The ability to think in new ways, and to transform ideas into something useful for the society, is central to sustainable growth. Therefore, VINNOVA and ESBRI started Nytt&Nyttigt – a thesis competition on the theme of innovation, commercialization and utilization. Read a blog post by this year's winners of Nytt&Nyttigt - A thesis competition on innovation.
In the past two decades, technology has changed the landscape of the international market, forcing firms to chose different ways of internationalization in comparison to the traditional model. Small firms with limited resources that experience rapid internationalization have been known as Born Globals. Even though there is a vast amount of initiatives helping these firms, it is not clear whether these are in line with what they need.
Therefore, we wanted to extend the understanding of Born Globals’ relationship with governmental initiatives and venture capitalists. Qualitative interview was conducted with eight potential Born Globals, which lead to the findings of three major resources that institutions could provide, being networks, capital and knowledge, in order to facilitate the internationalization process for startups. Both venture capitalists and governmental initiatives are seen to help according to the participants, but the latter is dominant.
We finished our Bachelor thesis in June 2014 and graduated from the School of Business in Gothenburg. At the same time, we decided to hand in our thesis to the competition Nytt&Nyttigt. It came as a surprise for both of us when we in November received an e-mail from Esbri saying that we had been chosen among three other finalists and was invited to Vinnova’s annual conference in December to receive a price. We were told that the winners were to be announced on the day and we were very excited, but also nervous, as we traveled to Stockholm.
It was an honor to be chosen among 78 participants as the winner of this year’s Nytt&Nyttigt thesis competition and I do not think we have realized it yet. It is a real privilege and we truly look forward to use the money for further research within the subject innovation and Born Globals.
// Paulina Olsson & Jacob Sundquist
