Internationalisation of born global firms: Evidence from Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to identify the key factors that lead to early internationalisation of young small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country context and to examine the internationalisation path of born global firms in terms of initial and subsequent mode-of-entry decisions. This study analyses 10 born global SMEs using a multiple-case-study method. Multiple sources of data are used, including semi-structured in-depth interviews, a questionnaire and secondary data. It is found that factors that influence born global internationalisation are made up of the interplay of three major factors, namely the individual founder/manager specific characteristics, firm-specific resources and the external environment. The most important factor that emerged was the entrepreneurial orientation of founders/managers. This study also found that born global firms do not follow a stepwise-entry strategy. Due to the largely qualitative nature of the study, the findings cannot be statistically generalised to other similar contexts. Nonetheless, theoretical generalisation is possible. An integrated framework of the factors that drive born global internationalisation is presented, together with an overview of born-global-entry strategies.