Ferguson, Shon and Henrekson, Magnus and Johannesson, Louise
(2021).
Getting the facts right on born globals.
Small Business Economics. 56
, 259-276
[Research article]
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Abstract
Policymakers in several countries have recently taken steps to promote the rapid export expansion of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The goal of these policies has been to create successful export-intensive startups, which are often referred to as born globals. These measures are motivated by studies claiming that born global firms are disproportionately important for job creation and economic growth. Using detailed register data on the universe of Swedish manufacturing startups founded 1998–2014, we find that born globals are a very small group of firms whose long-run size and growth do not outperform other exporting firms. We also show that removing continuing firms and spinouts from the analysis is crucial for obtaining correct results. Thus, the notion that born globals are superior to firms that follow a more gradual internationalization process, a conclusion largely based on case studies and surveys, does not withstand scrutiny. Policymakers must therefore be aware that encouraging more born globals need not necessarily lead to large benefits for the overall economy, especially in terms of employment.
Authors/Creators: | Ferguson, Shon and Henrekson, Magnus and Johannesson, Louise | ||||
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Title: | Getting the facts right on born globals | ||||
Series Name/Journal: | Small Business Economics | ||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||
Volume: | 56 | ||||
Page range: | 259-276 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 18 | ||||
ISSN: | 0921-898X | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 5 Social Sciences > 502 Economics and Business > Economics | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-101561 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-101561 | ||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 22167 | ||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Economics | ||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||
Deposited On: | 09 Feb 2021 09:23 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 09 Feb 2021 09:31 |
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