European High-Growth Technology Companies: Turning Challenges into Opportunities for Global Expansion

We present a three-stage growth framework, in which we propose that the challenges for pan-European expansion of European technology companies can become opportunities and advantages for expansion beyond Europe. First, European technology companies are born in less competitive environments than their U.S. counterparts. Thus, the fragmentation of European markets in terms of languages, cultures, legislation and taxation means that they have the opportunity to embed themselves strongly in their home market contexts and are thus exposed mainly to local competitors in the start-up and early growth stages. Second, the very factor - fragmentation of markets - that enhances their survival potential in the start-up and early stages becomes a challenge that has to be surmounted for pan-European expansion. Third, once this challenge of fragmentation and diversity has been overcome through addressing the external and internal challenges (explained in detail in the article), we believe that European technology companies possess the right balance between being global and local to expand into Asia, Latin America and Africa.