Internationalization challenges among born globals : A roadmap for higher success

• Main Authors: Nilsson, Karin, Sawicki, Paulina
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle 2019
• Subjects: internationalization; early internationalization; born global; challenges; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-74290

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of internationalization among born global companies. In order to fulfil the purpose, three foreign market entries were investigated at a Swedish born global that offers digital streaming services for audiobooks. Method – We conducted a qualitative single case study with a grounded theory approach. The main data was collected through 22 interviews and 13 documents. The data analysis was two-folded; 1) content analysis for charting the market entries, and 2) thematic analysis for identifying challenges and how to address these. Findings – Our findings is divided into three parts. First, we present five challenges that born global companies might experience when they enter new foreign markets. These five challenges are sorted as primary; 1) lack of networks, 2) new-to-the-world, and 3) lack of partnerships, and secondary; 4) lack of market-specific knowledge, and 5) lack of support. Second, we provide eight actions that can be addressed to either one or more of the five challenges. The two actions that are most significant, i.e. can address the most challenges are; 1) utilize established investor, and 2) hire local and experienced employee on-site. Finally, the two research questions are compiled into a roadmap that provides a start-to-end guide for how conquer challenges for internationalization. Theoretical and practical implications – This study contributes to current internationalization literature by extending the view of born globals’ internationalization process. More specifically, it provides knowledge about possible challenges and how to address them, which previous literature has not explored. We believe that born globals can use the developed roadmap to increase their success rate. We also believe that the newly identified challenges can be used as a complement to the already explored success factors, in order to provide managers at born globals with a more holistic view of how to succeed with their internationalization journey.