Legitimation for Early and Rapid Internationalization: A Review of Research in International Entrepreneurship

In this paper we respond to Cavusgil and Knight’s call for future research to address the question of born global firms overcome inherent liabilities to achieve legitimacy in foreign markets. To contribute to this call, we have systematically reviewed the extant international entrepreneurship literature. By analyzing existing evidence on building organizational legitimacy by early and rapidly internationalizing firms, our review helps to understand reasons and underlying mechanisms of successful legitimation of early and rapid internationalization thus ultimately explaining existence of these firms. By constructing a repository of extant research on legitimacy in early and rapidly internationalizing firms which can serve a basis for adjustment and generation of models and theories, our study aims to provide a utility to facilitate further research and theorizing in international entrepreneurship.