TITLE:
Are Networks a Gateway to European Funding? Considerations from a Systematic Literature Review
AUTHORS:
Barbara Kulaga, Silvio Cardinali
KEYWORDS:
European Funding, Network, International New Ventures, Systematic Literature Review
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.1,
January
18,
2022
ABSTRACT: Internationalization is generally an intense and dynamic phenomenon that
requires huge resources to be triggered and this is all the more evident for
International New Ventures (INVs) because of the so-called liability of newness
and liability of foreignness. In fact, previous studies show that INVs, as they
appear to have a limited availability of resources such as human and financial
capital, are more disadvantaged in the internationalization process. A
systematic literature review of twenty-five articles, classified into four
categories, was carried out to reveal the main mechanism by which INVs try to
deal with the lack of resources through relational networks. This study seeks
on the one hand to contribute to the literature on network theory in
internationalization, focusing on one of the possible categorizations of
networks—social and business networks—by interpreting and investigating the
two-phase internationalization process (exploration and exploitation), from the
point of view of the International New Ventures entrepreneurs; on the other
hand, it allows to make the preliminary considerations of a broader project
aimed at understanding if and how networks can be used in the
internationalization process of INVs to access European funding.