Opportunity Identification and Creation as Factors of Firm Internationalisation

This paper aims to establish if, why and how, in given institutional and industry contexts, the identification and/or creation and exploitation of opportunity may result in a higher intensity of internationalisation processes in firms. The study is based on literature review. It synthesizes fragmented pieces of research on international entrepreneurship, mainstream entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning theory. In-depth comparative literature studies focus on sources, forms and features of opportunities, as well as the role of both Schumpeterian and Kirznerian opportunities in internationalisation activities of firms. Findings bring together state-of-the-art research and extends it by providing a deeper understanding of the feed-back effect of entrepreneurial learning as well as highlighting the progressive nature of opportunity space in the proposed model. Expanding firm’s operations can be a first step towards a self-reinforcing loop relationship, tying prior experience to future behaviour and moving the entrepreneur to higher levels of international awareness and accuracy in opportunity identification. The article presents an integrated process-based view of opportunity antecedents and concludes with a dynamic cyclical path-dependent model of opportunity-based view of firm internationalisation. Hopefully, the proposed model can serve as a useful lens for hypotheses formulation and testing within the research on firm internationalisation determinants.