The influence of an entrepreneur’s imprinting legacy upon the creation and international development of a new venture
通过三位企业家的生命故事，研究印记经历如何影响创业动机、思维模式及企业的国际化路径，发现无国际经验也能形成全球思维并推动主动国际化战略。
This article aims to investigate how an entrepreneur’s imprinting history influences the creation and international development of new firms. Using a qualitative research design, we investigate the life stories of three entrepreneurs and the international development of their firms. The study shows how imprinting episodes influence the entrepreneur’s mindset, start-up motivation and the subsequent international trajectories of their firms. These episodes can occur in childhood, high school, college or in earlier work experience. We find that different international trajectories emerged depending on the imprinting history of the founding entrepreneurs. In contrast to prior research, we show that entrepreneurs can develop a global mindset without international experience and that such mindsets, along with entrepreneurial passion, can be instrumental in supporting a proactive international strategy. Drawing on imprinting theory, we challenge traditional ways of investigating firm internationalisation by focusing on the life stories of entrepreneurs.