The born global and international new venture revisited: An alternative explanation for early and rapid internationalization

Abstract We revisit the empirical origins of a popular research topic: the phenomenon of early and rapid internationalization. By means of a qualitative case study, we re-examine the samples of firms used in two of the seminal studies on ‘born globals’ and ‘international new ventures’. A dominant pattern characterizing both samples, but not reported by the original authors, was that incumbent organizations were involved in the founding of the new ventures. Given this unexpected finding, we empirically investigate how being reproduced from pre-existing organizations affected the internationalization pathways of the new ventures, collecting data that extend beyond the scope and time period examined in the original studies. Our analysis shows how the evolution of the relationship between old and new generations of organizations is critical to explaining how new venture internationalization proceeded. Although the incumbent’s presence prior to foundation enabled early and possibly even rapid internationalization, it was also the source of discontinuity and instability. Based on these findings, we offer a relational perspective on the incumbent’s involvement in founding and internationalizing new ventures. Our study illustrates how applying the methodology of a case study revisit can generate new theoretical insights in existing research fields.