Purpose

There is a growing interest in exploring the interface between international marketing and entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper contributes by defining and elucidating entrepreneurial action in early internationalising software firms and the corresponding emergent international marketing activities. Entrepreneurial action in early internationalising software firms is explored through the operationalisation of a reconceptualised entrepreneurial opportunity construct and the associated entrepreneurial learning processes.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts an inductive approach, which traces the evolution of five early internationalising propriety software South African firms; from the new venture idea to the establishment of the international entrepreneurial opportunity.

Findings

The findings provide support for entrepreneurial action guided by: prior industry experience, entrepreneurial alertness, opportunity confidence and two levels of entrepreneurial learning; experiential and double-loop learning. Learning by doing allows for the continuous evaluation of the new venture idea leading to the international entrepreneurial opportunity. Market responsiveness and continuous product development resulting in the emergence of the firm's inward international marketing activities constitute the key outcomes of entrepreneurial action.

Research limitations/implications

The study is limited to a specific technology context, which is young software firms whose inward directed internationalisation activities coalesce around the development of their proprietary software technology.

Originality/value

Based on an original dataset of early internationalising software firms from South Africa, this paper inductively operationalises and conceptualises entrepreneurial action as the combined interaction of four key constructs: contingent effects, attitudes to opportunities, learning by doing and entrepreneurial activities leading to the firm's inward international marketing activities and a diversified international client and end-user base.

中文翻译：

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企业家做什么？早期国际化公司中的创业机会和创业学习指导的创业行动

目的

探索国际营销与创业机会之间的接口的兴趣日益浓厚。本文通过定义和阐明早期国际化软件公司中的企业家行为以及相应的新兴国际营销活动做出了贡献。通过重新概念化的企业家机会构建和相关的企业家学习过程的运作，探索了早期国际化软件公司中的企业家行为。

设计/方法/方法

本文采用归纳法，追溯了五家早期国际化专有软件南非公司的发展。从新的创业理念到建立国际创业机会。

发现

研究结果为以下方面的创业行动提供了支持：先前的行业经验，创业警觉性，机会信心和两个阶段的创业学习；体验式和双循环学习。边做边学可以持续评估新的创业理念，从而带来国际创业机会。市场反应能力和持续的产品开发导致了公司向内的国际营销活动的出现，构成了企业行动的关键成果。

研究局限/意义

该研究仅限于特定的技术环境，即年轻的软件公司，其向内定向的国际化活动围绕其专有软件技术的发展而融合。

创意/价值

基于来自南非的早期国际化软件公司的原始数据集，本文归纳了企业家行为，并将其概念化为四个关键构造的相互作用：或有效应，对机会的态度，边做边学以及导致公司向内国际化的企业家活动营销活动以及多元化的国际客户和最终用户群。