Improvised internationalization in new ventures: The role of prior knowledge and networks

How do entrepreneurs identify foreign market opportunities and how do they identify foreign market(s) and customers? We draw on the concepts of effectuation, improvisation, prior knowledge and networks to study the early internationalization of new ventures operating in the Irish Shellfish sector. We argue that the internationalization process was strongly influenced by two 'resources to hand': the entrepreneurs' idiosyncratic prior knowledge and their prior social and business ties. We observe an effectuation logic and extensive improvisation in the internationalization process of these new ventures.