BORN GLOBAL VERSUS GRADUALLY INTERNATIONALIZING FIRMS: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON THE ITALIAN CASE

Born global firms represent a case of enterprises operating in time and space compression conditions which have permitted/forced them to assume a global geographic scope from their birth. The Italian case is particularly interesting in the analysis of the born global phenomenon, due to a relevant number of firms showing this character. On the other hand Italian born globals partly show different features than the corresponding cases evidenced by the international literature on the matter. The most important ones refer to the industry they belong to (non high tech, in the majority of cases) and on their location in industrial districts. The comparison between born global firms and gradual internationalising ones evidences also the key attributes possessed by the first ones, which make them different and explain the roots of their serial internationalisation process. Born global firms share throughout the world some fundamental similarities: ownership of unique assets, focusing on narrow global market segments, strong customer orientation, dominant role of entrepreneurial vision and competences.

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