A Typology of International New Ventures: Empirical Evidence from High-Technology Industries

We examine determinants of different types of International New Ventures (INVs), namely Export Start-up, Geographically Focused Start-up, Multinational Trader, and Global Start-up. Whereas this typology of INVs has been widely accepted in the literature, empirical testing of the determinants of INV types is largely missing. Our arguments build on the International New Venture Theory (INVT). Hypotheses generated from our framework are tested on 195 German high-tech enterprises. Results show that growth orientation, prior international experience, knowledge intensity, product differentiation, and learning orientation distinguish significantly between the different INV types.