The importance of firm’s capabilities and international orientation: An examination of innovative start-up processes and growth through the firm’s evolving life cycle

This article explores the effects of starting up an entrepreneurial innovative start-up on its ensuing life cycle, including internationalization overtime. The nine essential processes of starting up an embryonic young firm will serve as the vitally critical foundations, and enable the firm’ early entrepreneurial analyses of potential opportunities, on which the firm’s further growth, and internationalization, in its five progressive stage of life cycle will depend. An in-depth theoretically and empirically based examination of three families of propositions and their empirical verification through diverse set of case studies (more than eight) point to clear strategic pathways to internationalization and ultimate globalization of the innovative firm from its early entrepreneurial start-up.