International New Ventures: The influence of resources and substantive capabilities on growth stages and survival
Laukkanen, Hanna-Riikka (2011)
Laukkanen, Hanna-Riikka
2011
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
The growth and growth stages of International New Ventures (INVs) have been the focus of growing amount of studies over the last decade. However, little research has focused on the understanding of different growth stages as well as the survival of INVs. Moreover, the previous growth models have failed to acknowledge the importance of resources such as knowledge, technology and marketing capabilities in the advancement in the growth stages.
This thesis is part of a Born Global project aiming to shed light on the different growth stages INVs go through as well as to understand the importance of different resources in the process. The focus is to study the effect of both resources and substantive capabilities to four growth stages. In addition, the influence of financial resources and non-financial resource amount in relation to survival of INVs is studied to better understand the importance of those particular resources with firms facing a survival crisis. To complete this research, a quantitative study was conducted in cooperation with the project team. An online questionnaire was sent to Finnish-based firms meeting the previously set project criteria. The questionnaire produced a total of 550 replies, out of which 202 met the INV criteria (N=202). The answers were then analyzed with the help of SPSS.
The results of the research show that resource amount, i.e. a combination of important non-financial resources, and foreign market knowledge as well as marketing and technological capabilities positively affect the advancement in the growth stages. The firms that were more advanced in the growth stages reported higher amounts of resources or higher capabilities. The most critical resource in connection with survivability of firms was seen to be not only the resource amount in general but also the financial resources. Moreover, this research confirmed that survival crisis leading to a possible non-survival of the firm can occur after any growth stage.
This thesis is part of a Born Global project aiming to shed light on the different growth stages INVs go through as well as to understand the importance of different resources in the process. The focus is to study the effect of both resources and substantive capabilities to four growth stages. In addition, the influence of financial resources and non-financial resource amount in relation to survival of INVs is studied to better understand the importance of those particular resources with firms facing a survival crisis. To complete this research, a quantitative study was conducted in cooperation with the project team. An online questionnaire was sent to Finnish-based firms meeting the previously set project criteria. The questionnaire produced a total of 550 replies, out of which 202 met the INV criteria (N=202). The answers were then analyzed with the help of SPSS.
The results of the research show that resource amount, i.e. a combination of important non-financial resources, and foreign market knowledge as well as marketing and technological capabilities positively affect the advancement in the growth stages. The firms that were more advanced in the growth stages reported higher amounts of resources or higher capabilities. The most critical resource in connection with survivability of firms was seen to be not only the resource amount in general but also the financial resources. Moreover, this research confirmed that survival crisis leading to a possible non-survival of the firm can occur after any growth stage.