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This study aims to analyse the relationship between the internationalisation performance of the company and, on the one hand, the factors that determine the internationalisation strategy and, on the other hand, the factors considered as inducers of this internationalisation process. The purpose of this study is to relate the determinants and inducing factors of the internationalisation process with the performance of internationalised companies, trying to assess how these determinants and these factors contribute to better performance.

The authors sent out a questionnaire to Portuguese exporting companies, containing questions regarding determinant factors associated with both the characteristics of origin market and target market of the internationalisation process and internationalisation inducing factors. The questionnaire results were subjected to a regression analysis.

The results indicate a positive relationship with the characteristics of the domestic market, more specifically with the need to reduce and diversify risk and the need to win new markets and consumers. Regarding the characteristics of the foreign market, there is a positive relationship with the determinants: follow customers and favourable perspectives of growth in the new market. In relation to the internationalisation inducing factors, those factors that the entrepreneur recognises as the triggers of the internationalisation strategy, the researchers found the existence of a positive relationship with formal and informal contact networks, as well as specific employee skills, international experience and strong propensity for entrepreneurship and risk-taking.

This study presents some limitations. On the one hand, the fact that the authors used the questionnaires, which seemed to be the most adequate approach, brings as a drawback the reduced number of answers. Further collection is in order to increase the sample under study. On the other hand, the literature presents different approaches that may be tested as well as the possibility of including other types of variables that the researchers will address in future studies.

By analysing the relationship between company performance in the internationalisation process and the factors that determine and induce this internationalisation process, this study seeks to identify which factors entrepreneurs should favour and strengthen to obtain a better performance in the internationalisation process. In addition, the authors use the concept of inducing factors that represent the firm's characteristics that trigger the internationalisation strategy. In a complementary perspective, the authors intend to contribute to the identification of the factors that new Portuguese entrepreneurs should pay more attention to, when starting their internationalisation process and that will improve their performance.

This paper aims to investigate the internationalisation inducement in family firms with domestic capital operating in a specific industry in a transition country. Examining the effect of entrepreneur-, firm- and context- specific factors, it provides an insight into the start of internationalisation via exporting and its initiating features.

The study uses a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from informants with conclusive decision-making power and analysed using a combination of inductive and deductive coding.

The findings show that the sample firms internationalise early exhibiting mostly proactive behaviour in finding international clients. Owner-manager international orientation and commitment combined with contacts in his or her social spaces lead to early export inducement despite the fusion of ownership and control, and regardless of transition context volatility and inefficiency.

The limitations include the sample size and its industry embeddedness limiting generalisability. The key implications are that family firms need support to develop their social spaces through encouraging and enabling linkages between socio-economic actors that can expand the bounded sociality of the firm.

The owner-manager orientation, objectives, commitment and characteristics, coupled with the straightforward decision-making process that is safeguarded by full family ownership, can abate the dissuading role of the perceived lack of institutional support for small and medium-sized enterprise internationalisation in a transition context.

This paper explores the major factors influencing multinational companies’ (MNCs) propensity to change the level of resource commitments during financial crises in emerging markets. Favorable changes in the host government policies, market demand, firm strategy, and infrastructural conditions are hypothesized to influence the MNCs’ decision to increase resource commitments during a crisis. The hypotheses are tested with data collected in a survey of 82 MNCs during the recent Argentine financial crisis (late 2002). While all the above variables are considered by the respondents as generally important reasons for increasing resource commitments during a crisis, only favorable changes in government policies significantly influence MNCs’ decisions to change the level of resource commitments during the Argentine financial crisis. The research, managerial implications, and policy‐making implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the internationalisation patterns of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) quantitatively, to describe SMEs as they follow different patterns over time and to discuss the determinants of these patterns through empirical study.

The authors conducted a questionnaire survey among mature German SMEs (n=674). To identify internationalisation patterns, a latent class clustering approach was applied. Because of the large sample, a multinomial logistic regression analysis could be used to analyse the factors influencing these patterns.

The authors empirically find three internationalisation patterns: traditionals, born globals and born‐again globals. Comparing modern SMEs with the same SMEs from ten years ago, it was found that firms may change their patterns. Moreover, the patterns are determined by international orientation, growth orientation, communication capability, intelligence generation capability and marketing‐mix standardisation.

Combining elements of the Uppsala model (countries and operation modes) and born global research (time lag and foreign sales ratio), three internationalisation patterns of established international SMEs from traditional sectors were identified empirically. Because of the multidimensional nature of internationalisation, the patterns may change over time. Different firm‐level factors determine the internationalisation patterns.

Instead of applying “arbitrary” thresholds, the paper provides a quantitative approach to identifying internationalisation patterns. These patterns confirm the three main internationalisation pathways discussed in the international marketing literature. The paper further advances the field by describing the patterns, showing evidence that the patterns may cross over time and providing information on the factors that influence the patterns.

In this study, we examine the location strategies (e.g., developing versus developed countries) of Chinese multinational firms (Pantzalis 2001). We argue that domestic firm‐specific ownership advantages of a firm, in the form of larger size and higher degree of diversification, will induce internationalization into developed countries rather than into developing countries. We also predict that internationalization into developed countries will help performance, but internationalization into developing countries will hurt performance. Based on an analysis of data on 154 Chinese‐listed MNCs from 1992 to 2002, we find support for our predictions.

This paper offers a conceptualization of the internationalization decision confronted by a firm in an environment of terrorism‐induced risk.

The approach taken is a conceptualization of the internationalization decision framed from theoretical reasoning and informed by the literature.

The model presents the internationalization decision, a product/market/mode (PMM) combination, in the case of a terrorism‐free context and in a with‐terrorism context. Using indifference curve mapping of risk/return tradeoffs, an opportunities set of possible PMM combinations and the notion of efficiency, it traces the most attractive opportunities set to show that within this set, the frontier of attractive opportunities is constrained in the with‐terrorism case. Propositions are framed to guide future research. While conditions of risk can be calculated, it is concluded that remaining uncalculable is the true uncertainty incited by the systemic effects of international terrorism that call for managerial judgment.

The literature in this field reports little on the effects of international terrorism on the firm. With heightened awareness of international terrorism, and the changed environment for the firm operating internationally, it is timely that the effects of terrorism on decision‐making in firms be investigated. Advancing beyond description to substantive conceptualization of this decision is an essential step for better understanding of this now pervasive phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the intermediation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Governments may apply different form of support with the aim of increasing corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. The paper suggests a strategy based on institutional intermediation as the more efficient to drive corporatization and internationalization.

The research selected cases concerning SOEs in different industries in Europe in search of recurrences from a novel theoretical perspective. Among them, a case study concerning the Italian Space Agency explores the development of an institutional intermediary.

Government supports to SOEs appear in different forms and contribute to different results. A typology of the most recurrent forms shows three different types of actions governments have taken to support internationalization of firms. Intermediation seems the most suitable to trigger corporatization and internationalization.

The study explores institutional intermediaries as a novel supporting strategy for governments. It proposes a novel concept based upon a single case study. Further research needs to test and verify the institutional intermediaries’ impact drawing on a larger sample and different contexts.

So far, few attempts have linked corporatization to globalization. The paper tries to fill this gap between corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. Its value is the provision of a novel view that includes institutional intermediaries as instrumental to governments’ strategy that aims to bridge the two components.

The purpose of this study is to use the rise of emerging-market multinationals as a vehicle to explore how a firm’s country of origin influences its internationalization.

This paper is a conceptual paper.

We argue that the home country’s institutional and economic underdevelopment can influence the internationalization of firms in two ways. First, emerging-market firms may leverage innovations made at home to cope with underdeveloped institutions or economic backwardness to gain a competitive advantage abroad, especially in other emerging markets; We call this innovation-based internationalization. Second, they may expand into countries that are more developed or have better institutions to escape weaknesses on these fronts at home; we call this escape-based internationalization.

Comparative disadvantages influence the internationalization of the firm differently from comparative advantage, as it forces the firm to actively upgrade its firm-specific advantage and internationalize.

We explain two drivers of internationalization that managers operating in emerging markets can consider when facing disadvantages in their home countries and follow several strategies, namely, trickle-up innovation, self-reliant innovation, improvisation management, self-reliance management, technological escape, marketing escape, institutional escape and discriminatory escape.

We explain how a firm’s home country’s comparative disadvantage, not just its comparative advantage, can spur firms its internationalization.

The purpose of this study is to understand the role institutions play in driving the internationalization of firms in an emerging country through promotion of coopetition. Investigating the relationships between coopetition, institutions and internationalization, especially among firms in emerging countries, is an important approach that has received little attention.

This study has used a single case study interviewing managers of Brazilian wineries and representatives of formal institutions in an emerging economy. A research framework taking an institutions-based view of strategy and applying it to study coopetition and internationalization is proposed.

Formal institutions are the most important players in the promotion of coopetition between firms in the Brazilian wine industry. Coopetition enables firms to access new resources and capabilities, promoting and facilitating internationalization, while also increasing firms’ competitiveness in the domestic market. The study also found evidence of certain limiting factors within these relationships, caused by the heterogeneous nature of the firms involved and by the asymmetries in their perceptions of the gains achieved.

As a consequence of the methodology adopted, the results of this study are limited to the Brazilian wine industry. Future research should extend the approach to data collected in different countries and industries. Another promising avenue for research is to explore how decisions of a political nature influence the institutions that coordinate an industry, which would provide a new perspective on the internationalization of the firms involved.

The results offer governments and institutions an opportunity to better understand, and therefore to better manage, their actions in relation to their role in the promotion of the competitiveness of firms and industries, both in international and domestic markets. For firms, the results offer insights into the possible gains and the limitations of coopetition strategies, contributing to their decision-making on involvement. The study also contributes to understanding the competitiveness of the industry investigated.

This study approaches coopetition from the institutional perspective. It also focuses on internationalization of firms from an emerging country, which is characterized by a lack of firm-specific resources. The proposed framework seems promising for future research investigating coopetition and institutions within an integrated analytical framework.