UPPSALA MODEL vs. BORN GLOBAL THEORY:
THE CASE OF BIND’S INTERNATIONALIZATION
AUTHOR:
MARTA CARQUEJA PEREIRA
SUPERVISOR:
LAURE LEGLISE
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of MSc in
Business Administration, at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, June 2015
Católica Lisbon – School of Business & Economics 2015
Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
ABSTRACT
Title: Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory: the case of Bind’s internationalization
Author: Marta Carqueja Pereira
The term Born Global was defined in 1993 and since then, a lot of research has been focused
in trying to explain these firms’ rapid internationalization. However, none of this research
had focused in the internationalization process of Internet based Born Globals, while over the
last years, companies, which use Internet as their primary distribution channel, have been
increasing.
In order to understand the internationalization behaviour of Bind, which is selling a digital
product and is headquartered in Portugal but doing business on a global scale, this thesis
applies the traditional model of internationalization, the U-Model, and the Born Global
theory to this case. Using a comparison of both theories, this study tries to understand and
explain the internationalization of Bind and which limitations this company’
internationalization imposes to the existent theories.
Based on the evidence of a single case study and considering that this company’s business
occurs on the Internet, I conclude that Bind internationalization is better explained using the
Born Global theory and can be consider a Born-again Global firm. Though, the role of the
networks, the international experience of the founder and the choice of target countries
according to the psychic distance factor proposed by the BG theory, were not observed in this
case study, which made me conclude that the Uppsala Model explains better this aspects of
this company’s internationalization.
Keywords:
Internationalization,
Born
Global,
Born-again
Internationalization Model, Internet based company, digital product.
Global,
Uppsala
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Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
RESUMO
Título: Modelo de Uppsala vs. Teoria das ‘Born Global’: o caso da internacionalização da
Bind
Autor: Marta Carqueja Pereira
O termo ‘Born Global’ foi definido em 1993 e desde então muita investigação tem sido feita
para tentar explicar a rápida internacionalização destas empresas. No entanto, nenhuma das
investigações concentrou-se no processo de internacionalização das ‘Born Globals’ que
vendem online, embora ao longo dos últimos anos as empresas que utilizam a Internet como
o seu principal canal de distribuição, têm vindo a aumentar.
A empresa Bind vende um produto digital, está sediada em Portugal e atua numa escala
global. A fim de compreender a sua internacionalização esta tese aplica o modelo tradicional
de internacionalização, o Modelo de Uppsala, e a teoria das ‘Born Global’ a este caso.
Comparando as duas teorias, este estudo procura compreender e explicar a
internacionalização da Bind e perceber as limitações que a internacionalização desta empresa
impõe às teorias existentes.
Baseada nas evidências de um estudo de caso e considerando que o negócio desta empresa
ocorre na Internet, concluo que a teoria das ‘Born Global’ é a que melhor explica a
internacionalização da Bind e que esta empresa pode ser considerada uma ‘Born-again
Global’. No entanto, o papel das redes sociais, a experiência internacional do fundador e a
escolha de países-alvo de acordo com o fator ‘psychic distance’ propostos pela teoria ‘Born
Global’, não foram observados neste estudo de caso, o que me levou a concluir que o Modelo
de Uppsala explica melhor estes aspectos da internacionalização desta empresa.
Palavras-chave: Internacionalização, Born Global, Born-again Global, Modelo de
Internacionalização de Uppsala, negócios online, produto digital.
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Católica Lisbon – School of Business & Economics 2015
Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents for the unconditional support during my
entire life and through all my studies. Without them, my degree in Business, this master in
Business Administration and the two exchange experiences that I had during my studies,
wouldn’t have been possible.
Then, I would like to thank Beatriz Oliveira, CEO of Bind for her collaboration and kindness
to help in this master thesis. Without her and Bind’ team information and clarifications, I
wouldn’t be able to develop this dissertation.
Thank you also to my supervisor, Professor Laure Leglise for her guidance and advice
throughout the dissertation process.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my boyfriend and my closest friends for all their
patience, attention, support, motivation and friendship during all this period.
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Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. I
RESUMO .................................................................................................................................II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. III
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .................................................................................... VI
1.
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 3
2.1. DEFINITION OF INTERNATIONALIZATION ........................................................ 3
2.2. TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONALIZATION: THE UPPSALA MODEL ..... 4
2.2.1. Limitations of the Uppsala Model.......................................................................... 7
2.3. BORN GLOBAL THEORY ................................................................................................. 8
2.3.1. Drivers of Born Globals......................................................................................... 8
2.3.2. Definition of born-globals.................................................................................... 10
2.3.3. Organizational Culture ........................................................................................ 11
2.3.4. Organizational Capabilities and Success ............................................................ 12
2.3.5. Born-again Global – A special case inside born global theory........................... 13
2.4. COMPARISON OF UPPSALA MODEL AND BORN GLOBAL THEORY ................................ 16
3.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 21
3.1. CHOICE OF COMPANY AND RESEARCH TOPIC ............................................................... 21
3.2. RESEARCH STRATEGY AND DESIGN ............................................................................ 21
3.3. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 23
4.
COMPANY BIND ........................................................................................................... 25
4.1. BINDTUNING® ............................................................................................................ 26
4.1.1. Differentiation Factors ........................................................................................ 27
4.1.2. Product Innovation .............................................................................................. 27
4.2. CLIENTS ...................................................................................................................... 28
4.3. COMPETITORS ............................................................................................................. 29
4.4. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS .......................................................................................... 30
5.
DATA ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 33
6.
CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ............................. 38
6.1. MAIN CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................... 38
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Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
6.2. LIMITATIONS .......................................................................................................... 39
6.3. FUTURE RESEARCH ...................................................................................................... 40
7.
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 41
APPENDIX 1: TRANSCRIPT OF SECOND INTERVIEW WITH BEATRIZ OLIVEIRA ........................ 41
APPENDIX 2: TRANSCRIPT OF THIRD INTERVIEW WITH BEATRIZ OLIVEIRA ........................... 48
APPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH JOSÉ MATIAS .............................................. 52
APPENDIX 4: 2014 WORLD POPULATION DATA SHEET ......................................................... 54
a) North America .......................................................................................................... 54
b) Australia ................................................................................................................... 54
c) United Kingdom ........................................................................................................ 55
APPENDIX 5: WORLD MAP WITH INTEREST IN SHAREPOINT IN 2014 ..................................... 55
9.
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 56
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Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1: Basic Mechanism of Internationalization – State and Change Aspects ..................... 5 Figure 2 : Characteristics of born-again sample ...................................................................... 14 Figure 3 : ‘Episodes’ leading to rapid internationalization ...................................................... 15 Table 1: Comparison of U-Model and Born Global Theory.................................................... 20 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BG – Born Global
B2B – Business-to-business
CEO – Chief Executive Officer
CMS – Content Management Systems
DNN - DotNetNuke
EU – European Union
FDI – Foreign Direct Investment
INV – International New Ventures
MNE – Multinational Enterprise
SMEs – Small and Medium Enterprises
UK – United Kingdom
U-Model – Uppsala Internationalization Model
US – United States
WOM – Word of Mouth
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1. INTRODUCTION
With globalization accelerating since 1980, the world is becoming smaller and the domestic
market competition is increasing due to international competition. Nowadays, not just MNEs
with a stable domestic market internationalize, but there is a growing tendency of SMEs that
are internationalizing quickly and within a few years after its inception (Cavusgil and Knight
2015, 3).
Some authors talk about ‘International New Venture’ (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994, 1995)
others use the term ‘Born Global’ (Madsen and Servais, 1997; Knight and Cavusgil, 2004) or
‘Global Start-up’ (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994) to define these new firms that
internationalize rapid and early after their inception. Even though a lot of research is being
done nowadays, it seems that it has not figured out the right definition for early
internationalizing firms yet. However, the “born global” terminology seems to be the most
used and known and the one that will be use throughout this study.
Born Global firms are being studied inside the International Entrepreneurship arena that is
“the process of creatively discovering and exploiting opportunities that lie outside a firm’s
domestic markets in the pursuit of competitive advantage” (Shaker A. Zahra and George
2002, 11) and recently, a lot of researchers have focus in this emerging field within
International Business area, due to the globalization of the world economy (Shaker A. Zahra
and George 2002). However, none of this research had focused on the internationalization
process of Internet based Born Globals, even when companies, which use Internet as their
primary distribution channel, have been increasing.
The internationalization process of a BG is different from the already existent traditional
models of internationalization, like the Uppsala Internationalization Model. The U-Model
according to some authors (Oviatt and McDougall 1994; Madsen and Servais 1997; Chetty
and Campbell-Hunt 2004) is out of date and is not enough to explain the rapid
internationalization of these new companies.
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After a first meeting with Bind’ CEO, I believed that International Entrepreneurship and its
Born Global phenomenon seemed to be an interesting research area. Bind is an independent
software company that became international since it started selling an online digital product
(website themes that can be use in different CMS platforms) and it created some curiosity
with its internationalization behavior, as it seems to impose some limitations to the BG
theory. Besides, Zahra and George (2002) suggested that an e-commerce venture that goes
international instantly at birth is an interesting organizational form that deserves examination
(Shaker A. Zahra and George 2002, 10). Thus, this thesis will analyse and compare both
internationalization theories; in order to choose which one best applies to the
internationalization process of Bind.
Before analysing the specific case of Bind’s internationalization, I made an intense study on
both internationalization theories (U-Model and BG theory) and compared their
internationalization processes. Then, a single case study regarding the internationalization of
Bind was the applied methodology. By using semi structured interviews and secondary data I
was able to obtain the needed information. Finally, through the process of triangulation, the
collected data was compared with the already studied theories in order to find which one had
the best explanatory power for Bind’s case.
Regarding this thesis structure, the first chapter is dedicated to the literature review and it
comprises four sections, one with a brief definition of internationalization, other regarding
the traditional perspective of internationalization where the Uppsala Internationalization
Model (Johnson and Vahlne, 1977) is presented, a third one about the Born Global theory,
identifying the main definitions, features, internationalization process and covering a special
sub-section regarding born-again global firms, and the final section is dedicated to the
comparison of U-Model and BG theory. The second chapter describes the methodology used;
more specifically it explains the use of a single case study for the research. Furthermore, the
sources of data collected and how it was analysed are described. Chapter 3 presents the case
study of Bind and its internationalization process, followed by chapter 4 where the analysis of
the collected data is made. Finally, the last chapter involves the main conclusions, limitations
of the study and suggests future research that should be done on this topic.
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter of the master thesis, an overview of the main concepts and theories related to
the Uppsala Internationalization Model and Born Global firms is provided.
2.1. DEFINITION OF INTERNATIONALIZATION
Many researchers in international business agree that internationalization of firms is a process
in which firms gradually increase their international involvement (Johanson and Vahlne,
1977, 23), in other words, it is the increase of firm’s business activities outside their national
borders.
Calof and Beamish (1995) argued that internationalization is associated with increasing
involvement in foreign markets, as it has been widely used to describe the outward movement
and adaptation of a firm’s operations to international environments. Furthermore, for them
internationalization can sometimes take the form of de-investment, when in response to
various factors, a firm needs to drop a product, divest a division, sell a foreign production
plant, or lay off people involved in their international operation. Overall, they define
internationalization as “the process of adapting firm’s operations (strategy, structure,
resource, etc.) to international environments” (Calof and Beamish 1995, 116).
Later, Mathews (2006) assumed that internationalization “is the multiple connections of the
global economy which draw firms into involvement across national borders, through
contracting, licensing or other transaction relationships.” In other words, internationalization
should be defined as “the process of the firms becoming integrated in international economic
activities” (Mathews 2006, 16). Finally, for Ruzzier et al., (2006), internationalization is a
synonym for the geographical expansion of economic activities over a national country’s
border (Ruzzier, Hisrich, and Antoncic 2006, 477).
Overall, different authors agree that internationalization occurs when firms expand their
business activities outside the borders of their countries. While internationalizing and in order
to start doing business in other countries, firms usually make contracts with other companies
or give them licences to sell their products in the different markets (Mathews, 2006).
Moreover, in order to succeed, firms need to adapt their strategy, structure and resources to
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the international conditions (Calof and Beamish, 1995) that are different from the
environment faced in domestic markets, due to the existence of different cultures between
countries, which shape the consumer behaviour.
In order to explain how the internationalization of companies occurs, different authors
studied and created theories about the process of internationalization. The next two sections
cover two of these theories: the Uppsala model represents the traditional view and the Born
Global theory shows a more recent internationalization process.
2.2. TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONALIZATION: THE
UPPSALA MODEL
This section defines the traditional view of how a MNE internationalizes its business. There
are two traditional theories that are frequently used to explain the internationalization process
of companies: the Uppsala Internationalization Model that is here described, and the
Innovation-Related Internationalization Model (Madsen and Servais, 1997). As the U-Model
is the most used in international business research, I decided to use it to represent the
traditional view in this research.
Johanson
and
Vahlne
at
the
University
of
Uppsala
formulated
the
Uppsala
Internationalization Model in 1977. Based on their empirical observations of Swedish firms’
international business, they developed a model that seeks to explain the slow and incremental
internationalization process of firms, which attempt for growth and long-term profit trying at
the same time to keep the risk taking at a low level. The model “focuses on the gradual
acquisition, integration and use of knowledge about foreign markets and operations, and on
the incrementally increasing commitments to foreign markets” (Johanson and Vahlne 1977,
23).
In this traditional view, firms start exporting when they have a strong domestic base and the
exportation occurs in stages. First companies start exporting to other country through an
agent, later they establish a sales subsidiary, and possibly, as a final step they begin the
production in that country. The choice of markets also occurs in stages, as firms start
exporting to countries with a close psychic distance and later they start spreading into more
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distant countries. Psychic distance refers to differences from the home country, like language
and culture, which avoids the flow of information from and to the market.
The authors proposed a dynamic model where the outcome of one decision constitutes the
input of the next decision, and it makes a distinction between the state and change aspects of
internationalization. They assume that the present state of internationalization is an important
factor in explaining the future steps of internationalization. The state aspects are represented
by the firm’s ‘market commitment’ to foreign markets and ‘market knowledge’ about foreign
markets and operations. Moreover, the change aspects are represented by ‘commitment
decisions’ and ‘current business activities’. These aspects are highlighted in figure 1.
Figure 1: Basic Mechanism of Internationalization – State and Change Aspects
Source: (Johanson and Vahlne 1977, 26)
From the previous figure, it is possible to observe that market knowledge and market
commitment interact with commitment decisions and current activities performance
respectively, which in turn change knowledge and commitment – “the state of
internationalization affects perceived opportunities and risks which in turn influence
commitment decisions and current activities” (Johanson and Vahlne 1977, 27). Next, both
aspects will be presented and their interactions described, which corresponds to the
internationalization process.
State Aspects
o Market Commitment: it is composed of two factors, the amount of resources
committed and the difficulty of finding an alternative use for the resources and
transferring them to other usage – degree of commitment. For example, resources
located in a particular foreign market can be considered a commitment of the
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company to that market. The more specialized the resources are to a specific market
the greater the degree of commitment. The amount of resources committed is similar
to the size of investment in a market, for example.
o Market Knowledge: it represents the information about markets and operations that
are stored in individual’s mind, computer memories or written reports. General
knowledge about market operations, like marketing methods, and market specific
knowledge, as cultural patterns or business climate, is needed for international
activities. Market specific knowledge is acquired through personal experience with
foreign markets and market operations knowledge can often be transferred from one
market to another. Experiential knowledge is crucial for international activities, as it
provides the framework to perceive and formulate opportunities, making it possible to
perceive ‘concrete’ opportunities. Whether objective knowledge only allows the
creation of theoretical opportunities.
There is a direct relation between market knowledge and market commitment. If we
consider that knowledge is a resource, the better the knowledge about a market, the
stronger will be the commitment with that market. As it takes time to acquire experiential
knowledge about foreign markets, additional market commitment will be made in small
incremental steps.
Change Aspects
o Current business activities: it is the prime source of experiential knowledge.
There is a lag between most current activities and their consequences that may not
be perceived unless the activities are repeated continuously, which in turn
represents an increasing commitment to the market. Consequently, the authors
assume that the more complicated and differentiated the product is, the larger will
be the total commitment as a consequence of the increasing amount of current
activities needed. The best ways to quickly obtain and use market experience is
through hiring personnel of a representative or acquire a firm, or a part of it. But
sometimes this type of experience is not for sale and it has to be acquired via a
long learning process in connection to current activities, which slows down the
internationalization process.
o Commitment decisions: it is the decision to commit resources to foreign
operations, which depend on the decision alternatives that are raised and how
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these alternatives are chosen. Decisions are made taking into consideration the
problems and opportunities faced in a specific market. Problems and opportunities
of a market are perceived due to the current business activities on that market and
the firm’s previous experience. Sometimes, the companies with which the firm is
interacting are who recognize the opportunities. These opportunities can be
presented in the form of offers or demands to the company and are dependent on
the firm’s commitment to the market. In other words, the probability of this kind
of opportunities depends on the scale and type of operations that a company has in
that market, so it depends on the firm’s commitment to the market. Market
uncertainty exists when the company cannot predict present and future market
behaviour and the factors that influence it, for example wars or recession periods.
Due to market uncertainty, additional commitments to the market will be made in
small steps, unless the uncertainty is reduced. Uncertainty can be reduced when
the company has very large resources, the market conditions are stable and
homogeneous or the market experience with similar conditions is high. Since
commitment decisions are a response to perceived uncertainty and market
opportunities, it depends very much on experience, which implies that additional
market commitment will be made in small incremental steps as it takes time to
acquire experiential knowledge about foreign markets.
2.2.1.
LIMITATIONS OF THE UPPSALA MODEL
Some authors already stated that traditional theories referring to the internationalization
process of firms are not suitable to apply in order to explain new internationalization
processes.
For Oviatt and McDougall (1994), stage theories of the MNE and the emphasis on
organizational scale as an important competitive advantage in international business, are
inappropriate to explain the internationalization of new ventures. The arising of INVs
presents a unique challenge to the stage theory. Even though it could be use to explain early
stage internationalization considering three conditions:
1. Firms
with
large
resources
are
expected
to
take
large
steps
toward
internationalization;
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2. When foreign market conditions are stable and homogeneous, learning about them is
easy;
3. When firms have considerable experience with markets that are similar to a newly
targeted foreign market, previous experience may be generalizable to the new market.
However, none of the previous conditions can be applied to INVs, which resources are
constrained due to its young age and small size, the markets are the most volatile and they
have little or no experience in any market.
Later, Madsen and Servais (1997) focused on the role of the networks and stated that the UModel fails for not considering it in the internationalization process. Each firm should not be
analysed separately, thus state and change aspects must be understood in an interorganizational setting and these networks should be considered across borders, as there are
differences between countries and products’ international extension, coordination and
integration of networks. Furthermore, the degree of internationalization of the firm depends
on the extent, intensity and degree of integration in the network with foreign partners.
Finally, they emphasised that the time perspective should be extended beyond the firm’s birth
as some of these routines that characterize the firm behaviour are based in previous
experience and networks of its founders.
2.3. BORN GLOBAL THEORY
INVs or BGs and their rapid internationalization are important topics within International
Entrepreneurship. Firms that internationalize early in their history seem to grow faster than
its competitors, and Oviatt and McDougall (2005) suggested that it would be interesting to
examine the greater speed that some entrepreneurial actions cross national borders than
others.
2.3.1.
DRIVERS OF BORN GLOBALS
Researchers already highlighted several reasons for the increasing appearance of these rapid
internationalizing firms, which they decided to call Born Global firms.
(Oviatt and McDougall 1994; Oviatt, McDougall, and Loper 1995) associated this growing
tendency to the changing economic, technological, and social conditions. They argued that
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improvements of international communication and transportation reduce the transaction costs
of doing international business and the increase homogenization of markets in distant
countries, make the conduct of international business easier to understand for everyone.
Besides, the growing numbers of business executives with international experience and the
rising availability of international financing opportunities lead to the creation of these early
internationalizing firms. Finally, while being international since it’s inception, BGs are able
to avoid the domestic inertia that exists in a well-established domestic companies when they
decide to internationalize.
A few years later, Madsen and Servais (1997) pointed out three conditions that are leading to
the early internationalization of firms. First, firms need to internationalize in order to sustain
the degree of products’ specialization and consequent increase of niche markets that new
market conditions are requesting. Moreover, the needs and wants of buyers are becoming
more homogeneous and financial markets had internationalized. The second condition
mentioned is the technological developments in the areas of production, transportation and
communication. New production processes are making small-scale operations more
economical and therefore specialization, customization and niche production is more viable.
The transportation is more frequent, reliable and cheaper which reduced the cost barriers of
international business and the developments in communication made world markets more
accessible at a lower-cost. The last condition refers to the more elaborate capabilities of
people, including the founder of the BG. There is a higher number of employees with
competence to communicate, understand and operate in foreign markets due to the growing
number of people with international experience, consequence of exchange programs like
Erasmus in Europe or increasing international business activities. This exchange of people
between countries is making national boundaries less important and making the markets more
homogeneous.
Concluding and to summarize the main reasons for early internationalization of firms, Knight
and Cavusgil (2004) stated that two key trends reduced the transaction costs of foreign
market expansion. Globalization is leading to an increase homogenization of buyer
preferences around the world that simplified product development and positioning in foreign
markets, making international business easier. Technological advances in information and
communications technologies, production methods, transportation, and international logistics
reduced transaction costs and facilitated growth of international trade.
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2.3.2.
DEFINITION OF BORN-GLOBALS
The term ‘Born Global’ has been widely used since McKinsey & Company first mentioned it,
in 1993 in a study taken in Australia about the early internationalizing firms. According to
Madsen and Servais (1997), the study covered 310 small and medium-sized enterprises
already established in the market. The initial exporters were divided into two groups, one
with more traditional domestic-based firms, which created a strong domestic base before
exporting, and covered 75% of the total sample. The second group was formed by the so
called Born Globals, which started exporting within less than 2 years of operation and were
exporting 75% of their total sales. These BGs were very flexible, close to the customers and
able to adapt the products according to the market needs and wants. They produced
innovative technology products targeted to international niche markets, which competed on
quality and value created.
One year later, Oviatt and McDougall (1994) defined international new venture as a
“business organization that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage
from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries” (p. 49), while Knight
and Cavusgil (2004) used the term born global and defined it as “business organizations that,
from or near their founding, seek superior international business performance from the
application of knowledge-based resources to the sale of outputs in multiple countries” (p.
124). Cavusgil and Knight (2015) agree that the term born global is less precise than
international new venture, which is supported by Coviello (2015) when he refers to the
multiple forms of INVs introduced by Oviatt and McDougall (1994) and the importance of
geography while defining a company, that may not have a global focus but instead a regional
or international one. Nevertheless, ‘born global’ is the terminology most used and known.
Different authors’ definitions agreed that the distinctive characteristics of these firms are their
international origins and early internationalizing path. Regarding the age of a BG creation,
even though Rennie (1993) assumed that these are companies that internationalise within 2
years after the company inception, there is a common agreement that firms with 6 years and
younger are BGs (S. A. Zahra, Ireland, and Hitt 2000, 932).
In summary, all the definitions seem to agree that a Born Global is a young firm, created by
an entrepreneur with a strong international background, which aims to achieve foreign
markets at their inception by offering to niche markets an innovative and high-quality product
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that fits its customer needs and wants, exceeding most of the times their value expectations.
Finally, after this definition of Born Global firms, the next sub-sections will cover the
features needed for their success, mainly the organizational culture and capabilities.
2.3.3.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Authors focused on these young and rapid internationalizing firms, are in tune regarding one
specific feature: that the individual or entrepreneur is crucial part in their development.
According to Knight and Cavusgil (2004), international entrepreneurial orientation, which
denotes the ability of firms to get into international markets due to its “unique entrepreneurial
competences and outlook” (Knight and Cavusgil 2004, 129), is one feature of these
organizations’ culture. For these authors, innovativeness, managerial vision and a proactive
competitive posture are features that depend on the entrepreneur education and previous
experience, and are crucial for these early internationalizing firms, which are young, with
limited tangible assets and chase new opportunities in uncertain, risky and complex markets.
The discovery of new business opportunities is related with the entrepreneur prior experience
and business knowledge, which have an impact in the way he observes the external
conditions and pursues the business opportunity. Internationally travelled and experienced
managers, can profit from a foreign location advantage (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994), which
derives from their private knowledge of foreign markets and offers more market
opportunities. For these authors, BGs have valuable knowledge about the markets and
management strategies that can be transferred and reproduced easily due to improvements in
communication infrastructures resultant from the globalization. Moreover, social networks
that are created by the manager are crucial for the international success of these firms as it
may provide access to resources and knowledge about the markets to which the company is
planning to internationalize.
Madsen and Servais (1997), as Mathews and Zander (2007) and Zander, McDougall-Covin,
and L Rose (2015) supported this importance of the entrepreneur in a BG, stating that
“factors like education, experience from living abroad, experience from other internationally
oriented jobs” (Madsen and Servais 1997, 567) shape the mind of the entrepreneur and
reduces the barriers of national boundaries to them. Furthermore, the international experience
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and knowledge acquired by the founder increases the networks across national boundaries
creating more opportunities for new international businesses.
The second aspect that should be present in the organizational culture of BGs is international
marketing orientation, which once more is related to the manager. Managers, use key
marketing elements to target foreign customers and create value. Customers will perceive the
firms’ products or services to exceed the expected value of competitors’ products and the
company will be able to maximize its international performance.
2.3.4.
ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES AND SUCCESS
From the previous section, it is possible to conclude that knowledge about markets and
business strategies, which is acquired with business experience, is the most valuable
intangible asset that a company can profit from and with it a company is able to develop
business capabilities that will improve the firm’s performance against its competitors.
Zahra, Ireland, and Hitt (2000) argued that to succeed in international markets, BGs need to
develop a new technological knowledge, which has an impact on the adaptability of products
to local market conditions, allows them to gain advantage by introducing new product
developments faster and helps identify technological changes that influence firm’s
performance. The authors argued that innovation is important for firms to gain competitive
advantage in global markets. By entering different foreign markets, companies are exposed to
different types of knowledge that are important for the development of innovation. While the
entrance in diverse international markets increase the potential for greater technological
learning, it can at the same time reduce the speed of learning within the organization.
However, when markets are culturally similar, the acquired knowledge can be transferred
from one market to another and be applied in different markets strategies, increasing the
speed of learning. BGs are more effective in developing and exploiting innovation, due to its
younger age and entrepreneurs’ experience, which allow them to develop and market
innovation faster, gaining competitive advantage, even over MNCs with more resources
availability.
Knight and Cavusgil (2004) perspective is in line with Oviatt and McDougall (1994) as for
them managers’ “knowledge should be relatively unique and inimitable to maximize its
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utility for superior international performance” (Knight and Cavusgil 2004, 136). Moreover
the authors investigated the most important business strategies of BGs, which conform to
Zahra, Ireland, and Hitt (2000) study. These authors emphasised the importance of having a
global technological competence to create superior products and have a better effectiveness
and efficiency in production processes, which lead to low-cost achievement and to costeffectively serve the special needs of niche markets and it also permits an efficient interaction
within channel members and customers. With innovative products, superior customer service
and secret know-how, the company is able to differentiate from its competitors and by
pursuing a quality focus, the company is able to improve product features and performance.
Finally, as when entering new markets BG firms lack local knowledge and competences to
act in that market compared to the locals, they should collaborate with foreign distributors
and profit from their local knowledge in order to “respond rapidly to evolving customer
needs, competitor actions, and shifting environmental contingencies” (Knight and Cavusgil
2004, 132).
Overall, the different authors agree that the positioning and international success of born
global firms depends on the “innovation, R&D, knowledge development and capabilities
leveraging” (Knight and Cavusgil 2004, 137) embedded in the organization. Furthermore, the
next sub-section focus on firms that have similar but although different characteristics as
BGs, which are called born-again global firms.
2.3.5.
BORN-AGAIN GLOBAL – A SPECIAL CASE INSIDE BORN
GLOBAL THEORY
In the debate about BG phenomenon, there is also evidence that other type of firms,
precipitated by particular ‘episodes’ started to emerge. Bell, McNaughton, and Young (2001)
defined ‘born-again global’ as “firms that have been well established in their domestic
markets, with apparently no great motivation to internationalize, but which have suddenly
embraced rapid and dedicated internationalisation” (Bell, McNaughton, and Young 2001,
173). The authors assumed that there are ‘episodes’, like new opportunities in international
markets, favourable exchange rates or adverse economic conditions in the domestic market
that may encourage firms to internationalise rapidly.
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The findings outlined by Bell, McNaughton, and Young (2001) were taken from studies of
small-firms internationalisation in the UK region, where the authors developed an
exploratory case study that involved 50 in-depth semi structured interviews. Over 30% of the
interviewed firms did not conform to either the incremental stage models or the BG theories,
and were subsequently reclassified as ‘born-again’ globals. These firms had suddenly
internationalised rapidly, without showing previous enthusiasm about it.
Figure 2 shows the results obtained in the study, regarding the salient characteristics of ‘bornagain’ globals.
Figure 2: Characteristics of Born-Again sample
Source: (Bell, McNaughton, and Young 2001, 179)
Born-again Global firms had internationalised very rapidly (within 2-5 years of their first
international involvement). Nearly two-thirds had export ratios of over 50% of total sales and
almost one-third of these firms had international sales of between 20% and 49%. These firms
were predominantly ‘traditional’ firms, until a ‘critical incident’ or episode precipitated a
dramatic change in their strategic focus. These ‘critical incidents’ or episodes, were common
to different firms and were also studied and identified in the research, as it is shown in figure
3.
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Figure 3: ‘Episodes’ leading to rapid internationalization
Source: (Bell, McNaughton, and Young 2001, 181)
In some cases, rapid internationalisation occurred due to a combination of ‘critical incidents’
and not just as a result of a single ‘episode’.
The most common ‘episode’ was a change in ownership and/or management that occurred in
three different ways:
o Management buyout (MBO): a change in ownership and/or management introduced
new decision-makers with a greater international orientation;
o Takeover by another firm: firm was taken over by another firm in order to acquire
additional human and financial resources or access new networks. The international
orientation of the new parent company influenced subsequent strategies;
o Bought from administrator: firms ceased trading or are in receivership and are
acquired either by the existing management or a third party, in order to gain access to
its assets (property, patent, brand name, etc.).
Another mentioned ‘episode’ was the process of acquisition of another firm, new technology
or distribution rights:
o Firms acquire another firm with international operations, which encourage the
company to offer its existing products to new markets;
o Another reason to internationalise is to recover the high investment costs of new
production technology acquisition;
o Other times, companies acquire rights to distribute a product or provide a service in
the domestic market, which influence the firm internationalisation.
Finally, a third ‘episode’ that occurs is client followership:
o The firm follows a domestic customer into new markets;
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o A new client already operating internationally enters the home market and by
supplying this client, the company automatically obtain international business;
o Client recommends the company in overseas markets, and open new markets to it.
All these cases are generated within the firm’s networks, which once more denotes their
importance. Also, internationalisation may be a good way to show returns to investors with
high expectations, or to meet increased debt repayments.
Bell, McNaughton, and Young (2001) argued that ‘born global’ is not an organisational form
per se, and it may be seen as a strategy to improve firm value through internationalisation
(Bell,
McNaughton,
and
Young
2001,
186).
Finally,
the
study
showed
that
internationalisation is not a linear, incremental and unidirectional path. ‘Episodes’ can lead to
a rapid internationalisation, where the top management’s international orientation,
commitment and experience are crucial, as mentioned in the ‘born global’ research.
The phenomenon of ‘born-again’ global firms is not evidenced in a significant number of
existent literatures in the international entrepreneurship or international business areas. Thus,
the authors proposed that future research should hardly investigate this phenomenon and
focus on the internationalization behaviour of these firms.
2.4. COMPARISON OF UPPSALA MODEL AND BORN GLOBAL THEORY
After presenting the U-Model and Born Global theory of internationalization, it comes to the
point where both theories should be compare in order to highlight their differences and later
make an interesting analysis of the case study.
According to Madsen and Servais (1997), the basic assumptions of the stages model
proposed by Johanson and Vahlne (1977) and which were already referred in this document,
regarding market uncertainty, low risk taking and incremental acquisition of knowledge, are
still valid for BG firms. Moreover, in this model firms are assumed to lack routines because
of relatively high-perceived uncertainty about the market, but BGs’ perception of uncertainty
of the international market is lower due to founders and employees’ previous international
experience. For a BG, the degree of country specificity of market knowledge is lower than in
the traditional view, due to forces like the homogenization of consumer needs and wants.
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Furthermore, regarding the founder of the BG he may have prior experiential knowledge
about international markets, because of the incremental growth of human resources with
international capabilities, which implies that additional market commitments do not have to
be slow and incremental. To conclude, they argued that the founder’ characteristics and
market conditions are different between BG phenomenon and the U-Model that is why the
internationalization process of BG should deviate from the traditional one.
Not only Madsen and Servais (1997) focused on the differences of the two
internationalization models, but Chetty and Campbell-Hunt (2004) based on a study of 16 indepth case histories of New Zealand firms compared both approaches too, taking into
consideration the most important factors:
Importance of the Home Market
Firm’s domestic market is less significant for BGs. For traditional firms, a strong domestic
market is required to support internationalization. Yet, as BGs internationalize quickly, they
may either have a small or no domestic market at all. The founders of BG firms do not
restrict their business to one country, as they perceive the world as one market. To them,
international markets provide opportunities instead of risk and uncertainty (traditional
approach). Furthermore, in new and dynamic environments BGs adapt and innovate faster
than older firms. For the New Zealand BG firms that were studied, the home market seem to
play a qualitatively important role where the most frequent benefit for these firms was that it
serves as a proving ground for the firm’s products and services before internationalization.
Capability to Internationalize
Both views agree that prior experience and knowledge are important for successful entry into
new markets. But the approaches differ, since the BG view suggests that experience and
knowledge can be acquired early in the firm’s life. To explain this point of view, researchers
proposed the next reasons:
o The founder’s education and international experience reduce psychic distance, and the
risk and uncertainty associated with foreign markets, increasing the speed of learning
and internationalization;
o The innovative capacities of communication technologies help BGs acquire
knowledge, develop strategies and maintain relationships, which help in the
internationalization process.
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In the traditional view, expertise in internationalization can only be created with experience
and not before and it involves many people and not just the manager.
Regarding the studied companies, it was proven that the founders of the firms used their
established networks and international knowledge to develop their business.
Psychic Distance
The BG approach minimizes the relevance of psychic distance, whether in the traditional
view, firm’s enters new markets as a function of their psychic distance to the firm’s prior
experience.
Considering the BG firms analysed, this irrelevance of psychic distance predicted by the BG
approach was not applied, and BG firms internationalized according to the logic of psychic
distance such that firms selected as their first markets, countries with a close psychic distant
to New Zealand. Nevertheless, when BGs started internationalization, psychic distance
doesn’t seem to matter, even though their first move was to close countries, they also quickly
move to more psychically distant markets.
Influence of Firm Strategy
Considering the traditional approach, strategic decisions are not central to the firm’s
motivation to internationalize. Whether for BGs, strategic decisions are important because the
focus and rhythm of internationalization are imposed by competitive requisites to establish a
leading position in niche markets, so competitive strategies are inherently associated in their
internationalization process. For the New Zealand companies these facts are proven and firm
strategy is crucial for the rapid internationalization of the BG firm.
Importance of Networks
Networks are important in the internationalization of firms for both approaches. Regarding
the traditional view, the required commitment and knowledge-base needed for firm’s
internationalization is smaller and it is only used in early stages, being gradually replaced
with the firm’s own resources. Whether for BGs, networks allow an extensive global reach,
rapid creation and multiple markets exposure. The New Zealand companies proved both
facts.
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Time to Internationalization
As their name shows, BGs internationalize early in their lives while traditional firms
internationalize gradually and it is not crucial for the firm’s success.
Later, Aspelund and Moen (2005) studied Norwegian exporters and found that BG firms
internationalize in order to achieve growth and exploit foreign market opportunities to
increase global market share and profits. These firms operate in more foreign markets than
early or late internationals, and even though their most important markets tend to be within
their continent, more psychic distant markets proved to be important for their business too.
BGs had a stronger market advantage and seem to compete on their strong technology
knowledge, comparing to international competitors. They were more niche markets focused
and offered more competing products than competitors, which compete on product
performance and quality.
In summary, there are some differences between the traditional and BG approaches of
internationalization. For example, BGs adopt a more proactive (interest to exploit activities in
order to meet new market opportunities) and structured approach to internationalisation,
while traditional firms tend to adopt a more reactive (react to changing conditions and
passive attitude towards new opportunities) and opportunistic approach (Bell, McNaughton,
and Young 2001, 178). This suggests that to analyse the internationalization process of a
company, researchers should take into consideration these differences and new theories or
developments of old theories should be presented to frame the firm in its real context of
analysis. That is why table 1, comparing the U-Model and BG theory was created. It
summarizes the literature and allows to easily analyse the data that will be provided next
regarding Bind’s internationalization.
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Table 1: Comparison of U-Model and Born Global Theory
Source: Created by the author (2015)
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3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter explains the methodology approach and the applied methods that were used to
collect the data and information needed, to analyse the internationalization of the company
Bind.
3.1. CHOICE OF COMPANY AND RESEARCH TOPIC
In the beginning of this master thesis, it has been defined that the area where I wanted to
focus my research was in e-commerce and the strategies involved in internationalization.
After contacting some companies in order to have their collaboration and focus the study on
their business, the company Bind was the one that gave a positive feedback and accepted to
collaborate in this project.
Following the first meeting, even though Bind does its business on-line and is considered an
e-commerce company, it was evident that Bind was not a good example for a thesis in ecommerce internationalization strategies and consequently the focus of research changed.
Bind is an independent software company working as an online theme store with its product
BindTuning. Since 2011, Bind is working in different foreign markets like North America,
Australia, United Kingdom and Europe, which happened really fast, as soon as Bind started
selling online and changed its focus from the domestic market to a global one. Bind seemed
to be a good example of a company that internationalized rapidly and its progress shows that
it could be more interesting to focus the study in the born global research area. Thus, this
study only focuses on this company, its global scope and business activity since 2005 until
2015.
3.2. RESEARCH STRATEGY AND DESIGN
Even though some researchers already studied the BG phenomenon, there is still a lack of
knowledge in International Business about it. Articles that focused on this tendency
suggested interesting future research to understand this new tendency (Madsen and Servais
1997;Bell, McNaughton, and Young 2001; Knight and Cavusgil 2004; Chettt and CambellHunt 2004; Cavusgil and Knight 2015;Zander, McDougall-Covin, and L Rose 2015).
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According to Creswell (2003) when a specific concept or phenomenon needs to be explored
because little research has been done on it, a qualitative approach should be undertaken.
Qualitative research can be exploratory where the researcher collects open-ended data in
order to take conclusions and develop, for example, case studies. Case studies are used when
the researcher wants to investigate a specific event, a process, an activity or individuals and
the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not evident. For example, when the
research depends on past events, relevant sources of data may be unavailable for interview
and the events cannot be observed anymore (Yin 1981; Creswell 2003). Moreover, according
to Eisenhardt (1989), a case study “is a research strategy which focus on understanding the
dynamics present within single settings” (Eisenhardt 1989, 534). The purpose of this research
is to analyse two theories of internationalization and choose the one that best applies to the
internationalization of the company Bind, which is a process that occurred in the past, so a
case study seems suitable.
Considering the purpose of this research and the qualitative approach of this study, the best
design for it is a single case study. When ‘how’ or ‘why’ research questions about a
contemporary set of events, which the author does not have control of, are being asked, a case
study design represents an advantage (Yin, 2009). In this specific case, as the research
question is “How is Bind going international?” the case study design seems to be the one that
best applies. Furthermore, this is a single case study as it remains in testing and determining
which of the two theories, the U-Model or BG Theory has the strongest explanatory power
for the specific case of Bind. By using a single case, it is possible to prove, challenge or
extent existent theory, with already stated propositions and conditions in which the
propositions are believed to be true. The single case will be useful in analysing if there are
some circumstances that impose any limitations to the theory or if further research in the area
will be useful (Yin, 2009).
Regarding the research perspective it can be identified as a process research as it addresses
questions about “how” a specific event developed. A process research “focuses empirically
on evolving phenomena, and it draws on theorizing that explicitly incorporates temporal
progressions of activities as elements of explanation and understanding” (Langley et al. 2013,
1).
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3.3. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
“Case studies typically combine data collection methods such as archives, interviews,
questionnaires, and observations” (Einsenhardt 1989, 534), which represents its unique
strength, this ability to deal with a variety of evidence (Yin, 2009).
Data can be collected from primary and secondary sources. Regarding this thesis, both
primary and secondary data were used. In an article from Academy of Management Journal,
Denzin & Lincoln (1994) argued that “qualitative research often studies phenomena in the
environments in which they naturally occur and uses social actors’ meanings to understand
the phenomena” (Gephart 2004, 455). Considering this research, the primary source of data
used were in-depth interviews in order to collect the company’ information needed to develop
the case study, that was complemented with secondary sources like on-line press releases,
company reports and websites.
According to Maxwell (2008), relying in data from different methods and sources of
information reduces the risk and biases or limitations of specific methods, and allows
validity, generality and accuracy of the conclusions highlighted. This integration of
information from different methods and sources of data is known as triangulation (Denzin,
1970).
Interviews
Regarding the main source of information for this study, four semi-structured interviews were
made with the CEO and founder of the company, Beatriz Oliveira and a project manager of
Bind. These interviews allowed the researcher to have a better perspective of the
internationalization of the company, by comparing and aggregating the information obtained
in the different interviews by asking, more or less, the same questions. In this type of
interviews, the researcher asked open-ended questions, which allowed for flexibility, the
interview went on its own course and the possibility to ask follow-up questions that were not
mentioned in the initial guide. Consequently, I was able to take new and relevant insights
without the necessity to exclude crucial data from the process of data collection.
The main purpose of the first interview with the founder and CEO of Bind, was to get to
know the company and its main business in order to know if the company fitted the original
research question. As previously mentioned, while this first interview showed that Bind was
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not a good company to answer this question, its internationalization process appeared
interesting to study from the international entrepreneurship standpoint.
The second interview with the CEO focused on specific questions about the company’s
history, business, customers, internationalization strategy and foreign markets (Appendix 1).
In May 2015, and after the literature review was done, a final interview with the CEO and an
interview with a project manager occurred, and this time with the purpose to ask specific
questions regarding this thesis research question, in order to take insights for the study and its
conclusions (Appendix 2 and 3).
After the interviews and using its recordings, Portuguese transcripts were made, as the
interviews were done in Portuguese, in order to easily analyse the data. These transcripts
(Appendix 1, 2 and 3) were crucial in order to capture all the details recorded in the
interviews, as some of those were not implicit in the interview-guide and were gathered
through the conversation. Considering the information provided, chronologies with the
collected data regarding the company history and its internationalization process were
established, making it easier to relate the data collected with the literature review already
done.
Even though just four interviews were done, the fact that three interviews were with the CEO
and founder of the company gave a high level of confidence and credibility about the answers
given, as they represent the view and decision of the founder. Since the main purpose of this
research was to analyse the internationalization of Bind a sequential analysis, together with
the chronologies, was useful in order to establish internationalization patterns and compare
the internationalization of the company with the already existent theory.
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4. COMPANY BIND
In 2005, Beatriz Oliveira found an independent software development company called Bind
that is working in the business-to-business market. The company’s headquarters are located
in Vila do Conde (Portugal) and in the beginning Bind was working on developing and
implementing web sites, acting in a more regional market in Portugal. Bind is a small
company that in 2014 had 300.000€ of revenues and is formed by the CEO and more 8
employees, organized in a “flat” structure with no hierarchies, except the CEO that is at the
top of the decision making process. Moreover, Bind is a self-sustaining company and
according to the CEO, only invests with the revenues that obtains.
Later, in 2008 Beatriz Oliveira identified a new market opportunity. While working with
DotNetNuke (DNN) platform, which is a web content management system (CMS) in the
Microsoft ecosystem that allows its users to easily manage websites. The CEO felt that there
was a lack in the offer of the website’ themes market, as some themes didn’t fit the various
logos of different companies. Thus, she decided to create and sell new themes, which are the
aspect, layout or image of a website, for CMS platforms that are computer applications used
to create and manage websites’ content from a central interface. This moment marks the
change of business focus and entrance in the online market.
Bind started selling in the marketplace of DNN, Snowcovered, which is an American
marketplace, and within a week these themes became top sellers of that market. The first
“packages” offered by Bind had 8 colours considering those companies’ logos had different
colours, which represented a lot of repetitive work to combine the colours in order to create
different themes. In order to reduce the amount of work and make it more flexible, Bind
created a customizer in 2009 with limited options that only allowed customizing one theme
but that was a huge success.
Two years later, in 2011 and after improvements, Bind launched a new product called
BindTuning, which mastered the company.
“Nowadays nobody knows what is Bind, the company Bind. Everybody knows us as
BindTuning” said the CEO in the second interview.
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4.1. BINDTUNING®
BindTuning was presented in 2011 at the keynote of Mix11, an annual conference organized
by Microsoft for web developers and designers, where upcoming web technologies are
shown. BindTuning is an online theme store where the customer can select a website’ design
of his/her choice, customize the look, and guarantee that the theme fits the company’s needs
and work on a dozen CMS platforms and any device. It supports many CMS platforms, like
Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, DotNetNuke, Kentico, Umbraco, Orchard, Drupal and
WordPress.
The networks of the CEO had no impact on the product introduction and internationalization
of the company, however her own knowledge was important for the creation of BindTuning.
Beatriz Oliveira has two degrees, one in computer technologies and other in web design,
which gives her the technological knowledge and visual sensitivity to develop this product.
As the platforms with which the company is working are complex, without this knowledge
base this product wasn’t possible. Moreover, she mentioned that her English ability was a
good helper in the launch of the product internationally.
According to PRWeb and Microsoft Pinpoint, BindTuning is the leader in custom theme/skin
creation. From the website it is possible to read that the company’s mission is:
“Providing state-of-the-art themes at the lowest price, making them affordable to all”.
In 2013 web designers were working with just one platform due to the high cost and time that
was needed to learn how to work with a new platform. Beatriz Oliveira wasn’t indifferent to
this problem:
“I wanted to build my themes/skins for Kentico and SharePoint but didn’t have the time to
learn those platforms. I kept thinking there must be a better way”, said the CEO in an
interview for prweb.com.
Considering web designers’ difficulties, in April 2014 Bind presented BindTuning LAB,
which opened BindTuning online store to web site developers. Using BindEngine web
designers are allowed to create and sell their themes via BindTuning, a work that was
previously done just by Bind team. The essence of BindEngine is that there are an unlimited
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number of colors to select for customizing the theme that can be use in various CMS
platforms and run on any device (like computer, cellphone or tablet). Thus, with BindTuning,
the company’s goal is to “empower designers and developers to create multi-platform
branding solutions only using HTML/CSS” (BindTuning LinkedIn page), in other words,
with BindTuning the web designers that previously were creating themes just for one
platform because it was hard to learn how to create themes to more than one platform, can
now share and sell their themes in various CMS platforms with BindTuning.
4.1.1.
DIFFERENTIATION FACTORS
In one of the interviews with the CEO, she stated that the main differentiating factor of
BindTuning is its customizing feature. She called it “the machine” behind BindTuning, which
is what allows its users to customize and introduce their themes in different platforms without
knowing how to work with them. Has it is so difficult and time consuming to learn about
different platforms, web designers only work with one platform, but with BindTuning they
can sell themes that work on multiple platforms, has BindTuning configures the final theme
for them. Furthermore, the fact that BindTuning offers its customers the opportunity to use
various platforms is by itself a differentiating feature. Thus, BindTuning is looking for niche
markets where none is making an offer or working on it. What BindTuning is really offering
is a ready-made package, customizable, with a low price and which is low time consuming.
4.1.2.
PRODUCT INNOVATION
As a digital product BindTuning has a short product life cycle, when a new feature is launch
it has high sales, but when the product becomes known within the market it looses interest
and the sales decrease. Thus, this product needs frequent innovations, which undertakes long
periods of investment in R&D to develop a new feature.
Most of the innovations of BindTuning since its introduction were related to the platforms
with which it works. As long as the platforms innovated and introduced new versions,
BindTuning needed to innovate in order to adapt its features to the platforms’ innovations.
In the beginning of 2014, BindTuning introduced themes in two new platforms, WordPress
and Drupal. In this same year it opened its online store to web designers with BindTuning
LAB, that was previously mentioned. With this new feature, BindTuning wishes to begin
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changing its focus, and start being focused just in the machine behind BindTuning and
deliver the development and introduction of new themes to external companies. By allowing
external web designers to make the themes offer in BindTuning, the company can guarantee
that in periods of long investment new themes are still being introduced in the store.
Furthermore, the company right now is not selling just themes, but is introducing modules
that integrate functionalities for the websites, according to the customers’ company needs,
which increases its offer, differentiates and covers a gap that exists in the market.
4.2. CLIENTS
BindTuning is working on a B2B market and its clients, according to the CEO and the project
manager, are around 15.000. The American market covers 65%-70% of clients’ distribution
and with a similar distribution of approximately 3 to 5% are Canada, Australia, Holland,
United Kingdom and Germany. Furthermore, even though the company does not consider
them a relevant market due to dispersion of sales, there are more 80 to 100 countries to which
BindTuning is selling.
As Bind’ clients are mostly development companies, they are loyal to the company, because
each new project of website development the client has, is a new necessity to use
BindTuning. Thus, a few years ago, due to the loyalty of clients, Bind started some
partnerships with clients that have a high volume of sales and wish to differentiate in their
own markets. In these partnerships, Bind allows its clients to ‘white labeling’ its own brand,
in other words, Bind creates under the client’s brand name the website, which uses the
BindTuning machine, so the customer has access to all the features of BindTuning, under its
own brand, to use with internal clients. These partnerships, for example with Pepsi, use the
BindEngine and Bind customization services in some or all departments of the company.
When these MNEs are satisfied with Bind’s product and service, they suggest the company to
some of its partners, which increases the business and potential of internationalization of
Bind, said the project manager.
In one of the interviews, the CEO mentioned that the best way to keep the clients loyal is
with customer service. The technical support is almost enough to keep a client loyal, and
Bind’ support is above the industry average of 94%, with 98.5% of client satisfaction.
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Bind acquires its customers mostly in technology fairs where Bind is present. This is the way
Bind has to meet the clients face-to-face and show them credibility. Fairs represent a huge
investment, but at the same time is an important way to contact with clients or potential ones.
Moreover, the company acquires its clients online, through Google searches with a huge
effort of SEO to optimize these searches. With its own blogs and websites the company
publishes articles about technologies that are related to BindTuning, in order to position itself
as an expert in the area and show credibility to the customers. Bind is present in all social
networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and every online group that have interest on
those platforms with which the company works.
Finally, what clients most appreciate about BindTuning is the ability to customize the theme.
“BindTuning saves me the labor and time to find one (a theme) that matches my client’s style
and logo colors. Now I just choose a great interface and create a unique skin in minutes that
matches my needs perfectly” said Wendy Hauschildt of Blue Starfish Design (Source:
prweb.com)
4.3. COMPETITORS
According to Beatriz Oliveira and her project manager, BindTuning practically has no direct
competition because it is working with niche markets, and is trying to focus and discover
niche markets to which none is offering products.
The company is working with 10 platforms, but two of them, WordPress and Drupal, the
CEO does not consider as a market, because there is a lot of competition and BindTuning is
working with these platforms just to complement its offer and differentiate itself by offering
to its clients the access to various platforms. The strongest platforms for the company are
SharePoint and Office 365, in which the competition is almost non-existent. The CEO stated,
that there aren’t any companies offering themes in the marketplace and that what the other
companies do is a specialized theme to a specific company right from sketch, which is
expensive and time consuming.
Even though BindTuning is working with other platforms outside Microsoft ones, its
strongest market is in Microsoft platforms like SharePoint, because Microsoft has a higher
penetration within business companies that have more money to invest than, for example,
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companies that work with WordPress where there is more offer in the marketplace. Bind’
competitors offer static themes for just one platform and with a maximum of 4 colors
combination. According to a Bind’ customer:
“The reason I only use BindTuning vs. the other theme stores is because of their
customization tool. The other theme stores I’ve found give you the option of only a couple
colors but with BindTuning I can pick the exact color I need. This is critical if I’m trying to
match a color scheme to a company’s specific color”, said Karla Shelton, Chief Digital
Strategist of Fin (Source: prweb.com)
4.4. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The reverse moment occurred in 2008, 3 years after its inception Bind changed its business
focus and started selling themes online in Snowcovered, an American marketplace of DNN,
which marked its first international movement. Bind chose Snowcovered, because at the time
it searched for a marketplace, Snowcovered was the only existent, created by DNN that was
the platform with which Bind was working and every seller was selling on it.
Instead of developing websites, the company started selling via an English website, an online
product that started to be available everywhere where an Internet connection was existent.
Moreover, before 2008 the company didn’t have the objective or expectation to
internationalize, as the market in which it was working was too small and the company didn’t
have the resources to compete internationally. Due to the huge success of the first themes and
without the influence of the CEO network, in April of 2011 BindTuning was launched in a
Microsoft event in Las Vegas, which was crucial for the company to get known.
Before the launch of BindTuning the CEO didn’t have a strong network of contacts that had
an impact in the company development and consequent internationalization. Since the
moment BindTuning was presented in the keynote of Mix11 because the product was
offering themes for Microsoft platforms, and became noticed and known, the CEO started
establishing personal networks with influential people in the area. These influencers are
people that are recognized by the community or by specific attributed status. For example,
annually Microsoft distributes 5000 awards to Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), which
are people that are recognized by the community for their blogs or written articles. Moreover,
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bloggers and speakers that participate in conferences all over the world and talk about these
specific technologies with which Bind is working add a lot of value to the company, because
people which influence the community are always looking for good, innovative and recent
products to show to the community, the so called early adopters, and if they get in touch with
BindTuning they will start to talk about it.
“This involvement with influencers and the development of articles/notices about the
company is crucial to create a brand name”, said Beatriz Oliveira.
Consequently, the company was already invited to participate in local events, mostly in the
US, to talk with experts and interested people about specific technologies and BindTuning.
The US market leads the ranking of customer distribution, but according to the CEO, the
main focus on the US market was not a strategic decision. BindTuning is present in more
than 100 countries, where there are companies using the platforms with which Bind works.
“We are where the market is”, said the CEO.
Still, there are more US sales because the market is bigger. According to the 2014 World
Population Data Sheet from the Population Reference Bureau that is in Appendix 4, in mid2014 the population of North America was of 353 million comparing to 23.5 million in
Australia or 64.5 million in UK. Moreover, in Appendix 5 it’s possible to observe that
according to a Google trends map, SharePoint that is the main market of Bind, is searched in
North America, Australia, UK, etc., which are the markets in which Bind is acting. Besides,
if before BindTuning the company was acting just in a regional market, right now the
Portuguese’ sales are almost inexistent and not significant for the company. The CEO
mentioned that the sales in Portugal should be close to 0.5% of the total sales and the project
manager said that in Portugal the company should have one or two clients.
The fact that some countries’ laws are more restricted has influenced the company’ sales. The
CEO stated that as the company is selling online, it doesn’t feel so much these barriers.
However, in Europe for example, there are a lot of financial bureaucracies with invoices that
doesn’t exist in the United States, which make the businesses much more agile in America.
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According to Bind’ founder “It is easier to show up in the US market and US search engines,
than in other countries.”
In order to support its position in the market and acquire more customers, Bind invests in US
fairs more than European ones. The CEO argued that a great investment is needed in order to
participate in these fairs, and as the EU fairs are small it doesn’t justifies the investment – the
participation in fairs and events is the only location decision that the company makes.
Snowcovered was already present in various markets, thus Bind started selling at the same
time to different parts of the world, since the moment it became an online seller. In other
words, Bind became global since it turned into an online company. Yet, even though South
America and Asia are huge and potential markets, the CEO mentioned that they are difficult
markets to enter due to cultural reasons. For example, to enter these markets Bind needs to
have subsidiaries and employees, which speak the national languages of these countries,
because the locals doesn’t buy to external companies. A proof of this fact is that for example,
the Asian market is a big one with a lot of people but with no sales, even though the product
is online. So, “there must be something wrong” stated the CEO. To sell in these markets is
needed more than just being online, it is needed a physical presence and direct contact with
the clients.
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5. DATA ANALYSIS
After the presentation of the case study regarding the company Bind, this chapter will
summarize and compare the findings with already existent theory that was described in the
literature review chapter.
Firm characteristics
BG companies are young firms with a small size that internationalize in a maximum of 6
years after its inception. Due to its early internationalization, these firms have a hybrid
organizational structure and limited tangible assets. According to these parameters, Bind
could be considered a BG firm. It internationalized in 2008, 3 years after its opening in 2005
and only has 8 employees and the CEO, which are organized in a “flat” organizational
structure without any hierarchies for decision making, except the CEO that is at the top of
decision making process. Moreover, as Bind is working on the digital market, the limited
resources of a BG company does not apply in this case, because the only resources that the
company needs to do business is a computer and internet connection, and these resources
were already being used by the company before internationalization. Finally, the BG theory
states that one driver of BG firms’ rapid internationalization is the acquisition of international
financing, but this was not the case of Bind, which is self-sustaining, only investing with the
revenues obtained and does not depend on external financial support to invest and grow.
Business Strategy
The BG theory assumes that BG firms offer to niche markets innovative products, with high
quality and performance that are cost effective, while the U-Model does not refers the
business strategy adopted by companies. Actually, this is what Bind is doing with
BindTuning. As mentioned earlier, BindTuning is an innovative product without competitors
on its main markets. There are some companies offering ‘quite’ the same product as Bind, but
in the end they don’t offer all the features and conditions of BindTuning. The company is
offering an online product that is cheap, faster to get, customizable according to the
customer’s needs and work in several CMS platforms. Moreover, according to the CEO, with
BindTuning the company is targeting niche markets where none is making an offer.
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Approach to internationalization
While the U-Model states that companies have a reactive and opportunistic attitude to
internationalization, the BG theory assumes that the approach to internationalization is
proactive and structured. Bind showed a proactive approach to internationalization when its
founder identified a market opportunity in the themes market. The offer of themes was small
considering that different companies have different colours in their logos, so the CEO
decided to create new themes with more and different colours to sell. This critical ‘episode’
changed the company’s focus and took it to the international market. Furthermore, this
internationalization was not predicted or structured. As the themes for websites are digital
products selling on the Internet and the company started selling them occasionally, there was
no need to create a market strategy or future plans. According to the CEO, now that the
company is becoming bigger and with a significant business size, it does need planning and
objectives delineation.
Reasons to internationalize and Speed of internationalization
Traditional firms, according to the U-Model, internationalize due to domestic downturns and
to seek a more solid market platform. BG firms internationalize in order to grow and exploit
foreign markets opportunities to increase global market share and profits. In the case of Bind,
the company didn’t internationalize due to market constraints. Bind internationalized because
it started selling an online product that due to its digital nature uses the Internet as its
distribution channel, thus it has the potential to achieve a global scale. Furthermore, this
global scale was potentiated since the moment Bind started selling its themes in an online
marketplace that was already present in different countries, therefore it had a rapid
internationalization process and not a slow and incremental internationalization as supported
by the U-Model.
Domestic market
Regarding the domestic market, the U-Model considers that companies establish a strong
domestic market base before internationalization; on the other hand, BG firms’ domestic
market is either small or non-existent. However, the special case of born-again global firms
shows that some firms that are well established in the domestic market and with no
motivation to internationalize, due to some critical episode start a rapid and dedicated
internationalization. That’s what happened with Bind, when the CEO found a new market
opportunity as mentioned before. Until this moment, internationalization wasn’t an objective
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or expectation of the company, because according to the CEO, she had been in a big
company before Bind and was tired of it, so she didn’t want to grow internationally with
Bind. However, from this moment on, the company business changed and its target market
altered from the domestic to a global one. Moreover, the domestic market of Bind since it
became international is almost inexistent. According to the founder, just 0.5% of its sales
occur in Portugal.
Psychic distance and foreign markets
The psychic distance is important for traditional firms. According to the U-Model firms
internationalize to countries with a close psychic distance, in other words to countries with
similar culture and business behaviour, because the foreign markets involves risk and
uncertainty due to low level of information and knowledge available about the present and
future of that market, so the company keeps the risk taking at a low level. On the other side,
for BG firms, psychic distance is not important while internationalizing. For these firms,
foreign markets represent an opportunity, and as the company has an innovative product to
sell it is more risk taking.
The target countries to which Bind internationalized were not a strategic decision, as the
product distribution channel was a global marketplace on the Internet. However, the CEO
believes that for Asia and South America markets, the cultural distance seems to matter. She
mentioned that for example Asia is a big market with a lot of demand but with no sales, so
something must be wrong for an online product does not have sales in this potential market.
While talking with experts in this market, she found that to sell in Asia being online is not
enough. The company needs to establish subsidiaries and adapt to the local culture.
Furthermore, the fact that the company headquarters are located in Portugal and the main
market is in America is constraining the company development, according to the CEO.
Although the company is selling online and the location shouldn’t matter, she mentioned that
they are loosing some opportunities in the American market because it takes time to
communicate and travel between both countries. The CEO considers that the personal contact
is relevant to establish credibility and confidence with clients. That is why Bind is present in
fairs, where a face-to-face contact with the client is possible.
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International knowledge and experience
In both theories, knowledge about the foreign markets is crucial for the companies’ success.
Though, in the U-Model the expertise about foreign markets can only be acquired after the
company internationalization with business experience in the market, which reduces the
speed of internationalization that occurs in incremental steps, while the company acquires
knowledge in the market. For the BG theory, this international expertise and experience is
embedded in the entrepreneur and founder of the company, which is crucial part in the firm
development. The founder has international experience and detains contacts and knowledge
about the markets to which the firm internationalize, which reduces the risk and uncertainty
of that market and increase the speed of internationalization.
Considering the specific case of Bind, the founder had no previous international experience
that could have an impact in the company internationalization and even though some
employees had already international experience, according to the CEO this experience had no
impact in the company’s business and internationalization.
Market advantage and importance of the entrepreneur
Albeit the founder did not have an international experience, which influenced the fast
internationalization of the company, her knowledge base was crucial for the company’
success and to offer competitive advantage.
While in the U-Model companies achieve market advantage through years of operations, BGs
have market advantage due to their strong knowledge base and technology competence.
Bind’ CEO has two degrees that give her technology knowledge and visual sensitivity to
create BindTuning and offer something that none is offering in the market: the ability to
introduce the theme in different platforms and the sensitivity for creating and branding the
theme.
Besides, during the interviews it was possible to note, that as an entrepreneur the founder and
CEO of Bind detains a lot of information about the company and is more involved in the
business than the rest of the team. Actually, the project manager mentioned that the CEO is a
crucial part to run the business, as she has the vision and states the path that the team should
follow in order to achieve their final objectives. This fact is supported once more by the BG
theory, which states that a strong entrepreneurial culture like the managerial vision,
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proactivity, education and previous experience of the entrepreneur, is crucial for the firm
development.
Role of networks
In the U-Model, MNEs use their networks in early stages of internationalization that are
gradually replaced with firm’s own resources. For BG firms, networks are crucial for the firm
expansion, rapid creation and foreign markets exposure. As BGs have limited resources, they
rely on established networks with other companies to supplement their offer and gain
contacts to develop the business in unknown countries.
The CEO’ networks of Bind did not have any impact in the creation or internationalization of
the company. The CEO just started to establish important and influencing networks after the
company internationalization and introduction of BindTuning, in order to create WOM
around the product, which is important to create a brand, she stated. The creation of Bind, the
introduction of the first themes in Snowcovered and the demonstration of BindTuning in
Mix11, did not have anything related with the networks of the founder. Nevertheless, the
born-again global firms’ studies already mentioned one ‘episode’ that is related to these
networks relations and potentiates the firm internationalization, which is: companies
internationalize due to client followership. Regarding this case, the project manager believes
that when the partner’ companies of Bind are satisfied with their work, they recommend the
company to their subsidiaries or partners, which expands the company’s international
business.
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6. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The purpose of this thesis was to analyse and compare the U-Model and BG theory, in order
to decide which one best explains Bind’ internationalization.
The thesis started by outlining the U-Model, which represented the traditional view of
internationalization and then the BG theory, high lightening the special case of born-again
global firms. This overview finished with a comparison of both theories.
Based on four interviews in the company Bind, three with the founder and CEO, and one
with the project manager, a single case study was developed and analysed.
6.1. MAIN CONCLUSIONS
The findings showed that the internationalization of Bind is better explained by the BG
theory. According to the literature, BGs have a rapid internationalization, internationalize by
offering innovative products to niche markets, which is possible due to the strong
technological capabilities of the company and they have an opportunistic approach to
internationalization. All these aspects were proven by the case study.
Inside the BG theory, there is the special case of Born-again Global firms, which have
specific characteristics that differ from the BG theory and which better explain the
internationalization of Bind. Even though there are some discrepancies between the theory
and Bind case, the amount of characteristics that match this theory are superior than the
amount of differences, thus this company can be identified as a born-again firm, since the
main characteristics mentioned by (Bell, McNaughton, and Young 2001) were identified.
Bind is a small company that before its internationalization was acting in the domestic market
as a traditional firm with no motivation to internationalize. Even though the rapid
internationalization occurred 3 years after inception, which is earlier than the 10 years
proposed in the born-again global studies, it occurred due to a special ‘episode’ that was the
entrepreneur’ perception of a market opportunity regarding the lack of offer in the themes
market, which made a dramatic change in the business focus. Since this moment, more than
50% of the company’s business is occurring internationally and the experience, knowledge
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and commitment of the founder, as previously mentioned, were crucial for the company’
success. Furthermore, even though the client followership was not the critical ‘episode’ that
potentiated this company’ internationalization, it is feeding the company’s international
movement.
However, there are common characteristics of BG theory and Born-again Global studies,
which are not supported by the case. The international experience of the founder, the low
impact of psychic distance while internationalizing and the networks of the CEO were
believed to be in the background of BGs (Oviatt and McDougall 1994; Madsen and Servais
1997), but were not proven in this case study.
The lack of international experience of the founder wasn’t a constraint in the company
internationalization, the CEO just felt that networks were important and started establishing
them after the company internationalization and finally, the high psychic distance to South
America and Asia is having an impact in the company international expansion. Thus, it is
possible to conclude that for this specific case both theories could be seen as complementary
in explaining the internationalization of Bind, since these three previous aspects are better
explained by the U-Model.
6.2. LIMITATIONS
This research has some limitations that need to be discussed. The first limitation is related to
the single use of qualitative research. Only descriptive data was collected through
interviewee’s perceptions, thus the research results depends on a high subjective analysis by
the researcher of the points of view that were obtained during the interviews. Furthermore,
the fact that the company haven’t provided any document to support the interviewee’s
answers limited the validity and accuracy of the study.
The second limitation is associated with the limited number of interviews that were done.
Only four interviews were possible and three of them were with the same person, the CEO
and founder of the company, which excluded other points of view and opinions about the
company’s internationalization.
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Finally, this research is represented as a single case study, focusing on a particular Internet
base company that sells a digital product. More specifically it focus on the
internationalization of Bind, thus the findings are firm specific making it difficult to draw
general conclusions about overall companies’ behaviour.
6.3. FUTURE RESEARCH
Bind is acting in the high tech industry, like most of the companies used in previous studies
about BGs. Although, this company is using the Internet as its primary distribution channel,
as its core business is selling an online product. Nothing related to this distribution channel
has been written until now, regarding BGs. Furthermore, the fact that the company is doing
online business could be the reason why not all the aspects are supported by the BG theory.
That is why further research on this topic would be useful. Nowadays, online business is
growing and this kind of companies are the future, so focus research on BGs that are based
on the Internet and understand the main differences to the BGs of more traditional industries
will be an interesting research.
Moreover, it would be also interesting to focus future research in other than high tech
industry. The fact that most of the studies were focus on this industry could have biased the
existent research on BGs, as companies on the same industry have similar strategies and
behaviour, thus future research on BGs should focus on different industries.
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7. APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: TRANSCRIPT OF SECOND INTERVIEW WITH BEATRIZ
OLIVEIRA
11-04-2015
Nome: Beatriz Oliveira
Profissão: Engenheira informática e web designer
Função: Fundadora e CEO
1. Em que ano iniciou a atividade com a BindTuning e porque decidiu criar esta
empresa?
A BindTuning (BT) e a empresa são duas coisas diferentes. A empresa chama-se Bind e
BindTuning é uma marca da empresa. A empresa Bind foi criada em 2005 e não tinha
como objectivo, nada a ver com o atual negócio da empresa. A empresa Bind tinha como
objectivo o desenvolvimento de soluções online para pequenas empresas.
Em 2008, devido a problemas pessoais da CEO da empresa que a fizeram ficar imóvel
durante um período de tempo, esta descobriu uma falha no mercado que lhe proporcionou
uma nova oportunidade de negócio: não havia grande oferta no mercado dos temas,
especialmente para uma plataforma com a qual a empresa trabalhava DotNetNuke, e o
que havia era fraco. Durante o tempo em que esteve impossibilitada de se mover, a
criadora resolveu criar um novo tema para vender. Ainda durante esse período, Beatriz
Oliveira colocou o tema à venda e durante a primeira semana o tema tornou-se Top
Seller, número 1 no marketplace da DotNetNuke. Os bons resultados do primeiro tema
levaram a CEO a criar um segundo tema, que colocou à venda passado um mês, e que
voltou novamente a ser Top Seller.
Este novo produto era apenas temas. Existem funcionalidades e existe o aspecto, “nesta
altura era só vender aspeto”. Era um pacote em que os clientes aplicavam num
determinado site e mudavam a sua imagem/aspeto do site, mas estes temas eram estáticos
“o que as pessoas olhavam e viam, era aquilo que compravam e aplicavam (...) não
podiam mudar nada”. Foi desta forma que a empresa Bind mudou o seu foco de atividade.
Logo nos primeiros pacotes criados, estes tinham várias cores, tendo em conta que os
logótipos das empresas são de diferentes cores e por isso cada pacote tinha 8 cores, o que
dava imenso trabalho que por sua vez era bastante repetitivo.
De forma a reduzir este trabalho e tornar o processo mais flexível, surgiu a ideia de criar
o customizador “algo que permitisse às pessoas, customizarem e alterarem sem nós
termos esse tipo de intervenção”. Devido à falta de tecnologias, que não eram tão
avançadas como agora, o primeiro customizador foi lançado em 2009. Este permitia
apenas customizar um único tema, tinha opções limitadas que eram especificas para o
determinado tema. Mas foi um grande sucesso, “as pessoas adoravam aquilo”. De seguida
tentaram lançar um novo tema, alargando um pouco a lógica do que estava a ser feito até
ao momento. Foi neste segundo tema, que surgiu a génese do BT, criar um tema que fosse
totalmente flexível e qualquer pessoa pudesse customizar qualquer tema, para qualquer
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plataforma, não só para DotNetNuke, mas arranjar um motor que permitisse o uso em
diversas plataformas.
Durante cerca de 1 ano e meio o produto esteve a ser desenvolvido, e foi lançado em
Abril de 2011, num evento organizado pela Microsoft, “Mix11”, para o qual a empresa
foi convidada e o produto foi mostrado na Keynote do evento.
2. Enquanto empresa Bind, em que mercado atuavam?
Trabalhavam num mercado local, quase regional, eram uma empresa como outra qualquer
que se baseava na criação de sites, soluções online.
Foi em 2008, com o lançamento dos temas num marketplace americano, que a empresa
mudou o seu paradigma, deixando de fazer sites e começando a atuar no mercado online.
E devido ao seu sucesso, em 2011 nasceu a marca BT que dominou a empresa, “hoje em
dia ninguém sabe o que é a Bind, a empresa Bind. Toda a gente nos conhece como a
BindTuning.”
3. Atualmente, qual é o número de clientes da empresa? E qual a distribuição
geográfica dos mesmos?
Mais de 15 000. O mercado americano lidera o ranking de distribuição dos clientes com
uma percentagem entre os 65%-70%. De seguida, com uma distribuição quase igual
encontra-se o Canadá, Austrália, Holanda, Inglaterra, Alemanha com 3 a 5% dos clientes.
Por fim, com um mercado que não é relevante devido à dispersão de vendas, a empresa
tem mais 80 a 100 países na qual realiza negocio. Se considerar por áreas, no Golfo
Pérsico as vendas são significativas e na Europa também, mas como esta engloba
bastantes países, as vendas estão bastante distribuídas.
América do Sul e extrema Ásia, são mercados bastante grandes, mas com grande
dificuldade de penetração, devido a questões culturais.
3.1.
Estes clientes, são one-shot ou são clientes fidelizados?
Maior parte dos clientes são recorrentes. Há clientes que fazem uma única compra, mas
grande parte dos clientes da Bind são recorrentes, não ficando apenas por uma compra,
visto que o tipo de clientes são empresas de desenvolvimento onde a necessidade não se
esgota numa única vez, pois cada projeto que desenvolvem é uma necessidade nova.
Devido à recorrência dos clientes, à cerca de um ano a empresa começou outro nível de
relação com os mesmos, que foi o estabelecimento de parcerias. Este modelo de parceria
é para clientes com um certo volume e que pretendem se diferenciar no seu próprio
mercado. Assim, a BT permite fazer ‘white labeling’ da sua própria marca, ou seja, a
Bind monta um site debaixo da marca do parceiro que usa o motor BT, assim, a empresa
tem todas as funcionalidades da BT debaixo da sua marca, para clientes internos.
3.2.
Como é que o BindTuning se faz chegar aos seus clientes? Como se deram a
conhecer?
Grande parte dos clientes são adquiridos nas feiras. Como a empresa não tem nenhum
tipo de marketing onde possa estabelecer contacto com as pessoas via telefónica, o
contacto cara-a-cara é efectuado nas feiras, onde esta adquiriu maior parte dos seus
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clientes mais importantes. Através de uma lista de potenciais parceiros, a empresa envia
mailings recorrentes, no sentido de tentar angariar parceiros, mas não é muito eficaz.
Estes parceiros correspondem a 40 ou 50 clientes da empresa.
Os outros 15000 são principalmente adquiridos online: motores de pesquisa (Google)
através de um grande esforço de SEO para optimizar as pesquisas; estratégia de partilha
de conhecimento de forma a posicionarem-se como especialistas em determinadas áreas,
especialmente nas plataformas com que trabalham, através da criação de um site
denominado Academy, que não está relacionado com o BT, tendo como objectivo falar de
tecnologias nestas áreas em geral. São publicados artigos sobre assuntos muito úteis, para
assuntos gerais da plataforma, mas é sempre feita uma referencia ao BT, como por
exemplo “como usar no BT”; detenção de uma knowledge-base com bastantes artigos.
Além de os posicionar como especialistas numa área, estes artigos também oferecem
credibilidade à marca. A empresa também tem uma estratégia de marketing social,
estando presente em todas as redes sociais, e tudo que sejam grupos de interesse sobre as
plataformas, onde a empresa faz posts dentro dos mesmos. Finalmente o WOM e as feiras
são bastante importantes, para estabelecer um contacto direto com o cliente. No próximo
mês de Maio a empresa estará no Ignite, organizado pela Microsoft. As feiras são um
importantíssimo meio para contactar os clientes, só que o seu investimento é bastante
elevado.
4. Qual a concorrência do BindTuning?
Praticamente o BT não tem concorrência direta. Porque? Porque trabalham com nichos de
mercado. Trabalham com cerca de 10 plataformas, onde duas (WordPress e Drupal) tem
muita afluência de concorrentes, mas a Bind não as considera como mercado, pois estas
só existem para beneficiar os clientes BT. O BT encontra-se nestas duas plataformas
como complemento para os seus clientes, por exemplo, um cliente pode trabalhar em
SharePoint mas esporadicamente tem que fazer um trabalho em WordPress, em vez de
contratar um novo serviço, também pode usar BT. Como a Bind não tem que adicionar
temas, só adiciona uma vez a cada plataforma e depois o motor gere automaticamente o
tema para cada plataforma, o facto de estar em mais plataformas não adiciona
propriamente mais trabalho à empresa.
As plataformas mais fortes para a empresa são o SharePoint e o Office 365, nas quais a
empresa considera a concorrência quase inexistente. Não existem empresas a desenvolver
temas no marketplace, o que existe são empresas que fazem o desenvolvimento à medida,
com um Target diferente do BT. Quem compra ao BT compra um pacote pré-feito,
customizável, a um preço reduzido e que demora pouco tempo a criar. Há empresas que
querem tudo à medida, sendo preciso um trabalho manual, bastante caro e que requer
tempo. Uma oferta como o BT, a CEO considera que “não temos concorrência”.
A CEO considera o SharePoint o seu principal mercado, e a sua presença em outras
plataformas existe para marcar a diferença, para se diferenciar. Como a Bind não
customiza especialmente para uma plataforma, tendo um motor que é multiplataforma,
diferencia-se da concorrência. A empresa anda à procura de nichos, para os quais
ninguém se encontra a trabalhar.
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5. O vosso produto aparenta ser pouco diferenciador? Como é que se diferenciam e
protegem da imitação?
O facto de se poder customizar já é uma grande diferença. “A máquina espetacular” que
está por detrás do BT e que permite aos utilizadores customizar e a nós inserir vários
temas sem saber nada sobre como trabalhar nas plataformas e vender, é uma grande
ajuda. O trabalho nas plataformas é tão complexo, que por exemplo, “um designer ou
sabe de SharePoint ou sabe de Web-design”, e o nosso motor, permite aos designers
trabalharem com SharePoint sabendo só a base de trabalho em HTML e CSS e não
sabendo trabalhar em SharePoint, pois o motor BT faz o tema sozinho. Como são áreas
difíceis de entrar, não há oferta nem concorrência, enquanto que no WordPress por
exemplo, existem várias pessoas a fazer temas.
No próximo mês de Maio, a empresa irá apresentar duas novas plataformas, para as quais
nem a Microsoft permitiu a introdução de temas, mas a Bind conseguiu introduzir lá
temas. “É isso que nós andamos a tentar fazer, o difícil”.
6. Porque é que decidiram focar o vosso mercado na América?
“Nós quase nem decidimos, o mercado decide por si”. O BT está onde há empresas a
utilizar as plataformas onde o BT trabalha, por exemplo SharePoint. “Estamos onde o
mercado está”.
7. Como é que fizeram a vossa entrada na América?
A empresa começou a vender num marketplace americano (Snowcovered), o que a levou
a ser conhecida. Quando a empresa sai do Snowcovered, já tinha bastantes clientes neste
mercado. A participação em feiras nos Estados Unidos também ajudou. Como na Europa
as feiras são mais pequenas do que na América, devido ao grande investimento que
necessita ser feito, a CEO considera que não se justifica a participação.
8. Qual a análise de preços em relação aos custos? Ou seja que margem conseguem
ter?
Os custos são limitados. A maior parte dos custos são com pessoal, não consumem
matérias primas e tem os custos normais de escritório, água e luz. A empresa tem grandes
períodos de investimento, pois as ferramentas que utilizam são muito complexas e por
vezes requerem períodos de 1 ano/1 ano e meio para desenvolver uma ferramenta.
Quando a empresa lança novos temas/ferramentas tem picos de lucro, que depois
acalmam durante períodos de investimento. Por isso, os lucros nos picos de venda tem
que compensar os grandes investimentos em R&D. Depois de ser lançado e quando passa
a ser conhecido, o produto perde o interesse e as vendas estabilizam até à introdução de
nova inovação.
A empresa pretende começar a focar só no motor/tecnologia por detrás do BT e entregar o
desenvolvimento de temas a empresas externas. Tem uma empresa americana a trabalhar
com o BT, que disponibiliza 4 trabalhadores só a desenvolver temas para o BT. Assim, a
empresa pretende angariar mais Web-designers, que criem temas e que preencham os
espaços em que a empresa não pode criar temas por estar focada em novos investimentos.
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9. Qual foi a evolução do produto? Como é que inovaram?
Desde a primeira introdução do BT em 2011, a evolução do produto tem sido focada na
introdução de novas plataformas (a empresa tem que estar a par das evoluções das
plataformas e responder às mesmas com inovações que se adaptem), houve uma grande
mudança à quase 2 anos onde passaram de suportar plataformas dot.net e passaram a
suportar plataformas php, onde entrou o WordPress e Drupal. A empresa neste momento
vai deixar de vender só temas e passará a vender módulos de funcionalidades para
SharePoint, por exemplo, alargando assim a sua oferta, para complementar, pois existe
um gap no mercado nesta área. Assim, estes módulos vão integrar funcionalidades dos
temas oferecidos com necessidades da empresa cliente, o que irá diversificar a oferta. A
ferramenta de customização também foi toda renovada.
A BT tem tentado solidificar a sua credibilidade introduzindo complementos ao produto
principal, como artigos, seminários online, etc., não ligados ao BT precisamente.
10. Quantos colaboradores tem a empresa?
Neste momento tem 9 colaboradores mais a CEO.
11. Disse-me que a empresa Bind já trabalhava no mercado americano. Como é que
entraram neste mercado? Através de alguma parceria?
A entrada no mercado americano foi automático. O facto de o produto ser vendido online,
abre caminhos para o produto chegar a potenciais clientes. A apresentação no Mix11 foi
crucial para a empresa se dar a conhecer. A Bind foi a primeira empresa portuguesa a ser
apresentada na Keynote de um evento da Microsoft. A partir do momento em que a BT
passou a ser noticia e a ser conhecida, a CEO começou a criar relações com pessoas
influentes na área, o que acrescenta bastante valor pois a CEO acredita, que conhecer
pessoas que influenciam a comunidade é muito importante. Estes influenciadores, andam
sempre à procura do que é bom, inovador e recente para mostrar à comunidade. O
envolvimento da empresa com estes influenciadores e a criação de artigos à volta da
empresa, é crucial para criar uma marca. A empresa também já foi convidada para
participar em eventos locais sobre determinadas tecnologias para experts e interessados, e
para falar sobre as tecnologias e o produto em especifico.
12. Porque é que a empresa decidiu internacionalizar? A entrada em outros países
além da América foi uma decisão posterior?
“Nós entramos nos vários países mais ou menos ao mesmo tempo”. Nos Estados Unidos é
onde há mais procura, mais uso destas plataformas e destas funções. O marketplace onde
a empresa se encontrava já vendia para o mundo todo, por isso aquando da iniciação de
vendas, a empresa automaticamente vendia para o mundo todo. Há mais vendas
americanas porque o mercado é maior. As próprias leis dos países, condicionam a
tendência das vendas. É mais fácil aparecer no mercado americano e nos motores de
pesquisa americanos do que em outros países. A única escolha em relação à localização
que a empresa faz, é a empresa em eventos/feiras na América.
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13. Mas por exemplo, se eu me encontrar na Ásia, eu posso aceder ao vosso site e
comprar o vosso produto. Porque é que não vendem neste mercado?
É uma questão cultural, o consumidor Asiático não compra o nosso produto. A América
do Sul e a Ásia, não compram só porque o produto está online, estes consumidores
compram produtos de empresas locais. É preciso abrir escritórios ou ter parceiros nestes
países, para criar negocio, pois estes países valorizam muito a relação pessoal, e a
aproximação cultural (língua, cultura). Para estes mercados é preciso mais do que estar
online: presença física, contacto direto com os clientes.
14. Qual o nível de faturação anual da empresa?
Em 2014 a empresa faturou aproximadamente 300.000€.
15. Como é que conseguem manter os clientes fiéis?
O suporte técnico ao cliente é crucial. É o maior ponto de fidelização. Tipicamente a
empresa anda nos 100% de satisfação, neste momento estão nos 98.5% e a média da
industria está nos 94%, por isso a empresa tem um excelente suporte técnico. O nível de
serviço garante uma resposta em menos de 24h. Há um grande investimento no suporte
técnico.
15.1. E este suporte é suficiente para manter os clientes?
“Ás vezes é o que faz com que o cliente fique verdadeiramente satisfeito”.
16. Para finalizar, poderia me fazer um resumo do que a empresa realmente faz?
Qual é o vosso negocio?
“Nós somos um fornecedor de templates para sites, imagem para sites” que trabalha com
plataformas especificas. Quando se cria um site há varias formas de o fazer, e o que as
empresas de desenvolvimento hoje em dia procuram são plataformas nas quais já existem
várias funcionalidades pré-implementadas, por exemplo gestão de utilizadores, toda a
administração do site, criar páginas, adicionar novas zonas no site, adicionar ficheiros e
imagens, etc., evitando que estas funcionalidades tenham que ser estabelecidas/criadas de
raiz. Assim, estas plataformas permitem criar sites de forma mais rápida, mais inteligente
e mais flexível.
Há imensas plataformas no mercado. Para o público em geral existe por exemplo o
WordPress. No meio do processo de criação do seu website através destas plataformas o
consumidor poderá achar que o design não é aquilo que deseja, e é aí que este procura por
temas específicos que encaixem nas suas necessidades.
A BT trabalha com plataformas mais empresariais como o SharePoint, ou Kentico.
Assim, estão mais focados em plataformas utilizadas por empresas, e por isso o seu
Target é o mercado empresarial, empresas de desenvolvimento que fazem a
implementação de website em cima destas plataformas. A BT só vende pacotes de
imagem.
“Imagina que a Sonae vai criar um website no seu sistema intranet, e subcontrata uma
empresa de desenvolvimento para desenvolver o site. Essa empresa que irá fazer a
implementação, ou faz o aspeto “à mão” o que demora 2/3 meses, ou então compra um
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pacote que é só instalar e automaticamente tem um layout diferente ou aplica um pacote
com uma imagem diferente (BindTuning). A empresa vai ao BT, escolhe um tema que
lhe interessa e pode customizá-lo, mudar cores, fontes, etc., faz download do pacote e
instala na intranet do cliente para o qual estão a desenvolver.”
16.1. A empresa só trabalha com sistemas Microsoft?
Não. Atualmente, da Microsoft a BT trabalha com o Office 365, o Orchard e depois há
outras, como o Kentico e o DNN, por exemplo, que não são Microsoft. Só que os
Microsoft, a nível empresarial tem muita penetração e tipicamente as empresas tem muito
mais dinheiro para comprar/investir, do que no WordPress, por exemplo onde há muita
oferta.
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APPENDIX 2: TRANSCRIPT OF THIRD INTERVIEW WITH BEATRIZ OLIVEIRA
12-05-2015:
Nome: Beatriz Oliveira
Função: Fundadora e CEO
1. Quais são os preços praticados?
Os preços praticados variam consoante a oferta e dimensão do mercado. As plataformas
mais caras tem a ver com a complexidade do produto e com a concorrência existente.
2. Como são feitos os pagamentos? (Por compra/mensalidade/anuidade) Existe
alguma licença ou cada tema é uma nova compra?
Os temas pagam-se por download, como cada pacote (tema) customizado pelo cliente é
único, o cliente paga cada pacote/download de tema que efetua. Os novos módulos de
funcionalidade que irão passar a ser vendidos, vão ser individuais ou por anuidade.
3. Qual a duração de usabilidade do produto?
Ilimitado, a partir do momento em que o download é feito, o tema pode ser usado as
vezes que o cliente quiser (não existem licenças).
4. Qual foi a contribuição da sua rede de contactos, e respectiva importância, no
desenvolvimento da empresa e posteriormente do BindTuning?
Para a criação da empresa a rede de contactos não teve impacto nem foi usada. Na parte
do produto (BindTuning), a rede de contactos fez muita diferença, pois numa rede web o
conhecimento de novas pessoas ajuda a divulgar o produto (podcasts, artigos, etc.). Muito
poucos contactos existiam antes do BindTuning, a maior parte dos contactos da CEO que
realmente fazem a diferença foram adquiridos depois do lançamento do BindTuning.
Para serem lançados e falados na Keynote do Mix11, os contactos da CEO não tiveram
influência.
5. Qual a formação dos colaboradores da empresa?
Licenciados em informática e uma pessoa formada em marketing.
6. Quais as principais dificuldades enfrentadas ou que esteja atualmente a
enfrentar na empresa ou com o BindTuning?
Em relação ao produto a maior dificuldade é fazer/estipular um preço. O preço escolhido
tem que ser razoável para uma empresa muito pequena, mas também não pode ser
demasiado barato, pois as grandes empresas não compram, por estar conotado a pouca
qualidade.
Em Portugal, o segundo problema é em contratar profissionais.
Ser reconhecido no mercado global, implica persistência. O facto da empresa estar
sediada em Portugal é um constrangimento, pois mesmo sendo um negocio online o
contacto pessoal é crucial e faz muita diferença.
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O contacto pessoal com clientes nas feiras é crucial, pois estes sentem confiança no
produto e passam a conhecer todas as suas funcionalidades. O facto de estarem
deslocados do mercado principal (América), é um constrangimento, pois a distância faz
com que não aproveitem todas as oportunidades do mercado.
7. Qual é a estrutura da empresa? Como é que se organizam?
Estrutura flat, existe a CEO e o resto dos colaboradores. Existe um colaborador
considerado “sénior” que cuida da gestão de projetos mas dentro da empresa são todos
iguais.
8. Qual o impacto/influência da sua experiência no desenvolvimento da empresa? E
o dos colaboradores?
Foi grande. Os nichos/plataformas com que a empresa trabalha são bastante complexos,
não existindo muitos designers a trabalhar para os mesmos.
A CEO tem dois cursos (informática e design), o que lhe dá conhecimento técnico e
sensibilidade visual para desenvolver a sua oferta.
Não houve nenhuma experiência internacional a nível de estudos ou profissional por parte
da CEO que tenha influenciado o desenvolvimento da empresa. Embora hajam dois
colaboradores com experiência internacional, esta também não influenciou o
desenvolvimento da empresa, apenas lhes dá mais motivação quando trabalham com
empresas internacionais.
A única característica que a CEO considera a ter ajudado, foi a sua facilidade com o
inglês.
9. Quais são as vossas “armas” estratégicas?
Complexidade do produto e o facto do produto não ser fácil de desenvolver. É preciso
tempo, ou seja, não é fácil ser copiado. Parte técnica.
10. Como era o negocio da Bind antes do BindTuning? Como estavam estabelecidos
no mercado?
Era um negocio muito local/ regional, sem grandes expectativas de crescimento. A
empresa fazia consultoria, desenvolvimento de sites a nível local e algumas empresas
com dimensão nacional. Como a Bind sempre esteve muito ligada à parte de branding,
fazia também parcerias com empresas de desenvolvimento para tratar da imagem dos
projetos. A nível local eram uma empresa pequena, sem grande relevância. Atuavam na
região do Minho, Porto e Aveiro.
11. Enquanto Bind, pensavam em internacionalizar antes do BindTuning existir?
Era um objetivo da empresa?
Não, no modelo em que a empresa atuava não fazia sentido nem era um objetivo.
12. Qual a percentagem de vendas em Portugal?
Existe uma percentagem, mas muito irrelevante, quase nem chega a 0,5%. Considerando
o valor das vendas, é mesmo irrelevante. A CEO considera que Portugal tem um
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problema de cultura pois tudo tem que ser feito à medida, e o facto de ter que reduzir
custos não é um bom argumento para mudar a forma como compram um produto. Mais
ainda, para os portugueses, os produtos nacionais normalmente não transmitem qualidade.
13. Quando é que o BindTuning LAB foi iniciado? Ou seja, quando é que abriram o
BindTuning a web designers externos?
A primeira empresa a entrar no BindTuning foi no fim de Setembro de 2014, embora o
LAB tenha sido apresentado 6 meses antes, em Abril de 2014. A empresa ainda se
encontra num processo de aprendizagem com os web designers de forma a melhorar o
programa, para aumentar o numero de empresas colaboradoras.
14. Como é que “encontraram” o Snowcovered? Porque é que escolheram este
marketplace? Quem fez o primeiro contacto?
À 7 anos atrás era o único marketplace existente e por isso os vendedores existentes
encontravam-se no Snowcovered, criado e desenvolvido pelo DotNetNuke. A Bind foi
quem procurou o marketplace e fez a sua subscrição online para iniciar as suas vendas.
Neste momento a Bind praticamente já não vende nesta plataforma e os produtos que lá
tem já se encontram desatualizados.
15. Qual o montante de vendas que tiveram quando passaram ao mercado dos
temas? E a sua distribuição geográfica?
No primeiro ano foram aproximadamente 100.000€, sendo que as percentagens eram
aproximadamente iguais às que existem atualmente, onde a América detém quase 70%
das vendas.
16. Disse-me que depois da keynote do Mix11, começou a estabelecer contactos com
pessoas influentes na área. A que pessoas se referia? Como é que estas são
influentes?
Nas áreas das tecnologias há pessoas que são reconhecidas ou pela comunidade ou por
diferentes estatutos. Por exemplo, a Microsoft estabelece todos os anos cerca de 5000
prémios, o MVP (Most Valuable Professional), que é atribuído a pessoas que na
comunidade são reconhecidos, por escreverem em blogs, ou artigos. A empresa tenta
alcançar estas pessoas de forma a mostrar o seu produto para que estes falem do mesmo.
Os bloguers desta área técnica também são importantes. Os speakers que fazem
conferencias em todo o mundo sobre assuntos técnicos. Por exemplo, nesta última feira
na qual a empresa esteve presente, houve um speaker que a CEO conheceu à uns anos
noutro evento (rede de contactos), que fez duas sessões sobre um tópico especifico na
qual a empresa está a lançar uma nova linha de produtos, e o speaker acabou por falar
desse produto nas suas apresentações. “Toda a gente que nos próximos tempos vai tentar
aprender sobre aquela plataforma, vai passar pelos slides onde está o nosso produto”.
17. Em quantos países estão presentes?
100 e tal, 100 e poucos.
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18. Qual a percentagem/montante atual de vendas por zonas geográficas?
Existem documentos, mas as percentagens deverão rondar as já enunciadas.
19. Disse-me que as leis em alguns países são mais restritas do que nos Estados
Unidos. Em que países sentiu mais essas restrições?
Como as vendas são online, acabam por não sentir muito as barreiras. Se for num país
onde não existe grande preocupação para entrar, as barreiras impostas pelas leis passam
despercebidas.
O mercado asiático é claramente um problema, mas mais a nível de cultura. É um
mercado com muita gente e sem vendas, logo alguma coisa está errada.
A Europa é bastante “chata” a nível financeiro, emissão de faturas. Enquanto que por
exemplo nos Estados Unidos, qualquer papel serve de fatura, o que faz com que os
negócios sejam muito mais ágeis.
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APPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH JOSÉ MATIAS
20-05-2015:
Nome: José Matias
Formação: Engenheiro Informático
Função: Developer and Project Manager
1. Enquanto empresa Bind, em que mercado atuavam? Como era o negocio da
Bind antes do BindTuning? Como estavam estabelecidos no mercado?
A Bind quando começou vendia só temas online para o DotNetNuke. Com o tempo, a
Beatriz começou a perceber o potencial do produto e que gerar um tema com uma cor e
replicar a informação era um processo com um trabalho exponencial a longo prazo. É daí
que surge a ideia de automatizar o processo de criação de temas para várias plataformas.
2. Qual o número de clientes atualmente? E qual a sua distribuição geográfica?
15.000, onde a maior parte se concentra na América do Norte e Europa, mas a ‘grande
fatia’ está na América do Norte.
3. Qual a percentagem de lucros vindos da atividade internacional nos primeiros
anos? Qual é a percentagem e montante atual de vendas por zonas geográficas?
Ano passado (2014) os lucros foram à volta dos 300.000€.
4. Em Portugal, qual é o valor das vendas?
É um valor muito residual. Temos 1 ou 2 clientes.
5. Qual é a concorrência da Bind?
Praticamente a Bind não tem concorrência. Existem uma ou duas empresas a oferecer
‘quase’ o mesmo produto, mas mesmo assim não oferecem tudo o que a Bind oferece.
6. Quais são as ‘armas’ estratégicas e os factores diferenciadores do vosso produto?
Qual a vantagem competitiva?
O motor BindEngine é a grande ‘arma’ estratégica que nos dá vantagem competitiva. A
customização, aplicação em várias plataformas e o baixo custo.
7. Como é que foi feita a entrada no mercado Americano? Porque é que decidiram
focar neste mercado?
O produto está online, por isso automaticamente ele está acessível em todos os mercados.
O facto do mercado Americano ser onde há maior numero de vendas e ser o nosso foco, é
por este ter mais procura e mais pessoas a usar as plataformas com que trabalhamos. A
Bind está onde existe procura.
8. Porque é que a Bind decidiu internacionalizar? A entrada noutros países além
da América foi uma decisão posterior?
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A decisão de internacionalização esteve automaticamente ligada ao facto do produto estar
online. A entrada em diferentes países deu-se automaticamente quando um cliente
comprava o produto, não houve um esforço por parte da Bind.
9. Teve alguma experiência internacional? Se sim, esta experiência teve algum
impacto no negocio da Bind? E a sua rede de contactos, qual a importância e
contribuição para este negocio?
Tem experiência profissional em start-ups e trabalhou em Berlim. Espera no futuro poder
contribuir com a sua experiência e contactos para expandir ainda mais a empresa para
outros mercados, como por exemplo a América do Sul.
10. Qual acha que foi o impacto da experiência e conhecimento da Beatriz no
desenvolvimento da empresa?
A visão da Beatriz, que é muito bem transmitida para a equipa, é o que fez e faz a
empresa evoluir, e manter o foco num só objetivo.
11. Em quantos países estão presentes? Quais são?
100 e poucos. América do Norte, Inglaterra, Austrália, Índia, etc.
12. Como é que foi feito o financiamento da empresa? Sentem algumas restrições
financeiras?
A empresa é autossustentável. O que recebe das vendas e serviços prestados é o que é
investido para evoluir.
13. Houve algum planeamento ou objectivos a cumprir nos primeiros anos de
internacionalização?
Inicialmente não havia nenhum planeamento, porque toda a internacionalização foi
surgindo, sem expectativas. Neste momento, em que já estamos com um negocio sólido e
estamos a crescer bastante, é que faz sentido começar a haver um planeamento com
objectivos delineados.
14. Em que tipo de mercados a empresa tenta focar o seu negocio?
A empresa tenta focar-se no mercado empresarial.
15. Algum tipo de parceria potenciou o sucesso da internacionalização?
A Bind tem parcerias com grandes empresas, por exemplo a Pepsi, que usam os serviços
de personalização e o motor BindTuning em alguns ou todos os departamentos da
empresa. Quando estas grandes empresas estão satisfeitas com o trabalho da Bind,
acabam por sugerir o produto a outros parceiros, o que expande o negocio da Bind.
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Católica Lisbon – School of Business & Economics 2015
Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
APPENDIX 4: 2014 WORLD POPULATION DATA SHEET
A) NORTH AMERICA
B) AUSTRALIA
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Católica Lisbon – School of Business & Economics 2015
Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
C) UNITED KINGDOM
Source: 2014 Population Reference Bureau
APPENDIX 5: WORLD MAP WITH INTEREST IN SHAREPOINT IN 2014
Source: Google Trends
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Uppsala Model vs. Born Global theory
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