The staged internationalization model posits that firms internationalize incrementally over time. However, born-globals are less likely to follow a more gradual model of staged internationalization, and they must decide on the scope of internationalization at their founding to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities on a global scale. Because returns from international expansion must be considered along with the risk of failure, we propose that born-globals’ local industry conditions moderate the relationship between the scope of intraregional diversification (geographic diversification within a region) or interregional diversification (geographic diversification across different regions) and survival. Using a sample of 680 Swedish born-globals founded in 2002, 2003, or 2004 and followed until 2010; data from Swedish Customs; and archival performance data, we find that interregional geographic diversification increases—and that intraregional diversification decreases—the likelihood of failure, which declines further when born-globals undertake intraregional geographic diversification under higher environmental dynamism in the home country industry. Conversely, undertaking interregional geographic diversification even when the home country industry is munificent increases the likelihood of failure (marginally significant). The findings are robust to several alternative specifications.

This study examines family firms’ propensity to protect their intellectual property through patents. Building on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model, we theorize that family ownership has a U-shaped relationship with firm propensity to patent. Specifically, we argue that family firms’ desire to prevent losses of current socioemotional wealth inhibits their propensity to patent until a threshold level of family ownership, beyond which the family’s socioemotional wealth is secured and a greater focus on prospective financial gains attainable through patents is possible. We also suggest that environmental munificence moderates this nonlinear relationship such that a low-munificent environment accentuates the potentially detrimental (beneficial) effects of low-to-medium (medium-to-high) levels of family ownership on patents. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 4,198 small- and medium-sized family firms.

This paper applies unique survey data on innovation and external interaction of small food producers in Sweden.The overall purpose is to test if firms that are more engaged in external interaction are more innovative. To disentangle innovativeness beyond new goods and services, innovation is measured as new processes, new markets, new suppliers, new ways of organization, and new distributors. Findings point to a positive relationship between firm innovation and external interaction, both in terms of collaboration, external knowledge and support from regional actors. In particular, collaboration regarding transports and sales is shown to enhance most types of innovation. Product and process innovation benefit from external knowledge from extra-regional firms as well as regional support from the largest firm. Findings suggest that current innovation policies can improve their efficiency by increasing their flexibility to enable tailor-made innovation policies at the local level.

Den ökande globaliseringen och tillgången till internationella marknader innebär stora exportmöjligheter som kan generera tillväxt, jobb och välstånd, framförallt för länder med små inhemska marknader som Sverige. Export är det vanligaste sättet för mindre företag att komma ut på internationella marknader samtidigt som internationalisering är en komplex process och mindre företag ofta behöver stöd för att lyckas.

I rapporten International Market Exit and Re-entry: An empirical study of export patterns of Swedish SMEs kartläggs svenska små och medelstora företags internationaliseringsmönster. Specifikt tittar författarna på om, hur och varför företag gör exit från internationella marknader och huruvida de återvänder eller söker sig till nya marknader. Dessutom presenterar författarna ett antal rekommendationer för hur svenska små och medelstora företag kan stödjas i sina internationaliseringssatsningar. (Baksidestext)

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between family members serving in an advising capacity and family firm performance. Integrating the stewardship and agency perspectives, we predict an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of family advisors and family firm performance. We argue that the generation in control moderates this relationship such that family member advisors have a positive relationship with performance in first-generation family firms and an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance in later-generation family firms. Our empirical analysis on a sample of 128 Swedish family firms confirms our hypotheses. In the concluding section, we discuss results, contributions, and future research directions.