It examines the effect of network market orientation on born globals competitiveness, and born global is a company concept that has become widespread recently. The study is the dynamic capability of the network based on certain knowledge as an important intermediary variable between market orientation and competitiveness. That is, it analyzes the contribution of absorption capability and finally affects the international performance achieved by this particular type of firm. The results from testing the proposed structural equation model facilitate the development of an absorption capability of the network market orientation in born globals. It also confirms that this capability affects the capacity of firms to utilize new relational information, thus increasing their competitiveness and international performance.
Sample Selection and Data Collection
In a study, data were collected from the Dun and Bradstreet and SABI databases, from Spanish companies under the age of 7 in 2012 and operating internationally. A total of six selection criteria were applied in two different situations before and during the field study to improve the examples by collecting these data and to ensure that the selected firms were born global. Therefore, the following criteria have been applied based on the filters found in the databases:
• Firms should not be older than 7 years old, thus ensuring that they are new companies,
• They must make their own strategic decisions, thus excluding subsidiaries or affiliated companies,
• Should have a minimum of three and a maximum of 250 employees, ignoring micro firms, self-employed and large firms. In addition, this improvement process resulted in a population of 1023 companies.
• Their international activities should have started within the first three years following their creation, thus showing that they are immediately included in foreign markets,
• Should generate at least 25% of its annual sales abroad, thus providing proof of consolidated international presence,
• Form part of a network of companies with at least three members
The questionnaire was then pre-tested with a pilot sample of 25 companies to ensure correct understanding. An electronic version was then prepared for fieldwork, 303 of which returned the valid response. Analysis of primary data revealed the key properties of the sample. Firms are mostly SMEs from the industrial sector, especially from the agricultural food, metal and textile sectors.
Including companies that export and import products related to these industrial sectors, trade is represented with 31.6%. Finally, less than 7.2% of firms come from the services sector, mostly including finance, tourism and communication agencies. The companies have an average of 28.55 employees, 41.50% of the commercialization studies are abroad and their average age is 3.90. Regarding the networks to which firms belong, almost all of them became part of the network when they were created. These are generally marketing-oriented networks and consist of an average of 5.81 companies close to the company.
Results
Research in the business sciences has been gradually enriched with the introduction of more sophisticated methodologies. This higher degree of development has enabled researchers to design and test increasingly complex models to explain business reality. Structural equation models aim to overcome the limitation developed mainly in econometrics and shared by other multivariate techniques such as multiple regression, factor analysis, multiple regression, factor analysis, multivariate analysis. It also emerged from the evolution of multiple equation modeling combined with measurement principles from psychology and sociology.
Variance or discriminant analysis can only examine one relationship at a time. Unlike the techniques mentioned, a structural equation model (SEM) -based analysis can explore a number of dependent relationships simultaneously. Therefore, this technique is particularly useful when a dependent variable becomes an independent variable in subsequent dependency relationships.
There are numerous studies pointing to the important contribution Born globals make to the progress of global economies. This has defined the study of traits that define born flobals and characterize the process of internationalization as a major concern for academics and researchers. Recent work in the field of international entrepreneurship has encouraged researchers to contribute to the current understanding of the rapid internationalization processes of firms through richer empirical and theoretical studies. In general, it contributes to the increased support in recent literature to consider market knowledge as a key factor that determines the pace of new companies taking a proactive approach as they cross national borders to seize new opportunities in other foreign markets.
It also shows that the knowledge these firms gain from their market-oriented networks help them develop an absorptive dynamic capability to act sustainably in their international markets. Therefore, the development of the born globals’ absorption ability should be understood as a relational process, not a purely internal process. This finding adds to the debate about the attention deficit to identify key variables that are beyond competitiveness. Indeed, it responds to the comments of some researchers that there is theoretical and empirical knowledge about the internal and external premises of the international performance of the new, despite the increased interest shown in recent years as a result of the intense globalization process in the markets.
It complements the previous literature in which the analysis of these variables tends to take an individual approach. And they are specific talents such as a market orientation, an entrepreneurial orientation, or marketing and management skills. In summary, the adoption of an orientation based on market knowledge and social networks (network market orientation) has been empirically proven to encourage the development by born globals of a dynamic absorption capability that contributes to systematic and effective adaptation to the dynamic and changing markets in which they operate. By integrating theoretical approaches from international trade and entrepreneurship, it provides a new framework that enhances the understanding of the central role of knowledge in the way born globals capture and create opportunities across national boundaries.
