‘Born global’ firms have to be innovative to boost their international competitiveness. Using a sample of 744 firms from Chile, we studied the effects of innovation (measured by R&D, product innovation and business model innovation) on firms’ export activity in the context of born globals. We used a configurational approach (fsQCA) to disentangle the complex relationship between born globals and export performance. The approach is appropriate for examining causal relationships and information asymmetry. With the robustness of fsQCA, we found that there are three configurations that link several born global attributes (mainly young and small firms), together with the three indicators of firm innovation performance (R&D, product innovation and business model innovation), and lead to intense export activity. This may be because these firms, with their shortage of resources, must take advantage of the resources they do have through innovation and achieve high international competitiveness by exporting.