The term “international entrepreneurship” first appeared in 1988. It highlights recent technological advances and cultural awareness that appeared to open previously untapped foreign markets to new ventures.
Popular business press interest in rapid internationalisation provided a theoretical base for the study of new international ventures. Today business organisations from day one derive significant competitive advantage through use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries. Thus, international entrepreneurship began with an interest in new ventures.
With the pace of time interest in the arena increased, and the field of international entrepreneurship broadened from its early studies of new venture internationalisation. Various probing studies of differing national entrepreneurial cultures, alliances, cooperative strategies, small and medium sized company internationalisation, top management teams, entry modes, cognition, country profiles, corporate entrepreneurship, exporting, knowledge management, venture financing, and technological learning have all helped move the field forward.
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Because of the multidisciplinary nature of both entrepreneurship and international business, researchers have drawn upon theories and frameworks from international business, entrepreneurship, anthropology, economics, psychology, finance, marketing, and sociology.
It is clear that the domain of international entrepreneurship is rich in opportunity. Since the field is broad, there are many interesting research questions to be explored, and many existing theories may be beneficially employed. Opportunities for both multidisciplinary and multicountry collaborations are visible.
The discipline has also become important because of the academic interest generated by various journals, such as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business, Journal of International Business Studies, and the Journal of International Entrepreneurship.
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International entrepreneurship, thus, includes: comparisons of entrepreneurial behaviour in multiple countries and cultures, individual, group and organisation behaviour that extends across national borders, including social entrepreneurship, and creation or extension of new enterprise.