A novel measurement of internationalization speed and its implementation on early internationalization of new ventures

Abstract

This study proposes a novel approach to conceptualize and measure the internationalization speed of new ventures. International entrepreneurship is intensely interested in new ventures early internationalization speed, yet there is no joint decision on the conceptualization of speed. Most of the studies employ speed as the time it elapses from the establishment to make the first international activity. In Physics, speed is equal to distance divided by time. So, the current aspect of internationalization literature overlooks the distance dimension. The main contribution of this thesis is exploring the antecedents of this new speed calculation for international new ventures and comparing results with only the traditional speed measure of time. For achieving this, the developed model calculates speed in terms of distance and time by using a CAGE distance framework with a gravity model. The survey was carried out with 255 business owners in Turkey. After the data collection process, investigative and confirmatory factor analysis was performed. The model fit construct was achieved, and linear regression analysis was performed and tested according to the technology intensity group. Results were revealed that international experience, global vision, niche strategy variables had a significant effect on early internationalization speed in the proposed model for speed measurement. On the other hand; among those variables, the only international experience was found significant for the old school of speed measurement. When the significance level of both models was compared, it was found that the model using the new speed measurement was more valid than the old model.