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Business model innovation (BMI) is receiving increased academic attention as a tool for gaining new or retaining existing firms' competitive advantages. This paper investigates value delivery and value capture dimensions of BMI utilized by international new ventures (INVs) and shows how this category of firms differs from other internationalized firms in Sweden. Our findings indicate that INVs tend to innovate value delivery and value capture dimensions in the form of sales channels and logistical methods more frequently than other internationalized firms and reconfigure their external relationships more intensively as well. By utilizing longitudinal data, we show that these aspects continue to differentiate INVs and constitute a unique characteristic of INVs over time. Hence, this study enhances the academic debate on business models of INVs as well as on their long-term development past early internationalization efforts. From a managerial perspective, the study highlights where to focus BMI initiatives for sustained international presence and growth.

La Innovación del Modelo de Negocios (IMN o BMI por sus siglas en inglés) está llamando la atención entre los académicos, como una herramienta que permite a las compañías ganar nuevas ventajas competitivas o retener las existentes. Este artículo investiga las dimensiones de entrega y captura de valor de la IMN utilizada por nuevas empresas internacionales (NEIs o INVs por sus siglas en inglés) y muestra cómo éstas se diferencian de otras empresas internacionalizadas en Suecia. Nuestros resultados indican que las NEIs tienden a innovar las dimensiones de entrega y captura de valor, en forma de canales de venta y métodos logísticos, más frecuentemente que otras empresas internacionalizadas y que, además, reconfiguran sus relaciones externas de forma más intensa. A partir de datos longitudinales mostramos que estos aspectos diferencian a las NEIs y constituyen una de sus características únicas a través del tiempo. Por lo tanto, este estudio mejora el debate académico sobre los modelos de negocio de las NEIs, y su desarrollo a largo plazo como fruto de esfuerzos tempranos de internacionalización. Desde una perspectiva gerencial, este estudio muestra en dónde enfocar las iniciativas de IMN para lograr presencia internacional y crecimiento de forma sostenible.

The notion of International New Ventures, or INVs, emerged in academia in the early-to-mid 1990s and generally refers to entrepreneurial firms that tend to internationalize very early in their life-cycle, and whose expansion into foreign markets occurs much more quickly than predicted by earlier theories of the incremental internationalization process. Previous literature proposes effective networking with market partners and, more recently, internationally viable business model among key distinguishing features of INVs that allow for such early and rapid entry into international markets. Nevertheless, little is yet known regarding how these younger firms develop over time and how they could sustain international growth. With the purpose of filling this gap, this doctoral dissertation scrutinizes business models and business model innovation of INVs beyond their early internationalization, with a particular emphasis on INVs’ external relationships configurations.

The dissertation consists of four self-contained essays that represent a methodological mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches and incorporate longitudinal case studies, surveys and register-based data encompassing nine years of Swedish INVs’ development. The findings highlight the importance of the business model as an initial market entry tool, and of business model innovation as a potential growth vehicle over time. Findings also display that INVs work with a broader range of external partners compared to other firms for innovative purposes, and that INVs have different business model innovation patterns compared to other types of internationalized firms. Moreover, INVs focus more heavily on value capture innovations in their business models as they mature and seek to obtain a more centralized position in their industry ecosystem by re-configuring the parameters of existing external relationships or developing new ones.

Overall, this dissertation contributes to the international entrepreneurship and business model literature by explicating how maturing INVs need to operate under different business model configurations as compared to emerging INVs, as the original business model might lack scalability after a certain point in time. Furthermore, the dissertation suggests how INVs can pursue a dynamic business model approach and utilize dynamic capabilities to design business models that put the focal firm more in control of the surrounding ecosystem, and reduce constraints that can limit the value capturing potential and thus the growth and development of INVs.

In this study we examine the scope and pattern of innovation cooperation of international new ventures (INVs) of different age, size and formation type. Using longitudinal micro-matched database and Swedish Community Innovation Survey results for the years 1998–2009, we show that INVs are more likely to be involved in international cooperation than other firms, and that INVs are also more likely to have a broader scope of international partnerships in terms of number of partners and geographic location of these partners. We further show how age of a firm that originated as an INV and its formation type – greenfield, spin-off or merger – affect patterns of international cooperation for innovation.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate how business models are used by born global firms to act upon new business opportunities and how they manage business model innovation over time to prosper and grow.

Design/Methodology: The study is based on three exploratory case studies of born global firms in mobile communication, financial services and digital music distribution.   Findings: Three interrelated capabilities to manage business model innovation are articulated in the context of born global firms; sensing capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and relational capabilities and four propositions are formulated. We find that business model innovations are used as a tool by maturing born global firms to navigate the value chains and achieve international growth. We further propose that born global need the capabilities to balance different business model designs simultaneously and to manage its business model innovation in a timely manner.

Originality: This article contributes to both the business model literature and research of international entrepreneurship. By putting business model research into the dynamic context of rapidly internationalizing born global firms, we contribute to the field of business model research with findings of how business models are used in the internationalization processes. Certain capabilities are needed to manage business model innovation for born global firms to dynamically use business models as a tool in the international growth overtime.