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International experience, growth aspirations, and the internationalisation of new ventures

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of the breadth and depth of international experience on subsequent new venture internationalisation and to what extent growth aspirations moderate these relationships. Drawing upon previous literature on international new ventures, human capital and growth aspirations, we tested our hypotheses using longitudinal data from the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE). Our results support the hypothesis that breadth of international experience has a positive impact on internationalisation. Depth of international experience on its own does not predict subsequent internationalisation activities. However, results support our hypothesis that the interplay of a high growth aspiration and depth of international experience has a positive effect on internationalisation activities. Our study contributes to the research stream on new venture internationalisation by distinguishing between breadth and depth of international experience, suggesting that these dimensions are differentially linked to internationalisation. Further, we test for interaction effects between international experience and growth aspirations. We thereby add to the knowledge by illustrating that some types of human capital are only utilised when accompanied by growth aspirations.

Zusammenfassung

Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, den Einfluss von langandauernden und breitgefächerten Auslandserfahrungen auf Internationalisierungsaktivitäten von jungen Unternehmen zu erkunden und in welchem Ausmaß Wachstumsambitionen diese Beziehungen beeinflussen. Wir stützen unsere Hypothesen auf vorherige Literatur über International New Ventures, Humankapital und Wachstumsambitionen und testen diese mit Hilfe von Langzeitdaten aus der Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE). Die Ergebnisse der Analyse zeigen, dass breitgefächerte Auslandserfahrungen einen positive Effekt auf Internationalisierungsaktivitäten ausüben. Langandauernde Auslandserfahrungen für sich allein prognostizieren hingegen keine anschließenden Internationalisierungsaktivitäten. Allerdings deuten die Ergebnisse der statistischen Analyse darauf hin, dass ein positiver Interaktionseffekt zwischen der Vielfalt der internationalen Erfahrungen und Wachstumsambitionen vorliegt. Unsere Studie trägt zur Erforschung der Internationalisierung von jungen Unternehmen bei, indem wir Langzeitinteraktionseffekte zwischen Auslanderfahrung und Wachstumsambitionen untersuchen und indem wir zwischen verschiedenen Dimensionen von Auslandserfahrung und deren Einfluss auf anschließende Internationalisierungsaktivitäten differenzieren.

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Notes

  1. Depth of international experience is assigned a positive and significant direct effect in the ‘independent effects’ model for wave 3 in Table 2. However, this effect does not appear in the other waves or with sales as dependent variable, and it disappears when the moderators are entered. In all, there is therefore no support for the direct effect for depth of international experience.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor Hamid Etemad and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful suggestions and comments during the review process that were of great value for improving the manuscript. We also gratefully acknowledge the significant financial support for the CAUSEE study that made this research possible. The CAUSEE data collection, documentation, and release were funded by The Australian Research Council (grants DP0666616 and LP0776845); the QUT Business School; industry partners BDO Australia and National Australia Bank; and the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), 2 George Street QLD, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Jan Henrik Gruenhagen, Sukanlaya Sawang & Per Davidsson

  2. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Sukanlaya Sawang

  3. The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Scott R. Gordon

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  1. Jan Henrik Gruenhagen
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Correspondence to Jan Henrik Gruenhagen.

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Gruenhagen, J.H., Sawang, S., Gordon, S.R. et al. International experience, growth aspirations, and the internationalisation of new ventures. J Int Entrep 16, 421–440 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-018-0232-9

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