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The Changing Strategies of International Business pp 199–220Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Internationalization of Born-Digital Companies

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Part of the book series: The Academy of International Business ((AIB))

Abstract

The impact of the digitalization phenomenon on international entrepreneurship and international business has, until now, received little attention from the research community, and the major models of internationalization do not fully address the digitalized type of company. In response, this chapter aims to conceptualize the idea that the emergence of born-digitals presents a distinct phenomenon of an internationalizing enterprise. We do so using an explorative approach based on a conceptual framework. We conduct the study through a conceptual, theoretical research model, classifying born-digital firms on two dimensions: their degree of digitalization and their degree of internationalization. The theoretical contributions of this research are to offer a descriptive approach to the new phenomenon formed by international born-digital firms, and to help develop the corresponding firm typology. In terms of management, this research suggests a series of strategies used by born-digital companies, strategies that can be helpful in facilitating entrepreneurial opportunities for a leaner internationalization process.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Not to be confused with digitization, which is the process of converting any data into digits (1s and 0s) and represents the first step in realizing the phenomenon of digitalization (Brennen and Kreiss 2014).

  2. 2.

    However, not all Internet-enabled companies are born-digital firms, because some of them are late in the process of digitalizing their activities. As this term is more holistic, readers may be confused.

  3. 3.

    Are called shallow by Loane (2006) cases because are made based on secondary literature such as the World Wide Web (WWW), databases/sites, firm websites, government, and industry reports.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Ioan-Iustin Vadana, Lasse Torkkeli, Olli Kuivalainen & Sami Saarenketo

  2. University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Olli Kuivalainen

Authors
  1. Ioan-Iustin Vadana
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  2. Lasse Torkkeli
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  3. Olli Kuivalainen
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  4. Sami Saarenketo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ioan-Iustin Vadana .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Agnieszka Chidlow , Pervez N. Ghauri , Emma C. Gardner , Amir Qamar  & Emily Pickering , , ,  & 

  2. Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Thomas Buckley

Appendices

Appendix 1: Some of theDigitalization Advantages of the Value Chain

Value chain

Description

Creating

Optimized inventory planning based on demand forecasting

Data-based preventive asset maintenance

Integration with partners in digital ecosystem to optimize service delivery

Virtual organizations enabled by mobility and seamless cooperation

Producing

Creates new digital products, services, and offerings

Rapid prototyping with customer interaction

Integrates products and services into solutions that have digital components

Convergence of products enabled by digital technologies

Selling and marketing

Analytics-driven and dynamic customer segmentation or Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms

Faster time to market with targeted offerings

New earnings (subscription, licensing, credit, ‘freemium,’ etc.) models

Delivering

Digitalized and automated delivering processes

Efficiency of the transportation planning using ‘last mile’ logistics

Coordination between storage, stocks, and delivering

Supporting

Systematic management of customer management services

Digital manuals with instructions powered by augmented reality apps

Forums, e-chat, Frequently asked questions (FQA), virtual assistant, social media

  1. Source: Data sample

Appendix 2: The Sample Coding of the Results of the Empirical Sample

Value chain

Avito.ru—B2C and B2B

HelloFresh—B2C

Oxford Nanopore

Creating

R&D—technology; relationships with entrepreneurs for eShops

R&D—technology; supplier relationships; taste clustering; hyper-personalization

R&D; supplier relationships; storing and distributing the raw materials, inputs, components, and parts used in the production process

Producing

E-commerce fashion platform (core business) for classified ads and online shops

Food box (core business), recipes, complex web platform; web apps

Nanopore DNA sequencer (core business), the MinION; website; online shop

Selling and marketing

Online payment system; online/offline marketing campaigns

Online payment system; online/offline marketing campaigns; ambassador marketing

Online payment system; online/offline marketing (lack of info)

Delivering

Software product. No need of delivery system; services/products can be delivered from headquarters; doesn’t help with distribution costs

Operated warehouse facilities; logistics partners; local couriers; own last mile

Logistics partners

Supporting

Online customer care/operated call centers

Online customer care/customer care agents

Online customer care/customer care agents

Business model

Marketplace (fee based); SaaS model

Subscription model

Pharmaceutical products model

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Vadana, II., Torkkeli, L., Kuivalainen, O., Saarenketo, S. (2019). The Internationalization of Born-Digital Companies. In: Chidlow, A., Ghauri, P.N., Buckley, T., Gardner, E.C., Qamar, A., Pickering, E. (eds) The Changing Strategies of International Business. The Academy of International Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03931-8_10

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