A Virtual Road to the Global Market - A new paradigm for Born Globals' organizational structures?

Abstract: This thesis builds on the argumentation by business advisors and academic scholars, that quick and extensive internationalization is a key competitive advantage in today's fast-paced economy. By reviewing literature, it can be established that very little is discussed regarding the strategic options to increase international scope for Born Globals. Furthermore, many studies indicate that Born Globals have a smaller international scope after three years than earlier concluded. Earlier research has examined virtual teams in MNCs and found that their unique capabilities have positive implications for internationalization processes. Against this background this thesis sets out to test whether Born Globals with virtual organizational structures, i.e. Virtual Born Globals, reach a larger international scope compared to non-virtual Born Globals. By merging both Born Global literature and the Dynamic Capability approach to an integrated model, and using the CAGE-model, the international scope can be measured. The model output from Virtual Born Globals were contrasted to non-virtual Born Globals. This results in the main conclusion that Virtual Born Globals reach a larger international scope because of their unique dynamic capabilities, Cultural-and Time-zone capabilities. Due to internal challenges within the teams, in terms of differences in culture and time-zones, Virtual Born Globals are forced to develop the capabilities to handle the challenges internally. These capabilities can then be utilized in the internationalization process and decrease the perceived challenges, and therefore increase the international scope.