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The internationalisation of British start-up companies in high-technology industries
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Burgel, Oliver (1999) The internationalisation of British start-up companies in high-technology industries. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1366642~S1
Abstract
The present thesis analyses the international activities of British start-up
companies in high-technology industries. The research makes the following
contributions. First, it is the first study that establishes the prevalence of
internationally operating start-up companies in a particular country. Accordingly,
we find that the majority of British high-tech start-ups have engaged in
international activities within a few years since formation. Second, it consolidates
the existing knowledge in the field of international entrepreneurship and subjects
it to empirical testing. Third, it assesses the power of different theories in
international business to explain the cross-border activities of start-up companies.
We analysed the determinants of the decision to internationalise, the degree of
internationalisation and the timing of internationalisation. Our results suggest that
firm size has a positive impact on these dependent variables. However, the
threshold value for a positive likelihood of initiating international sales is well
below the median size of the population, therefore suggesting that scale-related
barriers to internationalisation can be overcome quite easily. Internationalisation is
positively influenced by the international experience of the founders, technology
intensity and the innovativeness of the technology incorporated in the products.
Internationalisation is negatively influenced by a product's degree of clientspecific
customisation. External finance and transaction costs during the sales
process did not impact on these dimensions of internationalisation. When looking
at the choice of market entry mode, we find that the innovativeness of the
technology incorporated in a product lead to a higher probability of involving
intermediaries. While this is apparently at odds with theory, we argue that an
intermediary is a mechanism for start-ups to overcome the "liability of alienness"
and to gain legitimacy in foreign markets.
Overall, the research lends support to a resource-based perspective of international
entrepreneurship since the proxies for transaction cost-based arguments and the
internationalisation process theory are of limited explanatory power.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | New business enterprises -- Great Britain, International business enterprises -- Great Britain, High technology industries -- Great Britain | ||||
Official Date: | April 1999 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Murray, Gordon ; Wensley, Robin, 1944- | ||||
Sponsors: | Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) ; Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society ; Apax Partners ; Great Britain. Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) | ||||
Extent: | xii, 271 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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