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Born global or born regional? Evidence from an exploratory study in the Costa Rican software industry

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Abstract

This paper provides empirical evidence about born-global firms in the software industry of a small developing country with an open economy: Costa Rica. The paper is based on data collected through interviews with CEOs or founders of 40 Costa Rican software companies. Findings show that there are few born-global firms among Costa Rican software providers. We find that most companies followed a gradual approach to internationalization, and they did not export immediately upon birth. A careful analysis of firms that exported soon after they were born reveals that most firms are actually “born regional.”

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Acknowledgements

We thank JIBS Departmental editor Alain Verbeke and the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank Florida International University for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INCAE, Graduate School of Business, Alajuela, Costa Rica

    Luis E Lopez & Luciano Ciravegna

  2. College of Business Administration, Florida International University, Miami, USA

    Sumit K Kundu

  3. London School of Economics, London, UK

    Luciano Ciravegna

Authors
  1. Luis E Lopez
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  2. Sumit K Kundu
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  3. Luciano Ciravegna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sumit K Kundu.

Additional information

Accepted by Alain Verbeke, Area Editor, 13 December 2007. This paper has been with the authors for one revision.

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Lopez, L., Kundu, S. & Ciravegna, L. Born global or born regional? Evidence from an exploratory study in the Costa Rican software industry. J Int Bus Stud 40, 1228–1238 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2008.69

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2008.69

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