3875286

8/10/2019 3875286

1/8

The Internationalization of EntrepreneurshipAuthor(s): Benjamin M. Oviatt and Patricia P. McDougallSource: Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan., 2005), pp. 2-8Published by: Palgrave Macmillan JournalsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3875286.

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8/10/2019 3875286

2/8

journal

f

Internationalusinesstudies

2005)

6,

2-8

?

2005

Palgrave

Macmillan

td.

Allrights eserved 047-2506

$30.00

www.jibs.net

RETROSPECTIVE

h e

intern tion liz tion

entrepreneurs

Benjamin

M

Oviatt1

and

Patricia

P

McDougall2

'Department

f

Managerial

ciences,

Robinson

College

f

Business,

Georgia

tate

University,

Atlanta,GA,

USA;

Kelley

chool

of

Business,

Indiana

University,

loomington,

SA

Correspondence:

Dr

BM

Oviatt,

Department

of

Managerial

Sciences,

PO

Box

4014,

Robinson

College

of

Business,

Georgia

State

University,

Atlanta,

GA

30302-4014,

USA.

Tel:

+

1

404

651

3021;

Fax:

+

1 404

651

2896;

E-mail:

[email protected]

Online

publicationdate: 25 November 2004

Abstract

Our article

that has been awarded

the 2004

Journal

f

International

usiness

StudiesDecade

Award,

Toward

Theory

of International

ew

Ventures',

epre-

sents

an

integration

of international

usiness,

entrepreneurship,

nd

strategic

managementscholarship.

This

retrospective

rticle

xplains

he intellectual

nd

personal

origins

of the work.

In

addition,

it

highlights

the definitions

of

'international

new

ventures'

and 'international

ntrepreneurship'.

Finally,

n

response

to recent concerns about the

importance

of internationalbusiness

scholarship,

he researchdiscussedhere

stands as an

example

of the

successful

exportation

of international usiness

cholarship

nto

adjacentdisciplines.

Journal

f

International

usiness tudies

2005)

36,

2-8.

doi:

0.

I

057/palgrave.jibs.8400

19

Keywords:

enterpreneurship;

ew

ventures;

nternationalization

Introduction

Over the

past

10

years, many

people

have written

or told

us

personally

that

they

found our 1994

article,

'Toward

a

Theory

of

International New

Ventures',

in

the

Journal

of

International

Business

Studies JIBS)Oviatt and McDougall, 1994) valuable in conducting

their own

research.

Every

time that

happens

it

is

quite

rewarding.

However,

receiving

the 2004

JIBS

Decade Award is

gratifying

beyond

words,

is a

high

honor,

and

was inconceivable at the

time

we

wrote

the

article.

Many

thanks

to

many

supporters

We

appreciate

the

opportunity

to

compose

this

retrospective

article

on

our

work,

and we

begin by offering

our

sincere

thanks

to

the

many

people

and institutions who

supported

us.

First,

thanks

to

the

Academy

of International

Business

and to the

Journal

of

InternationalBusiness Studies or over

many years encouraging

and

supporting a diverse research agenda. It is a refreshing counter-

point

to the

normally specialized

nature

of

academic

disciplines,

and it

makes

possible

the

publication

of

work like ours that

cuts

across

multiple

fields

of

inquiry.

We

certainly

owe thanks to Arie

Lewin,

current

Editor of

JIBS,

the

JIBS

editorial

board,

and the

committee who

chose our

article for

the award. Since one of

the

selection

criteria is the number

of

citations to

our

article

by

other

authors,

we

also

thank

the scholars

who

found our

article

useful

enough

to cite it

in

their own

published

research.

For

more than 10

years,

a

number

of

people, groups,

and

institutions have

made

our

work and its

publication possible.

The

University

of

South

Carolina,

where

we both earned our

doctorates,

provided an excellent foundation for our academic careers.Georgia

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8/10/2019 3875286

3/8

The

internationalization

of

entrepreneurship

Benjamin

M Oviatt

and

Patricia

McDougall

3

State

University

(where

the

Journal

of

International

Business Studies

originated),

Georgia

Institute

of

Technology,

and

Indiana

University

have

all

pro-

vided

stimulating

environments where our

work on

international

new

ventures

and,

more

broadly,

international

entrepreneurship,

have thrived.

We

owe

profound

thanks to the

busy

international

entrepreneurs

all

over

Europe

and the United States

who took the time

to tell us their

interesting

stories,

and who were

amazed,

in

the

very early

1990s,

at

how the

fax

machine

had made international

business so much more efficient. Little did

they,

or

we,

foresee the

worldwide revolution

in

commu-

nication that was

about to burst

upon

us. Our initial

travels

to visit

these

entrepreneurs

were enabled

by

grants

from

economist

Bill

Rushing

(recently

retired

from

Georgia

State

University)

and

by

the

Society

of

International

Business Fellows

in

Atlanta.

These

generous

people

were essential

partners

in

our

curiosity

about

what seemed at

the

time

to

be

a

curious

topic

for

academic research.

Furthermore,

several doctoral

students

have

helped

and continue

to

help

us

in

our

study

of

accelerated internationa-

lization. Rod

Shrader,

Mark

Simon,

Brett

Gilbert,

Stephanie

Fernhaber,

Peggy Cloninger,

and

Jifeng

Yu

have all

contributed to our intellectual discoveries.

As he was

concluding

his

editorship

of

JIBS

n

1992,

David

Ricks,

who

taught

at

the

University

of

South Carolina at the

time,

provided

advice and

valuable

encouragement

when we were

completing

drafts of our

first articles on international new

ventures.

His

wisdom

was

vital in

helping

us

understand how

best

to

present

our work to the

international

business

community.

We also want

to thank the

JIBS

reviewers,

whoever

they

were,

for a

tough

but valuable

interaction that

resulted

in what

we

believe is

a

better article

than the

one

we first

submitted.

For

example,

they

suggested

the article's

title,

a

sig-

nificant

improvement

over

our

original

overly long

and

complex

one,

and

they rightly

insisted

upon

more evidence about the existence of international

new ventures than

we

had

initially provided.

Finally,

as

many

other authors before

us have

done,

we want

to thank Paul

Beamish,

Editor of

JIBS

at

the

time our

article

was

under review.

He took

a

chance on an

unconventional

article

when

reviewers were

understandably

ambivalent.

Research

as a

personal

and

international

journey

In the late 1980s and

early

1990s,

the

popular

business

press

had noticed

and

published

articles

about

what

was sometimes

referred

to as

'global

start-ups'.

A few academic

scholars

also

noticed

and

studied

them;

however,

more

often,

such

firms

were

regarded

as

uninteresting

anomalies.

Our

1994 JIBS article explained

an

alternative

view-

point,

but

not

the

journey

that

led us

to it.

JIBS

has

been

unusual

in its

willingness

to

permit

business

scholars

to

reflect

on

how

their

experience

and

background

influenced

their

research.

We have

always

found

those

reflections

interesting,

and

we

appreciate

the

opportunity

to

explain

our

personal

journey

in this

retrospective

article.

Although

authors

are

prone

to

certain

biases

in

writing

about

themselves,

we

hope

that

others

will,

nonetheless,

find a valuable

lesson

or

two

in

our

biographical

perspective

on the


of

entrepre-

neurship.

We

met

22

years

ago

in

1982

in

Columbia,

South

Carolina,

while

we

were

both

in the doctoral

program

in

strategic

management

at the

University

of South

Carolina.

At the

time

we

had

differing

research

interests.

Ben

was

interested

in transaction

cost

theory

and

organizational

risk,

while

Tricia

focused

on

applying

strategic

management

con-

cepts

to

the

study

of new

ventures.

Although

neither

of

us

was

formally

part

of

the

well-known

international

business

program

at

South

Carolina,

its

doctoral

program

was

forming,

and

we were

both familiar with and influenced by the research

conducted

by

the

IB

scholars

there.

We

conducted

no

research

together

while

we were

there,

but

we

did become

friends

and maintained

contact

after

Ben

left

to

teach

at

the Oklahoma

State

University

in

1984.

Tricia

moved

to

Georgia

State

University

in 1986.

In

fall

1988,

Ben

joined

Tricia

there,

where

we

were

both

untenured

assistant

professors

of

strategic

management.

Owing

to

our

friendship,

and

because

we

were

then

located

in the same

department,

we were

interested

in

finding

a

joint research project. Over a period of many

months,

Tricia

and

Frank

Hoy,

who

was also

a

member

of the

department

and

whose

interests

were

focused

on

entrepreneurship,

urged

Ben

to

bring

his

understanding

of transaction

cost

and risk

into the

entrepreneurship

arena.

While

he

explored

that

possibility,

Ben was

more inter-

ested

in

making

a

connection

between

those

theories

and

international

business.

In

1989,

an

article

by

Tricia

appeared,

in

which she

described

characteristics

of

new ventures

that

had interna-

tional sales

and

defined

the arena

of international

Journal

f International

usinessStudies


8/10/2019 3875286

4/8

*

The


of

entrepreneurship

Benjamin

Oviatt

nd

Patricia

McDougall

4

entrepreneurship

as

the

development

of

international new ventures or

start-ups

that,

from

their

inception, engage

in

international

business.

(McDougall,

1989,

388)

We realized that the intersection of international

business

and

entrepreneurship

held both

our

inter-

ests,

but

we did

not

have

a

focus

beyond

that.

At the

intersection of

international

business

and

entrepreneurship

We

began

reading

everything

we could find

about

entrepreneurship

in

the international

arena.

Much

of the

academic

literature

of

the time

focused

on

understanding

exporting

by

small

firms,

public

policy

concerning

it,

and

comparisons

of

entrepre-

neurs and

entrepreneurship

in

multiple

countries.

That voluminous

body

of literature seemed mature

and

well

developed

to

us,

and to

present

us with little

opportunity

to

contribute

something

distinctive.

In our

reading,

however,

we encountered a 1989

article in

Inc.

magazine by

Robert

Mamis entitled

'Global

Start-up.'

He

described

Technomed

Inter-

national,

a

new

venture

headquartered

in

Lyon,

France,

which

produced

and

marketed medical

equipment.

When

the firm

opened

for

business,

it

owned

subsidiaries in

Germany, Italy,

Japan,

and

the

United

States;

conducted business in

English;

and

considered itself

a worldwide

company,

not

a

French company. At the time we found it interest-

ing,

but

had

no idea

how

to

integrate

it

into other

things

we

were

reading.

However,

we

kept

it

in

mind

and

were

alert for other

evidence of

global

start-ups.

We

soon

encountered

a

few

more articles

on such

firms

in

both the

academic and

popular

business

literature.

However,

most

of

the authors

seemed

unaware that

others

were

writing

about the same

phenomenon.

During

this

period, colleagues

intro-

duced us

to a

few local

Atlanta

firms that

seemed

to

fit our

interest

in

new

ventures that

were founded

with an international strategy and at least the

intent

to

engage

early

in

foreign

direct

investment.

As

increasing

evidence of such

organizations

began

to

percolate

before

us,

we contacted

an

official at

the US Small

Business

Administration

for

assistance

in

identifying global

start-ups

so that we could

construct a

database. His

response

was

that such

firms did not

exist. We then

began

to

realize

we

might

be

on to

something

The

crystallizing

event for us occurred

when

we

both

attended the

1990 Babson

Entrepreneurship

Research

Conference at Babson

College.

Peter

Sprague,

then Chairman

of National

Semiconduc-

tor

Corporation,

in a

speech

about

many

topics

that

we have

long forgotten,

made the

statement,

'Global

start-ups

are the wave of the future.' Each of

us

realized

instantly

and

simultaneously

that

research

on

global

start-ups

was a wave we would

ride

into our

futures

Following

his

speech,

we

caught

Peter

while still on

stage

and told him of our

interest.

He

invited us

to visit him in New

York,

which we

did.

He

spoke

with us

at

length

and

introduced us

to a few

investors,

entrepreneurs,

and

consultants

in various

parts

of the US who had

knowledge

of

global

start-ups.

That

experience

in

the

discovery

of an

interesting topic

for academic

inquiry

ingrained

in us a lesson about the value of

deep inquiry

into a narrow

topic.

It makes

possible

a

rich

understanding

of

phenomena

and

perhaps

highlights

the difference between

insignificant

anomalies

and

prescient

signals

of obscure

issues.

A

path

to

international

new ventures

Following

events

at Babson

and

in New

York,

our

research

became

quite

focused.

Bill

Rushing,

at the

time

a senior

economics

professor,

believed our

work

was

innovative,

and

provided

$5000

from

his

academic

chair

to

support

travel

to conduct inter-

views

with the

founders

of

global

start-ups.

The

Society

of International

Business

Fellows,

a

group

of

Atlanta

business

managers

and owners

interested

in

international business, provided a similar amount.

Thus,

we

were

able to travel

to various

locations

in

the

US and

Europe

to

interview

entrepreneurs.

Since

no

public

databases

of

global

start-ups

nor

any

systematic

knowledge

about

them

existed,

inductive

research

seemed

most

appropriate.

So

we

set

about

collecting

and

composing

case studies

of them

and

studying

what seemed

to be the most

relevant

literatureon international

business,

entre-

preneurship,

and

strategic

management

theory.

As

is

generally

advised

(Eisenhardt,

1989),

iterating

between

theory

and

evidence

proved

to be the

best

way to understand what we were observing. Over

time,

we

collected

in-depth

information

on

11

different

firms,

and found rich accounts

of a dozen

more

international new ventures

in the academic

literature.

We

developed

confidence

that what

we

were

learning

was

interesting, important,

and not

widely

understood.

Early

on,

we

adopted

a

strategy

of

presenting

our

ideas in diverse venues.

That

strategy

meant

we

received

feedback from a

variety

of

people,

made

many people

aware of our

work,

and ensured that

we would receive some credit for

early recognition

journal

of

International Business

Studies


8/10/2019 3875286

5/8

The


of

entrepreneurship

Benjamin

M Oviatt

and

Patricia

P

McDougall

5

of

what

we

increasingly

believed

was

a

growing

phenomenon.

In

1991,

Bill

Guth,

then director

of

New York

University's entrepreneurship

center,

published

a short

invited cover article

of ours

for

his center's

newsletter.

It

was the first

publication

of

our

work,

and

presented

some

of

our

initial

thoughts

on

why global

start-ups

were

emerging

(McDougall

and

Oviatt,

1991).

Also

in

1991,

a

year

after

being inspired by

Peter

Sprague

at the

Babson

Conference,

we

presented

the draft

of

our

first

case

study

at the

Babson

Entrepreneurship

Research

Conference

held that

year

at the

University

of

Pittsburgh.

A

few months

later,

Tricia

moved several blocks

across the

city

of

Atlanta and

joined

the

faculty

at

Georgia

Institute of

Technology.

Nevertheless,

both

our

research

relationship

and

friendship

continued.

Indeed,

they

have

continued

through

another

move Tricia made in 1999

to Indiana

University,

where she

is

enjoying

being

part

of an active and

energetic

group

of

entrepreneurship

and

interna-

tional business

scholars

and other

delightful

faculty

and administrative

colleagues.

An

important

reason

why

our

relationship

has

remained

strong

is

that

our

spouses,

Judy

Oviatt

and

Jeff

Covin,

are

supportive

of our

research,

and

are friends

them-

selves. Now

in

the

middle of our second

decade in

this

personal

and

international

journey,

we

have for

some

time

regarded

ourselves

as a

research

team

with intertwined intellectual

property

on interna-

tional

new

ventures and on the broader

area

of

international

entrepreneurship.

At this

writing

in

summer

2004,

Ben

remains,

along

with

many

great

colleagues,

at

Georgia

State

University,

where he

is

Director of the

HJ

Russell

Sr

International

Center

for

Entrepreneurship.

Tricia

begins

a

new role

as

Interim

Associate Dean

at

Indiana

University.

A

destination:

our

JIBS

article

We

began

working

on

an

article aimed

at

JIBS

because we realized that academic legitimacy would

not

be

achieved until

we

integrated

our

observa-

tions

of

the

early

1990s with theories of

interna-

tional business.

Thus,

the stated

purpose

of our

1994

JIBS

article was:

...to define

and

describe the

phenomenon

and to

present

a

framework

explaining

how international new

ventures fit

within the

theory

of the MNE. We

hope

that

a

well

delineated,

theoretical framework will

unify,

stimulate,

and

guide

research n

the area.

(p.

48)

As

we

explored

that

integration,

we

began

to

believe that the

most common

terms for the firms

we were

writing

about

-

'global

start-up'

and

'born

global'

-

seemed

inappropriate.

Although

all

the

firms

in our studies

were

conducting

business

in

multiple

countries,

and

some

had

entered

several

foreign countries,

few

were

truly global.

Therefore,

in academic

articles,

we have

always

called

the

firms

we

studied

'international

new ventures'.

We

believe

the

terms

'global

start-ups'

and 'born

globals'

should

be

reserved

for

new ventures

that

coordinate

multiple

value-chain

activities

in

many

countries.

In

our

JIBS

article,

we

defined

...an

international

new

venture

as a business

organization

that,

from

inception,

seeks to

derive

significant

competitive

advantage

from the

use

of

resources

and the

sale

of

outputs

in

multiple

countries.

(p.

49)

A

decade

later,

we continue

to

use that

same

definition.

Although

we believe

'international

new

venture'

is the most

descriptive

term,

we have

sometimes

used

the alternatives

when

writing

or

speaking

to

practitioner

audiences.

Today,

however,

the

term

'born

global'

is

frequently

used

in

scholarly

articles

(e.g.,

Knight

and

Cavusgil,

2004),

and

the

vocabu-

lary

continues

to

proliferate.

For

example,

Doz

et al.

(2001)

call

these

firms 'metanational

upstarts'.

In

spring

2004,

the

Wall Street

Journal

described

what

seemed

to

them

a

relatively

new

phenomenon

called the

micro-multinational,

a

company

that from

its

inception

is

based

in

the

US

but

maintains

a

less-costly

skilled

work force

abroad.

(Grimes,

2004,

B1)

As

we

explored

how

various

theories

applied

to

international

new

ventures,

it

appeared

to

us

that

the

well-known

and valuable

Uppsala

Theory

of

firm


(Johanson

and

Vahlne,

1990)

was

quite

relevant

to the

majority

of

firms

that

internationalize

slowly.

However,

among

the

firms

that

captured

our

interest,

foreign

commer-

cial

activity

appeared

with remarkable

speed.

Thus,

we

required

a different theoretical approach.

The

heart

of

our

1994

JIBS

article

explained

accelerated


as

a combination

of internalization

theory (Buckley

and

Casson,

1976;

Rugman,

1982),

the

concept

of alternative

governance

structures

(Vesper,

1990;

Williamson,

1991),

sources

of

foreign

location

advantage

(Dun-

ning,

1988),

and ideas about

sustaining competitive

advantage

(Schoemaker,

1990;

Barney,

1991).

We

proposed

that

successful

international

new ven-

tures exhibit

four

basic elements.

As

they

usually

suffer

from

a

poverty

of

resources,

they

internalize

a

Journal

of International Business

Studies


8/10/2019 3875286

6/8

The

internationalization of

entrepreneurship

Benjamin

M Oviattand PatriciaP

McDougall

6

minimal

proportion

of

their

assets

(Element

1)

and

focus

on

less

costly

governance

mechanisms

(Element

2),

such as

network

structures,

to

control

a

greater

percentage

of

vital

resources

than

mature

organizations

would.

We further

proposed

that

they gain

foreign

location

advantages

from

private

knowledge

that

they possess

or

produce

(Element

3),

and

make

it

sustainable

through

one

or

more

means

of

protection

-

imperfect

imitability,

licen-

sing,

networks,

and

direct

means,

such

as

patents

(Element

4).

These

elements

remain

credible in

new

venture


theory.

However,

our

more

recent

research

on

international

new

ventures

suggests

that

some

firms

may

use

licensing

and

network

alliances

less

than we

had

originally

believed

(Shrader

et

al.,

2000;

Shrader,

2001).

Perhaps

the

publicly

held ventures that we inves-

tigated

were

sufficiently

wealthy

that

they

could

internalize

most

important

resources and

depend

upon

uncertain

imitability

for

protection

of their

key

knowledge.

Clearly,

these

issues

deserve further

empirical

attention.

More

roads to

international

new

ventures

The

concepts

we

used in

our

JIBS

article cut

across

the

disciplines

of

international

business,

entrepre-

neurship,

and

strategic

management,

and

each

discipline

provided

an

insightful

perspective

on

international

new

ventures.

These same

perspec-

tives

could

be seen in

our other

publications

on

international

new

ventures that

appeared

at

about

the

same

time.

Continuing

our

strategy

of

addres-

sing

as

many

audiences

as

possible,

the

Journal

of

Business

Venturing

revealed our

findings

to aca-

demics

interested

in

entrepreneurship

(McDougall

et

al.,

1994a).

That

collaboration

with

Scott

Shane

while

he was

at

Georgia

Tech

stressed

the

dominant

influence of

the

founding

entrepreneur(s)

on

the

formation

of

international

new

ventures. Two

bright and innovative doctoral students at Georgia

State

University,

Mark

Simon and

Rod

Shrader,

played

important

roles

in

researching

and

compos-

ing

an

in-depth

teaching

case

focused on

one of

the

international

new

ventures we had

studied. Entre-

preneurship

Theory

and

Practice

published

it in

three

parts

(McDougall

et

al.,

1994b,

c;

Oviatt

et

al.,

1994).

In

early

1995

Academy

of Management

Executive

published

a

practitioner

piece

that

described some

of

the

conditions

associated with

the

formation

of

what

in that

article

we called

global

start-ups

(Oviatt

and

McDougall, 1995).

In

summary,

we were

very lucky

that

four

different

journals

published

articles

of ours

on

international

new ventures at

about the same time.

Virtually any

academic

who

might

be interested

in

the

subject

would

be exposed to our ideas. Over

time, however,

it has become

clear that our

1994

JIBS

article

is the most

important

because

it

provides

a

theoretical

foundation.

A

broader

journey:

international

entrepreneurship

In recent

weeks,

as we reflected

on our

article,

we

asked ourselves

whether

there

might

be

something

that we wish

we had included in it

but did not.

Perhaps

we could have

more

explicitly positioned

our

JIBS

article

to its audience

of

international

business

scholars

as

part

of an

emerging

field

of

study

at the

intersection

of international

business

and

entrepreneurship.

While

Tricia had

proposed

a

definition

of

international

entrepreneurship

in

1989,

and both of us were

actively promoting

it

as

an

emerging

field of

study

within

the

community

of

entrepreneurship

scholars,

we did

not frame

our

JIBS

article

within the arena

of

international

entrepreneurship.

Given our

junior positions

at

the

time,

and

the fact that our intellectual

founda-

tion

was in

strategic management,

our

major

effort

was focused on

the task of

having

our research

on

international

new ventures

accepted

by

interna-

tional business scholars.

Therefore,

we did not ever

seriously

consider

suggesting

to

the

JIBS

reviewers

that our work

was

part

of

an

exciting

new

field

of

inquiry

-

international

entrepreneurship

However,

over the

past

decade,

we have worked

with

others

to

help

establish

international

entrepreneurship

as

a

legitimate

field of

study.

Nonetheless,

more

than

any

other article

we

have

ever

published,

we believe

that our

JIBS

article

stands

as an unmistakable

example

of

international

entrepreneurship

research.We

hope

that this

honor

will

encourage

other

entrepreneurship

scholars

researching at the intersection of entrepreneurship

and international

business

to submit

their manu-

scripts

to international

business

journals,

and

we

hope

that international

business

scholars will

seek

out

entrepreneurship journals

as an outlet for

some

of their

research. More

cross-fertilization

is

needed

if international

entrepreneurship

is to

fully

devel-

op.

We believe

a milestone in

the

recognition

of

that intersection

occurred

when

Wright

and

Ricks

(1994)

highlighted

international

entrepreneurship

as a

newly

emerging

research direction for

inter-

national business

scholars in a

1994

JIBS

article.

Journal

f

International

usiness

Studies


8/10/2019 3875286

7/8

The


of

entrepreneurship

Benjamin

M

Oviattand Patricia

P

McDougall

7

Over

the last

10

years,

our

interest

in

new

venture

internationalization,

and

what

we have at

times

referred

to

as

accelerated


has

never

waned.

However,

as

the research of

others

deepens

our

understanding

of

international

entre-

preneurship,

our definition of it continues to

evolve. Our

recent

writing

of a

white

paper

on

international

entrepreneurship

for

the

United

States

Association

of

Small

Business

and

Entrepre-

neurship

caused

us

to

carefully

consider the

defini-

tional

evolution

of

international

entrepreneurship.

Very

early

in

our

collaboration,

we

determined

that

Tricia's irst

definition

was

too

narrowly

focused

on

new

venture


theory.

Our

cur-

rent

working

definition

is:

International

entrepreneurship

s

the

discovery,

enactment,

evaluation,

and

exploitation

of

opportunities

-

across

national borders- to createfuture

goods

and

services.

It

follows,

therefore,

that the

scholarly

field of

international

entrepreneurship

examines and

compares

-

across national

borders

-

how,

by

whom,

and with what

effects those

opportunities

are

acted

upon.

(McDougall

nd

Oviatt,2003,

7)

The

trade

balance

of

international

business

scholarship

Recently,

scholars

of

international

business

have

questioned

the

future of

the

discipline.

Concern

has

been

expressed

that the

discipline

primarily

imports

ideas

from other fields

and does

not

provide

sufficient

exports

of its own

(Buckley,

2002;

Peng,

2004).

There is

evidence,

however,

that

in the

area of international

entrepreneurship

the

JIBS

rade balance

is

a

favorable

one. Our

examina-

tion of articles

published

in

JIBS

n the last

10

years

shows that

issues related to

entrepreneurship

have

appeared

with moderate

and

slightly increasing

frequency.

Innovation,

firm

technological change,

the

degree

of

international

experience

among

entrepreneurs,

explanations

of

accelerated

firm


and

multi-country compari-

sons

of

entrepreneurial activity

are all

topics

that

have

captured

the interest of

JIBS's

cholars.

One

might

say

that some

of the ideas in those

articles

were

imported.

However,

our article 'Toward

a

Theory

of International

New Ventures'

is our

most

frequently

cited

jointly

authored

article,

and

most

of

the

citations

to it come from

entrepreneurship

journals

and

entrepreneurship

scholars.

Further-

more,

as we

highlighted

above,

that

article

depended

heavily

on international

business

theory

for its foundation.

Thus,

exports

of

international

business

scholarship

to the

discipline

of

entrepre-

neurship

have been

vital and robust

over

many

years.

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PatriciaP

McDougall

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BusinessStudies

25(4):

687-71

3.

About the authors

Ben Oviatt

(Ph.D.,

University

of

South

Carolina)

is

currently

Professor of

Managerial

Sciences

and Director

of the

HJ

Russell,

Sr

International

Center

for

Entrepreneurship

in

the

Robinson

College

of Business

at

Georgia

State

University.

His research

focuses on

the


of

new

ventures.

At

the time

'Toward a

Theory

of International New Ventures' was

published,

he

was

an

Assistant

Professor

at

Georgia

State

University.

Patricia

P

McDougall

(Ph.D., University

of

South

Carolina)

is

currently

Interim

Associate

Dean

of

Academics

and

the

William

L Haeberle

Professor

of

Entrepreneurship

at

Indiana

University's

Kelley

School

of Business.

Her

research

focuses

on

the


of

new

ventures

and

new

venture

strategies.

At

the

time

'Toward

a

Theory

of

International

New

Ventures'

was

published,

she was an

Associate

Professor

at

the

Georgia

Institute

of

Technology.

Journal

f International

usiness

Studies

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