The Co-Evolution of Internationalization and Technology Development in SMEs

High-technology firms and their internationalization process have been a controversial topic in IB and entrepreneurship fields. Studies indicate that the internationalization process and technology development process are closely intertwined and have an influence on each other. In other words, it is not possible to fully understand a company's international growth without considering how its technology developed. In a similar vein, understanding a firm's technological development requires considering its international activities (Filipescu et al., 2009). Existing research that traced high tech spun-out firms challenges the assumption that technology-based firms must have a ready-to-exploit technology to enter global markets.The authors emphasize taking a socio-technical view of technology in these types of firms which means instead of assuming technology that is ready to use and exploited, viewing the technological form as constructed that takes shape through social processes (Kriz & Welch, 2018). The purpose of this dissertation is hence to contribute to knowledge on the internationalization patterns of high tech firms by highlight the uneven and discontinuous nature of their internationalization. Moreover, despite the increasing number of high-tech firms with technology at the highest degree of novelty, the understanding of to what extent the process of developing a new technology affects a firm internationalization seems to be both unclear and inadequate. To comprehensively understand the relationships between technological advancement and the internationalization process, I focus on multiple academic high-tech startups, which are the results of a research program (R2B) at Aalto University. Focusing on qualitative research methodology and process approaches to studying the internationalization process of firms will allow me to attain a holistic picture of the research topic.