Competitive Capabilities of a Technology Born Global

Abstract: Since the early 1980s, rapidly internationalizing start-ups have captured attention of the academia, media and institutions. These ’born global’ firms seem to disregard the traditionally established views of firm internationalization. In spite of the significant resource limitations, they manage to reach international markets rapidly and keep their competitive position in the long term, running against international players of various sizes with different levels of resource availability. A great majority of research so far has focused on the early start-up and rapid internationalisation stage of born globals’ development. The question of how these firms uphold a competitive advantage in the long term with their limited resources and a small size, while operating in various countries, remains under-researched. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, has been to describe and explain the organisational factors and processes that serve as the sources of competitive advantage of technology-based born globals in the long term. The view that knowledge-based capabilities are the key sources of competitive advantage of born globals has been accepted. A longitudinal process study of one successful Danish technology born global has been undertaken over the period of 3.5 years to define and research in detail the key capabilities that have been critical to the firm’s competitive advantage in the long term. The R&D-related, alliance, branding and managerial capabilities have been investigated in separate articles. This dissertation contributes to the field of international entrepreneurship, as well as to the fields of each functional capability in the study: R&D and innovation management, alliance management, brand management, managerial capabilities, knowledge management, and organisational learning.