Strategic Decision-Making of a Born Global: A Comparative Study From Three Small Open Economies

This paper extends current understanding on international growth process of born global firms from the perspective of strategic decision-making. The data were collected from three software companies in Finland, Ireland and Israel both in real-time and retrospectively, and data triangulation was employed to increase the validity of the findings. With a longitudinal approach, we captured the dynamics of the post-entry international growth process and the critical events that act as decision-making triggers. The decision-making of born global firms seems to be characterised by alternating periods of causation- and effectuation-based logics. Triggers for amending the logic include, for example, change of key persons and the search for external funding. Co-existence of the two decision-making logics is possible, due to different degrees of uncertainty in market and technology or multiple decision-makers involved. The contribution of the study is threefold: first, it addresses gaps in international entrepreneurship research by describing how born global firms make strategic decisions and who are involved in the decision-making. Second, it identifies critical incidents which trigger a change in the decision-making process of a born global firm. Third, it provides alternative insights to why decision-making logic may change or why two decision-making logics may co-exist. This paper extends current understanding on international growth process of born global firms from the perspective of strategic decision-making. The data were collected from three software companies in Finland, Ireland and Israel both in real-time and retrospectively, and data triangulation was employed to increase the validity of the findings. With a longitudinal approach, we captured the dynamics of the post-entry international growth process and the critical events that act as decision-making triggers. The decision-making of born global firms seems to be characterised by alternating periods of causation- and effectuation-based logics. Triggers for amending the logic include, for example, change of key persons and the search for external funding. Co-existence of the two decision-making logics is possible, due to different degrees of uncertainty in market and technology or multiple decision-makers involved. The contribution of the study is threefold: first, it addresses gaps in international entrepreneurship research by describing how born global firms make strategic decisions and who are involved in the decision-making. Second, it identifies critical incidents which trigger a change in the decision-making process of a born global firm. Third, it provides alternative insights to why decision-making logic may change or why two decision-making logics may co-exist.This paper extends current understanding on international growth process of born global firms from the perspective of strategic decision-making. The data were collected from three software companies in Finland, Ireland and Israel both in real-time and retrospectively, and data triangulation was employed to increase the validity of the findings. With a longitudinal approach, we captured the dynamics of the post-entry international growth process and the critical events that act as decision-making triggers. The decision-making of born global firms seems to be characterised by alternating periods of causation- and effectuation-based logics. Triggers for amending the logic include, for example, change of key persons and the search for external funding. Co-existence of the two decision-making logics is possible, due to different degrees of uncertainty in market and technology or multiple decision-makers involved. The contribution of the study is threefold: first, it addresses gaps in international entrepreneurship research by describing how born global firms make strategic decisions and who are involved in the decision-making. Second, it identifies critical incidents which trigger a change in the decision-making process of a born global firm. Third, it provides alternative insights to why decision-making logic may change or why two decision-making logics may co-exist. Niina Nummela, Sami Saarenketo, Päivi Jokela, Sharon Loane