Born global in 1847: International entrepreneurship at Siemens

Abstract

The early internationalization of new ventures has been described as a contemporary phenomenon enabled by globalization and digital technologies. However, today's multinational enterprise Siemens, founded in 1847, fits extant definitions of born globals. Based on this historical case, this study seeks to answer the question: What are enduring and contextually invariant aspects of early internationalization processes? An abductive analysis of the company's first 3 decades finds six relevant and emergent themes. We contribute to international entrepreneurship research by presenting evidence that early internationalization is not a new phenomenon, showing support for multiple extant findings, and providing new insights for otherwise underexplored themes. We also provide future research directions regarding personal‐level processes in international new ventures based on the analyzed 30 years.