Conceived globals: entrepreneurs' transnational networking, across phases, and embedded in culture

A firm may be conceived global, in the sense that, before its birth, the founding entrepreneur has a transnational network of advisors which provides an embedding for organising the upstart that may include assembling resources and marketing abroad. The purpose is to account for the entrepreneurs' transnational networking as it originates in the pre-birth phase of intending to start, and as it evolves through the starting and into the operating phases, in context of culture. By using sample from 61 societies with 88,628 entrepreneurs we found that entrepreneurs are networking transnationally across the intending, starting and operating phases, fairly constantly with only small fluctuations. The firm is conceived global in terms of the entrepreneur's transnational networking already in the pre-birth phase, when the entrepreneur is intending to start the firm. These phase effects hardly depend on attributes and culture which have separate effects. Being man, young, educated and having entrepreneurial competencies promote transnational networking extensively. Networking is embedded in culture, in the way that transnational networking is more extensive in secular-rational culture than in traditional culture.