Why and how do Born Global firms internationalize early and rapidly? From the Business Model perspective By Vinciane Servantie1

This paper examines the Business Model (BM) of six French Born Globals and explains why and how they had an early and rapid internationalization. Our analysis of the BM together with its fine-tuning renders new understandings of the Born Global phenomenon. The results of this investigation are illustrated by a process-based model of early and rapid internationalization that is derived from five propositions. By using this innovative tool that is the BM, the research aims to make a theoretical contribution to the field of International Entrepreneurship and a practical contribution for project leaders of future Born Globals.

Introduction The number of businesses oriented towards the global market from or near inception has grown significantly since the nineties. This emerging phenomenon has become an object of research, most often referred to as Born Global (Rennie, 1993 ; Knight and Cavusgil, 1996), but also as International New Ventures (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994), Global Start-Up (Ibid.) or Early Internationalizing Firms (Rialp et al., 2005). In line with other scholars (e.g., Oviatt and McDougall, 1994; Andersson and Wictor, 2003; Knight and Cavusgil, 2004; Evangelista, 2005), we define Born Globals as organizations which from start-up, demonstrate a capacity to develop and co-ordinate foreign commitments, such as gathering resources or managing sales efforts.

Vinciane Servantie is a Professor at the School of Management, University of Los Andes (UASM) – Bogota (Colombia), and associate member of the IRGO investigation team in Entrepreneurship at University Montesquieu – Bordeaux 4 (France). Address correspondence to: Vinciane Servantie, Facultad de Administración (Edificio SD), Universidad de Los Andes, Calle 21 No.1-20, Bogota, Colombia, tel. +(571)3394949 / ext. 1174. E-mail: [email protected].

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This research is part of and feeds into the relatively new field of study, that is International Entrepreneurship (IE) (Oviatt and McDougall, 2005). This is where the domains of entrepreneurship and International Business (IB) intersect, and many studies have highlighted the exceptional aspect of the process of early and rapid internationalization as compared to the gradual stages of SME internationalization described by the UPPSALA Model (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977) or the Innovation Model (Bilkey and Tesar, 1977). To understand the why and how of this new internationalization process, new theoretical perspectives have been mobilized: social networks (Madsen and Servais, 1997; Andersson and Wictor, 2003; Sharma and Blomstermo, 2003 ; Arenius, 2005 ; Coviello, 2006), the Knowledge-Based View (Nordman and Melén, 2007 ; Gassmann and Keupp, 2007), the Resource-Based View (Whestead et al., 2001 ; Coviello and Cox, 2006), the Dynamic Capacities Perspective (Weerawerdana et al., 2007). These perspectives are excellent tools for shedding light on certain aspects of the organizations' development but they do not explain everything. They enable a holistic approach to the phenomenon of early and rapid internationalization only when combined (Loane and Bell, 2006 ; Gassmann and Keupp, 2007). Hence, the interest in and the search for a mechanism that enables the integration of these perspectives so as to understand how to shape an organization that is international from the outset and sustainable. The Business Model (BM) tool was created to explain how businesses work. Born in the Internet era, the BM has predominantly been the subject of research in the field of entrepreneurship. As outlined by Jouison (2008), the BM renders intelligible and coherent the resources mobilized, the value brought to market and the partaking network of value. Hence an interpretation of Born Global through the BM enables an understanding of the value created for the market, how the different stakeholders (who are for the most part international) are engaged and what their participation consists of, which key resources they

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must bring to the table, and how these pertain to the business lay-out. As a consequence, by analyzing the process of fine-tuning the BM, it is possible to understand why and how the business embarked on its process of early and rapid internationalization, and which elements give it a competitive advantage on an international level. The use of the BM to understand the hows and whys of early and rapid internationalization has both a theoretical and a practical interest. First, it reinforces the BM (sometimes criticized, Porter, 2001) as a tool that grasps and analyzes particular entrepreneurial phenomena by highlighting their specificities. Second, if the BM is successful in highlighting the singularities of a given business, it can then also help and support the development of a similar project. In making this contribution, we relied upon six detailed case studies of Born Globals operating in five different industries in France. This analysis is guided by the following research questions: 1. Why internationalize early and rapidly? 2. How does early and rapid internationalization begin? 3. How should a business organize itself to manage internationalization?

early

and rapid

To answer these questions, this paper is organized in the following way: firstly, a presentation of the synthesis of characteristics common to Born Globals; secondly we develop the BM concept (section two). The research method is described (section three), then we present and analyze the empirical data obtained from on the ground interviews. The results are then used to construct a dynamic model of the development of the Business Model of firms that internationalize in an early and rapid way (section four). Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings on the development of the theory, and on managers, as well as the limitations of our approach and future research avenues (section five).

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Literature review IE research into Born Globals has revealed common environmental conditions and common characteristics. Following this, we present the concept of BM: its utility, its definitions and its component parts. The common environmental conditions of Born Globals A growing number of niche markets (Oviatt and McDougall, 1995 ; Bell, 1995), the acceleration of product life cycles, the anticipation of competition, the influence of partners in an internationalized network (Oviatt and McDougall, 1995), international opportunities and local market conditions all facilitate early and rapid internationalization. Businesses that operate within small local market tend to expand into international markets (McNaughton, 2003) and a wide variety of business sectors (Andersson and Wictor, 2003). Conversely, Born Globals that originate in large local markets tend to be in sectors that are already highly internationalized, e.g. hi-tech (Ibid.). The common characteristics of Born Globals Authors who have sought to understand why some businesses experience an early and rapid process of internationalization, have identified several characteristics common to these organizations: an entrepreneur with extensive experience, for example within an industry or internationaly (Madsen and Servais, 1997), who is generally a university graduate (Andersson and Wictor, 2003); a culture oriented towards the international (Oviatt and McDougall, 1995); a hybrid structure that relies on networking (McDougall et al., 1994); a unique knowledge (Oviatt and McDougall, 1995); and, human resources that bring specific industry know-how to this knowledge (Madsen and Servais, 1997). To summarize, becoming a Born Global is

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clearly a strategic choice (McDougall and Oviatt, 1996) that takes into account the value proposition and environmental conditions. What is the BM? The concept of the BM is used with increasing frequency (Morris et al., 2005; Lecocq et al., 2006; Jouison, 2008). Paradoxically, the concept is not mentioned in the economic literature (Teece, 2009) and its mention in literature on Management Science is still limited (Demil and Lecocq, 2008 ; Teece, 2009). The term is most used in entrepreneurship but it need not be reduced to this single field. (Lecocq et al., 2006). The utility of the BM. The BM is a tool: for conceptualizing a business (Morris et al., 2005); for reflection - used correctly, it guides the manager to think deep and hard about his or her business (Magretta, 2002). It facilitates the analysis, testing and validation of strategic choices (Shafer et al., 2005); for planning - it defines how the elements of a system can work as a whole (Magretta, 2002); for strategic alignment - it enables the business to align its people and activities to its value proposition (Morris et al., 2005); for communication (Shafer et al., 2005); for innovation (Teece, 2009). Definition of the BM. In the literature, ―there are almost as many definitions of the BM as there are texts that cite it‖ (Jouison, 2008, p.14). We shall retain this one: ―the BM is a convention that relates to the generation of value, the remuneration of this value and the sharing of the success of the firm‖ (Verstraete and Jouison-Laffitte, 2011, p.118). The authors explain that it is a convention because the success of a business rests on a collective agreement between all partners to accept the BM that the entrepreneur proposes. This convention is strongly linked to the concept of value because these partners want something in return for what they have brought to the endeavour, and the more that the project offers

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them, the stronger their desire to join it becomes. In other words, the value introduced by the project is relative to the market to which it is delivered and also to each of the partners with whom a relationship of exchange is established (Ibid.). Component parts of the BM. Faced with the ―identity crisis‖ (Shafer et al. 2005) of the BM, due to its multiplicity of definitions, some authors sought to isolate and describe each component in order to establish the boundaries of the concept (Morris et al., 2005; Shafer et al., 2005; Lecocq et al., 2006; Chesbrough, 2009). Drawing on these works, Verstraete and Jouison (2011) propose a theorization of the BM. They retain eight attributes of the BM which they categorize into three components: the generation, the remuneration and the sharing of value (see GRS Model in annex 1). According to Verstraete and Jouison-Laffitte (2009), the value generated by the business depends on three factors: the relevance of the the value proposition made to the market, which takes the form of a promise, the capacity of the project leader(s) to keep this promise (it is clear that if he does not communicate the value proposition with credibility, then no one will enter into the business) and the manufacturing of this value (which is this time directly linked to organizational activities). The second important question to which the BM must provide an answer to is: how is the generated value remunerated? Verstraete and Jouison-Laffitte (2009) consider that income is everything that concerns the remuneration of the generic offer. When it comes to revenues, the BM has three dimensions: the sources of revenues by which the money comes in, their volume (turnover) and the potential profit (Ibid.). Finally, the BM describes how these relationships interact within the value network, and who are the participants committed into the value proposition (Lecoq et al., 2006). A win-win

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relationship with these participants implies a sharing of the results of their agreed efforts. This network of partners is crucial as much to establish the BM as for its long-term success.

Methods Our research objective is to understand a specific entrepreneurial process, that of early and rapid internationalization. In consequence, we have naturally favored a qualitative approach, which – as Eisenhardt (1989) highlights, is appropriate for understanding phenomena. In particular, the method adopted is the case study because it enables the understanding of chronological events, their causation, and indentifies how a particular configuration takes form with the passage of time in a given context (Wacheux, 1996). Our field research was guided by the action plan proposed by Eisenhardt (1989): (1) The definition of the variables to study are provided by the GRS Model (see annex 1); (2) six cases of Born Globals were chosen for this research. The business sectors were varied as much as possible so as to enrich any discovery of patterns: ‒ ‒

‒ ‒ ‒

Medical device: Case A is a business that operates as a research and development platform for the spinal column industry. Biotechnology: Case B is a business originating in biotechnology which presents itself as a large-scale manufacturer of Ribonucleic Acids (RNA) and Case C is a business that offers pharmaceutical research laboratories a screening service for cellular activity. Cosmetics: Case D is a specialist in smoothing, thermo capillary treatments. TechnoWeb: Case E has constructed a search engine specializing in offers of employment. Electronics: Case F has developed a multitouch tactile screen, a technology now sold to the giants of the electronics industry.

All the businesses showed indicators of advanced internationalization from the moment of their commercial launch, or soon after (see in Annex 2, the comparative summary of the case studies). (3) The development of instruments and protocols: the multiangulation of the data was respected through a multiplicity of collecting methods (several interviews with the project 7

leader and at least one stakeholder; business plan and corporate website analysis; press coverage; general observations ...); (4) The gathering of on the ground data was done through interaction with the interviewee by the life history method (Bertaux, 1997) during the first meeting, so as to reconstruct the business' history to understand the creation process and the businesses' internationalization. These interviews were recorded in entirety and transcribed. Then, during later interviews, discussions were steered towards diagrams, charts and questionnaires designed to compile the necessary information to grasp the fine-tuning of the BM. (5) Intra-case data analysis: the BM of the case were compared for each component of the GRS Model, and respecting the principle of contextualization; (6) Drawing up propositions: based on the results of the intra-case consistencies; (7) Comparison with the literature to determine which results are confirmed, which are in contradiction and which are new; (8) Empirical and theoretical saturation enables the discussion of the contextualized generalization of results.

Results The results present an answer to the why and how of the launch and development of early and rapid internationalization, corresponding to the questions posed in the introduction. The results are summarized in a dynamic model that shows the development of the BM of Born Globals.

Why embark on an early and rapid process of internationalization The first question was : why internationalize early and rapidly? Our consideration of the process of internationalization took into account both the dissemination of the value proposition and the gathering of resources.

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Concerning the reasons for internationalization through the dissemination of the value proposition, Oviatt and McDougall (1995) observe that whenever the segment to which a business is oriented is targeted and small, particularly at a local scale, then the business must attack several markets at once to grow. Amongst others, Bell (1995) explains that this effort naturally concentrates on markets where the niche segment is growing, not necessarily the psychically (Johanson et Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) closest, but still the most attractive in terms of potential. The conclusion of our study is that the Born Globals disseminate their offer on an international scale because the nature of their market makes this necessary. In fact, both scenarios identified in the case studies illustrate this point: either, the niche market towards which the businesses are oriented consists of relatively few clients geographically concentrated in certain zones of the planet (Cases A, B, C and F) and the Born Globals have to go and meet their clients wherever they find them; or, the niche market forms part of a highly competitive international industry (e.g. cosmetics, Internet) and the businesses must disseminate their offer within the niche as quickly as possible so as to win market share and positioning before the competition launches a substitute product. From this, we deduce the following proposition: Proposition 1: The decision to internationalize early and rapidly is imposed by the nature of the target market.

Concerning internationalization through the gathering of resources, Born Globals are, by their nature, oriented in a niche strategy (in the sense of Porter, 1980), for which the goal is to respond optimally to client needs within that niche. In consequence, one of the key factors for success is to live up to the value proposition and the promise of quality. Because of this, Born Global entrepreneurs have high expectations regarding the services provided by their

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suppliers and sub-contractors and their participation in the creation of value. They embark on a rigorous selection of resources and stakeholders, and do not hesitate in seeking them on an internationally if the offers available locally are not adequate (all the case studies indicate this). Hence the following proposition: Proposition 2: The decision to internationalize early and rapidly is intimately linked to the choice of stakeholders participating in the manufacture of value.

How: the early and rapid impulsion to go international The second question asked was: How does early and rapid internationalization begin? Through their experience both within the industry and in the global arena (Madsen and Servais, 1997), Born Global leaders have accumulated in-depth knowledge of current conventions and have developed personal networks that are often internationalized. Seen from the networks perspective, these relationships act as a bridge to access the necessary resources to develop their activity and open up market opportunities. The results show that the network known as ―natural‖ (Lecocq, 2003) is the first to be mobilized. In situations where resources become unavailable, inaccessible or unsatisfactory via this ―natural‖ network, the Born Global entrepreneur will seek partners further afield, generally via the Internet. The Internet is also an efficient way of reaching clients. Participation in conferences and trade shows is another way of accessing clients, resources and stakeholders, and developing one's reputation. We deduce from this the following proposition: Proposition 3: Early and rapid internationalization is impelled by the network: in the first place, the natural network, then, in the second instance, a strategic network developed via the Internet and participation in trade shows. 10

The knowledge of conventions acquired by the project leaders during their years of experience provides them with tools for finding innovative solutions that assimilate easily into current conventions in their business sector and, in so doing, enable them to progress more quickly in the process of creation and internationalization, and to convince the potential stake holders to sign up (Cases B, C, D, E). Conversely, F took its time in developing its product and fine-tuning its Business Model because the project leaders had everything to learn. Their lack of knowledge perhaps cost them time during apprenticeship, but it enabled them to do things differently and to innovate. Proposition 4: The experience of project leaders within their industry and in the international arena provides Born Global organizations with a network and a knowledge of existing conventions that speeds up the identification and engagement of potential stakeholders.

How: the co-ordination of early and rapid internationalization The third question asked was: How should a business organize itself to manage an early and rapid internationalization? One of the BM's component parts, the manufacture of value (GRS Model), contains all the information needed to explain and describe how a business manufactures and delivers value (Verstraete and Jouison-Laffitte, 2011). The investigation into the manufacture of value facilitates an understanding of how Born Globals organize themselves and are able to disseminate their value proposition efficiently in the international market to which they are oriented.

The comparative analysis of the six cases confirmed that we are dealing with micro and small structures (between 3 and 35 employees; turnover between 160k€ and 1300k€) that work with limited resources. In fact, only B and C, two businesses created to commercialize a

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patent, have invested in a technological platform. The others sub-contract or work in strategic alliance on production (A, D and F) but also R&D (B and D). Case A presents an interesting experience. Initially, the business contracted out the numerous product tests required by the FDA to register its products in the United States, to laboratories based in Germany, England and France. However, the comings and goings between the different laboratories generated inefficiencies and the project leader sought a solution to bring this activity in-house. This is why he decided to relaunch an association of bio-materials and implants to build a technical platform to service all the professionals in the region, enabling them to save time and improve quality. As a result, Born Globals must make a critical strategic choice as to which activities they will perfom in house and which they will outsource considering quality and efficiency. The solutions they discover can lead to organizational innovations. As an example, case D delegates all its R&D activity to a laboratory in the Chemistry faculty at Bordeaux University. Case A is another example of organizational innovation. This organization demonstrates strong market orientation notwithstanding its limited ability to travel and keep in contact with its market, it relies on its networks to provide the information it requires: “Since we did not have the economic means to sustain a traditional sales force, we were not able to attain the information we needed from the market; so, we had to organize the Medical Insight Board, which is a network of surgeons with whom we can contact freely about anything, simply to know what is going on.” (M. Nigey, Cas A).

The internal organization of Born Globals divides principally into two spheres of knowledge: R&D and technological development, where human resources are chosen for their technical profile; and, Business Development where experts in the industry sector with valuable international experience are grafted into the organization. Through the case studies,

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we understand business development as a strategic activity for seeking development opportunities at an international level. Technology is a key tool for Born Globals to efficiently co-ordinate networking with suppliers, contractors and all the members of the international network, with scarce resources. It is simultaneously a channel for procurement, communication, sales and customer support. The institutional network is also fully exploited to get the financial resources required to set-up an innovative business. Proposition 5: The Born Global organization sub-contracts all the activities it can and co-ordinates in-house all activities related to its know-how, business development strategy and innovation (R&D). This is possible thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), human resources and a value network that are each rigorously selected.

Factors encouraging successful early and rapid internationalization Three principal factors necessary for the success of a business' early and rapid internationalization emerge from the intra-case analysis: (1) A motivated entrepreneurial team with a solid profile in the industry sector, on an international scale and in management, giving it unique knowledge and the ability to identify an opportunity and develop a value proposition with global vision; (2) The initial participation of the project leader's personal network in the process of internationalization has an impact on the commitment of other stakeholders and on the speed of international development; (3) Creativity and the capacity to search for optimal solutions by combining resources that maximize the creation of value. We can integrate our results into the process-based model that we present in the next section.

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Conclusions, Implications and indications for future research Proposition for an integrative model The Business Model is an interpretational tool that is relevant for understanding the why and the how of entrepreneurial phenomena. We have seen this particularly in the context of international entrepreneurship with regard to Born Globals. In fact, the decision to internationalize early and rapidly is an integral part of the creation process of these businesses. Hence, by studying the history of the development of the BM, we can understand why the business opportunity was exploited on an international scale and how, through the manufacture of value, the firm organizes itself to disseminate the value proposition to its clients. The process of early and rapid internationalization begins with the project leaders who, through their solid industry and international experience, have unique knowledge that enables them to identify unsatisfied needs, and unique know-how that enables them to bring an innovative solution to market. Motivated by a desire to develop the market, this is how the business idea is born. The project manager’s global vision of the market, in which his firm will operate, makes him identify a truly international business opportunity. In the absence of a global vision, no attractive market for the idea would be identified and the idea would be rejected. The opportunity is deemed international by nature because the market, generally niche, is characterized either, by a low number of clients concentrated in specific geographical zones of the world; or, the clients are numerous but in a highly competitive global markets and the firm must take action fast to disseminate its innovation and win market share before a competitor arrives. Hence, the value proposition must at all costs take into account the nature

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of the target market, and internationalization is required from the start. To succeed, particular management abilities of a technical kind, including language skills, are required. Lacking these, and if their acquisition presents a daunting barrier to creating the organization, then the creator may be tempted to abandon the project. Alternatively, he can learn these skills or, he can graft people to the organization who already possess them. This is how the decision to create a Born Global will see the light of day (figure 1). Project Leader(s):

Experience at the heart of the industry and internationaly, motivations, solid technical habilities and management skills of needs Unique Know-how

Unique Knowledge Without a global vision, no identification of a market for this idea

Idea

P1

Market identified thanks to a global vision

Niche Market

Nature

Opportunity

Insufficient habilities

Organise a Born Global Technology /Internet

P5

R&D Alliances • Sub-contracting • Networking • Key resources • Financing

Born Global

P4

Selection and exercise of conviction

Owners of resources 1. 2. 3.

Dissemination of the offer P3 Via: 1. Personal network 2. Internet 3. Participation in trade-shows 4. Distributor

Seek another solution via a combination of other resources

Stakeholders Knowledge of conventions

Remuneration and information

« Hybrid Structure » Few tangible resources Focus on core services/know-how (R&D and BD)

Take part in the maufacture of value and provide the desired value

Few clients concentrated in certain geographic zones in the world • Many clients in a highly competitive global market •

P2

Seek solution via a physically wider network

Personal network Internet Identification Participation in trade shows

Figure 1 – A process-based model of early and rapid internationalization (Adapted from the BM interpretation grid of Verstraete and Saporta, 2006, p.376)

Reading the diagram from the bottom up, the project leader(s) will proceed to identify which resources are necessary for their project, and who holds them. Given the international nature of the business opportunity, the criteria for selecting stakeholders are extremely strict. The project leader(s) industry experience grants him (them) a knowledge of current conventions and facilitates the exercise of conviction that will make stakeholders sign up. 15

The process of identifying and selecting stakeholders is done gradually via a network psychically more distant. Project leaders generally start by calling upon their personal network. But, in situations where the potential solutions identified through this channel do not live up to expectations, the Born Global entrepreneur will gradually begin seeking optimal solutions in wider networks, which might extend internationally. A network known as ―political‖ will be built to mobilize resources principally via the Internet or by participation in international trade-shows. Finding the solution has no boundaries, the best outcome in terms of quality/efficiency/price will prevail, no matter its geographical origin. A high proportion of value is created through the participation of the stakeholders. In fact, the fieldwork confirms that Born Globals rely on a « hybrid structure » (McDougall et al., 1994), with few tangible resources. A rigorously selected value network enables them to increase their response capacity and ensure the quality of their service provision. They maintain strategic core services in-house and concentrate their efforts on organizational development (R&D and market). As part of a game of alliances and partnerships, Born Global stakeholders participate in R&D, provide production capacity, financing capacity, key resources and extend the network. The construction and co-ordination of links with members of the network is facilitated by the knowledge of conventions, technology and the Internet. Whenever an activity does not produce the desired value, the Born Global entrepreneur seeks other solutions by combining other resources. This requires the identification of other potential stakeholders and creativity. The conceptual model enables an explanation and understanding of how and why Born Globals internationalize in an early and rapid way. In addition to the confirmation of

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numerous results encountered in the literature, through an interpretation of Born Globals using the BM, we provide new elements in order to understand how the process occurs. Implications The BM is shown to be a very useful and accessible tool for collecting, codifying, reestablishing and analyzing ground research for the observation of particular entrepreneurial phenomena such as Born Globals. The BM enables better planning for the development of a project and brings with it a higher chance of success. The clear proof of singularities in Born Globals’ BMs helps entrepreneurs work on these elements and, in particular, on key success factors; for example, in not hesitating to bring on board a person with experience lacked by the entrepreneurial team. The process-based model we propose enables us to highlight the big decisions faced by Born Global entrepreneurs during the processes of creation and internationalization. This model should steer the thinking of future creators, and guide them in the choices awaiting them. Furthermore, this model is becoming a rich pedagogical tool in the context of training for international entrepreneurship, whereby a teacher can make students appreciate the knowledge they must acquire of conventions operating within the industry to succeed in early and rapid internationalization. If the learner does not have the solid industry and international experience described by the model, then they must develop this knowledge through their education. This aspect should not be neglected under any circumstances; it is a key success factor. This applies equally to networking skills. It is important to develop the students’ capacity for networking to maximize their project's chances of success in international entrepreneurship. 17

Finally, purely qualitative research is still rare in entrepreneurship. This research contributes to the development of this analytical approach. Indications for future research The BM is recent and still seeks recognition in literature. It is absent from the economic literature and still controversial in literature on strategy. Its theorization is recent in the domain of entrepreneurship. Several publications exist to support the validity of the GRS Model; a publication in a top level international journal would give it greater legitimacy. With regard to limitations in our approach, at least one more internal stakeholder should have been interviewed in four of the six cases. In these cases, the respondents were either against it or were unavailable. The project leaders of these businesses in full growth have limited time available and they share tasks between themselves. It would likewise have been appropriate to meet more external stakeholders particularly with regard to the sharing of value. In addition, the field under observation is small, the context is very specific to the region of and around Bordeaux. This reduces the ability to generalize the results. It would be appropriate to verify the validity of the propositions presented here in other regions, other countries, other continents. An initial follow-up would be to replicate this study in other countries and other continents, particularly to compare the results obtained here with other geographical and political contexts. A second research avenue would be to study cases of failure so as to deepen conclusions regarding the conditions for success and failure of these businesses, and to improve the ability of the model to predict this. A third possible avenue is to use the same tool to analyze other entrepreneurial phenomena. 18

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SHARING

REMUNERATION

GENERATION

Annexe 1. BM based on the GRS model (from Verstraete and Jouison-Laffitte, 2011) Entrepreneur (Who proposes the offer?) Experience Motivations Entourage Value proposition (What is the promise? The Customer value?) What (idea : source, development, protection) For whom (general environment, market, target) Ambition (geographic coverage, growth plan, scope of the offer) Position (broad competitive analysis, strategy) Value manufacture (How will he or she do it?) Identification of resources (tangible and intangible) Exploiting the resources (value chain, value network) Structure and management systems (partitioning of tasks, costs, control,…) Sources of revenues (How does the money come in?) Revenue streams The people who pay Volume of revenue (How much money comes in?) Turnover Market share (today and/or tomorrow) Profits (What does the company earn?) Financial performance (margin, break-even point, ..) Non-financial performance (nature, …) Exchanges with the network (How can exchanges with the identified stakeholders be optimized?) Identification of the potential stakeholders Natural exchanges and exceptional exchanges Conviction and negotiation (How to communicate so as to convince and negotiate better exchanges?) Oral training Writing

22

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Annex 2 – A comparative summary of the case studies Business Industry sector Offer

Date of business creation Date of commercial launch Date of first export activity Sales volume (2009) % international turnover (2009) Year break-even point reached Target markets

No. of Employees (2009) Professional training project leader

of

Years of experience in the industry Years of experience at an international level before business creation Previous business creations Level of languages before business creation

A Medical devices R&D of innovative products for industrial producers of medical devices November 2005 August 2007 December 2007 1000 k€ 96%

B Bio Technology Industrial production of RNA

C Bio Technology Screening service for cellular activity

D Cosmetics Capillary smoothing treatment

E Internet Search engine specializing in employment offers

F Electronics Multitouch technology

September 2004 2006 2006 600k€ 30%

November 2003 December 2004 December 2004 2000k€ 20 - 30%

August 2008 August 2008 January 2009 undisclosed 38%

August 2007 October 2007 January 2009 160k€ 12,50%

October 2002 July 2005 July 2005 1300k€ 100%

2007 USA, Kingdom, Germany, Turkey

UnitedDenmark, France,

2009 France, Canada, Finland, Germany, USA, Australia

2007 France, USA, UnitedKingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland

undisclosed France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, USA

2009 France, Belgium, United-Kingdom, Spain, USA, Australia

9 Surgeon/ Management

11 Biology/ Management

17 Biochemistry/ Management

5 I.T.

3 Management / I.T. /

15

0/10

3/20

1

3

Not reached Germany, UnitedKingdom, Denmark, Sweden, USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan 35 Physics/ Sound Engineer / Music/ Electronics 0

15

1

0

20

0,5

0

0 Bilingual English

0 Bilingual English

0 Very good English

1 Bilingual Portuguese, English

0 Very good English / Spanish

0 poor English

23

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