IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v28y2019i1p60-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Born globals – presence, performance and prospects

Author

Listed:
  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus
  • Halldin, Torbjörn

Abstract

The concept born global firms has gained a spectacular increase in interest from both academic and political circles. Rigorous quantitative treatment of born global firms are however rare in the international business/economics literature. Implementing unique data on all Swedish start-ups during 1998–2008 in the manufacturing sector, we conclude that born global firms are a very rare event, that their prevalence seems invariant to time, and that they perform similar to other matched “twin” firms with regard to profitability and productivity but report a considerably higher growth in employment and sales. These results are robust to a wider definition of born global firms and to the timing of performance measurements.

Suggested Citation

  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Halldin, Torbjörn, 2019. "Born globals – presence, performance and prospects," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 60-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:28:y:2019:i:1:p:60-73
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.07.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593117308090
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.07.004?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. Sofronis K. Clerides & Saul Lach & James R. Tybout, 1998. "Is Learning by Exporting Important? Micro-Dynamic Evidence from Colombia, Mexico, and Morocco," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 903-947.
    2. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 2009. "The Uppsala internationalization process model revisited: From liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(9), pages 1411-1431, December.
    3. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports and Productivity: A Survey of the Evidence from Firm Level Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 1, pages 3-41, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    5. Davies, Stephen W & Lyons, Bruce R, 1991. "Characterising Relative Performance: The Productivity Advantage of Foreign Owned Firms in the UK," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 584-595, October.
    6. Caves,Richard E., 2007. "Multinational Enterprise and Economic Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521677530.
    7. Davide Castellani, 2002. "Export behavior and productivity growth: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 138(4), pages 605-628, December.
    8. Davide Castellani & Antonello Zanfei, 2003. "Technology gaps, absorptive capacity and the impact of inward investments on productivity of European firms ," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(6), pages 555-576.
    9. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 1977. "The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 8(1), pages 23-32, March.
    10. Martin Andersson & Steven Klepper, 2013. "Characteristics and performance of new firms and spinoffs in Sweden," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 245-280, February.
    11. Braunerhjelm, Pontus, 1996. "The relation between firm-specific intangibles and exports," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 213-219, November.
    12. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    13. S Tamer Cavusgil & Gary Knight, 2015. "The born global firm: An entrepreneurial and capabilities perspective on early and rapid internationalization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(1), pages 3-16, January.
    14. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2002. "Simple and Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," NBER Technical Working Papers 0283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Ivo Zander & Patricia McDougall-Covin & Elizabeth L Rose, 2015. "Born globals and international business: Evolution of a field of research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(1), pages 27-35, January.
    16. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    17. Caves,Richard E., 2007. "Multinational Enterprise and Economic Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521860130.
    18. Raymond Vernon, 1966. "International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 80(2), pages 190-207.
    19. Weerawardena, Jay & Mort, Gillian Sullivan & Liesch, Peter W. & Knight, Gary, 2007. "Conceptualizing accelerated internationalization in the born global firm: A dynamic capabilities perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 294-306, September.
    20. Vernon, Raymond, 1979. "The Product Cycle Hypothesis in a New International Environment," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 41(4), pages 255-267, November.
    21. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 2006. "Commitment and opportunity development in the internationalization process: A note on the Uppsala internationalization process model," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 165-178, March.
    22. Terence Fan & Phillip Phan, 2007. "International new ventures: revisiting the influences behind the ‘born-global’ firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(7), pages 1113-1131, December.
    23. 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.
    24. Martin Andersson & Hans Lööf, 2009. "Learning‐by‐Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 111(4), pages 893-916, December.
    25. José C Casillas & Ana M Moreno-Menéndez, 2014. "Speed of the internationalization process: The role of diversity and depth in experiential learning," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(1), pages 85-101, January.
    26. David Greenaway & Richard Kneller, 2007. "Industry Differences in the Effect of Export Market Entry: Learning by Exporting?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 143(3), pages 416-432, October.
    27. Gabrielsson, Mika & Kirpalani, V.H. Manek & Dimitratos, Pavlos & Solberg, Carl Arthur & Zucchella, Antonella, 2008. "Born globals: Propositions to help advance the theory," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 385-401, August.
    28. Lianxi Zhou & Wei-ping Wu & Xueming Luo, 2007. "Internationalization and the performance of born-global SMEs: the mediating role of social networks," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 673-690, July.
    29. Alberto Abadie & David Drukker & Jane Leber Herr & Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Implementing matching estimators for average treatment effects in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 290-311, September.
    30. Choquette, Eliane & Rask, Morten & Sala, Davide & Schröder, Philipp, 2017. "Born Globals—Is there fire behind the smoke?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 448-460.
    31. Melén, Sara & Nordman, Emilia Rovira, 2009. "The internationalisation modes of Born Globals: A longitudinal study," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 243-254, August.
    32. Sui Sui & Matthias Baum, 2014. "Internationalization strategy, firm resources and the survival of SMEs in the export market," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(7), pages 821-841, September.
    33. Etemad, Hamid & Wright, Richard W, 2003. "Internationalization of SMEs: Toward a New Paradigm," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-4, February.
    34. Nordman, Emilia Rovira & Melén, Sara, 2008. "The impact of different kinds of knowledge for the internationalization process of Born Globals in the biotech business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 171-185, March.
    35. Pontus Braunerhjelm, 1999. "Sunk costs, firm size and internationalization," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 135(4), pages 657-674, December.
    36. 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.
    37. Srilata Zaheer & Elaine Mosakowski, 1997. "The Dynamics Of The Liability Of Foreignness: A Global Study Of Survival In Financial Services," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(6), pages 439-463, June.
    38. Stine Øyna & Ilan Alon, 2018. "A Review of Born globals," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 157-180, February.
    39. Kent Eliasson & Pär Hansson & Markus Lindvert, 2012. "Do firms learn by exporting or learn to export? Evidence from small and medium-sized enterprises," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 453-472, September.
    40. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    41. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke & Quyen T. K. Nguyen, 2011. "Fifty Years of International Business Theory and Beyond," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 755-786, December.
    42. Kuivalainen, Olli & Saarenketo, Sami & Puumalainen, Kaisu, 2012. "Start-up patterns of internationalization: A framework and its application in the context of knowledge-intensive SMEs," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 372-385.
    43. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Onkelinx, Jonas, 2014. "International commitment, post-entry growth and survival of international new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 106-120.
    44. Robert Salomon & Zheying Wu, 2012. "Institutional distance and local isomorphism strategy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(4), pages 343-367, May.
    45. Ram Mudambi & Shaker A Zahra, 2007. "The survival of international new ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(2), pages 333-352, March.
    46. Figueira-de-Lemos, Francisco & Johanson, Jan & Vahlne, Jan-Erik, 2011. "Risk management in the internationalization process of the firm: A note on the Uppsala model," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 143-153, April.
    47. Benjamin M Oviatt & Patricia Phillips McDougall, 1994. "Toward a Theory of International New ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 25(1), pages 45-64, March.
    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. Mohammad Falahat & Yan-Yin Lee & Pedro Soto-Acosta & T. Ramayah, 2021. "Entrepreneurial, market, learning and networking orientations as determinants of business capability and international performance: the contingent role of government support," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1759-1780, December.
    2. Sven Kunisch & Markus Menz & David Collis, 2020. "Corporate headquarters in the twenty-first century: an organization design perspective," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, December.
    3. María del Pilar Casado-Belmonte & Gema María Marín-Carrillo & Eduardo Terán-Yépez & María de las Mercedes Capobianco-Uriarte, 2020. "What Is Going on with the Research into the Internationalization of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)? An Intellectual Structure Analysis into the State-of-the-Art (1990–2018)," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-30, February.
    4. Callaghan, Christian William, 2021. "Consequences of deindustrialisation for globalisation: Insights for international business," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3).

    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. Halldin, Torbjörn, 2012. "Born global firms in knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) – what do we know of their performance?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 270, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    2. Halldin, Torbjörn, 2012. "Born global firms – do they perform differently?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 269, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    3. Shon Ferguson & Magnus Henrekson & Louise Johannesson, 2021. "Getting the facts right on born globals," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 259-276, January.
    4. Dzikowski, Piotr, 2018. "A bibliometric analysis of born global firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 281-294.
    5. 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).
    6. Choquette, Eliane & Rask, Morten & Sala, Davide & Schröder, Philipp, 2017. "Born Globals—Is there fire behind the smoke?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 448-460.
    7. Knight, Gary A. & Liesch, Peter W., 2016. "Internationalization: From incremental to born global," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 93-102.
    8. Rubina Romanello & Maria Chiarvesio, 2019. "Early internationalizing firms: 2004–2018," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 172-219, June.
    9. Johanson, Martin & Martín Martín, Oscar, 2015. "The incremental expansion of Born Internationals: A comparison of new and old Born Internationals," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 476-496.
    10. 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.
    11. Jean-François Hennart & Antonio Majocchi & Birgit Hagen, 2021. "What’s so special about born globals, their entrepreneurs or their business model?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1665-1694, December.
    12. 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.
    13. Onkelinx, Jonas & Manolova, Tatiana S. & Edelman, Linda F., 2016. "The human factor: Investments in employee human capital, productivity, and SME internationalization," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 351-364.
    14. Jeoung Yul Lee & Alfredo Jiménez & Timothy M. Devinney, 2020. "Learning in SME Internationalization: A New Perspective on Learning From Success versus Failure," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 485-513, August.
    15. 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.
    16. Baum, Matthias & Schwens, Christian & Kabst, Ruediger, 2015. "A latent class analysis of small firms’ internationalization patterns," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 754-768.
    17. 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.
    18. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Onkelinx, Jonas, 2014. "International commitment, post-entry growth and survival of international new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 106-120.
    19. Oliva, Fábio Lotti & Teberga, Pedro Marins Freire & Testi, Lucas Israel Oliveira & Kotabe, Masaaki & Giudice, Manlio Del & Kelle, Peter & Cunha, Miguel Pina, 2022. "Risks and critical success factors in the internationalization of born global startups of industry 4.0: A social, environmental, economic, and institutional analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    20. Ryan Trudgen & Susan Freeman, 2014. "Measuring the Performance of Born-Global Firms Throughout Their Development Process: The Roles of Initial Market Selection and Internationalisation Speed," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 551-579, August.

    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:eee:iburev:v:28:y:2019:i:1:p:60-73. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    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.