GLOBALIZING THE EMERGING HIGH-TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

Two traditional models of global expansion were evaluated in an explor atory effort to explain the globalization patterns of emerging high-te chnology companies. In-depth field interviews were conducted with 19 M assachusetts-based companies that supply software or peripheral produc ts for desktop computing to explore: their timing and aggressiveness i n entering markets outside of North America; their structures and patt erns for expansion; and their success. Sampled companies report nondom estic revenues ranging from 6% to 58% of their totals. Statistical ana lyses of ''globalization success,'' defined here as how quickly a comp any achieves substantial percentage of revenues from nondomestic marke ts, support an integrated model of globalization that combines a clust er of other influences with elements of Vernon's specific product cycl e model and aspects of the more generic internationalization process m odels. In accordance with Vernon, high-tech products are developed pri marily for the home market but are soon transferred overseas, more slo wly to ''lagging markets.'' In contrast with Vernon, many different se lling arrangements are employed and overseas production does not follo w for most high-tech firms. In accordance with the general internation alization theory, when high-tech companies perceive foreign markets as risky they proceed cautiously, often using outside specialists to fac ilitate marker entry and increase their involvement over time as their familiarity increases. But in contrast with this, many high-tech firm s, especially the most successful, do not even perceive such riskiness and do not exhibit such caution. Unrelated to either of those two mod els, and building upon the work of Rugman et al. [1], globalization su ccess is most strongly linked to how aggressively senior management al locates internal resources to developing an overseas business model th at approximates the company's U.S. model of selling/distributing. Exte rnal environmental forces, too, such as the varied adoption rates of t he underlying desktop computing platforms themselves as well as regula tory factors, also affect globalization of high-tech products and comp anies. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1996