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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of transnational entrepreneurs in growing born global firms, with a focus on the growth process facilitated by collaborative entry mode.

The author chose the solar photovoltaic industry as the empirical setting. This industry is a particularly good context for the study because many firms in this industry sell knowledge-intensive products internationally from their inception. The primary data consist of 32 in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, industry association representatives, research institute scholars, and professional service firms.

The study highlights the importance of transnational entrepreneurs who develop born global firms to maturity by using their technological knowledge, international connections, and bicultural advantages to navigate and leverage institutional complexity. Collaborative entry mode with distributors enables born global firms’ high growth rapidly, whereas transnational entrepreneurs play a central role in building and expanding international network. Initial public offering in overseas stock exchange accelerates the high growth trajectory of born global firm by signalling its maturity.

The author took a process perspective by examining the growth and maturity of born global firms by collaborative partnership; the author’s focus on the role of transnational entrepreneurs highlighted entrepreneurs’ sensitivity to institutional complexity along the growth trajectory.

The author recommends both incumbent and entrepreneurial firms in developed economies collaborate with transnational entrepreneurs in various business areas. Industry firms may be able to cooperate on product and marketing development, and professional service firms can offer services to expand born global firms further, because transnational entrepreneurs follow the global “rules of the game”.

The author shed important light on the role of transnational entrepreneurs throughout the growth of born global firms via collaborative entry mode. Furthermore, the author develops a multilevel framework for analysing the combined influence of transnational entrepreneur and institutional complexity on the growth of born global firm.

The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of a born global firm's early internationalization process and the entrepreneur's decisions regarding internationalization by using effectuation theory.

An explorative case study is used to explore whether effectuation theory is a fruitful alternative perspective compared with the dominant paradigm (causation), which is primarily used in earlier studies on born globals.

The study shows how a born global company could enter many markets in a short time, by co‐operating with local network partners. The founders' prior knowledge and networks were important to understand the rapid international expansion. Effectuation theory focuses on the entrepreneurs' ability to create opportunities together with network partners and is a useful tool to understand the development in the born global firm.

The study shows that effectuation theory holds promise for developing the international entrepreneurship area. Future research is recommended to focus not only on the entrepreneur's competencies, but also on the entrepreneur's behavior, including during the time before they started the firm.

Decision‐makers in the early development of born global firms are recommended to use his/her own and his/her company's resources and network. Also advantage should be taken of opportunities when they are recognized or created, instead of focusing on traditional planning activities.

There are few studies that have used effectuation theory as a basis for understanding the early development of a born global firm.

The purpose of this research is to identify and analyse the common characteristics and behaviour of entrepreneurs that affect the establishment of Born Global firms. The differences between the Australian and Swedish contexts will be scrutinized.

This study was designed to be qualitative in nature so that rich insights can be obtained directly from the entrepreneurs themselves. The sample consists of three Born Global firms each from Australia and Sweden.

This study shows the importance of entrepreneurs for the rapid internationalization of firms in Australia and Sweden. Different types of entrepreneurs were identified and small but important differences were identified between the two countries and different industries.

This study shows that analysis on an individual level enhances the understanding of internationalisation in new firms. By using the concept marketing and technical entrepreneur in different industrial contexts a more detailed understanding of different internationalization patterns can be obtained. This study is limited to two countries and six case studies. The findings may be limited to the chosen firms and studies across more countries and industries are needed.

This study shows that the entrepreneur should be in focus when analysing new firms' possibilities to expand abroad. Entrepreneurs can use their international experience, visions, ambitions and networks as crucial competencies in an international expansion. Different types of entrepreneurs can use different international strategies.

The focus and detailed analysis on the individual level across different countries make this study original.

Using a series of case studies, we show that global mindset is at the heart of global growth and opportunity for entrepreneurial ventures. We review how having an entrepreneurial mindset and international experience influence the rapidity of internationalization by discussing the entrepreneurial process and how the global mindset of founders of born global firms influences their choices in the competitive landscape. This chapter closes with a discussion of a continuum — globalization frustrated (focusing on firms with entrepreneurs that have global mindsets but cannot internationalize) to globalization mandated (focusing on firms that are forced to be global).

This study aims to investigate how mature born global firms create value for customers to achieve continued international growth.

The study employs a case study approach to investigate the under-researched area of how mature born globals create value for customers and, by doing so, contribute to their continued international growth. This in-depth examination of how three born globals developed over time uses interviews, observation and secondary data.

The findings indicate that the entrepreneurs of born global firms, that continued to grow, created a culture in the early stages that supported value creation for foreign customers. These firms have built a competitive position by developing international niche products. They have also implemented a combination of proactive and reactive market orientation to facilitate the creation and delivery of value to customers. To maintain growth, they further invest the revenues earned on additional international marketing activities and continuously enhance their focal products.

The study relies on three cases. We therefore recommend that future studies extend the scope of the research to several companies in various industries and countries, in which the theoretical arguments can be applied. In addition, further studies that test the propositions developed in this study, in different contexts, are highly recommended.

To gain international growth, managers should create an organizational culture that facilitates satisfying international customer needs. Firms should continuously invest in sales and market development (e.g. social media marketing, personal selling) and undertake technology development of niche rather than new products. To achieve international growth, managers need to standardize part of the offer to achieve economies of scale and adapt the other part to international customers' needs.

Research on born globals has focused on the early stages of their internationalization processes, while largely neglecting the later stages (mature born globals) or the factors that lead to continued international growth. To address this gap, this study explores what happens when born globals ‘grow up’. This study contributes to the literature by capturing the factors and processes underlying how mature born globals create value for customers, for international growth. In particular, the study shows that the culture and strategies developed in the born globals' early stages also lead to international growth in later stages. The mature born globals have also invested in niche products, brand building, and effective market channels and adopted a combination of proactive and reactive market orientations.

Recounts the history of the Chinese Diaspora in Australia, which dates back to the Gold Rush of the 1850s. In the past three decades, following the end of the white Australia policy, many ethnic Chinese immigrants have immigrated to Australia. Although there are only 300,000 people of Chinese ancestry living in Australia, Chinese immigration is a critical chapter of Australia’s immigration experience. Chinese entrepreneurs have played a major role in the history of the Chinese in Australia. Explores the experience of Chinese entrepreneurs in Australia from the earliest days till the present and reviews historical accounts of Chinese entrepreneurs in Australia, before presenting the results of recent research. Argues that it is necessary to investigate how ethnicity, gender and class have intersected to shape changing patterns of Chinese entrepreneurship in the Australian Chinese Diaspora. Suggests also that the dynamics of Chinese immigration and Chinese entrepreneurship in Australia have been shaped by the changing dynamics of globalisation, the state and the racialisation of Chinese immigrants in the Australian labour market and society as a whole.

Drawing on an intersectional perspective on racial, migrant and entrepreneurial identities, this paper investigates the identity work of racial minority entrepreneurs with native-born and migrant backgrounds, confronted to experiences of othering in a White entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The study takes a qualitative-interpretivist approach and builds on six cases of racial minority entrepreneurs in nascent stages of venture development within the Dutch technology sector. The dataset comprises 24 in-depth interviews conducted over the course of one and a half year, extensive case descriptions and online sources. The data is thematically and inductively analysed.

Despite strongly self-identifying as entrepreneurs, the research participants feel marginalised and excluded from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which results in ongoing threats to their existential authenticity as they build a legitimate entrepreneurial identity. Minority entrepreneurs navigate these threats by either downplaying or embracing their marginalised racial and/or migrant identities.

The study contributes to the literature on the identity work of minority entrepreneurs. The paper reveals that, rather than “strategising away” the discrimination and exclusion resulting from othering, racial minority entrepreneurs seek to preserve their sense of existential authenticity and self-worth, irrespective of entrepreneurial outcomes. In so doing, the study challenges the dominant perspective of entrepreneurial identity work among minority entrepreneurs as overly instrumental and market-driven. Moreover, the study also contributes to the literature on authenticity in entrepreneurship by highlighting how racial minority entrepreneurs navigate authenticity threats while building legitimacy in a White ecosystem.

Given the importance of immigration and immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies, the authors take an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective to study the home-country benefits possessed by immigrant entrepreneurs and how home-country entrepreneurial ecosystem factors affect immigrant entrepreneurial motivations, activities and outcomes.

This conceptual research paper follows McGaghie, Bordage and Shea's (2001) four-step new theory creation process, which suggests that new theories can be created through facts extraction from the extant literature.

The authors propose that although immigrant entrepreneurs are unable to take full benefit of the host-country entrepreneurial ecosystem due to blocked mobility, they do have capabilities to access and use their home-country entrepreneurial resources and opportunities. The authors further propose that home-country entrepreneurial capital can be systemically analyzed through the framework of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The results imply that immigrant entrepreneurship as a social and economic phenomenon can be studied more holistically from both host- and home-country perspectives compared to the traditional research boundary of the host-country only.

The research focuses on the identification of home-country effects on immigrant entrepreneurship through the lens of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Testable propositions provide directions for future empirical research on the field of immigrant entrepreneurship from a home-country perspective. The research concludes that a holistic immigrant entrepreneurship study should consider dual (host- and home-country) entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Immigrant entrepreneurs benefit from both host- and home-country entrepreneurial ecosystems. This paper suggests co-effects of dual entrepreneurial ecosystems lead to a high rate of entrepreneurship and business success within some immigrant groups. Policymakers can increase economic activities by developing and deploying programs to encourage immigrants to embed in host- and home-country entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Based on the framework of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, this paper brings a novel perspective to examining home-country effects on immigrant entrepreneurship. It theoretically conceptualizes that immigrants have higher entrepreneurship rates than native-born populations because they have access to extra home-country entrepreneurial capital.

With the historic rise in globalisation, there is more contact between countries and businesses than ever. Not only due to globalisation, technological change, and shorter product life cycles lead entrepreneurs to adopt internationalisation strategies. Internationalisation is a creative activity conducted by global entrepreneurs who seek to operate part of their businesses in international markets. Entrepreneurs, economists, policymakers, and researchers have long observed that international business success depends upon global entrepreneurial activity.

Over the past 30 years, diversity in the global market has been among the most researched topics in international business literature. However, since the entrepreneurship system consists of interwoven elements, such as an entrepreneur, management system, culture, market, region, customers and workers, diversification in one piece directly or indirectly affects the other components within the system. Therefore, diversity in global entrepreneurship should be examined by considering the dynamics of every element within the system.

In this chapter, the author reviewed and commented upon the development of the literature on diversity, global entrepreneurship, internationalisation, and multinational organisations. In an overview of previous studies, this study aims to analyse the nexus between diversity and global entrepreneurship, the importance of this connection in the international business domain and how this connection can evolve in the future.