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Erschienen in: Small Business Economics 3/2018

24.10.2017

The “why” of international entrepreneurship: uncovering entrepreneurs’ personal values

verfasst von: Daniela Bolzani, Maw Der Foo

Erschienen in: Small Business Economics | Ausgabe 3/2018

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Abstract

Previous studies investigating the “why” of entrepreneurial internationalization have focused on firm-level motivations, overlooking the relationships between firm-level and individual-level motivations and why entrepreneurs differ in the goals they intend to achieve. We investigate the role of personal values as desirable end states that motivate international entrepreneurship by functioning as superordinate cognitive structures that underlie the practical internationalization goals set by entrepreneurs. By adopting an idiographic approach based on a laddering methodology in a sample of 140 new domestic technology-based firms located in Northern Italy, we uncover and map the hierarchies of goals that motivate entrepreneurs’ internationalization intentions, which are anchored in five personal values: achievement, power, self-direction, benevolence, and security. We discuss our theoretical and methodological contributions and the policy implications of our findings.

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Fußnoten
1
For a slightly different approach to laddering interview methods, see Bourne and Jenkins (2005).
 
2
Although paper-and-pencil versions of the laddering technique exist, personally meeting and interviewing the entrepreneurs is beneficial to research because doing so allows entrepreneurs to better comprehend the questions and enables interviewers to obtain rich insights into the research question (Grunert and Grunert 1995).
 
3
The definition of NTBFs is linked to the OECD definition of “technology intensive” goods, which classifies technology-intensive industries, according to their average R&D intensity, into “High-Tech Industries” (R&D intensity above 8.5%), “Medium-Tech industries” (R&D intensity between 3.5 and 8.5%), and “Low-Tech industries” (R&D intensity below 3.5%). NTBFs belong to the “High-Tech” and “Medium-Tech” categories (Almus and Nerlinger 1999).
 
4
We also acknowledge that entrepreneurs’ gender might have an impact. Unfortunately, given that only about 26% of the population of NTBFs entrepreneurs in the region were female, we excluded this criterion from our matched-pair strategy.
 
5
This criterion did not imply that the respondent companies had no internationalization experience. As explained in the next paragraphs, some companies had occasionally operated in international markets in the past. We thus consider firm-level previous international experience as a relevant characteristic to account for in our analyses.
 
6
None of the companies were owned by institutional investors, such as venture capitalists or business angels, and only one company was founded with the support of an incubator.
 
7
Analyses of the matched-pair groups revealed no significant differences between foreign-born and native entrepreneurs, with the exception that foreign-born entrepreneurs have shorter work experiences in Italy and that they have more knowledge of foreign languages.
 
8
As an example, content related to “curiosity/learning” and “independence” was coded under “self-direction” because this value is related to “independent thought and action-choosing, creating, exploring (creativity, freedom, independent, curious, choosing own goals)” (Bardi and Schwartz 2003, p. 1208). Content related to “economic wellbeing” and “prestige” was coded under “power” because this value is related to “social status and prestige, control, or dominance over people and resources (social power, authority, wealth)” (Bardi and Schwartz 2003, p. 1208).
 
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Metadaten
Titel
The “why” of international entrepreneurship: uncovering entrepreneurs’ personal values
verfasst von
Daniela Bolzani
Maw Der Foo
Publikationsdatum
24.10.2017
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Small Business Economics / Ausgabe 3/2018
Print ISSN: 0921-898X
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0913
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9945-8

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