Network embeddedness in the internationalization of biotechnology entrepreneurs

Abstract

This study investigates how entrepreneurs of biotech enterprises embed in domestic and international networks so as to internationalize. We advance a contextual framework of embeddedness of internationalizing entrepreneurs, providing a contribution (i) by synthesizing and applying existing conceptual insights from the networking literature to provide a more culturally sensitive view of getting embedded for international entrepreneurship in the biotech industry and (ii) by adding insights into the practices and (micro)processes of how and in what ways embeddedness integrates with the internationalization of biotech entrepreneurs. Our study involves six entrepreneurs from Canada, Finland, and New Zealand. Context-specific embeddedness was studied by exploring the (i) type, (ii) strength, (iii) locality, and (iv) importance of the international and national network ties among internationalizing entrepreneurs. We found differences in relation to the locality of universities and research institutes, role and type of financiers, and customer focus in internationalization. For instance, while customers were central to the embeddedness of Canadian and New Zealand entrepreneurs, Finnish entrepreneurs had no focus on their customers, but acted solely through sales channels and partners. The customer focus of New Zealand entrepreneurs was mainly international, whereas it was domestic in the case of Canadian entrepreneurs.

International entrepreneurial capabilities: The role of networks in the small multinational enterprise

“…The findings provide an insight into how subsidairy customer, competitor and trade association ties can enable international corporate entrepreneurial outcomes for the sMNE. The findings also contribute to the discussion of network structures and internationalisation behaviours, as self-reinforcing that network structures can influence internationalisation (Jones and Coviello 2005;Leppäaho et al 2018).…”

“…The finding that relationships are selected, and subsequently nurtured and valued by the organisation, attributing specific resource to develop this relationship is supported by Uzzi (1996;. The findings advance the selective nature of networks in the role of sector ties (Leppäaho et al 2018). In this case for the sMNE, general business support was not considered of value, where external market intelligence was sought this was commissioned through a specialist research consultancy.…”

“…The long standing trusting relationship between the Titanium subsidiaries in oil and gas allowed its customer to have considerable power in their relationship over the Titanium Group companies. This builds on existing research on levels of customer network embeddedness in certain sectors (Leppäaho et al 2018), in this case where a strong customer embeddedness was identified but from a negative perspective. It is important however to consider the specific context to this finding; a supplier providing parts and engineering services to a market, oil and gas, which had taken a significant hit due to declining oil prices but was also dominated by a few conglomerate customers.…”

“…This thesis has therefore shown the importance of human capital in achieving international coporate entrepreneurial outcomes and addresses calls to explore more individual level international opportunity-seeking behaviours influencing internationalisation activity (Birkinshaw, et al 2005, Leppäaho et al 2018.…”

“…In summary, the findings in this research suggest that human capital plays a significant role in international corporate entrepreneurial outcomes. Human capital has been identified as a key attribute to network creation and utilisation (Loane and Bell 2006;Leppäaho et al 2018 ) yet few scholars consider human capital at a firm level. Human capital is therefore somewhat overlooked in international corporate entrepreneurship research.…”