Internationalization of IT Born Global Firms - A New Approach

Abstract: The emergence of born global firms in the last decades has led to a growing interest in the internationalization processes of such companies. Despite the existence of traditional internationalization frameworks, we seek to understand how internationalization process of IT born global firms deviate from traditional theory and what key factors play a role in their internationalization process. To develop a more integrated framework that encompasses key internationalization factors from different traditional theories and a case company, we used template analysis on the IT born global firm Eurosender. We find that in contrast to traditional theory, born global firms start operating in multiple countries from the outset, rather than following a sequential process. Besides technical advantages of IT, we show that the importance of finance, personnel, and networks is core to the internationalization success of IT born global firms. We develop a new model that has its theoretical relevance in providing a framework that encompasses factors from multiple traditional theories and can be used by aspiring entrepreneurs to get practical advice on what factors have found to be essential to internationalization success of born global firms.