Much of the literature on international new venture
s (INVs) tends to focus
on early internationalization and view it as the ex
pression of firm-specific
advantages that existed prior to internationalizati
on. This paper presents a
normative framework that articulates how INVs can l
everage
internationalization to drive de novo competitive a
dvantage. Drawing on
organizational capability and business model litera
tures, the framework of
Strategic Entrepreneurial Internationalization (SEI
) argues that INVs that
adopt an active learning orientation (LO); a niche
orientation (NO);
encapsulate cross-border asymmetries in their activ
ity system (AE); and
adopt a business model experimentation approach (BM
E) are more likely to
succeed in building sustainable competitive advanta
ge.