LLC “Consulting Publishing Company “Business Perspectives”
Abstract
From the beginning of the 1970s to the present day, significant changes have taken place in the competitive and organizational
behavior of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Recently, some of these factors have applied more
intensively, and this has given rise to growth in the number of new companies that undertake overseas operations almost
immediately (known as born globals).
The phenomenon of early internationalization is relatively recent, so there are still many aspects that need to be studied.
The objective of this study is to contribute to the scarce empirical literature existing in Spain on this topic, by providing
evidence on the possible differences in character of the born-global firms compared with the rest of exporting
companies. To this end, the focus of the study is on the analysis of variables such as the size and sector of activity of
these companies, and their principal economic and financial magnitudes.
A sample of 1,324 Spanish SMEs that were exporting in 2007 was surveyed; of this total approximately 12% identified
themselves as having adopted early internationalization.
The results obtained indicate that the born-global firms are, on average, smaller; they are classified mostly to the services
sector; and they are much more leveraged than the rest of Spanish SMEs that export
