ABSTRACT
ICT can create and enhance social networks when people share the same language. This chapter focuses on a case study covering an educational software company and its internationalization. The company sells a language learning solution as an online service. The objective of this study is to explore and understand the conditions that influence the internationalization of a SaaS company from a “born global” perspective. The method is a case study research.
There are as yet relatively few academic studies of how SMEs and especially born global start-ups export software as a service. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a modern model of software delivery where the software is procured as a service over the Internet. Some prevailing factors are regarded as essential for the internationalization process of software as a service. However, these factors and their interplay do not fit in the established theoretical models of internationalization in the literature.
This chapter identifies characteristics that are required for a firm to be considered a SaaS provider. The results indicate that the demand for SaaS is on the rise globally and is influenced by conditions such as possibilities to test an application, its flexibility and cost-effectiveness as benefits, easiness of use and pricing as top requirements and an AI-base to bring personalization.
