Decision-Making in International Entrepreneurship: Unveiling Cognitive Implications Towards Entrepreneurial Internationalisation

The study explores the decision-making logics driving the usage of social media among internationalising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and how it supports entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. The author draws on qualitative data from four internationalising firms all of which had adopted social media. The findings show that causal decision-making logic is the main element driving the initial usage of social media (i.e. pre-adoption). Concerning ongoing usage, the author found evidence of both causal and effectual logic; the choice being dependent on the firm’s resources. The findings also show that both drivers of social media users have a paramount role in entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.

The objective of this chapter is to help unpack the performance-enhancing role of certain capabilities that influence the decision of female immigrant entrepreneurs to rapidly internationalise. It employs a capabilities perspective of the broader resource-based theory and contributes to existing research involving capabilities that facilitate or inhibit rapid internationalisation. One strand of earlier literature highlights a potential ‘double disadvantage’ among particular female immigrant entrepreneurs associated with gender and ethnicity. An alternative strand of prior research identifies certain gender and ethnic resources/capabilities like cultural knowledge that can provide potential advantages. Findings from interviews with 11 female immigrant entrepreneurs that migrated to the UK, and selected secondary data, form an instrumental case study. New insights emerge regarding the potential role of appropriate stakeholders in transforming operational capabilities to those of a threshold or potentially dynamic nature. The findings suggest that generalisation should not occur regarding earlier literature investigating practices in other sectors.

The institutional context and government policies may encourage or discourage entrepreneurship in a country. The main research question in this study is: how does a national social benefits system influence the entrepreneurial decision-making process to start a new venture across countries? The authors investigate two categories of effects: (1) the direct effects of public and private social expenditure on the entrepreneurial decision to start a new venture and (2) the multilevel interaction effects of social benefits and the individual-level ‘fear of failure to start a business’. The authors find that entrepreneurs in countries with a high level of public social expenditures are less likely to decide to start a new venture. The findings also suggest that private social expenditure weakens the negative effect of the ‘fear of failure’ on the entrepreneurial decision to start a new venture.

The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion of a family business in the nineteenth century. The Swiss family business Legler moved to the area near Bergamo, Italy, in 1875, and expanded its operation over multiple generations. This chapter explores the cognitive dimension of the internationalisation process, how culture and family ties are used to understand risk and opportunities, and how a family business interprets push and pull factors under the lens of cultural self-representation and meaning creation. The historical analysis shows the importance of economic, cultural, and family-driven factors in the process of decision-making and in the practice of going abroad and making internationalisation successful and long-lasting.

The ongoing economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic upon national and international economies has provided a novel set of challenges and barriers for organisations; particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This has led to an increased focus on sustainable decision-making and long-term survival and growth strategies, such as internationalisation opportunities, for SMEs during obscure times and fluctuating economies. Thus, examining how SMEs within ambiguous economies are adopting innovative decision-making to continue to sustain and grow their enterprises provides a vital perspective and understanding of not only enterprise survival but enterprise growth during times of economic uncertainty. This chapter proposes a conceptual framework that explores internationalisation opportunities through an intersectional lens. The framework depicts that intersectionality as an enabler during ambiguous times for Maldivian women entrepreneurs generates innovative decision-making towards internationalisation as part of sustainable growth practices. The conceptual framework offers theoretical implications for empirical studies of an inductive or deductive nature and offers pragmatic importance for women entrepreneurs considering internationalisation through sustainable growth during obscure times and fluctuating economies. This chapter contributes to the growing body of knowledge in the field of international entrepreneurship, particularly innovative decision-making, and sustainable growth through internationalisation opportunities of women entrepreneurs, whilst advancing our understanding of gender and entrepreneurship studies. Studying innovative decision-making and sustainable growth practices of women entrepreneurs additionally provides a new perspective on intersectional works within entrepreneurial growth during uncertain times.

In recent years, decision-making regarding business growth has attracted the attention of many researchers. Also, considering the importance of scale in startups for their survival and the development of economies, investigating the scalability of startups in emerging markets that are booming, can be useful. Scaling for international business has taken on a new meaning: they must be leaders in both emerging as well as advanced markets; they must be responsive to customers in both departments, which require tremendous innovation and agility; they have to build the competency needed in designing, developing, and marketing the opposite for advanced world markets; and they need to demonstrate rapid decision-making, innovation, and opportunism in delivery to the cost-sensitive underdeveloped markets. As a result, decision-making about the scale of start-ups at the international level plays an important role. The internationalisation of start-up activities is an extremely important and attractive topic among researchers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners. But there is very little research and also projects on the internationalisation of start-up venture activities, particularly after the gain of scaling and exponential growth.

The accelerating past globalisation had pressurised various types of enterprises, including state-owned enterprises (SOEs), to adopt appropriate decision-making approaches for their internationalisation strategies. The present book chapter illustrates the role that an entrepreneurial approach played in the decision-making process about the international expansion of an incumbent and large, SOE after its initial internationalisation. The case of a formerly state-owned telecommunication enterprise from Scandinavia will be explored that highlights aspects of entrepreneurial decision-making, internal organisational changes, and the influence of individual managers within the executive management team which influenced the process of internal decision-making. The empirical chapter makes important contributions to notably the practice of entrepreneurial decision-making for internationalisation; it unveils the complexities of internal decision-making processes, including the struggles between individual managers, and thereby provides a better understanding for management practitioners about decision-making for competitiveness and growth during the internationalisation of large, yet inexperienced enterprises.

This chapter assists in Iran’s start-ups swift internationalisation from the onset. Indeed, it sheds in-depth qualitative and quantitative insights into analysing the propelling factors towards entrepreneurial internationalisation. To accomplish this feat, a mixed method of Systematic Literature Review (SLR), Fuzzy-Delphi (FD) and Fuzzy-DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) – ISM (Interpretive Structural Modelling) – MICMAC (Matrix-based Multiplication Applied to a Classification) (FDIM), along with a multi-scenario analysis have innovatively been applied. As a result, entrepreneur characteristics and an accessible qualified workforce, even in foreign countries, are the most prominent drivers. Most probably, the institutional voids, interconnected benchmarking and the advent of new disruptive technologies form the independent factors which can sharply influence the whole system, particularly the entrepreneur characteristics as a dependent one. Moreover, social media, customer orientation and the domestic market cover autonomous drivers, which can moderately be affected or influence the abovementioned factors.

This chapter aims to identify, analyse, classify and rank the sustainability indices and internationalisation challenges of the footwear industry in the emerging economy of Iran. This would provide deeper decision-making insights into Iranian footwear businesses. First, a list of sustainability indices and internationalisation challenges was obtained by reviewing the literature. Then, a combination of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches was implemented. The initial sustainability indices and internationalisation challenges were screened using the fuzzy Delphi method, keeping a total of 14 criteria. The best–worst method (BWM) was employed to weigh and rank the criteria. The interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique and cross-impact matrix applied in MICMAC were employed to visualise the conceptual model based on the levels and classification of the important criteria for the internationalisation of the Iranian footwear industry. The 14 criteria were demonstrated to be important in internationalisation. The most critical sustainability indices were reducing hazardous substances in leather tanning and labour education and training. In contrast, exchange rate instability in Iran’s economy and strict chemical regulations for clothing and footwear were found to be the most important internationalisation challenges. Hence, these criteria should be considered in the internationalisation strategies of the Iranian footwear industry. A combined multilayer sustainable decision-making approach was used to analyse the Iranian footwear industry’s essential sustainability indices and internationalisation challenges. Furthermore, implications and insights are offered to footwear businesses for future decision-making.

Entrepreneurs’ decision-making for detecting, evaluating and utilising opportunities across international borders is one of the main subjects of international entrepreneurship research. This study aims to argue that recognising and classifying international entrepreneurship opportunities facilitate the decision-making process. To do such a thing, a multi-layer decision-making approach focusses on the industrial sector of the Kish free zone. In the first stage, the data will be collected by a questionnaire survey of entrepreneurial companies in the industry field and the main international entrepreneurship opportunities will be identified. In the second stage, the importance and relationship between the opportunities will be evaluated based on the identified opportunities. Eventually, in the last stage, the relationship and the importance of the opportunities will be determined by proposing and using a multi-layer decision-making approach. In conclusion, the prioritised international entrepreneurship opportunities will be presented.

Pressure on business to direct their activities responsibly has been increased during the last years to extent their suitability performance in all economic, social and environmental dimensions. This has motivated businesses and researchers to identify ways to implement sustainable and resilient operations. In the era of economic globalisation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are recognised as an engine of sustainable economic development in both the developed and developing world. Their competitiveness drives the economy, both nationally and internationally. SMEs have faced challenges in developing, internationalisation and achieving competitive advantage. Purpose of current study is to identify and analyse the sustainability and resiliency (SR) barriers to SME internationalisation and prioritise the practices to overcome the negative influence of barriers. In this regard, first, barriers and innovative practices have been identified through the literature review. Second, the essential barriers will be selected through reduction steps by the intuitionistic fuzzy Delphi (IF-Delphi) method. After computing the weight of barriers through the IF-DEMATEL method, the practices were prioritised using four multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) methods in an IF environment. Finally, the scores were aggregated by correlation coefficient and standard deviation (CCSD) technique. Results present that ‘Lack of economical resources to global exports’ and ‘Complications in acclimatizing export product design’ are the top priority barriers and ‘Knowledge of global market opportunities’ and ‘Networking with business incubator institutions’ have been recognised as the essential SMEs internationalisation practices. This study contributes to creating a more focussed approach towards the growth of SMEs. The study results would be helpful for industry, policymakers and academia.

Many European businesses are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), contributing significantly to the well-being of local economies and regions. Even so, SMEs face many challenges in fostering innovation and improving performance. Furthermore, the raw material consumption is increasing globally, necessitating the development of strategies that will reduce the number of raw materials extracted and imported while improving the sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses. Consequently, promoting circular economy (CE) strategies, such as industrial symbiosis (IS) partnerships, whereby waste products from other industries serve as a source of raw materials for companies, is critical. Identifying and analysing enablers or drivers that support IS collaborations among SMEs is necessary to achieve this goal. In this regard, the purpose of this study will explore the enablers of IS among SMEs considering sustainability dimensions (environmental, social and economic). As facing a decision-making (DM) problem, the multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) approach was applied in a hesitant fuzzy (HF) environment in this research to answer the research questions. In this regard, in phase 1, IS enablers were identified and extracted using a literature review and experts’ opinions. In phase 2, the hesitant fuzzy Delphi (HFD) method was implemented to screen and finalise the enablers identified. In phase 3, casual relations among final enablers were determined using the hesitant fuzzy ANP (HF-ANP) method. Finally, in phase 4, the relative importance of enablers was calculated using the hesitant fuzzy best–worst method (HF-BWM). Consequently, this study provided potential strategies for IS that can be implemented quickly and used by local authorities to support SMEs in achieving circular waste management.

The decision to become international is a highlighted organisational decision that affects all dimensions at all firm levels. Human resources are also among the parts of the organisation affected by this decision. Paying attention to employees can speed up and facilitate this process. Organisational integrity is one of the most significant issues that must be considered. In this regard, identifying, investigating and planning to deal with the destructive effects that may influence the employees of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) in internationalisation, are among the subjects that have so far received less attention and should be studied more. The present study explores the destructive influences of internationalisation on the employees of SMEs by a hybrid multi-layer decision-making model-psychological solution. First, by reviewing the literature, the destructive impacts of internationalisation on employees are extracted. In the next stage, these factors are screened according to the condition of the SMEs in an emerging economy by interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy Delphi (IVIHF-Delphi). The impact of these factors on each other is then evaluated applying interval-valued intuitionistic hesitant fuzzy DEMATEL-based ANP (IVIHF-DANP). Consequently, the highlighted destructive impacts are determined and the psychological solutions to face them are provided.

This study deals with the examination, classification and ranking of the food industry supply chain in Mazandaran Free Economic Zone from a sustainability perspective and its effect on international entrepreneurship. The findings can help international decision-makers and entrepreneurs better understand their decision-making processes. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and Matrix-based Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) methods is an export-oriented method. The indicators are determined based on the definitive opinion of experts. Indicators in this research were selected using fuzzy Delphi with 99% accuracy. A combination of ISM–MICMAC methods were used based on sustainable facts in the food supply chain. The developed classify the factors practical on the sustainable supply chain. The findings showed that minimising the total cost, improvement of health and safety, environmentally friendly packaging, use of environmentally friendly materials and minimising the use of synthetic fertilisers were among the linkage factors. Factors that reduce energy costs, the possibility of immediate customer response and social services were among the dependent factors. Since free economic zones have been established to attract international investment, exploit new technologies, create new job opportunities and increase export capacity, the focus on reducing costs and the ability to respond immediately to customers and providing social services can result in the creation of a suitable business position for international investment and attracting international entrepreneurs.

This study aims to identify the factors and propose a conceptual framework for the civil aviation industry from the sustainability perspective with the participation of international entrepreneurs. Based on the results of this study, international decision-makers and entrepreneurs in the civil aviation transportation industry will better understand their decision-making processes. A combination of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and matrix-based multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC) was used to classify practical factors to depict a conceptual model based on their level and classification in the sustainable supply chain (SSC) of the civil aviation transportation industry. In this study, special attention has been paid to the issue of sustainability as an essential mechanism for developing international entrepreneurship in the civil aviation transportation industry. The factor of flexibility in service production was identified as the driver factor; the factors of organisational commitment to a SSC were found to have the highest driver-dependent power that can attract international entrepreneurs in this field.

Despite the undoubted role of family firms in the economy, some main factors challenge their attempts for business internationalisation. These drivers are varied from organisational and environmental to individual attributes. This study tries to recognise and explore the impacts of the personality traits of managers, founders, and owners of family firms in their business internationalisation. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 204 managers, founders, and owners of small- and medium-sized family firms to consider the relationship between personality traits: conscientiousness, openness, extroversion, neuroticism and agreeableness, and business internationalisation (BI). The hypotheses were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) using Lisrel. The results suggest different impacts of personality traits on facilitating the internationalisation process. According to the finding, extroversion and openness have a significant positive and agreeableness and conscientiousness have positive, less significant impacts on the tendency towards business internationalisation. Moreover, neuroticism impacts negatively significantly. Therefore, managers, founders, and owners of small- and medium-sized family firms who are extrovert, open, and non-neuroticism (tranquil) are more encaustic to making strategic decisions for extending their business to international markets.