The World is your Oyster: The Effects of Knowledge, Human Capital, Technology and Entry Timing on International Growth

Abstract

We draw on elements of several established theories of internationalization to provide a framework for exploring international market entry and scale of entry measured by number of foreign markets entered for a sample of young, high-tech, firms from the UK and Germany. We find that founding team human capital is associated with more extensive internationalization, as is intensity of R&D, early internationalization and early stage venture capital. We also find that internationalizing firms who choose the US as their first international market entry are also those most likely to develop more extensive international market presence. Degree of asset specificity, in contrast, is associated with less extensive internationalization.

Keywords: internationalization, born global, human capital, venture capital