Industry risk taking and risk-taking strategy of born-global firms: An empirical study based on the industrial variety perspective

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between industry risk taking and risk-taking strategy of born-global firms (BGs), and how industry-related variety moderates that relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply fixed effect model to analyze 26,499 observations on 10,508 BGs in 276 Chinese cities.

Findings

The authors find that industry risk taking positively influences risk-taking strategy of BGs, and industry-related variety positively moderates such relationship.

Originality/value

The findings reveal how BGs formulate their risk-taking strategy given the dilemma of risk nature and hurdles in firm establishment and rapid internationalization. This paper extends understanding on BGs’ strategy making, supplements the theoretical framework on BGs with an integrated viewpoint containing “regional–industry–firm” levels and contributes to the industry variety argument.

Citation

Huang, J., Liu, L. and Lu, R. (2020), "Industry risk taking and risk-taking strategy of born-global firms: An empirical study based on the industrial variety perspective", Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJBA-08-2019-0165