Permanence Abroad and Strategic Renewal of a Digital Born Global from an Emerging Market: a Case Study

Abstract

Studies on born globals from emerging countries are relatively unexplored, especially addressing the growth path of digital born globals. The literature also lacks an analysis of the strategic renewal of firms and their path for the development of new capabilities to remain in foreign markets (permanence). Thus, the objective of this article is to investigate the influence of strategic renewal on the permanence abroad of a digital born global from an emerging market. The study was based on a single case study of a born global from an emerging country, Brazil.  Our main findings suggest that the firm underwent strategic changes, both in relation to its permanence in the market and to its decision to follow a path without external investments to later accepting selling the firm to a North-American multinational. Its trajectory points to a path of how to aggregate knowledge, connecting the concept of strategic renewal to that of born globals from emerging markets. Using unstructured interviews with the founders of the firm and secondary data, it was possible to provide evidences on the role of entrepreneurs and networks, the strategic renewal, driven by the dynamic exploration and exploitation capabilities, and how such factors influence the internationalization and the permanence of firms in the foreign market.