Role Of Tacit Knowledge In The Internationalization Of Born Global Firms

Emerging digital world has created the need for the firms to expand their market around the world. The firms do not operate solely in the local markets and with local competitors but also with the foreign markets with the foreign competitors. Some factors such as global mobility of goods and services, labour, technology and capital, favourable international trade policies, deregulation, advance transportation, telecommunication, internet etc. fueled the globalization. As a result, the local firms also seek fast international expansion to remain competitive in the global market (Gulanowski, et al., 2018). The firms are facing new and significant challenges in their international business expansion due to the emergence of digital technologies. In last few decades many studies have been carried out on internationalization. The researches already identified different types of market entry modes such as export, licensing, franchising, joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries etc. For small firms, the export is one of the viable and cost-effective strategies for internationalization. Export allows the companies to expand their market internationally without any significant investment. The internationalization process greatly depends on many internal and external factors. Recent studies also identified some other innovative market entry mode such as use of internet and digital technologies. However, the previous researches have not studied the internationalization process purely in born global digital firms and how the tacit knowledge is influencing the international expansion. The paper analyses the main determinant knowledge factors of successful internationalization of the firms particularly in the digital economy.