Green and Global: Internationalization of eco-innovated Born Global firms : Case Study of biocomposite plastic industry

Sammanfattning: Sustainability and eco-innovation trends in business are increasingly diffused globally. The quest for sustainable materials to overcome the alarming global tendency of plastic ubiquity is one of the main reasons for such trends. It draws the attention of international actors in the business ranging from a big incumbent multinational company to a small but international firm. The phenomenon of a small firm that quickly becomes global is pervasive and contributes crucially to the global economy. Due to the born global (BG) novelty, internationalization in BG firms has been elaborated primarily in a general context, excluding the firms and industry-particular characteristics. The study aims to understand the internationalization process of a BG firm equipped with an eco-innovation context at the early stage in the biocomposite industry, using an effectual approach as conceptual lenses. The conceptual lens creates interplay among the combined international business area,  international entrepreneurship, and emerging eco-innovation field through the embedded effectuation principles. The study embraces an inductive case study approach which involves 12 participants from international actors and members of BG firms in semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, the industrial context of the study revolves around the biocomposite industry and its network to view eco-innovation nuance. The research found that Eco-innovation technology competence becomes the available means to internationalize for BG firm. Moreover, it is concluded that the effectuation theory is reliable both to be used by researchers in analyzing the phenomenon and dominantly used by the entrepreneur in internationalizing their business in uncertain time such as the early stage of internationalization. BG firm utilizes the contingencies through a learning process iteratively but at a quick pace due to their alliance with the network, but the business form is more effectually transformed instead of incrementally changing and well-planned.  The use of a formal causation approach was present yet limited during the process. The findings of this study add to the existing literature of internationalization by incorporating eco-innovation, as well as bridging the gap between eco-innovation, international business, and entrepreneurship literature.