Abstract
Although companies seek to export in order to meet the growing importance of international markets, vis-à-vis domestic markets, this chapter presents a case study of a company founded by two former high school teachers who started a beverage company in 2015 and quickly reached an early internationalization. The company produces alcoholic beverages and has won international awards regarding the quality of its product, which has given it an important status and opened the door to a process of rapid internationalization. This will be used to explore the theory of entrepreneurship and how two potential entrepreneurs, with employment difficulties in teaching, began with a project that gave birth to a born global firm.
TopLiterature Review
International entrepreneurship was originally related to the way technological advances and cultural awareness allowed new ventures to access untapped foreign markets (Morrow, 1988; McDougall, & Oviatt, 2000). It comprises novel and innovative activities that cross borders with the aim of creating value and growth in business firms. As such, international entrepreneurship refers to innovative activities pursued by a firm across borders. Innovative encompasses the value-seeking component, as firms leave their home country to seek out new opportunities in unknown or unexplored markets.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Globalization: It is a worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. It is normally envisaged as a lack of trade barriers between nations, which are removed through free trade agreements throughout the world and between nation states. It implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers, in which investment opportunities soar.
International Entrepreneurship: The term international entrepreneurship was originally related to the way technological advances and cultural awareness allowed new ventures to access untapped foreign markets. It comprises novel and innovative activities that crosses borders with the aim of creating value and growth in business firms. As such, it refers to innovative activities pursued by a firm across borders. Innovative encompasses the value-seeking component, as firms leave their home country to seek out new opportunities in unknown or unexplored markets.
Case Study: It is a qualitative methodology, normally used in social sciences, that seeks to interpret a reality through a particular perspective. It is normally used to answer questions like “how” and “why.” It is commonly used to addresses constructivist research processes.
Internationalization Process: It involves the emphasis of a trajectory of a company in its transition from a national market to a particular foreign market. It normally involves several entry modes (exports, FDI, franchising, etc.) that exert a critical influence on the subsequent trajectory, as well as on cost related to the internationalization process. The two most important theories that explain the internationalization process are the Uppsala model and the network-based approach.
Born Global: It is a type of company that, from its inception, seeks to derive a competitive advantage to compete in many countries. It normally pursues a vision of becoming global and globalizes rapidly without any preceding long term domestic or internationalization period or experience. Usually born globals are small, technology-oriented companies that operate in several international markets.
Internationalization: It is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets. It involves a strategy carried out by firms that decide to compete in foreign markets. It involves cross border transactions of goods, services, or resources between two or more firms or organizations that belong to two different countries.