Open AccessPosted Content
Internationalization and the Performance of Born-Global SMEs: The Mediating Role of Social Networks
TLDR
The authors argued that home-based social networks play a mediating role in the relationship between inward and outward internationalization and firm performance, attributed to three information benefits of social networks: knowledge of foreign market opportunities, advice and experiential learning, and referral trust and solidarity.Abstract:
This paper offers a social network explanation for the purported relationship between internationalization and firm performance in the context of born global small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We argue that home-based social networks play a mediating role in the relationship between inward and outward internationalization and firm performance. The mediating mechanism is attributed to three information benefits of social networks: (1) knowledge of foreign market opportunities; (2) advice and experiential learning; and (3) referral trust and solidarity. Using survey data from SMEs in the largest emerging economy of China, we found some support for this mediating role of social networks in the form of guanxi . The results imply that international business managers should consider social networks as an efficient means of helping internationally oriented SMEs to go international more rapidly and profitablyread more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
International Entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): A domain ontology and thematic analysis
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the domain of international entrepreneurship research by thematically mapping and assessing the intellectual territory of the field and conclude that international entrepreneurship has several coherent thematic areas and is rich in potential for future research and theory development.
Journal ArticleDOI
Social capital of entrepreneurs and small firm performance: A meta-analysis of contextual and methodological moderators
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the link between entrepreneurs' personal networks and small firm performance and identified new moderators affecting this relationship and developed recommendations for future research on the contingent value of social capital for small firms.
Journal ArticleDOI
The born global firm: An Entrepreneurial and capabilities perspective on early and rapid internationalization
S. Tamer Cavusgil,Gary Knight +1 more
TL;DR: In the early 1990s, a Journal of International Business Studies article, "Innovation, Organizational Capabilities, and the Born Global Firm" provided a framework for the phenomenon of early and rapid internationalization among young, entrepreneurial firms as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Past and the Future of International Entrepreneurship: A Review and Suggestions for Developing the Field
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the field of international entrepreneurship (IE), which is in desperate need of further theory development, and identify theoretical inconsistencies, conflicting predictions, and knowledge gaps that all forestall the further development of IE research.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.
Reuben M. Baron,David A. Kenny +1 more
TL;DR: This article seeks to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ, and delineates the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Strength of Weak Ties
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another, and the impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored.
Journal ArticleDOI
Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.
Journal ArticleDOI
Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify six categories of self-reports and discuss such problems as common method variance, the consistency motif, and social desirability, as well as statistical and post hoc remedies and some procedural methods for dealing with artifactual bias.
Journal ArticleDOI
Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition.
Steven B. Andrews,Ronald S. Burt +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, structural holes are defined as network gaps between players which create entrepreneurial opportunities for information access, timing, referrals, and for control, and the structural holes also generate control benefits giving certain players an advantage in negotiating their relationships.
Related Papers (5)
Internationalization and the performance of born-global SMEs: the mediating role of social networks
Interpersonal Social Networks and Internationalization of Traditional SMEs
Barbara Masiello,Francesco Izzo +1 more