The emergence of the lean global start-up as a new type of firm

The present paper contributes to the interplay between international entrepreneurship, innovation networks and early internationalization research emphasizing the need to conceptualize and introduce a new type of firm – the Lean Global Start-up. It discussed two different paths in linking the lean start-up and born global internationalization strategies. The first path refers to generic lean start-ups that have undertaken a rapid internationalization strategy (Lean-to-Global Start-ups). The second path refers to start-ups that have started operating on global scale since their inception and adopted the lean start-up approach by seamlessly synergizing their global and lean product development activities. The paper emphasizes several aspects that could be used as part of the theoretical foundation for conceptualizing lean global start-ups as a special new type of firm: the emergent nature of their business models including the challenges of partnership development on a global scale; the inherently relational nature of the global resource allocation processes; the integration of the entrepreneurial, effectuation and global marketing perspectives; (v) the need to deal with the high degree of uncertainties including the uncertainty associ-ated with cross-border business operations; and (vi) linking the ex ante characteristics of leans tart-ups with the ex post characteristics of born global firms in order to develop a technology adoption marketing perspective consider-ing the “crossing the chasm” process as a successful entry into a global market niche.