international new ventures. The events take place during more than 20 years. It is proposed that the number of organizationally stable periods of the foreign unit strengthens the positive relationship between product/market knowledge transferred to the unit and its dynamic capabilities, and knowledge acquired locally by the unit and its dynamic capabilities. Also, it is proposed that dynamic capabilities aligned with the transferred and local knowledge are associated with high financial performance. Contributions to literature on international entrepreneurship are discussed. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.