Go and conquer the world? Entrepreneurs’ international experience and the target of different types of foreign markets

Building on the well-established stylised fact that entrepreneurs’ international experience is a key driver of start-ups’ internationalisation, we draw on the competence-based view of the firm to theorise that the type of international experience, i.e. work vs. education, and its length, long term vs. short term, influence the target market of the international opportunities pursued, i.e. Business to Consumer (B2C) vs. Business to Organisation (B2O) markets. We test our theoretical framework on 1,034 young innovative companies created in Italy and show that entrepreneurs’ international education and long-term experience have a greater positive impact on the likelihood of targeting foreign B2C customers than foreign B2O customers. Furthermore, international work experience similarly affects the likelihood of targeting both types of foreign customers. Our findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how entrepreneurs’ international human capital-enhancing activities, stemming from different personal experiences, influence the internationalisation dynamics of their innovative start-ups.