Branding Strategy Research Of Born Global Firms

Born global firms have now been studied for over a decade, theory and practice are still evolving. Researchers have clarified the origination, definition and the characteristics of born global firms (Oviatt&McDougall,1994;Knight&Cavusgil,1996;). They have discussed the strategy options of born global firms during the global expansion process (Gleason&Wiggenhorn,2007) and the enormous impetus of organization resources (Li, Cao, et al.,2011). Besides, many scholars have done their best to explore the driving factors for the short-term and long-term performance of born global firms (Efrat&Shoham,2012).Although researches about born global firms have been given much attention and have obtained substantial results, few researchers focus on the branding strategy of born global firms. In fact, with the development of global economy and new business models, all the born global firms are facing up with the challenge of global branding, with which they can achieve the significant competitive advantage in the global market. To fill the gap of domestic and international research, in our paper, it’s the first time to discuss the topic of born global firms from the view of branding strategy. And that’s the innovation and highlight of this paper. We seek to deepen the research on branding strategy of born global firms and extent the scope of this topic.In this article, we review the domestic and international literatures about born global firms, and give the definition of this kind of enterprises based on the opinion of Oviatt and McDougall (1994):born global firms is a kind of business organization which seek to use resources and output products across multiple countries in the inception, in order to obtain significant competitive advantages. Then we discuss the characteristics of a born global firm such as the limited resources, the global motivation and entrepreneurship of its founder. These characteristics indicate that branding strategies selected by born global firms should be cost-effective, rapid and simple. In our research, we discuss the3dimensions of branding strategy and the characteristics of born global firms. Based on the discussion, we try to build a framework for the branding strategy of born global firms. Then we propose4basic hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, we examine the branding strategies of30small and medium-sized born global firms using case study method. The30case firms are from5product group that is high-tech, high-design, high-services, high-know-how, and high-systems. Meanwhile, these companies are divided on the basis of their global expansion into three phases, which is "International phase begin"(phase1),"International phase achieved"(phase2) and "Global phase"(phase3). Drawing from empirical evidence, it is found that Hypothesis1and4have been supported completely and Hypothesis2and3receive only partial support, which can be stated as:Born global firms with more experienced, motivated and recognized founders and key personnel will be more likely to achieve global brand recognition than those that lack such qualities. For born globals targeting consumers, a globally standardized brand is crucial. The standard brand could be their own or co-brand if resources are tight.In contrast, born globals targeting business customers rely more on building marketing channels and network. B-B born gloabals especially the ones in Phase2(International phase achieved) often utilize multiple brands, ranging from OEM, private label and brands of their own, depending on the segment and market in question. Thus, their products are offered to end-customers around the world in a less standardized manner. Moreover, there was support for the idea that B-B born globals rely more on’push’based marketing and B-C born globals need to’pull’demand by use of innovative and often new low-cost marketing techniques.Besides, we have realized that branding strategy of born global firms is a dynamic process which should be changed over time.