Born Global Companies
A born global firm is a venture designed to exploit a global niche whether it be internet based or a conventional approach (Garbrielson and Gabrielson, 2011). The term ‘born global’ is self explanatory as it refers to firms that are born international and have no geographical confinement for their operations. Some of the important characteristics of born global firms are as follows:
1. Internationalisation of the business is achieved from or near founding.
Born Global companies attain global reach within the first two years of establishment. E.g. Internet based company meetingbooker.com achieved over 300% growth in turnover in 2011 - just two years after its establishment. As a part of their service they assists in searching and booking for conference and meeting rooms online in over 100 countries as reported in the official website of meetingbookers (2013).
2. Limited investment and tangible resources
Generally such companies are believed to have been SME’s with limited liability, human capital and investment compared to large multinational companies (Tanev, 2012).
3. High entrepreneurial orientation
Born Global companies are a result of highly motivated innovative entrepreneurs.
4. Leveraging advanced information and communication technology
Most Born Global companies have gained success due to their inventions and advancement in the communication technology. For instance Skype is a globally used communication medium.
5. Use of differential strategies
Such firms seem to have targeted a very niche market and normally design a very distinctive products or a service. For example : USP Indicators with clients such as LoReal produces test strips (e.g skin type detectors) for the cosmetic industry with only 15 employee they account upto 70% of the market (Garbrielson and Gabrielson, 2011) .
It is plausible that Born Global firms challenges the traditional models such as Upsala
References: Garbrielson M., Garbrielson P. (2011). Internet-based sales channel strategies of born global firms . International Business Review . 20 (1), 88-99. Freeman, S, Edwards, R, & Schroder, B 2006, 'How Smaller Born-Global Firms Use Networks and Alliances to Overcome Constraints to Rapid Internationalization ', Journal Of International Marketing, 14, 3, pp. 33-63, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 October 2013. Crick,D.and JonesM.V.(2000). Small High‐Technology Firms and International High‐TechnologyMarkets.Journal of International Marketing,Vol.8,No.2,pp.63–85. Schneor, R. (2012), ‘Born global firms internet and new forms internationalization’, in Gabrielsson, M. and Kirpalani,V. H. M. (eds.), Handbook of research on born globals, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 161–184. Freeman, S., Edwards, R. and Schroder, B. (2006), ‘How smaller born-global firms use networks and alliances to overcome constraints to rapid internationalization’, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 33–63 Tanev, S. (2012). Global from the Start: The Characterstics of Born- Global Firms in the Technology Sector. Technology Innovation Management Reveiw . 1 (1), p5.