Herath Mudiyanselage Tishani Shereen Herath¹, Hettige Don Karunaratne²

Abstract: Although International entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) is one of the central themes in international entrepreneurship, so far, only a very few empirical studies have been conducted on this line of research in a non-western developing country context. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the influence of international entrepreneurial orientation on international performance of Information and communication Technology (ICT) exporting entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. This study addresses the empirical gap of the need for conducting more and more research on IEO-Performance relationship in developing country contexts. The research hypotheses were formulated on the base of the extant literature on entrepreneurial orientation and born globals and tested with a sample of 100 ICT exporting firms. The findings reveal that three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking are positively related to international performance of born globals, even for a developing country context. Further, the study found that ICT export entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka exhibit a higher degree of internationalization.

Key words: entrepreneurial orientation; born global; degree of internationalization; international performance