Antecedents of Venture Firms’ Internationalization (eBook)

Dr. Julia Christofor promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Tobias Kollmann am Lehrstuhl für E-Business und E-Entrepreneurship an der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen. Sie ist als Business Consultant bei der Hewlett-Packard GmbH in Ratingen tätig.

Foreword 6
Aknowledgements 8
Table of Contents 10
List of Figures 13
List of Tables 15
List of Abbreviations 16
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Research Context: The Net Economy 18
1.2 Research Object: E-Ventures 20
1.3 The Internationalization Strategies of E-Ventures 27
1.4 Research Aims and Structure of the Thesis 30
1.5 Summary 37
2 Theoretical Foundations of Firm Internationalization 39
2.1 Conceptual Foundations of Internationalization Strategies 39
2.2 International Business Theories of Firm Internationalization 61
2.3 Internationalization Process and Export Development Models 73
2.4 Summary 95
3 Theoretical Foundations of Entrepreneurship 98
3.1 Definition of Entrepreneurship 99
3.2 Definition of the Entrepreneur 102
3.3 The Entrepreneurial Process 104
3.4 Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Behavior 117
3.5 Summary 119
4 Literature Synopsis and Research Framework 122
4.1 Synopsis: Internationalization and Entrepreneurship 123
4.2 Research Framework and Hypotheses 126
4.3 Summary 131
5 Empirical Study: Internationalization Propensity in the Net Economy 132
5.1 Assessment of Conjoint Analysis Method for the Study 133
5.2 Methods of Preference Measurement 137
5.3 Survey Design and Development 145
5.4 Data Collection 152
5.5 Summary 161
6 Data Analysis of the Empirical Study 164
6.1 Descriptive Findings of the Empirical Study 164
6.2 Segmentation of Data 175
6.3 Summary 190
7 Description of Cluster Solution Findings 193
7.1 Identification of Cluster Characteristics 193
7.2 Description of the Cluster Characteristics 197
7.3 Description of Internationalization Propensity Preference Models 201
7.4 Summary 210
8 Conclusion 212
8.1 Synthesis and Discussion of Key Findings 213
8.2 Limitations 226
8.3 Theoretical Implications 228
8.4 Practical Implications 230
8.5 Directions for Future Research 233
8.6 Summary 234
Bibliography 235
Appendix 265

3 Theoretical Foundations of Entrepreneurship (p. 82-83)

On the basis of the explanations in the preceding chapters with reference to EVentures with distinguished internationalization behavior patterns, the need for holistic explanation approaches for internationalization propensity was assessed. In this following part theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship theory will be applied to the research problem at hand to achieve a better analysis of the internationalization decision and the phase of internationalization propensity. Inasmuch as internationalization behavior encompasses the recognition of business opportunities across borders it is believed that young firms’ internationalization comprises entrepreneurial activity. Further, it is postulated that "it might be that the entrepreneurial way of life takes precedence over national culture in small firms" (Boter and Holmquist, 1996, p. 479), and thus the internationalization processes may be more closely linked to individual rather than formal structures.

A research study comparing the internationalization propensity of 357 young German and Chinese students conducted by Kollmann et al. (2007) found that although the political, economical and cultural contexts of the two groups differed highly, the propensity to become entrepreneurial is anchored within the individual in both countries. Moreover, while political, microeconomic and macroeconomic environments showed to have a low impact on the individual, the cultural environment had a significant influence on the individuals from both countries. Students from both countries had a positive relation towards power, while the biggest difference between the two countries was the attitude towards risk, which is negative for the German respondents and therefore has a negative influence on their entrepreneurial propensity. The opposite is the case for the Chinese respondents. The attitude of Germans respondents towards entrepreneurial activity mirrors the results of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Sternberg et al., 2004).

While it is the entrepreneurs with their distinct characteristics who shape the strategic direction and make the strategic decisions in the firm, the aim of the following section is to analyze to what extent entrepreneurship theory offers explanations for the antecedents of internationalization propensity of the individuals in the Net Economy. Because entrepreneurial ventures are per se the medium and outcome of entrepreneurial actions, it is these actions, which are in the main focus of interest in this chapter. For this purpose, firstly the term entrepreneurship will be defined. Secondly, the theoretical foundations of the entrepreneur will be explained, while, thirdly, the entrepreneurial process with the model of (Brazeal and Herbert, 1999) will be highlighted. This shall lead to insights and a discussion of how opportunities are recognized, based on entrepreneurship theory.

Lastly, the chapter will conclude with a synopsis of the significance of entrepreneurial orientation for entrepreneurial behavior. In chapter 3.5 the main insights of this section are summarized. 3.1 Definition of Entrepreneurship The term entrepreneurship originally stems the French word ‘entreprendre’. The semantic meaning of entrepreneurship is "taking from below" or "undertaking", with the connotation of someone taking charge, responsibility and the challenge from the beginning on (Fallgatter, 2002). Significantly, the word entrepreneurship, in its origin, implicitly encompasses the ability of an individual to change something (Dana et al., 1999, p. 4).

One central dilemma of the entrepreneurship research field until today has been the existence of a myriad of definitions and perspectives of entrepreneurship and the lack of a unified research framework (Davidsson, 2005, pp. 1-5, Shane and Venkataraman, 2000, p. 218): Some researchers defined entrepreneurship along the lines of who the entrepreneur is, others have defined entrepreneurship along the lines of what the entrepreneur does (Venkataraman, 1997, p. 120)