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This study explains the international opportunity development of SMEs from emerging economies during institutional transition. This research enriches our understanding of how these firms adopt different approaches to developing international opportunities when they confront the turbulent institutional environment. We develop a phase-based framework for the evolution of transitional institution for SMEs’ internationalization and the SMEs’ internationalization process in that framework. By providing an empirical case study of a privately owned SME from China, the main finding is that SMEs from emerging economies become more entrepreneurial and proactive in developing the international opportunity during the institutional transition.

Understanding how international business opportunities (IBOs) are recognized and developed is critical to the study of international entrepreneurship.

We draw on entrepreneurial cognition research broadly and the entrepreneurial judgment perspective specifically to develop a model of the recognition and development of IBOs by considering three theoretically important sets of drivers – social networks, international experience and a proactive mindset. We use a sample of 92 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to test the model empirically.

We find robust support. Entrepreneurial judgment surrounding IBOs and uncertain international business environments entails tapping social networks, international experience and a proactive mindset to both recognize third-person opportunities for someone as well as to act upon and develop IBOs as first-person opportunities from which a focal firm can profit.

Conceptually and empirically, we peer inside the black box of IBO entrepreneurial judgment processes by jointly evaluating the abstract recognition of third-person opportunities as well as the concrete actions and interactions that develop the IBOs into first-person opportunities.

There is a growing interest in exploring the interface between international marketing and entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper contributes by defining and elucidating entrepreneurial action in early internationalising software firms and the corresponding emergent international marketing activities. Entrepreneurial action in early internationalising software firms is explored through the operationalisation of a reconceptualised entrepreneurial opportunity construct and the associated entrepreneurial learning processes.

The paper adopts an inductive approach, which traces the evolution of five early internationalising propriety software South African firms; from the new venture idea to the establishment of the international entrepreneurial opportunity.

The findings provide support for entrepreneurial action guided by: prior industry experience, entrepreneurial alertness, opportunity confidence and two levels of entrepreneurial learning; experiential and double-loop learning. Learning by doing allows for the continuous evaluation of the new venture idea leading to the international entrepreneurial opportunity. Market responsiveness and continuous product development resulting in the emergence of the firm's inward international marketing activities constitute the key outcomes of entrepreneurial action.

The study is limited to a specific technology context, which is young software firms whose inward directed internationalisation activities coalesce around the development of their proprietary software technology.

Based on an original dataset of early internationalising software firms from South Africa, this paper inductively operationalises and conceptualises entrepreneurial action as the combined interaction of four key constructs: contingent effects, attitudes to opportunities, learning by doing and entrepreneurial activities leading to the firm's inward international marketing activities and a diversified international client and end-user base.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the development of high‐tech international new ventures as an acting process by individuals in relationship networks.

The study cross‐fertilizes research on internationalization of international new ventures, opportunity development of entrepreneurs and innovation development in technology‐based firms. A longitudinal case study on the development process of an international new venture operating in the software business is used as a base for analytical generalization and theory development.

The study illustrates events at three intertwined levels of acting on the development of an international new venture. It defines internal problem solving, external solution creation, opportunity selling and opportunity organizing as the behaviors driving the emergent, multi‐level process and embedding the venture in various networks.

Statistical generalization based on common patterns experienced by several firms was not sought in this study. Using the process research approach with event‐based analysis, the study, however, provides an in‐depth analysis of international new venture development through the actions of individuals at the level of key events. The methods for examining a complex development process over time can be utilized by other process researchers.

The complexity of building high‐tech international new ventures is, to a great extent, due to the necessity of handling the process at three levels simultaneously and in connection with one another. Since international new ventures are often based on business opportunities that have a short window of opportunity, the timeline creates further challenges. Embedding the business into various resourcing, legitimizing and otherwise assisting networks is crucial.

The study provides an insight into the ways of acting in networks that intertwines the internationalization, opportunity and technology development with development of a high‐tech international new venture. The study follows the development process in real time, something that is quite rare in previous international entrepreneurship research.

This paper aims to complement existing theories of internationalization by studying an important aspect which has been neglected in previous studies: the process of international entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. International market entry is conceptualized as an entrepreneurial, innovative act; and opportunity recognition consists of both discovery as well as deliberate and systematic search.

The methodology employed involves eight case studies of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in knowledge‐based industries in Australia. The unit of analysis is the “opportunity‐firm” nexus.

The paper finds that firms with little or no prior international knowledge tend to make use of opportunity discovery rather than deliberate/systematic search. In contrast, firms with extensive prior international experience and knowledge were found to deliberately search and discover their first international opportunity. International opportunity discovery did not occur simply through serendipitous encounters with new information from networks or referrals but involved interpreting possible matches between pre‐existing means (resources, skills, new technologies) and new ends (international markets) in a problem solving process. It favours those with the requisite prior knowledge and entrepreneurial orientation.

The paper offers guidelines on what business practitioners and export promotion agencies can and cannot do to influence opportunity recognition process. Particular attention was paid to strategies to avoid costly deliberate search among resource‐stricken SMEs.

This study introduces Knightian uncertainty and Kirznerian discovery as the conceptual cornerstones of internationalization that can help account for the lack of incrementalism and optimizing logic in internationalization among smaller firms.

This chapter explores how the recognition of opportunities regarding developing technology and entering a new market is influenced by the systemic effect of social forces. These include institutions, social networks and the entrepreneur’s cognitive frames. This study adopts a longitudinal perspective by capturing and analysing the phenomenon in two moments: first, when the businesses started to operate domestically and second, when they began to internationalise. The cases of five Brazilian technology firms are analysed. The findings reveal the systemic and mutually reinforcing effect of these social forces on the recognition of opportunities. The entrepreneurs’ cognitive frames were particularly vital in recognising opportunities to enter the Brazilian market. The institutional support provided by universities along with government mechanisms and entrepreneurs’ social networks were essential to accrue experiential and non-experiential knowledge of international markets, therefore contributing to the recognition of international opportunities. The temporal perspective employed in this research assists the understanding of how historical events shape entrepreneurs’ capabilities to recognise and change company discourse to pursue the recognition of international opportunities. The results provide guidelines for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, particularly in the emerging economies in Latin America, to support the growth and flourishing of entrepreneurial ventures through pursuing international opportunities.

This study aims to investigate the effects of adaptive selling, as a high-level individual-level marketing capability, institutional knowledge, international opportunity recognition and general innovation-orientation of managers on the international growth of Iranian small- and medium-sized enterprises. Also, drawing on strands of research into early internationalisation firms, this study attempts to determine the impact of precocity and speed of internationalisation as a moderator of the relationship of antecedents to international growth.

The research is based on answers of 748 managers from 186 firms to a self-reporting questionnaire. The partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling approach was used to assess the measurement and construct the model. Furthermore, the study used a PLS multigroup design with four groups of firms to compare the paths with regard to precocity and speed of internationalisation.

Significant associations for seven out of eight hypotheses were found. The international opportunity recognition was found to mediate the relationship between institutional knowledge and adaptive selling-innovativeness. Additionally, the results of the comparisons found important implications to early and fast internationalisation.

This study shows that international growth stems from individual innovation orientation. It sheds light on the importance of institutional knowledge, adaptive selling and opportunity recognition for early and pacey internationalisation. The findings contribute to the international entrepreneurship literature based on both the early and gradual internationalisation.

The international entrepreneurial capability has achieved its legitimacy in international business literature. Leveraging capabilities to recognise opportunities is considered a pivotal strategy to achieve success. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature and opportunity perspective, this study aims to investigate the role of international entrepreneurial capability in enhancing the international opportunity recognition (IOR) process and the performance of export manufacturing firms.

Structural equation modelling has been used to test the hypothesised relationship on 388 export manufacturing entrepreneurial firms operating in the apparel industry of Bangladesh.

The results signify that three international entrepreneurial capabilities, namely, international networking, learning and marketing capability, positively enhance the IOR process of export manufacturing firms. The IOR process positively mediates the relationships between these international entrepreneurial capabilities and firm performance.

Merely having the international entrepreneurial capability is not sufficient to escalate the firm performance. It must be amplified by various strategic actions such as the IOR process. Entrepreneurs need to capitalise on the international entrepreneurial capability to leverage the IOR process and generate non-financial performance success. Entrepreneurial firms that focus more on stimulating non-financial performance can secure better financial performance.

The purpose of this study is to change the level of entrepreneurial alertness from individual to group and from the group to the organizational level and apply it to international market entry.

A literature review, meth-synthesis, interview and focal group are used for the final research framework. The way of theorizing for changing levels of entrepreneurial alertness is multi-level method. A framework for international market entry, a process of internationalization and an organizational learning process was used for the final conceptual framework.

A new framework for international entrepreneurial alertness in the opportunity discovery of individual, group and organizational level was developed.

Researchers will be able to use this framework for extending opportunity discovery and entrepreneurial alertness theories at individual, group, organizational and international levels.

Using the final framework, entrepreneurs and organizations will be able to discover new opportunities, and teachers will be able to educate international entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity discovery at individual, group and organizational levels.

The paper begins with an overview of previous researches in this area and then moves on to combine them using meth-synthesis to create a new framework for international entrepreneurial alertness in opportunity discovery. Note that the levels of entrepreneurial alertness from individual to group and from the group to the organizational level have been changed using a multi-level theorizing method.

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of international opportunity identification (IOI) in export-manufacturing firms. The fundamental question addressed in this research is: How does dynamic managerial capability (DMC) of entrepreneurs contribute to IOI and success of the firms?

The research model was tested through structural equation modeling among the readymade garment manufacturing firms in the least developed country, Bangladesh. A survey was conducted with a random sampling approach and responses were collected from 390 firms.

The salient findings are: DMC has direct and indirect impacts through IOI on financial and non-financial performance; IOI mediates the relationship between managerial social capital and non-financial performance and between managerial cognition and non-financial performance; IOI has a negative relationship with the financial performance of the firms; and scope of accelerated internationalization positively moderates the relationship between IOI and financial performance of firms.

This paper notably shows that DMC of export-manufacturing entrepreneurs leads to the identification of the right kind of opportunities, which, in turn, generate better performance. It is advantageous for this type of firm to operate a business in multiple countries.