International entrepreneurial culture as a booster of early and rapid internationalisation: A comparative study of Born Globals vs non-Born Globals

The literature demonstrates how Born Globals (BGs) make recourse to distinctive strategic intangible assets to accelerate their internationalisation processes while, nevertheless, broadly neglecting the role of International Entrepreneurial Culture (IEC) in generating and differentiating BGs despite its relevant role. This study examines the IEC as a driver of the early and rapid internationalisation of BGs and correspondingly seeks to capture the prevailing differences compared to non-Born Globals (non-BGs).Thus, we empirically tested and validated an IEC scale for a sample of 66 BGs and 102 non-BGs and deployed multivariate analysis techniques to identify the main differences among company profiles. The results reveal how BGs stand out from their peers in terms of autonomy (a dimension of the international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO)), international motivation, and international market orientation. Therefore, concentrating on developing these dimensions may return an effective means of boosting rapid and early internationalisation and thereby stand out from the competition. The remaining IEO dimensions, the international learning orientation and the international networking orientation were not relevant to this differentiating process.This research has important theoretical and practical implications, encouraging and guiding BG managers to adopt a strategic posture emphasising some particular IEC dimensions to differentiate themselves from their competitors and succeed in their early international involvement. La literatura ha demostrado que las Born Globals (BG) recurren a activos intangibles estrat & eacute;gicos distintivos para acelerar sus procesos de internacionalizaci & oacute;n. Sin embargo, a pesar de su papel relevante, se ha descuidado en gran medida el papel de la Cultura Emprendedora Internacional (CEI) en la creaci & oacute;n y diferenciaci & oacute;n de las BG. Este estudio examina la CEI como un impulsor de la internacionalizaci & oacute;n r & aacute;pida y temprana de las BG, buscando capturar las diferencias prevalecientes en comparaci & oacute;n con las non-Born Globals (non-BG).Probamos y validamos emp & iacute;ricamente una escala CEI para una muestra de 66 BGs y 102 non-BG, y recurrimos a t & eacute;cnicas de an & aacute;lisis multivariado para identificar las principales diferencias entre los dos perfiles de empresas. Los resultados revelaron que las BG se destacan en su autonom & iacute;a (dimensi & oacute;n de orientaci & oacute;n emprendedora internacional (OEI)), motivaci & oacute;n internacional y orientaci & oacute;n al mercado internacional. Por lo tanto, concentrarse en el desarrollo de estas dimensiones puede ser eficaz para lograr una internacionalizaci & oacute;n temprana y r & aacute;pida y as & iacute; diferenciarse de sus contrapartes. Las dimensiones restantes de la OEI, la orientaci & oacute;n al aprendizaje internacional y la orientaci & oacute;n a la creaci & oacute;n de redes internacionales, no fueron relevantes en este proceso diferenciador. Esta investigaci & oacute;n arroja importantes implicaciones te & oacute;ricas y pr & aacute;cticas, alentando y guiando a los gerentes de BG para adoptar una postura estrat & eacute;gica basada en algunas dimensiones de CEI para diferenciarse de los competidores y tener & eacute;xito en su participaci & oacute;n internacional temprana.