벤처 기업의 ‘신속한 국제화’ 결정 요인 : 역량기반관점을 중심으로

Traditionally, studies on the internationalization of a firm focused on the gradual internationalization of multinational corporations (MNCs). These studies often suggested that the internationalization takes quite a long time because it is a gradual learning process. However, we have recently seen that some small-sized venture firms have shortened this process and even went abroad from their inception. Scholars who have studied this phenomenon, including Oviatt and McDougall, argue that traditional “stage model” of internationalization is no longer appropriate for understanding how and why new ventures internationalize early on. In this study, we aim to advance our knowledge about factors influencing early internationalization of venture firms. Drawing primarily on the capability-based view, we investigated how capabilities of a venture company promote the firm’s early internationalization decision. Focusing on firm’s technological and international experiential capabilities at both the top management team(TMT) and the firm levels, we offer an framework for the determinants of early internationalization and test it empirically. The sample for this study consists of 235 Korean ventures listed in KOSDAQ (Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System). The empirical results from the binary logistic regression analysis generally support our arguments. Our findings show that strong technological capabilities of TMT members and those accumulated over time at the firm level are key drivers of the early internationalization of new ventures. We could also find that the high ratio of research workers has stronger impact on the early internationalization than that of R&D costs has. The finding suggests that capabilities which reside in humans are critical to new ventures that are small and relatively short of resources needed for internationalization. In addition, we found that firms with international networks are more likely to expand their businesses at or near inception since they provide firms with knowledge and information of unfamiliar overseas markets. Yet, we did not find significant relationship between international experience that the TMT members held and early internationalization of the firm. Our study has some theoretical implications and contributions to the study of the early internationalization phenomenon. In this paper, we examined firm capabilities at two levels, TMT and firm. The previous researches have focused little on technological capabilities of TMT members, let alone considering both levels simultaneously. In this study, we found that strong technological capabilities of TMT members including founders are very important for the early internationalization decision. Moreover, this paper offered an answer to the question of whether or not networks help new ventures overcome resource deficiencies. We found that a venture firm with international tie-ups with overseas institutions such as venture capital firms is more likely to go abroad early on.