New venture internationalisation and the cluster life cycle: insights from Ireland’s indigenous software industry

The internationalization of new and small firms has been a long-standing concern of researchers in international business (Coviello and McAuley, 1999; Ruzzier et al., 2006). This topic has been re-invigorated over the last decade by the burgeoning literature on so-called ‘born globals’ (BG) or ‘international new ventures’ (INV) – businesses that confound the expectations of traditional theory by being active internationally at, or soon after, inception (Aspelund et al., 2007; Bell, 1995; Rialp et al., 2005). Until quite recently, this literature had not really considered how the home regional environment of a new venture might influence its internationalization behaviour. However, a handful of recent studies have shown that being founded in a geographic industry ‘cluster’ can positively influence the likelihood of a new venture internationalizing (e.g., Fernhaber et al., 2008; Libaers and Meyer, 2011). This chapter seeks to build on these recent contributions by further probing the relationship between clusters and new venture internationalization. Specifically, taking inspiration from recent work in the thematic research stream on clusters (which spans the fields of economic geography, regional studies and industrial dynamics), the chapter explores how the emergence and internationalization of new ventures might be affected by the ‘cluster life cycle’ context within which they are founded. This issue is examined through a revelatory longitudinal case study of Ireland’s indigenous software cluster. The study investigates the origins and internationalization behaviour of ‘leading’ Irish software ventures but, in contrast to many existing studies, it seeks to understand these firms within the context of the Irish software cluster’s emergence and evolution through a number of ‘life-cycle’ stages

Chinese multinational enterprises' firm-specific advantages and a critic on the international business theory

We argue that the extant literature tends to view that EMNEs do not have FSAs and in particular, innovation-based ownership advantages. This, however, is not a fact but a myth that deserves detailed examination. Drawing on a case study of four Chinese multinationals, we argue that some Chinese multinationals have brilliant innovation capabilities particularly in areas such as services-based innovation, architectural innovation and grafting innovation. This helps to explain their rapid rise and internationalisation. We therefore argue that Dunning’s OLI paradigm is still relevant in the context of EMNEs. However we also accept that the OLI paradigm needs to be taken with a complementary view that EMNEs also internationalise to augment their assets/capabilities. We call for further studies on EMNEs’ FSAs with a broader view of innovatio

Expanding to outward foreign direct investment or not? A multi-dimensional analysis of entry mode transformation of Chinese private exporting firms

This research examines the factors determining whether or not exporting firms expand to outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) as part of their internationalisation strategy, using a recent survey of Chinese private-owned enterprises. We carry out a multi-dimensional analysis to investigate the impact of firm productivity, internal resources and the external environment on OFDI decisions, including both the decision to undertake OFDI and the volume of OFDI flows. It is found that productivity, technology-based capability, export experience, industry entry barriers, subnational institutions and intermediary institutional support affect firms’ OFDI decisions. The findings have important policy and managerial implications

Internationalisation strategies of African MNEs: a case analysis of Angolan and Mozambican enterprises

This study investigates the internationalisation strategies of Lusophone Africa multinational enterprises (LAMNEs) from Angola and Mozambique. While previous scholarship examining the investment decisions and actual investment commitments found that MNEs make choices to internationalise incrementally to reduce uncertainty, this research expands this body of scholarship by identifying Angolan and Mozambican MNEs that were born global or created to become international new ventures (INVs). Key implications of this study suggests that despite several disadvantages faced by entrepreneurs in frontier economies, particularly in Angola and Mozambique LAMNEs relied on external resources to launch themselves into international markets, utilising web-enabled digital and virtual resources, such as the Internet, social media and online professional communities of practice. In addition, most did not enter foreign markets alone and chose to rely on modes of entry that included joint ventures and partnerships, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), e-commerce, and e-business.https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEXPORTM.2019.101809Accepted manuscriptPublished versio

Country of origin, branding strategy and internationalisation: The case of Chinese piano companies

This paper studies the internationalisation of Chinese piano firms from a branding perspective. The purpose of the paper is two folds. Firstly it examines the interplay between the country of origin (COO) effect and international branding, and how COO affects the choice of branding strategies in international markets. Secondly, it explores the possible link between international branding decisions and international expansion of the firm. A model is introduced that illustrates the relationships between COO, branding options and internationalisation. Corresponding with its progress in the internationalisation, a firm’s branding development in international markets may follow certain stages. As the firm moves to advanced stages, it increases its international brand equity; the impact from negative COO will decrease and eventually become irrelevant. Literature of internationalisation is largely based on the experience of MNEs from Western developed countries. Multinational firms from developing countries such as China possess some unique characteristics that make it very difficult to apply Western theories to them. The emergence of MNEs from developing countries calls for the development of new theories

Global vs. regional approaches to the internationalisation process of Nigerian banks: some preliminary evidences

Research investigating internationalisation process of service firms from developing countries is limited. This paper draws on extant work on internationalisation of the firm, services’ internationalisation and proposes conceptual framework that investigates the internationalisation process of three leading Nigerian banks namely; Zenith Bank Nigeria (ZBN)Plc, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc and Intercontinental Bank Plc. This work attempts to evaluate the internationalisation process of these financial service firms to the UK market. It seeks to understand the driving forces behind these banks’ motives for internationalisation to UK; the various influences that might have affected their decisions, the several internationalisation routes and strategies they might have followed in doing so; and the next strategies they might adopt in furthering their internationalisation process. This work contributes to some understanding of the reasons why service firms from developing countries internationalising to advanced locations like the UK. The analyses and findings of this study offer unique insights into the internationalisation processes of the three case banks, and examines how their different pathways was determined by a balancing act of leveraging accumulated global and regional strengths to achieved sustained international growth

Information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom: Emerging trends and implications

This article examines the modal choices, key activities and motivations of non-dominant information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom, against the backdrop of recent trends in the global economy. Its main findings include the limited prospects of the sample firms' evolution into manufacturing activity in the United Kingdom and the increasing importance of inter-firm logistics collaboration. Among the key policy implications discussed in the article are: the need for appropriate measures to support the United Kingdom's positioning as a gateway to, and a preferred base for intelligence gathering on, other European markets; the need for "high-wage" advanced economies to capitalize upon their not-easily-replicable location-specific advantages (e.g. reputable research-anddevelopment clusters; substantial domestic market) in targeting foreign direct investment in the research and development, design and sales-related areas; and the importance of a more balanced investment attraction strategy that actively targets major global players (and their capacity to attract secondary inward investment) without compromising support for indigenous growth companies. Future research should pay greater attention to the intra-regional, rather than intra-country, context of firms' evolution in international markets

The Internationalization of Chinese Companies: Are the Traditional Resource Based Theories Valid Yet?

Over the past two decades, Chinese multinationals have made a huge amount of foreign direct investment abroad, making China the largest outward investor among top ten emerging countries. Nevertheless only in the last years some authors have begun to study this phenomenon.. According to these considerations, aim of this paper is to analyse the recent phenomenon of the internationalisation of Chinese firms in order to verify if it offers an opportunity to extend the traditional internationalisation theories based on the experience of developed countries’ firms. Combining the results obtained describing the international process of two large Chinese companies with the assumptions of the Resource based View approach and the Uppsala model, the paper shows that traditional proposed internationalisation theories cannot explain the internationalisation of Chinese firms. The international development of Chinese firms cannot be described as a gradual process direct toward near markets and aimed to exploit existing resources and to accumulate experiential knowledge. Chinese firms are forced to go abroad in order to gain the immaterial resources necessary to compete in the home and in the foreign market. The analysis of the Chinese firms’ internationalisation process seems to be an opportunity for extending the traditional internationalisation theories.internationalization; resource based view; Uppsala model; Chinese firms.

The rise of emerging market multinationals and its impact on marketing

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the rise of emerging market multinationals (EMMs), with a special focus on its impact on marketing. Emerging market countries not only have millions newly affluent consumers and are also the home of a new generation of multinational companies. The rise of EMMs challenges the extant thinking in strategy and marketing, and creates both threats and opportunities for western firms. With unique character and behaviour, EMMs are different from both developed countries multinationals and Japanese and Korean firms. It is imperative to study EMMs in order to win the new competition

Models of internationalisation: The New Zealand experience

This paper examines the models of internationalisation adopted by thirty firms from New Zealand. Analysis of the international model is based on five key dimensions: firm sector and size; international market scope; market entry and servicing strategies; and speed of internationalisation. Drivers and constraints to internationalisation are also considered in the analysis. Evaluation of these dimensions over time finds evidence of both traditional ‘stages’ and emergent ‘born (again) global’ models of internationalisation, and reveals that over one third of these firms experience dramatic change to their international activities and resources initiated by divestment or change of ownership. We refer to the alternative internationalisation trajectory adopted by these firms as the ‘transformational’ model of internationalisation. The paper makes a contribution to the extant literature by providing synthesis of the New Zealand internationalisation and by building on our understanding of how patterns of internationalisation from a small open economy are changing in response to global environmental pressures