When Technology Complements Experience: Emerging Technologies and International Entrepreneurial Intentions in Developing Economies
This study of 125 technology startup founders in Türkiye reveals that, within the Theory of Planned Behavior framework, a propensity for emerging technologies serves as a more significant driver of international entrepreneurial intention than traditional international experience, suggesting digital competence offers an alternative cognitive pathway to internationalization in developing economies.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
For decades, the path to building a business that crosses borders has been thought to require a specific kind of travel. The prevailing wisdom in the study of entrepreneurship suggests that to want to sell goods or services to people in other countries, a founder first needs to have been there. This idea rests on the belief that physical exposure to foreign cultures, markets, and regulations builds the mental confidence and social connections necessary to take the leap. It is a process often described as learning by doing, where the experience of navigating a new country transforms a local dreamer into a global operator. This mental preparation is so central to the field that researchers have long treated it as a non-negotiable step, assuming that without the time spent abroad, the intention to go global simply cannot form.
However, the world of business is changing faster than the textbooks can update. In many parts of the developing world, a new force is reshaping how founders think about their future: the rapid rise of emerging technologies. Tools like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and digital finance platforms are allowing entrepreneurs to access foreign markets, communicate with international partners, and manage cross-border transactions without ever leaving their home offices. This shift raises a fundamental question that has gone largely unasked until now: if a founder can access the world through a screen, do they still need to have physically traveled to it to feel ready to expand?
To answer this, researchers Hande Karadag and Uzay Basar Odabasi from MEF University in Türkiye set out to test the old rules against the new reality. They focused on a group of 125 founders of technology startups in Türkiye, a country where digital adoption is accelerating rapidly, yet the financial and institutional barriers to physically traveling abroad remain high. The researchers wanted to see if the drive to go global was still fueled by past travel experiences or if it was now being driven by how deeply these founders integrated new technologies into their daily work. They used a well-established framework for understanding human behavior, which breaks down the decision to act into three parts: how much a person likes the idea, whether they feel their friends and family support it, and whether they believe they have the ability to pull it off.
The study began by asking these founders about their past. Did they have international education, work experience, or social ties abroad? Then, the researchers asked about their current habits: how much they used emerging technologies like AI and fintech to run their businesses. Finally, they measured the three mental ingredients of their intention to expand globally. The results were striking and overturned a long-held assumption. The data showed that a founder's past international experience had no statistically significant effect on their desire or confidence to go global. Whether a founder had traveled abroad or not made no difference to their mindset in this specific context.
In contrast, the founders' propensity to use emerging technologies was a powerful driver. Those who actively integrated new digital tools into their ventures showed a much stronger positive attitude toward international business, felt more supported by their social networks, and, crucially, felt far more capable of managing an international operation. The researchers found that for these technology-focused founders, the digital tools provided the same mental benefits that physical travel used to provide. The technology gave them the information, the confidence, and the sense of connection that they needed to feel ready to cross borders. It was as if the digital tools were delivering the cognitive benefits of travel through a different channel, allowing founders to bypass the need for physical immersion.
The study did not find that international experience was useless in every situation, but it did show that in a technology-intensive environment, it was not the primary engine of intention. The most significant predictor of a founder's desire to go global was their comfort and skill with emerging technologies. This suggests that the traditional view of international entrepreneurship needs an update. In a world where digital capabilities are expanding faster than the ability to travel, the path to becoming a global entrepreneur is no longer paved solely with passport stamps. Instead, it is increasingly built on digital competence, offering a new, accessible route for founders in developing economies to prepare for the global stage. The findings imply that to foster international growth, support systems should focus less on funding trips and more on empowering founders with the digital tools that make the world feel within reach.
Drowning in papers in your field?
Get daily digests of the most novel papers matching your research keywords — with technical summaries, in your language.