Challenges of Internationalization for New Ventures, the case of Icelandic born global companies

Abstract

This thesis is a case study on Icelandic born globals, where challenges of new ventures internationalization are explored, as well as strategies of internationalization. Innovation and new ventures have been nominated as two of the most important tools in order to rebuild the Icelandic economy, in fact they have always been a key factor in the economy. Since the Icelandic market is overall relatively small or non-existent for different industries, new ventures might be strategizing from the beginning to enter new markets and are therefore born global companies from conception. The research includes interviews with Icelandic born globals to find out which internal and external barriers they are facing when expanding to other markets, as well as exploring whether they are following specific strategies of internationalization. The aim of the research is to explore which strategies Icelandic born globals are actually applying in order to manage their internationalization.