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Striving for growth since their early stages, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly adopting an entrepreneurial behavior based on a rapid and early international expansion. Although some extant research have been done on the dynamic capabilities of SMEs’ accelerated internationalization–born global (BG) SMEs, no study was, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, carried on the microfoundations underlying this phenomenon. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature and contribute to the growing theory development of SME’s microfoundations.

This paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework to better identify the microfoundations that influence born global SMEs internationalization by integrating individual, structural and processual – the microfoundations approach within the dynamic capabilities of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring.

Our propositions argue that born global SMEs are characterized by dynamic capabilities based on a combination of some individual (manager’s human and social capital, such as its personal orientation, experiences, cognition and intuition), process (market learning, technology development) and structural (agility, communication/coordination) factors that helps a lot in the acceleration of the internationalization process.

Empirical study should be done to enrich the conceptual material.

To identify some international opportunities, companies should rely on the entrepreneurial orientation of its managers, its experience and network as well as the market-related learning and technological processes. The managerial cognition is important to seize opportunities while the manager’s human capital is needed to reconfigure resources while internationalizing rapidly.

This research shows that individual attributes are important but insufficient to accelerate the internationalization process. Some individual characteristics are more useful in sensing international opportunities rapidly, such as manager’s international entrepreneurial, past experience and network, However, the managerial cognition is important to seize opportunities, whereas the manager’s human capital is needed to reconfigure resources while internationalizing rapidly.

Born global firms must develop several dynamic capabilities to foster their accelerated early international development. This paper gives insights about the individual, structural and processual of sensing international opportunities, seizing and reconfiguring resources and competencies for born globals.

In the last three years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 246,575 charges of workplace discrimination, of which 43,437 alleged sexual harassment. In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two landmark decisions governing how U.S. courts analyze sexual harassment cases. Since those cases, U.S. courts have been faced with a new conundrum: is a constructive discharge a “tangible employment action” that gives rise to automatic employer liability? Although the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals have split on the issue, the trend appears to be in favor of imposing automatic liability, effectively denying employers a defense in cases in which the alleged victim often failed to report harassing conduct. This article argues that classifying a “constructive discharge” as a “tangible employment action” will, in most circumstances, violate the Supreme Court’s admonition that “no award against a liable employer should reward a plaintiff for what her own efforts could have avoided”.

Innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key economic actors, but they are fragile. Their innovation trajectory requires an evolution in their competencies as their strategy evolves, and this is a particularly critical concern when they are engaged in both exploration and exploitation activities and want to develop organisational ambidexterity. In turn, this brings challenges for human resource management (HRM): some research studies have identified “mobilising” practices for innovation, but few authors have taken a dynamic approach. This study aims to fill this double-theoretical gap by answering the following two questions: how does HRM respond to the challenges associated with the search for ambidexterity in an innovative SME's trajectory? What HRM practices are mobilised in the innovation trajectory of SMEs?

The authors carried out two longitudinal case studies concerning innovative SMEs in the medical equipment sector, which are now over 10 years old and seeking to stabilise an ambidextrous way of operating. The authors conducted 37 semi-structured interviews in 2018–2019 and collected public and internal documents. For each case, the authors identified sequences (Bidart et al., 2013) displaying a certain homogeneity in terms of innovation strategy. The authors then performed a cross-case analysis.

These case studies produced two main results. First, the trajectory of innovative SMEs consisted of sequences during which competency needs and HRM practices evolved. Despite their similar modes of ambidexterity, the two SMEs have mobilised different human resource (HR) practices. Second, the HRM practices implemented struggle to support the firm at key turning points in the innovation trajectories and can even hinder such changes in direction.

The originality of this work lies in two major dimensions. First, the authors choose to explore innovation and the search for ambidexterity, two themes that are traditionally studied in large firms, in the setting of SMEs. Second, the authors choose a longitudinal method to explore the evolution over time in modes of ambidexterity and HRM, along these SMEs' innovation trajectory. This is a departure from more traditional approaches seeking to identify which HR practices, or configurations of practices, are best able to foster ambidexterity and innovation. It leads the authors to show, in a contingent, dynamic perspective, the importance of the Human Resources Foundation’s (HRF's) positioning and attitude in supporting diversified SMEs’ innovation trajectories. This requires allocation of the necessary resources to the function, which needs time and resources to reflect on how to build the ambidextrous HRM that is essential for the firm's survival.