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Born globals – presence, performance and prospects

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  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus
  • Halldin, Torbjörn

Abstract

The concept born global firms has gained a spectacular increase in interest from both academic and political circles. Rigorous quantitative treatment of born global firms are however rare in the international business/economics literature. Implementing unique data on all Swedish start-ups during 1998–2008 in the manufacturing sector, we conclude that born global firms are a very rare event, that their prevalence seems invariant to time, and that they perform similar to other matched “twin” firms with regard to profitability and productivity but report a considerably higher growth in employment and sales. These results are robust to a wider definition of born global firms and to the timing of performance measurements.

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  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Halldin, Torbjörn, 2019. "Born globals – presence, performance and prospects," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 60-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:28:y:2019:i:1:p:60-73
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.07.004
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