European J. International Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2009
Does entrepreneurs’ human and relational capital affect early internationalisation? A cross-regional comparison Juan S. Federico Institute of Industry, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Argentina; Department of Business Economics, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici B. 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Email:
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Hugo D. Kantis Institute of Industry, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Argentina; J.M. Gutierrez 1150 (1613), Los Polvorines Buenos Aires, Argentina Email:
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Alex Rialp and Josep Rialp* Department of Business Economics, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici B. 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Email:
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[email protected] *Corresponding author Abstract: Using data of young firms from Latin America and Mediterranean Europe, we analyse the influence of human and relational capital on the likelihood of creating an early internationalising firm (EIF). Our results indicate that in the context of Latin American countries entrepreneurs’ characteristics as well as their networks of relationships may influence decisively the likelihood of creating an EIF. Particularly, our findings indicate that young as well as senior, well-educated entrepreneurs who built entrepreneurial teams and, at the same time, had access to larger and more professional networks constitutes the typical profile of an EIF founder in Latin America. In contrast, the results for the Mediterranean Europe sample reveal that human and relational capital variables are less relevant. The results of this paper would contribute to the empirical literature analysing evidence from
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Young firms were defined as those between 3 and 10 years of age. However, in some countries we were forced to extend this general criterion and include some older firms (but not older than 15 years of age). Nevertheless, 94% of the sample was between 3 and 10 years old. Unfortunately, we do not have information about the foreign markets to which firms were exporting, and are consequently not able to include this dimension in our operational definition. Pearson chi-square statistic between the size of the network and the simultaneous presence of both commercial and institutional ties is 53.12 (Latin America) and 9.32 (Europe). Both values are statistically significant at p
