Transformations  in
Business & Economics

THE POLISH BORN GLOBAL FIRMS: FOUNDING PROCESSES AND MOTIVES OF EARLY INTERNATIONALISATION
Lidia Danik, Elzbieta Duliniec, Izabela Kowalik

ABSTRACT. The studies on early internationalisation of SME's have been conducted much less frequently in the CEE countries than in the rest of the world. To fill this gap our study aims at analysing the founding processes and motives of undertaking international activity by the Polish born global companies. The data was collected via semi-structured individual interviews in 10 Polish SME's and content analysis method was applied to examine their results. We have concluded that the triggers of founding the Polish born global firms include: the founder's personal traits, experience and background, international experience and relationships. The sensemaking and networking activities have a similar role in the studied Polish companies as in the foreign born global enterprises. With regard to the internationalisation motives the internal, proactive motivation for developing international operations is more important for the Polish entrepreneurs than the external, pull factors .

KEYWORDS: international entrepreneurship, born-global firms, Polish SMEs, founding processes, content analysis.

JEL classification: F23, L26, M16.