The Chinese born globals of the Zhejiang Province: A study on the key factors for their rapid internationalization

With the increased participation of emerging economies in the global economy, born globals (BGs) in emerging countries become significant players. However, researches on Chinese BGs are still very limited. The aim of this paper is to explore the key factors that influence the rapid internationalization of Chinese BGs and examine how these factors can explain the successful and quick integration of Chinese BGs into global market. Based on an Anglo-Saxon literature review, we identified six major factors explaining BGs’ rapid internationalization and compared them on two groups of Chinese SMEs (BGs and non-BGs) in an exploratory study. Based on the analysis of the exploratory study, we identified two key factors for the rapid internationalization of Chinese BGs, namely managers and networks. Then, we select four Chinese BGs and conducted a comparative case study in order to examine and understand the role of these two factors in their internationalization process. We conclude this paper with the contribution, implication, and limitation of our study, as well as the perspective for our future research. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.