Why do some firms, called born globals (BGs), quickly expand their foreign sales? International entrepreneurship (IE) scholars believe it is because they are high-tech and founded by internationally oriented entrepreneurs leveraging their foreign networks. An emerging alternative view is that this is because they use a global niche business model. Using fuzzy-set Quantitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to allow for the simultaneous presence of multiple explanations, we investigate what accounts for differences in internationalization speed within a sample of Italian startups. We find two configurations of antecedents: In one, BGs are high-tech startups with a global niche business model. In the other, they are low-tech, do not have a niche business model, and seem to have internationalized serendipitously. The international experience of founders is not present in either configuration. Our study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to use a configurational approach (fsQCA) to simultaneously test competing explanations for BGs and to show there are multiple ways to reach BG status. Its findings suggest that BG researchers should broaden their focus to more explicitly consider the impact of the business model and of serendipity on fast international growth.
