An exploratory study of Canadian international new venture firms' development in overseas markets

In the past decade, research on rapidly internationalizing firms, commonly referred to as “international new ventures” (INVs), has mainly focused on their inception phase and relatively little is known of what becomes of these firms after this period in respect of their international marketing strategies. The purpose of this paper is therefore to gain insights into how management teams within small INVs assess international opportunities and develop appropriate international marketing strategies.

The approach employed involves interviews with key respondents in five small, independently owned firms that have a significant percentage of turnover overseas.

The paper identifies that specific types of knowledge are related to growth strategies as are perceptions of market potential and the management team's vision.

The results of this study provide further understanding of patterns of internationalization and more specifically that foreign market knowledge can be acquired in various ways and allows firms to become more highly committed to some remote markets much earlier than previously anticipated. This understanding could help policy‐makers to provide more targeted and relevant support to INVs.

Both planned and unplanned activities are evident in the research suggesting international marketing growth is not as strategically planned as a good deal of earlier research suggests.