Conceptualising organisational-level and microfoundational capabilities: an integrated view of born-globals’ internationalisation

For born global firms, which embark on a special internationalisation pathway and shift from a cohort of individuals to small effective ventures, microfoundations play a significant but underexplored role in building organisational capabilities. This conceptual paper aims to address this neglect and incorporates the microfoundational level resources as well as capturing the transformation of organisational level capabilities in this distinctive breed of firms that internationalise at or soon after inception. We propose an integrated model of born globals’ accelerated internationalisation in which micro and macro-level learning mechanisms moderate the transformation of the initial endowment of resources and capabilities into a set of enhanced dynamic and operational capabilities leading to the final outcomes of accelerated internationalisation. The microfoundational resources are intensified by externalisation, synergistic mutation and aggregations processes at the organisation foundation stage, and then are reconfigured and enriched as firms develop and internationalise. Concluding remarks, contributions to the literature and implications for future research are also presented.