Strength of ties involved in international new ventures

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine the strength of ties that entrepreneurs use during three critical phases of the international new venture's (INV) development; pre-founding, start-up and early internationalization.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses in-depth interviews to track the development of five INVs to provide nuanced and detailed findings relating to tie strength during these three critical phases. By focusing on proces, the paper captures in detail the strength of these ties and the dynamics of how they evolve.

Findings

While the existing literature considers strength of ties to be two separate entities, the paper develops a continuum with three different levels of strength by using entrepreneurs' actual relationships. The paper found that stronger relationships predominate and that they play an important broker role to link with other unconnected networks.

Practical implications

Since relationships are crucial for recognizing and developing business opportunities, entrepreneurs need to invest time and resources to create and develop relationships. The study indicates that entrepreneurs have stronger relationships during the early phases of firm development mainly because they focus on essential relationships and cull unnecessary ones that form a distraction.

Originality/value

The paper refines theory by identifying a distinct category the “equally strong as weak relationship” that is not yet mentioned in the extant literature but could be useful for international entrepreneurs to position themselves inside a network in foreign markets. In such relationships entrepreneurs experience the co-existence of importance and uncertainty.

Citation

Söderqvist, A. and Kamala Chetty, S. (2013), "Strength of ties involved in international new ventures", European Business Review, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 536-552. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-03-2013-0034