Exploring the born global firms from the Asia Pacific

Abstract

This study aims to synthesize the extant research on the Born Global Firms (BGF) phenomenon, mainly focusing on the Asia Pacific region (APAC). We adopt the systematic literature review methodology to identify the main context-specific drivers (‘success factors’) and outcomes of BGFs’ accelerated internationalization and the challenges they face before, during, and after global expansion. The analysis and evaluation of relevant studies reveal several critical variables that need to be extensively investigated (separately and in tandem) by scholars in order to advance existing theories and, at the same time, explain the out-of-pattern behaviors of BGFs outside the typical ‘Western economy’ context. Among the core variables are international entrepreneurial orientation and culture adoption, organizational learning and networking strategies, global strategic human capital and network resources (as predictors of BGFs’ international performance) and resource constraints, institutional and cultural distances, and liabilities of newness, smallness, foreignness, outsidership, and emergingness (as constraints to BGFs’ success). By identifying the research gaps and proposing a comprehensive framework with promising avenues for future research into the phenomenon of BGFs from the APAC region, this study helps enhance our understanding of the global strategy formation and execution processes of international new ventures from ‘the East’ and stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue between international business, strategy, and entrepreneurship scholars.