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Access to financing is a key success factor for start-ups. High failure rates, long payback periodse and asymmetries lead to conservative pricing and valuation discounts. The authors examine financial marketing and contingent factors, as enablers of a “patent premium” by private equity (PE) investors targeting start-ups in their growth and expansion stages.

Drawing from the contingency, innovation and signaling theories, the authors collect patent records for Italian start-ups in which a higher than 30% stake was acquired by PE investors during the period 2014–2020. The authors apply a generalized linear model with a logit link and robust clustered error to test the key relationships and control for endogeneity with a Heckman two-stage selection model.

Findings indicate start-ups’ access to financing is significantly impacted by marketing constructs adopted in the operation. Innovation alone does not suffice to determine a valuation premium, unless contingent on the promotion of its product, the placement -investors targeted-of the equity, brand equity levers of previous ownership and marketing competence backing the deal.

The authors provide new insights in the marketing-finance interface, highlighting levers that reassure investors and enable monetizing innovation in start-ups that are still privately held. The authors bridge a gap in literature that has mainly focused on venture capital and innovation financing in the open market, as well as a significant gap regarding the marketing design of private equity placements.

This paper aims to present a hybrid review combining the theory, context, characteristics and methodology (TCCM) framework and bibliometric analysis of international business research from 1991 to 2023, shedding light on the field’s growth, trends and key contributors.

Relevant papers were selected using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses model. Initially, this paper conducted a descriptive analysis to identify prolific institutions, countries and journals. Using bibliometric techniques and the TCCM framework, this paper analyzed theory, context and method visualized through word clouds and keyword co-occurrence. The characteristic aspect was analyzed using bibliographic coupling to identify major themes, providing a comprehensive understanding of the most significant factors in international business research.

The analysis of a data set comprising 5,644 documents reveals a steady increase in the annual growth rate of publications, highlighting the growing significance of international business in the global economy. First, this paper noticed a significant increase in publications in leading international business journals, with the Journal of International Business Studies being the most prolific. Second, using the TCCM framework, this paper discovered that the resource-based view, institutional theory, transaction cost theory and internalization theory are predominant in international business research. Most studies have concentrated on firm or enterprise-level entities, followed by country-level analyses. This paper also identified six main themes: (1) innovation and strategy, (2) market, (3) HR impact and leadership, (4) marketing, (5) internationalization and (6) entrepreneurship. Quantitative methods have been the most frequently used research design, followed by qualitative and mixed methods.

The study offers researchers and practitioners a roadmap for future investigations, collaboration and innovation in international business, thereby advancing the knowledge and understanding of this complex field within a globally interconnected economy.

This study provides insights into growth and trends, identifying journals, clustering research topics and enhancing theoretical and methodological understanding in the field of international business.