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- Hilmersson, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Serendipitous Opportunities, Entrepreneurial Logic and Knowledge in International Business Networks
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Few researchers and even fewer practitioners would deny that luck, chance or serendipitous events play a central role in the growth process of firms. However, most entrepreneurship models ignore the role of serendipity in the opportunity discovery process. Instead, it is assumed that international opportunities are discovered or created by entrepreneurs. In this paper we provide a more nuanced view on international opportunities by developing the role of serendipitous opportunities in the internationalization process. We develop a model integrating the notions of serendipity, entrepreneurial logic, experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy. From our model we condense three sets of hypotheses on the relationships among experiential knowledge and entrepreneurial logic, network knowledge redundancy and entrepreneurial logic, and entrepreneurial logic and serendipity. We confront our hypotheses with data collected on-site at 160 firms covering 226 opportunities. The result of our analysis reveals that experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy both lead to a more causation-based logic of the firm. Causation in turn reduces the likeliness that serendipitous opportunities will be realized in the internationalization process. These findings come with implications for both researchers and practitioners.
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| 2. |
- Kachlami, Habib M.
(författare)
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Social Entrepreneurship and Influence on Regional Firm Demography
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The central interest of this thesis is the emergence of social ventures. In this regard, it investigates two types of questions: what regional factors influence the emergence of social ventures? and what types of interaction may emerge between the emergence of social ventures and the demography (entry, exit and migration) of commercial ventures in a region? The thesis also aims to adopt a macro-oriented approach to studying the research questions.To answer those questions, this thesis applies both theoretical and empirical analysis. For the theoretical analysis, instead of a single theory it applies three middle-range theories: theory of organisational ecology, market failure theory, and the demand and supply theory of entrepreneurship. The empirical analysis is based on two large-scale databases from Sweden and the U.S. The Swedish database includes nonprofit social ventures and commercial ventures for the 1990-2014 period from all of the 290 municipalities across Sweden, while the database from U.S. includes 88 counties in the State of Ohio between 2003-2007.The answers to the research questions are presented in the form of six papers. Paper 1 provides an overall picture of the different possible functions of social ventures within communities and their contributions to regional development. With this overall view, Papers 2 and 3 answer the first research question, that is the factors influencing the emergence of social ventures. Thus, while Paper 2 provides a review of previous research, Paper 3 empirically examines some of the regional factors that may influence the emergence of social ventures in a region. The results of Paper 3 revealed that factors such as gender, education, entrepreneurial role models, wealth, unemployment rate, age, and urbanisation positively influence the emergence rate of the of social venture in a region.Papers 4, 5 and 6 are dedicated to answering the second type of research question, in other words the interaction between the emergence of social ventures and the demography (entry, exit and migration) of commercial ventures. As such, Paper 4 studies how the emergence of social ventures is influenced by the entry and exit of commercial ventures, Paper 5 investigates how the emergence of social ventures influences the entry of commercial ixventures, and Paper 6 examines how the emergence of social ventures influences the migration of commercial ventures. In summary, the results of these three papers reveal that while the emergence of social ventures negatively influences the commercial ventures inside a region, it has a positive influence on the commercial ventures outside the region. Paper 6 further investigates the influence of the emergence of commercial ventures on the migration of commercial ventures. The results show that while the emergence of social ventures attracts commercial ventures from outside into a region, the emergence of commercial ventures repels them from moving into the region.
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| 5. |
- Hilmersson, Mikael, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Business unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment in small and medium-sized enterprise market entry
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Small Business Journal. - : SAGE Publications. - 0266-2426 .- 1741-2870. ; 40:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Market entry performance is critical during internationalisation; prevailing views suggest that firms need to carefully plan their entry before putting the plan into action. This article focuses on three attributes affecting the possibility and usefulness of making a pre-planned market entry: unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment. We develop six hypotheses tested on a sample of 250 entries; our main finding is that improvisation plays a mediating role in relation to performance in unpredictable markets. The analysis reveals that the relationship between unpredictability and network commitment is not significant, while the effect of unpredictability on market entry performance is negative. These findings suggest implications for internationalisation and international entrepreneurship theory. For managers and entrepreneurs, we show that unpredictability weakens market entry performance, a negative effect that can be mitigated if the entrant firm improvises.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Hilmersson, Mikael, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Time, Temporality, and Internationalization : The Relationships among Point in Time, Time to, and Speed of International Expansion
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of International Marketing. - : SAGE Publications. - 1069-031X .- 1547-7215. ; 25:1, s. 22-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a dataset collected on-site at 203 SMEs. The analysis reveals that (i) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, (ii) the earlier the point in time of start of internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, and (iii) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time of internationalization start. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed changes over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.
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| 9. |
- Hohenthal, Jukka, et al.
(författare)
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Network Knowledge and Business-Relationship Value in the Foreign Market
- 2015
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Ingår i: Knowledge, Networks and Power. - London : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9781137508829 - 9781349506125 ; , s. 187-224
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In several studies it has been observed that single business relationships can play a critical role in the early international expansion of SME firms (Chetty and Blankenburg Holm, 2000; Child et al., 2002; Ellis, 2000; Hilmersson and Jansson, 2011; Johanson and Vahlne, 2003; Sharma and Blomstermo, 2003). It has also been shown that network constructs can be used fruitfully for understanding and explaining SME internationalisation (Coviello and Munro, 1995; Hadley and Wilson, 2003; Oviatt and McDougall, 2005). Against this background, a purpose of this paper is to study how networks influence business relationships in foreign markets.
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| 10. |
- Johanson, Martin, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Knowledge grafting during internationalization : utilizing localized professionals in the foreign market
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Knowledge Management. - 1367-3270 .- 1758-7484. ; 24:9, s. 2009-2033
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand knowledge grafting through localized professionals in the internationalization of the firm. Knowledge grafting refers to firms increasing their knowledge stock by acquiring new staff, and while the concept is not new in studies on firms’ internationalization, there is little understanding of the characteristics of the individuals carrying the knowledge, the types of knowledge grafted and how it contributes to a market entry process. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an explorative study with a multiple-case research design and purposely selected five localized Swedish managers working for Russian subsidiaries of Swedish firms. Face-to-face interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on three types of knowledge: general foreign market knowledge, social network knowledge and professional knowledge. The authors also considered both private and professional ties. Findings: The findings show that characteristics of the localized professional and the firm can influence the type of knowledge grafted and how it is used. The findings also highlight the key role of the individual as knowledge carrier and show an alternative way to obtain knowledge in firm internationalization. Research limitations/implications: This study comes with limitations. Only Swedish firms entering Russia with wholly owned subsidiaries have been considered. Further studies comparing knowledge grafting with firms in different entry mode, varying stage of market entry, as well as other countries of origin can further enrich our understanding. Future studies can also focus on localized professionals to shed light on the knowledge transfer between them and other individuals within the firms and the potential impact of their departure on knowledge grafting. Practical implications: Internationalizing firms should pay attention to the opportunity of grafting knowledge by appointing localized professionals already living in the market. Governmental agencies in the host county can be a valuable source for identifying foreign nationals of the same origin as the firm. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the individual level of knowledge grafting and to examine how localized professionals acquire knowledge to support firms in internationalization.
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