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The academic literature on women’s entrepreneurship in the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continues to increase, possibly due to the enormous potential of women’s entrepreneurship to promote social empowerment and economic growth in a country. This study aims to systematically review existing research on women’s entrepreneurship in the internationalization of SMEs and provide a robust understanding of academic developments in this field. This study also aims to identify and explore key thematic areas within the research field related to women’s entrepreneurship in SME internationalization.

This study selected 62 articles retrieved from the four databases (Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO and Google Scholar). Content analysis was conducted to identify key research issues and gaps, which were then mapped on cluster themes. VOSviewer was used to represent the research cluster themes visually.

This study identifies and discusses six research streams related to the concept of women’s entrepreneurship in SME internationalization: export behavior and gender in SMEs; entrepreneurship and country economic development; gender, innovation and performance in SME internationalization; women entrepreneurship in international business and management research; internationalization process of SMEs; and business experience and export experience. Some topics that emerged as potential for future research include personal and organizational dynamics, internationalization behavior, decision-making, adoption of strategies or technologies and orientation toward international markets.

This study offers valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders aiming to foster women’s entrepreneurship within the internationalization landscape of SMEs. The findings provide a roadmap for identifying underexplored areas in women’s entrepreneurship within SME internationalization, guiding future research initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative picture of the state of the art of the literature on digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an enabler for their internationalisation process and as a comprehensive view of the specific domains impacted by digital technologies as well as their repercussions on the international outreach.

A systematic review which leverages a descriptive analysis of extant literature and an axial coding technique has been conducted to shed light on the current knowledge and to identify primary research areas and future research lines.

The research indicates that digitalisation impacts the internationalisation of SMEs in three specific domains: (1) internationalisation through the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) technologies and e-commerce platforms; (2) international expansion through the digitalisation of value chain activities and (3) international outreach through knowledge acquisition on digital platforms.

The value of this study is threefold. First, the authors attempt to systematically review the literature on SMEs digitalisation and internationalisation and provide a holistic perspective on the intertwining of these two research streams. Second, the authors propose a novel conceptualisation on the dimensions of SMEs digitalisation as enablers to internationalisation. Third, the authors put forward promising future lines of research.

1. Digitalisation represents a pivotal strategy that allows companies to build new strategic capabilities and is a propeller for SMEs internationalisation.

2. Through e-commerce, SMEs could compete at the same level of multinational companies but enduring lower costs of expansion.

3. Digital platforms allow SMEs to enhance the learning processes about international markets through an immediate access to relevant information.

4. Digital entrepreneurship has enabled SMEs to develop new configurations of value chain activities, evolving their business model or reaching new markets.

5. SMEs are changing the “business as usual” paradigm offering digital tools to build modular architectures that are scalable and agile in their evolution ability.

Digitalisation represents a pivotal strategy that allows companies to build new strategic capabilities and is a propeller for SMEs internationalisation.

Through e-commerce, SMEs could compete at the same level of multinational companies but enduring lower costs of expansion.

Digital platforms allow SMEs to enhance the learning processes about international markets through an immediate access to relevant information.

Digital entrepreneurship has enabled SMEs to develop new configurations of value chain activities, evolving their business model or reaching new markets.

SMEs are changing the “business as usual” paradigm offering digital tools to build modular architectures that are scalable and agile in their evolution ability.

Born-again global internationalization is a rarely researched topic. Especially process-oriented studies are largely missing. In loss modes concerning their socioemotional wealth (SEW), family businesses take more risks and can be informative examples of born-again global internationalization.

This article analyzes the process of born-again global internationalization of a mature family business triggered by succession in an SEW loss mode. The interplay of dynamic capabilities (DCs) as drivers and SEW preservation guides the in-depth analysis based on an interpretative single case study design.

The analysis reveals a model with (1) the personal and familial level of the business family, (2) the bonding and transfer level between the business family and the family business and (3) the organizational level as three levels of DCs as drivers of born-again global internationalization in family businesses and SEW preservation as a continuously influencing context.

The article contributes to push forward the fragmented level of knowledge in the field of born-again global internationalization of family businesses. It brings together the triggering phase of born-again global internationalization with the later phases (driving successful rapid internationalization). In particular, it explores how the triggering factors on the family level can be translated into the development of capabilities on the firm level to drive successful internationalization. Based on these insights, the article offers novel implications for research and practice.

The study aims to analyze for the Spanish context the influence of the involvement of several generations in the firm's management on family firm internationalization. The authors also respond to the call in the literature to consider the influence of SEW on family firm internationalizations by analyzing the moderating effect of the importance family managers attach to each of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) dimensions – enrichment, continuity and prominence on the relationship between multiple generations involved in management and family firm internationalization.

The information was obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to the CEOs of family businesses. The authors’ sample consists of 147 Spanish family firms.

The authors find that the involvement of multiple generations in management is positively related to the internationalization of family firms. Furthermore, the importance that family CEOs attribute to the enrichment dimension of SEW reduces the intensity of the effect of the involvement of several generations in management on family firm internationalization.

The authors’ results, for the Spanish context, complement previous studies (Meneses et al., 2014) showing that the entry of new generations into the family business opens a window of opportunity for the internationalization of the family business. Furthermore, their study shows that the diverse family objectives by CEOs can have different, even conflicting effects on the internationalization decision. These results suggest that the enrichment dimension, which focuses on the short-term family goals may restrain the internationalization of the family business. However, continuity and prominence dimensions, which are related with long term family objectives and jointly enable the fulfillment of nonfamily stakeholders’ objectives, do not influence the internationalization of the family firms analyzed.

This empirical paper investigates how entrepreneurial firms change their business models in the context of internationalization by identifying different forms of business model innovation (BMI) and exploring the interrelationship between BMI and internationalization.

Based on the dynamic states approach of entrepreneurship (Levie and Lichtenstein, 2010), this paper analyses primary and secondary data from nine European firms following a multiple case study approach.

This paper presents four patterns of radical change and eight types of incremental adaption with-in business models in the context of internationalization. We describe these BMI patterns and types, and we also show how they contribute to increasing involvement in international business activities and the internationalization-related triggers that might cause them.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the BMI process in the course of internationalization. It also highlights the complex interrelationship between BMI and internationalization by building on a progressive theoretical approach.

The varying nature of the competitive environment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing significantly to gross domestic product in most countries, has made their moving toward internationalization and global competition unavoidable in such a way that the life cycle of research in this area is experiencing a period of rapid growth. This study aims to evaluate the status of research on SME internationalization based on bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus.

Using a scientometric analysis, reviewing the important points and the boundaries of research on SME internationalization as well as practicing co-occurrence and burst detection analysis.

Through a rigorous examination of the crucial points and boundaries within the realm of SMEs internationalization research, coupled with an analysis of co-occurrence and burst detection techniques to detect contemporary hotbed topics, this study has uncovered that the predominant focus of current discourse centers around the areas of networks and networking, as well as internationalization models and entry into the global arena. Moreover, it gives insight that future investigations will shift toward enhancing SME internationalization performance, while simultaneously prioritizing the expeditiousness of their entrance into international markets. The insights garnered from this inquiry are expected to facilitate salient contributions to future literature in this area, thereby advancing our understanding of these complex phenomena.

The trend of the research in this field can be useful for enthusiasts. In this context, the life cycle of research on SME internationalization has been drawn that shows the period of research growth of publications is almost between 2005 and 2023, and the saturation will be approximately from 2023 to 2035. The top researching SME internationalization in the world have been occurred in the USA, England, Canada, Sweden countries and in Department of Management, Department of Marketing, School of Management, Faculty of Management Studies institutions. Also, most of the research has been published in Journal of International Business Studies, International Business Review and Strategic Management Journal.

This study accordingly provided a valuable perspective for future research in this line.

The study aims to examine the influence of female chief executive officer (CEO) and female chief financial officer (CFO) on the linkage between internationalization and firm performance.

This study used 2926 firm-year observations of nonfinancial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2012–2021. This study used ordinary least squares regression method to test the hypotheses, and additionally, generalized method of moments estimation and fixed effect analysis were used to check for the robustness of the results.

Using the framework of upper echelons theory and resource dependence theory, this study reports that internationalization has a positive impact on firm performance. Moreover, the results show that the presence of female CEO and female CFO strengthens the positive relationship between internationalization and firm performance. The results add to the gender diversity literature by highlighting the positive role of female CEOs and female CFOs on the internationalization and performance of firms in a male-dominated society.

This study adds to the limited literature on the internationalization of businesses in an emerging market and provides empirical support to upper echelons theory and resource dependence theory by highlighting the benefits brought to the firm through female CEOs and female CFOs.

This study aims to examine the degree to which a selection of home country factors affects the proclivity of firms to internationalise. The study also proposes and tests a conceptual model that fuses institutional and resource-based theories to improve our understanding of firm internationalisation.

The study uses cross-sectional, national-level secondary data from the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute and World Economic Forum data sets on global entrepreneurship and competitiveness indices for 137 countries. The data is analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that national income, institutions, trade openness and availability of risk capital positively influenced firm internationalisation, while home-country networking had an inverse effect. However, home country infrastructure had no statistically significant effect on firm internationalisation.

The findings highlight the importance of considering home country attributes in understanding the internationalisation of firms.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the role of local factors on the internationalisation of entrepreneurial ventures. It also tests a novel conceptual model that integrates institutional and resource-based theories to explain the nuances of the internationalisation of business ventures globally.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the internationalisation decision-making process using causation and effectuation.

The proposed hypotheses are tested with a survey data set of 148 Kenyan small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to assess the pre-internationalisation decision-making of the firm. Multinomial logistic regression has been used to predict the categories from total effectuation to total causation.

The results of this study show that firm resources and capability provide a solid basis for firms' internationalisation. The entrepreneur becomes more effectual commence as they assess the firm's resource and capability. Entrepreneurs with a high entrepreneurial self-efficacy use both causation and effectuation with a bias towards effectuation. Increasing environmental predictability led the firms to use less effectuation, and increasing psychic distance entails high effectuation relative to high causation in the Kenyan context.

The sample choice of the category is Kenyan SMEs which may raise some questions. This study assumed that SMEs sampled had the same level of internationalisation experience regardless of the number of years in business.

This study theoretically advances the field of international business by combining the Uppsala internationalisation model with effectuation; this study defines four antecedents of decision-making to form its conceptual framework to study internationalisation decision-making approach for SMEs using the effectuation logic and adds to the stream of literature that has reviewed the factors that influence the internationalisation decision-making process for SMEs in developing countries.

This paper aims to investigate the internationalization motives behind location choice among emerging country business groups (EBGs) and the way in which institutional factors affect Türkiye’s foreign direct investment (FDI).

This study develops a multi-perspective framework that integrates the ownership, location and internalization (OLI) paradigm (Dunning and Lundan, 2008) and the linkage, leverage and learning (LLL) model (Mathews, 2006) with neo-institutional theory to explain the internationalization of EBGs. It adopts a multiple-case study research method relying on 14 semi-structured interviews with top executives to explore the internationalization strategy of a set of Turkish BGs.

This study supports the combination of the OLI paradigm, the LLL model and neo-institutional theory to explain EBGs’ internationalizing behaviors. Turkish BGs have adopted both asset exploitation and asset augmentation internationalization strategies. The institutional legitimacy mechanism moderates the internationalization motives of Turkish BGs, and their host country location choice and normative pressures are more salient than their regulative and cognitive pressures.

This study is based on a sample of EBGs from Türkiye, and this restriction limits the generalizability/applicability of the findings to BGs globally.

Few studies have considered EBGs and their internationalization strategies in the international business field. This paper puts forward an integrated framework for analyzing internationalization and legitimacy in the institutional context of EBGs. This study highlights that BGs bridge institutional voids. Focusing on Turkish BGs helps to answer Granovetter’s Coasian question and contributes to the understanding of emerging countries’ economic development.