The staged internationalization model posits that firms internationalize incrementally over time. However, born-globals are less likely to follow a more gradual model of staged internationalization, ...and they must decide on the scope of internationalization at their founding to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities on a global scale. Because returns from international expansion must be considered along with the risk of failure, we propose that born-globals’ local industry conditions moderate the relationship between the scope of intraregional diversification (geographic diversification within a region) or interregional diversification (geographic diversification across different regions) and survival. Using a sample of 680 Swedish born-globals founded in 2002, 2003, or 2004 and followed until 2010; data from Swedish Customs; and archival performance data, we find that interregional geographic diversification increases—and that intraregional diversification decreases—the likelihood of failure, which declines further when born-globals undertake intraregional geographic diversification under higher environmental dynamism in the home country industry. Conversely, undertaking interregional geographic diversification even when the home country industry is munificent increases the likelihood of failure (marginally significant). The findings are robust to several alternative specifications.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study explores the relationship between an entrepreneur's age and his/her social value creation goals. Building on the lifespan developmental psychology literature and institutional theory, we ...hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to create social value through their ventures, such that younger and older entrepreneurs create more social value with their businesses while middle age entrepreneurs are relatively more economically and less socially oriented with their ventures. We further hypothesize that the quality of a country’s formal institutions in terms of economic, social, and political freedom steepen the U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to pursue social value creation as supportive institutional environments allow entrepreneurs to follow their age-based preferences. We confirm our predictions using multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions on a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs (aged between 18 and 64 years) in 45 countries from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The findings are robust to several alternative specifications. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for theory and practice, and we propose future research directions.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Integrating the cognition literature in entrepreneurship and strategy with the career imprinting literature, we propose that the geographic diversification of export sales in international new ...ventures (INVs) resembles that of their founders' most recent (geographically diversified) employer because founders bear a repertoire of the ‘logics of action’ from their employers regarding how to diversify geographically. We then propose two boundary conditions that influence the relationship between the geographic diversification of export sales of founders' most recent employers and that of their INVs: length of exposure and time since last exposure to their most recent geographically diversified employer. We test these hypotheses using longitudinal data on a sample of 3420 INVs. Our findings broadly support our theoretical propositions except for the moderating role of founders' length of exposure.
•When faced with complex strategic decisions, founders rely on cognitive structures honed through past experience•Founders bring ‘logics of action’ from their most recent employer, shaping the strategic choices they make in their INVs•We show that the geographic diversification of export sales in INVs resembles that of their founders’ most recent employer•This holds when controlling for the geographic diversification of export sales of founders’ second-to-last employer•Time between founders’ last employment at the geographically diversified employer and INV creation weakens resemblance
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
To study the interplay between age and culture as driver of self-employment motivation, we examine cross-sectional age differences (young to late adulthood) in self-employment desirability and ...feasibility beliefs across different cultures. We utilize individual-level data from the 2012 Flash Eurobarometer survey collected in 21 countries (total N = 13,963 individuals) and culture-level data from the GLOBE project. Our results from multi-level regression analyses show similar curvilinear lifespan patterns in both desirability and feasibility beliefs, with a peak in young adulthood and a strong decline toward late adulthood. This general pattern of age differences in these motivational factors, however, differs significantly across cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, institutional collectivism and performance orientation. Notwithstanding the limitations of cross-sectional data, the present results indicate that individual factors motivating self-employment are systematically intertwined with, and embedded in, both age and culture. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
We investigate how perceived parents' performance in entrepreneurship (PPE) affects the entrepreneurial career intentions of offspring. We aigue that while perceived PPE enhances oflspring's ...perceived entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility because of exposure mechanisms, it inhibits the translation of both desirability and feasibility perceptions into entrepreneurial career intentions due to upward social comparison mechanisms. Thus, perceived PPE acts as a double-edged sword for the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship. Our predictions are tested and confirmed on a sample of 21,895 individuals from 33 countries. This study advances the literature on inteigenerational transmission of entrepreneurship by providing a foundation for understanding the social psychological conditions necessary for such transmission to occur.
•Combines literature from economic geography and international entrepreneurship to explain start-ups’ internationalization.•Finds that related industry variety, but not unrelated industry variety, is ...associated with start-ups’ internationalization.•Finds that unrelated industry variety is associated with start-ups’ internationalization only when their employees possess technological knowledge.•Shows that industry variety is positively associated with start-ups’ ability to launch novel products in international markets, which, in turn, impacts their internationalization.
We study the relationship between industry variety in a start-up's home location and the start-up's internationalization in terms of both the likelihood of and persistence in exporting. Using a unique sample of Swedish start-ups, we find that related industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence, whereas unrelated industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence when the start-ups’ employees possess technological knowledge. We also find that employees’ international experience strengthens the positive relationship between related industry variety and start-ups’ export persistence. We provide auxiliary evidence of the proposed mechanisms through which related and unrelated industry variety affects start-ups’ internationalization—that is, through their effects on start-ups’ ability to launch novel products in foreign markets. The findings of our study provide policymakers preliminary evidence on the value of developing and sustaining local knowledge conditions and promoting labor recruitment policies in the home country to promote start-up internationalization.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study examines family firms’ propensity to protect their intellectual property through patents. Building on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model, we theorize that family ...ownership has a U-shaped relationship with firm propensity to patent. Specifically, we argue that family firms’ desire to prevent losses of current socioemotional wealth (SEW) inhibits their propensity to patent until a threshold level of family ownership, beyond which the family’s SEW is secured and a greater focus on prospective financial gains attainable through patents is possible. We also suggest that environmental munificence moderates this nonlinear relationship such that a low-munificent environment accentuates the potentially detrimental (beneficial) effects of low-to-medium (medium-to-high) levels of family ownership on patents. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 4,198 small- and medium-sized family firms.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We theorize that due to their ability to draw upon the distinctive bonding and bridging social capital resources of their family firm parents, family member spawns have longer early survival times ...than nonfamily member spawns from family firms, which in turn should have longer early survival times than spawns from nonfamily firm parents. We also predict that the survival enhancing effects of family parent bonding and bridging social capital are conditional on the spatial, cognitive and social proximity between the parent and the spawn. Using a population wide sample of 114,837 spawns founded in Sweden between 2000 and 2007, we find that nonfamily member spawns survive longer than spawns from nonfamily firms, and that this survival enhancing effect is contingent on the spatial and social proximity between the spawn and its parent. We also find that spawns founded by family members, on average, do not survive longer than spawns from family firms founded by nonfamily members, and that greater spatial and cognitive distance even hurt the survival of family member spawns. We discuss the contributions of our research to the spawning, family firm, and entrepreneurship literatures.
•We compare the survival of family member spawns, nonfamily member spawns and spawns from nonfamily firm parents.•While both family member and nonfamily member spawns come from family firm parents, only the former have kinship ties with the parent.•We predict nonfamily and family member spawns to benefit from the superior social capital resources of their family firm parents.•We find nonfamily member spawns to survive longer than spawns from nonfamily firm parents; while kinship ties do not provide additional survival benefits.•We document these survival benefits to be conditional on the spatial, cognitive, and social proximity between the spawns and their parents.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In order to preserve innovation, knowledge development and diffusion, as well as the transfer of new technologies, the emergence of University Start-Ups (USU) and their survival as a particular ...dimension of performance represents a relevant research topic. As USU generally have scarce initial resources, the human capital of their founders is one of their main business assets. Although the survival of such firms is supposed to be heavily dependent on the human capital characteristics of their founders, this has not received enough attention in existing research. In this paper we investigate the contribution of founders’ specific human capital characteristics to the survival of USU, building on Gimeno et al. (Adm Sci Q 42:750–783,
1997
) threshold model of entrepreneurial exit. We divide USU founders’ specific human capital into three components (entrepreneurship, industry and university) in order to better understand its impact on firm survival. Our theoretical model is empirically tested on a unique sample of Catalan USU through a logistic regression analysis. Coherently with our theoretical reasoning, the results show that industry human capital negatively affect USU survival, while university human capital and entrepreneurship human capital enhance the likelihood of USU survival.
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