Value proposition misalignment and the failure to become a born-global company

Abstract

This inductive study explores factors by which some new and innovative firms try yet fail to achieve born-global status. Born-global studies have a survivorship bias, with errors of omission that paint a favourable picture of how innovative and well-funded new ventures internationalise. In this paper, we counter such biases by focussing on innovative ventures that expressed intentions to become born global but failed to do so. Our findings reveal that these new ventures fail in two ways. Either they underestimate the need to tailor a portfolio of value propositions and over-extend their efforts across too many markets, a pattern called "baby born-global". Or they over-commit to one market at a time, thus limiting their capacity to develop value propositions in similarmarkets, a pattern called "micromultinational".