{"title":"Are born global firms really a “new breed” of exporters? Empirical evidence from an emerging market","authors":"Moen, Øystein, Falahat, Mohammad, Lee, Yan-Yin","doi":"10.1007/s10843-022-00307-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates and compares born global (BG) firms and non-BG firms in Malaysia. We employed the multigroup analysis technique with structural equation models to test six hypotheses to determine the differences and similarities between two proposed models of BG and non-BG firms across a wide range of industries. The study reveals differences between the antecedents of marketing capabilities for BGs versus non-BGs, indicating that the performance enabling mechanisms differ between the groups. More precisely, the ability of BG firms to convert digital and entrepreneurial orientations into marketing capabilities is found to be a distinguishing characteristic of these firms. Moreover, non-BGs utilize government support to build marketing capabilities and obtain superior performance in the international market. This result suggests that governmental export promotion initiatives in Malaysia should be adjusted to increase relevance for BGs. The findings indicate that marketing capabilities play an essential role in the international market performance of both BGs and non-BGs. An important implication is that managerial focus and actions need to be adjusted depending on the type of firm. The two types of firms are not equal; if they are managed similarly, misjudgment will arise.</p>","PeriodicalId":51562,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Entrepreneurship","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Entrepreneurship","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-022-00307-0","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
This study investigates and compares born global (BG) firms and non-BG firms in Malaysia. We employed the multigroup analysis technique with structural equation models to test six hypotheses to determine the differences and similarities between two proposed models of BG and non-BG firms across a wide range of industries. The study reveals differences between the antecedents of marketing capabilities for BGs versus non-BGs, indicating that the performance enabling mechanisms differ between the groups. More precisely, the ability of BG firms to convert digital and entrepreneurial orientations into marketing capabilities is found to be a distinguishing characteristic of these firms. Moreover, non-BGs utilize government support to build marketing capabilities and obtain superior performance in the international market. This result suggests that governmental export promotion initiatives in Malaysia should be adjusted to increase relevance for BGs. The findings indicate that marketing capabilities play an essential role in the international market performance of both BGs and non-BGs. An important implication is that managerial focus and actions need to be adjusted depending on the type of firm. The two types of firms are not equal; if they are managed similarly, misjudgment will arise.
期刊介绍:
Competition in international markets was traditionally the realm of large companies, with smaller firms tending to remain local or regional. Internationalisation was an expansion option of interest to some enterprises, but seldom was it a competitive necessity. Many opted to avoid the uncertainties of competing in foreign markets, and simply kept their firms small and local. Traditional internationalisation theories, therefore, focused mainly on large multinational corporations, and were less pertinent to smaller firms. With the liberalisation of trade, however, domestic firms are threatened by international competitors that are penetrating formerly protected markets. Nowadays, internationalisation affects everyone, whether or not they wish to internationalise themselves. The threats and opportunities of internationalisation must be addressed.
Globalisation is transforming the competitive environment of small and large players alike. As a result, internationalisation issues will continue to be increasingly important to business. Public policy agendas already include programmes to help entrepreneurs become successful at internationalisation. There is a growing need to understand internationalisation in the context of entrepreneurship, as well as large multinationals.
Knowledge of how, when and why firms internationalise - either incrementally or not - will surely be the focus of energetic researchers. Yet, up to now, academia has been lacking a journal dedicated to internationalisation issues. To fill this niche, the aforementioned editorial team wishes to offer an outlet for high-quality research addressing the opportunities and challenges intrinsic to internationalisation.
The primary audience for this journal will be researchers of entrepreneurship and international business. In addition, readership is certain to include business-people and policy-makers.
The editors invite submissions that analyse internationalisation, combining theore tical and empirical work. Researchers will be encouraged to conduct comparative studies, and to evaluate competing theories. The composition of the editorial team - including experts in international business and experts in entrepreneurship - is designed to avoid editorial bias. Every effort will be made to reach a first decision about a submission, within sixty days.
Officially cited as: J Int Entrep