The Knowledge-based Resources of  Venture Capital firms and Born Global  firms’ Internationalization

Jan  Abrahamsson; Anders  Isaksson

Jan Abrahamsson Stamford International University
Anders Isaksson Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Keywords: born globals, internationalization, venture capital, growth, entrepreneurship, Sweden

Abstract

This study analyzes how venture capital firms’ (VCs’) value-added activities effect the speed and scope of the internationalization and growth of born global firms. The existing literature has gaps in terms of the resources that facilitate the development of born global firms and how VCs may contribute certain knowledge-based resources in this development. This study received a response rate of 26% to questionnaires sent to 593 VC-backed entrepreneurs in Sweden. The study complements the survey data with four years of annual report data and tests the relationship between VC value-added activities and the born global firms’ speed and scope with multivariate statistics. The results show that while born global firms are prevalent among Swedish VC-backed firms, there is no significant evidence that VC firms contribute to their speed and scope of internationalization through their knowledge-based resources.