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Two hot topics today in the popular press as well as academic literature are international entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship. These topics challenge two traditional notions within those fields: the difficulty of established corporations to be entrepreneurial and the difficulty of entrepreneurs to go global. The current study introduces the concept global corporate ventures, which merges the concepts internal corporate ventures and “born globals.” This concept is developed and illustrated by two examples of global corporate ventures, ING Direct and HSBC Direct, two financial services e‐commerce ventures that have been launched on a global scale.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how high‐tech firms from China internationalize and to determine whether they follow the gradual internationalization model suggested by the Uppsala school and/or the rapid internationalization model as suggested by the “born global” stream of researchers.

This is an inductive and exploratory study that tries to understand questions of how and why. A multiple case study method is used to find empirical evidence for the a priori assumptions derived from the literature.

It was found that the gradual internationalization model is still valid although high‐tech firms from China internationalize much faster than suggested by earlier studies and they do not follow the process suggested by born global studies.

The authors develop a number of propositions that can be empirically tested in pursuit of theory building for the internationalization of smaller firms from emerging markets.

The paper compares and contrasts the models suggested by Uppsala studies and by researchers in the field of born global studies and provides concrete propositions that can be tested to develop a theory for emerging market firms.

This paper aims to challenge the up to now mainly product-centered view on international new ventures by analyzing the influence of service orientation on new venture internationalization behavior. It especially focuses on the utilization of specific market entry modes as a result of a growing service orientation.

Newness and complexity of the topic call for a qualitative-empirical research approach. Therefore, the paper is based on an in-depth multiple-case study of six international new ventures operating in fashion and lifestyle industry.

This paper shows that service-oriented international new ventures make use of different market entry modes at the same time. Service-related capabilities allow them to especially use cooperative market entry modes to fuel lacking market knowledge and thus to overcome resource constraints in value creation processes.

The paper contributes to a more holistic understanding of international new ventures, as it provides empirical evidence for the importance of service-related aspects in new venture internationalization. Furthermore, the paper extends international new venture research by not only considering an early international market entry but also other aspects of internationalization such as the type of offerings or the preferred market entry modes.

The study of international business has become increasingly important in recent years. So important that the American Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has called for the internationalisation of business curricula. In 1992 and beyond, successful business people will treat the entire world as their domain. No one country can operate in an economic vacuum. Any economic measures taken by one country can affect the global economy. This book is designed to challenge the reader to develop a global perspective of international business. Globalisation is by no means a new concept, but there are many new factors that have contributed to its recently accelerated growth. Among them, the new technologies in communication and transport that have resulted in major expansions of international trade and investment. In the future, the world market will become predominant. There are bound to be big changes in the world economy. For instance the changes in Eastern Europe and the European Community during the 1990s. With a strong knowledge base in international business, future managers will be better prepared for the new world market. This book introduces its readers to the exciting and rewarding field of international management and international corporations. It is written in contemporary, easy‐to‐understand language, avoiding abstract terminology; and is organised into five sections, each of which includes a number of chapters that cover a subject involving activities that cross national boundaries.

This study aims to explore the internationalization trajectory of emerging country digital economy ventures by specifically concentrating on how ambidexterity facilitates international market expansion. Further, this paper examines how these ventures develop dynamic capabilities by using their ambidextrous skills in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE).

This study adopts a multiple-case research design where data were gathered from five digital economy ventures in Turkey, serving an international array of customers.

The analyses reveal that, to a large extent, internationalization is enabled by the extensive use of ambidextrous skills in the ecosystem domain. We found evidence for practicing exploration and exploitation while interacting with several ecosystem pillars grouped as founder-related, firm-related and business context-related factors. These interactions portray how ventures sense, seize and transform resources to support their international expansion.

This study extends the current literature on internationalization by discussing the role of ambidexterity as a dynamic capability. The findings also demonstrate the EE as a construct to explain international entrepreneurial activity. Further, the study extends the existing literature by considering the calls for research on dynamic capabilities of international new ventures (INVs). Finally, the findings point to several implications both for practitioners and policymakers.

International new ventures have been argued to seek foreign markets from inception in response to the external environment and/or motivations internal to the firm. For example, a new venture that exists in an industry that is more globally integrated is more likely to have a need to internationalize in order to remain competitive (Shrader, Oviatt, & McDougall, 2000). Similarly, those new ventures that have limited domestic growth due to the size of their home country may look elsewhere in order to gain a sufficient level of sales to survive (Zahra & George, 2002). Some of the many firm-specific motivations to internationalize might include the desire to fully exploit a unique product (Burgel & Murray, 2000; Oviatt & McDougall, 1994, 1995), capitalize on the learning advantage of newness (Autio, Sapienza, & Almeida, 2000) or take advantage of networking opportunities (Reuber & Fischer, 1997).

This paper utilizes a new data base on the international activities of small, new ventures in Korea to examine the impact of internationalization on firm performance. Main findings are two‐fold: first, the degree of internationalization by new ventures is related to firm performance in a non‐linear fashion with four phases resulting in the new M‐shaped curve; and, second, the internationalization of the new ventures in the home region of the triad moderates positively the non‐linear M‐shaped relationship between the two as their degree of internationalization increases.

This paper aims to examine the interaction between risk, learning and ownership decisions in international R&D joint ventures.

The study focuses on international strategic R&D joint ventures of US firms. The sample is made up of 266 firms. Regression models are used in the testing of the hypotheses.

The authors show a clear difference between the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in international joint ventures (IJVs). In response to performance risk, firms are less likely to pursue a majority ownership, whereas with relational risk the effect is opposite.

A key contribution of this paper is that it shows the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in IJVs. Another contribution is the finding that IJV experience moderates the effects of relational risk factors on firms' ownership decisions in joint ventures. With greater joint venture experience, firms are more likely to take a non‐dominant position in response to diverse partners as they develop routines and capabilities that allow them to better manage IJV partners and minimize the risk of partner opportunism without the need for majority ownership.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the development of high‐tech international new ventures as an acting process by individuals in relationship networks.

The study cross‐fertilizes research on internationalization of international new ventures, opportunity development of entrepreneurs and innovation development in technology‐based firms. A longitudinal case study on the development process of an international new venture operating in the software business is used as a base for analytical generalization and theory development.

The study illustrates events at three intertwined levels of acting on the development of an international new venture. It defines internal problem solving, external solution creation, opportunity selling and opportunity organizing as the behaviors driving the emergent, multi‐level process and embedding the venture in various networks.

Statistical generalization based on common patterns experienced by several firms was not sought in this study. Using the process research approach with event‐based analysis, the study, however, provides an in‐depth analysis of international new venture development through the actions of individuals at the level of key events. The methods for examining a complex development process over time can be utilized by other process researchers.

The complexity of building high‐tech international new ventures is, to a great extent, due to the necessity of handling the process at three levels simultaneously and in connection with one another. Since international new ventures are often based on business opportunities that have a short window of opportunity, the timeline creates further challenges. Embedding the business into various resourcing, legitimizing and otherwise assisting networks is crucial.

The study provides an insight into the ways of acting in networks that intertwines the internationalization, opportunity and technology development with development of a high‐tech international new venture. The study follows the development process in real time, something that is quite rare in previous international entrepreneurship research.

Entrepreneurship is an emerging and evolving field of inquiry. Entrepreneurship research has been expanding its boundaries by exploring and developing explanations and predictions of entrepreneurship phenomena in terms of events such as innovation, new venture creation and growth as well as characteristics of individual entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations. The largest institutionalized community of entrepreneurship scholars – the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management – has developed an entrepreneurship specific domain that incorporates the creation and management of new businesses, small businesses and family businesses, and the characteristics and special problems of entrepreneurs; it has further identified major topics such as new venture ideas and strategies, ecological influences on venture creation and demise, the acquisition and management of venture capital and venture teams, self-employment, the owner-manager, management succession, corporate venturing, and the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. One growing entrepreneurship research sub-field is corporate entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship), i.e. entrepreneurship in existing organizations. Emerging in the past two decades, the initial research in corporate entrepreneurship focused on new business venturing, i.e. the formation of new ventures by existing organizations, mostly corporations, and the focus on the entrepreneurial individual inside a corporation – this focus was then extended to include entrepreneurial characteristics at the organizational level. Corporate entrepreneurship research has evolved into three focal areas. The first area of focus is on the individual intrapreneur (Jennings, Cox & Cooper, 1994; Jones & Butler, 1992; Knight, 1989; Lessem, 1988; Luchsinger & Bagby, 1987; McKinney & McKinney, 1989; Pinchot, 1985; Ross, 1987; Souder, 1981), mainly emphasizing the intrapreneur’s individual characteristics. The recognition and support of entrepreneurs in organizations is also a part of this focal area. The second area of focus has been on the formation of new corporate ventures (Burgelman, 1985; Carrier, 1994; Cooper, 1981; Fast & Pratt, 1981; Hisrich & Peters, 1984; Hlavacek & Thompson, 1973; Krueger & Brazeal, 1994; MacMillan, Block & Narasimha, 1984; Szypersky & Klandt, 1984; Vesper, 1990); this area’s primary emphasis is on the different of types of new ventures, their fit with the corporation, and their enabling corporate internal environment. The third area of focus is on the entrepreneurial organization (Burgelman, 1983; Drucker, 1985; Duncan et al., 1988; Hanan, 1976; Kanter, 1984; Kuratko et al., 1993; Merrifield, 1993; Muzyka, de Konning & Churchill, 1995; Pinchot, 1985; Quinn, 1979; Rule & Irwin, 1988; Schollhammer, 1981; Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990; Stopford & Baden-Fuller, 1994), which mainly emphasizes the characteristics of these organizations.