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The article examines whether cross-border trade in digitally delivered services (DDSs) has an influence on European female entrepreneurship. Two research questions were asked to assess the potential impact of trade in DDSs both on the import and export sides.

To answer the research questions, the panel data for 26 European countries for the years 2008–2019 were implemented to estimate panel regression models. Based on the results of variance inflation factors (VIFs) and Breusch–Pagan and Hausman tests, the estimations of panel models were conducted for female entrepreneurship as a dependent variable and measures of import and export of digitally delivered services as independent variables.

The imports of digitally delivered services positively affect female entrepreneurship in European countries, whilst the impact of the export of digitally delivered services is statistically insignificant. The possibility of being a customer of digitally delivered services through its import may become a gender equaliser in entrepreneurship. However, as differences in digital competencies and growth intentions prevent women from acting as the providers of digitally delivered services, the export of DDSs can sustain the existing gender gap in entrepreneurship.

The research findings provide the added value in the field of female entrepreneurship, referring to institutional theory and human capital theory. The import of DDSs seems to support female entrepreneurs through the reduction of cultural distance, whilst the human capital theory gains the perspective of limited digital competencies needed to export DDSs as a pathway to the internationalisation of women's ventures. The practical implications for trade policy, digitalisation and gender equality should aim not only at supporting women's export propensity, but should also focus on the development of their digital competencies.

Instead of commonly used perspective of international entrepreneurship, the authors implemented the lens of cross-border trade to check whether there is a linkage between internationalisation, measured by imports and exports of DDSs and female entrepreneurship. Trade economists neglect the gender dimension in their studies of pro-growth internationalisation. In contrast, research on female entrepreneurship does not consider the potential of cross-border trade in DDSs as a gender equaliser.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different drivers’ and its impact on the export entrepreneurship (EE) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The proposed conceptual framework has been tested through analysis of a sample of 102 internationalized (exports) SMEs of the Engineering industry in the Bangalore district, Karnataka, India.

Results reveal that firms with younger entrepreneurs who have industry-specific experience and different social ties are able to achieve higher performance.

Overall, results facilitate understanding of the importance of entrepreneurial capabilities to successfully formulate and strategize their international efforts to achieve better performance in the international market.

The study enhances the importance of understanding the role of different drivers on EE in the context of an emerging economy where studies are limited and largely unexplored till date.

For decades, export performance has generated interest among researchers and public policy makers. However, despite extensive investigations, export marketing is still lacking in theoretically‐grounded conclusions. Attempts to overcome this limitation by presenting a new theory‐based framework of export performance by integrating the literature in exporting, entrepreneurship and organization theory. On the basis of two entrepreneurship‐based strategic postures, export performance is conceptualized as a function of fit among firms′ strategic orientation, environment and export channel structure. From a contingency perspective, argues that exporting firms need to match or align their strategic orientation with their external environment and export channel structure to achieve superior export performance. Briefly discusses future research directions and managerial implications.

Although both institutional export assistance and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contribute separately and positively to export performance, the interplay between them has received little attention. This study examines the role of international EO in deriving performance benefits from governmental and nongovernmental export assistance.

In this longitudinal study, two surveys were administered at two different times: In 2011, 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporters were surveyed, and in 2019, a subsequent survey of 198 firms in multiple industries was conducted. The aim of the surveys was to assess the relationships between governmental and nongovernmental assistance, EO and export performance.

The results of the first survey show that, while nongovernmental assistance influences performance directly and via EO, governmental assistance has only direct effects. Furthermore, the negative influence of government assistance on EO reduces the total effects and renders them nonsignificant. The results of the second survey demonstrate that government EPPs have both direct and indirect positive and significant effects on market performance, indicating a partial mediation, whereas quasi-governmental assistance has positive and significant direct effects as well as negative but nonsignificant indirect effects. Nongovernmental EPPs have both direct and indirect significant effects on international performance, indicating a partial mediation.

The study has important implications for researchers studying export assistance and its impact on firm performance. Instead of adopting a parochial view of government assistance, this study categorizes such assistance into three types – government, quasi-government and nongovernment. Furthermore, this study bridges the export assistance and international entrepreneurship literature by including EO.

Entrepreneurs must emphasize the use of government assistance in order to enhance export performance. However, to promote both entrepreneurship and performance, they must emphasize nongovernment assistance. Exporters should also capitalize on the assistance extended by various quasi-governmental agencies to bolster export performance.

Given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the pernicious role of (quasi-)governmental assistance in export entrepreneurship.

This paper analyses the moderation effect of country culture in the reciprocal relationship between the strategic orientations (Organizational entrepreneurship, organizational innovation and Organizational learning) and the export performance of the firms in two countries with different cultural characteristics (Sociability and Performance). In the same way, it is intended to evaluate if there is a reciprocal relationship between strategic orientations and export performance.

In order to achieve the objectives of the research, a structural equations model is made. One of the benefits of this model is that it allows not only to analyze of the causal relationships of the study variables but also to identify of the behavior presented by the firms in their export performance activities. The database contains 400 SMEs from Colombia and Vietnam, with an export performance developed during 2022.

It was possible to verify a reciprocal relationship between the strategic orientations of organizational entrepreneurship and organizational innovation. However, the relationship between organizational learning and export performance must be validated. Similarly, it was found that countries with a cultural focus on performance will have better export performance than those with a focus on sociability.

The main limitation of this study is the focus on only two countries with diverse cultural characteristics. Future research will aim to verify these relationships with a more significant number of countries and over a more extended time range.

According to the results, assessing the firms' strategies to prioritize product innovation is necessary. This axis is fundamental because it is the means to create value for products and develop the capacities and resources necessary to compete in the international arena.

Among the most critical implications of a country are the social ones. Thus, to the extent that the results in innovation are more evident in the management area, this will help improve the production platform and general conditions at the country level.

The most significant value of this research is in studying the moderation effects of cultural approaches at the country level in the bidirectional relationships studied in this work.

This study aims to examine in the context of high involvement exporting Mexican firms a model which suggests that a blend of absorptive and dynamic capabilities is necessary to build and sustain their competitiveness in international markets.

Data were collected from 119 high involvement Mexican exporting firms through informants. Formative and reflective constructs were validated through MIMIC models and confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL. The theoretical model was tested using partial least squares (PLS).

Results suggest that high involvement Mexican exporting firms' capacity to adapt through product design, technology management, manufacturing processes, and cooperative relationships impacts their innovation and market expansion-adaptation capabilities. Nurturing an entrepreneurship orientation is critical to build flexibility, transfer innovation to markets, and drive export performance. Ultimately, performance is determined by the firms' ability to design and develop products through the adoption of improved technologies, a deep understanding of international demands, and an ability to refocus exporting strategies as changes in competitive contexts require.

The design of exporting capabilities in this study only applies to high involvement exporting firms.

High involvement exporting firms sustain growth through the development of exploration (learning), exploitation (expansion-adaptation), and dynamic (innovation, entrepreneurship) capabilities as determinant of performance.

This is the first model that tests relationships among learning, manufacturing flexibility, and market expansion-adaptation and dynamic capabilities such as innovation and entrepreneurship and their impact on performance in high involvement Mexican exporting firms.

This paper reports relevant evidence regarding the importance of decision makers’ background and experiential factors in promoting export entrepreneurship among less performing developing country firms. Subsequent discussion reveals the consistency of the findings with the balance of previous empirical literature, and underlines the need for international success‐seeking LPDC firms to prioritise the acquisition of requisitely qualified managerial staff. The central thesis of the paper is that with the right quality of decision makers, smaller LPDC firms could be properly led to procure and develop other advantage‐creating competencies that might enable them overcome external internationalisation barriers. The implications of the foregoing for enhancing LPDC firms’ access to global markets, as envisioned under the Millennium Development Declaration, are discussed.

In line with the slogan “Africa rising”, the paper responds to the calls to shed light on the management knowledge of Africa, especially on the internationalisation of process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Africa. This paper aims to explore the critical incidents that trigger the export initiation of SMEs from the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana.

The study is based on the qualitative multi-case study research approach, coupled with the critical incident method and uses 36 case firms from the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana.

From the interview transcripts, it was found that being in the receipt of unsolicited order, wining government award and having international orientation are among the critical incidents that catapult SMEs in the garment and textile sub-sector of Ghana to initiate export business.

The study is based on the interpretivist qualitative method; therefore, future studies could extend the results by improving the sample size and use statistical methods.

Based on the findings, it is recommended that what is needed to improve export participation of SMEs from Ghana is entrepreneurial orientation. Implicitly, public policy must promote entrepreneurship education, i.e whether the government expects to see improvement in export involvement of SMEs from Ghana. Such initiatives will catapult most entrepreneurs from their comfort zones to take advantage of the various critical incidents in the external business environment and become exporters.

The contribution of the paper is that unlike previous studies that use objective quantitative measures to examine the issue from other settings, the present paper uses the critical incident method which is proven to delve deeper into the phenomenon. Another contribution is that it sheds light on the internationalisation process of manufacturing SMEs from an under-researched and a new geographical context.

Explores the entrepreneurial underpinning of the low export involvement level of manufacturing firms from Nigeria, a sub‐Sahara African, developing country. Using a pre‐validated export‐entrepreneurial orientation construct (and a 78‐firm representative sample), a high versus low export‐entrepreneurial taxonomy was derived. High export‐entrepreneurial firms are typically more innovative in developing exporting, less averse to exporting risks, and have more proactive motivations for exporting. They perceive domestic environmental problems as much as other firms, but appear better able to adapt, hence their higher tendency to initiate exporting. Policy recommendations are presented for four groups of firms, linked to high/low export entrepreneurial orientation and exporter/non‐exporter categorisations.

This study proposes a logic to enable strategic entrepreneurship for export firms through absorptive capacity and adaptive culture to capitalise on the knowledge intensity from internationalisation.

The study sample comprises 422 key role employees at 98 export firms in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The data are analysed using a structural equation model.

The results reveal that the firm's knowledge intensity may serve as a reservoir, absorbing and reconciling knowledge acquired from internationalisation and redistributing it to strategic entrepreneurship. A firm's absorptive capacity and adaptive culture can act as buffers, allowing internationalisation knowledge to permeate and transfer to administrative bodies and fostering strategic entrepreneurship.

This study proposes an integrated model of the relationship between the degree of internationalisation and strategic entrepreneurship through novel lenses of knowledge-based perspective with the organisational capabilities.