THE BORN GLOBAL LITERATURE
The emerging scholarly literature presents born global firms as an entirely new phenomenon.
Traditionally, international business scholars have argued that firms venturing abroad follow a set process of development, beginning at home, with clearly defined stages which unfold sequentially.12 This conventional view was challenged by Oviatt and McDougall’s seminal
1994 analysis,13 which argued that these firms commence their internationalisation at inception, because local competitive forces prevent them from beginning operations within their domestic economies. Additionally, focus Oviatt and McDougall maintained that internationalising firms focus on controlling resources rather than owning them. Traditional international business theory was also questioned by the ‘innovation models’ approach, which identifies managerial innovations within the firm as the driving force of international expansion.14 The observations made in the present investigation accord in part with both the established view of internationalisation and its critics, as the additional extension of born global firms beyond exporting is characterised by impersonal processes as well as entrepreneurship.
What is evident, however, is that the firms examined here did not follow a linear path of expansion. Rather, the processes they went through often occurred simultaneously and in a compressed period of time.
Existing literature on born global firms lapses into hyperbole because it neglects the elements of continuity with traditional forms of international venturing. It may well be that because the notion of the born global is novel, and represents such a milestone in international business research, that scholars feel they have licence to be hyperbolic in their characterisation of the born global firm. These firms are made out to be simply