Organisational barriers to nascent born-global growth: Learning from the inside

Current literature has examined the main drivers of born globals (BGs) growth during their life cycle, highlighting the importance of entrepreneurial capabilities and suggesting that organisational capabilities (e.g. innovation, market orientation) are relevant for the sustainability of BGs after a certain ‘turning point’. However, two important gaps remain: the literature does not clearly delineate the processes through which BGs develop these organisational resources, and it ignores the key role of employees in those processes. Through an action-research case study of a young BG in which all employees participate in the co-creation of internal knowledge, we identify organisational dysfunctions during the early phase that obstructed the firm’s development. Our findings reveal that the lack of information on the internal functioning and socio-economic performance of the firm was a fundamental barrier not only to the development of a more participative style of management but also to the formalisation and adjustment of the organisational structure to take advantage of the opportunities of foreign markets. We propose that BG entrepreneurs need to adopt an internal strategic orientation to develop a cohesive organisation and that the ‘right time’ for doing so is not after a few years but immediately from inception.