What are the common denominators of big buzzing brands such as Google, Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, PayPal, YouTube, or LinkedIn? First of all, they are all web-based to a large extent. Google allows you to search the web. Facebook and LinkedIn lets you connect to your friends or business contacts online. Twitter allows you to absorb and share information in an unprecedented manner. PayPal facilitates millions of payment processes on the web. YouTube is the largest resource of videos online, and Groupon allows people to team up via the web and strike deals with high discounts for local services. Second, they are all relatively young compared to companies such as Microsoft, Dell, or Apple. In fact, Google and PayPal are the seniors with 13 years, while Groupon has not even celebrated its third birthday. Third, these companies have established a global presence through the impact of the lightning fast development of the Internet and effects of globalization. With Twitter as the only exception, they are pulling in millions and millions of revenue and are valued at several billion dollars.

Start-ups are an important factor contributing to economic growth. They create new jobs, new or improved services and products and thus enhance general welfare. Since Birch concluded in 1979 that small firms create more new jobs than large firms, several research streams have started to examine this phenomenon. However, every year probably thousands of newly created ventures fail to cope with the challenges that are characteristic of the start-up environment. In fact, research has shown that more than half of newly founded ventures fail within two years. Hence, a strong interest of both practitioners and research scholars has been to identify success factors and shed more light on the ecosystem of start-ups and the processes that still largely take place in a black box. The approaches and results that link certain characteristics or actions to success vary widely in their theoretical background as well as the impact and practical relevance generated.

Recently, the 'worldwide' financial and economic crisis has given rise to a renewed call for more entrepreneurship and support for start-up and innovation culture. In the wake of the crisis, opinion leaders, public policy, and media have started to look again at entrepreneurial activity and start-ups as a promising provider of growth. Also web-based start-ups that had lost their reputation after the burst of the dotcom bubble face renewed attention and interest.

Germany, traditionally a risk-avoiding culture, witnessed a founder boom that continued even after the crisis. In 2010, about 750,000 new ventures were registered, representing a 4 percent increase ('Gründerboom erfasst Deutschlands'). A quick look at the start-up environment in Berlin reveals a newly developing European hot spot for innovators, creative professionals, and entrepreneurs. With so many innovative start-ups created, it is thus of interest to question the source and origin of the underlying ideas.

The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, it is intended to establish a new framework by combining literature streams on start-up success with research on cultural and institutional environments. Although a wide array of literature on start-ups, cultural and institutional literature exists, connecting research is underdeveloped. This paper hence sets out to bridge these differing streams of literature.

Second, drawing upon the impact of globalization and the Internet, new implications for the sourcing of business ideas will be generated. A lot of attention has been paid to the development of start-ups and the characteristics of entrepreneurs. However, the step in the development chain where the idea is generated has received comparably low attention. This paper thus tries to explore some sources and mechanisms evolved through globalization and use of the Internet.

Third, a case study designed to explore the above-mentioned new framework and implications is expected to support the development of a new model. It is therefore the overall purpose of this paper to produce a theoretically grounded and practically applicable model. A model that should cover the most important aspects when copying and implementing a business concept from a different country.

The structure of this paper is as follows. This first section serves as an introduction to the topic and the purpose of this paper. It outlines the structure and gives an overview of the methodology employed.

The second part of the paper consists of four sections and represents the extensive theoretical building block. It comprises a brief theoretical introduction into the field of globalization and the impact on entrepreneurial activity in combination with the advancements of the Internet. This section is also intended to generate new implications for the new venture creation process by exploring the sources of new business ideas. It is followed by an in-depth analysis of several start-up success factors that have been extensively covered by both theoretical and empirical research. Drawing upon this extensive literature, the key findings for each success factor will be condensed and critically examined. In the final two sections of this second part, both the cultural and the institutional context in which new ventures operate will be described. Based on the argument that these environments are not nonchalant to start-ups, these sections will relate interesting findings to the entrepreneurial context.

In the third part of this paper, the case study will be presented. The case study, which is based on an ecommerce start-up, is divided into two sections. The first section introduces the subject of the case study, gives an overview of the background, and describes the developments and events along this case. Thereafter, the second section of the case study goes into depth with the case to reveal more details and issues encountered when copycatting.

Based on the preceding findings and insights from the case study, the fourth part is intended to develop a model for successful intercultural transfer and adaption of a foreign business concept. Although it is not the aim of this model to present a recipe for success, the model will be designed to serve two-fold. On the one hand, the model should point out interesting areas for future research. On the other hand, it is intended to guide entrepreneurs in the process of intercultural copycatting and raise their awareness for critical factors.

Finally, this paper will critically assess its limitations and summarize the key points and findings.

This paper employs a combination of literature review and real-life case study to approach the broad and complex topic in research. As it seeks to develop a model for successful intercultural copycatting of a foreign business concept, the model should be well-grounded in theory. Therefore, a large part of this paper draws upon diverse streams of literature, summarizes the key findings, and condenses them into the model. Additionally, a case study of an explorative nature is intended to serve as practical and empirical support for the theory that is applied to the model.

Consequently, this paper is of qualitative and explorative nature. Moreover, the case study processes longitudinal data and information as it covers the development of the case subject from the beginning and over a period of 13 months. In detail, the case study comprises both publicly available resources as well as extensive insights the author gained due to his involvement in one of the case study subjects. Concrete numbers supporting some of the arguments brought forward cannot currently be made available due to the competitive situation. However, they might become available on request once they have turned irrelevant for competitors.

The extensive literature reviewed comprises both theoretical and empirical papers from different streams of literature. In order to secure high quality and relevance, it is intended to solely employ papers published in high quality journals or articles that have been cited frequently. Furthermore, regarding the relatively young tradition of research of start-ups, focus is put on academic articles instead of books. These articles are all accessed via databases such as Ebsco Business Source Premiere or ABI/Inform Global/T&I ProQuest. These data bases offer the additional benefit of showing the frequency a specific article was cited within the database. A good indicator to ensure the quality of these scholarly articles is the quality of the journals they were published in. For this matter, a ranking of journals published by The Association of Business Schools (2010) was used as a starting point.