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Born-global: The case of four Vietnamese SMEs

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Abstract

Despite the fact that many firms in a wide range of industries in various countries internationalize at or near inception, research on factors leading to the formation of born-globals has been limited to firms from advanced, open economies. In order to give a voice to the phenomenon of Vietnamese founding born-globals, we conducted an exploratory, multiple-case study. Three findings of this study are: (1) the major driver to the formation of Vietnamese born-globals is the entrepreneurs’ leadership desire together with the need for short-term profits; (2) their choice of internationalization mode is influenced by market conditions as well as the internationalization degree of the industries in which they find their business opportunities; and (3) the reason why other motivators found in earlier studies do not apply lies in the peculiarity of the Vietnam context.

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Notes

  1. Lehtinen and Penttinen’s thorough analysis of the evolution of the internationalization concept since the early 1960s revealed that “Internationalization of a firm concerns the relationships between the firm and its international environment, derives its origin from the development and utilization process of the personnel’s cognitive and attitudinal readiness and is concretely manifested in the development and utilization process of different international activities, primarily inward, outward, and cooperative operations.” (Lehtinen and Penttinen 1999, p. 13).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their constructive criticism as well as suggestions that helped us improve the quality of our paper. And we are especially grateful to our respondents who generously shared with us their detailed stories and insightful knowledge to make this research endeavor a success.

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  1. University of St. Gallen, Rue du Simplon 11, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Mai Thi Thanh Thai

  2. University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Li Choy Chong

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  1. Mai Thi Thanh Thai
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Correspondence to Mai Thi Thanh Thai.

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Thai, M.T.T., Chong, L.C. Born-global: The case of four Vietnamese SMEs. J Int Entrepr 6, 72–100 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-008-0021-y

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