No abstract

International new ventures proved to contribute positively to national economies they derive from. This article analyses the entrepreneurial level factors of success at the startup stage of international new ventures (INVs) in the context of three Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in transition: Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. Based on multiple case study approach, the study provides important insights into the international entrepreneurship theory by examining the still underexplored transition in CEE countries' context. An in-depth qualitative analysis has been performed based on 9 case studies, 3 INVs from each country. Lots of similarities emerge between INVs in three CEE countries, however their cultural and historical backgrounds are different enough to justify scholarly interest in potential idiosyncratic features. Findings suggest that there is significant diversity in the entrepreneurial level factors behind the early success of local INVs in international markets across these countries, especially in terms of direct foreign market experience, entrepreneurial orientation and existing network membership. Nevertheless, the findings reveal that in the sample focused on ITC businesses, solid industry experience of the founders proved to be key in the success of INVs' internationalisation.

The papers aims to analyse the key drivers for internationalisation in furniture industry by taking into consideration the cross-border activities of selected furniture manufacturers in Poland and Germany in comparison. The results show some similarities in internationalisation strategy design of selected furniture manufacturers in both countries. Export tends to be the predominant foreign market entry mode, and major motives to internationalise tend to have a reactive nature. There are some differences with regard to manufacturing location decisions, whereby the general assumption is confirmed that certain manufacturers are in a more advantageous position by concentrating their production at home.

Digitalization of business is one of the driving forces in today’s environment and seems to be an irreversible trend. At present we can observe not only a digital transformation of firms but also the emergence of firms that are digital from inception. The born digital firms have characteristics that allow them to quickly expand on international markets and stay competitive for sustained periods of time. The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of born digital firms that lead to sustainable competitive advantage and to develop a conceptual model that will serve as a basis for future research. Various sources of born digitals’ competitive advantage are revealed, such as innovativeness, creativity, responsiveness, digital technology, and digital skills of their employees. One of the key findings is highlighting the role creativity plays in how responsive born digital firms can be in times of change, a characteristic that supports their sustainable competitiveness. The newly defined born digitals’ characteristics and sources of competitive advantage should embrace the approach to their competitive advantage across different markets as a complex dynamic construct that is presented, which includes technology advantage, human capital advantage, but also differentiation advantage.

The paper presents a qualitative study of rapidly and gradually internationalising Polish firms. It compares these two types of firms with a special attention to their competitive strategies. The results show that there are more similarities than differences between the two groups of firms from emerging markets. These findings, based on case studies and interviews must be interpreted with a lot of caution, because the similar strategic behaviour of gradually internationalising firms to rapidly internationalising firms may stem from the fact that the former want to quickly reduce the distance to their counterparts in highly developed countries and thus take some strategic actions similar to rapidly internationalising firms.