Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Internationalization and Globalization of Successful U.S. High-Tech Start-Ups

20 Pages Posted: 26 Apr 2011

See all articles by David M. Hart

David M. Hart

Schar School of Policy and Government; Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Date Written: April, 26 2011

Abstract

Immigrant entrepreneurs play an important role in the U.S. high-tech sector and may advance the country’s collaborative advantage through internationalization and globalization of start-ups. This study explores whether immigrant founding of U.S. high-tech firms, conditional on survival and sustained growth, contributes to their pursuing internationalized or globalized strategies. The strategies are defined with regard to their acquisition and deployment of financial, human, and social capital across a single border (for international strategies) or multiple borders spanning geographically-dispersed and culturally-diverse countries (for globalized strategies). A set of twelve matched-firm case studies across four high-tech sectors form the main data source along with a survey sample of approximately 1300 successful high-tech firms. We find that native-founded firms in our case study group were as likely as immigrant-founded firms to pursue internationalized strategies, but the immigrant-founded firms appeared more likely to adopt such strategies earlier in their history and were more likely to set up substantial operations outside the U.S., rather than partnerships or marketing arrangements.

Suggested Citation

Hart, David M., Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Internationalization and Globalization of Successful U.S. High-Tech Start-Ups (April, 26 2011). GMU School of Public Policy Research Paper No. 2011-15, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1823263 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1823263

David M. Hart (Contact Author)

Schar School of Policy and Government ( email )

Founders Hall, Fifth Floor
3351 Fairfax Drive, MS 3B1
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation ( email )

701 K St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC District of Columbia 20001
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
152
Abstract Views
1,971
Rank
349,069
PlumX Metrics