The emergence, advance and future of international entrepreneurship research — An introduction to the special forum

International entrepreneurial orientation and regional expansion

“…Along this line, entrepreneurship research continues to explore the role of entrepreneurship in aiding firms' international growth (Covin & Miller, 2014;Coviello et al, 2011) and national economic development (Huggins & Williams, 2011;Valliere & Peterson, 2009). …”

“…Researchers interested in the field of international entrepreneurship have also given attention to international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) as a potential driver of international expansion (Coviello et al, 2011;Covin & Miller, 2014;Dai et al, 2014), regional development (Butler & Hansen, 1991;Benneworth, 2004), and improvement of economic growth (Laukkanen, 2000;Huggins & Williams, 2011;Valliere & Peterson, 2009). …”

“…While scholars have recently called for additional research to examine both how behavioral IEO elements predict variations in firms' international scope, and how this relationship is contingent upon environment conditions (Covin & Miller, 2014;Coviello et al, 2011), little attention has been given to how and when IEOs influence firms' tendencies to expand to foreign markets. Although traditional internationalization theory points to regional expansion as an antecedent to global expansion (e.g., Dunning, 1993;Johanson & Vahlne, 1977), scholars argue that a combination of high informal exporting activity levels, rising liberalization of regional economies, regional economic blocs, and emerging middle class consumption in many regional markets has created opportunity for firms to internationalize to regional markets (e.g., Ibeh et al, 2012;Rolfe et al, 2015).…”

Analysing the Role of Framework Conditions Influencing International Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification Process

“…IE is a well-established academic domain (Coviello, McDougall, & Oviatt, 2011;Dimitratos, Buck, Fletcher, & Li, 2016). It has been a flourishing field that has contributed to expanding the discussion on entrepreneurship.…”

“…It has been a flourishing field that has contributed to expanding the discussion on entrepreneurship. IE is the result of a cross-disciplinary research into international business and entrepreneurship (Allen, 2016;Coviello et al, 2011;McDougall & Oviatt, 2000;Ngo, Janssen, & Falize, 2016). Authors point out that the IE domain has particularly paid attention to topics such as entrepreneurial internationalisation of ventures, international comparisons of entrepreneurship, and comparisons across countries or cultures.…”