Transnational entrepreneurs and their global market entry modes

This chapter presents an exploration into the market entry modes of transnational entrepreneurs. It focusses on the effects of knowledge acquisition and learning to the process. Specifically, it addresses the role of the transnational entrepreneur in acquiring knowledge that results in market entry. The empirical data consists of transnational entrepreneurs from three industries namely, food manufacturing, agriculture and information technology who are engaged in international activities. The research is qualitative using case study. The data collection tool is semi-structured interviews with the data analysed using thematic and content analysis. The findings suggest that transnational entrepreneurs adopt mostly the network or in some cases, the international new venture (born-global) market entry strategy rather than the stage by stage approach. They also reveal that transnational entrepreneurs adopt a self-learn approach that makes them more proactive with their knowledge acquisition resulting in market entry. The implications for the study are also discussed.