Internationalisation of value chain activities of small firms: one small step, one giant leap

New and greater opportunities for cross-border activities have emerged from globalisation and new technologies. As a result, international markets are now seeing increased internationalisation among small firms, often with great speed and close to firm inception. Yet, there are limits to our current understanding of international entrepreneurship. We present in this paper the dynamic value chain approach (DVCA) to international entrepreneurship which we used to study the internationalisation of value chain activities of eight small, high-technology New Zealand firms. The DVCA provides a holistic view of firm internationalisation, opening new insights into the internationalisation processes of firms.