How to measure born-global firms’ orientation towards international markets?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of orientation towards international markets (OIM) for born global firms (BG) and present a measurement scale of OIM specifically designed for these firms. We propose a scale of OIM based on the literature review and a qualitative study. This proposal is then tested by means of a quantitative research design. The final scale not only considers three constructs of the market orientation concept: customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination; but also incorporates another construct related to the innovation capability of the firm (innovativeness and technological capability). This proposed measurement scale shows invariance across younger and older BG firms and, therefore, constitutes a useful measurement tool to be considered by future research analyzing the impact of OIM of BG firms on their performance.