A comparative study on the characteristics of founders/top managers that affect firms as born global?

?Born Global Firms? that commence their activities in the overseas markets from inception or soon after their inception, appear to be a far more different new form of enterprise than the progressive internationalization that the traditional internationalization models envisaged. This study, within the limited opportunities available, tries to ascertain how these born global firms, having a place in the overseas markets rapidly, came about and how they are different from traditional enterprises. In this context, to start from the traditional internationalization theories, the characteristics of the born global firms are expressed and firms are analyzed from the point of founder/top manager level as one of the effective levels in the development process in opening to overseas markets.The aim of the study is to identify the born global firms having the characteristic of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and in the difference to SMEs having the traditional internationalization behavior, to determine each factor and its related sub-factors that are effective in developing in overseas markets is the founder/top manager level.The universe of the research is specified as the SMEs in the six sectors working in overseas markets (fish and fish products, cut flower, organic foods, software, medical equipment and supplies and leather wear). Eventually 158 surveys were collected from the founders/top managers and were analyzed using various statistical methods.As a result of the research, the similarities and differences of the factors and related sub-factors of the born global firms in the founder/top manager level from the traditional internationalization enterprises developing in overseas markets were identified. It was found that the internationalization development process of the born global firms have some similarities to some extent as well as differences from the traditional ones in terms of the factors and sub-factors of the founder/top manager level. Thus, in the analyzed six sectors, contrary to the traditional enterprises, factors with the sub-factors in the founder/top manager level effective in the determination of the early development process in the overseas markets were discovered.