International entrepreneurship

International entrepreneurship may be unique domain or phenomenon differentiated from mainstream entrepreneurship research by its cross-border and cross-cultural dimensions. It may be viewed as a sub-field of international business, or as a cross-disciplinary areas between international business, entrepreneurship and strategy. It may also be thought of as a taxonomic theory.

According to Oviatt and McDougall (2005):

"International entrepreneurship is the discovery, enactment, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities—across national borders—to create future goods and services."

Jones et al. (2011) reviewed 323 international entrepreneurship articles and classified them into three types into three major types. 

1) Entrepreneurial Internationalization research is concerned with the internationalization process and the role of networks (including social capital), and organizational issues and entrepreneurship. The goal is to understand how entrepreneurs internationalize their ventures.

2) International Comparisons of Entrepreneurship involves cross-country and cross-cultural comparisons of entrepreneurship and studies that compare both. The idea here is to better under how entrepreneurship takes different forms in different contexts.

3) Comparative Entrepreneurial Internationalization studies that compare entrepreneurial internationalization across countries or cultures. Comparative international entrepreneurship has been dominated by theories concerned with institutions, culture, resources, transaction costs, economic growth, and human capital (Terjesen et al., 2016).

International entrepreneurship is related to the concept of the born global startup, where the venture starts right from the beginning with a business model where the suppliers and customers are not in the same country.

Sources:

Jones, M. V., Coviello, N., & Tang, Y. K. (2011). International entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): a domain ontology and thematic analysis. Journal of business venturing, 26(6), 632-659.

Oviatt, B. M., & McDougall, P. P. (2005). Defining international entrepreneurship and modeling the speed of internationalization. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(5), 537-553.

Terjesen, S., Hessels, J., & Li, D. (2016). Comparative international entrepreneurship: A review and research agenda. Journal of management, 42(1), 299-344.