International Entrepreneurship
Reading One - International Entrepreneurship: The Intersection Of Two Research Paths
Introduction
Businesses in an increasing number of countries are seeking international competitive advantage through
entrepreneurial innovation. The meaning of “international entrepreneurship” has evolved over time. An early
definition focused on the international activities of new ventures to the exclusion of established firms. Another
definition of international entrepreneurship is “new and innovative activities that have the goal of value creation
and growth in business organizations across national borders.” The difficulty is that the domain of
entrepreneurship overlaps with the domains of other constructs, such as innovation, change management, and
strategic management. Adding to the complexity is the fact that people value being associated with the term
“entrepreneur.” This article believes the meaning of the term “international entrepreneurship” can now be
further specified: international entrepreneurship is a combination of innovative, proactive, and risk-seeking
behavior that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations.
Current Streams of Research in International Entrepreneurship
This article believes that McDougall and Oviatt (1997) continues to identify the major areas of interest within
international entrepreneurship. These groupings are:
● Cooperative alliances
● Corporate entrepreneurship
● Economic development initiatives
● Entrepreneur characteristics and motivations
● Exporting and other market entry modes
● New ventures and initial public offerings (IPOs0
● Transitioning economies
● Venture financing
All of the topics identified above would appear to be important theoretically and relevant for practice, but their
disparate quality makes it clear that there is no unifying paradigm present within international entrepreneurship.
Forum Articles
Two major themes of international entrepreneurship are the internationalization of entrepreneurial businesses
and comparison of national cultures that are associated with entrepreneurial activities. The earlier in its
existence that an innovative firm internationalizes, the faster it is likely to grow both overall and in foreign
markets. Young firms without established routines that inhibit their learning opportunities in foreign
environments may be able to use the “learning advantage of newness" to grow more quickly than counterparts
who wait longer to internationalize. The learning advantage of newness could be a potent competitive advantage
for entrepreneurial firms in the international environment. Furthermore, a greater diversity of national
environments is associated with increased technological opportunities even for new ventures, whose
internationalization is usually thought to be limited. It is important to consider cultural differences.
Conclusions
Although international entrepreneurship is still without a unifying and clear theoretical and methodological
direction, it is imperative that future research demonstrates definitional rigor so that useful comparisons can be
made between studies.
Reading Two - Emerging Issues in Corporate Entrepreneurship
Introduction
This article identifies four major issues that scholars can pursue to further our understanding about Corporate
Entrepreneurship (CE). The issues include various forms of CE (e.g., sustained regeneration, domained
redefinition) and their implications for organizational learning; the role of leadership and social exchange in the
CE process. Throughout the article, they use the organizational learning theory as a means of integrating the
discussion and highlighting the potential contributions of CE to knowledge creation and effective exploitation.
, International Entrepreneurship
CE has been viewed as the driver of new businesses within on-going enterprises as achieved through internal
innovation, joint ventures or acquisitions; strategic renewal; product, process, and administrative innovations;
diversification; and processes through which individuals’ ideas are transformed into collective actions through
the management of uncertainties.
CE definition: “the process whereby an individual or a group of individuals, in association with an existing
organization, creates a new organization, or instigate renewal or innovation within that organization”.
Learning is at the heart of the strategic renewal process that enables the firm to adapt and respond to challenges
in their new markets. Given the various types of CE, the discussion applies learning theory to show how CE in
domestic and international operation creates new knowledge.
CE, Organizational Learning and Knowledge
CE is concerned with various forms of newness (e.g., organizational renewal, innovation, and establishing new
ventures) and has its consequences for organizational survival, growth, and performance.
From a resource-based perspective, CE is a key means of accumulating, converting, and leveraging resources
for competitive purposes, such as developing and using product, process, and administrative innovations to
rejuvenate and redefine the firm and its market or industries.
Knowledge can be created through effective CE: formal and informal CE activities can enrich a company’s
performance by creating new knowledge that becomes a foundation for building new competencies or
revitalizing existing ones.
● Through effective CE, firms develop knowledge and use it as a continuous source of innovations to
outperform competitors.
● CE is a knowledge enabler as if roms and subsequently uses or applies knowledge - knowledge that at
its best, is valuable, new, unique, and competitively relevant.
● Organizational learning mediates the relationships between different CE types and different kinds of
knowledge
Forms of Corporate Entrepreneurship
Sustained Regeneration
● Is the most and frequently recognized CE form.
● The firm develops cultures, processes, and structures to support and encourage a continuous stream of new
product introductions in its current markets as well as entries with existing products into new markets.
● Firms are aware of product life cycles and often frome product strategies around the competitive
expectations associated with them.
● Introduce new products and enter new markets → baking soda, it's the core product
, International Entrepreneurship
Organizational Rejuvenation
● The firm's internal processes, structures, and capabilities
● Concerned with improving the firm’s ability to execute strategies and entails changes to value chain
activities
● Demonstrating process and administrative innovation rather than product innovation to show that firms can
become more entrepreneurial through processes and structures as well as by introducing new product
and/or entering new markets
● Framed around support activities → procurement and HRM rather than primary activities such as inbound
logistics and operations
Strategic Renewal
● Seek to change how it competes, focus on rivalry with competitors
● Firm concentrates on renewing the strategies it uses to successfully align itself with its external
environment
● Intention of positively mediating the “organization-environment interface”
● It allows the firm to more profitably exploit product-market opportunities → exploitation of current
competitive advantages and exploration for advantages that will lead to future success
Domain Redefinition
● Firm proactively seeks to create a new product market position that competitors haven’t recognized or have
underserved.
● Exploring for what is possible
● Reenergize the firm by redefining its domain is intended to establish first mover advantages
● First firm to sell an offering in a new product category
Types of Organizational Learning
Organizational learning is a capability allowing firms to create knowledge as the source of improved
performance. Thus, organizational learning mediates or facilitates the relationships between CE and the
development of new types of knowledge. Two major types of learning occur as organizations using one or more
types of CE learn by doing (action) and through repetition of an organization's activities (memory).
Acquisitive learning
● Takes place when the firm gains access to and subsequently internalizes preexisting knowledge from its
external environment.
● Acquisition knowledge is grounded in public knowledge = knowledge that resides in the public domain
● Therefore, it is not unique, firms require to form sustainable competitive advantage.
● However, the absence of access to publicly available knowledge and learning places the firm at a
competitive disadvantage and reduces its ability to use CE.
Experimental learning
● Occurs inside the firm and generates knowledge that is distinctive to it.
● Private knowledge, which includes items such as the firm’s unique routines, processes, trade secrets and
documentation
● It is a Firm Specific Knowledge that creates competitive advantages
● The emphasis on innovation as a source of successful competition in the global economy, in turn, leads to a
premium on experimental learning relative to acquisitive learning for firms engaging in CE.
The different CE types have different relationships with the two types of organizational learning. In turn, these
three types of new knowledge are products of the interactions among CE forms and the two organizational
learning types.
, International Entrepreneurship
Knowledge and its Implementation
Technical Knowledge
● Concerned with insights about the properties of specific activities
● Is vital to sustained regeneration and results primarily from acquisitive learning
● Helps the firm refine current products and extend product lines, often through process innovations.
● Creates more value by how it completes primary and support activities in its value chain
Integrative Knowledge
● Firm-specific and predominantly tacit in nature, it is a product of how the firm has learned to creatively
and uniquely combine its idiosyncratic resources and capabilities to create value
● Grounded in memory, history, and organizational routines, employees creating integrative knowledge do
so by recombining and extending the firm’s resources and capabilities in manners that demonstrates classic
conceptualization in an entrepreneur.
● It results primarily from the combined, relatively indirect effects of acquisitive and experimental learning
Exploitative Knowledge
● Accumulates as the firm learns how to exploit its resources
● Expands as the firm learns how to creatively find unique, value-creating ways to exploit its technical and
integrative knowledge sets
● It is oriented to finding new ways of commercializing the firm’s goods or services that evolved from
effective application of its technical and integrative knowledge.
When using technical knowledge, the implementation focus is on leveraging knowledge. In contrast,
recombining and extending knowledge is the outcome sought when the firm applies its new integrative
knowledge. Lastly, the firm concentrates on importing new technical and integrative knowledge into
value-creating primary and support activities when trying to effectively use its new exploitative knowledge.
Reading Three - Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective
commentary, and guiding framework
Introduction
As organizations seek to harness the ideas and suggestions of their employees, it is undeniable that the process
of idea generation and implementation has become a source of distinct competitive advantage. Creativity and
innovation are complex, multilevel, and emergent phenomena that pan out over time and require skillful
leadership in order to maximize the benefits of new and improved ways of working.
Toward Definitional Clarity: Creativity and Innovation
Creativity and innovation at work are the process, outcomes, and products of attempts to develop and introduce
new and improved ways of doing things. The creativity stage of this process refers to idea generation, and
innovation refers to the subsequent stage of implementing ideas toward better procedures, practices, or products.
Creativity and innovation can occur at the level of the individual, work team, organization, or at more than one
of these levels combined but will invariably result in identifiable benefits at one or more of these levels of
analysis.
Theoretical Perspectives
Componential Theory of Organizational Creativity and Innovation. The most important premise of this theory is
that work environments have an impact on creativity by affecting components that contribute to creativity,
which represents a basic source of organizational innovation. There are three major components contributing to
individual or small team creativity: expertise, creative–thinking skills, and intrinsic motivation. In contrast, the
main components of the wider work environment that influence employee creativity are organizational
motivation to innovate, resources, and managerial practices.
Interactionist Perspective of Organizational Creativity. This perspective of organizational creativity stresses that
creativity is a complex interaction between the individual and their work situation at different levels of
organization. At the individual level, individual creativity is the result of antecedent conditions, cognitive style
