IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jinten/v19y2021i2d10.1007_s10843-021-00295-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International social ventures: A literature review and guidance for future research

Author

Listed:
  • Nathalie N. Larsen

    (University of Southern Denmark)

  • Martin Hannibal

    (University of Southern Denmark)

Abstract

International entrepreneurship has been studied extensively during the past decades. Oviatt’s and McDougall’s (J Int Bus Stud 25:45–64, 1994) framework describing international new ventures (INVs) has been pivotal in developing this research field. This paper adds to this research field through focusing on a particular type of INVs that typically regard social impact as the core objective rather than a positive side-effect to profit. We collectively label these firms international social ventures (ISV). The paper provides two interrelated contributions. Firstly, a literature review brings a systematic overview of the extant ISV research. Secondly, building on this, five propositions are developed in close relation to each of the essential elements positioned in Oviatt’s and McDougall’s (J Int Bus Stud 25:45–64, 1994) seminal INV framework. In doing so, we illustrate that ISVs share some general characteristics with INVs. However, the particular manifestation of these deviates from the traditional type of INVs. In addition, the underlying rationale differs from traditional pure economic logics by involving a combination of both social and economic logics. The paper proceeds to bring suggestions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathalie N. Larsen & Martin Hannibal, 2021. "International social ventures: A literature review and guidance for future research," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 223-255, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jinten:v:19:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10843-021-00295-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10843-021-00295-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10843-021-00295-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10843-021-00295-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rudolf R. Sinkovics & Elfriede Penz & Pervez N. Ghauri, 2008. "Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research in International Business," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 689-714, December.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Andrei Bougrov & Robert Johnson & Benno Ndulo & Pedro Paez & Avinash Persaud & Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul & Akhtar Aziz Zeti & Charles Goodhart & Jomo Kwame Sundaram & Youssef Boutros-Ghali & José Anto, 2010. "The Stiglitz Report," Working Papers hal-03415638, HAL.
    4. Jones, Marian V. & Coviello, Nicole & Tang, Yee Kwan, 2011. "International Entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): A domain ontology and thematic analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 632-659.
    5. Williamson, Oliver E, 1979. "Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractural Relations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 233-261, October.
    6. Arnold C. Cooper & William C. Dunkelberg, 1986. "Entrepreneurship and paths to business ownership," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 53-68, January.
    7. Gassmann, Oliver & Keupp, Marcus Matthias, 2007. "The competitive advantage of early and rapidly internationalising SMEs in the biotechnology industry: A knowledge-based view," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 350-366, September.
    8. Alon, Ilan & Mersland, Roy & Musteen, Martina & Randøy, Trond, 2020. "The research frontier on internationalization of social enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    9. Gary A Knight & S Tamar Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(2), pages 124-141, March.
    10. Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 1991. "The Future of the Multinational Enterprise," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-21204-0.
    11. Yung-kai Yang & Shu-ling Wu, 2015. "An Exploratory Study to Understand the Internationalization Strategies of Social Enterprises," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 31-41, March.
    12. Rainer Harms & Holger Schiele, 2012. "Antecedents and consequences of effectuation and causation in the international new venture creation process," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 95-116, June.
    13. Bolzani, Daniela & Marabello, Selenia & Honig, Benson, 2020. "Exploring the multi-level processes of legitimacy in transnational social enterprises," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    14. Javier Monllor & Sharmin Attaran, 2008. "Opportunity recognition of social entrepreneurs: an application of the creativity model," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(1), pages 54-67.
    15. R. Marshall, 2011. "Conceptualizing the International For-Profit Social Entrepreneur," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 183-198, January.
    16. Mersland, Roy & Nyarko, Samuel Anokye & Sirisena, Amila Buddhika, 2020. "A hybrid approach to international market selection: The case of impact investing organizations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    17. Angulo-Ruiz, Fernando & Pergelova, Albena & Dana, Leo Paul, 2020. "The internationalization of social hybrid firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 266-278.
    18. Geoffrey M. Kistruck & Paul W. Beamish & Israr Qureshi & Christopher J. Sutter, 2013. "Social Intermediation in Base-of-the-Pyramid Markets," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 31-66, January.
    19. Veronica, Scuotto & Manlio, Del Giudice & Shlomo, Tarba & Antonio, Messeni Petruzzelli & Victor, Chang, 2020. "International social SMEs in emerging countries: Do governments support their international growth?," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    20. João J. Ferreira & Cristina I. Fernandes & Marta Peres-Ortiz & Helena Alves, 2017. "Conceptualizing social entrepreneurship: perspectives from the literature," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(1), pages 73-93, March.
    21. John H Dunning, 1988. "The Eclectic Paradigm of International Production: A Restatement and Some Possible Extensions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, March.
    22. Shaker A. Zahra & Lance R. Newey & Yong Li, 2014. "On the Frontiers: The Implications of Social Entrepreneurship for International Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(1), pages 137-158, January.
    23. Gary A Knight & S Tamer Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(4), pages 334-334, July.
    24. Perez-Suarez, M. & Belda Alvarez, J.I., 2019. "The Export Competitiveness Of Social Economy Enterprises. The Case Of Southern Spain," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 19(2), pages 57-74.
    25. Tyler Wry & Eric Yanfei Zhao, 2018. "Taking Trade-offs Seriously: Examining the Contextually Contingent Relationship Between Social Outreach Intensity and Financial Sustainability in Global Microfinance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 507-528, June.
    26. Erin Chmelik & Martina Musteen & Mujtaba Ahsan, 2016. "Measures of Performance in the Context of International Social Ventures: An Exploratory Study," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 74-100, March.
    27. Swati Agrawal & Ritika Gugnani, 2014. "Creating successful business model: lessons for social entrepreneurship," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 18(5/6), pages 438-445.
    28. De Beule, Filip & Klein, Martin & Verwaal, Ernst, 2020. "Institutional quality and inclusive strategies at the base of the pyramid," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    29. Gaur, Ajai & Kumar, Mukesh, 2018. "A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An assessment of content analysis in 25years of IB research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 280-289.
    30. Rialp, Alex & Rialp, Josep & Knight, Gary A., 2005. "The phenomenon of early internationalizing firms: what do we know after a decade (1993-2003) of scientific inquiry?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 147-166, April.
    31. Eddy Tukamushaba & Laura Orobia & Babu George, 2011. "Development of a conceptual model to understand international social entrepreneurship and its application in the Ugandan context," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 282-298, December.
    32. Muhammad Azizul Islam, 2017. "Disclosures of Social Value Creation and Managing Legitimacy: A Case Study of Three Global Social Enterprises," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 27(3), pages 297-314, September.
    33. Phillips McDougall, Patricia & Shane, Scott & Oviatt, Benjamin M., 1994. "Explaining the formation of international new ventures: The limits of theories from international business research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 469-487, November.
    34. Benjamin J. Lough & Amanda Moore McBride, 2013. "The Influence of Solution-Focused Reflection on International Social Entrepreneurship Identification," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 220-236, July.
    35. Jie Chen & Sami Saarenketo & Kaisu Puumalainen, 2016. "Internationalization and value orientation of entrepreneurial ventures—a Latin American perspective," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 32-51, March.
    36. Ignacio Bretos & Millán Díaz-Foncea & Carmen Marcuello, 2020. "International Expansion of Social Enterprises as a Catalyst for Scaling up Social Impact across Borders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    37. Teresa Nelson & Cynthia Ingols & Jennifer Christian–Murtie & Paul Myers, 2013. "Susan Murcott and Pure Home Water: Building a Sustainable Mission–Driven Enterprise in Northern Ghana," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 961-979, July.
    38. Geoffrey Desa, 2012. "Resource Mobilization in International Social Entrepreneurship: Bricolage as a Mechanism of Institutional Transformation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(4), pages 727-751, July.
    39. James Katzenstein & Barbara R. Chrispin, 2011. "Social Entrepreneurship And A New Model For International Development In The 21st Century," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 87-102.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Evers, Natasha & Ojala, Arto & Sousa, Carlos M.P. & Criado-Rialp, Alex, 2023. "Unraveling business model innovation in firm internationalization: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. De Beule, Filip & Bruneel, Johan & Dobson, Kieran, 2023. "The internationalization of social enterprises: The impact of business model characteristics," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(6).
    2. Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Louis Brennan, 2021. "A review of methodological diversity within the domain of international entrepreneurship," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 256-299, June.
    3. Knight, Gary A. & Liesch, Peter W., 2016. "Internationalization: From incremental to born global," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 93-102.
    4. Paul, Justin & Parthasarathy, Sundar & Gupta, Parul, 2017. "Exporting challenges of SMEs: A review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 327-342.
    5. Dzikowski, Piotr, 2018. "A bibliometric analysis of born global firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 281-294.
    6. Gerschewski, Stephan & Rose, Elizabeth L. & Lindsay, Valerie J., 2015. "Understanding the drivers of international performance for born global firms: An integrated perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 558-575.
    7. Jiang, Guohua & Kotabe, Masaaki & Zhang, Feng & Hao, Andy W. & Paul, Justin & Wang, Cheng Lu, 2020. "The determinants and performance of early internationalizing firms: A literature review and research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    8. Jean–François Hennart, 2014. "The Accidental Internationalists: A Theory of Born Globals," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(1), pages 117-135, January.
    9. Elena Pawęta, 2015. "Entrepreneur-related constructs explaining the emergence of born global firms: A Systematic Literature Review," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 3(4), pages 11-36.
    10. José Ernesto Amorós & Rodrigo Basco & Gianni Romaní, 2016. "Determinants of early internationalization of new firms: the case of Chile," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 283-307, March.
    11. Francisco García-Lillo & Enrique Claver-Cortés & Bartolomé Marco-Lajara & Mercedes Úbeda-García, 2017. "Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Research on ‘Born Global’ Firms and INVs: A Citation/Co-citation Analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 631-652, August.
    12. Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Louis Brennan, 2019. "Performance determinants of early internationalizing firms: The role of international entrepreneurial orientation," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 389-424, September.
    13. Laufs, Katharina & Schwens, Christian, 2014. "Foreign market entry mode choice of small and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic review and future research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1109-1126.
    14. Quan Anh Nguyen & Gillian Sullivan Mort, 0. "Conceptualising organisational-level and microfoundational capabilities: an integrated view of born-globals’ internationalisation," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    15. Miguel A. Hernandez, 2019. "Unveiling International New Ventures’ Success: Employee’s Entrepreneurial Behavior," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-32, August.
    16. Øyna, Stine & Almor, Tamar & Elango, B. & Tarba, Shlomo Y., 2018. "Maturing born globals and their acquisitive behaviour," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 714-725.
    17. Child, John & Hsieh, Linda & Elbanna, Said & Karmowska, Joanna & Marinova, Svetla & Puthusserry, Pushyarag & Tsai, Terence & Narooz, Rose & Zhang, Yunlu, 2017. "SME international business models: The role of context and experience," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 664-679.
    18. Sascha Kraus & Alexander Brem & Miriam Schuessler & Felix Schuessler & Thomas Niemand, 2019. "Innovative Born Globals: Investigating the Influence of Their Business Models on International Performance," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Alexander Brem & Joe Tidd & Tugrul Daim (ed.), Managing Innovation Internationalization of Innovation, chapter 11, pages 275-328, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Yancy Vaillant & Esteban Lafuente & Manoj Chandra Bayon, 2019. "Early internationalization patterns and export market persistence: a pseudo-panel data analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 669-686, October.
    20. Khan, Zaheer & Lew, Yong Kyu, 2018. "Post-entry survival of developing economy international new ventures: A dynamic capability perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 149-160.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jinten:v:19:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10843-021-00295-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.