Institutional Support for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Internationalization: Evidence from Small Firms in Ghana

Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that emerging market new venture internationalization is impacted by the entrepreneur-institution fit (the compatibility between home institutional support for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial alertness, and political ties). Using two sets of primary data from 203 and 194 Ghanaian new ventures respectively, we tested our three-way interaction model. Our results show home country institutional support for entrepreneurship has a positive relationship with new venture internationalization. This relationship appears the strongest for founders with higher levels of entrepreneurial alertness and weaker political ties. This paper enriches the literature of international entrepreneurship and institutional theory by (1) introducing an overlooked entrepreneurship factor, entrepreneurial alertness, to the international entrepreneurship literature; (2) context-theorizing the construct of emerging market new venture internationalization; and (3) drawing upon the context-relevant formal institution (institutional profile for entrepreneurship) and connecting it with the informal institution (political ties) to investigate their impacts on new venture internationalization.