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Internationalization of Science-Based Start-Ups: Opportunity or Requirement?

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Abstract

The current economic context is characterized by a global hypercompetition. The modern entrepreneurial approach is, therefore, more and more focused on the identification and actualization of new opportunities, like emerging on the international scene, rather than being based on a rational combination of know-how and of marketing expectations. Nowadays, the phenomena of internationalization affects every type of organization: private and public, for-profit and nonprofit, and large and small. As a consequence of the above, international entrepreneurship (IE) has recently emerged as a research field and this article aims at exploring some its implications. IE may be considered a set of new and innovative activities aiming at the creation of value and growth beyond national borders, by the combination of innovative, proactive, and risk-seeking behaviors that crosses national borders. In this context, we focus on a specific case: knowledge-based firms. In order to achieve this scope, after a preliminary section delineating the research field, we have developed our study in a number of steps that approach the research topic. Firstly, we explore and summarize the literature about research on the emerging area of international entrepreneurship. Then, we present the accumulated knowledge stemming from the relationship between knowledge and internationalization, looking at the phenomena of international start-ups. After this, we explore international entrepreneurship by academic context, identifying the main factors that influence the choice of the market on the part of the knowledge-based firms. Lastly, we characterize knowledge-based entrepreneurship as a virtuous combination of knowledge and entrepreneurship. Finally, we draw conclusions identifying the factors able to boost capacities for such expansion of firms originating from innovation and that have operations suited to a widely ultra-national context.

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Authors’ Contributions

DDA authored the “Introduction” and the “Experiential Knowledge Stemming from Relationship Between Knowledge and Internationalization” sections, making relevant contributions to the conception of the article. FE authored ‘International Entrepreneurship: a “Newly” Emerging Research Area.’ MDG authored the “International Entrepreneurship by Academic Context” and the “Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship: a Virtuous Combination of Knowledge and Entrepreneurship” sections. DDA and MDG together made critical revision of the article. The conclusions were devised jointly by the authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Second University of Naples, Corso Granpriorato di Malta, Capua (CE), 81043, Italy

    Davide Dell’Anno

  2. University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy

    Federica Evangelista

  3. University of Rome “Link Campus”, Rome, Italy

    Manlio Del Giudice

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  1. Davide Dell’Anno
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  2. Federica Evangelista
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  3. Manlio Del Giudice
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Correspondence to Davide Dell’Anno.

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Additional information

The authors have revised and expanded the paper published in Industry and Higher Education (2008) as Dell’Anno D., Knowledge-based entrepreneurship in a boundless research system.

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Dell’Anno, D., Evangelista, F. & Del Giudice, M. Internationalization of Science-Based Start-Ups: Opportunity or Requirement?. J Knowl Econ 9, 649–664 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0352-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0352-1

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